Feychild

"Shadows of the Past", a Warcraft Roleplay

"Let me emphasise that I, as a devoted warrior of the goddess, am fully capable of doing this - alone if need be, but... if you have any suggestions, I might hear them out... !"

“Well, don’t I feel special”

Liaena bit her tongue to refrain from the instinctive pithy comment, while reminding herself that this was what passed for diplomacy in the land of Serphia. Evidently Rithrynn and Falere between them, were doing wonders for her temperament.

“…How would I destroy that demon?”

The girl’s only experience of fighting gigantic demons had come from that incident when they had travelled through the ghost woods and fell afoul of Sharon’s Ex. Liaena herself had taken on the creature then, she recalled. It had been an eventful journey.

“The best way of getting rid of it is to have Sharon, Vashi or some other mage open a portal to a different dimension” The girl finally said after a pause. “They’ll need to be a powerful mage to create anything large enough, and you’ll still need to shove the demon in somehow….”

Liaena hesitated, as she allowed her mind to continue along this natural train of thought. Behind her, the sounds of crying, terrified Silje were very evident. “….or make them go…”

“….ehhh, that’d be kinda mean. Even if she did work with the white hand”

Looking back at Serphia, Liaena gave the back of the Night Elf’s head a hard stare as she continued. “Currently, regardless of skills you’re going to have problems pushing that demon around when you are so much smaller than her. I might be able to fix that for you”

“….”

“….But!” Liaena was quick to continue as she held up a finger – just stopping short of poking Serphia’s backside authoritively. “If I was to do that, in return you’ll agree to not attack any humans, or draenei, and stay outside of the city until I’ve given you the antidote. Is that fair?”

“….”

“I might even be able to extract Rithrynn if I’m really luck….although I’m still not sure she deserves it”

"Shadows of the Past", a Warcraft Roleplay

“I can’t help but think that if I stay here, I will end up sharing space with Falere and Rithrynn. Serphia’s butt has its own gravitational attraction”
So were Liaena’s thoughts as she clung to the Night Elf’s hair like a lifetime, while in the meantime taking the chance to assess her options. On the plus side, Malizia was no longer actively making debris-angels out of the wreckage of buildings around them. Instead, they had the pleasure of a group of heavily armed men who had charged out of a portal to look confusedly around…late to the party obviously. Squinting at their insignias, the girl was unable to immediately make them out. Friend or foe?

“RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!”

….It would seem the decision had been made for them. Foe, apparently.

“For the love of the light, I am not staying here until I get sat on!”

Digging into her pockets, Liaena silently mourned the loss of her satchel – the instigating event of this entire mess – as she finally dragged a small vial out of a pocket. Upending it to down the contents, the girl let go of Alyssa’s hair to fall to the floor, growing rapidly as she did so to land neatly on both feet a moment later, normal size – for her – again.

A larger target, perhaps. But at least her fate would no longer involve a new role as someone else bowel stimulation.

“Captain!”

Speaking of which, Serphia was uncharacteristically separate from the current bloodbath now involving Malizia, hanging back from the fight with a far away happy expression on her face. Liaena gave the mercenaries a very wide berth as she headed over, waving a hand to catch the (somewhat vacant) Night Elfs attention.

“Captain – that demon will be lured out of the city to the mountains north of here! If you follow, you can defeat it!”

The girl glanced around her to assess their surroundings. There were currently no signs of the normal Stormwind Guard. Presumably because they weren’t suicidal. However with the absence of Malizia and depending on how Mei’s recent assault worked up, it was possible someone would pluck up the courage to make a few arrest attempts. “Also, Captain – the human guards may get in the way if you stay here”

A further boost to her mood could surely not hurt. The girl eyed Serphia’s midriff speculatively, then raised her voice slightly so as to hopefully attract the attention of the elves stuck inside it “They won’t appreciate you the way Rithrynn does”

"Shadows of the Past", a Warcraft Roleplay

“It’s stopped pursuing us” the Captain snapped, in a tone that mingled relief and frustration as he tugged on the Gryphon’s bridle.

Kathlin peered back at the scene. It did not look, all things considered, to be what could be referred to as an ideal scenario in any sense. Malizia had managed to crush an entire block of houses and cause a miniature tsunami. Serphia had arrived on the scene. And the large Draenei had taken umbrage at the situation. “Oh dear. That’s not good”

“The church had a plan, yes!? To get that creature out of the city??”

