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Dawn of the Dragon	By : RotSeele Category: +S through Z > World of Warcraft Views: 3875 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own World of Warcraft. I do not make any money from this story.

Chapter List
- 14
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Fifteen
Anduin pulled on the reins of the horse he'd been given, slowing it down enough so he could wait for Wrathion. Shandris didn't seem as comfortable on her horse as she would a night saber, but she was dealing with her mount better than Wrathion was. Wrathion was lucky just to keep his seat, and that wasn't saying very much. It was obvious the horse was taking pity on the black dragon, because it was plodding along at a steady, sedate pace that wouldn't cause even the most novice of riders much difficulty. Unless, maybe, you were Wrathion.
Heaving a sigh, Anduin turned his horse around and cantered toward Wrathion. He didn't miss the dirty look Wrathion gave him, and he was sure it was because he was doing things the Black Prince could only dream of at this point. Anduin turned his mare and brought her alongside Wrathion's stallion. Anduin gathered the reins in one hand and reached to take Wrathion's wrist. "Like this. Hold it gently. Straighten your back and relax. Move with him, and grip with your knees."
"I can do this alone." Wrathion bit out.
"Uh-huh." Anduin replied dryly. "Even the horse knows you're a novice at riding. Take my advice, and you won't be sorry later."
"Later?" Wrathion looked a little pale. "There's a later?"
"We're on an adventure. Of course there's a later." Anduin said. He looked ahead, toward Shandris. She was cresting a rise with little effort, then she pulled her horse to a stop and raised her hand to shield her eyes. I guess you can take the huntress out of the forest, but you can't stop the huntress from being what she is. Of course, Anduin had to wonder if Shandris was acting this way because he and Wrathion were there, or if she just always acted this way.
It had taken some doing to get away from Honor Hold. When they had first arrived, no one had known who they were, which suited them all just fine. Then as they were trying to secure mounts, Anduin was recognized by one grizzled soldier, and he'd told his friend, and so on until the whole base knew. And since word now was no doubt about to go back to his father, Anduin wanted to be gone from the place before anyone came to get him. It took a little work on Anduin's part and some distraction by Arator the Redeemer before the three of them could escape. It did, and didn't, oddly, bother Anduin that Arator hadn't asked him why they were here or what they were doing. Anduin hadn't questioned Arator's motives, either, and he probably should have. Either way, the three of them had gotten their mounts and were on their way toward Falcon Watch and the further Telhamat temple.
Anduin and Wrathion joined Shandris on the rise and stood overlooking a vast red, dry plain littered with pockets of monsters Anduin had never seen before. They were about the size of a man, with blades for arms instead of hands. Anduin stood in his saddle, trying to see a clear path through the monsters.
"Don't bother." Shandris said quietly. "There's only one way around, and if we take it, we'll have to move fast. Otherwise, we go straight on through and hope for the best."
Wrathion made a face. "I could just fly over."
"You could. Then you'd be all alone on the other side until we get to you."
Wrathion hissed something Anduin hoped Shandris didn't hear. The Black Prince looked at Anduin then. "What do you think we should do?"
Anduin looked at Wrathion and frowned. "Why do I have to dictate what we do?"
"Because I asked."
"By the Light..." Anduin sucked in a breath and blew it out slowly. "We have to reach Karidormi and Dashiell as soon as possible, so I guess we charge right through. But you can't ride as well as the rest of us can, so expecting you to stay on your mount's back during a mad gallop would be ridiculous. Besides that, even if you changed and flew, there's no telling if you could keep up."
Wrathion glowered at Anduin. "I could keep up. My wings aren't just for decoration you know."
Shandris clucked to her horse and urged the animal forward. "It's settled then. We're taking the long way."
Anduin urged his mare after Shandris and a grumbling Wrathion fell in third. They traveled across the red cracked earth for what felt like hours until they finally reached what looked like a road. They turned north and started the journey for the meeting spot, feeling confident. While they saw plenty of monsters and demons - and other Alliance and Horde - they didn't feel the cold touch of danger or come under attack.
As they created a small rise in the road, Shandris suddenly reined in her mount and stopped. Anduin and Wrathion followed suit, looking at the night elf like she was mad. But Anduin knew she wouldn't stop without good reason, but as he looked out onto the open ground, he couldn't see anything that would raise alarm. He could see two figures in the distance, waiting with what looked to be riding wolves. He assumed they were Kari and Dashiell, waiting for them to arrive.
"Wait." Shandris said, stopping Anduin from giving his stallion the command to walk on. "Something isn't right."
Wrathion lifted a hand to shade his eyes. "What isn't right is the fact we're making Karidormi wait. See? She's waving at us."
Shandris studied the silhouette waving its arm back and forth as if in greeting. She frowned deeply, then pulled her bow from her back and strung it, loosely nocking an arrow and holding it gently. Wrathion frowned but Anduin motioned for him to keep quiet. As a precaution, Anduin called upon the Light and asked it to form shields around them. While the shields wouldn't do much against a heavy assault, they would hold under a quick barrage. If that happened, Anduin would quickly cast more powerful shields, while Shandris and Wrathion engaged the enemy. Hopefully, they were taking these precautions for nothing.
