Chapter 1: Six Years Later

Things have never been the same since the Cataclysm. The fall of Deathwing brought peace. Though, I say peace subjectively. The lands are still ravaged by war and corruption, but the world breaker himself had finally been broken. My father went off to fight Deathwing and succeeded. However, I miss my father. My mother died giving birth to me twenty-four years ago and father was the only parent I had left. He had taught me everything: how to hunt (even though I had never killed anything); how to forage; how to survive. He even helped me catch my first pet. A white tiger who I named, Coraan. At the time, Coraan was distant and unloving. One morning, I found a letter in our... my mailbox, telling me I had "come of age and was to report to Ilthalaine in Shadowglen, immediately." I casted it aside at the time. My father always wished for me to go meet Ilthalaine. Telling me it would be a "great experience" and the world needed me. I didn't understand at the time, how could I when I didn't care. But now, with the arrival of this condolence letter, maybe it was time to make my fallen father proud.

I found the old "come of age" letter and shoved it in my pocket, along with the hardly comforting condolence letter. I sighed deeply. I turned and walked up to an old, wooden bow that was mounted on the wall. My muscles tensed when I picked up the bow and I stared at it. Carved on it was my father's name. Below that was my name, Neradan. He had once told me it was his first bow. I was so happy, the day he bestowed it onto me. It was the bow I had practiced with since I was eight. My muscles released and I slowly put the old bow on my back. I whistled and Coraan ran to my side. He jumped up and licked my face. He was no longer brooding and unsociable. He seemed to get over it as the years passed and when father never came back, Coraan began to respect me. Probably even love me (Ha). I got him down and pet his head. Then we walked out the door. I left to meet Ilthalaine as the old letter had said. That day started it all...

Shadowglen was dark and lush, as it always had been. Imagine a place in eternal night, surrounded by trees. It was beautiful, it has always been beautiful. The grass grew heavy with roots and vines. Every tree stood strong and tall. Shadowglen was covered with nature. From head to foot, the land seemed to explode with purples, reds, blues, and especially greens. Varying in shades, each one seeming darker and more full than the last. I spotted Ilthalaine in a clearing. He was on one of the few roads the Night Elves had actually made. He stood in a black clothing ensemble with red trim and no sleeves. He had a light blue beard and ponytail, and a long staff he held in his right hand. He had long thin ears, yellow, glowing eyes, and light blue paling skin. I approached him and then he turned to me and said, "Greetings, traveler!" I responded saying, "My name is Neradan." Ilthalaine paused. He seemed puzzeled, then he exclaimed, "Neradan! It is good to see you again. Six years you waited," I nodded and he continued, "Did you bring the letter?" I reached into my pocket and took out one of the letters. He read it to himself and looked up at me with a grim face. I realized I handed him the wrong letter and took it back. I switched it with the right letter. He coughed and composed himself. "My apologizes..." He skimmed the old letter and pointed down at it, "Ah-ha. Right here. 'Meet with Ilthalaine in Shadowglen, immediately.' Six years... not so immediate." He said, looking up at me, "I didn't-" he stopped me, "I understand and...am truly sorry." I nodded, softly touching the closest end of the bow.

Ilthalaine continued to tell me how he wished for me to dwindle the numbers of the overpopulated nightsabers. They are similar to Coraan, except nightsabers have black fur. It would help preserve "nature's harmony." I paused. I did not wish to kill... Would it not make me the same as those who had killed... My moral dilemma was cut short. I remembered one of my father's old teachings. He taught me that an overpopulated species could end up eating all the other animals and the species could end up starving to death. Neither Ilthalaine, nor did I believe my father, wanted these animals or others to suffer needlessly.

Six arrows to the back of six nightsaber heads, quick and painless like I was taught. I returned to Ilthalaine and in return he gave me new hunting gloves. I put them on and he asked me to collect six felmoss from imp-like creatures called Grellkin to the west. He hoped it could help him determine the cause of the corruption that had been  plaguing our sacred lands lately. As I started away, when another old friend by the name of Melithar called me to him. Melithar held a large, wooden hammer. He had long green air and a thin moustache-beard. His skin was more of a paling purple and his eyes had a strange glow. He an interesting and intricate robe of green, golden, and brown. He looked at me and gripped his hammer. He was enraged about the Grellkin. He asked me to collect and return the food bags they had stolen. I nodded. However telling him, I would not kill them. He seemed annoyed and shooed me away. As it turned out I would not have to kill the Grellkin. I arrived to find them massacred. All of their orange bodies, broken and bleeding. Their noses were pointed, their faces covered in boils, and they had furry arms and legs. They were short, hardly four feet, and some of them wore light blue vests and had in blue earrings on long, orange, pointed ears. The rest had their vests tattered and the earrings viciously ripped out. I stopped. I was frozen. I couldn't move. I stared at their bodies, horrified. What could have- would have done this? I saw webs nearby, they seemed fresh as bugs began to get stuck in them. I stood frozen entirely too long. Coraan sniffed the corpses and growled off in the distance.

