Pook Chooses a Path

Author: Pook
==The Chapter of the Seed==
Pook dreamed. 
It was more or less the same dream, every night, for as long as she'd been aware of her dreams. A gathering of cloaked, secretive figures in Tirisfal Glades. A tower, standing above a giant canyon. A castle, connected to sprawling crypts and caves. A room filled with water, chains, and bodies floating from them. 
And a man. Cloaked and hooded, he was somehow more than just a man. Two beings, fighting for supremacy, seemed to occupy the same space. Sometimes he was a crow. He watched her, and nothing more. 
With the help of several friends, she'd done a lot of research. Vorithius had taken her to where the books about the past were that might explain the people and places in her dreams. Vaien had taken her to the Undercity and his brother Sarvis had temporarily given her the ability to speak Orcish so that she could further see what the ruins of Lordaeron held on the matter. Erunamo had given her the key piece of information to start her on her path, identifying the man in her dreams - Medivh, known as The Prophet. 
All of these things inexorably lead her to one place, one thing she had to see. 
Karazhan. 
The empty ruins stood astride Deadwind Pass, just like she'd seen them. Beside her was Tybilt, firmly encouraging her to see the place for herself, to see that it was just a place. To see that fate was powerless to decide her destiny, no matter what role she was supposed to have played in a history that had unknowingly passed her by as she lived, feral and without language, in the forests of Winterspring. 
The two of them found a way past the gate blocking the entrance to the crypts, explored the ruins, came at last to a large room with a huge dirt pit. What kind of monster had inhabited it, she wondered? Would it have been her? 
Tybilt stabbed one of his daggers into the soft earth. "It's just a place," he'd said. "A place can't decide your fate. You're always free to choose." 
Pook nodded, looking around at the crumbling stone walls. "I don't want this. Any of this. I turrn my back on it. I'll make my own way..." 
There was no response from the empty crypt. Emboldened, she went on. "Do you hearr that, you stupid crrow? I'm done with this!" 
Smiling, Tybilt took her hands and the two of them used their hearthstones to carry them safely back to Stormwind. 
In the crypts, in the tower, in the castle, the echoes of her words hung in the air, far longer than they should have. 
"We have been summoned," it was one phrase, with two voices. 
==The Chapter of the Sprout==
A few nights later, Pook sat in the Wisps and Spirits tavern, getting ragingly drunk. She was lonely, and she was angry. Tybilt hadn't been around a lot, especially not when she was getting into trouble - being stabbed, being captured. It didn't occur to her in her drunkenness that it would take one person an awful lot to keep up with all the trouble she seemed to find herself in. 
She swayed as she walked outside, only to find Tybilt himself in front of her. 
He seemed to want to talk to her, to tell her something, but she wouldn't have any of it. She railed against him, unloading all of her anxieties and anger and insecurties in a single alcohol-fueled rage. He frowned, quietly, apologized, and then walked away. 
It wasn't until later that night that she realized what a mistake she'd made, when the letter came. 
Something had happened, it said, something was stirring, awakening. Something was coming for her, but first it would take him. Something from Karazhan. The next time she saw him, it might not be him who truly stood in front of her. 
She took the letter around in a panic, trying to figure out what it meant, but nobody agreed to help her. Finally she went alone, back to Karazhan. Once there she found Erunamo already investigating and stuck inside, despite his declarations of non-involvement before. She entered as well and returned to the room with the earthen floor. 
"I take it all back!" She shouted desperately. "I'll do what you want, just leave him alone! I'll accept my fate, whateverr it is!" 
As before, there was no answer. 
The next day, after Erunamo was freed from the place and everyone was returned home, Pook saw Tybilt approaching her again...only something was very wrong. He carried a strange firey green staff and his eyes were not his own. He was dressed formally and moved stiffly, like someone was propelling him from the outside. He told her to seek out someone named Zargoth, an Undead in Tirisfal Glades, for more information. 
Feeling helpless, determined, she smeared on purple paint, put in false tusks. It was something she'd done before, for research and for the sheer fun of it, dressing like a Troll. It allowed her access to areas of the Horde lands she couldn't otherwise have. Pookara the Troll stepped uneasily into the Undercity, looking for someone that she desperately needed to help her. 
