Author: Pook
Castellon looked over the table at Lodres, weary and clearly humoring him.
"All right sir, you do that. Keep in mind that our services here in Shadowglen include a full-service trauma unit and you're more than welcome to avail yourself of our homeopathic healing...WHAT are you DOING?" He snapped at Abbatil, who was bartering heatedly with a wounded mercenary.
"Oh! Cast! I was just selling this fella one of my homemade shirts...HEY!" He said as the shirt was yanked from his hands.
"I Fought the Terror of Shadowglen!?" Castellon shouted, holding up the shirt to read it. "Abbatil, we're SENTINELS, we're not running a TOURIST ATTRACTION!"
"Aw, but Cast!" Abbatil started to whine, but was quickly silenced by a deadly glare from Castellon.
"At any rate, sir," Castellon said, finally turning back to Lodres, "You might want to make sure you have your final affairs in order before you set out. And now I'm going to have a lie down. This whole thing," He said with another poisonous glare towards Abbatil, who had the good sense to cringe, "is giving me a headache."
[]
Shadowglen Sentinels Castellon Leafrunner and Abbatil Moonwind sat crouched in the underbrush, peering over into the NorthWest where the Terror of Shadowglen laid in wait, randomly slaughtering Grell and pigs and attacking young Elves unfortunate enough to wander close to its lair.
"Cast? What're we gonna do? Nobody's come to get it, Cast. Should we give it another try ourselves?" Abbatil asked, tugging on Castellon's sleeve.
"No," Castellon glared, holding his injured hand. "We most decidedly should not. Sooner or later SOMEONE has got to be stup-- umm, that is, BRAVE enough to attempt to fight it..."
Suddenly there was a rustling in the bushes. Castellon and Abbatil both thrashed in a panic, thinking they were being attacked.
"If you LADIES are done hiding in the bushes together," Melithar Staghelm said to them with a sneer, "One of our Sentinels who was doing their JOB found a lead for you to follow up on as to what that thing out there is."
"Yeah, well I don't see YOU out there taking out that thing, Mister Son of the Arch Druid," Castellon muttered under his breath.
"I have a very delicate constitution," Melithar sniffed, strolling away.
He looked at the small square napkin in his hands. "It's...a napkin? What are we supposed to do with this?"
"Hey! Cast! Look on THIS side! Look, it's one of those fancy napkins with a picture pressed on it! And some words! Looks like...The Wisps and Spirits Tavern, Stormwind!" Abbatil said, grabbing the napkin.
Castellon rolled his eyes. "Some lead. Go call someone there, see if they know anything." He said dismissively, glad for the opportunity to get Abbatil out of his hair for five consecutive minutes.
"Will do, Cast!" Abbatil said with a salute. He dashed up the tree to the offices of the Shadowglen Sentinels. "Okayyy...now how to contact them...OH! I'll call 'em up on the Hearthstone!"
After quite a while of attempting to contact anyone connected with the Wisps and Spirits, someone finally answered.
"Heeey howdy hey, Jamie Redshaw at yer service!" Jamie's voice said over the Hearthstone.
"Oh! Hello! This is SHADOWGLEN SENTINEL ABBATIL MOONWIND!" Abbatil shouted into his Hearthstone.
"Ach! I can hear ye just fine..." Jamie said, wincing and holding his ear.
"OKAY! GOOD! HEY, WE'VE GOT A BIG RAVENOUS BLACK SABER UP HERE. IT MIGHT BE A DRUID. DOES IT BELONG TO YOU GUYS?" Abbatil nearly screamed.
Jamie held his own Hearthstone out at a distance, grimacing. "A big black saber that might be...hey, we've actually been missin' a Cat-Druid fer a few days now..."
"A FEW DAYS? THAT'S ABOUT WHEN THIS ONE SHOWED UP!" Abbatil screeched excitedly.
"Oh no..." Jamie said. "Where did'ja say ya were again?"
A few minutes later Abbatil dashed excitedly back to the brush where Castellon was waiting and watching. "Cast! CAST! I think I found--"
"SSSHHH!" Castellon hushed him, yanking him down into the bush. "Look!"
