Sins of the Father

The wind howled through the canyon walls and sounds of war drums could be heard over the horizon. Dust of the fragile top sand mixed into the wind creating a foreboding atmosphere within the Valley of Spears. Still the adventurer pressed onward toward the Holy Shrine of the centaur, where an unwelcome presence had taken root.

As the stranger approached the cave he removed his cloak and shook it to remove the accumulated dust. Placing it within his pack the stranger entered the threshold of a shrine drenched in the blood of his past. Almost as if the cave itself knew of his intention his surroundings seemed to darken to slow his progress. Whispers could be heard bouncing off the cave walls promising death.

His footsteps rang out, as hoof met stone, in an unnatural discordance. Each step seemed to cause a flashback of the battle that took place within the halls of Maraudon. The battle that ended the war between the Swiftpride Tribe and the centaur. As the bull passed a skeletal tauren impaled to a nearby wall by a great spear, it was as though he could see it played out as if it was happening before his eyes.

The warrior tried to push the horrid thoughts from his mind and pressed on, focusing on the clanking of his armor. The one familiar and reliable item with him in this pit of hellish memories. His armor was nearly all black with ornate glyphs rising from it shimmering in a pale blue glow. The work of an elf that he had forged a friendship with before fate had brought back an old enemy.

He approached a crossroads and a vivid mirage flashed before his eyes. One of a far older tauren running from the battles being waged. A younger tauren was following the older one calling for the chieftain to return to the fight. A centaur khan sprang out at the younger tauren who was forced to battle while the older tauren ran further into the abyss.

The mirage passed and the armored warrior followed the path that the old chieftain took decades earlier. The cave became lusher the deeper the warrior ventured and boulders seemed to come alive before his eyes. He followed a winding path with his eyes and saw a ray of light shining on a throne to an abomination. This was where he his journey ended. With the end in sight the tauren moved with renewed haste. As he approached his destination a mighty stone giant rose to halt his progress.

"We know why you come. Your mission ends here, for Theradras has deemed you unworthy."

The warrior gripped his axe as the unnatural voice rumbled its warning. Lifting the great axe high he charged toward the behemoth slamming the axe down upon the gut of the beast. The strike embedded the axe deep within the rock and for a moment nothing happened. Then a voice shook the halls causing debris from above to shower upon both the giant and the tauren.

"Landslide let him come. His presence here marks a time of turmoil within the world. Perhaps it is Therazane's wish for the child to visit the grave.

The tauren was shaken by the power that the voice radiated. The giant who was previously an obstacle groaned out as the stone behemoth moved. Giant hands of boulder removed the great axe from within itself and returned it to the warrior. With this permission to proceed the warrior slowly ascended with his axe prepared to strike at any sign of hostility.

The tauren was soon in awe of what was before his eyes. Lush flora marked the site of a stony abomination that created an otherworldly paradox before his very eyes. Princess Theradras stood on the edge of her platform with one arm beckoning and two lower arms opened for an embrace. The tauren felt compelled and approached the creature wrapping his arms around its wide girth. As soon as black fur and stone touched the warrior burst out into tears.

"Hush now child. You are at the grave site of your father now. You know why you are here, Rawlk? Therazane willed you to seek this place. You are meant to carry on your father's mantle as a new war approaches. Will you do this for your earth mother?"

Sobbing the tauren seethed at himself with inner turmoil. He strengthened his embrace around the creature and choked out, "No,.... I don't believe in the earth mother." With these words he shoved the creature with all his might over the side of the ledge. Theradras flailed about in shock grabbing his right horn to try and save herself. The horn snapped off with a mighty crack and the bull roared out in pain as Theradras tumbled down to her doom.

With blood gushing from his broken horn, Rawlk approached the spot where his father had been buried. He saw the body wrapped in ceremonial bandage beneath the antlers of a great beast. The face was still exposed sunken but still recognizable. Rawlk seemed to match every feature of his father,now even including the broken horn. Eyes blinded with tears and rage the tauren pulled the dead bull out from his resting place and cut through his wrappings. He carried the dead chieftain over the ledge of the gnoll.

