World of Warcraft®

John sighed as he looked around the cave, slumping down at on the cave wall as they decided they were going to sleep in the cave for the night. He wasn't really happy that they had gotten the honor to sleep on the rocks of a dark and spooky cave. He removed his overcoat and folded it in a pile beside him and pulled out a book from his satchel. It was had a brown leather cover and it was about a legend of a man of a paladin who had fought in the Second War and came home to realize that his home had been taken over by undead. He flipped open to a page that had been marked by a small red ribbon.

He began to read the book quietly, passing the time with the book before deciding he would close it and try to get some sleep. But sleep didn't really come to him quickly. Rather, he had picked himself up and decided to head over to check out how Adrian had been doing with the guarding. He lit up his hand once again with a blazing fire and walked over to where the man had been guarding and slumped himself down on the opposite side of the cave so that he would be facing Adrian. "So… how's guarding going… boring, I'd imagine? Any rats scurry on by?" He looked down further past the cave, oblivious to any traps that Adrian had set up down there. He looked into the fire, waving it back and forth. He seemed to be rather interested in fire, even going as far as picking up any nearby flammable objects and burning them.

Tislina Dawnrunner

Tislina remained still as she heard Kel cry out. She sent her mind out around her, but finding nothing, eventually relaxed. She opened one eye to look at Kel, guessing it had been a bad dream. Tislina shifted slightly and decided not to say anything. She did not wish to upset Kel further.

She frowned. She was getting the strangest sensations around the cave. And she didn't like them at all. She let her mind wander around, thinking about magic and where she was. After awhile she slipped back into sleep, on the hope that morning would come soon.

Alanna Starsinger

Alanna cocked her head. She wasn't used to someone else looking out for her. She looked uneasily around the group before scooting leaning back against one of the cave walls. Figuring she should say something she replied, "I thank you for watching over myself." Inwardly she shrugged. That sounded good to her. She stretched out on the sandy floor and closed her eyes. She did fall asleep, but even the slightest noise would awaken her. Simply because she didn't feel safe. She opened one eye and watched John carefully.

Reyara sat against the wall of the cave. She had woken up not two hours ago so she was not tired yet, still she laid down just to rest. She didn’t like this place and neither did Ceyara. “We need to leave, to get back home.” Ceyara said in their mind.

“Yes” Reyara agreed. She still had her face covered and as far as she had known she had yet to identify herself to these strangers. She closed her eyes. “We need to take care of some things when we get back.” She muttered to herself.

“Yes, Mother has been quite insistent on meeting with us in Stonetalon… Perhaps she wants to ask us to return?” Reyara muttered in reply. She did not even realize the two were speaking, just above a whisper but it was verbal all the same.

“She hates us; she probably just wants to kill us.” Ceyara responded. Reyara had fallen asleep again, her mind unconscious and resting. Ceyara however was still awake. She sat up, unnoticing of any watchful eyes. She opened her tomb written in Darnassian and began to read silently. Shadow magic danced around her fingers as she read.

Lyrilia leaned against the entrance of the cave, her head drooping, struggling to stay awake. This was the most boring watch she had been on before, even if they had almost no clue where they were. There was nothing out there, and nothing was coming, she was sure of it.

Her head snapped up suddenly, eyes open, and for the moment fully awake. Raising her swords up in front of her, she stared into the dark. Someone was out there. Another fellowship member? Or something dangerous this time? Her head snapped to the side, screams from inside the cave, Kel’s screams. Was there something inside too? Not taking any chances on what may be outside, she slipped into the cave, her armor scraping slightly on the rock as she moved.

The fire flickered over their forms, her armor glinting in the light. Rolling her eyes, she walked towards Kel, as silently as she could, and nudged her with the toe of her boot.

“Kel! Kel get up!” her tone was urgent. “Kel it’s your watch, or whatever. There’s something or someone outside so, have fun with that.” Walking towards the wall, she propped her weapons up against the wall, yawning slightly. Her hand flew to her mouth, covering it and muffling the yawn. She was hungry, and tired, but would do everything she could not to show it.

Adrian looked up and saw that John had joined them by the fire. He sat up slightly against the wall, thumbing the hammer of his revolver. He asked how the guarding was going.

