Fur and Fire Chapter 2.
---
Blake sat down in the plush chair, practically feeling herself sink into it. The twenty three year old Faunus watched Ruby leave the room, before coming back with another chair.
They sat there for a few minutes, before Blake couldn't take it anymore and blurted the first thing that came to mind.
"I'm sorry."
'For what?" Ruby asked, her voice low.
"I- I thought you were dead," Blake said, "and I didn't try to find the orcs who did it. I didn't look for you. I should have done something."
"Anything else?"
"I know you're probably angry at me," Blake continued, "and you have every right to be. I really should have looked for you," the small part of Blake's mind that remained rational realized that she was repeating herself, "it must have been hell to find me, and I should have at least tried to look for you."
"Anything else?" Ruby repeated.
"What do you want me to say?" Blake hissed, anger starting to bubble up, "I'm sorry, I didn't know you were alive, or where the orcs were camped, and even if I did, attacking them would have just gotten me killed. Is that what you wanted?"
"No," Ruby shook her head, "I just wanted to make sure you got everything off your chest. You're bad enough when you've had a couple of days to let things build up in your head, I can't imagine how bad it would be after six years."
"...What?"
"I'm not angry at you Blake, I never was. We both knew that distracting the orcs without a weapon should have been a suicide mission, and I would have been angry to find out you had gotten yourself killed attacking them."
"Oh…" Blake sat there, feeling lost, "then… How did you survive? And where have you been the last six years? I waited for you for a month, before the last of the money from the bounty on that satyr ran out and I had to go looking for a new mark."
Bounty hunting had been the easy answer to their money problems, it didn't take much to transfer the skills they had gained through their one semester at Beacon (and Ruby's two years at Signal) from hunting Grimm to hunting various criminals. Orcs, trolls, humans, dwarves. From what Blake had gathered, Kalimdor was even less populated that the Eastern Kingdoms, and that meant every criminal with a bounty, a bit of money to spare, or the skill to sneak aboard a ship and stay hidden until the end of the voyage, was rushing away from the Eastern Kingdoms and to the new frontier. Then you had the people coming to Kalimdor to make an honest living, and needed things like satyrs, centaurs, murlocs, and quilboar eliminated.
"I spent the the last three years in Orgrimmar or trying to find you, and I spent the three years before that a slave to those orcs."
Blake felt her stomach plunge, staring at Ruby. A slave? Ruby had spent three years a slave because of her?
"Y-you what?" Blake asked, silently hoping she had heard wrong, or that Ruby was telling a bad joke.
---
"Blake-"
"A slave?!"
"Blake-"
"You were a slave!?"
"Blake, calm down-"
Blake leapt from her seat, starting to pace in complete defiance of the concept known as 'calming down'.
"I should have gone looking for you," Blake repeated for the fourth time in ten minutes, pacing back and forth with increasing speed, "I should have spent that money on mercenaries and hunted them down, I shou-"
"The Warsongs."
"What?" Blake asked, stopping her pacing to look at Ruby.
"The orcs," Ruby supplied helpfully, "they were an offshoot of the Warsong clan. Not part of the Horde, they broke off because Warchief choose to settle in Durotar."
"How do you-?" Blake suddenly cut herself off, looking around the room like she was checking for something, before leaning in, "Ruby, you said you had been living in Orgrimmar, right?" the cat faunus' ears were moving so much that it was causing her bow to move.
"Yeah," Ruby said, looking around to try and figure out what had Blake spooked.
Reaching out, Ruby asked the elements if they saw anything she was missing. An amused thrum that seared the mind from Fire, but little more, an unyielding certainty that there wasn't from Earth, Air stretched her senses, allowing her to hear a mouse hidden in the walls, to smell the mead and meats at the common room at the end of the hall, and Water sent a calm apology that it couldn't help more.
Ruby closed her eyes, thanking the spirits with a slightly bowed head, before opening her eyes to look at Blake. The faunus hadn't moved much, Ruby's communion having happened in seconds.
"You," Blake looked around again before dropping her voice lower, "you didn't join the Horde, did you?'
Oh, right, Alliance city.
Another rush of burning amusement from Fire. Ruby dutifully ignored it.
