Koda inhaled a deep breath, held it, and then raised her fist to knock. Barely twenty seconds after the last rap of her knuckle, and the familiar door swung half open, revealing a familiar face behind it. Jaledriel blinked eyes of wispy emerald once, his floppy ears fluttering as he peered down to view the visitor. The moment his gaze properly recognized Koda, that trademarked goofy smile sprung to life over his lips.
"Oh. Hey, kid." The door was opened the rest of the way as he properly greeted her, tilting his own body out of the way to allow her room to enter. "Welcome back."
As Koda stepped inside, the interior of Wintermoon Retreat welcomed her like an old friend. Everything was exactly where it had been during her last visit - save for the common area being a tad more messy. Jaledriel seemed to notice Koda's stare lingering on some unwashed dishes, and he giggled.
"You could probably guess, but Liev's been out. She and Ely had business back in Feralas." The man lifted a clawed finger to scratch through the thick lengths of emerald hair, past the leafy vines, and directly against his scalp. "Well, I should say that Er'lynn had business there."
"And they didn't bring you?" Koda seemed only half-invested in the answer, already moving to set her things down upon her window seat. The book she had started reading last time still sat upon a half-folded fur blanket; she shifted both to the side to sit down with a sighed exhale. The sound caught Jale's attention, a bushy brow quirking as he turned to face her.
"Yeah, uh...they had it under control. You alright?"
He transitioned into the inquiry so suddenly that Koda nearly didn't catch it. She looked up to see the gentle concern on his face, before promptly looking away.
"I bring news," she said after a moment, and she could feel the air around them immediately shift. Jaledriel was normally a jocular guy - the complete and total polar opposite to Liev - but when the moment got serious, the man would adapt. Arms folded over his broad chest, his biceps tightening to suggest some trepidation. A nod for her to continue, and she obliged.
"You've probably heard by now about the Dream Surges in the Isles, and the fact that the Druids of the Flame are working with Fyrakk to try and reach Amirdrassil, yeah?"
"Koda, I am a Warden of the Grove, bound to the Dream by the blood of the Green Dragonflight. Of course I'm aware of what's happening." Though he kept his tone steady, the reminder caused trepidation to turn to wrath; the wispy nature of Jaledriel's eyes sharpening into something more akin to flames.
Koda exhaled a frustrated sigh, pushing her fingers up through her hair. "Right, yeah, I know. Dumb question." A breath, and she continued.
"It's not just a threat anymore. They're actually going to be able to do it, Jale. They're bringing the Firelands to the Dream, and now they've got this...Runestone-thing they grabbed from Desolace to amplify their efforts."
Her building frustration boiled over, and the girl was suddenly on her feet, pacing steps back and forth through the room. "We tried to stop them from getting it, but we were too little, too late."
"It's not the only weapon they have in their arsenal," Jale replied slowly, his gaze following the girl. "Nor is it their greatest one."
"Yeah, but they didn't need another one, okay?!" Koda barked back, stopping on her next step to sharply turn and face him. "We could have stopped him! We were right there! Now everything is fucked and the Dream's going to burn!"
"The weight of Amirdrassil's fate is not your burden to carry, so you can just cut that out right now," Jale demanded, in the same sort of tone a father would take. It only served to frustrate her further.
"You're Dream-blessed, Liev's a Night Warrior, Ely's the champion of Aessina, Ryndolyn is the personification of the arcane, and Er'lynn's an actual green dragon!" The girl's voice tremored with the threat of tears, her arms thrown up into the air with exasperation. "What am I? Just a heretic's daughter, floundering about in the face of what I can't change! How can I call myself a protector of anything if I couldn't even do this?!"
"It's that sort of thinking that warped my other self into doing terrible things, Koda." Jale's tone swept into a low, rumbled warning. "Ghost chased after power, spurred on by the feeling of inadequacy and fear until it tore both himself and his family apart."
"Oh, so what? You think I'm going to go insane chasing after some sort of power? Become a heretic, like your alternative or my father?" Koda flashed her fangs in her anger - which was far too much of an affront against Jaledriel. She regretted it immediately, ears wilting even before he started to reply.
"You're putting words in my mouth that I've never spoken," he snapped back, though his tone almost immediately softened as he continued. "...because you're scared and you're lost and you're tired. I can see it in your eyes; hear it in your voice." His head shook slowly, his expression somber. "Talk to me, kid. You don't have to sit with this alone."
Koda liked to think that she had tough skin, but her family (this one - the one she had chosen) always seemed to know exactly how to lance straight through her defenses. And in this moment, where she was so scared and lost and mind-numbingly exhausted...well, his words had been almost too much to bear. Her anger was abandoned, traded for strangled sobs, and Jale wasted little time in crossing the room to wrap her up in his arms. It was a strong, solid embrace - the sort that made one feel like they were being put back together...or, at least, being kept from shattering into a thousand pieces on the floor.
"Trust me, kid, I get it. Probably more than anyone," he offered, quietly. A hand rose to stroke back her hair to get it out of her face as she wept. "So, go ahead, let it out. I've got you."
~~~
Koda sat with eyes bleary and puffy from her crying, a cup of tea held within her joined palms. She had, perhaps, cried a little more than she really felt comfortable with - hence the murmured apology she offered forward when Jaledriel returned from the kitchen with his own tea.
"I'm used to it with Ely," was Jale's teasing reply, that goofy grin back in place as he took a seat across from her. "That woman's cried enough to overflow the sea." His eyes squinted a little, his grin wavering. "Which has been mostly my idiot brother's fault."
"Ryndolyn's not a bad guy," Koda sniffled, and Jale snorted a laugh.
"Yeah, maybe not, but he's done some incredibly stupid things."