"Well, I'm not so much guarding as I can't really sleep. Just decided to get Allayna a hand even though she told us to get some sleep." he said. He looked down the cave, an uneasy feeling still washing over him.

"And frankly, I can't sleep because of this cave. I've stayed in caves before, but this one just gives me a bad feeling. Something eerie." he added. He was scanning constantly, be it down the cave or towards the beach where Allayna has been watching. "I just want to go back to my apartment and... sleep in my bed. And drink. I miss that." he said finally. He still couldn't get over what had caused them to arrive here, "I walked into my house, poured myself a drink and was in the middle of taking off my vest when I just appeared here, falling over. My glass is probably just sitting on my couch still... waiting." he said. He trailed off into space and was in a sort of trance, it would seem.

John had smirked as Adrian had told him how he had ended up in the same place John was. And of course, John had been wondering the same thing no doubt, along with everyone else. It was all weird and so sudden.

John pulled out his puzzle cube and began to randomize the symbols so that they weren't all with the matching symbols and mixed up with each other. John nodded as he began to solve the puzzle once more, taking his time. "Yeah… I was just… watching the rain fall in my tavern room until I just had this… sharp pain in my chest… it was rather exhilarating. If I were paranoid, I'd probably think that I was poisoned by the tavern keeper." He scoffed, smiling at that notion. Who would want to poison John anyways? Probably a lot of people. Mostly the people who he had annoyed or bothered in some way. But he's not dead yet! "I agree with you on the cave part… this place… really gets to me. And normally I'm not really superstitious, but I found out that in my travels, a lot of weird !@#$ has happened so… I'm a little more open minded when it comes to supernatural things…"

He looked up from his puzzle for a moment to look at Adrian before speaking. "So, where'd you say you were from? Darkshire? Redridge? I don't know… I haven't really taken a loot at any of the new maps and I rarely go over to the other human civilizations. Though… I was in Darkshire, so I guess it wasn't too long ago I was in a human settlement." He smirked, glancing around the cave, specifically at Alanna. She seemed to be getting the most sleep out of everyone. Lucky her, he thought. Afterwards, he back to solving his cube.

Alanna Starsinger

Alanna sat up and stretched, unable to sleep any longer. She looked around the cave, rather unsure of what to do. Her eyes fell on John and she watched him solve his puzzle box for a while, before standing up and moving to sit by the fire. She glanced nerveously between Adrian and John before speaking.

"Um, hello. I do not wish to interrupt your conversation, as I am sure it is very important. But please, can you please tell me what that is?" she asked, gesturing at the puzzle cube in John's hands.

Adrian snapped out of his slight trance. He turned towards the mage and sniffed sharply. Running a hand through his messy hair again, he cleared his throat slightly and began.

"Uh, Elwynn, actually. On a small vegetable farm. I share an apartment in Ironforge with my brother at the moment. He's a Captain in the Ebon Blade, so he's gone a lot. Usually at Icecrown for work. Only time I've been to those places was when I was a child, or when I was in the military." he said. "Two major deployments and then being tasked to a fast moving, hard hitting kill squad for the remainder of my time do some nasty things to a soldiers head though." he trailed off again. A frequent effect of his traumatic stress disorder.

"But enough depressing things, what about yourself?" it was at this time that the other girl had joined them by the fire. She asked about the Mage's puzzle, but all Adrian could do was shrug in ignorance as to what it was. Intellectualism wasn't his forte, so much as his brother's.

John did his puzzle and listened to the bit of background from the man, quirking a brow a few times as he trailed off a few times. A little strange, he thought, though it was probably because he was so tired. They were after all supposed to be getting sleep. "Yeah, apparently Allaynna and your brother are acquainted… from what I've overheard."

"I'm Gilnean, if you couldn't figure that out by the clothes or the accent." He shrugged. "My dad had hired all these mages to teach me magic and logic. And I liked that, but that wasn't what I wanted to do. So I left that when the opportunity rose and traveled ever since… now I'm here!" He chuckled. "Not all that great, really, as you can see." He chuckled faintly,

John seemed to rather focused on his cube, even getting close to solving it… again. He probably had memorized how to solve the thing since he has done it so many times. He had even noticed Alanna get up from her spot, even jumping and almost dropping the cube when he had heard her voice.

