Chapter One They could smell the stench in the distance and it was difficult to say which was strongest, the acrid smoke rising from the burning landscape or the incessant, almost sweet odor of the slowly-decaying dead lying sprawled by the hundreds across it.
The night elves had managed to stem the latest assault by the Burning Legion, but had lost more ground again. Lord Desdel Stareye proclaimed it a retrenching maneuver enabling the host to better gauge the Legion's weaknesses, but among Malfurion Stormrage and his friends, the truth was known. Stareye was an aristocrat with no true concept of strategy and he surrounded himself with the like.
With the assassination of Lord Ravencrest, there had been no one willing to stand up to the slim, influential noble. Other than Ravencrest, few night elves truly had experience in warfare and with the dead commander the last of his line, his House could present no one to take his place. Stareye clearly had ambitions, but his ineptitude would see those ambitions crushed along with his people if something did not happen.
But Malfurion's thoughts were not simply concerned with the precarious future of the host. Another, overriding matter ever caused him to look in the direction of distant Zin-Azshari, once the glittering capital of the night elves' realm. Even as the dim hint of light to the east presaged the cloud-enshrouded day, he went over and over again his failures.
Went over and over again the loss of the two that mattered most to him -- fair Tyrande and his twin brother, Illidan.
Night elves aged very slowly, but the young Malfurion looked much older than his few decades. He still stood as tall as any of his people -- roughly seven feet -- and had their slim build and dark purple complexions. However, his slanted, silver eyes -- eyes without pupils -- had a maturity and bitterness cast in them that most night elves lacked even under such diversity. Malfurion's features were also more lupine than most, matching only his brother's.
More startling was his mane of hair, shoulder-length and of a unique, dark green -- not the midnight blue even his twin had. People were always eyeing the hair just as they had once always eyed the plain garments to which his tastes turned. As a student of the druidic arts, Malfurion did not wear the garish, flamboyant robes and outfits considered normal clothing by his race. Instead, he preferred a simple, cloth tunic, plain leather jerkin and pants, and knee-high boots, also of leather. The extravagant garb worn by his people had been a telling sign of their jaded lives, their innate arrogance -- something against his nature. Of course, now, though, most night elves save Lord Stareye and his ilk wandered as ragged refugees in muddied, blood-soaked clothes. More to the point, instead of looking down their noses at the peculiar young scholar, they now eyed the green-haired druid with desperate hope, aware that most of them lived because of his actions.
But what were those actions leading him toward? Not success, so far. Worse, and certainly more disconcerting, Malfurion had discovered that his delving into the natural powers of the living world had begun a physical change.
He rubbed his upper head, where one of the two tiny nubs lay hidden under his hair. They had sprouted but a few days ago, yet had already doubled in size. The two tiny horns chilled Malfurion, for they reminded him much too much of the beginning of a satyr's. That, in turn, reminded him too much of Xavius, the queen's counselor who had come back from the dead and, before Malfurion had finally dealt with him, sent Tyrande into the clutches of the Burning Legion's masters.
"You've got to stop thinking about her," someone coming up behind him urged.
Malfurion glanced without surprise at his companion, although most others in the host would have stared even harder at the newcomer than they did the druid. There was no creature in all Kalimdor like Rhonin.
The hooded figure draped in dark blue robes, under which could be seen similarly-colored shirt and pants, stood more than a head shorter than Malfurion even despite boots. But it was neither his height nor his garments that raised eyes and comments. Rather, it was the fiery, shoulder-length hair spilling out from the hood, the rounder, very pale features -- especially the nose that bent slightly to one side -- that so unsettled other night elves. The eyes were even more startling, for they were a bright emerald green with utterly black pupils.
Despite his comparative shortness, Rhonin was built stronger than Malfurion. He looked very capable of handling himself in combat -- which he had -- an unusual ability for one who had proven himself quite versed in the magical arts. Rhonin called himself a "human," a race of which no one had heard. Yet, if the crimson-tressed traveler was an example, Malfurion wished that the host had a thousand more just like him. Whereas his own people's sorcery, so dependent upon the Well of Eternity, now often failed, Rhonin wielded his own power as if the offspring of a demigod.
