Asleep inside the cannon’s mouth
The captain cries here comes the rout
They’ll seek to find me north and south
I’ve gone to find my ain true love.
Hightmountain was cold.
Having rarely left the comfort of the permanently balmy Eversong, Ellathedar was unaccustomed to the chill that came with the high elevation on the mountain. Trueshot Lodge was chilly and sparse compared to the Farstrider Retreat, and adapting to the drastic difference had been somewhat difficult.
Vistara had fared much better. She had traveled, she had seen both hot and cold warzones, she was comfortable so long as she was moving. She tried to be sympathetic to her tender footed brother-in-law, but that only lasted for about a day before her patience vanished.
By now, though, Ell was more used to the climate and the terrain. They’d been working to root out the Legion influence on the mountain with the Unseen Path, namely the threat that had cropped up with the Bloodtotem Tauren. Ell had yet to die in combat, which he considered an impressive feat.
Still, life at the Lodge was uncomfortable in its own ways. A soldier’s life was a very different thing for him, even now. He missed his brother, and his family, and most of all Zosine, who he worried for falling asleep each night until his stomach was nothing but an aching knot.
A few weeks after their arrival, Ithise joined them at the lodge, separated from her sister as their specialties lead them to different paths. Eronais was on the front in Azsuna, while Ithise and her pathfinding and archery skills had been needed more at the Lodge. Ell was less than enthused by this. Ithise had always intimidated him, always brooding quietly and making him think she was silently furious with him only to scare him out of his skin with a sudden bark of laughter and a painful slap on the shoulder.
Vistara, of course, was delighted to have her along.
With her came her faithful beast, a rare black dragonhawk called Nighteye. He, at least, as a welcome addition in Ell’s opinion. His inky plumage allowed him to blend into any shadows or night sky, and he was a watchful eye on them wherever they went.
He was watching over them today, in fact, as the three ventured out on a patrol. This day found them mounted, as the perimeter of the Lodge was even enough that all of their mounts could cross it comfortably. Ithise sat astride Dollface, her hideous undead horse, snow melting as his acidic hooves touched down. Vistara rode in the middle on her hawkstrider, and Ell rode on her right with Firebolt.
He’d gotten more than a couple curious and downright puzzled looks from the Farstriders stationed here. The Thalassian charger was very out of place among the hawkstriders, but no one had questioned him about it outright. Ithise teased him, since the horse had an aversion to Dollface, but Ell didn’t find it very funny.
He’s like my brother with that distaste for dead things.
“I wonder if Hamearis has set the farm on fire yet,” Vistara said wistfully as they rode. She was silent more often than not, but when she did speak, it was always of her family.
“If he hasn’t, I’m sure the twins have done it for him,” Ithise replied, all too familiar with the antics of her niece and nephew. “Though I’m sure my father would have the decency to send a letter if they had. At least, so I’d hope.”
Ell opened his mouth to retort, but Firebolt suddenly stopped short. Vistara’s hawkstrider came to a standstill a pace after, and Dollface finally shambled to a stop when Ithise tugged on the chains that served as his reins. The three rangers didn’t speak, didn’t ask what it was, didn’t ask where it was coming from. They simply sat and slowly reached for their quivers and bows, readying them as their ears swiveled and twitched.
Ellathedar had just discerned the direction of the attack and was turning to warn Ithise when she was knocked out of her saddle by a war hammer. She fell to the ground with a thud, one foot still stuck in a stirrup, and her only salvation was her big ugly horse backing up and dragging her out of the path of the Bloodtotem’s stampeding hooves.
Two of them came crashing into view then, barreling right for Vistara and Ellathedar. Vistara had her hands around her bow and loosed an arrow, which bounced uselessly off the Tauren’s massive antlers. Her hawkstrider balked at the last minute, skittering to the side and carrying them both out of the Tauren’s path just in time.
The second, however, was aiming for Ellathedar. He bellowed at them, a roar so loud that it rang in his ears and caused a flock of birds to take flight from some nearby trees. It was too much for Firebolt, who reared and threw Ell from the saddle before shying off in the direction of the Lodge. Ell landed gracelessly on his backside, still scrambling to notch an arrow as the Tauren gained on him in enormous strides.
This is it, he thought. I’m going to die here, and this isn’t even a real battlefield.
But just before the massive beast could trample him to death, a knife lodged in his arm. The Tauren came sliding to a halt, jerking his head around and looking with blazing fel-tainted eyes for the source of the attack. Ithise had gotten to her feet, another throwing knife readied in her right hand, but her left arm dangled at her side, either stunned or broken somewhere. She wouldn’t be able to shoot.
As the Tauren focused instead on her, Ell forced himself to steady his hands and nock his arrow, aiming for the eyes. He loosed before the Tauren could charge, but he missed his mark. The arrow instead struck the Tauren in the neck, and while it was drawing blood, it wasn’t stuck deeply enough to kill. All it did was make the Tauren angrier, the fel in his eyes blazing brighter than ever.
“Run Ell!” Ithise snapped, throwing her second knife low in an attempt to lame one of the beast’s legs. She missed pitifully, but it bought Ell enough time to get to his feet and run.