In just a few moments Sarvis came riding to her rescue, giving her the ability to speak Orcish again, and stayed by her side as she found the unnerving Undead man Zargoth. He explained to her that he was the one in between the two entities who wished to show her a path, take her on a journey to find her destiny. One of them wanted her to choose the darkness, a path of death and destruction. The other one wanted her to choose a path of peace, of healing and light. At the end of the journey, after she had seen all that she needed to see, she would choose a path. 
Tybilt was there to be her guide. He would represent both of the entities, both of the spirits. He had bargained to give away his body and soul up willingly to do this, to take her through the journey where he had not had any guidance. He had walked the same path just a short time ago, alone. 
He asked her if she had any questions. Knowing that the opportunity may not come again to find out the details of her past, she grabbed it. 
"Who werre my parrents?" She asked Zargoth, whose limp jaw shifted in what might have been a surprised grin. Apparently this wasn't the line of questioning he was expecting. 
"Daltrien and Altea Lightblade," he said simply. 
"And my name? What would it have been?" She asked, shifting anxiously. 
"Sinae. Sinae Lightblade." Zargoth replied. 
Pook took this in. "And why...did they leave me, in the forrest? Why did they--" 
Zargoth held up a hand. "Much will be revealed to you on your journey. The situation...is perhaps not what you thought it was. Many questions will be answered, on your path." 
Pook nodded, her mind a blur, unable to take it all in. She only hoped that things would get clearer as she took this journey, whatever it turned out to be. 
"Which do you think she'll choose?" One voice asked far away. It was the voice of destruction and chaos, dripping with fire and pain. 
"It's hard to say," The other voice said. It was simply the voice of a man, a man who was filled with regret and with wisdom. "We shall have to wait and see." 
==The Chapter of the Sapling==
"Who are you?" 
Pook blinked at Tybilt, his eyes glowing green, his expression neutral. How did you answer a question like that? Even if she could pin down an answer, it might be different in a short time. 
"I am Pook..." she said. 
"Incorrect," Tybilt said, turning away and walking. "You will follow me, and stay on the path. So long as you stay on the path, you will not be harmed...physically..." 
Behind him Pook followed, her eyes wide. 
"We will be taking a journey to see different people, different places, in the past. You may talk to people, interact with them, but anything you do will not change the past. We are merely spectators, viewing events that have already happened. They will be able to see you, but not me. Do you have any questions?" He said, continuing on, his gaze unwaveringly ahead. 
"I would ask the same question of you," She said, frowning at his back. "Who arre you?" 
He turned with an unsettling grin. "I am a piece of one, a piece of the other, and a piece of the one who gave his body to do this. That was the bargain that was made. Who are you?" 
"I am...a Night Elf who was left in the forrest?" She said, puzzled. 
"Incorrect. That is your past. But the past is what we are concerned with today. It is the first part of your journey. Are you prepared?" He held out his odd flaming staff in front of him. Pook nodded silently. 
He took the staff and pressed it to her abdomen, and she gasped in shock as the glowing flames enveloped her body. She didn't normally feel heat or cold, but this was a different kind of burning. Around her the world warped and turned, the buildings around them in Ironforge getting newer, cleaner, the faces around them changing. 
They stepped out into the snow of Dun Morogh. A short way away there was a Dwarf standing, giving a speech of some kind to an assortment of snowmen. Pook peered at the familiar face, although much younger than the one she knew now, the beard and hair much shorter but still flaming red. 
"Now, ah've asked ye here today, th' Dark Irons an' th' Wildhammers, ta...strike an...ach, damn..." A young Draeg Flamebeard said, addressing the snowmen. He looked awkward and frustrated. 
"How does someone choose their path?" Tybilt said, close behind her. "How does someone decide who they are? Do they do it because it's what they want, or because they want to be like someone else?" 
"Hello," Pook said to Flamebeard, kneeling down to be on eye level. "What arre you doing herre?" 
"Ah'm practicin' ta be a diplomat like meh dad," Draeg said, not looking up from his snowmen, his face twisting in sorrow. "Ach, how can ah be like 'im if ah canna even remember th' words?" 
Pook reached out and patted his shoulder. "It's all rright..." 
