It had been a long time since Koda had been punched in the face.
She had forgotten how it sounded. Like...thunder, with a shock of lightning ripping through cartilage and bone. An electric crackle and pop.
Lightning...how was Lightningwing doing?
...what a strange thought to have in the middle of a fist connecting with your face.
Koda nearly hit the ground, but she was far too springy to fall entirely. Her palm braced upon the concrete, redirecting the momentum into a swinging kick, aimed directly at the human's chest. The man wheezed out whatever air was in his lungs, tumbling back into a stack of barrels - earning the both of them a shout of frustration from the barkeep. It did little to deter either one of them from the ongoing brawl, the human barely giving Koda half a second to wipe away the blood from her nose before he was charging at her again.
He swung for her chest; an easy backstep to dodge, followed by another when he swung again. That kick had really done a number to his stamina, but fury and adrenaline were quickly refreshing his reserves.
"You knife-eared bitch!" Ah, there it was. Always the slurs with these people. No creativity beyond regurgitating insults they'd heard from others.
It didn't bother her anymore.
"Just tell me what I want to know!" Her words were a deep, low bark, punctuated with a snap of her jaws.
He went to rush her again, and so she let him - if only so she could put both of her hands on either of his shoulders to catch him in place. Before he got the first breath of a confused 'Huh?' out, she'd forcefully driven her knee directly into his gut.
"Hurk!" The human doubled over, retching for a moment. She could smell the alcohol-sodden heaves, and stepped back in disgust as he struggled not to vomit all he'd ingested that evening.
Another frustrated bark left her: "This doesn't have to be difficult!"
As he struggled to regain himself, she fought the urge to take the chance to punch him in the head; to return the favor of what she could already feel was going to be a stunning bruise. But, she needed him at least somewhat conscious, and so she refrained.
"I'm not asking again! Where is it?!"
"Fine!" His wheeze sounded tearful. She was unmoved.
"Fine." He repeated, now with some degree of control over his breathing - and a fair amount of defeat in his tone. "You stupid cunt. I'll tell you what I know."
Koda only half-way allowed a satisfied smirk to tug on her lips before seizing the man by the arm and hauling him out of the tavern. Their fond farewell from the barkeep consisted of a flurry of Dwarven curses - and while Koda couldn't decipher them, she could at least gather that neither of them were welcome back anytime soon.
~~~
"Of course they separated it," Koda groaned, lightly rubbing the pads of her fingers over the bridge of her nose. She quickly abandoned the motion with a slight hiss of discomfort.
Damn, he'd hit her hard, hadn't he? Maybe she shouldn't've made that remark about his Dwarven ex-wife afterall...
"Had to complicate it, 'else the filthy Trolls would've just raided us to take it back and summon their giant damn bug again," the man spit out, vitriol for the natives of the Hinterlands almost as deep as his for her.
Not that surprising, she supposed.
"Technically, she's an arachnid," Koda offered as a casual - but helpful - aside.
"Huh?" The man gave her a dumb stare, one that the Kaldorei shook off with a physical shake of her head. Maybe she hadn't spoken the correct Common word - or, perhaps the man was simply stupid. She silently bet on the latter.
"Nevermind. Where are the individual pieces now?" Koda turned to face the human fully, arms tightly wound together across her body. The man, who sat slumped in the alley she had dragged him into, glanced up at her with a sneer. When Koda met his expression with a curl of lips and flash of fangs, he relented with a few grumbled curses.
"The Eye, the Shell, and the Fang," he recounted, running a hand back over his greasy blonde hair with a sigh. "I sure as hell won't be your tour guide, but I can mark them on a map."
In less than a minute, Koda had produced a map of the Hinterlands from her pack, seemingly prepared for such a request. As the man began to scribble upon the scroll, the woman narrowed her eyes.
"If you tell them I'm coming, I will gut you," she warned, her words liquid fire. Hot and flowing, there was no denying that she intended to make good on the threat if need be. The man paused with a wince, but continued to write without much delay.
"Yeah, yeah," he dismissively fussed, an attempt to hide his apprehension. "Take whatever you want from them, I don't give a shit. Light knows that woman took enough from me." The pen tapped against the final location, before he handed the items back to Koda. "Yeah. Take whatever you want and don't give nothing back."
"Yo-ho," Koda teased, speaking the phrase low and slow to match the grin on her lips. Despite it all, the human actually managed a gruff chuckle - but was quick to turn his gaze away from the woman.
After a moment of studying the map to ensure everything was in order, Koda rolled up the scroll, returning it to it's proper place.
"You've done me a service today, Jarric. I won't forget it." After looking him over with an approving nod, she then added: "Even if I did have to beat it out of you."
Jarric, as he was named, seemed to consider the somewhat veiled gratitude, before snorting up something disgusting to spit onto the ground beside him.
"Fuck you," was his answer, but there wasn't nearly half the bite in it that had been there before. Koda chalked that up to something, and offered a lingering grin before turning to make her exit.
"Elune diminish your troubles."
And with that, she was off into the night - bruised and sore, but victorious. Finally, she had something to show for the last three months of searching. Something tangible, something to work towards. Hope renewed now that a goalpost was finally in sight.
But for now, it was time to head back to Stormwind. Back to Cervontis and Thoornun and Lightningwing and Coranos and...
What a nice feeling - she thought idly, as she greeted the snow-dappled air outside of Ironforge's gates - to have people you wanted to come back to.