His legs were long, longer than his brother’s, longer than any Sin’dorei he had ever met, but they couldn’t save him from the massive Tauren bearing down on him once he started to charge. Highmountain Tauren were bigger and stronger than their Mulgore cousins, and these Bloodtotem were infused with fel energy to boot. He looked desperately around for a tree to climb, but none had branches hanging low enough for him to swing up into. All he could hope for was… not to die.
The war cry came from overhead.
A flash of black and red rocketed down from a rock face overhead, rushing over Ell’s head and colliding with the Tauren. The heavy hoofbeats shaking the earth behind Ell stopped, and he dared turn around to see what had come from the heavens themselves to save him.
A cloaked figure was grappling about on the Tauren’s shoulders, stabbing a sword downward at his face and eyes. It had to be female, as it was thin and dexterous even in what appeared to be plate armor. The Tauren reached to attempt to drag the figure off, but it was too fast.
The cloak was such a brilliant shade of red. How had she stayed concealed in the foliage like that?
Where have I seen that shade of red before?
Nimble as the attacker may have been, she eventually slipped up. The Tauren shook his head and jostled her, causing her to lose her footing and flop onto her belly while facing behind him. With a sickening crunch, the Tauren rammed the points of his antlers up into the attacker’s abdomen, piercing armor and flesh as she was pinned between him and a massive boulder.
But the red-cloaked defender wasn’t giving up. She raised her sword one last time, shouted her fury, and buried the blade deep into the Tauren’s neck. She drove it in to the hilt, until the tip pierced down through the beast’s throat, and only then did he stumble backwards and let her slide limply to the earth. The Tauren staggered, falling for what felt like a lifetime, but finally he crashed to the ground and died.
It had taken minutes, seconds, even, but Ellathedar felt like it had been hours since Ithise had fallen from her saddle. Once he was certain that the Tauren was dead, he stumbled numbly to where his savior lay, bleeding heavily from her stomach. She turned to face him, and that was when he recognized her.
“Glinia.”
She gave him a smile, however much she could manage with her mangled face, and coughed bloodily. “Good to see you little brother,” she sighed, a hoarse, wet sound.
Ell hadn’t seen her face to face since she had marched with Liadrin to take care of their wayward king. Hamearis had been scant on the details ever since he’d confirmed she was still alive, but they were useless to prepare him for what the battle at the Sunwell had done to the former love of his brother’s life.
The scarring on the side of her face was painful to look at, made worse by the pain that was contorting her features. The unmarred side was weathered and grizzled too, but he could still make out the vibrant and beautiful woman she had been for as long as he had known her.
Just when Ell remembered to be worried about her, Vistara came plodding silently up, her strider’s reins in one hand and a fistful of blood arrows in the other. Ithise was where he’d left her, stubbornly pulling herself up into the saddle with her good arm so she wouldn’t have to walk back to the Lodge. Vistara took in the scene and narrowed her eyes at Glinia, who Ell wasn’t sure if she recognized or not.
“Why did you save me?” Ell asked abruptly. “Have you… have you been following me?”
“I saved your brother and I saved you,” she replied flatly. “Both times that stupid horse was what brought me running. You have him to thank.”
Ell didn’t understand, but he ignored it. “You didn’t answer my question.”
She met his gaze, the unscarred side of her face smoothing into a thoughtful, almost familiar expression. “I made your brother a promise, a long, long time ago,” she all but whispered.
She was growing too quiet to hear from where Ell was standing, so he came closer and knelt by her side. He could see now the antiquated Blood Knight armor she wore, faded and scratched. It clearly hadn’t seen one of the Order’s smiths in a long time. What had she been doing all these years?
“What did you promise?” Ell prompted. He had no right to be asking her these questions, had no business to be so close to such a dangerous woman, and yet here he was, trying to figure out why she of all people had saved his life.
“I promised him… that I’d take care of you… if there was ever a time that he couldn’t do it himself,” she ground out, coughing and dribbling blood once more. “You tell him I kept my promise.”
“You killed our parents,” Ell blurted. “Why would you save me after that?”
A sad look came to her face, and her eyes went dark and faraway. “We all hurt the people we love, Ell,” she sighed, and she sounded so much like the girl he’d grown up with that it hurt his heart. “We all make mistakes.”
There was so much more he wanted to ask her, so much he didn’t understand, would never understand, but she was gone before he could ask anything else. Her eyes dimmed and her body went limp, and he knew without even touching her that she was already going cold.
We could have been family, he thought as he looked at her, lying there in a puddle of her own blood. We practically were.
He pulled her blade from the Tauren’s spine and wrapped her red cloak around her body, carrying it back to the Lodge himself, with Vistara and Ithise riding slowly behind him. Ithise had sprained her shoulder but would be back in action in less than a week, and Vistara had simply run circles around the Tauren and pumped it full of arrows until she had worn it out and managed to kill it without ever leaving her saddle.
“This was a friend of mine,” Ell informed the infirmary when he delivered Glinia’s body to them. “If it’s not too much trouble, please send her remains and her effects to my brother. He’ll know what to do with them.”
After all, they were the only family she had left.
The field is cut and bleeds to red
The cannonballs fly ‘round my head
Infirm’ry man may count me dead
But I’ve gone to find my ain true love
I’ve gone to find my ain true love.