Warcraft Fan Fiction ❯ Bloodstained Shadows - Chronicles of a Lost Soul ❯ Memories of the Twilight - Chapter 9 ( Chapter 25 )

Chapter 9:

 

 

I didn't abandon myself to my grief, at least that was what I believed to do.

I focussed on other things fast. I wanted to show Kaal the spell. I was anxious to find out what he wanted to show me.

Concerning Calystea... I've evaded her since that one evening. I knew that if I only saw her I would probably want to kill her, even though I wouldn't be able to do so. I wanted to forget about all this.

I might not have given in to pain, but I had opened up for hatred.

In the early afternoon of the following day I met Kaal inside the Temple of the Damned. He was happy to see me, just as usual, but this time I was the one who wanted to know something from him. He wondered if I wanted another assignment. The time with Calystea had made me to what I had wanted to avoid the most - becoming bound to the warlock guild.

First of all, I had to fulfil the criteria of Kaal's offer towards me. I asked him whether there was an old training dummy around here somewhere, for I did not want to cause severe damage to the city. Kaal was looking at me a bit shocked for hearing such a thing from me. He took me to the war quarters were the normal test dummies were.

I turned to Kaal and told him that I did not want to destroy all of them so I would prefer a single one that we could take with us to a large open space. He turned down my remarks and said it would be okay even if I would damage all of them. I merely shrugged as he insisted on doing it there, I had warned him.

Those fools, the whole time they were telling me how great I was and yet still they kept underestimating me.

At that time I still wasn`t able to create the sort of fire I needed at will, I still had to fuel my rage. I told Kaal I would need a moment to focus. He only answered that this would surely be okay and that he was curious to see what I wanted to show him.

I concentrated on the last few days. Slowly the anger inside my mind grew stronger, hatred for the elf, hatred for myself rose up in me.

My hands engulfed in bright green flames. Kaal started looking at me as if this was a trick of some sort.

I then concentrated on forming a shadow bold which I could merge with the flames. This only took up a few seconds.

A jet of green flames then flew towards one of the test dummies. The impact of the spell was rather weak, but the fire spread all over all the dummies, burning them to the ground.

I turned to Kaal awaiting a response from him, but he was still only staring at the green fire eating its way right through the wood and stone before I put it out at my will.

It took a moment until he had focussed again. He grabbed me by the shoulders and asked me where I had learned to create demonic fire on my own. I told him nothing about the last few weeks, I wanted this to remain a secret.

I shook off Kaals grasp and we made our way back to the mage quarter. I wonder on which day Kaal had started to think that he had created a monster.

As we reached the temple he bid me inside on a drink so that we could talk calmly.

We sat down at one of the tables in the general room and Kaal started to keep the promise he had made to me. He asked me whether I knew what a dreadsteed was. At that time I had no idea of these majestic creatures. Kaal then told be about Xoroth, the realm of the dreadsteeds, the mounts of the dreadlords.

There were not many warlocks that had achieved to steal a demonic mount like these from the dreadlords. He assured me that this creature would make a fine mount and also have certain effects on the ability to use magic.

Furthermore Kaal gave me three things. A name - Mor`zul Bloodbringer, despite the sound of it a human; a place - one of the last Altars of Storms, west of Blackrock Mountain, and a little bag full of goods. Kaal told me I should not open the bag, but it would be of the utmost importance, I just handed it over to Bloodbringer when I met him.

Little did I know at that moment that again a lot of travelling was set into motion. The furthest the bats of Undercity went was a outpost of the horde in the badlands south of the home of the Ironforge dwarves, Dun Morogh. I was told I would have to pass through Blackrock Mountain on my way, a highly dangerous area with the home of the black dragon flight on its top. I wasn`t worried too much.

After landing in Kargath, that was the name of the outpost, I summoned my felhunter and made me on the way.

I left the badlands to the west and passed through the Searing Gorge as it was called. As I had reached Blackrock, I stood in front of a large door. This definitely was dwarven architecture, everything they built was big enough to fit for smaller giants despite their own size. I wonder if they did this so they would seem even smaller than before.

I entered the large hallway made from black steel, it took a curve and then opened up into a large cavern.

