He came into being with a bright light surrounding him and vanishing. He felt weak, and unknowing. He began moving and noticed others coming into being behind him. A voice came from a distance, "Welcome to Shadowglen. Young... young..." an unnerving pause shook the wind around him, "what are you?"
Another voices greeted the others behind him:
"Welcome to Shadowglen, young druid."
"Welcome to Shadowglen, young warrior."
"Welcome to Shadowglen, young rogue."
The voice that greeted him evolved from warm to chilling: "What are you?! What's your name?! Answer!" He searched his mind for an answer, "I don't know..." The voice retorted, "No newcomer is born without a name. Tenaron! Trespasser!"
Three dark birds came flying down quickly, and in mid-flight one turned into a bear, another into a cat, the other into a night elf. They all surrounded him, while a beautiful violet bird landed in front of him and turned into a night elf with a warm presence. "I am Tenaron", he explained, while looking him up and down. "You'll have to excuse our greeter. Although his main duty is to greet, he is also a lookout for Horde. It is very rare for Horde to even reach Teldrassil, even less probable for them to reach Shadowglen, but we never can be too safe."
"Horde? Teldrassil?", he said, searching for answers.
Tenaron, still looking him up, "Greeter, no cause for alarm. He is not of the Horde and does not wish us harm", turning to the spirit behind him, "but... he's not human, nor dwarf. Not even draenei."
"I am not of this world, it appears", he concluded. "The hostile greeting I've received makes me believe this Horde stands in poor graces with your kind... these humans, dwarves, and draenei."
"and night elves. We are Alliance, and you believe correctly. It is of long-stance this conflict. They have hunted and killed our kind for ages now. They are beasts that bear no reason, their society has no room for civility and understanding, such as we do." Tenaron proudly explained.
"Calling another an unreasonable beast is a sign of poor civility and understanding, Tenaron", he declared, looking straight into Tenaron's eyes.
"How... dare you?" a shocked Tenaron exclaimed, while a cat hissed, a bear growled, and night elf's hand started to glow. "We welcome you into our sacred land, and you answer with this pomposity!"
"My dear Tenaron, you judge me as pompous, while here you stand with three of your highly-trained guards preparing to kill a newcomer with no training whatsoever." He smiled to himself, "New... comer. New... Niu. Yes, that will be my name then: Niu."
Tenaron reacquired his posture. "I will not apologise for our ways to secure our home, young... whatever you are. Niu, is it? As our greeter has stated, no newcomer comes without name, appointed by the gods. The gods that have protected us and helped us fight the Horde. You are welcome to join us, Niu. I see potential in you, that will be of great benefit for our cause."
"These gods of yours did not appoint me my name. I have. I'm relieved of this, as it appears these gods crave for war and I don't want to be linked to them in any way." Niu shouted.
"Our gods don't crave for war, it is the Horde's gods that do!" Tenaron defending his creed.
"I'll figure that for myself." Niu, walking towards the outskirts of Shadowglen. The cat behind him stepped aside unknowingly.
"Very well. I should pray to our gods for your death to be swift. Although, if it's by a Horde's claw, I truly doubt that this will be the case." Tenaron shouted back.
After passing through Shadowglen's entrance gate, he felt an impenetrable presence surrounding him, making him unable to move. A strong and reverberating voice made itself present, "I thought I would never see the day. It was true. You were born. Niu: wondrous name. Elegant, cunning, sincere."
"Who are you?" Niu asking without fear.
"My name is irrelevant, but I am of the Gee Em, and we've been expecting you. The story of this land is long, and, although Alliance and Horde bear many differences, such hatred can be contemplated as ironic: they are destined to share this land forever," the voice whispered.
"How would you know this?" Niu grinned, as he knew the answer to his question.
"We wrote that destiny, young Niu", the voice warmly responded, "however, we didn't write how would they be sharing this land."
"This is where I come in," Niu interrupted. "Yes, Niu," the voice, seemingly impressed, "and your timing could not have been better. As we speak, the night elf who just spoke to you is receiving a warning of an incoming attack from the Horde, and..."
Niu smiled, "it is up to me. It rests in me. I come with a new age to this land. In me lies the possibility for them to live peacefully, for one of them to enslave the other, or..."
The Gee Em grievingly answered, "for both of them to destroy each other. Yes, Niu, your presence may come with their extermination, making them share this land in spirit... It is your choice."