"Oh… no… er… you're fine. Just passing the time… nothing too important." He looked down to his cube which she had pointed to curiously. It seems he had finished it when he wasn't even looking, as all the sides were filled with matching sides. "This? This is a puzzle box I was given to by one of my teachers back in Gilneas. Basically, I use mathematics to figure out how to get each face of the cube to consist of one symbol. It seems a little hard, but after you get the trick, its pretty easy. It's nice for stress or passing the time." John offered the cube over to the woman, allowing her to take a look at it if she had wanted to.

Reyara let out a quick cry before she was silenced by Ceyara. "Keep your voice down, do you want them be become suspicious?" She hissed at Reyara under her breath. Reyara gave a slight shake of her head. "What page are you on?" She asked.

"Two hundred fifty three. It speaks of summoning creatures from the void to do our bidding. Very interesting. Ceyara replied. Their conversation had translated from verbal to mental. "The void fiends attack our enemy and by doing so fed us energy.

She looked at the others, she was near the fire, but away from them. She then looked back at her book. "You can not fight me forever Reyara. We are one in the same, two halves of the same coin. Eventually you will have to embrace me as yourself as I have already done with you." Ceyara thought.

Reyara didn't reply.

Kel'tira Sunblaze

Kel took a deep breath and rolled to her feet, glancing around the cavern as she strapped her armor on, forgoing her helm for now, and smiled at Lyrilia. Doing a good job of hiding the emotions boiling inside of her, she paced towards the opening of the cave, settling just inside the mouth of the cave to watch.

Calling out to the wind and stars on the empty beach, she said, "If anyone is there, come out, we will not hurt you."

Glancing back towards Lyrilia, she spoke softly, but loud enough for her to hear, "There is some food in my pack, help yourself if you need it. I will not have you weak because you have not eaten."

Turning her gaze back to the beach, the paladin stared out at the wreckage, clearly deep in thought.

Allaynna Kidrain

The death knight had been silent, listening to the exchange behind her, and then spoke softly, her voice holding the echoing quality so typical of the Lich King's one-time servants, "I've seen one of those before, John, my sister had one. She used to beg me to count until she finished it..."

Trailing off slightly, the woman smiled bitterly behind her face-plate, "Not that it matters, but I feel like we're being watched. Something is out there."

Dragging a hand through the sand, she built up a ridge as she spoke, crumbling it in keeping with her words, "It keeps building, like... tension. And I expect it to... I don't know... break, but it doesn't. It just keeps crumbling then building up again..."

"It's strange."

Cyaer continued to watch the others in the group with slitted eyes, appearing to be asleep. He watched and listened to the exchange between Kel'tira and Lyrilia. As he watched Kel move to the entrance and tell Lyrilia of food in her pack, he was tempted to get up and talk with Kel.

But he held back, and tensed his body a few times to relax himself, and remain where he was. Sometimes the fool appears wiser when he is silent, and he was waiting. He felt as if there was something...strange going on. He couldn't put his finger on it, but he remained silent, and watching.

Alanna Starsinger

Alanna took the cube and examined it carefully, running a finger over the symbols. After a moment she held it back out to him. "Very intriguing, I have never seen something quite like it." She sat back and cracked her knuckles.

"This place is odd, do you not agree?" She whistled again and shook her head as silence answered. "Not even bats will speak to me." She looked at Allayanna. "I must agree with you. I feel as if another presence is watching us..." Her hand drifted to the short sword at her waist.

"If anyone is there, come out, we will not hurt you."

Arthien ceased her ranting, for a moment turning to face the direction she assumed the voice had come from. A short distance away was a cave, dimly flickering in the mouth was what she assumed was a fire. "Heathens." she spat "Surprising they can speak." she stormed towards the cave.

