World of Warcraft™

With the several successful trips between Booty Bay and Rachet, the voyage of the recently commissioned The Adventurous Lad seemed to have the same luck of The Maiden's Fancy -- which for the Blackwater Raiders and Steamwheedle Cartel would mean a lot of money would be made. Not like the young human woman on her first ever trip to Rachet cared; at sixteen, she had never been outside the human territories and was looking forward to going to Kalimdor.

Laying on the bunk she had been provided, she was trying to let the gentle rocking of the vessel caused by the waves buffeting the sides lull her to sleep. It had worked the previous nights, but it wasn't tonight; because of the storm they had sailed into perhaps. Since she couldn't sleep, she began to mentally go over her recent studies – as a Novice in the ways of a holy priest, there was much to memorize and learn...

And then the bunk jolted violently, enough to cause her to fall to the floor. Blinking in a surprised daze, the vessel heaving brought her back to awareness; pushing herself to her feet, she staggered as the deck rolled under her feet. The wind howled outside the covered porthole and she hurriedly pulled on her soft-soled linen boots. On the other side of the door, she could hear pounding footsteps and yelling, though the thick wood muffled the exact words.

Throwing her linen robe around her nightgown-clad body, she staggered again as the deck heaved; above her there was an ominous sound of wood cracking. It was a sound that chilled her to her bones despite her inexperience about boats. Something had her grabbing and securing her pack – leftover instinct of her early childhood as an orphan in the Thunder Falls when she an her older sister would have to move fast in order to hide from the roaming bandits, perhaps – and head for the cabin door.

The world heaved again and things went blurry after that...

...they came back swiftly though, to find herself floating in the vast abyss of the ocean, the churning waters, dragging her one way, then another. Her lungs were burning in the nee for air and when the churning water spat her up to the surface, she gasped out praise for the Light, greedily drawing in a much needed breath before getting sucked back down beneath the waves.

It was a process that repeated, over an over again until the sea spat her into stiller, calmer waters, a gentle current drawing her to land. Weakly crawling up the beach, she collapsed by a dune and turned over, her pack – how it had remained on her back through that turmoil must have been a Blessing of the Light – to stare blankly at the sky, which was still ominously dark.

The wind had died down an in the distance she could see lightning flickering. Closing her eyes, she took a steadying breath. She had survived and even still she could hear her older sister's furious voice echoing in her ears – “This is what happens, Majustu, when you run off and do stupid things without someone to look over you! You're still just a kid, you should have stayed in the safety of the Cathedral!”

Letting out a breath, she struggle to push herself up. And then she saw something....or someone...moving in the darkness nearby....

Vorandria awoke, her head pounding and eyes burning from the salt water of the sea. Dazed, she opened her eyes, seeing nothing but a blurred sky. Closing them again she felt around with her hand. Sand... she thought sand... where am I ?. Blinking her eyes open she stared at the dark sky as the blurriness left her eyes, and they focused. Shocked at the unfamiliar surroundings she sat up, but only to receive a sharp jab of pain from her left side and a sudden wave of dizziness.

Weak,t he Blood Elf fell back onto the sand sucking in deep breaths and clutching her side, trying to suppress the pain. Then it all came back. The ship the panicked screams and terror as she scrambled for to her feet, only to be knocked over by the sudden lurching of the ship in the storm. Making it to the deck she relaxed only to be hit by a massive wave from behind and knocked overboard into the blackness of the sea. She had swam for as long as she could before everything went black and she surrendered to the mercy of the foaming seas.

The rogue looked down her body. a few scratches here and there and the black leather armor she wore was soaked and sprinkled with sand. Turning her head to see what had caused the pain, she saw a small piece of wood from the ship had stuck itself into her side and the wound was now oozing fresh blood onto the white sand.

"Well that's just lovely...just my rotten luck.." she mumbled her voice hoarse from the salt water.

Clenching her teeth, she grabbed a hold of the wood, and ripped it out muffling a scream of pain by biting her lip. blood continued to trickle into the sand, and her head swam with dizziness. Struggling to pull bandages from the pouch at her side, she cut herself on her dagger. pulling out the wet bandages, she pulled them apart and began to slowly wrap them around herself, ignoring the pain it brought her.

