Quest of a Firemane

[PhilGobatto]

Garuda stepped into the cave, contemplating her surroundings. A mystic fog floated all around the place, mushrooms of an immense size grew everywhere. She approached the pools, memories flashing into her mind.

"The waters of the Pools of Vision hold many secrets, young one", said the shaman. "Drink from them, and you will find the answers you seek."

And after days of travel, she was finally there. She walked even deeper into the cavern, stopping right in front of the largest pool. Kneeling down, she looked at her reflex in the water. In the last days, she travelled many miles in search of spiritual enlightment. And as she finally reached the pools, she started to think.

"Could this really be the answer?", she mumbled to herself. She never was a religious type, and now she was there, following the advice of an old fool who believed he could speak with spirits of the nature. But what would she believe in, then? She took a long breath before she reached the water with her hands, forming a cup with them and bringing the water to her lips, sipping from it.

She did not know the source of those waters' magic properties, but something did happen when she drank from them. As she closed her eyes, visions of the past ran through her mind. She was once again staring at the water, but the image she saw on its surface was not the one she saw on the pools in Thunder Bluff. She saw a young orcish kid smiling.

"What are you doing, Garuda?"

She peered over her shoulder. A slightly older orcish boy looked at her with interest. His skin was not green, though - the orcs' original brown skin was still present on him, and she later noticed, on herself as well. She realized she was not controlling her body anymore - she was looking at her own past in Nagrand.

"Nothing really. Just watching the fish swim."

Those words came from her mouth, though she did not mean to say them.

"Well, I can't even look at fish anymore. Just ate tons of it near the bonfire..."

She recognized the child speaking to her as Trugan, the chieftain's son. Her younger self stood up.

"I bet you're so full right now you'll be too heavy to win me in a race", she said.

"What? I never lose a race, Garuda, and you know that!", the boy replied.

"Catch me if you can, then!", she yelled. The fish swam away as she jumped and her feet touched the shallow water. She ran into the fields.

"Hey, that's not fair!", the boy screamed. But he was already running after her. She laughed and ran faster, and the Firemane village was left in the distance. The boy reached her after a minute and grabbed her by her hair.

"Hey, what the-..." She fell on the ground, closing her eyes. When she opened them, she was in a different place once again. She stared at the ceiling of a small, round-shaped house.

"Garuda, wake up, your father just arrived!", screamed a voice. Her mother. She looked at the door and a tall orcish woman entered the house. "Go get some water, I will cook stew." She noticed the woman was still brown-skinned, and as she stood up from her bed, she noticed she was taller as well. She grabbed a bucket and ran out of the building.

"Morning, Garuda." A large, bearded orcish man nodded at her. Her father. She replied to him with a smile as she walked to the lake. There, she saw a group of other boys and girls, the same size than her.

"Hey, Garu', what's up?", asked a boy in the middle of the group.

"Morning, Grekar.", she said as she filled the bucket with water from the lake. "Just woke up... Mom wants to cook stew. I can't stop to talk now." The boy frowned as she walked back into the house with the bucket, now full of water. As she entered, she heard her father speaking to her mother.

"You wouldn't believe what Gul'dan wants us to do!", she handed the bucket to her mother. Her mother asked her to cut some vegetables for the stew, giving her a good excuse to keep listening to her father. "They're telling us to raid a draenei village nearby."

"A draenei village? Why?! Our people never had problems with the draenei before.", said her mother, sounding very surprised.

"I also thought why would they want us to do such a thing... But orders are orders.", said her father. He frowned deeply.

Then, she closed her eyes once again and the vision went black. She only heard a voice. "Home...", it said. Then she came back to reality, once again she was staring at the pools in Thunder Bluff.

"What. The. F**k."

[PhilGobatto]

That was one of the strangest experiences Garuda ever had. The message was not clear... But she could understand what the visions meant: It was time for her to return to her home. To Nagrand.

The journey would be full of risks, but she was determined to follow the spirits' message. In order to achieve inner peace, she would need to go back to Draenor, a planet she hadn't seen in almost three decades.