"Why do you comfort him?" Tybilt asked her. "It won't change anything." 
"Then I do it forr myself," She said, looking over Flamebeard's features. "Is this what you want? To be a diplomat like yourr fatherr? Orr is therre anotherr path that appeals to you?" 
"Aye, meh father's a great man, an' ah want ta be a great man," Draeg said, smiling and looking distant. "Righ' now he's travellin' ta Aerie Peak ta talk to th' Wildhammers an' strike an accord..." 
Pook frowned. She knew, from talking to Flamebeard what would happen to end that journey, an ambush on the Thandol Span that would end his life. Flamebeard went back to addressing the collected snowmen, so engrossed in getting the words right he didn't hear a growling behind him... 
In a flash the starving snow leopard was upon him. She stood, hesitating, wanting to help but also having a general idea of how things would play out... 
"STOP!" Flamebeard shouted, holding out a hand to the leopard. It snarled and swiped, and gouged him deeply across the side. He winced and held himself, but still continued to gaze into the leopard's eyes. It looked back at him, puzzled, and then of all things it did stop. Very carefully Flamebeard reached into his pack and removed a fish, tossing it to the leopard which sniffed at it suspiciously and then gobbled it gratefully. The look it gave Flamebeard, and he gave the leopard in return, was one of pure devotion and love. 
"Ach, yer jus' hungry, ye poor thing...ye'll need a name. Hmm...Janx..." Flamebeard said, walking away with his new loyal companion at his side. 
"What have you learned?" Tybilt asked at Pook's shoulder. 
"That sometimes we can encounterr people who will unexpectedly change ourr path," Pook said, watching them go. 
There was another wavering, another twisting, and suddenly they were in Ashenvale, near a cave. 
"But what if you don't have anyone else? What do you do then?" Tybilt asked as they approached. 
There was a sound and then a scurrying inside the cave, and a young elf grabbed up a cat and hid behind a rock. Peering more closely, Pook saw that she wasn't just an Elf, having the beginnings of tusks jutting out from behind her bottom lip. 
"Corrvissia," She said soothingly to the half-troll girl, who stared at her with wide fearful eyes. 
"How do you know my name? Grandpa? How does she know?" She asked the cat twisting to get out of her arms. "Are you a Sentinel??" 
"A what? No...I'm just a trravellerr..." Pook said, stepping away and holding out her empty hands in as non-threatening a way as she could manage. 
"Mommy and Daddy say that the Sentinels will take us away, if they find us," Corvissia said frowning. "I haven't seen either one of them in a while...they said to hide here, until they came back..." 
Pook hung her head. This was also a history that she could remember more or less what happened next. 
"How do you tell a child that she is alone?" Tybilt said behind her, walking around Corvissia closely and smelling her hair. Pook glared at him. "How do you tell her that her path is one that she'll have to walk by herself, and so young? Do you have the strength to do it?" 
"Corrvissia..." Pook said, frowning. 
"Why do you talk funny like that? You look pretty strange, for a Troll. My Daddy is a troll. He loves my Mommy very much, and that's why they have lots and lots of kids. Isn't that right Grandpa?" Corvissia said to the cat, which looked at her sadly. 
"Trry and hold on to those times in yourr mind, Corrvissia. Yourr family, and the love you all sharred. Yourr parrents...won't be coming back..." Pook said, extending an arm, which Corvissia shied away from. 
"That's not a very funny joke..." Corvissia said, and Pook turned and sadly exited the cave. As she left, she heard Corvissia questioning the cat. "It was a joke, right Grandpa? Right...?" 
"What have you learned?" Tybilt asked her. 
"You can be prreparred forr a difficult path by ones who love you," Pook said. 
"But sometimes you must find the strength to walk that path alone," Tybilt replied, and the world spun again. 
They were in a wooded area, and there was a frosty nip to the air. Probably somewhere between Moonglade and Winterspring, Pook guessed by the surroundings. They approached some bushes and suddenly a Night Elf man strode out, holding a staff at ready threateningly. 
"Who goes there?" He demanded. 
"I am a trravellerr..." Pook said, peering at him. She had recognized Draeg and Corvissia, but this man was a stranger. There was something vaguely familiar about his scent, though... "I mean you no harrm...what is yourr name?" 
