Plague.  Scourge.  Legion.  Naga.  Trolls.  Nightmare.  We are surrounded by enemies.  Everyone rushes off to fight the plague and destroy the crystals that appear and spread Scourge.  It leaves our flanks open to attack.  But they rush off, gung-ho and stupid.  All for a pat on the back from the Argent Dawn, some fancy new clothing and a chance to be a hero.  

Heroes will get us all killed.  Heroes and glory-seekers and treasure-hunters.

The cities aren't safe anymore.  I ventured into the Coilfang Reservoir again, on Cenarion business - musn't forget that I serve them before the Argent Dawn - to investigate the Naga dealings in Zangarmarsh further.  The plague has reached neither the Reservoir nor Zul'Aman.  This is probably a good thing.  Maybe not.  The plague might do what we cannot.

It's a pity.  I was hoping to see what effect the plague might have had on the former Highborne.  Also the plague mixed with the troll regeneration.  True, our own Darkspear fall as easily as any others, but the forest trolls of Zul'Aman are a hardier breed, from what I can tell.  

Warcaller Manbreaker and her clan put out the call and I took the liberty of accepting the summons to conduct my research.  We left slaughter in our wake.  Sometimes I envy the warriors, the knife-dancers and the twin-clawed shaman.  I wanted to beat them with my staff, rend their flesh with my hands and claws, crack their bones.  But I called upon the celestial fires and burnt their bodies, melted their flesh, seared their bones brittle from a distance.  No blood on my hands, so why do I feel it?

I need a break from the killing the fighting.  I should investigate the plague in greater depth.  The Royal Apothecary Society claims to be near a cure.  For such a volatile and quickly evolving pathogen, I wonder how it is they have discovered an antidote in such a timely fashion.  Blight is suspicious of them, as well.  She worries me.  She was not so    disturbed  when I first met her.  Kun is also cautious.  We should all be.  As was said, nothing is as it seems.  Least of all the Apothecaries.  They have no room for compassion in their withered hearts.  It is all part of their research.  But for what?

I should speak to Kun.  His name was mentioned in passing at the gathering the other evening.  He seems to be the one to go to about troubling dreams.  I just hope he is not another self-styled dream walker, arrogant enought to believe that Ysera actually acknowledges the doings of mortals when they don't disrupt her plans.

I cannot stomach more of the would-be heroes and saviours.  Earthmother save us from the false prophets and holy warriors of the plague-be-damned Light.

Done!  Finally done. 

All that lying and sneaking over with.  It got scary at the end, when I had to meet him, and I thought I was done for when he saw through my disguise.  But the goblin--

Anyway, I was saved, and taken back to Shattrath City, and they were so happy for the work I did for them that this one dragon, Zoya, agreed to stay with me and help and carry me around.  It will let Red have some time off, poor thing.

I'm not sure if Zoya is a boy or a girl.  I don't know how to tell on dragons, and it seems impolite to ask.

I should tell Fertt that the parts he made me and the advice he gave me worked.  Maybe it will make him less grumpy.

We dun gone to the Elf City, the unit-we, for meeting the Elf Guards what we be working with.  Got a special invite even, in the mailbox.  First time that.  First one they make what dun be in someplace I ain't allowed to go.  Never been to Elf City before, but they be a twist in the Shattered City, and I twist the nether and get there.  Following the map-she they gave me, I find the spot they gathering.  Looking too hard to pay mind to the buzzing.  

Elves-them, they all look the same.  Not really, but mostly.  Like they city.  Like all about they city.  Fit a pattern.  Oh sure.  That one got red hair an' that one got sunshine, but they all the same.  I dun take out my scraps to keep my hands busy, so I don't pay no nevermind to the spirits what whispering in my ears.  I still listening to the elf lady-she and the Augur, but they tell me put away, and I do.  

Walking back to the city we go, and the whispers getting louder.  They's wailing at that great scar what run through they city.  Spirits crying in pain and shame for what was done them.  Ain't none seemed to hear it, neither.  

Getting closer, getting louder.  Elf lady-she, what with the glass in her eye, she don't see.  It ain't about seeing, but about hearing.  She don't hear.  She ears too full up with she own voice and she orders keep the city clean.  But it ain't clean she keeping.  It -what the word?- sterile.  Sterile.  Lifeless.  Souless.  All hyped up on arcane, but no life.  No spirit.  She point out the poor Shu'halo lady-she, like she some attraction.  And I hear the grass and the trees-them crying out.  They put inna box, inna cage, so they not really grass and trees no more.

And then we go to that place

Blood and shadows

Ain't like no battlefield.  This our allies-them do they ownselves.  The spirits so loud and hurtful.  I had to go lean against the tree-she.  Still trying to be a tree.  In that city, with she roots down in blood and shadow, she not be a tree for long.  But I rest my face against she, feeling the earth what feed she, the air what she breathe, the water within she, the sunlight, like fire, on she leaves.  I hear her crying that she want be a tree, that elves-them making her somewhat else.  Somewhat that look like a tree but ain't got the heart of a tree.  Like worked metal in the shape of a tree, no heart, no soul, but looking pretty and tree-like.  All full up with arcane, as if that better than spirit.  Better than life.

The Augurs, they dun try make me go down that den of darkness and I say no.  I woulda waited till they done, met them back in sunlight.  The Augur-elf I figure for not to understand, but the Augur-troll, him what did go to the sunken temple with, him I figured for understanding.  But he dun tell me go back to barracks, wait for punishment.  Spirits say no.  Horde bigger than one militree what can't hear the spirits' pain.
 
