You could have cut the tension around the dinner table with a knife it was so thick, no child liked it when their parents fought and Gentlehooves was no exception. She risked looking up from her food to see her mother in the next room talking earnestly with her father, it was clear to the youngster that what they were discussing was terrifying for her mother.
“Why does it have to be you?” Gentlehooves mother demanded. “Have you not done enough for them?”
“You worry too much,” her father responded his voice showing just how exhausted he was talking of this subject. “Maligned has some of the finest fighters and magic wielders in the horde, there is nothing in Northrend that we can not handle.” Her mother snorted.
“Don’t lie to me, I heard of the scourge’s attack on Orgrimmar, that why you insisted that we move here to Shattrath, isn’t it,” her mother declared, her father nodded.
“You’re safe here, nothing can touch you or Gentlehooves while you remain within these walls,” he told her with a tone of finality in his voice as he rose from his chair. “Now it’s late, and past time for our daughter to be in bed. Are you finished eating little one?” he called to the young tauren.
“Yes daddy,” she replied standing up and coming over to him, he smiled and lifted her into his arms.
“Your not so little any more,” he commented and smiled rubbing her nose with his own making her giggle. “Soon I think I won’t be able to carry you anymore,” he commented a little sadly.
“But I like it when you carry me,” Gentlehooves protested resting her head on his shoulder and yawned.
“Well then I suggest you two make the most it while you can,” her mother interrupted them. “I’ll clear up here while you put her to bed.”
Since space was tight in Shattrath their new home was not large and Gentlehooves room was the smallest but it was enough for her. As soon as her father placed her on the bed she grabbed her blankets and covered herself up, then she looked up at him and saw he held her two favourite toys in the whole world in his hands, Greenpiggy and Redpiggy.
“You like you bed don’t you?” he asked her.
“Uh huh,” she replied as he placed them on either side.
“That’s good,” he stated as he knelt down. “I won’t be here when you wake up tomorrow little one.”
“Your going to that Northrindy place aren’t you, the place that scares mommy so much.” She said and he nodded.
“I will be back though,” he assured her. “Maybe I be able to bring you back another piggy would you like that?”
“A blue one!” she squealed in delight hugging him.
“Bluepiggy it is then,” he stood up once more and put out the torch plunging the room into darkness. “Good night Gentlehooves,” she watched him go and then lay in the dark thinking of all the adventures he would have before falling to sleep.
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The next day Gentlehooves awoke when her mother called her through for breakfast, being her favourite meal of a day she jumped out of bed and rushed into the kitchen and leapt into her chair. She was so focused on eating that it was only after she had taken three mouthfuls that she realized there was someone else besides her and her mother in the room, looking up from her bowl she saw Zujin giving her an amused smile.
“Good morning,” Zujin said.
“Good morning sir,” she replied quietly. He was always nice to her but there was a darkness about him that made her nervous.
“I was just here to see that your father but it appears I missed him,” the warlock told her.
“Are you going to follow him?” Gentlehooves asked.
“I’m afraid my own adventures in Northrend will have to wait until this leg of mine here heals.” He laughed. “Don’t worry though he’s got some serious backup, take Gnarl for instance he can demolish walls with those while that pretty boy Fallen could almost bring the forsaken back to life with his powers.” He seemed to be talking more to her mother than to the little tauren. “Well it was nice to see you two again but I better get back to Orgrimmar, that inventory of mine is not going to check itself.” He joked, reaching over to pick up cane with ornate dragons head as a handle using it too support himself when he put his weight on his right leg the warlock made his way out of the door.
“He’s scary mommy,” she told her mother, who bent down and hugged her.
“I’m sure to you he seems that way,” her mother commented. “But he’s one of the good guys. Now finish your breakfast and go find your friends outside.” She told her daughter.
With a whoop of excitement Gentlehooves ate the rest of her food, leapt from her chair and raced out of the front door. Outside the Lower City was as it always was a hive of activity with large numbers of refugees moving about from place to place, many of the buildings were in some form of disrepair. However despite the large volumes of people within this small part of the city there was almost no violence within the walls which was accredited to the harmonic and peaceful aura coming from A’dal the Naaru who was in charge of the city.
Oblivious to most of this the young tauren just knew that she felt safer here than she had ever been, which allowed her to run through the city heading to the spot where her friends were no doubt waiting for her. The first she spotted was of course the unmistakeable Buck a young bull who was boasting to three smaller children, one them was a male troll boy called Jammal, who like them was now living in Shattrath so that he was safe from the hordes many enemies, the other two however were just visiting for a few days, orc twins Ulric and Kelda. She identified the young orcs by the fact that they proudly wore their grunt uniforms which were identical replicas of those wore by the Grunts who guarded Grom’Gol base camp, one of the hordes main outposts in the south of the eastern kingdoms.
