First Impressions

Featuring: Silandra (And the voices)
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From: Stone Guard Gronk Rendermaim; Crossroads, the Barrens
To: Stone Guard Rhak Bladesnapper; Mosh'arn Rampant, the Barrens
My friend, I have always maintained that allowing the Blood Elves into the Horde was a mistake. Today I think I have finally found the proof I need for my case.
A Blood Elf, and one of those damnable Blood Knights at that, walked into the Crossroads today. She stated that her name was Silandra Silverwolf (or something... I can never get the hang of those pansy Elf names) and that she had come to serve the Horde. Her papers seemed to be in order and, well, there were a handful of people there who were more then glad to see a Blood Knight in amongst our forces. (Get raided as often as we do and you'll know what a damnable Paladin can do for those alliance curs. To some of the men, the prospect of our having one seemed to be an advantage. The fools.)
I'll say now that she couldn't have looked more out of place. Pink skin, straight back, delicate features... she looked like she was too fragile for the battlefield. Even your average bag-of-bones Forsaken (And yes, I think I'm going to say that I now I worry more about Blood Elves then Forsaken. That's saying a lot, boyo) has more meat on them then she did. I have no idea how she managed to wander around in mail or carry a big sword without falling over but, well, she seemed to be determined to do it.
(And at about that time, at least one Tauren decided to scamper off. Nice kid, name of Will. He's very sensible despite being rather dense. Again, bad sign.)
But by the spirits did that girl have guts. Just talking to her I saw that she had a sort of ferocious determination, the sort you'd expect out of a battle-scarred veteran like me, not some whimsy, fragile little girl. She said that she would do anything needed of her for 'her cause' which I assumed meant "for the Horde." Yeah, right. Listen, when a Blood Elf says "for the cause" they mean "For me and my pointy-eared psycho friends." Just like a fracking Forsaken, really. But the thing was, she had this anger, this rage, this seething hatred and determination that I couldn't argue with, as if she wanted to just lay into everything around her there and then.
So I rounded up her and a couple of other rough new recruits and went out to deal with Quillboars. You can't go wrong with cracking a few porker skulls open as a way to get kids pointed in the right direction. She joined the pack willingly enough but, well, I dunno... not too long into the march, she seemed to be slacking behind. Dragging her feet a bit, lolling her head, gazing off into space, you know - clear signs that she didn't want to be there. So I shoved her to the front on the excuse that, as a Blood Knight, she could take point as she was supposedly the toughest of us. At least one Darkspear at the back sniggered. I didn't blame 'im.
We neared their camp; I'll say this much for the Porkers that, despite the raids, they're persistent little pests. They were swarming all over the place, looking like they were getting ready for a raid or somethin'. Well, Silandra decided that she wasn't gonna have nothing of this and charged at the first enemy she could find, specifically a Porker Geomancer. And that’s when some of the freakiest crap I have ever seen occurred.
She did some sort of mumbo-jumbo that I at first thought was some sort of Blood Knight spell - but it weren't. There was this green flow around her hands, similar to those freaky green eyes that them Blood Elves have. And then some green glow leapt out of the Porker and into her, as if she was draining it out of them. The Porker collapsed, looking for all the world like he'd just aged a decade. And then she grinned and drove her sword through his skull.
That was not a sane person grin, by the way.
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"Don't you feel it?" Silandra began, her face twisted into a deranged grin as she pulled the sword from the corpse of the Geomancer. "The power... oh yes... the power. It makes us stronger, more powerful... everything becomes clearer, more vivid, more focused. It cuts through the haze that surrounds us all... and reveals us for the superior beings that we are!"
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With a scream, she ran off into the nearest pack of Porkers and laid into them like she was some sorta madwoman. She was just a machine, chopping them down left and right, screaming and shouting as she went. On occasion, she'd stop to heal herself with that fancy Blood Knight magics of hers, and then on occasion hit a Geomancer with that weird arse-green glow but... yeah. I swear to ya, she fought like she was possessed. The rest of us moved in to take on the porkers but, well, for the other rookies they were less fighting and more cleaning up after her.
So I thought, maybe I've misjudged her. Maybe she ain't so much of a weakling after all. I mean, she'd certainly done enough damage to warrant a bit of appreciation, and I'm man enough to admit when I've been wrong. And hell, it looked like I would get my chance. And there she was, just standing there, looking out over the carnage she'd left in her wake. So I walked up to her.
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"Hey Silandra!" Gronk called out. "Nice work there. Huh, you really showed 'em."
The Blood Elf slowly turned to look back towards the Orc, her head lolling to one side as she let out a quiet sigh. "huh..." She began, staring off to a point about a foot left to Gronk's shoulders. "Innnnteresting."
"What is?" Gronk asked, raising a brow.
"The mana here." She continued. "It tastes... different, doesn't it. Maybe not as flavoursome but... older, yes. Older, with a certain, deep, ageless feel to it... can't you sense it too?"
"No..." Gronk shook his head. "I don't think I follow you."
"Shh..." She continued. "Can't you hear them?"
"Hear... what?" The Orc warrior looked around.
"The voices." She finished, continuing to stare off into the distance. "The voices. They're telling me what I must do to achieve the Golden dream."
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And that's when I realised it. She was completely crazy.
I did some digging and asking around, even going so far as to prod an elderly Forsaken Mage who had been hanging around like a dead smell for some time. It turns out that Blood Elves are mana addicts, and what she'd been doing was draining mana out of the Quillboars to feed off. And this isn't just her, mind you - this is all Blood Elves can do this, be they magic users or not. And they all will do this to get their 'fix' if you like. It's almost the living embodiment of all Thrall fought against and tried to get rid of when he remade the hall.
Not to speak ill of him but, you know, some days I think our Warcheif may have gone a bit soft in the head. First the Forsaken, then these Blood Elves... what next?
But I'm rambling. The truth is, Rhak, that deep down in my warrior's heart, I feel afraid of these... creatures, and what they may do to us.
Category:Stories
Category:Horde Stories