I was speechless the first time I had entered Blackrock Mountain. It almost seemed as if the whole mount was hollow on the inside. A large circular way was leading around the centre. I stepped to the edge of it and looked down into a large pool of lava. In its middle there was a large rock spire. All around the cave gigantic statues of dwarves held chains of solid metal which gave the spire support. I looked up and saw a dragon of the black flight flying in wide circles through the cave. It took me quite a while to pass through the cavern. As I had reached the other side, I made the last few steps backwards having a last look at the statues and the spire in the middle of this huge cave.

The outside to the south of Blackrock was not even half as appealing as the inside of the mountain. Everything out there was burned, ash covering everything. I walked down the slope over a huge bridge crossing a stream of lava. As I reached the end of it, I could follow a road leading west from where I was. It should bring me directly to the Altar of Storms built in the second great war.

The altar consisted of three large hooded figures, each of them holding a sword in front of their chest pointing down. The whole structure was in the middle of another pool of lava. Up a small hill, basically directly next to the altar there was a small camp with the warlock who I was searching for.

Bloodbringer already had an idea what I would want after I told him I came from Undercity in search for him. Without hesitation he offered me his aid in this matter, but he didn`t hesitate to tell me that usually many warlocks come here, but only a few returned alive. In the course of the last year, as he told me, many, many foolish ones tried to obtain a dreadsteed, but only two people succeeded. Yet one of them died afterwards due to fatale injuries.

He couldn`t scare me with talking like that, I knew that this all should not be too difficult.

Without a further word I stretched out my right arm holding the bag Kaal had given too me. It was actually quite heavy. Mor`zul pointed at the goblin standing next to him. He introduced himself as Gorzeeki Wildeyes, also a warlock. He took the bag and looked inside it.

“Oh, I see... a prepared one... very nice indeed.“ He put everything from the bag on a table.

“A solid bar of Arcanite, three large brilliant shards, a bundle of roughly 30 black dragon scales and six Ghost Mushrooms as they are commonly known. What a pleasant surprise.“ The goblin looked around in the chests and boxes that were piled all around the encampment. “Well then, only one thing is missing... Xorothian Stardust. We need it for the parchment to write the summoning spell on. But I happen to know who in Azeroth has some of it.“

The goblin then told me about the dreadlords. There were only a few left in this world, most of them had returned home to their world, but some of them were persistent. Lord Banehollow, as he called himself, would be the person needed. I groaned in agony as I heard where this demon lived - Jaedenar.

The goblin gave me an elixir that should fool the cultists of the Jaedenar into believing that I was one of them, but I should still remain careful for the dreadlord would surely see through the disguise. Fortunately the goblin told me what I would have to do furthermore. He handed me a jar. At first I didn`t understand the meaning of it as the goblin told me I would have to keep it closed under all circumstances and only open near the alchemical lab of Ras Frostwhisper, a lich dwelling inside the necromancers' school Scholomance on the isle of Caer Darrow in the western plaguelands. Afterwards I should return with the imp in the jar, the little demon would store the parchment it would create from the stardust.

Somehow I started to hate travelling thanks so things like those.

My journey to Felwood took about two days. As I arrived in the Emerald Sanctuary, the nightelves were actually glad to see me again. They really thought that I had come back to help them on their quest to purify the land. I wondered what they were dreaming of at night...

I let the elves stand there and made my way to the road, just like last time.

It took some time until I finally had reached the ruins of Jaedenar... again. On my way there I was thinking about how to do this, yet again, why was I worrying? I did not trust the goblin warlock, yet again if I would be able to avoid all the cultists just by drinking this strange elixir, I would give it a shot. My felhunter by my side examined the bottle containing the green fluid that I would have to drink. He stated that he did not know what it was made of, but that it would definitely not cause any magical illnesses or similar. I downed the bottle directly after entering the grounds of the Shadow Council. I fell to my knees - oh my god, that tasted horrible. I had trouble to keep it. It tasted like rotten fish and elderberries. But it seemed to work already. One of the cultists came running towards me asking if everything was alright. He even called me brother and I was rather sure that I had zero orcs amongst my relatives.

