Iyotanka, or Leda in Iyotanka's body rather, stumbled away to guard the Park entrance. Asterius didn't consider the gesture necessary since he figured the fighting within the city would be contained in more populated areas rather than spread to this remote region of Stormwind, but he wasn't about to stop her. There was nothing she could do to help him right now but wait, anyway. At least she wouldn't get in the way while standing guard.
"Will he be all right?" It seemed Nara wasn't so quick to dismiss the departing tauren from her mind, who was taking slow and uncertain steps like a toddler learning to walk. The night elf had seen such behavior before in head injury victims, and she watched Leda leave with a concerned stare.
"They'll be fine," Asterius replied, not bothering even to look up. His attention remained solely on the soft earth before him. Using the wide palms and clawed fingertips of his treant form, Asterius began to dig a shallow pit, placing the scooped out dirt into the water of the moonwell. He continued to talk as he dug, addressing the priestess who had risked so much for people she didn't even know. "I thank you for your efforts, elf. My friends and I owe you a great debt."
"I... I didn't help for your gratitude, I..." Nara started to say, but couldn't finish the sentence. Why did I help? She thought back to the moment when she had discovered the injured tauren male and his bear companion. They were obviously soldiers of some kind, pawns in the war she'd sworn not to get involved in. Or were they? Her thoughts drifted back to the image of the tauren. Did he really fit the image of a savage warrior? His eyes were filled with concern and sadness, not bloodthirsty rage. The way he had held his dying friend was so gentle. He seemed... different, somehow. His image would have stayed in her mind longer, had the treant's words not brought her back to the present.
"Reasons are not as important as actions." He had a nice sized grave hollowed out by now and he was struggling to push the bear's corpse into it, though a good half of the massive beast form still stuck above ground level even while entombed. The soil that had been placed in the moonwell had turned to a thick mud that glowed dimly, and Asterius had begun to cover Leda's dead body with the wet earth. "Your actions were to save my friends, and for that I am grateful. But I'm afraid I must again ask for your help."
"What should I do?" Nara asked. The treant did not immediately answer. With the body completely covered in its rather haphazard grave, Asterius turned his attention elsewhere. He rose from beside the moonwell and strode purposefully to the nearby tailoring shop that was Nara's home.
"Do you know of the Great Trees?" Asterius finally responded to her question with one of his own. In reply, Nara scoffed at him.
"Of course I know. Every druid knows of the Great Trees." She closed her eyes and spoke as if reciting a text she had learned as a child, "Great Trees are saplings of the World Tree and portals to the Emerald Dream."
Asterius, meanwhile, had entered into the tailoring shop. He was searching for a very specific type of item. He held out his hand and let instinct guide him. Of its own volition, his arm drifted to a cluttered desk, palm resting upon a small wooden pendant. It was an intricately carved spiral, with a warm mahogany finish that gleamed as if untouched by age; a prime example of night elf culture and craftsmanship, it was beautiful, elegant, and most importantly made of a very special wood. Gripping the pendant tightly, Asterius left the shop to find Nara still reciting , word for word, what must have been taught to all night elves in their earliest years. She had probably been an honors student or something as a child. "Great Trees can be found in Feralas, Ashenvale, the Hinterlands, Duskwood, and Crystalsong Forest."
"Close, but not quite." Asterius interrupted. "You forgot the one in Stormwind."
The priestess looked at him in confusion. "What one in Stormwind? There's no Great Tree in-"
Asterius held up the pendant he had found. "This was made from Nordrassil wood, right? Can I borrow it for a second?"
"You can't honestly be thinking of..." Nara looked at the treant druid in growing horror as she began to puzzle out his true plan. Asterius opened his maw wide and swallowed the pendant whole.
"I'm about to try something very tricky here, elf. I'm going to use the power of the Emerald Dream to make a new body for my friend, but at the same time I have to be making a physical avatar of that body in this realm. Great Trees exist on both planes simultaneously. It's really the only way I'll be able to pull this off."
"B-but turning yourself into one is... it's just not possible!" He regarded the night elf's outburst with a raised eyebrow.
"Oh? And why would that be?" Asterius tapped his wooden chest, which made an oddly hollow tone. "Using that pendant as a base, I can modify my own body to resemble that of Nordrassil wood, in a sense becoming as close as possible to a sapling of the tree itself. All that's left, really, is the grounding spell to be cast on the tree to bind it as a tether between realms. For a true Great Tree, this requires a large-scale ritual and a good deal of druidic power. We don't need a permanent enchantment, just a few minutes is all I need really, so I think we can make do with just the two of us. The final product will be shoddy, but it should do the trick."
Surprise seemed to have robbed the elf of the ability to speak in complete sentences. "B-but.. it's... nobody has ever... You'd be violating the... Ysera wouldn't let... you can't just... it's impossible!"
Asterius waited for her indignant sputtering to stop before speaking quietly. "I'll admit that the odds are against us. I'll admit that our actions probably won't be taken lightly by the Dreamer and the guardians of her realm. I'll even admit that I don't know for sure what will happen next." Nara opened her mouth to speak but the treant continued on, his words forceful. "But know this: The only thing that should ever limit what you can and cannot do, elf, is yourself. There is no impossible. Remember that."
Silence descended on the small, grassy clearing. Asterius turned away and continued his preparations, leaving the priestess to her thoughts. He'd given her a lot to think about. He was asking a complete stranger to do something that skirted the boundaries of reality, to risk breaking the natural order of the world and incur the wrath of the green dragon Aspect. Neither druid knew if it was safe, or even if it was right. He wasn't sure if he could pull this off without her help, but the decision was hers to make. A roar echoed through the Park, an odd battle cry that Asterius had never heard before but sent shivers up his spine, originating from somewhere near the entrance. Iyotanka and Leda, without a doubt. Apparently, he'd been wrong in thinking that the Park would be safe. Nara tapped him on the shoulder, turning his attention away from the direction that his friends had left.