Not that den of darkness

Not the blood and shadows and screams

They killing they own city. 

We letting them.

((This was from Friday, but I didn't have it ready.))

I met a strange man at the Kodo the other night.  Well, I'd seen him before, but we hadn't really been introduced.  His name is Lapu and he confuses me.  I hate to be uncharitable, but he wasn't really very nice.  He wasn't really mean, either, which is why he confuses me.  I can't quite put my finger on it.  

He knows that Grimtotem woman who was talking to Kareth that time he ran away.  The one who was harassing Washue.  Her name is Netah.  We got to talking about Washue, and I guess he thinks she's pampered, which I guess maybe she is.  She's not really a kid anymore.  That's what that whole birthday thing was about.  I don't know.  I'm not her parent or her guardian or anything.  I'm not really even her friend, just an acquaintance.  Maybe she's serendi- serenity serpentipi anyway, that word that's like lucky but looks like snakes because she's always happy and okay, and maybe Lapu is just jealous of that.

Work is going pretty well, but I don't like all this secret stuff.  Hiding and skulking and all that.  I know it's supposed to work out in the end, greater good and all, but when does it become too much?  How many people can you justify hurting on the way?  If they aren't smart enough to know better, are they really bad guys?  This stuff makes me toss and turn at night, and I don't want to talk to Guni about it.  She's always so ---- unemotional about it.  Kareth and I would have been able to discuss it without it turning into a discussion of balance and cycle of life and needs of the many type thing.  But who's to say if he's even alive.  Somewhere along the way, for whatever reason, he gave up caring and just ran away.  I can't support that.  I have my own life I need to live.  I'll tuck away his memory in my heart, but I can't afford to devote more to it than that. 

It would have been nice if he'd said something.  Left a note.  Told me what was wrong.  Something.  It would have been decent.  Especially after accepting my hospitality.  After telling me he was falling in love with me.  He just appeared in my life that one day and now he's gone just as quickly.  It seems to be his way.  He just walked away from that elf girl and her pain, too.  At least he didn't make me any promises the way Juni made to Guni. 

The Matriarch is organizing the pilgrimage for the Harvest.  There will be others to remember and their deeds to sing about.  I need to find my Warsong axe and polish my Frostwolf armour.

My home smells like burnt kodo flesh.  I feel sick.

Guni doesn't say anything.  She never will, but sometimes our eyes meet, and her look is all "I told you so."

He used to drag me away from the Kodo.  He didn't like the crowds.  I never thought I'd just run into him there, standing on the lane, chatting as if he hadn't been missing for weeks.  To a Grimtotem woman!

( Strangeness at the Kodo. )

((Two identical notes are sent on their way.  They are neatly and carefully written in Maddie's hand.  One is left with the Aldor Quartermaster, to be delivered by whatever means available to one Kareth Cloudtotem.  The other, after much fuss and to-do, is left with the Scryer counterpart, with similar instructions to deliver to one Miss Juni'andi.))

Summer is ending.  We hunt kodo to stock the larders for winter.  You are invited to take your place among the Whisperhoof and partake of the season's bounty this Friday for dinner.  You only have to bring yourself and your appetite.

Maddie

((Because this is what Maddie does, poor girl.))

((A note is left tucked under the kettle, just in case.))

I don't know where you are, or why you left, or if you're even alive, but you called this tent home once, and I hope you are okay.



((Because Maddie isn't the sort to get angry like her sister.))

I went to visit Maddie in the Barrens.  The tent seems so big and empty again, with only the two of us in it.  He hasn't spoken to her since Midsummer, when he told her he was falling in love with her, and she hasn't seen him since he took off after waking from the Dream.   They seemed so right for each other, so well-matched; it's so hard to believe.  Unless his heart is as fickle as

I was robbed on the Southern Gold Road.  It was more of a farce really.  Elf woman told me her friend was hurt and led me to a corpse.  Her friend (a different corpse than the initial one) tried to bludgeon me.  She did get in a few good blows.  Strong, that one, if not terribly well coordinated.  Shapeshifting to my prowler form seemed to scare them.  Let them think I'm on their trail; I served my time as a scout and tracker for the Frostwolf Clan, tracking Alliance cut-throats across the snowy wastes of Alterac.  A blood elf and a Forsaken shouldn't be much trouble, if I cared enough to pursue them.

The elf woman caught my Netherwhelp.  He's entirely too curious for his own good.  They threatened to kill it if I didn't give them money.  As if the elf woman had it in her.  Even if she managed to try she probably would have cut off her own finger, and then I would have been stuck having to heal her.  So, I let them have some gold and the potions in my pack.  The Forsaken woman is definitely the brains and the heart of that misfit team, which doesn't bode well for them.  Maddie says there's something in some newspaper about it.  I may have to look into that.

Maybe I should inform the Hammer to widen their patrols and include this pair of bandits on their wanted list.




I would hunt him down for abusing my sister's trust and hospitality, but she won't let me.  I told her, likewise, to hold off on her own plans.

I ran into an old... colleague?  comrade?  friend?  while passing through Shattrath the other night.  I passed along some advice on caring for the little dragon he has in tow, and he suggested we go watch the Chieftains concert at the World's End.  He even bought me a drink when we got there.  It was... refreshing.  Quite the rowdy bunch that had gathered.  Unfortunately, I got called away before the Chieftains were through.

I should... I should definitely look him up and spot him a round of drinks.  To apologize for leaving on such short notice.