Out across the open area on the edge of the trees, they could see as grizzled and battle-hardened a Dwarf hunter as they'd ever seen stalking up to the big black cat. "Look, he's gonna catch it!" Abbatil said, and Castellon hushed him fiercely again.
"Wait...what's he doing?" Castellon said as the Dwarf expressed surprise and then pulled a fish out of his pack. "Oh damn...he's gonna make it mad."
Sure enough the cat swiped the fish out of his hand and roared at him. The Dwarf stumbled back briefly in surprise, and his own pet white-striped Cat lunged forward to protect its master. The black cat continued to attack the Hunter, though, and this proved to be its undoing as the strong white cat continued to attack it. By the time it turned its attention to the other cat in a fearsome flash of black and white, it was already too weak to finish the job.
"HOORAY!" Castellon and Abbatil cheered from the bushes.
But then something rather surprising happened. Instead of taking a trophy, as hunters often do, or finishing the job, the Hunter sat and made a fire and TALKED to the cat. They couldn't hear what was being said from their distance, but his tone sounded worried and soothing. And then...
The form of the cat wavered, and then there was a puff of smoke. And sitting in its place was a filthy, matted-haired Night Elf girl in barely any clothes, crying. The Dwarf reached out and patted her soothingly, and the Elf sobbed on his shoulder.
Castellon and Abbatil blinked at each other, and then Abbatil's face broke into a wide grin.
"I TOLD you it was a DRUID!" He whooped.
Castellon grimaced. He was going to be insufferable from here on out. They watched as the odd scene of the tough-looking Dwarf and the bizarrely dirty and unclothed Elf continued to talk and walk together. The Elf made big gestures, as if she was trying to get the Dwarf to understand, and the Dwarf mostly looked puzzled. At one point she went and floated in the pond like she was dead. At another point the Dwarf yelled and went charging into the World Tree, shouting about how the "Damn Elves" had done something or other. The Elf stopped him, but later kicked Melithar Staghelm in the shin, much to the amusement of Abbatil and Castellon.
And then a redheaded fellow came up the road. He seemed to expect the Elf but was surprised to see the Dwarf, and started to lead the Elf away. The Elf turned, visibly torn, and then dashed over to the Dwarf and hugged him so fiercely she nearly picked him up off the ground.
By now they'd drawn cautiously close enough to hear what she was saying. "...Lin?" She said, in a heavy and odd accent. "LinLinLin! LINLINLIN!"
"Is that his name then, Lin?" Abbatil asked.
"Odd name for a Dwarf..." Castellon said with a quirked eyebrow.
Suddenly a gust of flame erupted, and Castellon and Abbatil both jumped. The Dwarf was blowing flame from his mouth! And then he glowed green, using his Hearthstone, and was gone.
"Thank ye, Dalin!" The redheaded man shouted after him.
"Dalin Bronzebeard? The Hunter?" Abbatil said, a little awed.
"Who?" Castellon said dismissively. As the redhead walked down the road, the Elf girl ran in circles around him, bouncing up and down and generally acting entirely un-Elfish. "At any rate, we might as well get the gold and send it to him. And I'm glad this whole thing is over with."
"Hey Cast?" Abbatil said, nearly skipping with glee as he caught up to Castellon.
"What..." Castellon said in exaspiration, clearly not wanting to know the answer.
"I told you it was a Druid." Abbatil said with an ear-splitting grin.
"Yes Abbatil. You did. Goodie for you." Castellon said, glaring straight ahead.
"You know who said it COULDN'T be a Druid? You Cast! You did! But I said no! It had to be a Druid! And it WAS!" Abbatil burbled on happily.
"Whatever, Abbatil," Castellon growled.
"Hey Cast? You ever wonder if we've got this backwards? Like, you're supposed to be the dumb one and I'M supposed to be the SMART one?" Abbatil mused on.
"Abbatil?" Castellon said sincerely, coming to a stop.
"Yes Cast?" Abbatil blinked.
"Would you SHUT your HOLE??" Castellon shouted. And the two continued on in blissful relative quiet, all the way back to the offices of the Shadowglen Sentinels...
"Hey, Cast?"