The Shadow Council had definitely grown since I was here last. All the cultists I had killed had been replaced and furthermore a lot more people were swarming the grounds and the underground structure called shadow hold.

It was easy to get lost inside the caves and caverns of the shadow hold. I guess I got lost a few times because I was too much in a hurry that day. I still wanted to get to the Scholomance on the evening of that day.

I already went far passed the rooms I had seen the last time I was in here. I came through a larger room with an stone table in its middle, the corpse of a man lying on it, slowly rotting away.

The hallway behind it was leading further downwards and opening into a large cave. An old orcish warlock was standing in the centre of the room with two succubi at his side. At least that guy seemed not to be your average warlock. He looked at me and grunted. I was in fear he could have seen through my disguise. I got ready to attack him without hesitation if he'd do something conspicuous, but instead he only pointed to the way behind him, telling me that the master was up there waiting for me.

What the...? Waiting for me? Why? So they knew I was no member of the cult and still did not attack me?

From that point on I didn't let my guard down for a single moment. The path at the end of the room was winding upwards in the cave. As I had reached the upper level, I saw that I was standing on one of three large platforms connected by bridges. As we approached the bridge to the third platform my felhunter started to snarl. I also felt the demonic presence in this area.

But I already came this far, so I knew I had to keep on going.

All the platforms were heavily populated by lesser demons and cultists, but the last one was almost completely deserted. An orc was standing there next to an old elven pavilion doing literally nothing. It was just as if the orc was a mindless puppet. Then I heard the voice in my head.

“I was awaiting you, Warlock. I know why you came here. Why did you come back after the heavy losses you brought to my precious cultists, do you want to insult me?“ I looked around not seeing the demon. I wondered where he was standing, from where he was whispering to me. The voice almost sounded caring, but then suddenly it switched to being angry. “You are only one of many, all of you fools seeking to steal a dreadsteed.“

To my surprise the tone shifted again. “But I am ready to make you an offer. You are not as weak as the last warlocks. Most of them now lie dead in the chasm behind you, due to their foolishness. They challenged me and were destroyed completely, to now feed the living ooze at the bottom of the cave.“

I did not respond with a single word. Everything he said made me want to fight him too. Since I had been able to summon the infernal, my lust for blood became stronger with every day. I wanted to see if he was really as strong as he claimed to be.

“I'll be willing to give you what you want, if you dispose of one of my most troublesome followers. The orc Ulathek is plotting something against me with his master and my rival, Lord Hel`nurath. Kill him and bring me his heart! This should feed my anger and make an excellent treat for me.“

I wondered what he meant by the last part of the sentence. I just nodded, assuming that the demon would see it and then I turned around searching for this orc that he mentioned. I just hate orcish names, if you don`t have teeth like they do, then you`ll never be able to pronounce the name as it is meant to be.

I asked my way through the cultists until finally one of them could point out where this Ulathek was. His chambers were fairly near to the entrance of the shadow hold which meant that I had to go through the whole structure at least two more times, what a nuisance.

I found the orc in his chamber, unfortunately alongside with four guards, two to his left and two standing to his right. But actually I didn`t care too much about them. I charged up a normal shadow bolt with my right hand. As I sent the violet jet of light towards the right two guards I ordered my felhunter to attack the left ones. My shadow bolt penetrated the torso of the first guard at ease also taking down the second one standing behind him.

Ulathek turned around to face me. His eyes were clearly showing the fear of death. “Banehollow sent you? I..., I can offer you something, just let me live!?“

He betrayed his master here in Jaedenar and now he was willing to betray his master in the realm of Xoroth that easily, such scum did not deserve to live. A curse on him brought him to his knees quickly. A close range shadow bolt above his neck ended his - in my eyes - worthless life within the split of a second. Damn it, I didn`t have a knife on me to cut out the heart. I looked around in the room and found something similar to a knife, a sharpened stone..., how primitive.

I ripped off some of the cloth of the orc's robe so I could put his heart into it. I knew why I hated tasks like this. Now I was covered over and over in orc blood. If the cultists in here won`t rip me apart then the grunts of Orgrimmar will do so for sure.

The cloth bag I carried in my left hand left a trail of blood behind me. Why do I always have to do things like this?