“Hi guys,” Gentlehooves said as she ran up, Kelda hugged her while the three boys nodded in greeting. “What’s going on?”
“Buck was telling us about the time you rescued your piggys from those off pig men,” Kelda answered. “Did Arashi really save you?”
“Yes Saku sent him in to scare off the Quilboars,” Gentlehooves explained.
“Buck say dey so scared dey run an no be lookin back mon,” Jammal commented laughing.
“So what shall we do today?” Kelda asked she and her brother were eager to find some form of adventure, they were all silent for a moment as they tried to think up something to do but then Buck spoke.
“I know something really cool, follow me,” the bull declared and led them towards the southern ramp. “I found it when I was shopping with my mum,” he told them.
“Found what?” Gentlehooves asked. “Buck you still have not told us anything,” she pointed out.
“Trust me,” he assured her turning quickly not spotting her rolling her eyes at him.
Soon they found what he was talking about, a small tunnel which had been hidden behind a large stack of merchant crates. Without pausing Buck stepped inside with the twins right behind him, Gentlehooves was not sure this was such a good idea but Jammal gave her a playful smile revealing his small tusks before he too entered. Knowing full well this was a bad idea the young tauren followed her friends.
The tunnel was a tight fit but they all managed to work their way through it, when they emerge they found themselves outside the city walls. Kelda and Ulric had automatically drawn out their toy axes just as their dad did Gentlehooves remembered, Jammal being the most agile of the group had run to the closest tree and climbed up to some of the lower branches to see what there was.
“What can you see?” Buck called.
“Dey be da small village just over dat way, mon” Jammal answered dropping down. “We gonna be takin a look ya?” he asked bouncing from foot to foot in excitement.
“Yes let’s see what’s there,” Ulric urgred, Kelda nodded eagerly.
“This isn’t a good idea guys,” Gentlehooves insisted, but the others were already heading towards the encampment, shaking her head she went after them.
As they made their way through the woodlands each of them became aware that they were being watched. As one they turned slowly to see that a huge white wolf was standing salivating as it stared at them, for a moment neither the children nor the giant canine moved.
“RUN!” Gentlehooves yelled, shattering the moment and spurring the others into action. They fled through the wood with the wolf snarling, snapping and closing on them rapidly.
Within moments it would have caught Gentlehooves, in fact the wolf got so close she could feel its breath on the back of her neck. Then something just on the edge of her vision lunged, she screamed and fell to the ground, her panicked gaze look skyward to see a blue and white body appear above her, accompanied moments later by the high pitch whine of a canine in pain. Climbing to her feet she saw the tail and hind legs of the wolf being dragged into the shadows of the large tree root and for a brief moment the silhouette of the creature that had killed it, it was large. She stood statue like staring at the spot where the two beasts had vanished transfixed as the sound of crunching bones and tearing flesh reached her ears.
“Gentlehooves,” Buck whispered as he appeared behind her placing a hand on her shoulder. His sudden presence broke the morbid spell that she was under and she spun round and hugged him. “Are you ok?” he asked a little surprised by her actions.
“Am I ok?” she replied incredulously taking a step back. “Of course I’m not ok,” she added and punched his shoulder. “You and your bright ideas, you almost got me killed,” she accused, she would have said more but the woods were suddenly filled with a frightening sound.
“KAW! KAW! KAW!” was a high pitched, almost painful sound which echoed off the trees.
“You two better get over here,” Kelda whispered urgently at the two tauren. “And keep low,” she added.
Using the roots for cover they kept low and made their way over to their friends, Jammal had once again climbed a tree and was hiding in the lower branches while the twins peered through the gaps in the tangled roots, all of them were staring intently at the village which was now only a few feet away. Due to their natural size Gentlehooves and buck could peer over the top of the twisted wood, and they saw something they did not expect.
Bird men, that the parents called Arakkoa were surrounding a large floating stone stood which held the unmistakable aura of evil about it. The avians however were not alone in standing around the relic in three large cages placed around it were human and draenei children all of whom looked absolutely terrified. The screeching went on for about fifteen minutes before the Arakkoa began to disperse though all of them looked at their little prisoners with sadistic glee some even banged the bars making the youngsters wail in fright.
“We have to do something!” Ulric said fiercely, a grim expression on his young face.
“Yes it’s what daddy would do!” Kelda agreed with her brother.
“Just wait a minute,” Gentlehooves cautioned, she could tell that both Buck and Jammal were thinking the same as the twins. “If we are going to do this we need a plan, those bird men there are very dangerous.” For a moment they were silent before she looked up at Jammal. “Jammal can you see which one has the key to the cages?” she asked the little troll.