"How can I stop? How do I dare?" Malfurion demanded, suddenly growing angry at one he knew did not deserve such malice. "Tyrande has been their prisoner for too long and I've failed over and over again to even see within the palace's walls!"
In the past, Malfurion had used the training he had received from his mentor -- the demigod, Cenarius -- to walk a realm called the Emerald Dream. The Emerald Dream was a place where the world looked as it would have had there been neither civilization or even animal life. Through it, one's dream form could quickly reach locations all across the world. It had enabled him to pass through the magical barriers surrounding Queen Azshara's citadel and spy upon her Highborne and the commanders of the Burning Legion. He had used it to disrupt the plans of Xavius, the queen's counselor, and, after a harrowing imprisonment, temporarily destroy the portal and the tower containing it.
Now, however, the great demon, Archimonde, had strengthened those barriers, cutting off even the Emerald Dream. Malfurion had continued to try to pierce the barriers, but he might as well have been physically battering himself against a real wall.
It did not help that, in addition to awareness that Tyrande was within, the druid also suspected that Illidan might be.
"Elune will watch over her," Rhonin replied steadfastly. "She seems very much a favorite of the Mother Moon."
Malfurion could not argue with that reasoning. But a short time ago, Tyrande had been a young novice in the service of the lunar goddess. Yet, the coming of the Legion seemed to have precipitated in her a transformation as great as in him, if not more so. Her powers had grown strong and, to her immense surprise, when the high priestess had been mortally wounded in battle, she had chosen Tyrande as her successor over many much more experienced and high-ranking sisters. Regrettably, that newfound status had ultimately led to her kidnapping by a transformed Xavius and his satyrs. Xavius had finally paid the price for his actions, but that had not saved Tyrande.
"Can even Elune stand up to the darkness of Sargeras?"
Rhonin's thick brow arched. "Talk like that won't help any, Malfurion," He glanced behind himself. "...and I'd especially appreciate it if you'd not speak so around our new friends."
For a moment, the druid forgot his misery as the shadowed forms rose up from the direction the wizard had come. Immediately it was clear that they were of more than one race, for some dwarfed the night elf in both height and girth while others came up short even to Rhonin. Yet all who strode up to where the pair stood moved with determination and a sense of strength that Malfurion had to admit his own people had just begun to find.
A musky scent wafted past his nose and he immediately tensed. A furred figure clad in loincloth and wielding a massive spear paused to gaze down at the night elf. The giant's breath came in heavy snorts which caused the ring through his nose to jingle slightly. His muzzle was more than a foot long and at the skull met two deeply-entrenched, black eyes that burned with determination. Above the harsh, wrinkled brow, a pair of treacherous-looking horns thrust ahead of the muzzle.
A tauren...
"This is -- " Rhonin began.
"Know that Huln Highmountain stands before you, night elf," rumbled the shaggy, bull-headed creature. "Huln of the eagle spear!" He raised the weapon, displaying the sharp, curved end forged to resemble the raptor's beak. From the lower end of the metal head to the bottom tip of the shaft, a tightly-bound skin had been wrapped, upon it markings in the language of Huln's people. Malfurion knew just enough about the tauren to understand that here was marked the history of the weapon, from its forging through the epic feats of its owners. "Huln, who speaks for all the tribes gathered."
The bull nodded his head brusquely, accenting his words with his gestures. His coat had more than two dozen braids in it, most of them dangling from under his jaw. Each was recognition of a kill in battle.
The squat but muscular figure below the tauren's right arm snorted. Vaguely, he looked like some kin of Rhonin's, at least in features. However, there any resemblance ended. His build made it seem as if some powerful force -- perhaps either the tauren or the ursine brute behind him -- had taken a war hammer and pounded the heavily-bearded figure flat.
More astounding, he was made of stone, not flesh.
His rough-hewn skin appeared to be a gray granite, his squinting eyes glittering diamonds. The beard was actually an intricate series of mineral growths that even made it look as if the figure was graying with age.
The dwarf -- for that was as Malfurion knew his kind -- reached into one of his many belt pouches and removed a clay pipe and tinder box. As he lit the pipe, the fire briefly outlined the grizzled face, especially the huge, round nose. Whether or not the "gray" in the beard marked advanced age, he showed no infirmi...