I quickly passed through the hallways and caves of the shadow hold until I reached the cave with the platforms again. I make my way up and took the bridges to the third one with the orc standing there swaying slightly back and forth. I looked around wondering where the demon could be hiding.

“Excellent... I started to taste the sweet heart of a traitor on my lips from the moment you spilled his blood. Give the heart to my servant and you shall receive your part of the deal.“

Although I didn`t trust the demon I drew closer to the hypnotized orc and exchanged the bloody rags for a small amount of dust. It was hardly enough to cover a fingertip. As I made another step towards the orc a swarm of bats rose into the air and flew to the upper part of the room. The voice in my head now sounded suddenly more distant. “You have what you wanted, now go! Go and never come back! I assure you it`s enough, I gave you twice as much as any other one.“

I looked up to the swarm of bats, one of them a bit larger. It looked as if it had red eyes.

“So there you are... You`re avoiding me, right?“, I asked just right out. “Pathetic...“

I turned around and made my way out of the structure. I've never heard of a dreadlord that should be afraid of a mortal warlock... This was all so ridiculous.

Just for the heck of it I decided to kill a few cultists on the way out. That demon got me really fired up on killing someone or something.

Getting back to the Undercity was really more stressful than usual. The grunts in Orgrimmar actually almost wanted to take me into custody, it took a while to convince them that the orcish blood on my face was from a member of the shadow council. Which proved especially hard due to the fact that none of the grunts was able to either pronounce or read the words `Shadow Council`.

As I was finally on the Zeppelin to Undercity I dropped into a corner, just trying to relax and wished that none of the goblin-type minor accidents would occur. My felhunter lay down next to me. I used the time to ask him some things about the nature of dreadlords. If someone of the people I knew could answer this question then either a dreadlord himself or my felhunter. Thoonum told me that you usually cannot trust them, except for certain moments, when they are in fear of their own life more than anything else. And that they, not matter what, will always try to gain at least some profit of the situation. And that they were the only demons that usually talked in the language of the one opposing them and not in their own.

As I talked to Thoonum, I started to question the origin of this `Stardust` the Dreadlord gave to me, but my felhunter clearly stated that this sand really was from the realm of Xoroth. To hear that was a certain relief.

Upon reaching Tirisfal I directly wanted to go to Caer Darrow. This was all taking far too long, it already turned night again. I wanted to get this over with as fast as possible. This demonic steed would be a fair mount for me and ease the whole travelling a lot.

Quite some time had passed since I went through the plaguelands for the last time. I had rejected every assignment that would have led me there, avoided everything that had something to do with these areas, but somehow everything of that now felt meaningless. A small outpost of the Argent Dawn flanked the borderlines from Tirisfal to the western plaguelands. I decided to follow the road as long as possible, so until I was directly north of Caer Darrow. One of the farmers who had lived there surely must have possessed a boat to get to the peninsula. I would try everything so I wouldn`t have to go through Andorhal. There were too many undead inside the ruins of the city and all way too strong, at least I thought so at that time. I was far too cowardly back then. Looking at it from the perspective I have now, I would say I could have marched directly through the centre of it all and not get a single scratch.

But well, my prayers were heard and I found a boat at the farm directly at the north end of the Darrowmere Lake. Me and my felhunter got into it and after cutting it loose we were on our way to the peninsula. It may be a rather large lake, but fortunately it didn`t take too long to get to Caer Darrow, for it lies right in the middle of it. The image of the full moon was reflected on the surface of the lake.

I tied the boat to one of the footbridges and made my way up to the city. The peninsula is actually a little hill reaching out of the water. On top of it the stronghold was built that gave this town its name.

The whole city now lay in ruins, all the houses completely or at least partly destroyed. The door to the once so proud stronghold was broken open. I entered the ruins.

“Oh come on...“ I thought to myself. A new, heavily locked door was directly behind the entrance, keeping the way down shut for unwanted visitors. I wanted to leave this place quickly so I blasted off the lock with a shadow bolt. To my surprise there was nothing magical about this door at all. It seemed the inhabitants of the Scholomance were not too scared of visitors, either due to foolishness or arrogance.