The man looked at her consideringly for a moment, and then seemed to come to a decision. "Daltrien. Daltrien Lightblade. And you are?" 
Pook gasped and took a step back, blinking. "I...I call myself Pook." 
There was another movement in the bushes, a soft cry. Daltrien nodded towards it. "You can come out now," he said. 
Standing before Pook was someone with her face, cradling a baby. A baby who also had her face. "This is my wife Altea and our daughter, Sinae," Daltrien said. 
Pook felt her knees buckle and bit back tears, looking at the three of them together. "Why...what would make you leave herr?" She said, her eyes hardening. 
"Leave her? I'd give my life for her," Daltrien said, stepping in front of his wife and the baby. "Who are you, and what do you know?" 
"Who are you?" Tybilt repeated behind her, sitting on a tree branch. 
"Even if perrhaps she had a darrk destiny? Even knowing she might become a monsterr?" Pook asked, advancing on the three. 
"We would support her no matter what path she took," Altea said as her husband drew his staff defensively. 
Pook looked down at the baby, at herself, so many questions swimming in her mind. But there was only one that mattered. 
"Do you love herr?" She asked softly, looking back and forth between them. 
"More than anything," Daltrien said firmly, and behind him Altea nodded. 
Pook turned away, walking over to Tybilt. "That's all I needed to know herre." 
"Nothing else?" Tybilt said with a smirk, and gestured behind her. "Look..." 
Another Elven man stepped out into the small clearing, his daggers drawn. Pook watched in horror as he attacked her father. 
"Altea, run!" Daltrien shouted, holding off the man's daggers with his stave. Altea took the baby and disappeared into the woods. 
It was quick work, the assassin was clearly skilled, and he had Daltrien unarmed in no time. Pook blinked as she saw Altea return, the baby gone, hidden somewhere most likely, just in time to see her husband get stabbed in the heart. She stood helplessly and watched in horror as the man grabbed her mother's hair, spun her around and cut her throat. 
The man wiped his daggers on his pants and grinned horribly at Pook. "Sorry about that, just doing a job..." 
Pook advanced on him, furious. "Who arre you? Why did you do this??" 
"Who are you?" Tybilt echoed. 
"Me? I'm nobody important," He said, shrugging casually. "I could ask you the same question." 
"I am Sinae Lightblade, and you just killed my parrents! Now answer me!" Pook yelled, furious. 
The man's eyebrows went up. "Is that so? I thought you were younger...just a baby. I came here for you, but now...hmm. I'll have to go check back and see what's going on. I've got to be on my way..." 
Pook snarled, feeling her body shift almost of its own will, and ran in front of him. She savagely ripped at his throat with her teeth and claws and watched him collapse, blood spraying. 
"Did it feel good to do that?" Tybilt asked, suddenly at her shoulder again, as she wiped the blood from her mouth. 
"A little..." She said, looking at the body dispassionately. "It's only too bad that this will have no consequence." 
"Not now, but perhaps later" Tybilt said cryptically. "What have you learned?" 
"I learrned that my parrents loved me," Pook said, staring. "And I've learrned that the cirrcumstances of my separration frrom them was perrhaps not what I thought it was." 
Tybilt nodded as the forest gave way to Stormwind once again. "Who are you?" 
"I am an Elf who calls herrself Pook whose parrents loved herr, who trried theirr best to prreparre herr forr a difficult path, and who is trrying to find herr way. Herr own destiny." 
Tybilt nodded, but made no comment. "There is one more place that we shall visit today...one more person you will talk to..."
The forest faded once again to Stormwind, inside the Orphanage there. Smirking, Tybilt walked behind a pillar...
And came out the other side himself, as a boy. Barely on the cusp of adolescence, if that, Pook couldn't help but smile at his gangly eagerness. 
"Hello..." he said unsurely, catching sight of her. "Are you here to help out?"
"I'm just a trravellerr," Pook said. "Do you live herre?"
"No...I mean, I used to...now I come over here and help when I can. The Matrons try and all, but...well, they can't watch all the time, and sometimes...well, nobody cares if an orphan goes missing, you know?" Tybilt's brow creased in a frown.