Coming closer to the mouth of the cave, Arthien could see a figure standing near the mouth, to her surprise the figure looked elvish, and the armor shining in the firelight, implied that whoever it was, was unlikely a heathen Regardless she thought If they disrupted my portal I shall reduce them to ash

When she beloved she was close enough for the figure to see her she called out "Are you the one responsible for disrupting my portal and landing me in this blasted desert? Or perhaps there is another that I shall be burning to cinders?" Instinctively she turned one hand away to prevent the palm from being seen, concealing a small flickering flame, in case of hostilities.

Kreindis Blazestride

Kreindis dropped a couple feet out of the air onto the floor of the cave. He looked around curiously, keeping his sword and shield raised. "Hmm... strange. This isnt Silvermoon." Kreindis had just taken a portal that he had thought would take him to Silvermoon City from Northrend. He looks up at the portal still floating in the air, near the top of the cave. Theres no way he could get back up there and head back in time before it closed back up. He sighed and looked at his surroundings for any clues to his location. To himself he thought, 'Rocks, darkness, nothing useful...' He turned to look behind him and saw the entrance of the cave just as he heard the familiar voice of Kel'Tira. He walked over to the mouth of the cave and found her and Lyrilia.

He moves over to them and speaks. "Hello Lyrilia, and Kel.... do either of you know where we are?"

Kel'tira Sunblaze

"We are not the ones responsible. Most of us have ended up here on accident. Examining the woman, she beckoned her closer, "I might get off the beach. We fear there is something less than pleasant out there."

Pointing towards the fire, Kel assured the other, "We mean you no harm, and there is food and warmth if you care to join us, and safety in numbers. Or, relative safety."

As Krei spoke, she turned, "Krei?"

With a groan, she sighed and resigned herself to no more sleep.

"No one knows where we are, or, not exactly. Vaguely? I sent scouts out here. Magic, somehow or another, everyone else ended up here."

Tislina Dawnrunner

Tislina oened her eyes and sat up. "Did I hear someone say something about Krei?" Her face lit up as she saw him. She yawned and stretched, staring into the fire. She flicked a few of her own sparks into it. A habit of hers. Flicking magical sparks. be it Arcane or fire.

"So, I guess most of us are kind of hear now, huh? And there won't be anymore sleep. Speaking of how we got here, it was definatley magical means. Now to find out the how and why..."

Kreindis nods and smiles at Tislina. "I'm curious as to -why- magic would bring us here. I was just about to return to Silvermoon City from Northrend by using a portal and it then took me inside the cave instead." He watches the fire grow brighter from the sparks that she had flicked into it.

After a while Kreindis reaches into his pack and pulls out a small bit of bread and begins to eat small pieces of it every couple seconds. "So, how did you guys get here?"

John took his puzzle cube back, beginning to randomize it over again. "Yeah? Well, one of my teachers gave me this one as a gift. I honestly hated the thing when he gave it to me. Only because I didn't know how to solve it. But now its just like any other puzzle." And once again, he had began to solve the thing again, this time a bit quicker than before.

"What're we doing tomorrow in the morning?" He asked, not looking up from his cube. "I say we all pitch in and build a boat of some kind and go sailing on that ocean… in that direction." He pointed to where they had came into the cave. "I'll be right back." He picked himself up, setting the cube on the floor for the moment and begins to walk over to where he had previously been before he moved.

He found his overcoat where he had left it and slipped it onto his body, smiling warmly as the cold cave was no more to him. Suddenly, there was a movement of rocks on the floor and immediately, John's hands burst into flames, ready for a fight. On closer inspectation, however, John saw that it was only a rat, scurrying on by. With a sigh, John's hands died out and he returned back to his spot at the fire. "This place… is creepy."

Ceyara looked up at the rodent as it scurried through the cave. It was moving at a more leasurly pace. She was hoping it would leave, but soon it left her no choice. Her hand rased and a streak of shadow magic struck the unlucky rat. Its body flipped end over end as it landed on its back completely motionless. "I hate rats." She said aloud before she stood up her feet and kicked the rat out of the cave in a single blow.

"Disgusting creatures." She grunted before she moved back to her spot. This cave was setting her on edge, but it was doing something else. It was allowing Ceyara to be in physical control. A smirk over came her face. "Don't worry Reyara, when you wake up again I am sure you will be in control. But until then our body is mine and mine alone." She thought to herself.