Then Anduin saw Wrathion loose his sword from its scabbard and watched the black dragon's crimson eyes narrow. Before he could ask what was wrong, Anduin was suddenly flying into the air, the smell of burnt flesh and fire filling his nostrils. If it weren't for the shield bubbled around him, Anduin would've hit the ground hard enough to break something, if not knock him out. It still drove the breath out of him and shattered the shield. He heard a Kal'dorei curse and saw Shandris lift her bow, firing her nocked arrow. Before that one had even sailed away, she had fired two more in quick succession, then dismounted and hurried to Anduin's side. Wrathion slid off his mount's back and rushed toward Anduin, then nearly fell backwards in his haste to avoid being crushed by a giant fiery hand.
Anduin stared at the prone form of what had once been his horse, then turned to look at the fire elemental battling his best friend. Shandris, after seeing Anduin was all right, quickly leaped toward Wrathion and began firing her arrows into the elemental. While the arrows wouldn't cause much harm to it, they still distracted the elemental enough to give Wrathion a chance to recover and ready his weapon. The blonde Prince struggled to his feet and called upon the Light, managing to get a shield around Shandris in time to prevent a lightning bolt from incinerating her. That turned his attention to where the bolt had come from, and he quickly sent a Smite spell toward the area. Red dirt kicked up, but no one appeared, which meant the spell-caster had moved right after casting. Anduin quickly turned his attention to Wrathion and quickly surrounded him with a shield of light that kept the elemental from fatally wounding him. Shandris had released her glaive and with unerring precision shot it toward the elemental. The glaive struck the elemental in the chest and tore through. Wrathion let out an inhuman snarl and reached out his hand. Anduin watched him grasp the fire and pull, drawing the fire toward him.
Anduin quickly crossed the distance between him and Shandris, and quickly cast a healing spell to soothe away the burns she'd sustained when her glaive had come back to her, and brought pieces of the elemental with it. He turned then to where Karidormi and Dashiell were, and wondered why they weren't joining the fight. He was about to call out when a lightning bolt hit him square in the chest, flinging him back into Shandris. They hit the ground hard, and Anduin became faintly aware of someone calling his name. Was it Shandris? Or Wrathion?
He felt the Light fill him, trying to heal the wound the lightning had given him. With effort and Shandris' help, he sat up, just in time to see Wrathion finish off the fire elemental. As it fell, Anduin watched in horror as Wrathion suddenly fell to his knees, his body sparking with elemental fire. Wrathion's hands dug into the red earth and Anduin thought he could see red lines forming on the visible places of Wrathion's skin. He tried to call out, but for some reason his voice wouldn't work. Shandris left him to go to Wrathion's side, her hands touching his shoulders as if she was going to haul him up and carry him to somewhere safe. She didn't have a chance to scream because the strike came so fast. One moment, Wrathion looked like he was going to simply keel over, and the next he was swinging a closed fist directly into Shandris' diaphragm, driving the air out of her lungs and flinging her high into the air. She hit the ground near Anduin and didn't move.
Anduin looked toward Wrathion with wide eyes. His friend had struggled to his feet, his crimson eyes burning with living fire. His face had cracked, revealing molten blood churning just beneath the surface, threatening to erupt. Wrathion turned those burning eyes on Anduin and stalked forward. Anduin scrambled backward and called upon the Light to shield him. Just in time, it seemed, because Wrathion's strike was full of fury. It sent Anduin hurtling to the ground, forcing the human to roll to one side to avoid being skewered by the sword that was suddenly bearing down on him.
"Wrathion!" Anduin yelled, quickly casting a cleansing spell on his friend, hoping it would do something, anything. It didn't do anything. Anduin scrambled away, trying to find a safe place to hide. And where were Karidormi and Dashiell?
Anduin slid to a halt as the orcs appeared, two shamans dressed in wolf hoods and wearing sneers on the visible parts of their faces. He stared at them, both confused and afraid because these orcs weren't anything he'd encountered before, and they certainly weren't Mag'har. He started to retreat, but Wrathion was there, blocking his way. Caught between three powerful forces, Anduin knew there was only one thing to do.
He raised his hands in surrender.
The male Orc barked out a laugh. "I would've thought you would've put up more if a fight than that! I guess the apple doesn't fall very far from the tree."
It took Anduin a moment to realize the shaman wasn't talking to him. He turned his head slightly to look at Wrathion, who stood with his chest heaving and his muscles taut, like he was waiting to attack something. Anduin looked back at the shaman. "What did you do to him? And the rest of my friends?"
The female shaman barked out a laugh. "Your friends? You mean the blood elf and the dragon? Oh, they're alive, if that's what you mean. For the moment."
Anduin narrowed his eyes. "What did you do to them?" He asked, eerily calm.
The female shaman eyed him for a long while. "Why should I bother explaining it? You'll see soon enough, whelp."