"You... uh, Tree." She gave him an uncertain smile, wary but filled with an inner determination. It seemed that she had made her decision. "We may have company soon, so we should hurry. Start the spell."
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"Amanalar ruk'Veni karkun, mishundare azj'amon... azj'ante... azj'amir..."
Nara sat in a meditative pose, her legs folded beneath her and her hands clasped tightly together. Directly in front of her was the mound of dirt and mud that covered the dead bear's corpse, and across from her sat the tree druid, chanting in his deep voice with his arms outstretched into the air. The words were an odd mix of ancient dialects of Draconic and Darnassian, a ritual that had been created by the green dragonflight and their night elf partners many millennia ago. Nara didn't bother asking how her tauren-turned-tree counterpart had learned of this spell; she herself had just the most basic knowledge of it from studying old texts in her childhood. As she struggled to echo the somber, serious chant of the tree druid with her own lighter voice, Nara wished to herself that she had the foresight to study just a little more. A small voice within her wished she had the foresight to avoid the Magic district this morning. Then you wouldn't be in this mess.
"...azj'amon, azj'ante, azj'amir..."
"Thoribas'no'thera reth-ul shan'diel sora... lethul den'drian arante!"
Their chant had risen from a mere whisper to a throaty bellow. Both elf and treant were practically shouting out each word now, the harsh hissing of the draconic syllables clashing with the musical elven tongue. As their voices rose, the very air around the druids began to shiver with gathered energy. A faint aura of light drifted outward from Asterius' body as the power began to focus in on its target. It was working. They were beginning to break through the veil between realms. But is that a good thing?
"Lethul den'drian arante! Aras'gul men-dor... Durak sensa!"
"...Durak sensa los'lonas kanthrenad zek'kul'rakas!"
The clash of metal, crunch of bones, the screams of the dying. Nara's sensitive ears twitched as she caught the sounds of battle coming from the Park entrance. She couldn't risk losing her concentration any more than she already had. The words were coming faster, jumbling together in a near incomprehensible blur. Her mind struggled with the complexity of the druidic spell just as her conscience struggled with its inner turmoil. This act was against everything she had ever been taught. The tree druid was unraveling the very fabric of realms in his selfish desperation to revive his fallen friend. And you're helping him.
"Zek'kul'rakas! Belore..."
"Belore ethala eraburis'dal..."
The treant's eyes were clenched shut, his hands balled into fists. The spell had begun to distort his body like a reflection in a pool of water. Ripples shuddered through his body as it began to take on the appearance of stained glass, almost transparent. They were nearing the end of the spell now. Nara's outer and inner voices began to take a fervor pitch. She tried to silence the mental voice, but it spoke up louder than even the chant that had risen to a near scream. It played on her fears and self-doubts, turning her deepest thoughts against herself. You are betraying your beliefs! Your people! And for what?!
"...ethala eraburis'dal..."
"Shari'adune! Belankar! Toribas'no'THERA!"
"Shari'adune! Belankar!"
Nara paused for a fraction of a second, hesitating as the voice in her mind assailed her once again. You would risk everything on a random act of kindness? Out of pity for these strangers? Or is this just to assuage your own guilty conscience? What are you fighting for, Nara Meideros?!
Her mind answered with a flash of images, the events of the last several hours replaying themselves in her mind's eye. It showed her the tauren she had met in the Magic district by pure chance. It showed his quiet resolve and his helpless concern, his shadowing despair and his fragile hope. It showed his obvious intellect and kind spirit. It showed every way that he had refused to meet her expectations of being a violent barbarian. She froze the image of this gentle giant in her mind, using the picture to block out her inner turmoil. He was no savage, and he deserved her help. This tauren was what she would fight for. If their roles were reversed, she had no doubt that he would do the same. The voice tried one last, meager time to disrupt her. You don't know him. You don't even know his name.
She had faith. That was enough. The voice was gone, and Nara cried out the last words of the spell in an exultant cheer.
"Toribas'no'THERA!"
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The feeling was... indescribable. It was as if he was being torn in two from within. Time slowed to an imperceptible crawl, while his mind seemed to race along at lightning speed. Spasms wracked his wooden form as his treant muscles seized up, locking him into a position vaguely reminiscent of a crucifixion. He felt an unstoppable magnetic pull yanking his very self away, though his corporeal form had yet to move other than the uncontrolled shudders that grew ever more violent. He'd long since lost control over his body's movement. In fact, he'd long since forgotten that he had a body to move. His sight and his thoughts blurred into a foggy haze as he left reality behind. The world became an indistinguishable, colorless picture of conformity, and soon even that faded away to nothingness.
A long moment passed before the turbulence faded from his mind, leaving behind only a disjointed feeling of déjà vu that made him feel ill at ease. All in all, though, he had expected something a little more extreme. He had just forcibly pushed himself into two different planes of existence at the same time. It was quite possible to exist in the real world while visiting the Emerald Dream and vice versa, however the dominant 'thinking' aspect of one's self would be nothing more than a specter, unable to interact with the physical elements of the realm it inhabited while its corporeal body slept in the other. To break such natural laws with little more than an unsettled stomach to show for it seemed somewhat anticlimactic.
He shook his head to remove such wandering thoughts and opened his eyes. Without a doubt, this was the Dream. A lush world of wild beauty assaulted his senses. The native Dream plants towered over their reality-shackled cousins as if feeding on one of Iyo's magical growth elixirs. Even a mere flower in this forest grew taller than a tauren's ample frame. The plants were not the only bountiful resource here; birds sang from the distant treetops, rabbits scurried underfoot without a care in the world, and a small family of spotted deer stared at him in insatiable curiosity.