I didn`t want to eradicate this whole necromancers' school, after all... I only wanted to get to the alchemists lab of that strange lich in the basement . On the other side of the door the facility was guarded in a proper way. As I turned into the hallway four skeletal warriors greeted me with their lip-less smile.

I took out all four of them easily. I again started wondering if that really was all they had. I opened the metal gate to the next room. From where I was I could oversee everything, two stone stairs led down to the lower level. This looked like a library, the whole room was festered with ghosts, skeletons and acolytes of the Scourge. I wondered whether I could fool them into letting me to their lab without having to fight and kill every single one of them. Not that I wouldn`t have thought of that as amusing, but it well... would have taken far too long.

A single acolyte was standing next to the stairs to my right. I threw a bone of those skeletons down the staircase to lure him up here. “Not again... damn skeletons, always brawling for no reason...“

the acolyte started nagging on his way up. I hid next to the door so he wouldn`t see me on entering the room. He was too startled to scream as I jumped at him from behind and a shadow bolt was launched at his face from a minor distance. I actually got better at close range combat like this, the robe he was wearing wasn`t damaged in the slightest way, not even a bit singed. I got it off the dead body and pulled it over my own robe. I dismissed my felhunter in order to make the disguise work.

I approached one of the acolytes without hesitation, if they'd see through the guise they would have to pay with their life. I was quite confident that everybody in this room was only a minor threat for me.

To my surprise and delight the disguise worked and the acolyte told me the way to the lab of Frostwhisper outright. I wondered whether they could sense how strong I was or if there already was an order given around that they should not attack me in order to save their lives. I could hardly imagine that any of the two would be the truth.

As I made my way through the Scholomance no one even bothered questioning my origin or what I wanted in the lab, they even unlocked the door to it for me.

The room where I found the lab was very wide and long with a high ceiling. A I entered the doors to it opened magically and closed again behind me. The room was divided in two parts. In the first part everything was lit by a gloomy green light. In this area there were many alchemical instruments. This was the place to let out the imp. I set the jar on the ground and opened it. A long crocked nose appeared out of the bottle neck, followed by the thin face of the imp and its long elven-like ears. The demon happily jumped out of the jar, it was particularly smaller than the normal imps I knew.

The imp started its work squealing about his damned life inside a jar being rented to strangers for money by a goblin.

Meanwhile I looked around the room. The far back of it seemed rather interesting. A large stone altar was in the middle of that part with candles all over it. It felt as if it was getting colder with every step I took towards the altar. The imp behind me squealed that I should be careful and not go any further.

What nonsense. Two columns, one on each side, pointed out where the border was that divided the room. I took a step passed the columns and was greeted by a ice cold air current. Where the hell did the wind come from?

I heard a snigger and turned around wildly, trying to find where it came from. "Who is there?", I asked. No response only the laughter grew louder. "Show yourself! Who are you?", I shouted at the gloomy darkness.

A voice suddenly arose from nowhere.

"I am the owner of this tomb you are standing in front of. I am the master over ice and shadows. I am the owner of this school. I am the protector of the pathetic acolytes in the rooms above us.... I AM THE IMMORTAL, the lich Ras Frostwhisper!", the voice was hollow. The moments the words were spoken a faint blue light drove away the shadows behind the tomb and the creature known as Frostwhisper came gliding towards me slowly. So this was a lich...

The creature was clearly formed from the bones of a human body, yet it had no legs or feet at all, it was hovering in mid air. The upper body was almost completely normal, yet the head was surrounded by some sort of crown made of bones. It's eyes were shining in a piercing, icy blue. The whole creature looked rather fragile, yet it seemed to be surrounded by some sort of magic barrier. The being stopped several feet away from me. The air around me was already freezing, this ... cold.

"My acolytes are not yet ready to die in combat, for that I ordered them to let you pass through without any hostility." The lich explained calmly. He seemed to be more a man of words instead of action.

"I will allow you to leave this place once. If you come here a second time you will either join the cult or be killed and I will appoint myself to that personally." Frostwhisper made a short pause. "If you deny my offer and attack a single one of my acolytes on your way out, I will freeze you in your tracks and shatter your frozen body without hesitation." After hearing those words everything around me grew even colder than before. "Now... If you wish to fight me... do so, I will assure you, you will not be able to win. I am immortal. Strike me down, burn my corpse to ashes, do whatever you please - I will not perish, I will return and my wrath will destroy you."