Once she was bandaged, she sucked on her cut thumb and rummaged in her bag with the other hand pulling out broken potion bottles until she found the one she was looking for, red and slightly cracked she pulled the cork and drank, using the last of her strength to sit up. Throwing the empty bottle aside, she fell back onto the sand breathing heavily.

"I wonder if anyone else survived..." she mumbled before falling into a deep sleep.

Asteriks was standing upon the Deck of the Ship, seemingly staring off into space off the side of the ship. In reality, he was an important conversation, grasping a Gnomecorder in hand, speaking into it. "No, no.. no I'm not saying that.. I'm sure she's nice- MOTHER, no I told you, I'm not say... Hang on I have another call." He said, semi-honestly though not telling her that it would disconnect her, he clicked a dial on the front once emitting a loud snapping noise.

"Helloooo, Dunny my bro... hows it going." He cried out, perhaps a little too loud. He chuckled a bit, likely at something his friend, Dunster, said on the other end. "Well I'll be sure to get back as fast as possible once my business is concluded... what do you mean why couldn't I just teleport there, do my business, and 'port back.." He rubbed his temples, "I already told you why, and I'm not telling you again." Then he started to hear some static, and it seemed a storm was picking up. "Hang on man, you're breaking up.. your-Dunster-oof" A sharp rocking of the ship flung the device from his hand, sending it flying into the deep black-blue of the ocean.

"Aw, Crap.." Was all he had to say, before another lurching of the ship sent him deckward. He struggled to his feet, but yet another crash, and he fell, hitting his head sharp on the railing, and he fell unconcious.

The Next he knew, he was awoken by a High voltage Electrical shock. He jolted up, getting dizzy from his sudden rising, but he shook it off.. mostly, he felt a dull throbbing all about his body, and a particular pain in the back of his head. He felt back there, to find, to his relief, that there was no open wound. "Well, thats a relief.. oh hello there." He said, looking over to his shoulder to notice that his Techno-Magical creation had survived the Calamaty mostly. "Hah, the wonders of Mixing Magic and Technology, I doubt even one of Dunster's Drones would've survived that kind of thrashing and prollongued submersion, and that must've been you that revived me right." He said, and the Bot Chirped in comfirmation.

He chuckled for a few moments before he felt a pain in the back of his head, and some dizzyness. "Hope I don't have a concussion.." He muttered to himself. "That'd be bad..." He looked downward, somberly, before perking. "Let's look about shall we." He said to his Bot, before marching off down the beach, making the occasional cries of "Hello" and "Anyone else here?".

Grunting softly, Majustu slumped onto her side and winced in pain; her shoulder was a dull ache and as she pulled her feet in to try and rise up, her left ankle twinged. Biting down on her lower lip, she felt around her shoulder cautiously. Nothing felt broken...

Taking a breath as she closed her eyes, she reached into her inner mana reserves to heal herself and found....

….barely anything.

What?! Her eyes flew open in surprise behind the wet tangle of blond hair covering most of her face. While she didn't have the greatest in size of mana reserves, Majustu knew that in normal circumstances, she had far more then that! Nibbling on her lower lip, she wondered if she'd used her mana unintentionally in her blind panic as she was being dragged around by the ocean's currents.

If that was the case, then she'd have to let her mana regenerate naturally; she loathed potions, feared becoming dependent on them. Taking a steadying breath, she set her jaw. It was alright, she had been trained how to administer medical aid without healing spells and rituals. But first... she had to move, get to higher ground and shelter. The tide would come in soon. With that decided, Majustu pushed her hair from her face and began to slowly crawl around the sand dune she had rested by.

As she focused to drag herself off the beach, her mind wandered...

Had others survived? She hoped so.

Were they hurt? If she was any indication, most likely and some severely.

...blood drew sharks and other oceanic predators, she knew that from her studies. Sometimes only a single drop was all it took and they weren't very picky eaters.

A shudder that wasn't from the chill of the night and her water-logged clothing went down her spine. Better a swift, hopefully painless death than being torn apart by the feared monsters of the deep... ...or from Orcs. Or Trolls. Or the Undead.

