User:Enerdhil Windsong/And so it begins.

Somewhere in between the biggest riffs in Zoram Strand before the Cataclysm events, Ashenvale.

'We have to climb the hill,' he said, gesturing to the mountain. 'Are you up to it?'

'Of course,' she said, looking at him. 'Is that where the orcs camp is?'

'Yes, right at the top. It’s a tough climb,' he said, gesturing to the cliff ahead of them. 'The path is a mere goat track so it will be slippery.'

'I’m not waiting here,' she reiterated.

'All right. Get climbing.' He propelled her ahead of him across the tiny expanse of beach.

She could just make out a thin ribbon of a path that wound between jutting rocks. 'I will be behind you,' he said, giving her bottom an encouraging slap. 'If you slip, I will try to catch you.'

'How reassuring,' she said sardonically, and set off up the trail. They climbed steadly. Finally they reached the cliff head and she hauled herself over onto wet grass and lay gasping for breath as the rain beat down into her face. Enerdhil squatted on his haunches beside her until she pulled herself up and stood up. 'Where to now?' she asked.

'An abandoned cottage, about two miles away,' he said. 'Keep close behind me and do everything I do.'

They started off across the riff top not many before a cottage appeared suddenly in the darkness. A low stone elven building. Enerdhil stopped in the shelter of the hedge. 'Stay here. Don't move a muscle until I come back. Do you understand?'

'What if you don't. . . come back, I mean?'

'Go back to the boat and leave.' He spoke in a terse whisper. 'From now on I'm not going to think about you. I have my own work to do and I can't afford any distractions. You’re on your own. Is that clear?'

There was nothing remotely loverlike about him now. Where were his daggers concealed? No doubt that he had them somewhere about his person. He slipped away along the hedge, just another black shadow among many, and within minutes was no longer visible. Despite his instructions she started off after him. He wasn’t going to think about her, that was fine by her. It freed her to follow her instincts. The hedge encircled a small garden at the rear of the cottage and the soft cooing of owls could be heard. She wormed her way through the hedge into the garden and then heard the sound of voices. One was Enerdhil's. Swiftly she backed her way through the hedge again, and listened. Another voice spoke in guttural Darnassian and then they went into the owls shed. She slipped back along the hedge towards the front of the cottage. The wind, it seemed, was dropping, the rain easing. She froze, listening to the sound of howling wolves and orc growls along the road that led away from the sea. They were close and coming closer.

She didn't stop to think any further but flew back to the rear garden. Lamplight came from the shed and she burst in, slamming the door at her back. 'The horde is coming, Enerdhil. Orcs and fast.' Enerdhil held a piece of paper in his hand; the other elf with him was short and stocky and held a owl in his palm, caressing its iridescent breast with a fingertip. The two men exchanged one quick glance, then the man extinguished the lamp before opening the owls cage to release them, shooing them out into the garden with soft encouraging words. Enerdhil grabbed Nadima's hand and dragged her outside. 'The privy,' he said, and pushed her unceremoniously into the noxious darkness of the outhouse.

Growls sounded, harsh and demanding. Someone banged and kicked at the cottage door. The flicker of torches through the cracks in the privy door could be seen, moving now towards the empty owls shed. Enerdhil held her against him, his hand over her mouth, as if she needed the reminder to keep silent. An outraged shout came from the cottage, a stream of angry voices. One of them, the voice of the man who had been with Enerdhil in the shed. He was yelling furiously, clearly giving as good as he was getting. Enerdhil glanced up over the bench with its three holes and pointed at the small round aperture that offered some kind of ventilation. 'Up,' he mouthed, jerking an imperative thumb.

She hesitated, wondering how he was going to get through such a small space, but then he gripped her shoulders and gave her a hard shake with a serious face. She stepped up onto the bench and he seized her around the knees and hoisted her the few inches necessary for her to get her head and shoulders out of the window. The noise was still coming from the cottage but from here all she could see was a cabbage patch. She wriggled through with a helping push from behind and dropped to the soft wet earth beneath. But how was Enerdhil going to get out? Before she had time to act, Enerdhil was suddenly beside her. He didn't speak, merely took her hand and pulled her after him towards the hedge. She could smell the midden and wondered if they were going to bury themselves in dung until the danger had passed. Fortunately they skirted the midden and Enerdhil jumped into a deep ditch, pulling her with him.

He lay down, dragging himself on top of her, then reached up and tore weeds out of the ground to cover them. Then he held her tight and they lay in immobile silence as the chaos raged above them. His heart beating beneath her own, the sweat and rain on his skin. He buried his face into her neck to stifle his breathing. They were lying covered in weeds in a filthy wet ditch in a gale, the enemy rampaging around them. He was still as stone then she could feel that his breathing had almost stopped.

Growls came from above. Feet trampled along the edge of the ditch. Torchlight flickered through the rain. Then she heard an orc grunt and the feet and the torchlight faded away. Enerdhil began to breathe again, slowly and rhythmically, but he continued to lie still, holding her against him, enjoining her silence and immobility for what seemed an incredibly long time. Finally he stirred, reaching up to push aside the cover of weeds. 'Get up carefully,' he whispered against her ear. 'Just in case.'

They lifted their heads above the ditch. The garden was in darkness, the rain still fell, but not as fiercely as before, the cottage was dark, the pigeon shed equally. 'I think they've gone.' She said before hitching herself out of the ditch and to her fit. Enerdhil stood beside her, listening. There was no sound but the wind and the rain. He started off along the hedge into a cave, Nadima followed. 'I will take a look around just to be sure. Wait here.'

