Living with dragons

[Hiver]

Coming in for landing at the top of the city, I glanced at the still silently flailing and twitching wraith, still pinned to the stone with my discarded and changed weapon.

Not on fire anymore. Let's fix that.

A quick fireball and he was burning again. He might actually be right about being immortal.

Sucks to be him.

Should have thought of that before he hurt Rengosa.

Retracting my armour, I then turned into mortal form and rubbed the back of my neck, "Ugh."

Ren retracted her armour as well and nuzzled at my shoulder, "Ready to leave?"

"Soon," I agreed and scratched just behind her nosehorn, "Need to wait for my mana to regenerate."

"That's a dragon."

Turning looking over, I saw the hobbit… what was his name, Took? Yes, Peregrin Took.

"Very observant," I chuckled.

He looked between us and the silent wraith, "What happened? What… who are you?"

I glanced at the wraith, "He pissed me off."

"T-that's the witch king!"

I raised my eyebrows at that, "He's the big badass that have you guys trembling in your boots? Really?"

He shook his head, "No. He's a servant of Sauron."

"Sauron? He's the big dark lord of yours?" Rengosa asked and the hobbit almost fell over.

Took looked at her with wide eyes as he got back up, nodding, "Yes, the dark lord of Mordor. Can you help us?"

I shared a look with Ren before I shook my head, "No. We helped save the city, you are on your own."

"Please! Just until Fordo get the ring to the mountain!"

Ring? Get the ring to the mountain? How would that end a war? Hmm.

"Mountain? What mountain?"

He pointed behind us and I turned to look at the glow in the distance, "The volcano?"

"Yes! Mordor."

I glanced at Ren.

She sighed and then nodded.

Turning, I ran and dove off the cliff, turning back into my real form on the way, spreading my wings. Ren following me a second later.

Let's see what's this entire ring thing is about. This world suddenly turned interesting.



XXXXXXXXXXXX



Resting on my wings, as we flew towards the volcano into the distance. This could be dangerous, whoever this Sauron was, he was clearly powerful and very dangerous.

I suspect he was the one that fucked with my shield. He did that from quite far away.

That was more than I could do.

But there have to be a reason that's why he didn't just blow up that city, but maybe it was different on his home ground.

"…Maybe this isn't a good idea. We should just Walk," I said and drifted close to Rengosa.

"If we do, you'll never be able to let it go," She laughed and shook her head, "No, we are going to see if we can find this thing."

I growled and sighed, "How's your side?"

"Better. Aches a bit, but I'll be fine."

She shouldn't ache at all. A soulstone literally reset your body to how you were when you created it. The only reason that the ache continued at all was because that cut hurt her core, her soul.

That witch king would hurt for that. Was hurting for it.

Deserved every moment of it.

Maybe I could even extend it to it's master. Unlikely, but maybe we are lucky. Now, to find this ring thing.

"Now the question is how to find this thing. A hobbit and a ring in a desolate landscape can't be easy to find," I commented and beat my wings, "Ideas?"

She thought for a second, "Maybe magic sight? If that ring is so dangerous that bringing it to the volcano could end the war, it should be very magical. It should stand out like a bonfire in the night."

As good of an idea as any.



AN// Unbetaed because in a hurry and early morning tomorrow.

 

[Hiver]

Mordor.

It reminded me of something. Icecrown but without the cold, just with extra ash.

Also, Orcs. Plenty of Orcs.

The hell did they even eat? I suspected mainly Orcs.

Ew.

"See anything yet?" Ren asked and beat her wings to regain some altitude to stay close enough to me to keep inside of the blur spell. Not to speak of speaking distance.

"Nothing yet," I admitted as I scanned the ground. "Maybe we were wrong and it's not magical in the way we can see."

"Possible."

I shook my head and let out a sound of frustration. "A life-seeing spell wouldn't help either, too many orcs around."

Turning my eyes to the side, I looked over the tower in the distance. The entire tower glowed with magic, getting more and more intense the closer to the top you got, until at the top a giant globe of magic shone like a massive eye.

To be honest, it was freaky as hell. What it was, I wasn't sure. Some kind of power source, some sort of massive scrying spell…

No clue.

But we stayed away from that area as it seemed to be his stronghold and if he managed to fuck with my shield like that and having created that ring, I suspected he was an enchanter of some sort.

Going there would be too dangerous.

"There!"

"Where?" I asked and banked, looking over towards Rengosa. She turned her head towards the right and I followed her line of sight.

A glimmer of magic in the desolate landscape, towards the base of the volcano. Like… a torch on the other side of a valley in the dead of night.

Weaker than I would have expected if that truly was the ring. But then again, nothing said it had to be radiating massive amounts of magic to be powerful.

Look at my weapons; when not actively shifting or channeling magic, they were almost nothing but metal. Actually, the most efficient artefacts were those that radiated the least waste magic.