It had been far too long since he had been able to experience this druidic bliss. He had taken an oath to abandon the Emerald Dream as a sanctuary, to exile himself from this paradise, and for many years he had respected that pledge. Were he to stay here, the guardians of the Dream were sure to confront him, on both previous and current wrongdoings. He could not stay here long. But for now, for this one moment, he felt at peace. He felt as if he had returned home. He took a deep, calming breath... and the world shattered around him as pain lanced through his skull.
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The feeling was... indescribable. It was as if he was being torn in two from within. Time slowed to an imperceptible crawl, while his mind seemed to race along at lightning speed. Spasms wracked his wooden form as his treant muscles seized up, locking him into a position vaguely reminiscent of a crucifixion. He felt an unstoppable magnetic pull yanking his very self away, though his corporeal form had yet to move other than the uncontrolled shudders that grew ever more violent. He'd long since lost control over his body's movement. In fact, he'd long since forgotten that he had a body to move. His sight and his thoughts blurred into a foggy haze as he left reality behind. The world became an indistinguishable, colorless picture of conformity, and soon even that faded away to nothingness.
A long moment passed before the turbulence faded from his mind, leaving behind only a ringing emptiness that made him feel as if he'd stood too close to an exploding stick of goblin dynamite. He shook his head to clear away the cobwebs that cluttered it, a bad idea that was followed by a wave of vertigo and nausea, and slowly opened his eyes. His sight was wavy and distorted, like the first time he'd tried dwarven lager, only the hangover hadn't decided to wait until the next morning in this case. This headache seemed many times more powerful than anything alcohol could produce, as well.
The sun seemed aggravatingly brighter than usual, as if it had gone out of its celestial way to make his life a living hell with its intense, paralyzing rays. Everything was too colorful, though he couldn't quite make out what 'everything' was since it had blurred together to form oddest likeness of moldy soup, with meaty bits in all colors of the rainbow happily blinding his eyes with jabs from melting-hot chimney pokers. A deep, thundering boom echoed in the recesses of his mind; a constant thumping that drove daggers into the sides of his head with every steady beat. He wondered just what sort of giant was stomping along its merry way next to his eardrums, only to realize that the unbearable sound was his own heartbeat. That must have meant he wasn't dead. A pity.
His eyesight began to focus, and through squinting eyes he could almost make out shapes in the murk, though the concentration that effort took only served to double the unceasing pain in his skull. A purplish blob danced across his vision, followed by a slightly darker blob that seemed to spew out reddish blobs. Other dark blobs floated about the sky, as conspicuous as black emo cloud children with spiky hair, an odd number of body piercings, and disappointed cloud parents who can't understand their suffering. One oddity that stood out to the druid was that there was no sound other than his godawful heartbeat. An overpowering white noise like the sound of waves crashing against a rocky beach muffled out anything and everything else.
Even with his senses dulled to the point of being blind, deaf, and arguably dumb, Asterius was still fairly sure that he had identified the moving purple blob as being the night elf priestess whose sense of responsibility and recklessness was matched only by his own. He took a breath to call out to her, hoping that his voice at least still worked... and the world shattered around him as the pain lancing through his skull was replaced by mind numbing agony.
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"Druid!" Nara called out desperately, nimbly ducking yet another swing from a broadsword that was nearly as tall as herself. "Tree druid! Did the spell work, was it successful?!"
He either would not or could not answer. His treant form was shivering so violently that leaves had begun to shed from his leafy branches. His mouth was slack, possibly in surprise or maybe horror, and his eyes burned like emerald bonfires from raw druidic magic coursing through his feeble frame.
This was about the worst time possible to go into shock. Almost the moment that Nara finished the final words of the incantation, nearly half a dozen fully armed troopers had charged the solitary druids at their moonwell. Nara fought to drive her panic down; a calm mind was needed here. Still, she could not stop the gnawing worry that gripped her chest. Had the other tauren been taken down? Captured once more? Or even killed?
She didn't have time to think about his fate. She was too preoccupied with her own. Five soldiers was a bit much for her to handle with just her bare fists. She would have to improve the odds. They charged en masse, hoping to subdue her with sheer numbers alone.
Excellent. That just made them an easier target.
She clapped her hands together, the sound echoing through the deserted Park vaguely resembling the roll of thunder. The winds answered her plea. She struck out with the unstoppable fury of a cyclone at her side, gale force winds blasting into the black-armored soldiers like an invisible fist. Gleaming plated bodies were thrown through the air with all of the grace of a ragdoll, tumbling through the air to land in broken piles on rooftops, crash through windows like losers of a bar brawl, or slam with bone-crunching force against hardened timber walls that groaned with the force of the impact.
It wouldn't be enough to kill. She had made sure of that. But suffering several bone fractures had, in Nara's experience, always been enough to convince the enemy that enough was enough. Until now.
The beetle-like soldiers rose to their feet like marionettes on a string, as if being forcibly picked up and controlled rather than move under their own power. Several had appendages that pointed out in the wrong direction or had glistening white bone jutting out from beneath their chainmail. They turned to face the priestess who was trying to decide if terror or horror would be more appropriate in this situation. Rather than give the elf time to make a dignified choice, they raised their obsidian weapons and charged forward once again. It was then that the battle truly began.
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The feeling was... indescribable. It was as if he had been torn in two, body and mind, only to be stitched haphazardly back together again like a demented forsaken scientist's experiment. Time no longer had any meaning. His treant form swayed between solid and intangible, at one moment whole and at the same time as ethereal as a ghost. He was in total control of his body's movement, though every action had to be repeated in his mind before it was carried out by the sluggish gestures of his phasing wooden arms. His sight and his thoughts became crystal clear as he merged seamlessly between reality and the imaginary. The world became a fractured jumble as multiple images transposed themselves on each other, layer upon layer, pushing his mind close to overloading at the sheer amount of information it was taking in. There was no conformity. There was no semblance of reason. There was only chaos.