Pook frowned in sympathy. "So wherre do you stay, then?"
Tybilt's face brightened. "Oh, I got a great place...you wanna see it?" He said eagerly.
Pook smiled and nodded, and walked after him through the canal district. At one point there were harsh voices, high and young, followed by a loud splash and yelling, but neither of them turned to see what was going on. 
After a short walk they arrived at the SI:7 headquarters in Old Town. "This is where I live now. They're training me and stuff..." he smiled and ducked his head bashfully. Pook looked around the courtyard filled with combat equipment. 
"But you'rre so young..." she said, regarding Tybilt with concern.
"I'm not as young as some of the other kids here," he said, gesturing for her to follow him inside. They took a seat in a small reception area near the front door where a few chairs were set out for trainees and visitors. 
"And arre you happy? Is this what you want to do with yourr life?" Pook asked him, watching him carefully.
Tybilt fidgeted. "Well, I mean, what's not to like? Warm food, a roof over my head, a bed, and I'm learning to do something useful..."
"You don't want anything morre? Powerr? Money?...Love?" She asked, tilting her head to one side.
Tybilt scoffed. "Love? Me? Who's gonna do that? I don't have lots of money and fancy carriages and a title like a lot of other guys..."
"Like Lorrd Crromwell?" Pook asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Oh THAT guy, you know him?" Tybilt asked, rolling his eyes.
Pook grinned. "You don't carre forr him much?"
"I dunno...he's paying for all this, and between you and me, he's a little bit funny..." he made a tilting gesture with one hand. "But he hasn't asked anything weird of me. I dunno if I'll stick around like he wants after I'm done here, though."
"You don't feel obligated to him, then?" Pook asked, puzzled.
"Nah...he's just the guy paying the bills. I think I'll go see the world after my training's finished, find something to do and stuff..." Tybilt frowned wistfully.
Pook frowned herself. It might be an odd place and time to bring it up, but she might not have another opportunity and she had to know what he thought...
"Tell me...let's say you werre on a path. The path comes to a forrk. One rroad leads thrrough darrkness, shadow and firre. The otherr leads to blank light, so brright it burrns, and nothing else at all as farr as the eye can see. Which would you choose?"
Tybilt blinked at her. "I guess it would depend on where the roads were going to."
Pook sighed. "I alrready told you. Shadow and firre orr the Light. If you could choose between being an extrremely good perrson and an extrremely bad perrson, which would you choose?"
"Well..." Tybilt rubbed his chin thoughtfully, a gesture that Pook recognized fondly. "I guess I wouldn't pick either one. I guess I'd find another way around. Make my own path."
Pook smiled and nodded, and then regarded him. "So tell me...why is it you think girrls wouldn't like you again?"
Tybilt blushed. "Well...I mean...I'm not rich or powerful or anything...if it was just a matter of...you know..." his blush deepened "I'm sure eventually I could pay or something..."
Pook couldn't help but grin at his discomfort. It was downright adorable. "Not all girrls want those things."
"Oh really? All the ones I know do..." Tybilt said with a despondent frown.
Pook rose from her chair and stepped over to him and he blinked up at her in surprise. She leaned in and kissed him softly on the lips and then stepped back, smiling. He turned several very interesting shades of red. 
"Not all," she said, and an awkward grin spread across his face from ear to ear.
"Uh...sorry...I...I've just never been kissed before..." Tybilt faltered, unable to look up at her. "But...uh...there's this place, the Pig and Whistle? Sometimes we go there after training...they don't really care how old you are and stuff...maybe this Friday, did you want to...um...go with me, or something?"
Pook smiled gently. "No...I'm afrraid I can't. But someday...we'll see each otherr again. I just know it."
Tybilt smiled, half-relieved. "You know...if I did find a girl like that, one who was really special to me...I'd buy her as many flowers as I could afford, and give them to her all the time..." he grinned bashfully.
Pook grinned at this as well, remembering all the flowers she'd received from Tybilt. 
"Well, I'd better get back to my training...Mister Shaw is gonna be mad if I don't get back soon..." Tybilt said, getting up and nearly stumbling over himself. 
