Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Wilting Away (Part 2)

Returning to the forests of Val'sharah was easily one of the last things on his to-do list. Or rather, had been one of the last things on his to-do list until a few hours ago. All the same, standing there, looking down one of the roads that lead from Val'sharah into Suramar, he was very much recalling why he had marked the place off.

Having never been one for forests, the place didn't appeal to him to begin with. Forests were certainly not a terrible place, but being surrounded by trees, with numerous animals slinking about wasn't exactly his idea of a perfect spot. Add to that a whole sect of druids running around, and he didn't exactly feel at his most comfortable. Not that there was anything wrong with druids. He could generally find them agreeable, once they moved past believing that he was an abhorrent crime against nature itself. They were at least easier to get along with than people of the Light.

Perhaps he should have found comfort in the fact that they weren't going to be staying in Val'sharah long. Really they had stopped so he could try picking up a scent, of which there was almost none. From there they were going to make their way through Suramar, combing the land over until they found their errant knight. A task that was most assuredly going to be easier said than done. Having done his fair few laps around the area, he couldn't even begin to count all the various nooks and crannies that the elf they were searching for could have crawled into. That didn't even begin to take into account the idea that she could have made her way to the city. And if she happened to be prancing around Suramar City, then they were both in trouble.

Motioning Simmons on, they started making their way down the path, the greens of Val'sharah slowly giving way to the blues and browns of Suramar. Oh yes, Redamous couldn't help but think, if Elena had managed to find her way to Suramar City, they were most certainly screwed. Which made him think that, on principal, she had somehow found her way to Suramar City. Nothing was ever in the habit of going right, especially not with that elf.

She hadn't been right since Northrend, and he hadn't known her long enough to tell if she had been right before then either. Though to be fair, a number of people he associated with couldn't be considered 'right'. He himself probably couldn't even be considered 'right' by at least a few people's notions. Even if he liked to consider himself fairly normal. Normal, as far as undead hulking wolf creatures went, at least.

At points along the path where they caught signs of someone potentially breaking off the trail, they themselves would break off to search the nearby forests, almost always coming up with nothing. Here and there would be broken branches, or heavily stomped ground, but nothing ever lead them to the elf they sought. They did find plenty of other elves, be it Nightfallen in the area seeking out mana, various withered, or even elves from the Alliance or Horde who happened to be  in the area. The sane elves they asked for any potential clues in their hunt, only to be met with vague tales.

Things like mentions of a crazed elf heading south, muttering to herself. Only when they went south, whispers turned them back towards the east, where they found out that from there she had circled around to the north again. It had been half a day before they realized that they had been going in a circle, and only ended up back at Shal'aran, where the bulk of the Nightfallen were housed. At Simmons's request, they stopped inside to poke around, at which point they finally struck a lead.

One of the Nightfallen, apparently recently having fled the city, spoke in great detail about an elf matching Elena's description. Apparently a herbalist by trade, he had directed her after having stumbled across her.

"Oh yes," he told them, shaking his head as though apparently in some sense of disbelief that the encounter had ever occurred, "Yammered to herself the entire time. Speaking of local flora. Green haired elf, wild, blue eyes like yourself. Smelled faintly of rot and roses. I directed her to a particular spot near a bridge and a waterfall to the northeast of the city."

Redamous thought Simmons was prepared to hug the man. But he restrained himself, shook his hand, and they departed, setting off once more to draw closer to the city. The one place Red could almost feel Wiltmend had wandered into, and the last place they would have an easy time searching for her.

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