“Yeeeess” Kathlin said doubtfully, after a moment. While technically Liaena could be considered to be ‘the church’, practically speaking it was a stretch to say the least. Her hesitation was not lost on the Captain, who glowered at her. “You said the paladins ordered this!?”

“Er, yes, they’ll approve” Kathlin said hastily, before pointing back at the carnage behind them. “We need to go back. I’ve got an idea”

“….”

There was a moment where the Captain obviously weighed up his odds of going monno-a-monno with the giant demon vs trusting the competence of the bizarre girl sitting behind him. It was a hallmark of the true carnage Malizia had inflicted on the range and file stormwind guard that he sighed, dug in his heels and urged the gryphon back towards the demon. The animal obeyed, albeit very reluctantly.

“Er, hello!” Kathlin said as she peered over the gryphon’s back to look down at Malizia. They were hovering above her, however just above grababble range. “Soooo….I don’t like this city, do you? I was thinking about going to the mountains north of here. Won’t you join me?”

The girl gulped as the demon’s eyes obviously focused on her, before addressing the Captain. “Run – er, fly. I meant”

"Shadows of the Past", a Warcraft Roleplay

“Light, it never rains…!”

Liaena clung for dear life to Aleena’s hair. Her predicament was that the mad dash for survival was now out of her hands and in those of the Night Elf. As soon as the latter had realised the peril she was in, Aleena had sprung into motion to climb up Malizia in a series of knife stab, using her long curved blade as a crampon.

Reaching her shoulder blade, Aleena hoisted herself up to dive over the arch of her body just in time. Malizia fell gracefully towards the earth, terrified citizens diving out of the way – or not, depending on their speed, dexterity and luck.

-CRASH-

The form of Malizia’s body smashed through a terrace of houses, her butt causing a small tsunami down one of the canal paths. Aleena and Li found themselves now resting comfortably on the demons naked bosom – which while admittedly confortable, was evidently not at all a safe location to be as Malizia’s eyes zeroed in on them with an evil glare.
“I’VE GOT YOU NOW!!”
“GRAAH! LEAVE ME IN PEACE! I HAVE A DATE!”

Like a fortuitously placed angel from the heavens, Mei appeared out of nowhere on Malizia’s head. Liaena squinted up at her as she took a firmer grasp of handfuls of her current ‘mounts’ hair, the Draenei dancing around on the demons scalp as Malizia made grabs, jabbing at her with her blade. The demon was demonstrating the reaction to the assault as it had to Aleena earlier: I.E. discomfort and irritation. “Please tell me you have something beside a sword! She won’t die of acupuncture!”

“I’m not sure what else I can do here…”

Assessing her options, none of them appeared stellar as Aleena scrambled to her feet, drawing her bow from her shoulder. Liaena clung on grimly, well aware of the likely ramifications if she lost her hold on her Night Elf mount.
She could remain in a shrunken state, using Aleena for protection. Or she could return to her own size and attempt to assist with the fight somehow. She still had a polymorph potion, but…lacked samples of suitable harmless animals to make use of it on the demon. Besides, recent evidence indicated that Malizia the Killer Rabbit with demonic superpowers was hardly an improvement.

“Also, where is Sharon!?”

Liaena cast her gaze about fruitlessly, before turning to glower at Mei – supposedly his bodyguard – a demonstration of anger which was doubtless entirely overlooked by the draenei currently going monno-a-monno with a giant demon.

"Shadows of the Past", a Warcraft Roleplay

“Typical” Liaena grunted as she clung for dear life to Aleena, via handfuls of her long, bright purple hair. Hester let out several angry squawks as the bird disentangled herself from the strands, to plunge away from both the elf and the mini human riding her, and disappear.

“And naturally, the bird bails at the first sign of trouble. No wonder I call her a rat”

The girl found she could make herself slightly more secure in her position by standing on a large knot-snarl in the mane she found herself in. This happy discovery found, the girl barely had time to catch her bearings as she stuck her head out to see the view – aka Malizias large back, rapidly approaching. “Eh, could be worse”

“That was a really good dodge!” Kathlin said encouragingly as she clung to the gryphons back. The sergeant was paying only limited attention to his unexpected stowaway, thus it was doubtful he even heard it as he barked instructions at his mount.