But she didn't and came after him a few seconds before, making no attempt to catch him up, reckoning that the farther away she was, the less likely he was to sense her presence. She ducked behind a scrubby and rather prickly bush when he slowed, and held her breath when he turned to look behind him. His black cloak was pulled tight around him and he was a mere shadow in the cave. From a distance, no one who was not looking for him would make out his figure. He resumed his walk and she climbed steadily after him, choosing to keep as much as possible to the grass beside the path, and then Enerdhil dissapeared. She left the cave thorough the end exit, and gazed upwards and saw only the grayish line of the path leading to another cliff, the rain had stopped. But now where was her quarry? Had he reached the other cliff? It seemed the only explanation. Nadima set off again, heading to the other cliff. When she was there she paused once, thinking she heard something, but the night was quiet apart from the chirp of crickets. Then it happened.

She was grabbed from behind, an iron-hard arm encircling her body so that her arms and hands were imprisoned at her sides. She was pressed backwards and would have lost her footing on the slippery path but for the rock-hard body behind her. Something pricked sharply against her neck just behind her right ear so that she drew breath on a small cry of pain, a cry that was instantly smothered by a hand across her mouth and nose so that she could barely breathe. She could move her arms now and struggled feebly but the sharp point pressing behind her ear dug deeper with her struggles and finally shestopped, gasping for breath. When she was still, the smothering hand lifted slightly so that she could take a gulp of the fresh damp night air. Her heart was banging against her ribs but she knew who held her, although he had said not a word, made not a sound throughout.

His hand was still resting lightly over her mouth, enjoining her own silence, and she concentrated on breathing slowly until her heart stopped pounding and the nausea of fright faded somewhat. Now she could hear low growls somewhere up ahead, and caught the flicker of a lantern among the bushes farther up the cliff. Enerdhil drew her backwards into the scrub and pushed her down ungently onto one area with grass beneath a bush. He looked down at her, still without making a sound, but she didn’t need words to tell her what he was conveying. His mouth was set in a grim line. He pointed at her and she nodded her understanding. An owl hooted somewhere in the distance and some small animal rustled in the bushes behind her. She resisted the impulse to leap to her feet and instead stood up carefully, trying not to make a sound. She could still hear the low murmur of orcs from the cliff above her, and the lantern flickered again. She dropped to her belly and neared the top of the cliff. Another house stood a hundred yards or so back from the cliff edge. Two orcs stood outside talking quietly a few feet from the building, a lantern on the ground between them throwing a golden pool of light. Of Enerdhil there was no sign. And then he appeared.

He was coming from behind the building, something bright in his hand. How had he managed to get past those orcs? But the question seemed irrelevant. He sidestepped with his back against the tumbledown wall until he was directly behind them. Then he moved. It was over in a second. The two orcs slipped silently to the ground with barely a cry and Enerdhil left them without a backward glance and went into the house.

She turned and scrambled back down the path, thinking she found the right spot and crouched down again behind the bush. She heard him coming down the path, his step no longer stealthy. There was no need for quiet now. He stopped on the path and said curtly,'Come along.' He held out a hand to pull her to her feet. She took his hand hand and scrambled to her feet asking; 'Why is it safe to make a noise now?'

'Because it is,' he said shortly, pushing her ahead of him on the path.

Nadima paused, asking over her shoulder, 'Did you discover what you wanted to find out?'

'No, not what I wanted to find out,' he responded. 'Hurry up, Nadima, we're on enemy soil here, every minute we spend increases the danger.'

Eventually they reached the beach. He picked Nadima up and deposited her unceremoniously in the boat, then pushed it off the sandy bottom himself, climbing in once it floated free. He seemed unaware of his wet boots and britches and sat with his usual apparent calm as they were rowed back through the narrow gap into the open sea.

Nadima touched her neck where the skin seemed tight and sore, she found she had a cut on her skin. It was still sticky to the touch but the blood was drying. Enerdhil shot her a sharp look, his face grim. 'Tilt your head.' She did as he said and he took her head on his lap gently, one hand caressing her hair while the other reached down for his medical bag, pushing a bottle and a cloth from it. 'It's only a surface scratch,' he said, taking up the bottle and pouring a few drops onto the cloth. He held it against the wound and she drew a sharp breath at the sting. 'And it's the same desinfectant I used before,' he stated, passing the cloth on her head. 'Now, I would like an explanation.'

He tightened his hold on her, beding his head a little to look derectly at her eyes. 'Why did you follow me?'

Nadima didn’t immediately answer. Her gaze was riveted on the narrow sheath fastened to his shoulderpads, and the silver hilt of one dagger showing above.

'Well?' he prompted.

She shrugged and forced her eyes away. 'I was curious. I had no intention of getting in the way.'

His face grim as he tried to meet her eyes again. 'Did it occur to you that I might have had my reasons for wanting you to stay on the other Cliff?'

'I know. Let’s drop it,' she said. 'You needn't worry, I won't do such a thing again.' She touched her neck reflexively. 'You spring some unpleasant surprises.'

'I apologize for that,' he said, his voice quiet, although his face was still that glacial grim. 'I would not have hurt you deliberately for any reason.'

Nadima took a deep breath. 'What did you discover after you left me? Did you find out what happened to your friend?'

'Not exactly,' he responded curtly then looked away into the distance. 'Get some rest now. You're tired.' He cuddled her more into his embrace and didn't release her until they had reached Auberdine.