A long moment passed as his mind struggled to process the double, conflicting messages it was taking in, and at long last he opened his eyes with a hesitant caution. It was if he was seeing a different picture in each eye, and the objects within were fighting to exist in the same place at the same time.
It wasn't the only conflict that he was seeing, though. The night elf priestess was beset by several of the Syreen, though she didn't seem to be in dire straits. Compared to her, the armored Syreen soldiers might as well have been made of immobile stone. She fought with the elegance of a dancer, twisting and whirling in a deadly ballet as razor-sharp blades rent through the air mere inches away from her skin. The Syreen couldn't lay a hand on her, though her acrobatics also kept her from striking back. Which was fine, for she apparently had other methods of fighting that didn't involve dirtying her hands. Asterius watched as she leapt backwards, through the trunk of a mighty tree that apparently didn't exist in the realm she inhabited, and raised her hand to the sky. Nearby bushes, that apparently did exist in her realm, shot out tendrils that wrapped themselves around the feet of four of the charging warriors. The armored soldiers' momentum was turned against them as the roots tripped them up, bringing them to ground in a clattering of steel. Prone on the ground, more bushes took the opportunity to wrap themselves tightly around the struggling Syreen's bodies like thorny manacles.
That left only one who was skilled enough to have managed to evade the plants. Fearless, he continued his attack. Rather than move out of the way of his charge, the priestess merely stood in his path, raising a fist in the soldier's direction. As he came within striking distance, she opened her clenched fingers, revealing a painfully bright ball of pure arcane light resting on her palm, as if she'd plucked the Sun out of the sky. The Syreen soldier flinched as the light seared his eyes, and his charge slowed into a blind stumble. He still swung his sword wildly through the air, though his chances of striking the nimble elf could best be described as hopeless. The priestess used the time she had bought wisely. Focusing her power, she forged a prison made of swirling winds around the dazed soldier. The cyclone grew in strength until it lifted his armor-plated body into the air, suspending him helpless in the sky.
As interesting as the fight was, Asterius had not bothered to pay it more than a token amount of his attention. The priestess could obviously handle herself; she needed neither his help nor his encouragement. Instead, he'd spent the time relearning how to use his arms. It was confusing at first. He now had four of them, and at times he wasn't sure which arm would affect which world. He reached out with one phantom appendage to the mound of mud and dirt that made up Leda's grave. The first hand he tried, his right, passed straight through, apparently existing on the Emerald Dream. He made careful note of which one that was by balling it into a fist, and reached out with his other right hand. After repeating the experiment with his left hands, he was soon hard at work clumping the earth to further enlarge the pile, using the water from the moonwell to wet more dirt into mud for his rapidly growing mound, his actions strangely bringing to mind building a sandcastle.
With his Reality bound body engaged, Asterius turned his attention to his Dream bound self. It was like rubbing one's stomach while patting one's head at the same time, only multiplied to double the extent, and he struggled with the conscious effort it took. His Dream bound self had a considerably easier time, though, due to the Emerald Dream's inherent power. Because anything that could be dreamed there could also be given existence, assuming a large amount of power consumed in the process of course, Asterius could will Leda a new body into being with little more than his own thoughts. First, he summoned every memory of his feral friend from the moment they first met as vassals of House Silverblade, years before. He tried to capture in his mind her every feature; the length of her hair, the shade of her eyes, the nerve that twitched on the side of her head when she was angry and didn't want to show it. The body he would make would not be a perfect match, he wasn't that close to her so some anatomical estimates would have to be made, but hopefully it would be enough that her spirit would not reject it as an earthly container. At last, he had a clear image of her locked in his mind. Nodding to himself, he channeled his magic, calling forth the power of the Dream.
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Like a steam-driven gnomish robotic contraption, the tree druid mechanically continued to work on the pile of mud in front of him. His eyes were nearly closed, his mouth was slack, and every so often he stopped moving entirely for several seconds as if he had forgotten what he was supposed to be doing. Nara watched with unbridled curiosity; only a fraction of her attention remained on her prisoners to be certain they would not escape her cages of wind and weeds. The dirt mound was now nearly waist high and slightly sloped. The treant had begun to shove sticks in his 'masterpiece', his gaze still distant and unfocused. Next came small pebbles from the ground, which the druid attached to the mound, hesitated, removed the stones from where they lay, and finally replaced the stones in what must have been a more 'acceptable' area. Personally, Nara couldn't tell the difference. It still looked to her like a pile of dirt with scrawny stick arms and uneven rocks for eyes. A master of nature magic he may have been, but the treant had no talent for art.
The sound of footsteps from behind her drew her thoughts away from culture and back to combat. She tensed, expecting more of the black armored soldiers to march around the corner. When she saw what it was, she grimly thought to herself that she would've preferred more soldiers.
Her instincts told her it was the tauren druid who had left to defend the gate, though her eyes put that thought into question. She had heard the term 'owlbear' used for the moonkin before, but never had it been such a fit as it was now. Legends speak of the first wildkin being created by Elune, combining the best traits of the mighty bear and her beloved night owls into a beautiful yet deadly mix of the two. The creature before her was certainly deadly, but there was not the slightest hint of beauty about it. It was as if someone had taken the already fearsome moonkin form and morphed it further, replacing any remaining soft edges with savage mutations. Gone were the elegant antlers and curved beak of the owl. Instead, a snarling grizzly's muzzle had been grafted onto the avian head that held the sharp, remorseless eyes of a hawk. The original feathered arms that ended in crushing eagle talons had apparently been considered not vicious enough, and were replaced by powerful bear shoulders and clawed fists the size of Wintersveil hams. It possessed the reverse jointed legs of a bird, giving it an odd stride like that of a raptor rather than the lumbering waddle of a bear. The most striking change, however, were the wings that sprouted from its back, running from shoulder height down to nearly ground level. Nara would have thought them angelic, if it wasn't for their deep blue color that was so dark it was nearly black. Combined with the wickedly pointed horns that curved forward from its skull, it gave the beast a demonic appearance, as if it had just risen from the lowest pits of hell. The fact that the creature was covered from head to toe in blood and gore did not help to dispel the likeness.
