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The End in Icecrown
#1
“Get in there and kill something!” shouted the tall Kaldorei in shining armor. The emblem of the Valiance Expedition was on her chest. She was pointing a sword off to the north, and glaring at me. I didn’t bother answering, only raised my greatsword in a salute as I loped off to where she had pointed. The cold bit into my skin as I ran, snow flying up from my strides.

Icecrown. A deathly chill wasteland of snow and ice, bearing up to its name and reputation of evil. It would of course be here in this dead place, across a gaping mass of water from our beloved forests, that this all-important battle would take place. I longed for the feel of peat and root under my feet, but of course, all I got was ice, snow and the occasional rock.

A wall of Undead sways and writhes before me, intent on its battle with the forces of both the Alliance, and the Horde. The two sides had stopped fighting each other in the face of this great evil, but a small voice in the back of my head whispered, wondering how long it could last. As I made my way toward a knot of fellow Kaldorei, I almost missed the arrow, barbed and wicked and deadly cold, ripping through the air toward my breast. I sidestepped mid-lope, and kept going, eyes scanning for the creature that had loosed that foul dart. I found it, aiming for me again.

This time, I couldn’t get out of the way, so I brought up my greatsword and used the flat of the blade to reflect the shaft. It sank into the ground with a crunch and tinkle of ice. After covering most of the last several yards in a few more easy strides, I leapt into the air with a warcry, and cleaved the thing in two.

My name is Rancoura, and I am a warrior.

Everything after that first kill is a blur. Elune blessed me that day, for I only accrued a few minor scratches and a bruise or two. The most annoying one was a cut right above my right eye, because it kept sending flecks of blood into that orb, making me have to blink furiously to clear my vision. I didn’t mind it, on the whole. That quiet part of my mind that kept to itself near the back reasoned that one annoying cut and several small ones were a very nice price for the deaths I was causing. Normally, during the course of fighting anything or anyone to the death, that small part felt guilty at the taking of a life, but not today. These foul things were unnatural, brought into being by the will of the Lich King, and they had to be stopped.

Suddenly, the small part of my mind uninhibited by the pleasures and pains of war noticed something that should have been more bothersome than it was. I was further away from my comrades than I needed to be. Much further. “In fact,” thought that piece of me apart from the rest, “it’s as if I’m being herded. Look how they bunch together when I start to move back toward my kin.” A feeling of unease wrapped its tingling fingers around my shoulders. Something was wrong. I needed to get back to my brothers and sisters. Now.

Then, it happened. A giant, rotting, foul-smelling behemoth came out from under the ground where it had been lurking. In the same moment, the group of Undead I was in contracted, forcing me closer to the beast. Several weapons; swords, axes, daggers, pikes, and spears, rose up at the same time. I had time for only one more yell, one more audible challenge to the creatures around me, before I felt the bite of steel in several places. I did not weep, nor did I cry out in pain. I was not afraid, for Elune would protect and guide me. I would live on in another sense away from this world of pain.

As the feeling in my limbs left me, I laughed inwardly. I laughed that I had been so foolish, but I also laughed for all the blows I had dealt that dread army. I was floating calmly away from it all, and at peace. I was free.

And then, I felt it. A wrench, and a pull, and a *twist*. What was going on?! Suddenly, I was back in my body…but something was horribly wrong. Nothing obeyed my commands, nothing moved when I told it, not even my eyes. A cold voice of power and death reverberated within my skull. “Not today, elfling. Today, you are *mine*.” Horror filled me, before that was swept away. It was all swept away. Everything I was or would become was brushed aside like old cobwebs before a wicker broom. There were only the orders, and I must obey them.

My name is Rancoura, and I am a Death Knight.
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