Pook nodded and watched him bound up the stairs, taking them two at a time. Then the world twisted again, and she was back in the Cathedral district of Stormwind, in the present time.
"What have you learned?" Tybilt, once again restored to adulthood and possessed by the spirits, asked her.
"I've learrrned that therre can be a choice besides just Light and Darrk. That I can trry to make my own way." Pook said firmly.
"Who are you?"
"I am Pook, I am Sinae Lightblade, I am an Elf who has found love and a path that she wants to take. A path of herr own making, between the light and the darrkness."
Tybilt nodded slowly. "That's as good an answer as any we've heard. You have seen much that you should think over. We'll come for you tomorrow, and your journey will continue."
==The Chapter of the Tree==
"What do you want?" 
It was a deceptively simple question, but one that provoked much thought. The spirits in Tybilt's eyes watched Pook carefully as she tried to frame an answer. 
"Well...I suppose I want to be happy. Isn't that what everryone wants?" She said with a frown. She was never sure what the answers to these questions were supposed to be, and it seemed like no matter what she said the answer was deemed lacking. 
"Is it?" He asked, a grin forming at the corner of his lips. He set a basin of water at the edge of the fountain in Stormwind, softly glowing. "Drink this, it will open your mind and help you to see the truth." 
Pook sipped at the water, feeling warm as it washed down. Tybilt raised his flaming staff and pressed it to her abdomen again, and instead of burning this time her body tingled, tickling with energy. 
Over the course of the day they encountered many people. Some willing to help, some not understanding, others resistant to the pair and their incessant questioning. 
"What do you want?" 
It sounded simple enough, but the answer was, as always, quite complex. 
"Ah want ta keep meh family safe," Flamebeard said with a frown. 
"I want my friends, all of my friends, to be safe and happy, and to make the world a place where they can be," Jinx replied simply. 
"It doesn't matter what I want," Erunamo said, looking at Pook with a hint of a pained expression in his eyes. 
"I want ta be happy, a'course, an' live forever, an' have th' freedom ta enjoy it!" Jamie Redshaw said with a hearty chuckle. 
"I couldn't even begin to know how to answer that...what do you want?" Corvissia asked the spirits in Tybilt's body. 
The Wisps and Spirits tavern itself, of course, remained silent, although Pook seemed to sense that what it wanted was to be filled with people and laughter from all walks of life, regardless of affiliation. 
"And what would you be willing to do, to get what you want? How far would you be willing to go? Would you kill? Murder an innocent, to achieve and protect what you want?" Tybilt asked them, his face impassive. 
"Ah'd...do anythin'..." Flamebeard said at some length, his face troubled. 
"I would not take another life," Jinx said. "I can only give what is mine, my own life." 
"I'd give my own life, if I had to, but to kill an innocent..." Erunamo said and sat, staring out over the Moonwell, ending the conversation. 
"Kill someone? Why're ye askin' all these creepy questions, mate?" Jamie said defensively, crossing his arms angrily. 
Corvissia frowned, concerned, after the spirits finished showing Corvissia in her mind what they had wanted for Pook long ago, in a past that was destined but had been avoided, had never happened. "I hope that what you really want is the peaceful path, Pook, because the other one..." 
The tavern, as always, kept its own counsel. 
"What have you learned?" The spirits asked Pook with Tybilt's voice. 
"I've learrned that many people don't know what they trruly want, orr if they think they do they arre often mistaken. I've learrned that few arre willing to take the neccessarry steps to prrotect and achieve what they want." 
"And what do you want?" Tybilt's cold eyes settled on Pook. 
"I want the frreedom to choose my own path, my own destiny. And I want to do so with Tybilt," she said firmly. 
"And what are you willing to do to achieve that?" 
"Anything." She said simply, her eyes narrowing. 
Tybilt nodded. "I will come for you again, and the next journey will be the most dangerous of all. Prepare yourself." 
Far away and yet very close, the spirits turned to one another, ancient foes and yet ancient allies. Between them was another man, guiding and helping, waiting. 
"Which of us do you think she'll choose now?" One of the spirits asked. 
"I hope she'll choose herself," the man said quietly.
==Blooming==
((To Be Continued...))
==The Chapter of the Felling==
((To Be Continued...))
Category:Stories