I didn't understand. I shook off whatever petrifying fear I had and removed as much felmoss as I could from the bodies. I also took what I could of the stolen supplies. One of them laid peacefully, I stared at that one the longest. Wondering. Did he look this peaceful... As Coraan's growling became more vicious, I whistled and we quickly returned to Melithar and Ilthalaine. Melithar gave me a "supply bag" to hold items in and Ilthalaine told me he feared that even with this sacred lands blessing, there was still great corruption. The felmoss simply confirmed it. He gave me a pair of leggings and also three healing herbs hoping they would help me on my journey. He then told me of an etched sigil he received and told me to read it. I went behind a tree, removed my pants, and put on the new pair of leggings. I came back and Coraan stuck his tongue out in disapproval. I disregarded him and began to read the sigil.

A woman by the name of Ayanna Everstride had sent the message to Ilthalaine while I was retrieving the felmoss. It was strange... I thought I knew everyone who had lived in Shadowglen, but this name seemed new. I followed the sigil's directions and found Ayanna inside of a building built off a large tree known as Aldrassil. When we arrived, I walked passed a man sitting on a set of stairs. He had a young face, with green hair in a ponytail, with green muttonchops, and a lime green, sleeveless tunic on. I looked away as Coraan quickly ran up and licked the man's cheek. I walked up to Ayanna and Coraan quickly followed me. Ayanna had on a thick, lime green leather tunic and thick, lime green leather pants. She had dark green, thick leather fingerless gloves, and long, braided blue hair falling over her right shoulders. She had a silver belt with a golden buckle and thick, dark green boots on, too. It was lovely. Really. She said she wanted to help train me; to tame beasts to aid me in battle (she gestured at Coraan and pet his head); to use a bow with great accuracy; and to help teach me to respect our land and the lands of others. I gave her the sigil and she gave me some copper coins. "Go outside," she said, "What?" I asked, "Go outside and practice a steady shot on one of those dummies. I want to see if you are as skilled as Ilthalaine believes you  to be." I went outside and came upon several dummies standing side by side. Ayanna followed. I stood about twenty steps back from the dummies, removed the bow, put an arrow on it, and aimed at the middle dummy. "Move back." she said. I lowered the bow and took two steps back. I readied the arrow again. "Further." she said. I breathed through my nose and took four steps back. I looked to her and she gestured me further with her hand. She had an innocent smile on her face. I took eight steps back. She nodded, satisfied and smug. I readied the arrow, aimed, and I steadily, yet forcefully shot it. It hit the middle dummy right between the eyes. The arrow went through the dummy's head and into a large root coming from the tree. I looked at Ayanna, who seemed unimpressed. She looked to me and said, "Come inside." She turned and walked back into the building. I put the bow on my back and went up to the arrow and grabbed it. I looked at Coraan and he looked at me, then towards Ayanna, then back to me. He seemed puzzled. I shrugged, rolled my eyes, and ripped the arrow from the tree.

I went back inside and Ayanna turned from the two others she was talking to and told me to meet with Dentaria Silverglade, who was a friend of my father's. She had stayed behind, she did not wish to join the battles that raged across the world. Ayanna said that Dentaria was behind Aldrassil. I nodded, respectfully and walked away. I looked back on my way out and saw Coraan. He stared at Ayanna for a moment, his head cocked to the side. She looked at him with an eyebrow raised. He blinked and then stuck his tongue out disapprovingly and scampered towards me. I pet him as we left the building. I found Dentaria between two pools, behind Aldrassil as Ayanna said. Dentaria had a white dress on, short blue hair, and aqua warpaint on her face. There was a man laying on the ground with bandaged forearms and green ponytail-mutton chop combo, he seemed sick...and hurt... Dentaria explained to me the man's name was Iverron and he had been poisoned by webwood spiders and that seven moonpetal lilies around the pools would help. I went to go get the lilies and Coraan stayed with Dentaria. I looked back and shrugged.