“Ya, da big birdy who went in dat tent just up da little hill behind da stone, mon” Jammal replied.
“So we steal the key and let the children out,” Buck said catching on to Gentlehooves idea.
“Yes then we sneak back to the tunnel we came out of as quickly as possible.” She finished.
Now with a plan in mind the group snuck around the tree and towards the village, the darkness of the leaf canopy created by the trees was enough to cover them as they approached. Though they could see their main goal, the large tent on the other side of the stone, they also could see that there were a number of smaller ones before it and each of them was occupied by at least two Arakkoa all working on the more mundane task of village life, cooking, preening their feathers, sharpening their hunting spears and so forth.
It was Jammal that found a way around the bird men, being the smallest and lightest on his feet he had quickly got ahead of the others and figured out that if they snuck behind the tents on the right of the stone they could pass unseen. However it was clear that neither Buck nor Gentlehooves be able to fit through the narrow path, being tauren and therefore larger than the others so they would have to wait out of sight till the others could return.
“Gentlehooves and me will prepare a distraction so that you guys can free the other children,” Buck told them when it became clear they would have to remain behind. “Just give us a signal for when you have the key and are ready.” He added.
“Ulric makes the best wolf howl,” Kelda said proudly smiling at her brother. “That’ll be our signal.” With this decided the group split up.
Jammal climbed easily over the rocks and boulders while the twins followed him a little more slowly, they made it passed the first small tent undetected but the second one was larger and contained a group of three Arakkoa sat inside speaking to each other in their strange high pitched voices. The noise they were making was more than enough to cover the sound of the children’s foot steps as they snuck past, however one of the pegs that held the heavy cloth in place had rotted and was weakened so that the fabric was lifted just off the ground. This meant that the youngster’s feet would be exposed when they passed it, for a moment they all paused and looked at each other trying to figure out how to get past, once again it was the agile little troll that provided the answer.
“Pick up dat rock dere, mons” he whispered to the twins, the little orcs exchanged a unsure look before simultaneously shrugging and doing what he said. As they did so Jammal balanced on the peg nearest the rotted one and grabbed the rope that it had once held. “Over here, mons,” he told them, carefully they carried the boulder over to him and placed it on top of the cord, pinning it to the ground. Quickly all three made there way up to the last tent where the keys were located.
Pearing through the entrance they saw that the Arakkoa who had the keys was now lying in what could only be described as a large nest, its slow and regular breathing revealed that it was most likely sleeping. The keys themselves were easy to spot as they hung from an idol which was itself located on a small table next to the bird mans next.
Once they had seen what they wanted the children quietly entered the tent and made their way over to the idol, carefully they lifted the ring holding the keys over the top of the statue, it was rather large meaning the twins had to hold a side each with Jammal supporting the keys so that they could get out with out making any noise.
Grins covered each of their little faces as they made it outside without waking the sleeping Arakkoa, then Ulric carefully released the keys and gave a sharp wolf like howl. Once again they hid out of sight of any Arakkoa that might be moving about the village and waited for their friends to cause the distraction that they had hopefully come up with.
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“So tell me what is this big plan of yours,” Gentlehooves asked Buck when the others were gone; there was a notable hint of annoyance in her young voice.
“Umm, well you see…” he began before he notice her tone and cold gaze caused him to start to struggle for words. “I was thinking that we could, you know, set fire to a few of their tents,” he told her smiling weakly, as her eyes widened in horror.
“Of all the dumb, bone headed, stupid, idiotic ideas…” she responded, her voice getting louder until he suddenly rubbed his nose on hers, it only lasted a moment but if was enough for her to loose her train of thought. “Why did you do that?” her voice was quiet once again.
“You were starting to get loud,” he stated. “How else was I going to stop you?”
“Umm, with you hand,” she suggested, he raised is eyebrows in surprise.
“Oh, I didn’t think of that,” he admitted.
“Obviously,” she sighed. “We better find some wood and an unguarded fire.” Buck smiled again as she agreed to his plan before he began looked about for some wood. What she had not told him that she had quite liked it when they had rubbed noses just then.
The sticks were easy to find, there were many just lying around the trees it took only a few minutes they collect wood for the plan. Finding a fire though was a little trickier every one had a group of Arakkoa standing around it, having to sneak around in the shadows did little to help them in their search, but eventually they spotted a pair of bird men walking away from the remnants of a dying pit.