"No," Ruby said, "I didn't know where you were, or if you had joined the Alliance, so I wanted to be able to make a clean split if I needed to."
Blake looked shocked, "You didn't join the Horde… because of me?" a dusting of red appeared across her cheeks, "but, you have to have made some friends in Orgrimmar, right?"
"Not many," Ruby responded, "most orcs don't like humans," which reminded her… "by the way, when we make it home, I'm gonna help you with any Faunus rights projects you want to do, I've spent the last three years being treated as a second class citizen. It sucks, it really, really sucks."
"You're staying?" Blake asked, looking thunderstruck.
"Of course I am," Ruby said, "why wouldn't I? I didn't spend years looking for you so we could talk for a hour and split back up. Why?" apprehension filled the shamaness, "do you want me to-"
"No!" Blake said, "I just- you're really not angry with me?"
"Why would I be angry with you?" Ruby asked again, she really didn't get it, "we promised to stay together. I'm not breaking that promise. Come on, we should get some sleep, we've got a lot of catching up to do in the morning. You can use the spare bed," Ruby pointed to the bed that had both sets of linen sheets across it, "I paid for this room for a month, I didn't expect to find you this quick, so we have time to plan things ou-" Ruby's eyes landed on the red box next to Blake's chair, mind finally registering it's existence, "Crescent!"
Surprisingly, there wasn't the impulse from Fire that normally accompanied Ruby taking a while to notice something.
"Oh," Blake grabbed it, handing it over, "Yeah. I've been taking care of her, just in case, you know, or if a bounty required a bigger round than what Gambol Shroud can use. It's not easily getting bullets from her, but it shouldn't be-"
Ruby threw her arms around Blake, squeezing tight.
"Ahk!" Blake struggled, "how are you so strong?"
"Learned hand to hand, and restarted the routine I did to get enough strength to pick up Cress in the first place. She's not light."
---
Valeera groaned at the line for food, wrapping an arm around to bruises forming on her upper abdomen. The arena's cafeteria was first come, first serve, and it wasn't looking like Team V (if nobody was giving them a name, she was doing it herself!) was going to be eating today. Except Crocbait. Since he wasn't a slave, he could just leave and go get food somewhere else. Lucky bastard.
How the hell was this 'keeping them well fed'? They weren't-
"Girl," at that, Valeera looked over to where her owner was gesturing for her to come over, "Come on. Now."
Valeera did, following him out of the room with a baleful look backwards. Looks like there was no chance of them eating today.
As the trio of gladiator trainees followed Rehgar through the halls, Valeera finally voiced a question that had bugged her over the past couple of days.
"Where's Ruby?" Valeera hadn't seen the human since their first day in Orgrimmar, though Valeera thought that might be because she didn't have much stomach for slavery.
"On a trip," Rehgar grunted in Common. After his sales pitch to Crocbait, the orc had swiftly tapered off the amount of Common he used, using a translator when possible, and as few words as needed when it wasn't. Valeera wasn't sure if he used more when Crocbait and him left, and didn't really care, "She'll be back before Dire Maul. Come on, I want to eat."
Oh, now he was just rubbing it in! Valeera stewed in quiet rage as they walked towards a door guarded by two ogres and a goblin sitting at a desk.
A quick discussion in Orcish (she guessed) and the goblin stood up, grabbing three metal rings from the desk, before another barked order from Rehgar had him put one back.
The goblin walked over to Broll, pulling the ring apart and clamping it onto his leg, before doing the same to Valeera.
"Right," the goblin said, "these are simple. You try to leave Orgrimmar, they shock you, if you aren't back by nine, they shock you. If you try to make a run for it, you'll run into one of those two and they'll shock you. Capiche?"
"Uh," Valeera said, "what?"
"Understand?"
"Yeah?" Valeera said.
"Alright," he turned to Rehgar, saying something in Orcish, before opening the door.
Valeera blinked as they stepped out into Orgrimmar, the setting sun casting long shadows through the valley.
"What are we doing?" Valeera asked, following Rehgar.
"Eating," he said, "you need food. I need you in top condition for Dire Maul, and that means keeping you fed."
"Thanks?" Valeera said, feeling confused. He was giving them food?