Niu glared at the horizon. He looked at his transparent hands and body. He looked up at the sky. He closed his eyes, and smiled again. "Their hatred is the origin of their destruction. Me doing nothing will get them there. I am here, thus, their destruction is mine as well," He paused, "Slavery starts a never-ending cycle of animosity, that is probably the reason of why things are as they are now." The Gee Em's smile was felt throughout the land. "Ok. I have made a decision."
The floor trembled. The sky was flooded by mounted dragons, birds and planes, heading towards "Darnassus! Our capital city is being raided by the Horde!", a night elf shrieked.
"Take me there, wise Gee Em," ordered Niu. In a flash, he was standing in the portal towards the dock of Teldrassil. A moment later, he was seeing a figure appearing in front of him. It was Thrall, an intimidating orc, a leader of the Horde that has broken many Allies' necks with his powerful hammer. Behind Niu stood Tyrande Whisperwind, a fare night elf, a leader of the Alliance that has burned to death many Horde with her uncanny use of magic. All stood still, as if they were in the centre of a hurricane. "I gather you're here to kill them," Niu spoke to Thrall while a massive amount of orcs, trolls, undead and blood elves began to gather.
"Yes," answered Thrall, pondering who was he speaking to. "Are you with the Alliance?", he asked.
"No," responded Niu. "Then you must be Horde. You seem weak, but that shouldn't stop you from gathering yourself to attack these self-righteous scumbags," growled Thrall.
"I'm not Horde either," responded Niu. Thrall moulded a question in his mind that couldn't be put into words.
Niu turned to Tyrande, "I gather you're here to defend this land from the Horde." "Yes, these beasts have threatened us before. We're ready to finish them once and for all," answered Tyrande while the city began filling up with dwarves, humans, night elves and draenei.
"Threat?! You speak of threat when you're people enslaved mine for ages! How else are we going to be safe while your hands, feet, and bodies are still breathing the life my kind gave you?", Thrall shouted.
"You call it slavery, we call it protection from the lack of reason of your kind. The humans had no other choice than to put you in cages after your decent in helping for our destruction in the First War," Tyrande answered.
"We were brought here to prosper. We were promised land. A land of welcoming, but we were betrayed. Our elders tried to reason afterwards, but your fathers wouldn't listen," Thrall almost crying.
"Reason? What kind of reason lies in such beasts? Your elders would have betrayed us. Our fathers couldn't risk that to happen," Tyrande sniffing away Thralls tears.
Niu looked at the sky, took a small breath, and said: "You are both here to prevent your deaths by the hand of the other, but you wish to do so by killing each other. You seem both to me breeds of great reason, but of little understanding. And such misunderstanding has led both of you to think of the other as either mindless beasts or self-centered elitists. Allies, Horde: this is not your land. It is of itself; in fact, we are of the land. And we shall return to it one day, but not at the hand of each other, but at the words of the destiny writers. There is great power in both your lines of breed, but it can reach greater heights if you come to realise that your past is not your present, and that the acts of the dead cannot speak for the acts of the living. I see a great deal of both of you in the other, but you can't see that because pride has blinded you. A pride that has been bestowed upon you through a simple whim of destiny: you were born either Alliance or Horde, a decision which wasn't your own, but still you wave your flags, shouting words of pride for being an Ally or a Horde as if you had something to do with the fact that you are one. I am here, and didn't ask to be here, but it has been my choice to remain here and say this to you, and for that I'm proud, because it was my choice. Don't be proud for what your breed has done, be proud for what you personally have done and what are going to do. Look into your hearts, and see that the thing that will bring the most pride to each of your kind is to you see yourselves as children of these lands... as brothers."
Niu felt a small breeze through his body and he closed his eyes as his being was coming to an end. Everybody stood by as the essence of Niu evaporated. A Gee Em whispered to him, "Come back to us, son. You have done well."
Thrall and Tyrande looked at each other and gave a simple nod. Thrall walked towards Tyrande, and mid-way stopped and laid his hammer in the ground. Tyrande began levitating her staff and laid it on Thralls feet; she then casted a spell onto Thrall, making him feel stronger. "You bear now a mark that before only an Ally was able to bear: the Gift of the Wild. It should endure your entire life," Tyrande warmly remarked. Thrall picked up Tyrande's staff and ordered, "Horde, back to your cities and villages. We shall leave our brothers in peace."
...
For personal reasons, I have decided to stop playing World of Warcraft until an undefined date. These reasons will surely be explained in later posts. However, I want to mention that I have met a wonderful group people while playing the game, both Horde and Allies, to which I dedicate this story:
Thank you for fighting with me, healing me, and making me feel needed and good at what I was doing. I will come back a better man, and a better feral druid.
My armory page.