Banking, I ducked beneath Rengosa and came up on her other side before twitching my armour into full deployment.

"Do you think that's it?"

"No idea," I answered and frowned. "Don't see anything else glowing, though, so we might as well take a look."

"If that's not it, we should leave," Ren said and flew along, almost wingtip to wingtip. "This place… it's wrong. Corrupted. It's like…"

"It's like Icecrown," I agreed. "Nothing here but death and decay."

Half an hour of flying and we got closer and closer, it didn't take long to spot two small shapes among the rocks.

A pair of little hobbits. The lead one was wearing something glowing around his neck, their cloaks also had a faint shimmer. The lead one's sword were also shimmering slightly.

Two hobbits, but the other only spoke of one.

Hmm.

Well, there can't be that many hobbits wandering around here, it pretty much has to be those.

Banking, we circled above them. Well, let's have a look at this ring then.

Well, there is no way to do this without scaring the life out of them, so might as well do things quickly.

Swooping down, I spread my wings and pulled up, beating my wings hard before casting the transformation spell, turning my pull up into a flip before dropping down on my feet.

That's something that had taken an embarrassing amount of time before I learned how to do that.

"AAHHH!!"

They stumbled away from me and pulled their swords, the fat one yelling at me to get away.

Rengosa went in for landing behind them and they turned and looked between us.

"Calm yourself," I said and crouched down to look at them at a more even level. "Peregrin Took sent us."

The not-fat one that glowed when the magic seeing spell was active lowered his weapon slightly. "Pippin?"

"If that's what you call him," I confirmed with a smile. "He and the Wizard Gandalf are at the city of Minas Tirith. The army the master of these lands sent to take it was defeated."

Frodo glanced back at his companion and Rengosa before he turned back to me. "Who are you?"

"My name is Atregos, this is Rengosa. I assure you, we are not your enemy."

"Why are you here? Are you here to help us?"

I shook my head. "No. But perhaps I we still can. What I'm here for is to see your ring."

"No!"

"Oh for…" I rolled my eyes. "I'm not going to take it! I want to see it! Possibly poke it. You can hold it the entire time if you like."

From the shaking of his sword, it didn't seem to calm him that much.






AN// Many thanks to Grey Rook for betaing this section.

 

[Hiver]

I sighed and rubbed the bridge of my nose. "…Okay, look. We can stand around here until one of the gazillion orcs spot us or you can let me poke the ring and then we fly you straight to the top, so you can toss it in."

Sitting down with my back against a large rock, I crossed my legs and extended my hand towards him, palm down. "Come on."

Frodo looked at me for a long moment before reaching to pull his necklace up to reveal a golden ring hanging from the silver chain.

It was… I felt something from it. A kind of pull.

It was beautiful. Shining.

He seemed fascinated by the artefact before he slowly approached. "It needs to be destroyed."

"No argument here."

"Be careful, Mister Frodo!"

Frodo glanced back at him and then slowly approached me.

…What was that sound?

It was like… whispering. But I couldn't make out the words. The ring almost glowed as he held it out.

Amazing.

As he got closer, I reached out running my hand close to it, feeling the magic around it. It glowed.

There was…

I glanced at Frodo. He seemed almost hypnotized by it as it slowly spun on the chain he was hanging by.

The whispering was getting louder.

Reaching out, I poked the ring and sent my magic into it, feeling out the enchantments.

The world all around seemed to disappear, all that existed was me and the ring against the tip of my finger.

It was amazing. It's like… someone has layered layer after layer of enchantments all through the metal at a molecular level.

Last thing I saw like this, was the Orb of Black Ice. It was at that level of complexity. This thing…

An entirely new way of enchanting an item. It's… it wasn't like it had been created and enchanted or even enchanted while it was created, it was like the enchantment was purely in the metal itself!

Even if you melted the entire thing down into a new shape, it wouldn't affect the enchantment itself!

Is that… that's the power regulation. Had to be. That's a magic transfer circuit and that must be… that's some kind of mind interface. It's so efficient!

That part reminded me of a soulstone spell. A soulstone spell in enchantment form. That was amazing.

This thing held a soul with a lot of power.

No, not an entire soul. Part of a soul, it held a lot of power and if the one who had put part of their soul in this wore it, it would create a positive power loop.

Even anyone else wearing this ring would get stronger. More powerful.

With this ring… with this ring I could be a Flightleader. The greatest ever! Everyone would bow to me, I could have anything I wanted.

I would be able to surpass the Titans! I could make their creations look like toys, forge entire worlds!

Alexstrasza would be my Consort.

The Gatewatch would fall, they would regret not helping me! I could rule all, all the worlds! All the knowledge would be mine!

I… would have all the paperwork in the world.

…Wait, that's not right.

That stray thought pulled me out of it. Why would I want that? I just worked hard to get rid of that!