Immortality?

I remained silent. I knew everything I could say would only provoke the lich. I didn't know if it were only his words but I knew I couldn't win this fight, not yet that is.

Behind me the imp had finished its task and jumped back into the little jar. I took the first few steps backwards, not taking my eyes of the lich. I wanted to test this 'immortality' badly, but I was afraid to do so. This was the first time for a long while that I sensed something like fear.

On my way out all the acolytes looked at me darkly. As I passed by a group of them closely one suddenly seized my shoulder. I turned towards the acolyte and looked into two ice-blue eyes. "Remember my words, warlock." The acolyte whispered. I shook off the hand and jumped backwards. I hurried to leave the Scholomance. On the whole way out of the catacombs I heard the laughter of the lich.

I closed the outer door of the Scholomance behind me and backed off fast. I rushed to the boat that was tied at the docks to get off the peninsula. As I reached the other side of the Darrowmere Lake I took the time to summon my felhunter. Afterwards I hurried towards Undercity, I had to take a flight to Kargath. I wanted to find out what to do next.

Over the whole way, first to Undercity and then to Kargath I wondered if the lich had really spoken the truth.

Immortality, was that even possible? On the other hand, was strength like mine even worth to achieve? I knew that it would perish eventually, even though my life as a Forsaken would take far longer than the life of an average human, orc or even elf.

The same thoughts came to me over and over again. What should I do? Or maybe, what should I better not do?

The time I needed to get to the Altar of Storms seemed to pass fast while I was caught in my own thoughts, yet the moment I entered the cavern of Blackrock Mountain I focussed again to the present moment.

To get from Blackrock Mountain to the Altar of Storms and the camp of the two warlocks did not take too long. I handed the jar to the goblin after greeting both of them properly. Yet I didn't spill a single word about meeting the Lich Frostwhisper. The warlocks actually didn't leave me too much time to talk at all. The human, Mor'zul, handed me a book filled with instructions for the summoning ritual. Then the goblin stepped up to me and gave me four things: a bell, a strange looking wheel made of black iron, a candle and the sheet of paper with a formula on it written in blood. Mor'zul told me I would need all of them to conduct a successful summoning. But the real difficulty was to find and get to a place where you were actually able to summon such a creature.

You need a place that is filled with demonic energy to an extent that both realms almost start blending into each other. This is something you cannot achieve with a summoning circle, no matter how big or strong it is. Yet I was lucky. Because of Kaal's gift for me I could hand over the materials for the three magic items I would needed, of which I did not know anything until that moment, to the goblin warlock immediately. This left them some time to make out places in Azeroth that would be suitable for such a summoning.

Fortunately there was one place in this world where the summoning should not fail. The problem about this was... I would have to travel to Feralas, a jungle in the southern part of Kalimdor, west of Thousand Needles.

So basically I had to go back the whole way to Undercity, head for Orgrimmar and then to Feralas. I wanted to scream out loud upon hearing this, but I was able to restrain myself. Wildeyes told me that the place they were talking about was in the ancient elven city of Eldre'Thalas. The city was once a flourishing metropolis of wisdom, only the wisest of the nightelves were allowed to live there and enter the great library. Those elves soon were called the Shen'dralar, they were probably among the most intelligent and wisest beings in this world.

However, the elves devoured tremendous amounts of magical energy with all the magic they used in their city, so one day the prince of these elves had an idea to solve their problems.

They would draw their energy directly from a great demon. So the elves created one of the largest and most potent summoning circles that had ever been created inside their halls. In this they summoned a demon hound named Immol'thar. But soon the fel-energy of the demon infested some of the elves, they therefore slowly transformed to something we now know as satyrs.

As the elven civilisation slowly perished under the influence of the demonic energy, ogres took over the northern part of the city and the Shen`dralar barricaded all the paths to other parts of the city leaving them cornered. The demon known as Immol`thar deceased several years ago, leaving its corpse inside its prison still full of demonic energies. The Shen`dralar on the other hand, despite of the fact that they are basically the guardians of almost all the knowledge of former times, grew more and more insane. The whole city was renamed to Dire Maul after the ogres had outnumbered the elves and demons.

