Level 15 – Journey to Orgrimmar.
Note: the next couple of posts will be in-character again, mostly because they deal with travel. Enjoy!
As the elevator doors opened and the gurgling of the abomination guards became audible, Farfalla scowled. Stomping out of the lift, she gave one of the monstrosities a dirty look before heading up the ramp to the tomb of Terenas. As she swept past it, she spitefully pinched out one of the candles that burned in the room, earning herself a burnt finger and thumb and a warning growl from the guard she’d looked daggers at. The girl sighed theatrically and swept out of the small room, heading out towards the courtyard.
As she reached the gateway she stopped, pulling her cloak tighter around her body to keep out the cold, clammy air. She hated this place, wanted to be back in Quel’thalas, where everything was bright and cheerful. Here the stench of death hung in the air, bringing on frequent coughing fits in the young priestess. Even worse, the people were freaks – almost all human before they had died and been reborn, and clearly they hadn’t gained any intelligence in the process. Even their priests were dull. Farfalla longed for the spires of Silvermoon again – at least people there were smart, even if it meant they spent a lot of time thinking about how to get one over on their peers.
No matter. She’d been sent here by the Regent when it was announced that Dar’khan had been brought to justice. Probably because it amused him seeing her face when she was asked to use the Orb of Translocation – if anything was worse than that blasted dragonhawk taxi, it was the Orb – and was now on her way to Kalimdor, acting as a messenger for Sylvanas. Fingering the letter in her pocket, the Dark Lady’s words came back to her…”Take this letter to Thrall in Orgrimmar. As leader of the Horde he will have the final say on accepting the Sin’dorei’s pledge…I’ve added my own seal to the letter as a personal endorsement.’
But where she was sent, she would go, even if she resented it. Trudging down the path out of the city, where the banners of the Forsaken, lining each side of the path, drifted gently in the breeze, the girl could just about make out two zeppelin towers on the other side of the valley. At the top of one, a zeppelin was coming in to dock – its searchlight swept before it like a beacon in the darkness, illuminating the dust in the air. Pausing only to ascertain which of the towers she should climb, Farfalla began the struggle to the top.
Halfway up, she clung to the railing, feeling sick. She was high up, way too high up by her standards, and her head was whirling. Worse, there were bats swooping in and out of the tower – filthy things – and all the time that horrible stench in the air. Suddenly, she heard a squeaky cry – “The zeppelin to Orgrimmar has just arrived! All aboard for Durotar!” – and straightened up, cursing. Dashing to the top of the stairs, she threw herself on to the ship and scuttled below deck so that she wouldn’t have to see the ground moving underneath her. Sitting on the wooden floor, she felt a jerk as the ship creaked into life, and heard a voice say “I hope there are no explosions this time” , and groaned, closing her eyes.
******
Farfalla opened her eyes with a start. She was sitting on a wooden floor in a small room she didn’t recognise. Trying to stand up, she swayed, and cursed again – she was still on the zeppelin. Her hand flew to her pocket – how could she have been so stupid as to fall asleep? What if something had happened to the message she was carrying? – but the letter was still there. She could feel the outline of it through her robe. Relaxing, she loosed her grip on the door jamb and took stock of her surroundings.
Peering out through a doorway at the end of the corridor the room she was in opened onto, she could see a radically different landscape. It was red, for one thing, and barren – hardly any vegetation, just rocks and dust. Now and then an oasis was visible on the ground below, and she could see the coast in the distance. And it was hot – even at this time of evening she could feel the sun beating down, causing the doorway to be lit with an almost unbearable glare in contrast to the darkness of the ship’s belly.
A clanking noise shook her out of her reverie and had her clinging onto the ship again. They must be getting close now, so barring a major accident – which she was trying very hard not to think about – the zeppelin must be coming in to dock. Holding onto the railing, Farfalla dragged herself up the stairs, and emerged onto the deck, into a heat and choking dryness that was unlike anything she could have expected. Pulling off her thick cloak, she stuffed it into her pack before rolling up her sleeves, and then thinking twice and pulling them back down – Light knew what the locals would make of that. Instead, she settled for pulling her hair up away from her neck and tying it in a bun on top of her head.
As the ship creaked into place next to the landing platform, the priestess held her breath, and when it stopped she sent up a silent prayer of thanks. Holding onto the railing, she stepped onto the rickety platform, looked down, and thought better of it – there were cracks in the wooden planks about a foot wide. Looking straight ahead, she bolted for the relative safety, and darkness, of the ramp down to the ground.
Once on solid earth, she felt better, less sick. Seeing a signpost marked Orgrimmar ahead, she set off in the general direction others seemed to be going in. The route took her past a farm, and she held her breath- there must have been twenty swine in the pen next to the hut, and the stench was strong – before it joined up to a wide, open pathway that went through a door and became paved on the inside. The walls of the city, around the doorway, were brutal-looking – made of stone and timber and reinforced by some kind of metal – and the banner of the Horde hung from flagpoles on either side of the arch. Two bored-looking orcs stood in the doorway, one at either side, though they paid little attention to the nervous girl as she passed between them.
Part two tomorrow!
~Farf