"You ran from your people. You let us die in this cave while you found salvation. Yet you have the nerve to allow yourself to be put to rest here. This cave is where true Swiftpride have come to die, you don't belong here coward."

With those tearful words Rawlk let go of Faquarl and let him fall into the waters below. The young warrior collapsed and sobbed uncontrollably as he heard a splash below him. The night passed overhead with no wind to be heard. The only sounds were of a warrior sobbing and the splashes of a giant crocolisk below.

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One Year Ago
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Rawlk stood with his good friend Solerian on a ledge above the Valley of Bones.

"So according to you these skeletal creatures are destroying the lands over the Great Sea?"

Solerian nodded at the great tauren. The two had met while Rawlk was patrolling his tribal grounds in Desolace. Solerian was a refuge being hunted by Inquisitors of the undead forsaken. He had gone to Desolace to find a place to lie low. To his great fortune, he was found by Rawlk, who had a great interest in magic. Solerian was used to consorting with Tauren, for he had a tauren bodyguard for many years.

"I always found it strange that the centaur avoided this valley. Those few, necromancers did you call them? They managed to instill fear into the mongrels while I have not in a lifetime."

"You're lucky chieftain. The undead are mindless with no inhibitions. They have no fear of death or lost limbs. Theyre mindless disgusting brutes. I'm sincerely sorry that they've come to your homeland. I would advise we move now, before they acknowledge our presence."

The tauren grunted and followed the elf down a deep slope that led to the bottom of the plateau. As the two progressed noises of wildlife seemed to stop. Rawlk had taken to notice these signs as warnings. He grabbed the small elf by the shoulder and walked forward to take lead. As they neared the exit of the gorge, Rawlk lifted up his hand to tell Solerian to stop. The tauren crept forwardto get a view to what awaited them.

Rawlk saw nothing but skeletons lying across the desert plains. His gut told him that this was abnormal and that danger was near but his eyes could see nothing. Not taking any chance he approached one of the skeletons and drove his spear into its skull. Nothing seemed to happen and Rawlk let out a breath of relief.

"Solerian! Move quickly, I don't like this place." As the tauren called out for the elf something below him stirred.The skeleton sprang up and dug his claws below Rawlk's chest mail cutting into his soft belly.

Rawlk roared out and slashed the skeleton apart with his spear. Solerian ran toward the tauren as the other skeletons started standing as well.

"We must flee chieftain you're injured."

Rawlk snorted and spit onto the floor. He brushed his hand over the wound and saw blood. Grinding his teeth he swore.

"These abominations challenge a Swiftpride? I will not flee from corpses. I am no cowardly centaur." With these words Rawlk threw his spear like a javelin through one of the skeleton's skulls. He then unsheathed a great axe and charged into the group of skeletons. Hacking and slahing the mindless marauders. Solerian cast spells of holy light to exorcise the undead.

After what felt like hours of fighting the two had managed to clear their way through the skeletons. Rawlk led them to his cave and collapsed in a heap.

"You should take care of that wound chieftain. It will begin to fester soon."

Rawlk removed his chest mail and looked at the wound for the first time. It was a deep gash that already looked unhealthy and infected.

"Can you not use your magics and heal it?" Solerian walked towards the tauren and placed his hands over the wound. His hands began to glow with a bright light as he attempted to heal it.

"This is no ordinary wound. The mongrels must've been diseased. You must get some medical attention, I have seen the effects of wounds like these."

Rawlk laughed at Solerian. "It is just a scratch. You're weak body may not be able to endure battle but I have endured far worse. It will heal itself with time. It merely needs to be bandaged and cleaned."

Solerian sighed but said no more. As days passed, Rawlk's wound was getting worse and worse until Solerian decided it was time to seek out an old friend to help out. Solerian packed his gear and set out for Booty Bay to meet with a witch doctor. He left while Rawlk was asleep in his quarters.