"I don't want your thanks. I'm only doing this because if you don't win, I don't get paid, and then I'll be the one not eating. Come on, let's get that food."
---
Blake's eyes flickered open, and she jerked up, grabbing Gambol Shroud from where it leaned next to her bed.
Where was she? What was- Ruby! Blake looked around scanning the room. Where was she? Had she left? Maybe she actually had-
Blake's eyes aligned on Crescent Rose and a red fur trimmed cloak.
Except for their first day as a team at Beacon, Blake couldn't remember a day where Ruby hadn't worn her cloak. Even if she was willing to abandon Crescent Rose for some reason, she wouldn't leave without her cloak.
Blake poked her head out the room, looking down the hall. Still nothing. Blake doubled back, grabbing Ruby's cloak as she looked at the clock in the corner. Seven in the morning. A bit earlier than she would normally wake up, but they could get some food.
Walking down the hall and into the common area, Blake made a beeline for the woman currently manning the desk.
Azeroth's relationship with technology confused Blake at times. You had people using old-fashioned ships, messaging birds, and equally old fashioned book binding methods, then you had mass produced weapons, robots, a tram in the Eastern Kingdoms, and nearly modern inns.
"Hello," the night elf smiled nervously, eyes flickering up at Blake's bow, "have we met? I don't remember meeting, but I'm not the best with faces, and I normally run the midnight shift anyways. Sorry, I'm rambling. Can I help you?"
"I'm looking for my friend," Blake said without missing a beat, "Ruby Rose."
"Can you give me a description? I don't get people's names very often."
What was with this girl?
"Short brown hair? Silver eyes?"
"Oh!" she looked relieved, "Yes. She's out back, by the pond. She's been there for the past couple of hours. Meditating, I think."
Meditating? Since when did Ruby meditate? Ren had tried to teach them at one point, and only Blake and Pyrrha had shown any interest. Ruby had left early on.
"I'll go find her," Blake turned, heading through the back exit.
A beautiful garden dominated the back of the inn. Heavy trees stretched above Blake's head, somehow growing strong despite Teldrassil nearly blotting out the sun above them. Shrubs lined the walkway from the door to the garden proper, before splitting off and forming a perimeter around it.
Blake walked further through the garden, stopping to examine some of the flowers. Her mother would have loved these.
That was Blake's single greatest regret now that she was stuck on another world, that she had never met with her parents after she broke away from the White Fang. That she might never get the chance to say she was sorry. Were they angry at her? Did they think she hated them?
Blake sighed, standing back up and heading towards the pond, at the same time other questions of Remnant bounded around her head.
Had Nora and Ren ever gotten together? What about Jaune and Pyrrha? How were Adam and Ilia? And what about Weiss and Yang? Had Ozpin allowed them to stay at Beacon, despite half the team going missing? And more importantly, if they did manage to get home, how would Blake be able to look Yang in the eye and say that Ruby had been a slave because of her?
Shaking her head, Blake focused on where Ruby was sitting in front of the pond. The younger girl, woman, Blake corrected herself, Ruby was a full grown woman now, had her legs folded under her, her head bowed as slow, rhythmic breaths came. In through the nose, out through the mouth. Beside her sat a pair of boots, like she had come out wearing them.
"Ruby?"
Nothing. Ruby didn't make any gesture to show that she had heard Blake.
Blake sighed, walking over to one of the chairs and sitting down. She should have brought a book.
---
Ruby's eyes snapped open at the shuffling noise, and she threw aside the furs she had been sleeping under, eyes locking onto the ghostly wolf at the foot of her bed.
"Really?" Ruby asked, "It's," she checked the clock, "five in the morning. This can't wait?"
The wolf turned, walking past the bed where a halo of black hair and a pair of furry ears were visible, before walking straight through the wall.
"Looks like we're doing this now," Ruby sighed, casting a longing look at her bed before she grabbed her combat boots and pulling them on. She also grabbed the necklace she kept her various totems on, putting it on as she went.
She exited the room, making sure that she wasn't too loud as she pulled the door shut, before turning to the wolf, which was impatiently pacing. As she turned to it, it promptly turned and continued to walk.
"You could at least tell me what's so important," Ruby grumbled as she followed it to the foyer.