It wasn't just the creature's appearance that was horrifying. As it strode toward the moonwell, it paused next to the still struggling Syreen soldiers, entangled in a mass of brambles. It regarded them for a second, seemingly entranced by their helplessness. Nara was about to call out to him, to explain how she'd captured the soldiers, but her words died in her throat. Raising its clawed foot, the creature stomped on the black Syreen helmets. Metal bent inward from the force of the blow with the consistency of an aluminum can. A horrible crack pierced her sensitive night elf ears as the skull inside the helmet caved in. One after another, each warrior was executed in the same manner. The tauren druid might as well have been crushing bugs for all the emotion he showed.
Nara couldn't breathe. She couldn't speak. She couldn't think. The small voice she'd thought defeated returned to her, taunting her. This is what you fought for?
The abomination turned its gaze toward the sky, effortlessly breaking Nara's enchantment with no more than a wave of his massive paw. The Syreen soldier fell from the sky and landed in a broken heap at his clawed feet. The expression on his... on its face was one of cruel enjoyment. This is what you risked everything for?
"I..." Nara couldn't manage anything more than a choked whisper. The mental picture she had held of the tauren druid not half an hour ago was shattered. Gone was the kindness, the sincerity, the warmth. Gone was any trace of compassion. "I thought..."
This was no kind spirit. This was a beast. An inhuman monster who reveled in slaughter and delighted in ending lives. It had made its way to the waters of the moonwell, examining its bloodstained reflection with what Nara imagined was grotesque satisfaction. "I thought... he was..."
It turned its horned head, its face locked in an eternal snarl with oversized fangs set in a malevolently toothy grin. Crimson eyes stared at her, perhaps envisioning its next meal. This was the life she had saved. The emotion he had shown until now... The tenderness, the concern, the hurt... had it all been an act? A lie? You thought he was different.
"I thought he was different," she admitted to herself. She thought he wasn't deserving of the racial stereotypes. She'd thought he was more than a bloodthirsty barbarian. She thought he was something better.
You thought wrong.
She'd had faith. Sometimes faith just isn't enough. The voice was gone, and Nara whispered out her last words to the tauren druid in betrayed anguish.
"I wish I'd never met you."
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Orbs of green light flickered into existence, floating through the forest he was in like lost spirits. He stretched out his hand and they drew closer like leaves caught in a river's current. He gathered hundreds of the orbs, corralling them like cattle into the air in front of him. They pulsed together, their light rising and fading as one in a luminous heartbeat. Each additional orb made the beat quicker, brighter, more powerful. The balls of light coalesced into one bright, burning aura of verdant green fire. The pulse was racing now, flicking on and off so quickly that the fading could no longer be distinguished and it resembled a single, continuous glow of light. As the light reached its peak, its aura expanded to fill the entire forest clearing, engulfing the druid who remained lost in concentration. A brief moment passed and the light dimmed and was extinguished, burning itself out in its brief but beautiful life. In its place sat a tauren female, curled in the fetal position with her arms wrapped tightly around her legs. Her eyes were serenely closed, her heart frozen in time, her body unblemished and new down to the very last hair. Asterius regarded his creation with the eye of a critic. Were her teeth always so pointy? Probably not in tauren form, but since she'd spent so much time as a bear, the fangs seemed only natural. Were her eyes originally that far apart? Should I make her nose bigger? Like a painter obsessed with perfection, he quibbled with the little details until he was at last satisfied that this tauren looked as close to Leda as he was able to achieve. It would have to do, for he was running precariously low on time. The spell linking him between worlds was slowly unraveling. He could feel himself weaken with every passing second. He had to hurry. Placing a hand on the tauren female's forehead, he started the last of the incantation.
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Iyotanka's heart was breaking in two, and not because of the extra spiritual company he'd recently had to put up with. He'd seen the look on the night elf's face. Betrayal. His gaze roamed from the door of the building she had fled into down to his blood soaked hands. He'd executed those people, in cold blood, and the priestess hated him for it. There was no need for them to die, but he'd given the killing blow himself. Why? He struggled to remember. His memories of the battle, just minutes before, were fragmented. Hazy. Like a dream one can't recall after waking... or a nightmare one tries to forget.
Even now, after the adrenaline had died down and his heart no longer beat with its frenzied battle rhythm, he still felt it. That rush of power that came with the form they had taken. The satisfying snap as bones broke. The warm splatter of blood flying. The thrill of cutting off an agonized scream. Iyo shuddered, clenching his eyes shut, hands flying to the sides of his head as if to protect himself from the images. What was wrong with him? He wasn't a fighter. He didn't enjoy combat, he avoided it. Where had this feeling, this blood lust, come from?
It wasn't Leda. She stirred in the back of his mind as his thoughts drifted to her. She held her own in a fight, but she only fought if the twins' survival was at stake. She didn't seek out trouble for trouble's sake. What did that leave? Iyo's mind struggled with the problem, but focusing was difficult with his own skull feeling cramped. An idea came to him. Perhaps it was the strange form they had taken. Iyo knew that a druid shapeshifting into the form of a beast usually had to struggle with the beast's instinctive nature, though control was simple with druidic training and a strong will. He'd heard of druids who had spent too long as their preferred form, and the result was that the animalistic personality had overwritten the druid's own, resulting in a savage individual with little humanity. Perhaps the mutated form they had taken had an overwhelmingly murderous instinct, driven by a need to slaughter.