Faquarl sat in the Salty Sailor Tavern of Booty Bay still tending to his injuries from the Grin's failed siege on Ironforge. His warchief was most likely dead and the Grin was in shambles after he had left. His role as warlord had been waning ever since the controversy surrounding his unit. He didn't even know how many of them still lived. The only one he had seen after the siege was Felora and he had made sure she would not die in there.

The question was, what should he do now? Faquarl took a long drink of water from his mug. He sat in another self imposed exile. He had failed again, and the dwarves would suffer for it. Not now though, he only wanted to sleep on the boardwalk and think of where to go next.

As the druid walked outside the tavern he heard commotion erupt from one of the piers above. The sounds of battle created the familiar bloodhaze and Faquarl sprinted towards the chaos. What he found there surprised him though. Undead creatures were breaking into what appeared to be a troll bungalow. Faquarl summoned trees from the hill supporting the piers and had them push the mindless undead into the water.

The great tauren walked to the hut and pulled the now severely beaten wooden door off it's hinges. Peering inside the hut he saw a figure huddled over what appeared to be a package of some sort.

"I hope you wretches burn for eternity! My bloodline is host to one of Silvermoon's greatest Houses! They will avenge me!" The elf was screaming out without even looking. Faquarl ducked into the house and picked the elf up by the scruff of the neck.

"May I ask why you're hiding from that sort? Surely the undead do not travel this far south."

The elf seemed shell shocked to find that it was a living person coming to his rescue. After a moment for the elf to catch his breath, the elf looked at his rescuer more intently. His brow began to rise in shock.

"Rawlk?"

Faquarl snorted out in surprise of hearing that name. He grabbed the elf by the throat and lifted him up against the ceiling.

"How do you know that name?!? Answer me or you will WISH the undead had found you before I did!" The elf gulped some air and wheezed out to try and answer the tauren.

"I accompany him in Desolace. Rawlk is the chieftain of the Swiftpride Tribe. He was gravely injured by undead there and I came to find a remedy from the troll who lived here. He wasn't home and as you saw I was rushed inside-"

The tauren dropped the elf to the ground unceremoniously.

"You will take me with you to find Rawlk. I will heal him of his ailments."

The elf got up and stared cautiously up at the tauren. Nodding and understanding that he had no choice in the matter, Solerian gathered the supplies he had come to steal and set out with Faquarl.

"My name's Solerian Sunforge by the way. Pleasure to meet you Mister?"

"Boat's here. I pray you find a way to keep yourself content that doesnt involve my hearing your drawling. Therazane knows that boat rides are troublesome enough as it is."

The two boarded the ship set for Ratchet and found a cabin to stay in. Faquarl brooded over this turn of events and wondered if perhaps this was the working of a god.

The trip had not been an enjoyable one. Of all the elements, Faquarl's bond with the water spirits was the weakest. They mistrusted his presence, and his affinity to the earth spirits did not assist in changing their perceptions of him. Een with this distraction, Faquarl had two large weights on his mind. First of which was the possibility Rawlk was alive. The other was, who was this elf and how did he know so much?

The elf had been uncomfortably positive the entire voyage. Faquarl had never seen a blood elf until he joined the Grin, and after sailing with this one, he realized he could have lived without ever meeting them. To describe Solerian, he was cocky at best and arrogant at worst. While fit for an elf, Faquarl wondered how the wretch could have ever survived a day in Desolace.

Desolace...

Could his son really be alive? He hadn't seen the boy since the massacre at Maraudon. Would the boy even know who he was? That didn't matter so much, as long as he was healthy. This coincidence had to have been fated.The Grin's defeat at Ironforge, the diaspora of the clan, the discovery of this elf. It all had to have been set in motion by the powers greater than himself.

With these thoughts running through Faquarl's head, he began to hear the cries of tropical birds and distant clanging of industry. They were nearing Ratchet.