They also told me that it should be safe to enter the western part of the city, this was also the area I would find the former prison of Immol`thar, therefore the place where I would have to conduct the ritual.

I thanked the two warlocks for their help and bid them farewell. They wished me the best of luck and that I would make wise decisions. I guessed they already knew that we would never meet again. As I wanted to leave them, the goblin yelled behind me that the horde had established a small outpost somewhere along the northern part of the valley with a possibility to get to Booty Bay. As I heard this I changed plans and headed for this unknown outpost.

It may have taken a while to find it and the lives of a lot dragon whelps, but I reached the outpost in the late afternoon of that day and they actually had Wyverns there that could carry me to Booty Bay.

I arrived in the goblin city in the evening just in time to get the last ship for the day to Ratchet. I just hurried on board, I would have the whole next day for resting.

I arrived in Ratchet in the late afternoon of the following day. I had none of my demons by my side, Thoonum would get seasick, Belmon would always try to jump into the water because it was nicely bluish and dark, my imp would simply annoy me and I actually was a bit afraid of what might happen if I called Darnys out. I hadn`t summoned her a single time since that... thing... with Calystea.

I then decided to head for Feralas directly and summon a demon there. Travelling there was rather fast, the Wyvern took a kind of shortcut over the mountains of the barrens.

I landed in a tauren settlement called Camp Mojache, where I decided I would summon my felhunter again now that we were far away from any water.

I quickly found someone would could help me with getting to Dire Maul. 'Just follow the road', that was at least precise.

I did as I was told and fortunately it really turned out to be the best and easiest way to get to the ruins of Eldre`Thalas. As I entered the outer ruins of the city I soon noticed the extremely high number of ogres here. Yet I was able to kill off any of the ogres that opposed me. Most of the time if there were three or four near each other it was enough to kill a single one of them, the rest usually fled to save their lives.

This way I came to an inner gate of the city rather fast. I passed through it and entered a courtyard which was also festered with brutish ogres.

I looked around in the western part of this area and actually found a door. It seemed locked, but why should I care about something like this... I blasted it open with one of my spells and entered the hallway.

This way I came to another smaller courtyard, a shattered pylon made of white crystal standing in between a group of dead and dr out trees. I walked past the strange monument and came to a large staircase leading downwards with a door standing widely open to anybody. Was that a trap?

On the lower level a dead tree elemental was lying, its body would probably soon vanish to the elemental plane. I thought about this without having the slightest idea for how long it had already been lying there rotting away.

The smaller hallway I could enter through the door seemed to be safe too. It lead into a large, and I mean, really large open hall. To my right I could see another one of those shattered pylons in a distance. This hall was at least as big as the whole city of Orgrimmar.

In its middle there was a circular structure limited by columns that were arranged in a perfect circle. There was still enough room that two people could pass through the columns next to each other.

A small staircase led down half a metre or so to a green area with real grass growing there. In the middle of the whole structure there was another circle, this one completely made of stone. No demon corpse around here, yet I was sure this was the right place. I felt the demonic energies around here.

From the moment that I had approached the columns, I had heard strange voices. Before I wanted to start the ritual I had a look around.

I got an idea who made the strange sounds rather fast. From the middle of the room I could see an elf sitting in between two columns flapping his arms wildly. I gave him a strange look and approached him. He had long green hair and a violet skin colour.

“Are you of the Shen`dralar?“, I simply asked.

The elf looked at me in bewilderment, tilting his head sideways and stopped moving his arms for a moment.

“I am rowing!“, he answered and continued flapping his arms.

What on earth? I made a few steps backwards and stepped back onto the stone circle. I didn`t take my eyes of the crazy elf. On my way I bumped into another one of them. Where did that one came from all of a sudden?

“Yeti, yeti, yeti!“ he said to me. What did he want? The elf who had told me he was rowing suddenly jumped to his feet pointing at the one behind me screaming “NOOO, it`s a duck!“ and started running away. The elf who was standing behind me went running after him.