When I returned from collecting the lilies Dentaria was kneeling by Iverron, sobbing quietly. Her nightsaber snuggled to her and Coraan was softly licking away her tears. "Is he...?" I began, but she cut me off, "No. No... He's alive for now." She wiped her tears and I handed her the lilies. She thanked me and hugged Coraan. She stood and asked me to go find an ancient dryad known as Tarindrella. "I can sense that she is here... There must be something truly amiss if Tarindrella has returned." Dentaria said, she looked down and smiled softly. She made an antidote with the lilies and fed it to Iverron. I stayed with them until she said he was cured. I don't know how long it took. Coraan made good use of his time by sleeping. Coraan even seemed pretty rejuvenated after the whole process. Dentaria said softly after a few hours, "Iverron is cured, but it will take a bit longer for him to recover." Coraan licked Iverron's cheek and ran off. I nodded and chased after Coraan. Like I said, rejuvenated. I followed Coraan to a spider cave, I stopped him just short of entering by tackling him. We rolled off to the side and he licked my face. I stood and a light, female voice spoke from behind me, "Is it important to you?" I turned around and a centaur-plant-like woman stood there, "Tarindrella?" I asked.  She nodded. She had green hair covered in leaves and the whole horse-bottom half of her was green and covered in vines, leaves, roots, and other nature. She spoke again, "These spiders... in the cave... They're more corrupted than anything else in the entire forest. We need to thin their numbers... End their misery." I paused and looked at her, "Thin their numbers? This is the second time I've run into the type of phrase. I can understand if you dislike spiders - but I'm not killing them because you think they're gross." She stared at me, "You misunderstand. They are corrupted. They will devour everything in this forest. You've already seen what one did to the Grellkin and Iverron. It pains my heart more-so than it does yours to end the life of a child of nature... But, we must stop them from spreading and destroying the rest of the life on this island." I sighed, but ultimately agreed and ventured into the cave with Coraan.

I looked at Coraan, "Twice today. Twice," I held up two fingers to him, "I've had to choose the lesser of two evils." Coraan cocked his head to the left side and looked at me, "I don't kill things! I never have until today. And this 'kill it or it will kill everything else' theme, is a real crap way to start this..." I paused, then spoke to myself, "how did he put it..." I looked at Coraan and said "'Adventure'." I air-quoted the word 'adventure' as we walked up to split in the cave. One path leading left and the other right. I looked at Coraan and he gave me a face saying, "Don't look at me, I just follow you." I sighed and we followed the path to the left. We came up to a dead end, but not a wall dead end, a huge drop. Below us was the broken remnants of this path and the unbroken path that had lead to the right. And straight ahead of us was another platform that connected to that lower path. Across the gap and on that platform we saw several spider eggs, a red object, and a large spider. We turned back and there stood Tarindrella. I was startled and almost fell off the edge of the broken path. She told me the spider across the gap was known as "Githyiss the Vile." I nodded as she pulled back from the edge. I looked behind her and saw oversized spiders emerging from the walls. I let go of Tarindrella's hand and readied my bow. A spider charged at Tarindrella and I shot an arrow into its mouth. It flew backwards and collapsed. We headed back to the split in the cave and as more spiders fell Tarindrella told us that the spiders were unredeemable, but it hurt to let them die. I nodded and she said, "It seems the corruption is coming from inside them. As if they were born with it. But, how? They weren't corrupted when last I was here..." As we made our way into the deepest part of the cave we found something called "Gnarlpine Corruption Totem" placed near the spider's eggs. It was red and glowing. Githyiss was nowhere in sight and Tarindrella jumped over to destroy the totem when Githyiss jumped out and snapped at her. She kicked Githyiss in the mouth and I shot two arrows into two eyes of Githyiss. It screamed and collapsed. It bled out and she stomped it's head in with one slam of her right, front hoof. A tear fell from her eye and she quickly destroyed the totem. Tarindrella offered me a belt, I took the belt and looked at Githyiss. It hurt me inside to kill these animals. Tarindrella touched my shoulder and told me the corruption was too deep to save them. I didn't care. Saved or not, I never wanted to take lives from this world. I had given in so easily. Not even twenty four hours since I got the news and I had single handedly killed at least nineteen animals. She never took her hand from my shoulder. "What did you mean?" I asked, "Is what important to me?" I looked at her and her eyes were watering, "Him..." I looked down at my feet and nodded. She touched Coraan's head and leaned to my ear and whispered as I closed my eyes, "Do not hate yourself for what you've done today; for loving him." When I opened my eyes, Tarindrella was gone and Coraan and I were back in front of Dentaria.