Or perhaps he didn't know himself that well. Perhaps it had been him in control as he'd crushed those soldiers underfoot.
He shook his head to clear it of those unpleasant thoughts. There was an answer, but he just couldn't grasp it. If only he had the whole picture, he knew he could solve this. If only he could remember the entire battle, instead of just bits and pieces that made it seem like he was a spectator in his own body. His gut told him that he was forgetting something important, but for the life of him he couldn't figure out exactly what it was. He rubbed his aching temples in despair.
"Seems like there were some side-effects, after all." Asterius said, his voice oddly hollow. Iyotanka looked up in surprise. He'd thought the tree druid to be sleeping.
"How's the headache, Leda? ...no, wait... Iyo."He corrected, his green gaze distant. He seemed to be looking through Iyotanka rather than at him. "Sorry for confusing the two of you, but I'm a bit busy at the moment."
"How'd you tell us apart?" Iyo's curiosity got the better of him. In response, Asterius slowly tapped the space between his emerald eyes before moving his hand back to the mud pile, which vaguely resembled a sitting humanoid now.
"There's not a lot I don't see, especially soul-related. How are you holding up?"
"I'll be fine... Are you almost-" He cut off suddenly, a wave of memories overtaking him. Something that the enemy commander had said or done during the battle that he was reminded of just now. What was it?
Quote:
"My my my, two souls stuffed into one body? What will I see next?"
Asterius was speaking, but Iyo couldn't hear him. His thoughts were focused on the past, not the present. Something about seeing souls was important. Something about Asterius.
Quote:
"It keeps getting better! How extraordinary! My Lord will be pleased with your captures: a two-for-one, a member of the Green Flight and that pretty little stubborn elf-whore."
"...a two-for-one, a member of the Green Flight and that pretty little..."
"...a member of the Green Flight..."
"...should be ready to transfer now." Asterius finished. He looked up at the daydreaming Iyotanka with a bemused expression. "Or we could just sit there and count clouds."
"What?" Iyo's mind abruptly came back to the present, the memories fading from his mind.
"Oh, nothing. I was just wondering if you wanted to revive your sister now, but if you want to wait then that's cool too. Not like I'm in a hurry or anything." Asterius placed a wooden palm on the area of the dirt mound that gave a reasonable approximation of a head. He stretched out his other hand to Iyo, the sigil cut in his treant chest beginning to glow as its shamanistic power gathered. Iyo was hesitant to take the treant's hand, however. He viewed Asterius with skeptical eyes, the voice of the deceased Lapsus echoing in his mind.
"Tree... what are you?"
"Hrm, I didn't think the effects of holding Leda's spirit would be this bad. You seem to be disoriented."
"No, no... not disoriented, just deceived." Iyo pointed an accusing finger at Asterius. Uncharacteristic anger was clouding his mind. Rage was bubbling up as he recalled years of knowing the tree druid, all the time being played for a fool. His mouth curled into a snarl and he batted Asterius' hand away.
"What are you doing, Iyo? You're not acting like yourself..."
"Fine words coming from you... I always knew you were different from us. You're no tauren. You've been lying to us from the moment we met, haven't you?! What are you playing at? Why are you here? What are you, Asterius? Answer me!"
"Is this really the best time to be asking me difficult questions, Iyo?" Asterius grimaced. He hadn't lied, he'd just avoided the truth. There was a difference. It didn't seem like Iyo would notice that difference right now, though. Something was definitely wrong with him because of the spirit transfer. His moonkin friend was gritting his teeth, eyes turning bloodshot. Feathers sprouted from his fur, his flesh rippled as muscles grew into existence. Iyo was turning into something horrible. "All you need to know is that I'm here to help right now. I'm helping your sister, remember? I don't know what's happening to you, but you have to trust me!"
"LIAR!" Iyo shouted back. He couldn't think. His head was pounding, and his vision was red. His mind was a whirlwind of confusion and anger, but anger was slowly winning control. His body had grown in size now, towering over the treant, covered in a dark pelt of midnight blue feathers and fur. Raven wings sprouted from his back, unfurling with a menacing flutter. Iyo's pained expression was gone now, replaced by powerful, crushing jaws and oversized eagle eyes. So this was what happened when one combined the ferocity of a bear with the unpredictability of a moonkin, Asterius thought with fascination. The result was incredible, if unstable. It was a shame he wasn't able to study it now.
We don't have time for this..." He muttered. Iyotanka's beastly battle form reared up to its full height and howled in primal fury. It was impressive, and Asterius might have been worried had he not possessed a hidden card up his sleeve. "Leda!"
The Iyo-beast had been preparing to attack Asterius, but it froze in mid-swipe. Its massive paw hovered mere feet from the treant, unable to deliver the killing blow due to the conflicting chaos in its mind. Asterius didn't wait for it to regain its composure.
"Leda! Leda! Leda! LEDA!"
"SHUT UP! Geez, I'm awake, already! I heard you the first twenty times and... oh, hey Tree. What's going on?" Leda answered from her twin's body. She seemed to have no idea what had happened while she slumbered, nor did she notice how close her brother had come to breaking the treant druid like a twig. As her mind had awoken, it had automatically taken control of their body away from Iyo, sending his mind into unwilling unconsciousness. With Iyo's power removed from the picture, the form their body had taken faded and Asterius was again facing his tauren friend rather than a fearsome monstrosity. He breathed a sigh of relief, though he still worried about what might occur when Iyotanka awoke once more. No time for such thoughts now.
"Good morning, Leda. Your new body is all fixed and ready."