I looked at the scene and stood there with my mouth open for a few minutes. I focussed again and came to the conclusion that it would be the best if I just started the ritual. I wanted to get away from there fast. I opened the book of Mor`zul and followed the instructions.

The moment I placed the candle on the floor it lighted itself. The bell started to hover in mid-air upon releasing it and the wheel started spinning the same moment I opened up the Scroll for the ritual. Thoonum started snarling the moment I read the first few words. I don`t know what this language was, but it definitely was not Eredrun. I did not understand a single word.

I read the text out loud from the scroll only once, just like the instructions said. After a short while violet runes seemed to appear on the stone floor. They started to form a circle. In the middle of it the shadow of a horse appeared. At first it looked rather normal, but with every rune that was added the image became clearer. Soon you could tell that this was no normal steed. It had long spikes on its body, the head adorned with several horns. A mane of fire and a skin of black scales.

“TRESPASSER!“ a loud voice filled the hall. “Minions! Kill him! He wants to steal a horse of mine!“

Small portals opened up as the seventh rune appeared. Imps jumped out of them charging at me. I screamed out loud, they wouldn`t stop me now that I was this close. A nova of fire emitted from the place where I stood burning every one of the imps to mere ashes. “Guards! Crush him!“ A few felguards came from the portals now. Everyone of them was hit by a single shadow bolt taking them out without problems. The ninth rune appeared and the horse materialized in this realm. “You are mine now!“ A shadow bolt flew at the demonic steed, killing it with a clean shot. A spirit was rising from its body. According to the instructions the only thing I had to do now was to touch it. My eyes were focussed on the ghostly spirit. I stretched out my arm to reach for it.

The moment I came near it something grabbed my wrist.

“You will never get one of my steeds!“ I looked at the creature seizing my arm. “For I am Lord Hel`nurath! I will first take your arm and then take your worthless life for this impudence.“ The dreadlord was grabbing my wrist tightly. His body was actually quite similar to a human, except for the hooves, horns on the head and the wings on his back.

Everything happened really fast, too fast for Thoonum to interfere. The dreadlord put his left leg against my waist and with one strong pull, he ripped my arm right off, knocking me backwards to the ground. It took a moment for the pain to kick in. I screamed in agony. Such a bastard.

“Pathetic...“, the dreadlord threw the arm over his shoulder taking a few steps towards me.

“You have no idea who you are dealing with rookie...“, my felhunter caught the Nathrezim off guard taking him to the ground by tackling him from the side. I was still wincing in agony as I got up. I wanted to condemn myself for being so foolish to go near the horse without paying any attention to my surroundings. Thoonum kept the Dreadlord at bay for a short moment. I just hurried up to the spirit of the horse and touched it. Maybe this would ease the pain, but on the contrary. The spirit simply vanished inside my body and from one moment to the other my mind was flooded with pain again. Only seconds later everything blacked out.

I don`t know for how long I was lying there on the floor. I dreamed I was falling into a black abyss, it took ages. The only things I could do was falling and waiting for me to die.

I woke up on the floor of a huge library. My head was aching, I grabbed it with both my hands.

Then I noticed it, it was like a shock. My arm was still attached! But..., but does that mean this whole fight was only a dream? I thought about it for a moment... no, that couldn`t be, all of a sudden I knew a spell that would summon a dreadsteed. I would still have to try it, yet I was sure this was not only a dream. Thoonum was sitting next to me, looking at me as I woke up, although I still did not really know where his eyes were or if he even had some or not.

As I got up to my feet, my whole body still hurt. Thoonum told me that the fight ended with the dreadlord fleeing, leaving me behind. I walked along the library and came around a corner. A larger number of nightelves were sitting at a table in the middle of the room, some with books lying in front of them, some without. One of them turned his head towards me and yelled: “The carpet has awoken!“

Thoonum told me that that elf was the one who found me and reattached my arm with healing magic.

If I thought about the way they talked, I started to wonder that they were this good at using spells. It was even a miracle that the arm was attached the right way round.

Another of the elves burst out “Yeti!“, making the one sitting on the opposite side of the table yelling again “Oh no, a duck!“ and jumping to his feet. The two ended up chasing each other again and all I wanted after seeing this for a second time was to get out of there!