Before Anduin could say anything - or attack - the male shaman grabbed him by the neck and pushed him down to his knees. Anduin felt his throat constrict under the pressure and he couldn't get enough air. He tried sucking in air through his nose, but he couldn't even do that when the male shaman tightened his hold on Anduin's neck. The shaman leered down at him, showing yellowing tusks and yellow teeth. "So what should we do with this one?"
The female shrugged. "I guess whatever we want. We have what we came for, and more besides." She turned her head to look at the prone form of Shandris. "Of course, it probably wouldn't hurt to spark a little war between the Alliance and the Horde. That would definitely soften them up."
The male laughed. "So who do we send to the Alliance? The kal'dorei or the boy?"
"The boy. Nothing gets the Alliance riled up like seeing the mutilated corpses of children."
Anduin choked. He grabbed at the orc's wrist and tried to pull the hand away from his throat enough that he could take in air to cast something. The Orc only tightened his grip. Anduin could feel darkness threatening to take him and prayed that someone, anyone, would come and help. He didn't care who - an adventurer, a soldier, a beast - as long as they could break this iron hold on his throat. He heard a soft hiss and suddenly Wrathion was there, his eyes burning bright. The male shaman seemed to be surprised, and his expression grew even more surprised when Wrathion swept his sword up and brought it down on the male's arm.
Anduin gasped as air suddenly returned to him and scrabbled backwards, away from the howling Orc and his severed arm. He saw Wrathion's body tense again and his sword snapped up again. This time, though, the female shaman was faster. She unleashed a fierce barrage of lightning at Wrathion, striking him over and over again in the chest. Wrathion staggered back under the assault, until he was on his knees, paralyzed. Then the female shaman approached, unsheathing a hidden mace. Anduin tried to throw up a shield in time, but he couldn't get the breath to even utter the words to the spell. He saw a glimmer as the Light responded to his will, but the minor shield wasn't enough to fully stop her strike. All it did was slow it enough that it only knocked Wrathion unconscious rather than smashed his head open.
Before Wrathion even hit the ground, she was tending to her companion, stopping the flow of blood and cleaning the wound before she sealed it up. There was no way she'd be able to reattach the arm, not without difficulty. And Anduin figured they didn't have a whole lot of time.
As Anduin struggled to his feet, both shaman looked toward him, murder in their eyes. Anduin shivered and gripped his staff, trying hard not to panic. He hadn't felt this afraid since he'd faced Garrosh, but at that time, he'd forced the fear away under the knowledge he was doing something right. He hadn't expected to be severely injured. He hadn't expected to wake up with broken bones and be told he almost died. His lips twitched in a smile, bitter. Here was that same situation, just different opponents. He'd left Stormwind thinking it would be a simple adventure. Just to their destination and back, and maybe a few monster encounters. Nothing serious. He remembered something someone had told him - he couldn't remember who - while he was recovering: We don't go into a fight expecting to come out of it alive, kid. We go into a fight expecting to die, so we do whatever it takes to stay alive.
Anduin gathered himself for a final strike. He had to believe he was going to die. He had to take them both with him if he was going to fall, because if he let them get their hands on Wrathion or Shandris or Kari or Dashiell he'd never be able to forgive himself. Light gathered around him, pulsing and strong, and it gave the shamans pause because neither of them seemed to know what was happening.
The female shaman recovered a little faster than Anduin could strike, and the lightning bolt seared his shield. Anduin stood his ground and fired back with a smite spell, aiming not for the female but her companion. The light struck an earth shield, exploding it into clods that rained down on both of them. Anduin gathered his remaining strength and tried to attack, only to end up shielding himself from a lightning bolt that knocked him off his feet. He rolled to avoid being crushed beneath a torrent of earth and struggled to get to his feet. Panting, Anduin whirled to throw a smite spell at the female shaman, and received a glancing blow to the shoulder by her companion's mace. Anduin hit the ground again and cried out from pain. His shoulder was dislocated, if not broken.
"You humans." Snarled the male. "You just don't know when to give up. You should learn to die with grace!"
Anduin watched the male Orc raise his mace up high into the air. The Prince stared, not at the mace, but the arrowhead that suddenly pierced the shaman's chest. The Orc looked down at the arrowhead, like he couldn't believe it was there. His fingers opened as he crumpled, and Anduin scrambled backwards to keep from being hit by the mace as it fell.
He looked around for the archer, thinking, hoping, it was Shandris. But then he saw the fletching of the arrow and knew that the feathers decorating the end of the arrow hadn't been put there by the hands of night elf. He heard another whistle and saw an arrow arc in toward the female shaman. That one was stopped by an earth shield, but another found its mark in the female's knee. She went down with a cry, her shield disrupted, and another arrow sprouted from her shoulder. A third went through her neck, and she fell backwards into the dirt.
Anduin heard the approach then, the crunch of gravel under boots. He turned slightly to look at his rescuer, to thank the brave soul that had come to his rescue when he or she didn't have to. His mouth worked, but no sound came out. His eyes widened, not bothering to hide the surprise.
The Orc girl glowered at him, then struck Anduin across the head with her bow, knocking him cold.
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Dawn of the Dragon