I didn't want to be Flightleader! Fuck that noise!

This thing… this fucking ring was messing with my head! It was him. Sauron.

He was brilliant, this was the most amazing piece of enchanting I had ever seen. It was basically indestructible by normal means.

Sauron was fucking brilliant… and a complete moron. Who the fuck leaves part of his soul laying about!? Let alone with that much power bound into it?

His enchanting was amazing beyond measure, but man was he a moron. Luckily, I didn't need to be quite as brilliant to wreck his shit. I may not know how to make amazing porcelain plates, but I can still be the dragon in the china shop.

Starting with the mind interface, I sent precise spikes of magic into the complex enchanting matrix, snapping connections, overpowering power circuits.

I ripped and pulled and the ring screamed in my mind, clawing, twisting.

Submit! Mine! I AM ALL!

No! Fuck you! Fuck you and the dick you rode in on!

Snarling, I snapped every connection I could find to the soulstone-like containment. I didn't need to understand all of it to wreck it, I clawed, metaphysically going for the eyes with everything I had.

I opened my eyes and glared at the ring. "Get fucked!" I snarled as it started to glow brighter and brighter, turning into a miniature sun.

Frodo panicked and moved to pull away. I didn't let him, snatching the ring and ripping it from his necklace before throwing it as far away as I could.

It got about half a meter from my face when everything went white.




AN// Many thanks to Grey Rook for betaing this section. Posted early because of early morning tomorrow.

 

[Hiver]

Fire.

An eye of fire in the dark.

Groan.

Ow. What the fuck hit me? No… wait, it didn't hurt. It felt like the last time I worked for a week straight in the lab and then crashed for two days.

Why was I laying on something soft? Last thing I remembered was having the evil ring of doom go boom.

But that place was anything but soft.

I forced my eyes open. I was in a room with a bed with a white silk canopy drifting slightly in a slight wind.

…That's new. Also, kind of nice to wake up to… maybe I should get one for home. Sheila would love those.

A weight shifted against me and I glanced to the side, pulling Ren a bit closer. She cuddled closer and nuzzled at my shoulder.

How the hell did I even get there?

Okay, dumb question, she obviously carried me. But what happened?

Running my hand along her side, I watched her.

Beautiful.

In mortal form or dragon, she looked just as amazing. Only thing that could make it better was if she didn't hide her real hair colour. But then again, we were travelling, we might be able to get away with one person having blue hair but not two.

…If I kept using the ring keeping my hair black, she could stop colouring it. Then again, Sheila liked my hair as it was.

Reaching to stroke her hair, she stirred and opened her eyes.

She looked at me for a long moment and then let out a breath and put her head back down against my shoulder. "You're awake."

"Of course I am," I said and smiled, nuzzling. "I'm guessing that stupid ring knocked me out for a little while?"

That got a reaction and she glared at me. "Even whelps know not to touch unknown and dangerous items! It's literally the first thing they are taught!"

"It wasn't that bad, no permanent dama…"

She scooted up to glare at me. "Three weeks! You were out for three weeks!"

I blinked up at her in surprise. "…Three weeks?"

"Three weeks!"

"Oh," I said before I frowned. "But… why didn't you put me through my soulstone? That would have…"

"I did!"

"Oh. Oh shit," I sighed and relaxed against the bed.

That literally would have fixed almost anything. We'd never really seen damage surviving past that before something cut Ren. Only theorized about it.

If I was out for three weeks even after that… wow, that must have hit me hard.

"Yes. Exactly," she growled down at me. "Not again."

"…Sorry," I sighed and rubbed the bridge of my nose. "If it helps, that evil little trinket taught me a lot."

That was so the wrong thing to say if the look in her eyes was anything to go by.

"Where are we?" I asked and moved up to sit, shifting my shoulders. Felt a bit stiff.

Then again, to be expected after three weeks.

"A place called Rivendell," Ren explained and laid back down, head propped up on her arm. "The hobbit, Frodo, thought the elves here could help."

I nodded and stood up. "…Could they?"

"They kept you from getting worse," she said and shrugged. "I think, at least. Zrazta would have been able to tell more. But they helped me with the wraith's attack."

I quickly turned to her. "You said it got better!"

"Better," she sighed and rubbed her ribs. "Better. Not over. It went down to an ache but never went away until they helped me. Us."

"And you say I'm reckless!"

"You are!" she growled and scooted up. "You know it!"

"…Maybe a little," I sighed and sunk back down on the bed again, pulling her close to my side. "What happened?"

Rengosa rested her head against my shoulder. "The artefact threw you and the hobbits a dozen meters across the mountain. It wasn't destroyed, but it kind of… glowed. You were down. The hobbits were far enough away that they only needed some light healing. Problem was that it attracted the attention of every single Orc in the valley."

"Oh. It wasn't destroyed?"