"The captain says we'll soon be upon the city of Ratchet. Thought I'd warn you." Solerian had just walked down below deck . He looked at Faquarl quizzically. "You don't speak much, do you? Shame. Talking really speeds up a long journey you know. We still have a bit of a trek until we reach Desolace. I'm sure we can scrounge up some type of transportation for an elder such as yours- OW!"

As the elf was talking Faquarl was already gathering his things and had knocked the small elf down as the tauren climbed above deck. His pack was light, just as he liked it. The only thing of value he had was his tribe's writings. Their interpretations on the mysteries of the universe. He would give this book to his son. Soon.

Rawlk sat within the cave he called home in a cold sweat. Once again the world seemed to have turned on him. His elf "friend" deserted him in a time of need. They could all be damned as far as he was concerned. The wound he had suffered seemed to be getting worse daily, now even beginning to smell.

This negative reflection on his life only pushed Rawlk on. He would overcome this, he was the last of the Swiftpride. This was merely a small obstacle in his way. One that he meant to barrel through like he had done with all others.

The sun began to set and the cave darkened. The howling winds could be heard outside the cave, like the echoes of the dead within the barren wasteland. Rawlk reached for his spear, not out of fear, but to prepare for any wandering beast seeking shelter.

The winds outside only worsened as the night went on. Rawlk was too weak to maintain a campfire so he sat in the cold dark in stoic silence. Every noise fought for his attention and sleep evaded him. His instincts told him something was wrong but he insisted it was the wound making him delusional.

Ten out of the corner of his eye, he caught movement.

"Show yourself worm. That will be your only warning."

"Watch your tongue when you speak with me. I am your elder, little one. You get that mouth from your father." The response came from a slender female tauren who had stepped forward from the shadows. Her fur was dark black with flecks of white seeming to wane and wax as she walked. Her eyes were golden and caring as she looked down at Rawlk. They weren't filled with pity, yet there was a great sadness openly conveyed within them. She was adorned with a flowing gown adorned with beads, feathers, and bones. The design seemed regal, but primitive.

Rawlk stared at her, mouth agape.

"Mo... mother?"

"Yes little one. You seem so lonely." She knelt down beside him and rested her hand beneath his chin. Rawlk closed his mouth and stared in shock.

"You died. This can't be. How can you be here?"

"Hush, what matters is that I am here. You're hurt!." The female tauren brushed a hand against Rawlks wound. He winced out of anticipation but felt nothing.

"You're a ghost! An apparition! Why are you here?" His voice was faltering in her presence. She just looked at him with the same sadness.

"You've become so lost. I'm sorry for everything you have had to live through, my son. Get up, I will take you to the shaman. He will heal you." With that she stood up and motioned for him to follow. She walked back further into the cave. Rawlk lifted himself up, using his spear as a cane. He hobbled after her, desperate not to lose sight.

"Wait! Mother! Farseer Stonebull died! He died during the siege of Maraudon! Mother don't leave me! I missed you!"

Rawlk lumbered onward, with his mother nowhere in sight. His eyes darted all around in desperate hopes to find her. As he frantically jogged forward he saw another exit to the cave and moved toward it. With the light still dim, he tripped over an elevated stone and fell forward crashing into a solid person.

Completely thrown off by this new presence Rawlk looked up into what could have been an older version of himself. His older reflection grinned downward at him. Rawlk noticed that one tooth appeared to be missing on this new tauren but it was the only insight he made, for now his head was light and dizziness began setting in.

The older tauren lifted him up and propped him against the cave wall. Then an elf ran into the cave bearing a torch.

"Got the light you asked for. Is that him? Fantastic!" The elf brought the torch closer to Rawlk's face, and the tauren had to squint against the light.

"So it is... after all these years. Hello son." The older tauren brought Rawlk into an embrace. Feeling rushed back into Rawlk, and the pain from his wound hit him like a tidal wave. The events unfolding before him faded to black, and the sleep he had been searching for hours prior, finally set in.