The wolf went straight for a door in the back, passing right through the night elf currently carrying dishes. Ruby dodged around her, giving a polite smile as she followed the spirit animal out of the inn.
Eventually, the wolf walked over the pond, before turning and resting on its haunches.
"Alright," Ruby said, "you got me out here. What is it?"
The wolf pointed its paw at the shore of the pond. Ruby looked over to it, confusion mounting. Why did the Spirits have to be so confusing?
"You want me to stand there?"
The wolf shook its head, pointing again.
"You want me to meditate?" Ruby asked. There was only so many shaman-y things the wolf could want.
Sure enough, the wolf nodded.
"I don't have any incense," Ruby protested weakly, even as she took off her boots and folded her legs beneath her. While she didn't absolutely need some, it helped her get into the mindset needed to enter a trance.
The wolf merely cocked its head, and Ruby sighed, closing her eyes and settled her breath into a stable rhythm. She pictured a candle flame in front of her, like she was back with Drek'thar in the Valley of Wisdom.
It would help if she knew what she was supposed to be doing. Farseeing? Calling a soul from the Shadowlands? Conversing with the spirits?
Ruby continued breathing, shutting out everything around her. The animals rushing through the trees, the wolf prowling around her, the wind blowing through the garden. Focusing on the flame. Opening herself up, allowing herself to be carried far away.
Suddenly, Ruby was standing on a rocky outcrop. Looking out, Ruby saw two massive armies of elementals marching on each other. Flames blazed from one end of the battlefield, turning the night to day. A giant twisting vortex of fire towered over the lesser elementals, turning to a humanoid upper torso at the top, which held a massive cudgel in one hand.
Marching towards them as a tide of stone, from creatures as small as pebbles to one that were the size of mountains. Larger than even them was a rotund woman made of stone. She flicked her hand and the earth reshaped itself to divert a storm of fire.
This, a voice came from the Earth, is what it was like at the dawn of this world. The four Elemental Lords and their lessers waged endless wars, scouring all life from Azeroth while we focused on… larger matters, hidden deep within my womb. But then They came.
As if on cue, four stars blazed forth, falling in four corners.
On that day, everything changed.
Ruby staggered as she was suddenly displaced, before catching herself and focusing on the new area.
They were surrounded by ice and water for as far as the eye could see, leaving Ruby a perfect view of the massive water elemental struggling with equally massive tentacles covered in grinning maws as an army of bugs ran below them.
Their threat was so great, the waves carried the message, that the four Elemental Lords decided to forge a truce, least they be swallowed whole. However…
The elemental's trident made a massive sweeping gesture, crashing the tentacles through the ice and dragging the bugs to sea.
It was for not. Therazane was the first to fall, for They had rooted Themselves deeply within the earth that she controlled. Al'Akir was next, offering himself willingly, and with him, Ragnaros the Firelord. Neptulon fought valiantly, but in the end, even the Tidehunter was incapable of fighting forever.
More tentacles burst from the earth, knocked the trident from the elemental, before grabbing him tight and smashing him against the ice as more wrapped around him.
...but then another group came.
Ruby was displaced again, watching an army of metal and stone march on a massive city built around a mountain. Standing between them and the city was another elemental, wind this time. It and one of the stone men were throwing bolt after bolt of lightning at each other while mantis-like creatures fought with men with lion heads.
The Titans, they called themselves, Wind carried into her ear, and they had come to order our world, to force it to follow their patterns. Al'Akir stood between their creations and the strongest of the Old Ones. The battle they fought lasted for years that took minutes, and minutes that took millennia, for the Titan's Highfather, Aman'Thul, was a master of temporal magic. But it didn't matter, for all Al'Akir needed to do was hold them off. Or, that's what he had thought, the wind died suddenly.
A hand reached from the sky, easily grabbing the mountain at the heart of the city, and tearing it out of the earth.
Long, fleshy tendrils were slowly ripped out with it and Ruby realized that the mountain was a living creature. A shimmering purple liquid rushed to fill the hole in the earth. Al'Akir looked up in bewilderment, before taking off and flying away as quickly as possible, followed by the man he had been fighting.