Crawling was a struggle in itself with her ankle possibly broken and her shoulder at the very least bruised; pain shot through her with every movement but she rallied herself. She could almost see a spectral form of her friend Marguax, the tall, muscular warrior-woman in her chainmail and overly large claymore scolding her – “I know it hurts, but you can't stop. Move it! I've seen snails faster then you! The faster you move, the sooner you can get to a safer place than out in the open.”

And once more she hear the voice of her older sister and almost could see her kneeling off ahead of her, studying a plant at the base of one of the scraggly trees alongside the beach with the hulking form of Teddy at her side - “You'll have to make a shelter, and a fire. You can't stay in those wet clothes, you'll catch your death. Silly girl, if you had just listened, you'd be safe and warm in Stormwind, probably hanging around the Keep to catch sight of--”

--something snapped in the distance -- A twig? Small tree branch? -- and the ghostly forms of her older sister and best friend dissipated. Gritting her teeth, she stopped crawling by a palm tree and using it for support, pulled herself to her feet. Experimentally she tested her mana reserves again and found them still quite low. Licking her lips, she channeled the scraps of her mana into the weakest healing spell she knew, focusing on her ankle.

If there was something hostile out there to her and any other survivors, then she'd have to be ready to move at a faster pace then a slow crawl.

Tyler gasped for air as he broke the surface of the water and limped toward land seeing a blood elf in black armor as he stumbled ashore his black armor cut on one side with blood oozing from it his blades hanging from his belt before half collapsing to his knees.

Tyler lay in his cot when the storm hit Tyler leaped up only to stumble and hit a wall he yelled with pain as a piece of metal stuck out and pierced his armor he pushed away from the wall bleeding he stumbled outside when a wave threw him off the boat the next events were a blurr to Tyler when he burst from the water and saw an island and began to
Make his way there.

Allaynna sighed, the copper-haired woman leaned over the forecastle railing of the ship, the Adventurous Lad. She was a well built ship, the death knight allowed, but the clouds on the horizon bode no good for even the sturdiest of sea-going vessels. The woman sighed again, rubbing her eyes as she watched the moon's reflection in the wake of the ship.

Another long, sleepless night was underway, and no release was anywhere to be seen. For the first time in many nights, the death knight fingered the hilt of her broadsword, a curious gleam in her eyes as she contemplated the blade.

"Release would be a blessing," she murmured to the sea, "But an ill-timed blessing, nonetheless." Frowning, the woman turned her gaze skyward, the sky, still clear above them, sparkled with stars. But in the near distance, building clouds rapidly ate up the distance between the storm front and the ship.

Shaking herself from her morbid line of thinking, the death knight turned and descended the ladder to the main deck. No later than her feet had found the wood beneath her, a great gust of wind shook the ship, and the boat rocked wildly. Thrown to the ground, the death knight struggled back upright, feeling for the railing.

Another surge shook the ship, and rain began to fall in earnest. Allaynna stumbled into the rail, and winced as she heard something crack in her hip. With a cry, the death knight was thrown from the deck into the storm-shredded waves below the ship. She sank, at first, her heavy armor weighing her down, the pounds of metal pulling her inexorably towards the ocean's depths.

Rallying her strength, the death knight pushed towards the surface, her lips moving as she called on her magics to freeze the water above her. With a heave, she pulled herself onto the top of the water, and icy path in the waves. She lay there for a moment, considering her plight, before a wave crashed onto her head, droplets of spray freezing on her armor and skin. The cold she radiated froze part of the water around her, creating an icy shelf that floated off into the darkness.

Allaynna spent the night drifting between waves in reality, and solutions to her problems in her mind. Her bag had been on board the ship, and all she had with her was her armor and her sword. The latter alone could solve most of her problems, if she chose to take that path.

The death knight drifted. Figuratively and literally. It was closer to dawn when she came back to reality fully. At some point, the storm had moved on, and she dared to rise and look about her at the flotsam and debris that littered the now-calm sea. With muted tones, she spoke. Her voice rising and falling in an echoing dirge. After a long moment, she stopped, cocked her head to the side, and smiled slightly.