I put the belt on and Dentaria told me to fill a phial in a moonwell to the northeast. She handed the phial to me. I looked at her, "Why?" She spoke softly, "You will understand one day...Please." I put the phial in the supply bag Melithar had given me earlier today and left. On the way, I couldn't help battling with myself. Why? Why had I left the house today? Couldn't they have killed the animals or have had someone else kill these animals? I said it over and over in my head: I'm not a killer. I'm not a killer. I'M NOT A KILLER. As time passed, that statement unfortunately became more and more incorrect...

Before I knew it, I was at the moonwell. A shallow stone well filled with a glowing water. I was breathing heavily... I calmed down and filled the phial. Suddenly a spectre appeared in the water saying, "Nodrassil lies a pale shadow of what it once was," I fell back and almost dropped the phial. It continued as if I didn't exist, "That day we lost who we were. Our immortality. Everything." I waved my hand through it, "the Betrayer had been freed and Shan-do Stormrage disappeared from the Emerald Dream." The spectre looked at me, I could feel it's gaze piercing through me. Then it closed it's eyes and disappeared. I breathed heavily and rose to my knees. I slowly regained myself and looked at Coraan who was rubbing against me. I was confused, I didn't understand. Coraan scampered away as I put the phial in my bag. I didn't notice him as I stared at the moonwell. Eventually it dawned on me and I looked around. "Coraan?" I looked around for just a moment, saw him, and then ran after him. I followed him back to Dentaria. He jumped on a now standing Iverron and licked his face. "You have one task left in Shadowglen." she said. Coraan climbed off Iverron and Dentaria told me to go to the top of Aldrassil with the phial. I nodded and took a few steps away. I looked back and she hugged Iverron. "At least," I thought as I looked at them, "Someone lived today." I looked down and then ran my way to the ramp leading to the top of Aldrassil, with Coraan following close behind.

When I reached the top of Aldrassil, a man with no shirt, a long green...uh...skirt, I guess, thick, leather shoulder pads, and thick leather bracers with green hair and beard, with paling blue skin gave me his greetings. I handed him the. He looked at it and then to me. He smiled and said, "The spectre had spoke of the aftermath of Mount Hyjal." I took a step back, but I just stared at him... Stunned. He chuckled, "Relax, Neradan. The spectre is my doing. I put it there for anyone who filled this phial. To educate our people who have lost so much..." He poured the liquid in the phial into a vessel, "Your father fought hard that day..." He handed the vessel to me as well as a new tunic. "How do you know my name?" I asked, still stunned. He pointed to the phial, "Dentaria put your name on it." I slowly switched tunics and took the vessel. The man chuckled, "Seek out Corithras Moonrage at the moonwell in Dolanaar. Follow the road south out of Shadowglen, then take it west and you'll find yourself in Dolanaar." I placed the vessel in the supply bag and looked at the man, "Who are you?" He looked at me, "You knew my father?" I asked. The man smiled, "We all do, Neradan. Tenaron Stormgrip. Do you not recognize me?" He shook his head, "Is six years all it takes for you to forget? How is..." He slowed down and then looked at me confused, "Knew? What do you mean, 'knew him'?" I paused, "Nothing. Its... its a just a sentence." Tenaron slowly looked to his left, "Is that why you decided to begin your journey today?" He looked up at me with a smug look. "He's not- I didn't-" I stopped talking for a second, shut my eyes and opened them, "No. I started today because I thought six years was long enough. I'm sure he's proud." Tenaron shook his head and casted a wind spell on me that blew me off the top of the tree. I flew off and slowly fell to the ground below. I landed softly and looked back up. He was standing, looking over the edge. "Send a message," he smiled, "Our plan succeeded."

I stood and looked around. Coraan made his way down from the top of Aldrassil, ran to me, and jumped on me. Coraan viciously began licking my face. I smiled and eventually got Coraan off of me. I ran to the exit of Shadowglen and was stopped by an old friend named Porthannius. He had long blue hair put into two braids that fell over his shoulders, a blue beard. He wore a red tunic with purple sleeves, red gloves, and dark pants and boots. He asked me to deliver a package to Keldamyr the innkeeper of Dolanaar. He warned me the path ahead would be dangerous. I nodded. I had never left Shadowglen before... Coraan nudged me forward... I didn't know where or what would happen. Twenty-four years in that enclosed, protected area of Shadowglen... And it was finally happening. I was leaving! I was excited and anxious and proud and scared and feeling something other than sorrow since I had got that godforsaken condolence letter! Finally, I felt alive and I didn't know what was out there and I didn't care, I knew I was ready to face it.