Several of the stone giants rushed around the crater, yelling in another language as a second hand came down, gripping the still thrashing creature, yanked it the rest of the way out, and tore it to pieces. Pitch black ichor splattered onto the ground, and where each drop touched earth, black and white creatures grew to fight the remaining giant.
The Titans were afraid to harm Azeroth like that again, Wind picked back up to her, drawing her eyes to where a giant woman was pointing, giving orders to the smaller, lion headed ones, so they did not kill the other three intruders, instead dragging them close enough to death to shackle the creatures while they sealed the Elemental Lords away.
Ruby's feet sunk into sand suddenly. Before her stretched a great wall, disappearing beyond the horizon on either side.
What you would consider long ago, Fire scorched her mind, not taking any of the care the others had, when this whole world was Kalimdor, the Old Ones' servants took this prison, waiting for it to awaken. When it did, due to the meddling of the creatures that created the place where your physical form sits, the dragons were only capable of sealing it, for the guardians that should have come to help did not.
"But," Ruby broke her silence for the first time, "I don't get it? Why tell me this?"
The creature will break free soon, if something is not done. The 'Alliance' and 'Horde' are gathering supplies to launch an assault on it first. Champions from every nation on Azeroth will be there. Including you.
"But, if the Titans couldn't kill-"
Do not mistake 'would not' for 'could not', Fire cut her off, the corruption is weak, so we will burn it away now.
"What about Blake?" Ruby asked, "I- I just got her back. I don't want to leave her this quickly."
It took a moment for Fire to respond, and it came softer than normal, like a warm day, instead of a raging inferno, I did not say you had to leave her behind, young pup. Ask her to come with you. This need to be done, if it isn't, in front of her appeared five people, Jaina, Warchief, Crocbait, a blond haired boy that Ruby didn't recognize, and Blake, Your friends, flames consumed Jaina and Warchief, your family, the boy and Crocbait were eaten too, and everyone you love with be consumed or enslaved, Blake's expression slid off her face, her eyes becoming downcast as some sort of black and red flesh coiled around her.
Go, fight this war, and know the elements of Azeroth march with you.
"But, what if I'm not re-" before Ruby could finish the sentence, she was staring at the pitch blackness of her own eyes. Well, that was a way to make it clear this wasn't a negotiable part of their pact if Ruby had ever seen one.
Ruby stood up, ignoring the pins and needles in her legs, and turned around.
Blake was dozing in a chair… a bowless Blake was dozing in a chair.
"Oh boy," Ruby said tiredly under her breath, wondering if she could get a few more hours of sleep in, or if the Elemental Spirits (Fire, really) would complain next time they actually spoke.
An impulse that Ruby was too tired to interpret came from one of the Spirits.
Ruby bundled up Blake, deciding that if she was gonna get dragged into a war for them, the least they could do was allow her a few hours of extra sleep.
Another impulse, one that Ruby was going to interpret as agreement.
---
Crocbait walked into the valley, looking around at the many holy men gathered.
An orc and troll in furs pushed passed him, their head practically touching as they had a quiet, hurried argument under their breath as they rushed towards a colossal tent built on a island in a huge pond at the end of the valley. On either side of the valley were artificial streams carrying water from the lake and into Orgrimmar proper.
"I guess this meeting is really important?" he asked Rehgar. The orc merely grunted in response.
Rehgar looked exhausted, his face drawn. Whatever this was about had caused him to cancel training for the day.
"Rehgar!" the call was followed by a couple of Orcish words, and Rehgar stopped to allow a female tauren to catch up. Rehgar, if anything, looked more irritated at having to talk to her.
They stopped at a natural intersection, at which point Rehgar spoke in Common, "Druids are that way," he pointed to another collection of tents, "Light is that way," he pointed at a modest, half complete chapel, "good luck."
Crocbait was left standing alone as the other two continued toward the giant tent. After a moment to think, he went towards the chapel.
As he looked around, he couldn't notice how different it was from the few fragments of memory he had. Of a woman with flowing blond hair in a breathtaking dress holding a baby swaddled in blue as they walked up the steps to a cathedral. Who were they? His mother and brother? His wife and son?
There were a few orcs, goblins, and trolls standing around, but the majority of people were undead, heads bowed in quiet reverence.