She would not waste any more time. She filled a flask with the pools' water and immediately left the cavern. Lost in thoughts, the few minutes she took to reach the zeppelin tower looked like hours. After paying the goblins a few coins, she entered the vehicle and observed Thunder Bluff as it turned into a small point in the distance.

After a long travel of many days in the zeppelin, she finally reached Grom'gol. After providing some supplies for the rest of the trip, she hit the road. She walked much time in Stranglethorn, admiring the exotic environment. However, there was one part of the nature she didn't like there.

"Damned mosquitoes! Stop it, stop it!", she said as she slapped an insect that landed on her arm.

However, the insects, the warmth and the humidity wouldn't be a problem for much longer - humans, undead and worgen would be. In the way to the Dark Portal, she would have to cross Alliance lands, and that was she was really worried about. The choice she made a long time ago, of abandoning the usage of fel magic, could now be the cause of her death - without magic, she had few other ways to protect from the many threats of those woods.

When she finally reached the border, she was starving. Making a quick stop to munch on some bread and rest before entering Duskwood, she contemplated the bridge between the two territories. The vegetation made a radical change from one side of the bridge to the other - while Stranglethorn's tropical flora was lushful, Duskwood was a bunch of withering, horrible trees.

She thought about what she heard of Draenor - a cataclysmic world, torn apart by nether energies. Would her former home look like that? Would it also be dying slowly and painfully? And even more - was she going to be able to reach her village? From what she heard, Draenor was now nothing but a floating continent, lost in the space.

Trying to keep those thoughts away, she stood back up and crossed the bridge. She got scared by anything in that moment - a moving shadow in the woods, a howl in the distance... For the first time, she really wished she could use fel. A felsteed could carry her swiftly to a safe place... Once again she had to focus on reality and put those thoughts away. She left the road, travelling across the woods, her staff at hand. It was a delicated situation - in the woods, there were worgen. On the road, she would be found by the humans.

She saw a farm in the distance - all she wanted to do was to run into it and ask for shelter, but she was sure humans wouldn't welcome her there. She climbed up the rocky mountains to the south of the farm and kept travelling through them. It was the safer way. "It is the perfect plan", she thought to herself. "Nothing will attack me here."

Wrong.

It came as a swift shadow from the woods, and it threw her on the ground with ease. All she could do was to raise her staff and block its vicious jaws - but the worgen was too strong. For a moment, she thought of giving up. It would be much easier. She would die there, simple and quick. But the hope of seeing Draenor once again returned to her mind as she brought her knee to the beast's stomach. The worgen backed away, howling, giving her time enough to get back up. A strong blow of her staff was delivered on the beast's head, and a sick crack was heard as its skull broke.

"Son of a...!" She kicked the corpse's ribcage in fury. Making sure it didn't breathe anymore, she started walking once again. The worgen slowed her, and she had to be careful if she didn't want any more fights like that one. After another hour, she met the mountain's end.

The terrain she saw in front of her was even more desolate and looked even more grim, if that was actually possible. Deadwind Pass. That wouldn't be an easy crossing. She had enough for that day... She needed rest. She narrowed her eyes as she saw a ruined tower next to the valley's entrance, and slowly approached it. Ready to find another bunch of wolfmen, she got surprised as she discovered two Forsaken. Apparently, they were in a mission from Undercity, and allowed her to stay around. She could have asked for a merrier company, but that was enough for her. She entered the tower, found a comfortable spot next to the ruined stairs, and laid down to rest there. She soon entered a dreamless sleep, the memories of that day disappearing from her mind...

[PhilGobatto]

Garuda woke up the next morning with almost her whole body aching. Her mouth was dry and she felt dizzy.

"That's why I hate to walk so much... Oh, damn it...", she mumbled to herself, stretching her back as she stood up. But there was little time to waste. She munched on another piece of bread for a while before leaving the tower with a mere 'farewell' for the two Forsaken.

She contemplated the ravine of Deadwind Pass as she walked into the region. The scenario was dark and far from being comfortable - her feet, that were already feeling the consequences of the long walk from yesterday, were tortured by the rocky soil.

