World of Warcraft®

Somewhere in Northern Duskwood, Night of the 23rd.

His boots slipped on the mud, squelching loudly as he struggled for purchase, trying to clamber up the the small hill. Something screeched overhead, a bat perhaps, and he flinched in response. Labouriously he made his way up the slippery path, using a tree root to lever himself up onto higher ground.

He ran now, or at least attempted to, his gait awkward due to the massive rending wound on his right leg. Blood mixed with rain water and mud, caking the shreds of his pant leg to his skin, leaving a trail behind him.

It was inevitable. He couldn't move fast enough to get away...not like this. He should have just stayed in Darkshire...shouldn't have assumed the creature would have given up on him...
Priyip priyip prrrriyp!
He shuddered involuntarily at its mournful cry, the noise setting him into a run again. If he could just make it to the river, into Elwynn...
PRIYIP PRRRRRLLLLEEELE!
Closer now, dear Light it was so close, its call becoming victorious as it closed in on him.
He needed to get to the river, to find a guard, or anyone...anything but this...

PRIYP PRIP PRRRLLEERRRGGGGLLLEEE!
He tried to scream as it engulfed him in its foul presence, but all that came out was a mangled choking sob. His body wouldn't move, couldn't...

The creature cried out in glee one last time, and meters across the river, a dog barked in response. Eerily glowing eyes set in a face befouled in blood looked up to the direction the noise had come from...calculating.

_________________________
Mulberry Farm, Elwynn, Evening of the 24th.

As Candice Mulberry cleaned up from the modest Pilgrim's Bounty dinner the family had eaten, she couldn't help but gaze outside at the small plot of land they called their farm. The tall hazelnut tree sheltered the carefully tended field of berry bushes, and the little rows of vegetables in the family garden. The bushes were empty of their fruit now, harvest come and gone over a month before. The mild fall had treated the plants well however, and last night's rain had left them a fresh, healthy green.

She busied herself cleaning dishes, noting quietly to herself the sad lack of them, her husband and sons gone off on some military business. Just her and the girls this year, though with the cats, the dog and the chickens, it never felt that quiet.
Chickens...Candice frowned slightly and squinted out the window into the field, suddenly realising she hadn't seen one. Strange, the little white beasts were usually everywhere in the field after a good rain, eating all the bugs that came to the surface.

A rustle in the bushes caught her attention, and she glanced over while she dried a plate, expecting to see some white feathers. Instead, what she glimpsed was less expected, but not altogether strange at first.
Her youngest daughter, Riley, stepped out of the greenery, her gaze caught on something hidden by the plants. The young woman walked forward in an apparent daze, and a sense of dread washed over Candice like she had never felt before. Something was wrong...horribly so.

The plate slipped through her hands and fell to the ground with a resounding crash, the noise surely audible to the girl outside, though she did not do so much as flinch. Candice dashed to the door and flung it open, calling out as she did so.
"Riley!" she shouted, an edge of hysteria slipping into the mother's voice.
The girl continued her steady walk forward, fixated on something, barely blinking, her arms limp at her sides.
"Riley stop right now!" Candice demanded, circling around to see what the young woman was staring so intently at.
Her next shout to her daughter died on her lips as she came face to face with the creature. Glowing red eyes regarded her with a hunger that cut to the quick of her soul, and a strangled cry of anguish escaped her throat as she dropped to her knees. The beast stared at her stoically for a moment more before dismissing her existence completely, turning its gaze back to Riley. It made a low guttural noise, and the girl began to walk faster, the creature turning to lead her away.

Candice tried to move, to get up, to do anything but stay there on the damp earth. Instead, after an angonising moment more; darkness came up to greet her, as she fell to the ground unconscious.

((Con't))

SCW Office, Cathedral District, Stormwind City, two hours later.

"Ma'am, I'm sorry if I find this all a bit skeptical, but the story you're painting sounds a tad unreasonable. Are you sure you haven't been drinking or imbibing in illicit substances?" the officer at the front desk pursed his lips and frowned. "Should I call a medic for you? That might be best...maybe a nice lay down?"

The bedraggled woman in front of him glared with wild eyes, shaking her head vehemently. "What I /need/ you to do, is to find my daughter! That...that THING kidnapped her, I'm not lying, I'm not crazy, you just need to listen to--"

"Ma'am you have a worm in your hair, it's a little hard to take a person seriously when they look like they just woke up from an all night bender and can't make a lick of sense with what they're saying. Let's try this again maybe, what exactly, is your daughter's name Mrs...."

"Mulberry! And her name is Riley! She's only nineteen for lights-sake, someone needs to save her, /you/ people need to save my baby!"

The sound of footsteps at the doorway interrupted the desk officers next response, and he looked up and saluted to the plate wearing figure now scraping her boots off at the entrance way. "Officer Wanyecha," he said, "I could uh, use your help."

The woman in question took off her helmet and placed it on a side table covered in other gear before walking over to the reception desk. She pushed a few errant strands of dark hair off her face as she regarded the woman in front of her, "Ma'am, how can we be of service?" she asked gently.

"My daughter was kidnapped by a, by a....a TURKEY!" Candice managed to cry out before subsiding into wracking sobs.

The draenei officer stared at her quietly for a moment, a small frown on her ageless face.
At the desk, the officer spoke up, "See? This doesn't make any se--" he started, stopping when Wanyecha raised a hand quickly to silence him with a motion.

"It makes perfect sense," she responded softly, moving to pull the distraught woman into a comforting embrace, "Tell me about the...turkey ma'am."

"It...it was so evil looking! So dark and terrible and....it just felt as though all light was gone from the world, all hope...Please. Please...it has my Riley, my youngest..." she managed to say between choking sobs.

Wanyecha nodded and patted the woman's hair, brushing some damp dirt and a wriggling pink worm from it, "We will. Don't worry," she turned to give the desk officer a stern look, "Take her down to the infirmary and have someone get her some clean clothing and a hot drink." The man nodded and hastened to comply, nearly knocking over a stack of books in the process. Officer Wanyecha looked around the room and gestured to another junior patroller, sitting off to the side, "You. Go find the Lieutenant, just tell her...tell her IT might be back."

____________________________________________
Trade District, Stormwind City, An hour later.

The notice being posted on the Hero's Call Board read thusly:

Attention citizens of Stormwind and her surrounding municipalities.

The Stormwind City Watch is requesting aid with an investigation into the kidnapping of one Riley Mulberry, resident of Elwynn.
Miss Mulberry is nineteen years of age, with shoulder length blonde hair which she was last seen as wearing in a ponytail, blue eyes, and of a stature of approximately 5'5" tall, and 132lbs.
Miss Mulberry was last seen on her parents farm in south eastern Elwynn.

Any wishing to aid should contact First Lieutenant Masser Skyriver for details.

On an unrelated note we are currently advising citizens to travel in groups of three or more when in the surrounding lands.

((This will be a full out adventure rp event with a roll system in place. The event itself will be starting at 4pm server time, at the Watch Office in Cathedral district.
If you want to join in after it's begun, that's completely fine! Just drop me a message and give me a heads up!))