She shook her head. "No. I think you managed to damage it though, the hobbit, Frodo, said that it didn't feel as heavy anymore. They left towards the top of the mountain, leaving me to look after you and keep the Orcs from following."

I nodded. "What happened?"

"They made it. The fortress we saw exploded and then the ground shook. By then, I had gotten you through your soulstone so you were in mortal form. I had barely enough time to grab you and the hobbits who came before the volcano erupted."

I glanced at her and blinked. "Oh. That is a bit more energetic than I expected."

That got a small snort from her and she nuzzled at my shoulder. "I wasn't done. Then the entire valley collapsed into a massive sinkhole that filled with magma. Just so you know, I'm telling Sheila everything that happened."

I couldn't help but cringe a bit at that before I nodded. "Fair enough."

I did kind of deserve that and I just knew I would get an earful about it. Sighing, I nodded and stroked her hair. "…I'm sorry."

"Don't do it again."

"I prom…"

Ren shook her head and closed her eyes as she relaxed against me. "Don't lie. Just stop doing obviously stupid things even whelps know not to do."

"…That I can promise," I sighed and nuzzled at her hair. "I'll be more careful."




AN// Many thanks to Pietersielie for betaing this part.

 

[Hiver]

He looked like some kind of elf. At least if the ears were something to go by.

"I see you are awake," he said, standing by one of the pillars. "I am Elrond, this is my home."

"Atregos," I said and gave him a nod. "I understand that you're the one responsible for healing me. Thank you."

"You were injured. It's the least we could do for assisting Frodo in his task," he answered and moved up to stand next to me, overlooking the valley.

"…And thank you for helping my Consort," I continued. "She said she felt better after the cut. I believed her."

"Wounds from the blade of the Witch-king are not easily healed. But your Rengosa is strong and fully recovered," he said and looked towards me. "I understand that you made him regret attacking her."

I smirked a bit. "Still regretting unless Sauron exploding killed him."

"Hmh."

I leaned against the railing and frowned at the river below. "He's dead? Sauron?"

"As far as we are able to tell. His armies have been defeated and the ground itself in Mordor has collapsed in on itself. Mount Doom is covering what remains with molten stone."

"Good."

Elrond watched me for a second before he turned back to the valley. "What are you?"

"Dragon. Same as my Consort… which you know as she flew me here."

"Far different from any dragon I have ever known."

I smiled a bit. "That's because you've never seen a true Dragon."

"So, what will you do now then?"

"Leave most likely," I sighed and then looked at him. "Perhaps never to return. This place has little for us."

My eyes went down towards his hand.

That ring… it didn't shine or anything. But it didn't seem normal either. Not like the one I saw before, it didn't have the… draw. But it wasn't a normal ring either.

"Your ring. It's not normal," I finally said, and he looked down at it, raising his hand.

"No. It's not. Vilya is not a normal ring, but it matters little. She's fading now."

"But not as special as that other one."

Elrond looked almost amused as he looked at his ring. "Almost."

"May I see it?"

He went still for a very long moment.

"I promise not to blow this one up."

That actually got a bit of a smile from him before he shook his head. "I suppose it doesn't matter much anymore. Don't put it on, you won't like the result."

"You don't even need to take it off, I just need to touch it."

I reached out to touch it, feeling the magic in the gold band with a sapphire stone. The craftsmanship was really good, but…

"This has a different creator than the one I destroyed," I finally said as I traced the enchantments. "Not as… no, it's just as elegantly made. Just different."

He didn't say anything.

The ring used the same kind of enchantment method as the other one. No separate enchantment, the magic itself was infused in the metal. Such an elegant way of making an enchanted item.

Without some sort of evil malignant spirit within the ring fucking with me, I could take my time studying it. Amazing really, I could see the power connections… it was drawing mana from the air, the general area. It had some sort of mental component, a lot of it in fact.

Some sort of… mental enhancement? Memory? Intelligence?

Yes. Both.

Azeroth had those enchantments too, but nowhere near as elegantly made. To be quite frank, they weren't worth it, which was why I wasn't constantly using them.

This one might actually be worth wearing. But it was… lessened.

It might even…

Oh.

I pulled my hand back and looked at him. "It's part of you. Addictive. If you take it off…"

Elrond closed his hand and looked at it. "The most powerful of the three. It sharpens my mind and my senses and lets me find connections none other might. My memory is perfect."

"But if you take it off, it takes all that with it."

"Yes."

And it was going away now.

Nodding, I walked over to the table and my satchel to pull out one of the rings we keep for trading before sitting down and closing my hand around it, channelling my magic into it as I tried it out. Now, to get that kind of effect into the metal, what would I need to… yeah, that would work. Especially if I shifted the metal at the same time, then I wouldn't need a hammer and anvil.