A death charger, her own, faded into being on her icy platform atop the waves. Taking a step towards her mount, she stumbled, the bones in her hip grating painfully against one another. Wincing, she forced herself to take another step, then another, until she could haul herself into the saddle.

Turning her mount towards the shadows near the horizon, she set the beast into a run that the dead steed would never tire of.

Shelter. She needed to make shelter, Majustu knew. And then a fire for warmth and as a beacon for rescue, for other survivors to be drawn to. Taking in a shuddering, pained breath, she pushed herself away from the palm tree an began to slowly move further down the beach, favoring her left ankle still.

At least she could walk on it, painful even as it was. Hopefully the healing spell she has cast would continue to work on the damage....

Faintly on the wind she almost thought she could hear a voice. Was she imaging it, hallucinating like she had hallucinated seeing her sister and best friend?

Or what if...what if...she was actually dead?

No. No, she was alive. She had to be alive, not after how hard she had fought against the storm and ocean. The deep breath she took, the ocean air in her lungs, seemed to reconfirm her status among the living.

She exhaled it, crying out, “Is anyone alive out there?!”

Time passed, slowly, slowly. Stars turned imperceptibly in the sky, and Allaynna drifted again. Her sword held more promise than ever, either for herself or for another. Every step across the icy path over the water jarred her hip, bone rubbed against bone. Pain shot through her, and yet she continued on.

She would have fallen asleep, but sleep implies life. She would have stopped, but rest implies hope.

Left with no other options, and blood lust growing stronger, she urged her deathcharger to greater speeds. A shark came near, and fled at the blood-forged aura that emanated from the woman. Her armor radiated a chill, the sea breeze whistling through her armor as she rode.

Waves began to rise around her, breakers breaking on the land before her. A sandy beach stretched to either side, curving gently. Woods along the edge were dark in the pre-dawn shadows.

She saw movement, as her mount's hooves touched the sand, she slid off and cried out as her leg buckled under the pain in her hip. With a word, she sent her steed away and regained her balance, walking forward slowly, she tested her hip and winced as she felt the bones move again.

She began a chant, again. Her echoing tones carrying across the beach. Her voice carried on long after she should have run out of breath. Far longer than the relatively simple magic should have taken. It was an effort of will, she lacked energy, her runes weakened.

Finally, a flash of red and clawed hands on the sand, pulling a ghoul out of the earth. Another long moment passed as Allaynna strove to gather the energy she would need for the sacrifice. Three words passed her lips, vicious syllables that hung on the air like an omen. The ghoul crumpled, and dark energies flowed into the death knight.

Allaynna cried out a second time, the bones in her hip snapping back into place. Testing her weight on the limb, she grinned, giddy with relief and worry.

Tyler stumbled farther inland a sword drawn as he stayed near the beach when he yelled loudly to relieve stress before leaning on a tree and sitting down.

Asteriks continued walking down the beach. He had ceased his hollaring, as it was clear it was getting him nowhere and his voice was growing coarse. Then he stopped, he felt.. odd, a strange emptyness gradually swept over him, and now that he properly observed it, concluded that he had felt it ever sense he awoke on this island, and only now was it large enough for him to notice.

He stared at his palm for a while after that, what exactly he was looking for, on his own hand, not readily apparant, but his gaze stopped only when he heard a despairing sound. That sound, being the sound of his Technomagical companion shutting down, and tumbling off the shoulder it had taken perch on. In a swift motion he caught the core of the machine, as its legs, formerly conected by Arcane energies, tumbled uselessly on the beach. He opened up an access panel, hoping that it was some short, caused by its prior drowning.

What he discovered, of course, was that the machine was, more or less, completely intact, he woul've been smug at this, if it didn't comfirm his worries. He looked upon the dimming Battery, a Crystal cradled in a contraption only a Gnome or Goblin could make any sense of, and frowned. That confirmed all his suspicions, namely, that SOMETHING, was draining all the mana on the island, but he couldn't figure out what. He crouched down, picking up the disparate legs, and storing them in one of his pouches, and he then continued down the Beach.