"Oh thank the Earthmother! This whole having man parts thing is weirding me out, I can't wait to get out of here! ...So, where is it? Er, where am I?" She looked around expectantly. Asterius pointed to the dirt snowman and was greeted with an unamused look. "Oh, good. It's... um, it's dirt! It's wet dirt... with sticks and stuff in it. I'm going to be dirt. You're joking, right?"
"Appearances can be... deceiving." Asterius thought back to his conversation with Iyo only moments ago and sighed. "What's important is that you trust me right now."
"Yeah, okay. Sure thing, Tree." Unlike her twin, she did not bat away his offered hand. She also didn't try to kill him, though her innocent smile and her oblivious next words were rather like a dagger in his heart. "I trust you. You wouldn't dupe me."
Asterius only smiled back, though his reassuring grin was as genuine as a mask. "Of course not."
---------------------------
This second transfer was much less painful than the first. Perhaps a side effect from practicing, or perhaps it had to do with the willingness of the transferring spirit. Either way, as Leda's essence passed through the treant's totemic body this time, it did not leave a trail of fractures and splintered wood as it had the first. Which was a good thing, for Asterius wasn't sure just how much more of a beating he could take today. He felt exhausted, body and mind, and the day had barely begun. There was still much more work to do, and many more battles left to fight. One thing at a time, though. He focused his concentration at the task at hand.
Iyotanka's body, freed from its additional spirit burden, stumbled backward as the intellectual druid regained control and fought off a wave of disorientation. Asterius could only hope that Iyo wasn't still in a bad mood. He was too busy to defend himself now. He directed Leda's spirit toward the dirt pile. At the same time, he shifted his mind back into the Emerald Dream, using the very last ounce of control he had been saving as a Great Tree. He had only moments left in the Dream, and he used that time to place his ethereal hands on the newly formed tauren female's head and give it a slight mental push. His final act finished, he said goodbye to the druidic realm as the tether holding him between reality and the Dream snapped like a rubber band stretched past its limit. It felt something like falling from an unimaginable height and landing face first in frigid water. The force of the abrupt expulsion and its accompanying shock bowled him over. When Asterius could once again see, he found himself lying on the grassy ground of the Park, staring up at the increasingly familiar sky. His view was blocked as Iyotanka leaned over above him, concern on his face.
"Tree... I-" He had started to say, but a loud snap interrupted him. The pile of dirt beside the druids had begun to expand and contract, almost as if breathing. Cracks formed in various places, like the breaking shell of a hatching egg. A dull thumping reminiscent of a heartbeat emanated from somewhere within.
"Let... me..." A muffled voice called from within the pile, followed by a fist that shot through the side of the mound, sending the stick arm of the dirt snowman flying. "Out!"
Fists flew as Leda broke her way to freedom, coughing and gasping for fresh air. It'd been a tight and rather uncomfortable fit curled up inside what seemed to her to be an enclosing grave. She smashed her way clear of the mound of dirt, and then kicked down what had still remained standing as revenge for her entrapment.
"I'm free! I'm healed!"
"Um, Leda..."
"I'm alive!" She cheered with arms raised at her fellow druids, though Iyo oddly seemed to be ignoring her, his gaze locked on some far away cloud. She couldn't care less what he was looking at, feeling too exuberant to give him another thought. She certainly felt alive. In fact, she'd never felt better. Asterius had done an excellent job. Gone was the dull pain from old injuries that had never healed right. She even had the use of both eyes. She felt rebuilt. Stronger, faster, better than ever before. She felt like she could take on the world. She felt...
She felt a breeze.
Leda looked down at her lack of attire, her ears standing on end in a tauren version of a blush. A few minutes ago, the term 'free spirit' would have had a different meaning to her than this.
"I'm nude!"
"I was trying to tell you." Asterius was struggling to get to his feet, but a punch from Leda knocked him over once again.
"Don't stare at me, you perv! This show ain't free! Why couldn't you have magicked me back to life with some clothes on?!"
Asterius sighed from the ground. "It's nothing I haven't seen before, considering I built it. Nothing much I can do about the clothes. I'm a miracle worker, not a tailor."
Iyo pointed toward the shop of the night elf priestess, his gaze still dutifully locked on the sky. "She's a tailor."
Leda dashed inside, leaving her companions alone in awkward silence. Neither wanted to speak of what had happened before Leda's revival. The event hung overhead like an oppressive storm cloud. Finally, Iyo spoke up, his voice hesitant. "Asterius... I'm-"
"Tada!" Leda emerged from the ransacked shop, wearing a forest green robe with golden embroidery. Having been made for smaller races it was a close fit for Leda, who wasn't the most delicate of tauren in the first place, but she seemed to be pleased with the result.
"It's not a set of leather armor, but at least I won't be streaking past the-" She was cut off as Iyo gathered her up in a crushing hug. He held his surprised sibling in a tight embrace for a long moment, his shoulders quietly heaving as he fought back sobs. She smiled in understanding, recognizing the pain and the loss Iyo had gone through, and she patted her brother's head reassuringly. "It's okay. I'm here. I'm okay."
Asterius gave the two a moment of privacy. Iyo deserved that much. He had nearly lost his sister. Technically, he had lost her, and only by the slimmest of margins had he gotten her back. The treant druid walked into the tailoring shop to survey the wreckage caused by Leda's search. Surprisingly, nothing seemed broken. Nothing inanimate, at least. Nara Meideros stood by the window, looking out at the tauren twins, one of whom was crying in relief and delayed mourning. She turned slowly away from the scene, regarding Asterius with what experience told him was sorrow written on her face.
"I take it your plan was successful." She said at last. Asterius nodded and bowed his head in respect.
"It wouldn't have been possible without your help. My apologies on the late greeting, as I had other things on my mind. I am Asterius." He gestured out the window with a leafy hand. "His name is Iyotanka, and her's is Leda."