Opening my eyes, I turned, and I glanced back at him. "This's trickier than it looks," I told him. "Come back in a couple of hours. Unless you want to watch me sitting here."

He frowned a bit but then nodded and walked over to sit down across from me.

Closing my eyes again, I refocused on my work.






AN// Many thanks to Pietersielie for betaing this section.

 

[Hiver]

Once I finished working, I did one last check on the ring before I opened my eyes and held it up, so I could see it.

It looked the same as before which wasn't surprising. I didn't work the exterior any.

"Here," I said and looked at the elf across the table from me before I slide it over to him, "Not sure I got it completely right, it's likely at most seventy-five percent as effective as your current one, but I'm fairly sure it's stable. But hey, first try and all that. At least this way you have a spare. Least I can do for all the help you have given us."

Elrond looked between me and the ring before he shook his head, "Impossible."

I shrugged, "Honestly, wasn't that difficult. Biggest problem was the entirely new enchanting system. I can see it really good for passive effects, but I'm not sure it has the power necessary for active effects. I'll need to experiment more, but I can do that later."

Not like we didn't have intelligence boosting rings back home, they just weren't anywhere near as good… or addicting.

Reaching over, he picked it up, staring at it, "…This is not possible."

"Don't put both of them on at once," I warned him, "I honestly have no idea what would happen, but I doubt it would be anything good."

Ren walked in, her bag on her shoulder, "Ready to leave?"

I nodded, "Almost," I told her and moved to pick my own satchel up, "Find anything fun?"

She shook her head, "Nothing much. Nice place."

"I wouldn't say that," I said with a grin and pulled her close for a quick kiss, "I think I learned quite a bit."

"Any more than when you…" she started to say before she frowned at me, "...you did something."

I shook my head, "You're cute when you're suspicious."

"You're less cute when you're evading."

"…I looked at Elrond's ring. It was helpful to examine one that wasn't trying to kill me," I admitted and ran my fingers through her hair, brushing it out of her face, "It's fine. This one wasn't trying to eat me."

Rengosa shook her head, "…I suppose you would at least in theory know best when it comes to artefacts. When you actually stop and think about it."

I growled at her and she smiled and took my hand,
"Come on, let's get going."

I nodded, "You're right, it's time," I said before I turned to the still stunned looking elf, "Thank you, Lord Elrond for your help and hospitality."

He looked up at use from the ring before he put it down on the table and stood up, "You are returning where you come from?"

"We are," Ren said with a nod, "We may return one day."

"But not anytime soon," I continued, "Thank you."

With that, I pulled Ren along outside and towards the edge of the estate/town before he changed his mind of being willing to let someone able to make those magic trinkets walk away.

As soon as we were in an area big enough Ren pulled away with a smile and walked a bit away before turning back into her real form.

"Not Walking from here then?" I asked and turned back as well, stretching my wings wide.

She shook her head, "Better to do away from people."

"So true," I agreed and moved up to nuzzle beneath her chin, "Lead the way."

She nuzzled back and ran down the path, her wings spreading and she took to the sky. I quickly moved to follow, beating my wings hard.

This world had been worth it after all. Another system of enchantment even if I didn't find exactly what I was looking for.

Sadly, didn't really help with the flying ship project.

Not directly anyway.

Oh well. Maybe we'll have better luck back on Azeroth. Not enough time head over to The Exodar, but maybe we got lucky and Venir managed to get some information.

I didn't need the blueprints, even if it would clearly be helpful, especially if they held their fucking FTL drive, but I just needed somewhere to start!

Ah, it felt nice to fly again. Especially after having been in mortal form for over three weeks! Not having wings in that form kept them from cramping, but damn this was nice.

We climbed towards the clouds, the slowly setting sun painting the world below in fire. Without armies of marching semi-orcs and evil rings, this world seemed rather nice and peaceful.

Perhaps not the most useful world, but I think we might have been right about it when we first arrived on top of that mountain.

This was a rather nice world to just visit and relax on.

Hmm. That wasn't a bad idea actually. Not a vacation spot, but a stronghold, a fallback point. A place to gather spare resources and defences, just in case everything everywhere went tits up.

That wasn't a bad idea at all. Not like the locals could cause problems for a properly enchanted fortress.

I'll have to ask Wrathion if I could borrow a couple of his geomancers.




AN// A big bucket of thanks to Jordisk for betaing this section. Posted early as early morning tomorrow. Working on a Sunday... ugh.

 

[Hiver]

Exiting the forest onto the road leading towards Stormwind, I couldn't help but sigh as I looked around.

No matter how many worlds we visited, this one was always… well, so far anyway, it was home. It was here everything started. As far as I could remember, anyway.

Sometimes I couldn't help but wonder what would've happened if someone other than Venir had found me that day long ago. What if it had been… an orc or something. My life would surely have ended up completely different and quite possibly a lot shorter, even discounting the entire dragon thing.