Calikk woke up on the sandy beach. "Oooh my head. What happen-" then the events of last night came back to him. A mission to ratchet and never making it. Then realization donned on Calikk. "Cheapskate!? Where are you boy!?" he yelled out worried. The goblin heard a feline like groan behimd him and saw Cheapskate laying on the sand. "Cheapskate! Are you ok?!" The panther looked up at him and gave him a look that said, 'Do I look okay!?' "Sorry, you're right. Stupid question." he told the cat and pressed some wet bandages onto the cats injured back left leg. "A'ight. That should do it." Calikk looked around at his surroundings and his shoulders slumped. "Another mysterious island!?" he yelped giving Cheapskate a pleading look. "Well, it had better not have any pygmies...or volcanoes...or ancient turtle gods...or alliance attacking forces" mumbled the goblin, starting to scare himself, and he went back to work on healing his companion.

Straining her ears as she listened for a response, Majustu jumped at the sound of twigs snapping further in the woods lining the beach. Wary, she looked in what seemed to be the direction but could see nothing but the darkness. Shivering, she decided to head away from the woods – who knew what lived on this island? Limping, she saw a grove of palm trees further down the beach next to a sand dune. She could probably make a half-decent lean-to there, if she could find the right supplies. And a fire.

It seemed like hours to the student priest of trudging along slowly while favoring her left ankle until she reached it. There was debris trapped at the base of the clustered palm tress, enough driftwood to start a fire for certain. Shrugging out of her pack, she set out to dig a fire pit and start a firs. It took a while – how long, she didn't know. Bu the sky was lighting up a bit, the clouds partially clearing to reveal the sky.

With the combined light of the fire a weak moonlight, she could see debris scattered here an there on the beach – what looked like part of the sails lay in one direction an that canvas, if it didn't have too many holes, could be improvised into a tent in the off chance it clouded back up and rained again. It almost sounded like a plan Majustu thought her sister would be proud of her for coming up with. With her fire going, she managed to wrestle out of her wet linen robe and after vigorously shaking it to get the sand off, laid it over a leaning palm tree to dry leaving on the nightgown – it was thin, it wouldn’t take long to dry on her body, she decided.

After glancing around warily, she headed from her makeshift camp sight and headed for what she thought was a wad of sails just a bit closer tot he water's edge. It was well out of range of the firelight and with the darkness, it could be anything from canvas sails to a boy for all she really knew...

Allaynna closed her eyes on the darkness for a moment, forcing her chest to rise and fall with some semblance of life. Her armor clanked as she opened her eyes and stretched, testing her limbs. Shaking her head, she started walking down the beach, the clearing clouds letting some moonlight through.

A glimmer showed in the near distance, followed by brighter flame. Where there was fire, there were people. Survivors? Allaynna hoped so, and not something more sinister. Drawing her blade, the death knight walked down the beach at the edge of the surf where she would not sink in to the sand.

Silently, except for the sound of her armor as she walked, the woman approached what she could now recognize as a stand of palms. Her sword came up into a guarding position as she stepped into the ring of firelight, and she saw no one. Looking about, she found tracks leading closer to the water. Following them trail with her eyes, she saw someone, or something crouched by a pile of what appeared to be sails.

Keeping her sword up, the woman followed the footprints in the sand, calling out as she approached, "Who's there?"

She would be the first to admit it - she wasn't a very brave person, which was why when the voice behind her called out "Who's there?" Majustu jumped about a foot up into the air. In the process of that spectacular - for her, normal for her sister and her warrior friend - leap, she dropped the sails she had been gathering while screaming at the top of her lungs. Hitting the ground feet first, her left ankle twinged and gave out, causing her to stumble and trip over the long hem of her nightgown

Faceplanting into the sand, she almost thought that the sand must be turning to glass from how hot her face was in abject embarrassment. Once more, her klutz-curse strikes again. At least it wasn't as bad as when she had accidentally hit poor King Varian in the head with a surveyor scope. Pushing herself back up to her feet, she brushed the sand off her face and out of of her wild tangle of hair as she turned to the voice that thankfully spoke Common - she doubted if there were natives on this island, they probably didn't speak Common.