Koda's gaze averted down to her tea, and Jaledriel exhaled lightly, his grin settling until it was only a slight smile.
"Did you want to stay the night? You know you're welcome to."
Koda's head shallowly shook from side-to-side. "I've got...someone waiting on me. I have to head back." Jale nodded along, but his expression seemed conflicted - as if he wanted to argue against her decision. But, after a quiet moment, he resolved the feelings with a sigh.
"I know you've got your mission, kid, and I respect it. I do. We all heard the Traveler when he told you about your an'da. None of us question the validity of what you're doing; Thavenar needs to be stopped." The man leaned forward, elbows propped on his thighs as he tried to catch her gaze. She obliged, meeting his once-again wispy stare. "But you alone aren't responsible for saving the world, or the Dream, or anything at all, Koda. Don't allow self-imposed burden to break your spirit. I watched it happen with Ely, and I'd prefer it to not happen to you." He pauses, if only for a breath. "Come home often and recharge among the Wilds that love you. Allow yourself to rest. You can't sustain yourself if you're running all the time."
"Yeah," was Koda's terse reply, but there was something reflected across her expression that let Jale know she heard his words. That was enough to satisfy him, and so he sat straight again, nodding once.
"I'll share the news you brought with Liev and the others once they return, and we'll move accordingly." His tone then lightened as he continued. "For now, share this moment and tea with me, thero'shan of my beloved. Perhaps I'll recite a story before you go, if you'll allow this bard to play for you." A wide and warm grin punctuated his offer.
Koda could do little to stop a small smile from touching her lips, allowing her ears to relax at a comfortable incline as she relaxed into the window seat. The familiarity was...nice. Perhaps she could allow herself a moment to indulge in it.
"Yeah," she quietly murmured. "I think I'd like that."
"Ironforge," the Gilnean said, after the longest drag Koda had ever seen someone take while smoking. "Or, less specifically, Dun Morogh. Somewhere in there is a human who'd been workin' with th' Wildhammers up'n th' Hinterlands."
"Why would he tell me what I need to know?" Koda's question caused the dual-toned eyes of the information broker to fall on her. Though the elf refused to shrink under that stare, the pressing urge to clarify her inquiry was suddenly upon her. With a breath, she continued.
"If he's close with the Wildhammers, he's not going to be all that loose-lipped, right?"
The Gilnean exhaled a smokey laugh, tapping off ash from the end of her cigarette. "I used past tense, Hound." There was that nickname again. Being called a tracking hound, as she searched out any hints of her an'da's whereabouts...the human thought herself so clever.
"Fine. So, he's not with them anymore. Still doesn't mean that he'll tell me where I can find the idol." Koda's gaze then squinted, holding that stare on the woman across from her. Unphased, the Gilnean fluffed a hand through the burgundy waves of her hair, only glancing back to Koda when she continued speaking. "Why don't you get the information from him, huh? I thought that was your whole thing."
"You're not payin' me 'nough t'do th' dirty work," the woman grinned, smoke lazily trailing out from between her lips. "I've kept my eyes open - for both th' idol an' your target - an' now I'm giving ya' a lead. Wot more could ya' expect for fifty silver?"
Koda couldn't argue with that, so instead she wrinkled her nose up into a look of distaste. There were twenty insults dancing on the back of her tongue, ready to lash forward towards the smug human...but she swallowed them back, electing for diplomacy. After all, something was better than nothing...and she'd only had a whole lot of nothing for the past three months. No need burning the only bridge that seemed to be leading somewhere.
Yes, at last she could finally do something else besides just waiting around this stupid city, sitting on her stupid hands, and crushing on a stupid apostate with his stupid, pretty hair and wild eyes and showstopping grins and heartrending laughter and...
"Dun Morogh," Koda said suddenly, breaking the temporary silence almost breathlessly. The Gilnean quirked a brow, but nodded along in agreement. "I'll need...some descriptions of what he looks like. Maybe where he was last seen. Anything you've got."
The Gilnean huffed an amused smirk, twirling her cigarette through the air, the smoke following it loyally. "He's a human in a land of Dwarves," she'd said, tilting her head with a grin. "How hard could it be?"
~~~
"A human in a land of Dwarves," Koda had repeated nasally, stomping into the room she was renting. The stone door closed heavy behind her; the mountain sighed a brisk breath of air into the room before being shut out. "How hard could it be?!"
Bundling up her cloak, she hurled it onto the bed with a growl of frustration. Joining it, she plopped onto the edge of the mattress, immediately taking to dragging her boots from her cold and tired feet. Elune, -everything- felt cold and tired: her nose and her ears and her fingers and even her ass. With that very pressing thought in mind, it didn't take her long to abandon the bed, instead moving to stand in front of the gentle crackling of the fireplace. Hands rubbed together before she held her palms extended towards the heat, as if begging it to save her...as if in surrender...
She saw him, there, in the flames. Heard him. That ever present aura, the comfort of a campfire. The warmth and the intensity and the very real threat of what could happen if those flames ever escaped their containment.
The threat of what she would have to do should that happen.
A groan, and Koda had rolled her eyes to the side to stare towards the mostly empty room. The Dwarves' decor left much to be desired aesthetically, but it was certainly a sturdy, well-built structure. At the very least, she didn't have to fear the cold here.
She wondered, for a moment, what a room in Winterspring would be like. How warm he'd keep it from his presence alone. How alive it would feel between their conversations and laughter and fleeting glances and...
The moment she felt the blush begin to heat up her cheeks, she quickly abandoned the thought, turning away from the heat. There were more important things to do than stand there, mushy and melting, thinking about a man who would never...could never...be hers.
No. She had far more important work to do than that.