“Down! DOWN! Dive!”

Scooby obeyed, flattening out to once again barely skim the paving stones of the streets they swept down. It all appeared for naught however, as Malizia’s pounding feet sounded incredibly close behind them and a large hand reached out. “HOW DARE YOU STEAL MY BELOVED!? I WILL DESTROY YOU!!”

*THUMP*

“Eh?” Malizia paused momentarily, more from surprise than from any physical damage at the feeling of a small object ramming into her back. This was followed by – a series of stabbing pains, as though she had been stuck with a pin. “HEY! Stop that!”

“This plan isn’t short term at all” Liaena spat as she clung onto Aleena, who was clinging onto Malizia, by virtue of two long knives now jammed into the small of her back. Using these as a foothold and handhold, the Night Elf was using her free hand to get even more stabby.

“OW!”

A large hand reached up to try and grab for the pair of them. Somehow, the Night Elf had been blessed with the fools luck to land in that exact location of the annoying itch – where it was most hard to reach.

“Do I have anything to add to this?”

Was Liaena’s thought as she gazed into her satchel – before her gaze alighted upon the shrinking potion she had just used on Kathlin and herself. A few drops left at the bottom, else sadly depleted. “well there's nothing to loose here, I guess”

“HEY! NIGHT ELF!” Liaena screamed as she pushed herself through Aleenas mop to shimmey down her bangs and swing insolently in front of her face. As annoyed silvery eyes focused in on her, she brandished the vial at her. “Try and get this into one of the cuts! All of it!!”

"Shadows of the Past", a Warcraft Roleplay

“Pull up! Pull up!” Kathlin squeaked as she tugged on the gryphon’s bridle hopefully. The captain’s mouth went slightly slack-jawed for a moment as he took in the sight of the huge Demon bearing down on him, before briskly twitching the reins as he dug his knees into the Gryphon’s side. “Scooby, down!”

The gryphon dived, wings brushing between buildings as they swept only a few feet above the cobbles of one of Stormwinds main shopping areas in the Trade District. Normally bustling, it was now silent as the grave, grave, carts and stalls overturned.

Malizia’s plated metal boot loomed before them. The gryphon swept by with moments to spare to dive straight through her splayed legs and continue at full pelt in the opposite direction to Malizia’s trajectory.

“You called your gryphon Scooby?”

“WHAT? THAT’S your concern!? The Captain roared as he dragged on the reigns to bring the Gryphon into a turn, back towards the fight. “Why did the church send you!? WHY IS THAT THING FOLLOWING US!?”

“Long story – difficult to go into” Kathlin said breathlessly as she clung to the saddle. “The demon’ll follow me….head to the mountains to the north. Get it out of the city”

“…..”

“For the love of the Light, this is insane” the Captain snapped as they completed an arch to slowly circle around the demon. They were now between her and the mountains, the latter looking temptingly close. Looking around in bemusement, the pair saw the giant Malizia’s eyes obviously focus on them again as her irises burnt a brighter shade of red. “Smushy-face!”

“Run” Kathlin instructed her companions. “Er, Fly. Retreat!”

“Back! Back!” The Captain roared as his mount, who jinked around to break into a frantic dive again as a massive hand reached out for them. “…Light protect us”

*

“This counts as progress” Liaena mused as Hester hovered just above the level of the houses, well above the fight taking place. The girl watched as the gryphon containing her friend turned to flee, pursued a moment behind by Malizia. “…she could use backup. Hester, yip!”

“….”

“….move, you bloody bird” Liaena growled after a moment of Hester showing disinclination to follow the crashing noises of Malizia, or indeed do anything besides float serenely through the sky. “Chocolate!”

This invoked a reaction of Hester starting to graciously flap in the general direction of where the gryphon had just gone. They were of course, travelling many magnitudes of speed slower.

“…eh, they’re bound to slow down at some point” Liaena said to nobody in particular with a confidence that sounded not particularly convincing. “….can’t you go faster?”

“….”

“I swear to the Light I will have you in a pie”

"cluck"

"Shadows of the Past", a Warcraft Roleplay

“Go on, get moving, we need to get closer” Liaena instructed Hester irritably.