"Um. M-majustu. My name is Majustu," the young student Priest responded, pushing her damp mop of tangled blonde hair out of her face, peering through the dim moonlight at the other. The student was small - for a human female, at around five feet in height - and in her long prim night gown almost looked child-like with her hair hanging around her shoulders and over her chest. Her eyes were starting to adjust and saw the glowing eyes of the other, could -feel- the aura of a Death Knight.

A Death Knight...

She had seen a few of them, in Stormwind City, but always from a distance. She'd never been this close to one before...

"Well," Allaynna said, smiling slightly, "Majustu, you should probably get up off the ground. My name's Allaynna, Allaynna Kidrain." Slinging her sword back onto her back, the death knight offered a cold hand to the woman on the ground, "Can you walk?" Looking around for a moment, she saw the pile of sail-cloth the priestess had been gathering and scooped it up.

"I saw your fire, and then followed your tracks, do you think anyone else survived the storm? I think the ship's gone." Shaking her head, Allaynna's blue eyes flashed with a fierce glow, "I haven't seen a storm that bad in years."

Calikk heard a scream from a ways away and from the confused look on Cheapskates face he must have heard it too. "All right buddy, that should do it. Now get up and walk it off cuz I sure aint carrying you." The panther looked at the goblin with a pleading look. "No" was all that Calikk said. Cheapskate got up while moaning slightly, more in trying to get sympathy than in any actual pain, and walked beside the goblin. "Oh stop your whining" Calikk told the cat. Calikk tuned his ears to where he heard the scream come from and headed that way. Cheapskate gave a low growl as they neared a campsite with a fire. "Shh" snapped Calikk. "Hello! Anybody there? We're looking fo survivors of the ship crash!" He yelled this out in orcish but after a minute he thought that what if the others were alliance so he put his coomon lessons from ack in booty bay. "Hello?! We're looking for survivors!" he yelled out this time in common.

Tyler groaned as he stumbled up as he saw the fire as he closed in he saw the two girls unsure if they were hostile Tyler drew one of his bone white curved swords stumbling out of the shadows his armor covered in his own blood "friend or foe!" he yelled trying to look intimidating considering his condition.

Two voices called out, one first in Orcish, then Common, the other with what sounded like an attempt at bravado. A Blood Elf stumbled out of the gloom towards the pair of women, and Allaynna whirled, unslinging her sword and bringing it up, ready to fight if need be.

"Friend." Allaynna said carefully, "Highlord's blessing, friend." After the immediate threat had been seen to, Allaynna returned her attention to the first voice, "Over here!" she cried into the night air, her echoing tones lingering in the air eerily.

The death knight re-sheathed her broadsword and spoke to the Elf death knight in front of her, "I am Allaynna Kidrain, lieutenant of the Alliance and knight of the Ebon Blade, speak your piece."

'So they speak common eh?' thought Calikk. He and Cheapskate came out of the shadows and saw two humans and a bloodelf. Cheapskate growled at the deathknights and gave Calikk a look that said, 'Those guys creep me out.' "Yeah me too" replied Calikk. He raised his hands to show he meant no harm. "Hey there. I'm Calikk and this here is Cheapskate. Sorry about not showing ourselves right away, just wanted to be cautios you know? Oh and dont mind Cheapskate. Hes just cranky that he got a dip in the ocean. Not the best thing for a cat." Cheapskate wacked the goblin upside the head with a paw. "Ow! Why you ungrateful furball! I was just telling it like it was!"

The teenager accepted the cold hand and gingerly tested her weight on her left ankle. " can walk....for the most part. You're the only other survivor I've come across. I thought I heard....something...but wasn't sure if I was hallucinating or not. So I thought I should make some sort of camp, light up a fire as a beacon and for warmth..."

When the Death Knight released her hand to scoop up the pile of sails, she absently began to brush wet sand off her damp nightgown. Majustu frowned faintly. "I worried it might rain again, so when I saw the sails, thought I could make a tent or lean-to with it..."

The sight of the others that approached had the young student Priest inching behind the female Death Knight in embarrassment, much like she'd have done with her older sister or best friend.

Blinking, she glanced at the Death Knights and Goblin, asking tentatively. "L-light's Blessing, stangers. I...don't mean to be r-rude, b-but were any of you....walking around in the woods earlier by any chance....? I heard s-something when I was looking for o-other survivors...."