"Think we have gotten the answers to Sheila's letters?" Ren asked as she followed me onto the stone covered road.

"Hope so," I answered. "Hope Venir have gotten some answers to her query too."

Ren nodded and then frowned slightly and looked around. "If not, we have to return some other time. Where is all the traffic?"

I joined her in looking both ways down the road.

She was right, where was all the traffic?

Now, the road wasn't exactly heavily trafficked by Earth standards, but it was the main way to get goods in and out of Stormwind, the capital of the Alliance if you discounted the port.

You could usually see some travellers or a merchant wagon or two travelling between the closest villages and the city. If not see, then hear someone.

Nobody was in sight.

"…You're right, that is a bit odd," I agreed and then shrugged. "Let's go, we should still be able to make the city before it gets dark."

It was hardly a long walk, we were only a couple of kilometres outside the walls after all. But the closer we got, the less things seemed to be like they should.

The biggest sign was when the city got into sight. The wide stone bridge reaching towards the main gates was barricaded and guards were patrolling it. Guards on the towers and the walls.

Siege equipment was on the towers and pointed towards the road and forest.

"That's not a good sign," Ren commented and adjusted the strap of her satchel. "Not sure they're going to just let us past."

"Don't think so either," I said with a frown. "The question is why they're in such a defensive posture. Is there a war going on?"

A war that had reached all the way to Stormwind? In two months? Even the Legion didn't manage that.

Maybe they were just being cautious, but this felt… bad.

"We still need to get in there," Ren said. "Portal?"

I shook my head. "Too risky. If they are doing this, you can bet their magical defences has been shored up as well."

Granted, we had loopholes through them most likely from the time they were constructed, but we had not checked on them for over a year. I for one didn't feel like going squish if some bright wizard had messed about with them.

Oh well, I knew one way to get to the bottom of this easily enough… and I had waited for just a time where I could play with this thing!

Pulling a coppery sphere from my satchel, I gave it a small squeeze and it unfolded into a metal beetle about the size of my hand. Putting it on my shoulder for a moment, I dug out a pen and a piece of paper, scribbling down a quick note to Venir asking wtf and how we get into the city.

Folding the note, I handed it to the beetle's front legs. "Venir," I told it.

The thing clicked a couple of times before its eyes turned from black to blue after a couple of seconds as it locked on to her tracking necklace.

Its wings started to buzz and it took to the air, heading upwards at a good speed.

"Let's hope she has her necklace with her," I said and settled down by the closest tree.

"If not, she'll see it when she returns home," Ren said and sat down next to me, resting her head against my shoulder as I put my arm around her.

Nothing to do now but wait.

Not that we needed to wait for that long, it was only a couple of minutes when a group of guards emerged from between the trees, their swords and bows drawn.

The one in the shiniest armour stepped forward. "Identify yourself!"

"I'm Atreus, this is Ren," I said and kept my hand away from my daggers. "We were on our way back to Stormwind when we noticed something was going on. Wanted to find out what's happening before we got closer."

The one on the left shook his head and took off his helmet. "Captain, I think they're spies."

I couldn't see the face of the guy in shiny armour, but he looked like he felt like slapping the other guy,

"They're not spies, Karl. Look at their gear, they are clearly adventurers. Nobody else can afford running around in that kind of equipment."

"So, not spies," I confirmed as I got up, offering Ren my hand and she took it, pulling herself to her feet. "Mind telling us what's going on?"

"You mean you don't know?" The Captain asked, pulling his helmet off and running his hand across his short brown hair. "The Alliance and the Horde are at war."

…Well, damn.




AN// Many thanks to Pietersielie for betaing this section.

 

[Hiver]

"Welcome back," Venri said with a sigh, "Hope things going better for you than us."

"Venir, what happened?" Ren asked as she lead the way into her office, "We were gone for two months!"

She shook her head and got up, rounding the desk and giving Ren a quick hug before she grimaced, "I have been trying to find out exactly what set things off, but tensions has been high and growing since the war with the Legion. Everyone lost a lot of people in the fighting and then when the Island blew up. Since then everyone has been rebuilding and… well, their former enemies are weakened…"

Nodding, I crossed my arms, "I see."

Stupider than normal reasons then.

Ren looked over at me, "We should get Wrathion and return."

"You should," Venir agreed, "This isn't your fight. I have everything my contacts managed to gather while you're away. It'll be ready in a couple of hours."

I turned to her, "Come with us. We can bring your husband, your family."

She just smiled, "I can't go. I need to keep running the company, plenty of profit to be gotten during war."

"…And if you lose?"

"I don't think we will. Haven't yet."

Sighing, I gave her a quick hug, "Be careful."

"Always."

Rengosa smiled, "Let's go find Wrathion and then we'll be back for the notes."