As she stepped on a stone bridge, she looked down to contemplate what seemed to be a lake. She imagined if anything could actually live in those harsh lands - the trees she saw looked dry and dead. But her answer came soon.

As she returned to her walk, a loud screech sounded across the ravine, and a few seconds later, it was answered by other screeches. Her grip tightened around her staff as she looked around her. A large vulture was flying nearby, followed by two others. She always heard that vultures tend to eat dead meat, but those did not seem to care about some fresh orcish steak.

She turned around and ran as fast as she could. Her feet, that were already hurt, felt like they were burning. She could hear the vultures' screeches coming closer. She turned her head to look over her shoulder...

"FUUUUUUUU---!!!"

She did not pay attention to where her own feet led herself to, and ended up running right off a ridge. She slid over the gravel, screaming as she fell down into a lake.

"Where the fel am I...?", she murmured. She spat water as she looked around her. She was in the Swamp of Sorrows. Walking out of the lake, she heard nothing but the sound of insects in the distance. The vultures apparently lost her. Letting out a long sigh, she tried to dry off her soaked clothes and returned to her journey.

After a few minutes, she spotted a tower in the distance. Walking closer, she saw an orcish scout patrolling nearby. With a sigh of relief, she followed the path to the East and finally reached Stonard. Getting herself a room in the local inn, she jumped on her bed. For a moment, she just rested, staring at the ceiling.

She grabbed the flask she filled with the waters of the Pools of Vision in Thunder Bluff, examining it with curiosity. After a minute of silent contemplation, she opened the flask and sipped from it, closing her eyes.

Once again, she saw herself in the Firemane village, in Nagrand, sitting by the lake. A couple of young orcs - still brown-skinned, she noticed - approached her.

"Hey, Garu'! What are you doing?", asked a boy in the middle of the group.

"Nothing really, Grekar. What's new?", she said.

"We're going to a mountain nearby. We're climbing it. Wanna' come too?", he replied. All the members of the group observed her as she stopped to think for a while.

"I think my father would kill me if I did... But whatever, I'm doing this." A smirk formed across her lips. She followed the group to a small mountain range to the south. Two boys were the first to climb up - she recognized one of them as Trugan, the chieftain's son, the boy who was in her first vision. The next one was Grekar, then a girl, and another boy, leaving Garuda as the last one. They looked down and observed her.

"Come on, Garu', we're waiting for you!", they yelled. She looked at the mountain, hesitant. She climbed up the first meter, taking a look down. She gasped and look back to the top of the mountain, where her friends waited for her. She continued on her way up, hurting her hands from holding on sharp rocks, when she was almost on the top... "Let's go, Garu', you're almost here! Come on!"

"I'm coming! I..." she started to say when she grabbed on a loose rock. She screamed as she started to fall, closing her eyes. But a hand grabbed her wrist and pulled her up. She stood on the top of the mountain, looking down, and then she looked back to her friends. The vision slowly turned black.

"Clan... Family.", uttered a distant voice. Garuda opened her eyes to the present once again.

"...I feel high."

[PhilGobatto]

Garuda woke up the next day with her mind still on her last vision. That voice, speaking single words again... That had to be some sort of message. As she packed her things and munched on a piece of bread, she wondered about what that journey was taking her to. Should she believe the visions? Maybe it was just another hallucination... As she pondered about her reasons to go, she also thought about her destination. What if she found nothing else than a pile of ruins of her clan's former homes? She couldn't know.

The thoughts remained as she left Stonard and walked southwards. The land violently turned from swamps to arid steppes.

"Well, the Black Morass had a few more trees than that.", she mumbled as she walked through the roads, the silence sometimes broken by the distant sound of a thunder echoing across the valley. She was admired to see some life in that land. Scorpions and vultures. "...The life was surely different from what I see now, too."

For an hour she moved, constantly sipping from a flask of water - she made sure to place the normal water and the get-high-and-see-strange-stuff water in different parts of her backpack. Falling unconscious in the middle of that place didn't look like a thing she would want to do.

A noise caught her attention as she followed the road. As she turned to see, a tail arose from the sands. The scorpid clawed the air as it crawled closer. And a staff crossed the air, hitting one of the scorpid's legs. It fell on the ground. She felt as if her leg was burning when the scorpid's claw made a cut on it and ripped part of her robe. Another blow of her staff, and the beast's head was smashed. She examined the cut, sitting on the ground.

