Delivery

[BeepBoop]

Des'Ledar's tale.

The Package

Spoiler:

A creak in the wooden paneling sounded just as a creak in Des'ledar's streched arms made itself heard. A quick look at the rising sun told him this would be another typical day on the job. Reaching out to one of the potted plants in his home as it likewise reached out to him, he took his hat mid-stride and walked out the door, branches closing over the doorway behind him. The same salespeople passed, shifts being changed, wares being sold, bruisers chatting about the other day's footbomb game. The same old scene as Des made his way to the post office.

Post office. Open door. "Morning Twirk." Nod to the corpse girl. Fill bag. Draft delivery route. Strap on bag. Help corpse girl draft a route. "Good day, Twirk." "Yeh, you too Willem". Close door. Raven form. Begin route. Another average day.

Something was off about today's delivery though. Des had barely noticed the aura of one of today's packages when packing, writing it off as just another magical object being fletched, or laundered, or maybe even legitemitly sold. As the day wore on, the feeling that the package gave off was less and less arcane, less natural. It also seemed to give off a sense of being alive.

Landing in a secure less-noticable area, Des unstrapped the bag and sorted through for the package. He noticed for the first time a pulse, not coming from the package itself, but in the space surrounding it. As per Azeroth Postal Service package limitation code E subsection 2.53, "...living entities can not be shipped without a form B0089T and related processing fees." There had been no attached forms. As the postmaster of a few years, Des had run into situations such as these. People shipping small animals hidden in other things such as foodstuffs, arms, one time in a mechanized rifle. As per protocol, the animal would have to be released, resealed, and delivered. Des opened the package.

Within was no animal, no living being, nor any space for either. The package contained a fist-sized stone. The stone pulsed. The stone shifted. Was it in shape? The stone shifted. It was in color. The stone shifted. It's looking at me. The stone shifted. No, it's in shape. The stone shifted. Yes. The stone shifted. Take you where? The stone shifted. The stone moved.

Des broke his trance and threw the package, backing up. He'd remembered that feeling once before. The Emerald Nightmare had once touched his mind. He'd remembered that serene chaos before. He remembered what it had done to him, how good it felt and how painful it was. He'd heard that the Nightmare was only one of a group, that similar beings had been found on Azeroth. He'd helped in the efforts against C'thun, helped supply the attack on Ulduar. He knew what to do. He repackaged the stone, using nearby roots to encase the package in living wood. He continued his route.

Instead of bringing the stone to its intended destination - Stormwind, of all places. No telling how the humans would react to it - Des brought it to Hyjal. He'd heard tell that Hyjal was under invasion and had wanted an excuse to come see firsthand. Bringing the Nightmare essence to the Hyjal Druids seemed like a good enough cause. Dropping off the package - which Des would come to know contained the blood of an old god - and getting a filled out Form of Vacation Release, Des headed home. He'd have time off from work to support the defense of Hyjal in... 2-3 business weeks.

Des turned in for the day. Just a couple of weeks. Maybe he could help the cause from his position in the meanwhile.