"Not sure you will find him in the city," Venir supplied and leaned back against her desk, "King Anduin and his personal troops left the city weeks ago with the majority of the fleet."

"…And if Anduin left, there is no way Wrathion wouldn't as well," I sighed and rubbed the bridge of my nose, "If my Consort left for a warzone, if there was any chance at all, no way I wouldn't follow."

Not for along anyway.

Ren sighed as well, "Great. So, we have to track him down across half of Azeroth."

"Not only that, but we have to convince him to actually leave with us," I agreed, "That's if we can even track him. He knew we were coming back and if he…" I said as I grasped my tracking necklace, channelling some magic into it.

Wrathions necklace resonated and gave me a direction. It was also not being worn at the moment and was close. It was still in the city.

"...He left it behind," I groaned, "Fucking damn it, Wrathion!"

I'm going to make him eat his own tail!

"We can't leave without him either," Ren said and sat down in one of the chairs close to the fireplace, crossing her legs, "Alexstrasza wouldn't be pleased."

"You're right, it's too dangerous," I agreed, "We left for a reason."

Fucking damn it, Wrathion. Why did you have to do this?

…I can't even blame him for it, I would have done the same. Damn it.

"Looks like we're going to stay here for a while longer," Ren said and looked over to Venir, "Do you have somewhere we can stay?"

She grinned, "No need. Your mansion is still in good condition and being maintained in Pandaria. I made sure part of your profits of all this is being put towards it."

"Venir, what would I done without you?" I asked with a smile, "You're the best."

"Likely bleed to death halfway up a pinetree," she said and walked around the desk with a grin before tossing a key over to me.

"…Yeah, no kidding," I agreed and caught the keys, "Can we still portal from here?"

"Safer to do it outside the city now when they are on the warpath," Ren suggested and got up, brushing down her dress, "No way to know if they put up scrying spells looking for portals in the city. That's just as much of a danger on the way out as in."

"True."

Venir headed for the door, "I'll check how much longer until the material is readied."

Watching her go, I settled won in the chair next to Ren's with a sigh, letting my head drop back, "Why don't anything ever go smoothly?"

"What would be the fun in that?" Ren asked in response and rested her head against my shoulder, "Face it, you would be bored."

"…Maybe, but it would be nice from time to time," I said and frowned, resting my forehead against her head, "For something to just go right just once at a time. At this point, I'd just be surprised if anything went right."

She grinned and pulled back to look at me, "I'm sure it will this time."

"Yeah, right," I snorted and then ran my fingers through her hair, "That's be a first."

Ren just nodded in agreement and then frowned, "How are we going to find him anyway without the necklace? I can't scry for a single dragon on an entire planet. Can you?"

I shook my head, "Well, no," I admitted, "That's what the tracker is for."

"He left the necklace behind, remember? You checked."

"I did," I confirmed before I smiled at her, "But I don't think he left his armour behind. Not going into a warzone."

Ren blinked at me in surprise, "You put a tracking enchantment on his armour?!"

"I made it. Of course I did."





AN// Unbetaed because I'm a big derp, posted early because I have a early morning tomorrow.

 

[Hiver]

"Kul Tiras," I said and looked down at the map laid out across the table, "Why would they sail there?"

Ren shrugged, "No idea. Never been there, but it does sound familiar."

"Jaina's family hail from there," I said and frowned, "But they're not alliance members. Maybe… that's what this is about. Allies before the real fighting begin."

"Possibly," she agreed and looked at the glass ball that had rolled across the map to rest on the location of Wrathion. Or rather his armour. "We could fly there. There is a portal in the Arathi Highlands, it's not that far. We can fly from the portal outside of Stormwind, be there in a couple of days."

I blinked at her, "We don't have a portal on the island?"

"Never had reasons to."

"Well, we have to fix that then," I said and started to fold the map up.

Ren nodded, "We'll leave tomorrow morning. It can wait that long."

"…It can. I actually kind of missed our bed here."

"Me too," she agreed and then eyed me, "But there is something better than that bed."

"Oh?"

"Space."

It took a second before it connected but as soon as it did, I grinned, "Meet you outside?"

She winked and walked out, the door closing behind her.

I watched her until she was out of sight before I sighed and looked around the room. Not much of a workshop, it used to be my study before we left.

Back then I didn't even know how to work metal without a forge. Time flies when the world is ending.

I kinda missed this place to be honest. Didn't have that much time to spend here really, I was always too busy. But it had been mine.

Ours.

Not the flight's, not anyone else's. It had been Sheila's, Ren's, and mine. We stayed at the tower right now, but I knew Sheila wasn't very comfortable there. Too cold.

Too… draconic.

We had tried to make it as human friendly as possible, at least in our rooms, but… no windows. I knew it wasn't right for her.

I needed to find somewhere better. She deserved that.

…Not just for Sheila. Rengosa and Zrazta may be more comfortable with our living conditions, but they liked nice things too.