With surprisingly good timing just as they stood before the fire a howled sounded out from deeper inside the village. With shocking speed the dry wood which they thrust into the fire caught alight, taking them out quickly they ran for the nearest hut, and threw them onto the roof before dashing away quickly. Even as the screeches of alarm went up for the shocked and horrified Arakkoa who rushed to put it out, the pair hurled the rest of the flaming lumber onto a second hut which ignited faster that the first.
As the flames rose higher they illuminated the clearing in the centre of the village and the two taurens spotted their friends rush up to the cages containing the terrified little prisoners. Jammal unlocked the first cage, then while the twins reached in and hauled the occupants out he rushed over to the second. With rapid hand gestures the orcs instructed the alliance children to go run to where Gentlehooves and Buck waited at the edge of the shadows which were creating by the growing inferno.
“That’s all of them,” Kelda yelled out as she Ulric and Jammal joined the large group.
“We need to get out of here now!” Buck declared and moved off into the darkness. However they only made it a few steps before there path was suddenly blocked.
“Kaw, Just where do you think your going?” a harsh high pitched voice demanded from within the shadows, suddenly a ring of torches burst into life one another, each revealing a ornately armoured Arakkoa, until they had completely cut off the children’s escape path.
“Ah crud,” Ulric commented as he and Kelda drew their toy axes automatically, even though the wooden toys could barely cut warm butter.
“Kaw, you burn our homes,” the Arakkoa in the centre accused them, it was noticeably shorter than its kin and was not dressed in any from of armour bit rather a plain dark brown robe. “Kaw, we sacrifice you all to Skettis!” it declared.
However just as the bird men took their first step towards the children one of them screamed in agony as a small axe buried itself into the avion’s shoulder. Moments later new figures dropped down from the trees and charged out of the shadows, all of them unmistakably trolls. The leader made a grab for Gentlehooves who was holding two younger and terrified human children intending to use her as a shield but before he reached them he was knocked to the ground by a large onyx hammer shaped like a boars head.
“You kids have no idea how much trouble your in,” the wielder of the hammer stated standing over the groaning Arakkoa. Behind her the other bird men fled from their attackers in all directions.
“Aunty Nyako!” the twins yelled and ran to her. The troll knelt down and embraced them relief clear on her face.
“All da birdies be runin away Nyako, mon,” one of Nyako’s fellow trolls told her. “You be wantin us to chase dem down?” he asked.
“No, lets get these children back to the city,” Nyako ordered, lifting the twins who continued to hugged her fiercely. “You two can be as cute as you want but your mom is still going to kill you.”
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The only sounds which broke the silence of the dark room was the simultaneous sounds of the twins breathing as they slept in Gentlehooves bed. The young tauren herself had carefully climbed out and snuck out to listen to what their parents were saying. In the main room her mommy sat with the twins mother Varlet and Nyako the troll who had saved them, carefully so that none of the adults saw her Gentlehooves found a hiding place where she could watch them.
“I can’t believe they were so stupid,” Varlet exclaimed dropping into a chair. “What were they thinking,” she added.
“I don’t think they really were Varlet,” Nyako responded sitting down next to her. “There just kids after all.”
“If you had not arrived when you did…” Varlet started to reply but broke into sobbing; her friend put her arm around her.
“Its ok they are all safe, the boys are with their parents, Gentlehooves and the twins are upstairs asleep.” Gentlehooves mother assured Varlet.
As she watched them, Gentlhooves spotted that they were all consuming those strange drinks which made adults behave funny sometimes and would not her or her friends have any. Their discussions changed to a variety of different topics as they drank more and more, frequently they had to shush each other so they did not wake the children unaware that the little tauren was sitting just out of sight watching them. Eventually though Nyako stood up, a little unsteadily, the other two burst into fits of giggles as she staggered about trying to pick up her gear.
“I better get my boys from the Worlds End Tavern…Hic,” Nyako slurred.
“Can’t you stay a any longer?” Varlet asked clearly sad that her friend was leaving.
“No can do Varlet,” Nyako shook her head. “Shadow Hunter Denjai is getting increasingly annoyed about the time I’m spending away from Zangermarsh,” she explained. “If I don’t report in tomorrow he told me that I’ll be placed in command of Swamprat post,” she shuddered noticeably as she said this.
As Nyako left the room she dropped her helm right in front of where Gentlehooves was hiding, before the young tauren could react she found herself looking straight into the trolls friendly and smiling face.
“Enjoy the show?” she asked the little one. “Better get to bed before your mom catches you,” she added before the started youngster could reply. “Go on I’ll cover you.”
Gentlehooves scampered out from where she was hiding as Nyako made more noises that did indeed cover her flight. Soon she was snuggled up between the twins who almost immediately, and unconsciously reach over and hugged her not long after that she too fell into a deep sleep.