"Wasn't that deep... Good." she cleaned the wound with the rest of her drinking water. She wrapped the piece of cloth that was ripped from her robe around the wound. A minute later, and she was back on the way.

Another dozen of minutes, and she could finally glance the valley in the middle of the dry plains. Walking down the hill, she approached the large stone structure. She finally reached the Portal. A few more steps and she would be in her homeworld, after so many decades. Her feet ached after the long walk, she noticed. As she contemplated the giant statues, she remembered the days in Nagrand. The visions brought those memories so much closer... All that quest... She took the first step. And a second. She took a long breath, a last breath of the Azerothian air, closed her eyes, and ran into the portal. A strange feeling went through her. A sensation of cold in her stomach. When that feeling was gone, she opened her eyes, and saw the long way down the Stairs of Destiny...

"Draenor.", the words escaped through her lips.

[PhilGobatto]

Garuda was surprised to discover that there were Alliance and Horde troops at the Stair of Destiny. But surprised or not, that made the rest of her quest a lot easier. She looked at the distance and, as she saw the Legion's front, she knew she wouldn't be able to get past them so easily. She walked to the orcish side of the Stairs, and with the few coins that were left in her pocket, she paid for a wyvern to the Cenarion Refuge.

After mounting the animal and taking off, the wind blowing against her face, she looked down and watched the red wastelands of Hellfire Peninsula. Many Legion camps dotted the land, the demonic troops swarming around them. She was horrified to think she already served such brutal monsters.

The breeze made her sleepy as they kept flying towards the west, and she woke up with the wyvern landing in the Refuge. Garuda took a good look around her as she dismounted the beast, contemplating the enormous mushrooms. The air was humid and heavy.

"I've been to more swamps than I'd like to.", she said to herself. She did not waste time in the Refuge. The expectation of having her homeland so close from her made her go on, and so she left to the south. At the road, she thought to have spotted something moving in the waters more than only once. That feeling made her move faster, until her feet were aching again. But as the road turned to the west and to the south again, she was too amazed to think about it. After a couple of mountains, she was staring at the open, vast plains of Nagrand.

The sight of her homeland made her smile and cheer. She forgot all of her objectives for a while, dancing and jumping across the grasslands. On the distance, talbuks and clefthooves grazed. Windrocs flew through the blue skies.

After a moment of celebration, she came back to reality. Taking the path to the south at the crossroads, she focused on her quest. The memories of her village turned clearer as she walked, the visions she had with the waters of the pools of Thunder Bluff came back to her mind. Her parents, the lake, the bonfire in the center of the village...

As she sighted a familiar grove, she started to run. She was so close... Her village was just a bit more to the south... Breathing heavily and speeding amid the trees, she finally found it. A small and shallow lake, an old wooden platform, and then a few small, dome-shaped houses. The walls of some of them had collapsed. As she reached the center of the village and stopped running, the surroundings remained silent.

Garuda felt sad for a moment. What was she waiting for, to find her clan in the streets, ready to welcome her back home? The village was completely abandoned, save for a few frogs that were now croaking near the lake.

She looked at where her house once stood. The walls were intact. As she walked into it, she found a few kitchen utensils that now were now reduced to rust. That made she remember her mother. The wooden table and chairs, where she sat so many times to listen to her father's stories, were now rotting on the ground. She sat on the ground as a tear rolled down her cheek.

Reaching for the flask of water on her belt - the water from Thunder Bluff - she turned it on her mouth and drank the rest of the liquid. Everything turned darker as the vision started.

She was standing on the mountains close to her village, just like in the last vision, still in the company of Grekar and the other boys and girls from her clan. She observed the golden sunset, bathing the plains with its light. Looking down, she could see the Firemane village. The kids entered their houses, the blacksmith worked at the forge, other men and women gathered around the large bonfire as it was lighted to welcome the night. A smirk formed on the young Garuda's lips. The same distant voice from the other visions finally said:

"Peace."