They deserved better.

As soon as we get back, I'll find a good place to start construction. Somewhere nice, but not as cold as where the Tower was. Somewhere with nice defences and not too hot.

Somewhere a bit further south.

Somewhere with plenty of room to fly that won't terrify the locals. Somewhere with mountains.

I couldn't help but smile to myself at that idea.

Now I just needed to track down Wrathion and beat him across the head until he stopped being a idiot.

…That would be easier said than done. It took my Flightleader to stop me from going after Sheila and Ren when they went to war.

Even that didn't work for long.

Wrathion WAS a flightleader. Getting him to go along would most likely mean outright making him do it.

I would need to Challenge him to get him to come, with his Consort heading to war.

No way he would simply be convinced to come along. It would get physical.

Damn it.

He was my friend. But the entire Wyrmrest Accord had decided we should stay away from this world other than short visits until The Old Ones could be defeated permanently.

I didn't think there was any real chance he would get corrupted just sticking around a couple of years until the war was over.

But it wasn't up to him. Nor was it really up to me.

Sighing, I turned to walk out and down the stairs to the rear of the building. Rengosa raised her head from where she had been laying in the wild grown grass.

"Took your time," She said, and nose bumped against my chest.

"Needed to think a bit," I admitted and scratched just beneath her eyes, "If Wrathion left his tracker in Stormwind, he won't like being found."

Ren nodded, "I know. But we can't leave without him. Let's go hunting."

"That sounds great."




AN// Big thanks to FPSCanarussia for betaing this section.

 

[Hiver]

Flying higher, I banked and peered down towards the town below. Wrathion was far below, somewhere in the castle overlooking the town.

At least according to the tracking spell.

Of course, the massive Alliance fleet anchored outside the city was also a bit of a clue. The fact that it was actually matched by the local fleet anchored right next to them.

The locals liked their ships.

The terrain was relatively mountainous across most of the large island, we would need to land quite a bit outside the city and then make our way there.

…Or…

I suppose would could just land and ask to be taken to their leader. These people knew about dragons.

Of course, they also knew that dragons usually ate their kind if things came to conflict. So maybe it wouldn't be a good idea.

Ren flew up next to me and looked my way, "We should land out of sight."

"No arguments there," I agreed and banked to follow her. We slowly circled above the city, slowly making out way towards the closest hill outside the city. It was stony and with no real trees on it.

No people either.

As we dipped behind the hill from the city, I dropped the blurr spell and beat my wings, pulling up to circle down for landing, settling down on the stony and windswept grass, a bunch of rabbits running for cover as my claws touched the ground.

Folding my wings, I stretched and let me breath out, laying down on the ground as I closed my eyes for a second.

Ren let out a small tired sound and rested her head across my neck, "My wings ache."

"No wonder, we'd been flying for a day and a half," I answered quietly and shifted to lean a bit against her in turn.

Long distance flying from time to time was nice, but this was a bit too much of it. To be completely honest, my wings ached too.

"…I so need to get that flying ship project working."

Ren made a sound of agreement and started to breath evenly. Fast asleep. Oh no, I'm stuck. Can't move without waking her up.

Such horror. Oh well, nothing more to do about it.

Casting a quick summon spell to make Witcher stand guard in case somebody spotted us, I closed my eyes and went asleep with her.



XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX



Something slowly woke me up and it took me a second to realize exactly what it was. As soon as I did, I sighed.

It was raining on us and hard at that.

…Maybe if I kept my eyes closed, it would get bored and go away?

Ren made a small unhappy sound and sighed, "…Perfect," as she nosed at my neck, "It's raining."

"Is it? I didn't notice," I grumbled and received a well earned sharp nip for it.

Groaning, I got up and stretched, spreading my wings before glancing towards the skies. It was dark out, the sky was completely overcast and the water was just pouring down on us.

"…Yeah, turning into mortal form in this will just be awesome," I commented and looked over at Witcher. He looked absolutely drenched. Not that it seemed to be bothering him overly much.

Of course, if Renhad been wearing an actual white dress instead of an illusion over her armour it might have been much better, but even that pro didn't exist right now. We were just being rained on with all the drawbacks.

Fucking Wrathion.

Sighing and settling down again, I shook the water of my wings, "Wait until it's over."

Ren nodded and shifted around a bit to rest her head across my forelegs, "Should have gone earlier."

"…Yeah," I agreed and rested my chin ontop of her head, "Try to get some more rest."

Now the wind is picking up too. Awesome.

Why did it have to rain? Why couldn't it be nice snow instead?

With some luck though, it would have stopped by the morning and then we could head to the city and track down Wrathion and Anduin.

This was just brilliant.

Oh, hey, I think it's letting up… and now it's pouring down again.

Sigh.




AN// Unbetaed and posted early because early morning tomorrow.