Floating serenely through the sky, the owl seemed none too eager to obey her “mistress”. Perhaps a rational stance on her part, given missiles of the equestrian variety were soaring through the sky and Malizia had a not-inconsiderable grab range. It seemed likely that in the event they did attract her attention, it would be a matter of ease for the demon to turn them into owl and human paste.

“Oh Light – that’s Silje” Kathlin said suddenly, peering down at the street.

“Who!?” Liaena demanded, before Hester took an unexpected bank to the left just in time to avoid an out-of-control Gryphon that came hurtling through the sky towards them. Man and Gryphon alike were screaming with mingled hysteria and anger as the creature arrested its fall with its wings, just in time to avoid crashing through a window.

“Whoa! Careful – easy! EASY!”

“That’ll do” Liaena muttered, before turning behind to face Kathlin and placing a small vial – currently also miniaturised – into her hand. “You’ll need to jump it, in three, two –“

“What?”

“One!”

“Gaaah!” came the startled scream as Hester banked up obligingly, and Kathlin received a strong push in the back to propel her – rather ungracefully, through the air to crash into some rather pungent, smooth leather. She had landed on the gryphons armoured rump. “…I do wish she wouldn’t do that”

Paying more attention to the vial in her hand, the girl yanked it off with her teeth to down the lot in one gulp. Already feeling her size increasing as she shuffled around, Kathlin tugged nervously on the guardsman lapel “Er, Sir? Captain?”

“Eh…WHAT ARE YOU DOING UP HERE!?” Initially twisting around sharply, the man yelled in utter disbelief as his eyes bulged at the dishevelled young woman. As if sensing his discomfort, his mount cried out angrily as it beat its wings laboriously towards the battle. “Wha—HOW---WHY??”

“Church business!” Kathlin cried out hopefully. Pointing at her blue and white apprentice robes as if that counted for evidence, she pointed up at the demon hopefully. “The church has a plan – to lure the demon out of the city with minimal damage. You need to get me over there!”

“….please?”

"Shadows of the Past", a Warcraft Roleplay

“Li, it’s on the move!”

“Yes, I noticed!!” Liaena snapped back as she skiddied over a canal bridge, screeched to a halt, then back-peddled several steps to look up at the distance form of Malizia in the gap formed by the waterway. Even without the visual evidence, it would have been quite clear that something was gravely amiss in the city, as the thundering footsteps of the demon made the very paving slabs underneath them shake, and the splintering crashing of wood and stone from buildings the demon simply ploughed through was clearly audible.

“Oh Light…it’s like the Dragon all over again”

“It seems to be on a rampage”

“--Noticed that too!”

“….not in the direction of the mountains” Kathlin finished her sentence as she stopped beside Liaena to also gaze out upon the carnage. “I don’t think the gryphon plan is going to work”

“No, no, we can still fix this. We’ve got the time…” Liaena muttered distractedly, before being interrupted by a tug on her sleeve from her companion as she pointed at the sky.

“Time isn’t the problem here, Li”

Overhead, the sky was filled suddenly with gryphon riders, clad in the Stormwind colours of blue and gold as they swooped down towards the demon. The rider in the lead, raised a plated hand to point it down at the creature. This signal was immediately followed by a volley of rifle mortar – shots barrelling into Malizia, who dealt with this minor irritation by twisting around and yelling something incomprehensible at this range. The riders pulled out of their dive after the first bombardment, to start turning around again.

“Yes….they have gryphons. Good idea, Kitty!”
Liaena exclaimed, to which her companion gave her a bemused look. “What idea?”

“We can hitch a lift! They’re soldiers. Say it’s on Holy business”

Kathlin gave her friend a Look, which strongly implied she was running through all the many, many problems she had with this plan, only to settle on the most obvious. “How do we get up there?”

In answer, Liaena merely glanced around, before darting off the bridge and along the canal path until she reached a small open-fronted store. It was completely abandoned, the owner presumably having long since fled in terror as the girl stuck her hand in the front to pick up a small bar of chocolate. She then stepped back into the middle of the path to proffer the chocolate at the sky pointedly.

“CAW!”