One of them spotted Crocbait, making his way over. He was swathed in the white of the clergy, a rosary wrapped tight around his charred left hand, A line with two fragmented half circles dangling from it.
"Hello," the undead said softly, "I am Gallus Brightgrave, can I help you, my child?"
"Hello… Father?"
"That was the title I held in life, yes. Do you need assistance? We don't see many humans here, but the Church does not, should not, be blinded by such differences. Unfortunately, I cannot give too much, lest I be declared a traitor, but if you need an ear, or a place to stay, or even some food, I can supply that."
"I was hoping to speak to someone. I have amnesia, Father Brightgrave. I woke up on Kalimdor without any memories a week and a half ago."
"Truly?" Brightgrave stopped, "I apologize, that made it sound like I don't believe you. What is it you need from me? Spiritual guidance? Healing, perhaps? I'm far from adept at healing scars of the mind, but I have several colleagues here that are extremely skilled in it."
"Just to talk at the moment, I have fragments of memory, and I was hoping... I was hoping-"
"That I could help you put them together?"
"Yes."
"I can try. Come, talk with me while we walk. What would you say the oldest memory is, if you had to guess?"
"A city on fire, I was running through it with a woman and a man named Anduin, while the orcs sacked it-"
---
Shargresh walked into tent where the shaman of the Horde were congregating. Everyone had been plagued with nightmares of an unblinking eye and a burning need to go south.
Seated inside a ring of stones were several of the most powerful shaman of the Horde, and Shargresh quietly ran through them in his head as he took a seat near the back, where new shaman were being crowded.
Drek'thar, farseer of the Frostwolf clan, Rehgar Earthfury, gladiator master, Zur'ak Firefist of the Darkspears, Muln Earthfury, High Shaman of the Tauren, and Magatha Grimtotem, elder crone of her tribe.
"Rehgar," Magatha called lightly, "I've been meaning to ask, where's your apprentice?"
The silence that fell seemed unnaturally thick, and Shargresh's eyes scanned the next circle of shaman. There was one for each of the shaman in the circle except Rehgar.
"She isn't near Orgrimmar at the moment," Rehgar said, "but I will inform her of the decision we come to at the earliest possible time. Now, I take it you've all been having the dreams too?"
Everyone in the circle nodded grimly, as did Shargresh and a spattering of different shaman around the room. Then a long silence fell, the five merely staring into the fire in the center of the tent. It felt like everyone else was almost… out of place.
"Hamuul was advocating sending troops the same way," Muln said, "whatever this is, the Cenarion Circle is also worried about it."
"The Warchief is weighing his options too," Drek'thar added, "we should send some people, even if he doesn't formally decide to. It's what the elements want."
"And what of the ancestors?" a voice called out.
"They don't have anything to say," Rehgar grunted, "and why would they? If this is an Azerothian problem, what would spirits from Draenor know? What about you, Huln, Magatha, Zur'ak? Have your ancestors said anything?"
"No," Muln said.
"I haven't heard anything from them," Magatha seemed to shift uncomfortably.
"Da Loa have spoke ta me," Zur'ak said, "quiet whispers, gentle urges. Dat'll have ta do."
"And what do they say?" Drek'thar asked.
"I'll give ya a guess, like those humans are so fond o' doing."
"They want us south."
"Dey be scared, have ta be, if they're talking to me again," the witch doctor said, "Bwonsamdi hasn't spoken to any o' us since Zalazane took our home from us, angry dat da drums no longer play for him, dat da offerings don't come in when a Darkspear dies," the flames snapped and hissed, throwing the troll's face into shadows and for a moment, his voice seemed to drop several octaves, "it takes a lot to scare da god o' death, if he's willing ta break his silence, we should deal with it."
"Then let's vote," Muln said, "We should go."
"I agree," Drek'thar immediately added, "I might not be able to go myself, but we should send someone."
"I'll go," Zur'ak said, "along with any shaman here who wants ta come."
"Rehgar? Magatha?"
"I'll send Ruby," Rehgar grunted.
"And I'll send Jeven. When do you plan to leave?"
"As soon as possible, so anyone who plans to go should get any supplies and allies dey want now."
Shargresh slipped out, heading to find Duraro and Crom.