The night elf curtsied gracefully in response. "Nara Meideros."
He hesitated, as it wasn't his place to speak about this matter, but his caution was overridden. "They're siblings, you know."
Nara raised an eyebrow. "That is important to me?"
The treant shrugged. "Just thought you might have wanted to know, Priestess. Was I wrong?"
Nara took a deep, sad breath and sighed mournfully, her ears drooping in elfish disappointment. "It doesn't matter. I've seen what he's capable of. I've seen what he truly is."
"No," Asterius disagreed, shaking his head. "You saw a monster borne from experimental magicks. You saw the price we paid to save his sister; a price he gladly paid. That isn't who he is."
"Then, can you tell me that isn't what he will become? Can you tell me that he will stay as you remember him, and not as I do?" Her tone was desperately hopeful, almost begging. Asterius looked away and sighed.
"...I cannot."
"Then it is impossible." Nara murmured quietly in a resigned voice. Asterius scowled in response.
"Have you already forgotten what I told you before? Only you determine what you can and cannot do." She flinched under his unrelenting gaze, almost if he'd expected better from the priestess. The treant repeated his mantra like a sworn promise, hoping that at least these words would get through to her. "Nothing is impossible."
The twins were heading for the door of the shop, calling for Asterius. He turned to leave, but a slender hand stopped him. Nara handed him a heavy, dark purple carpet with woolen fringes and magic runes threaded exquisitely into the weave. It must have been worth a fortune. Asterius opened his mouth to object, but Nara shook her head. "My gift to him was my help. My gift to her was the dress. This is my gift to you. Use it. It will take you anywhere you want to go."
"I... thank you. You've done so much for us today. How can we ever repay you?"
"...Leave," she answered coldly, turning away with tears in her eyes. "You, the bear, and... Iyotanka. Leave and never return, and your debt is repaid."
"My debt may be repaid, but what is the value on his sister's life? Can that be bought so easily? I'll leave with my thanks, but his debt will never be forgotten!" Asterius called after her as she ascended the stairs of her shop, but she didn't slow her pace. What the future might hold was unknown, but he had done all he could. Asterius sighed as he left the shop, the carpet slung over his shoulder. Iyo and Leda were waiting for him outside. Iyo's expression was curious.
"I thought I heard her call my name." He looked at his treant friend hopefully. Asterius recalled that Iyo was not fluent in Thalassian. He probably didn't understand a word of their conversation. "What did she say to you?"
"She said..." He thought back to the conversation he'd had with the beast-Iyo about lying. He'd wanted to say why he'd withheld the truth of his origins. He'd wanted to say that sometimes lies are necessary to spare one's friends from needless pain. "She said she wanted you to know her name was Nara, and she prayed that we would meet again unharmed in the future."
Iyo had a goofy grin on his face when he heard that. This was the Iyotanka that Asterius knew. No hatred, no rage... no telling whether or not the effects of their unknown magic would fade or reappear again. Nara had been right about that. The beast within may have just been slumbering, and next time Asterius couldn't pull the same trick again. Perhaps Leda would keep it at bay, anyway. Iyotanka certainly seemed to be okay now. In fact, he almost looked ashamed as he spoke up.
"Tree, I wanted to say I'm sorry for what happened before. I didn't mean to attack you."
Asterius answered while unrolling the carpet he had been given. "It all turned out alright in the end. Also... about answering your question..."
"Question?" He seemed confused.
"You don't remember what you asked me?"
Iyo shook his head. Everything's a blur. I just remember going crazy and swiping at you."
"Hey, what'd he ask you?" Leda piped in as the three druids settled down in crosslegged meditative poses on the carpet, which rose at the unspoken command of its owner. Asterius struggled for a plausible excuse to keep his secret safe.
"Uh... he... wanted to know... if he had a shot with the priestess!"
"Iyo, you hornytoad! You wanted to get busy with the elf that was helping us? And you attacked Tree when he said 'fat chance'?!" Leda gasped and smacked her brother in the back of the head as he sputtered protests.
"I didn't!"
"Ha! You can't fool me, I was in that empty skull of yours with you! I know what you were thinking about..." Leda wrapped her arms around herself, turning away from the other two, pretending as if she was mauling something while passionately acting out a conversation. "'Oh, night elf!'... 'Oh, Iyo!' ... 'You're so pretty and purple!' ... 'I love furry guys!'"
"I wouldn't!" Iyo was blushing, snorting as he tried to deny the accusations. Asterius patted him on the back consolingly.
"Now, now, don't feel so bad, Iyo. You don't have to explain yourself. We all get urges now and then, and falling for a night elf is not so strange. Why, my last love was a tigress. The way she clawed my-" He was cut off quite suddenly from violent screeches from the other two.
"Gods save me!" "Too much info! Too much info!"
"What's wrong with you two?"
"We do NOT need to hear about how she was in the sack!" Leda had clapped her hands to her head, trying to block out the image.
"I feel rather sick." Iyo stared green-faced over the side of the flying carpet, wondering if he could hit a Syreen soldier with a puke projectile.
"Get your minds out of the gutter, I wasn't talking about mating habits. I meant she was a real tigress. You know, one of those big cats from Stranglethorn?"
Iyo and Leda gave each other horrified expressions.
"That's even worse!" "I'm jumping off this carpet."
"Oh, just sit down and shut up, let me concentrate on driving this thing."
The three druids looked at each other and laughed. The tension of the strenuous past hours had faded away, leaving a natural high that made them slightly giddy with success. They had faced death and impossible odds, and they had surpassed it. No one wanted to mention what their next few hours would hold. In all probability, they were flying right into the same situation; an encounter that could very well be the end of one or all of them. Right now, though, they could bask in victory. There was no need to ruin the moment realizing that it might be their last.
The carpet flew onward, its destination the gleaming spire.