“Ow! Watch the talons, idiot bird” Liaena grumbled as Hester the owl landed serenely on the bridge rail, half of the chocolate bar already vanishing down her gullet. The girl then turned back towards Kitty. “Come on then. I’m running on emergency reserves of shrinking-potion. Let’s not waste it”

"Shadows of the Past", a Warcraft Roleplay

“Okay, so you want the paladins to ambush this giant demon on the northern pass?”

“No, no, the southern pass!” Liaena said impatiently. Brushing Kathlin’s hand aside, she pointed imperiously at the paper. “There’s the first mountain range north of Stormwind. See?”

“….No?”

“That looks like a deformed hedgehog, Li”

“Well you draw it then!” Liaena scowled at her companion, who merely removed the parchment from her, turned it over and started drawing on the back.

“This is ridiculous….” Liam groaned. “You expect me, to mobilise the PALADINS, with this sort of nonsense? You’re wasting my time here”

“Wasting your time implies you were doing something useful to begin with” Liaena snapped back.

“Guys….”

“Well yes actually, I was administering to the hospital. Not that you’d value that, seeing how you prefer to inflict damage rather than heal it”

“Guys…”

“Excuse me, if it wasn’t for me just where would your girlfriend be rotting?”

“Not in a situation I don’t doubt she was in ALL BECAUSE OF YOU…!”

“GUYS!”

“WHAT?”

Liam and Liaena shouted in unison at Kathlin, the former looking slightly bashful after he remembered himself: “I mean, uh….yes dear?”

Kathlin nodded across the yard. “Priest Marshall is coming”

“what?”
Liaena spun around to take in the highly unwelcome view of that very angry looking gentle-priest, currently stomping across the yard towards them. From the expression on his reddened face, his mood had not been improved with the dark haired girl appearing in his sights – who had actually gone a shade paler at the sight of him. “RUNE! I WOULD HAVE WORDS! WITH YOU!”

“Er, okay. Briefing done” Liaena gulped, before glancing at Liam and grabbing Kathlin’s hand. “You know the plan, right?”

“NO! Liae….”

“Byeee!” the girl snapped out, before turning tail and diving into the buildings behind them, dragging her friend with her.

"Shadows of the Past", a Warcraft Roleplay

“Okay, I suggest you explain right now Rune” Liam growled, the young man having gone from blanched to acquiring blotchy spots of anger of his cheeks as he observed Liaena’s amusement. “Or—or I will recommend you for latrine cleaning duty. For a month.”

“It’s not that complicated really” Liaena said dryly. “There was a demon. I tried to shrink it. But someone mixed up my potions, and I ended up accidently dosing her with love potion. She saw Kitty first. Most unfortunate”

“Pretty sure there was more to it than that”

Kathlin mumbled. Liam stared at her. “That—that doesn’t explain anything! Why is there a demon!? How did it get here!? Will there be more??”

“Semantics”

“Wha….those are not semantics! Do you even know what that words means!?”

“Calm down, dear” Kathlin beseeched, casting a quick glance at over at the paladins who had started to take an interest. Liam’s voice had risen to a high-pitched infuriated squeak as he glowered at Liaena. “Li is trying to help. Actually, the demon bit is more my fault”

“……”

The priest’s mouth clacked shut, before giving her a sharp look at that admission. “….That’s ridiculous. Don’t say that”

“Anyway” Liaena cut in “Source of demon notwithstanding -- we’re making an ambush for her. If I give you a location and a time, can you pass on the message and get the paladins over there?”

“….not easily! I’m hardly their usual tactician!” Liam frowned. “Besides, they’ll want to talk to you”

“Er, no”

Liaena shook her head curtly, before looking around quickly to check for observers. Liam’s earlier outburst notwithstanding, it was evident the people of the square had enough to do to bother themselves with their posse. “You can tell them the message is from me, that’ll probably make them sit up. But I don’t feel like being arrested. Also, they’re going to need air support”

“…what?”

The girl shifted a fragment of parchment out of her pocket and a pencil, licking the lead before she put it to the paper to scrawl a few shapes. “This is Stormwind. These are the northern mountains”

Liam stared at the parchment as it was pushed at him. “….try harder, Rune”

“Shall I do it, Li?”

“….what?” Liaena frowned at the pair, before adopting a defensive look as she glanced at her handiwork. “Everyone’s a critic.”