It was, for all that had happened, a beautiful place. It was Elven land, and all that came to mind with such a description. Naturally dark and littered with ruins of what came before the Azeroth they knew today. There was little in the way of active towns, and not just because of the changes to the land that the Cataclysm had brought. The rivers rushed to their destination, and the pine trees stretched ever towards the sky. They were all the same faded green color, but dotted along the landscape were trees with the most vibrant violet leaves. It was a beautiful land.
Now, as Raura crept through the trees with her hood pulled up over her horns, the land was infested with the smell of wildfire. Black smoke billowed in the distance, visible in the spaces between the trees. The sounds Raura was familiar with in these settings - the rustling of branches with the wind, the chirping of birds and the chitter-chatter of small mammals - were drowned out by the fighting that went on ceaselessly where the land split between the Twilight Vale and the Wildbend River.
It broke her heart, not to hear the calm sounds of nature... But the Horde had chosen to strike at Kal’Dorei lands, and the Alliance in whole had to answer.
House Dragonblade had to answer.
Odessii had sent Raura here, after Raura had requested to be sent - if the Warchief was pushing towards Teldrassil, there was no time to wait. But her Aunt couldn’t just leave - Odessii had people she was responsible for in the Eastern Kingdoms. So Raura came, with forces fit enough to reinforce the Night Elf defense. She should have been with them... But Raura worked best untethered.
Her hooves made little noise against the grass, her frame being as light as it was. But the same could not be said for many among the Horde - when they moved through unpaved ground, through forests thick with trees and bushes, they made noise. Leaves rustled, branches creaked, and stray twigs on the ground-
Raura whirled about, pulling her bowstring taut and loosing the arrow she’d already loaded in the direction of the noise. A deep grunt sounded out immediately after the familiar sound of an arrowhead piercing the skin.
She dove to the side as an axe whirled through the air, lodging itself into a tree nearby while she reached for another arrow. She knocked the trustworthy ammunition into place, pulled her bowstring taut again and-
She stared forward as a group of Orcs, accompanied by a few Trolls, Goblins, and a single Tauren surrounded her. Raura worked best untethered... But it often led her into tight spots such as this. She didn’t relax her stance, knelt on the ground with her arrow ready. She could kill one... But the rest would be upon her before she could reload. And against these numbers, she’d have nowhere to go. So for now, she listened... “Whelp - one measly arrow isn’t enough to fell a warrior of the Horde!”
It was subtle - she felt the vibrations, more than she heard them. Her face remained stoic, betraying nothing. She just had to hope the Orc kept talking. “What’s the matter? No final words for the other Alliance soldiers to hear as you die?”
They couldn’t feel it - none of them were hunters as she was. None of them knew to pick out that feeling of the ground, subtly shaking beneath her, growing more and more prominent. “Or is it something else? Ah, I think I understand... You are all by yourself, little girl.”
Thud thud thud thud thud.
“Wait.” The Tauren shouted, ears turning upwards as his head tilted. “Do you hear that?”
Raura smiled, hearing a familiar, short bellow coming from her right before a heavy form burst through group of small trees that hid the little clearing they were in. Massive, flat feet crushed the grass underfoot as a brown, fur-backed Kodo swung his head left as he charged, swinging the massive horn back towards the Tauren and ramming his chin, knocking the large assailant away.
Doshtah continued to charge through the Horde soldiers, who soon moved out of his way, the Orc shouting at them to regroup. But his shouts were met by a new noise - a sharp, long whistle that passed Raura’s lips as she rose from the ground, arrow pointed passively downwards. From then, it took but mere moments.
A white-feathered bird with talons as sharp as knives and a hooked beak swooped down through the leaves, shrieking as she swiped at the Orc’s face, sending him reeling backwards. As Halaa distracted the mouthy one, Raura moved forward, loosing her arrow towards one of the Trolls near the back. The blue-skinned shaman clutched his shoulder, cursing in Zandalari before a fierce roar sounded out behind him and he was set upon. Aruuna, a white Pandaria-born tigress leapt from the bushes and latched onto the Troll’s back, digging her claws into his flesh as he tried to throw her off.
A deeper, more guttural roar sounded out as a snow-furred bear broke the treeline and charged into a pair of Goblins, Sha’tar bringing them both to the ground with his mighty paws.
“They’re everywhere! Cover the flanks, there’s no telling where-” The female Orc’s calls were cut off by a whooping noise, akin to a sort of laughter from the short ridge behind her. She turned, raising her shield with a roar just in time for a brown, spotted hyena to land upon the barrier, sending its wielder to the ground. Akata’s laughter-like whooping continued as he clawed at the wooden shield, his weight pressing the Orc continually onto the ground as his fangs snapped close to her throat.
Raura loosed another arrow towards the back lines, the Goblin that had become her target falling instantly as the arrow struck his heart. A Troll cried out behind her, raising an axe in the air to cleave into her, before the most familiar face of the group showed himself. Yipping as if to be intimidating, Spectre leapt up, jaws latching onto the Troll’s forearm and pulling it down with no harm done to Raura. The pale blue fox growled through his grip on the Troll’s arm, the headhunter so focused on the fox that he had no time to react to Raura sweeping his legs out from under him with her polearm, then driving one of the two blades into his chest, finishing this fight.
The fighting calmed as enemies fell, and her companions knew better than to make meals of the bodies. They would be rewarded for aiding Raura this day - not that they needed to impress her very much to earn a bit of spoiling. All that remained was the Orc, the apparent leader of this lot, still set upon by Raura’s trusted avian ally.
He flailed his arms about, and Halaa did back off, only to land on Raura’s elbow, held back as she aimed a newly loaded arrow at the Orc. He wiped the blood from the various claw marks now etched into his face, staring up at the huntress and her loosed menagerie. For the first time since he came upon her, she spoke. “You made a fatal mistake, invader.”
She leaned forward, arrow still notched and ready to be fired as all her companions looked on. Her voice dropped to a threatening whisper - she was not one for violence, but this... This was war. “A Huntress is never alone.”
It ended not with the sounds of battle, but with silence. Even the sounds of battle seemed to fade away, as Raura wiped the blood from her armor. She looked about her, only noticing then that her hood had fallen back. She smiled at those she considered family: her companions, who - despite what others might say - were more than mere beasts. She needn’t even speak; as she pulled her hood back up, they separated... And they pushed onward.
