Bring me home

They rode back nearly in silence for hours, and Daria used the time to set her wandering thoughts into proper order.

Alliance!

And with a tail...

By Arthas' sword, weren't there any other women left in Azeroth to pick from?

She was cute though, she admitted after a while. Soft looking skin, nicely carved features, slender, tall and gracious. A deep, warm smile, that could melt a block of ice. Or Eireannan, for the matter.

Alliance!

What in the name of the Scourge was Ei'an thinking? Or had reason deserted him completely?

No, she quietly said to herself.

He looked...different. There was a light in his eyes she had not seen in years. A faint trace of smile around his lips, that softened the slight marks caused by the sarcastic grin he usually displayed.

If she made him happy, she could even be one of the rotten-walking-soul-endowed bodies, for what Daria was concerned.

"I'm afraid there's not much I can offer you. A bed, some food...", Erieannan said, trying to stave off the desperate need to take hold of her and kiss her, while they rode side by side. He hadn't even realized how much he had missed Laandra, until he saw her.

Her straight to the matter way of speaking.

The ironic twitch of her lips when making mental reserves about something.

Her magic.

Her warmth.

"Better not", Daria muttered in the background, with a sign of disgust. " Ei'an's food is even worse that what ya can find in a Forsaken inn...and they don't eat..."

He nearly managed to blush, she noticed, in utter amazement.

"Look, I'll go pick somethin' for dinna' from Tranquilien. I sorta need a breath of fresh air anyway..."

" Daria...", he started to protest. He did not want her to walk away alone. She was everything he had had in all these long, unforgiving years. And he loved her and she knew he did...the only family they both had was each other.

"Neh" she said, waving away his attempt." I'll be fine. Betta' ride to Tranquilien than your food, Ei'an, really... Andy ya'll have time to talk...till I'm back with dinna'"

"Back soon", Erieannan warned her with a threatening gesture of his finger.

"Agree" Daria smiled and Laandra followed her with an inquisitive look as she waved to them and turned her horse to the right, nearly on spot, heading into the Ghostlands.

Silence fell again...

" So..." she said after a while, patting softly the back of her mistsabre. The big cat arched instinctively under her touch.

" I'm sorry", Erieannan shrugged. " What I've told you before about my social skills is true. I forgot how it is to have someone close. Make small talk."

"We can keep the silence, then", Laandra offered. "It says as much as words do..."

...And there are no words to describe what I feel for you.

Erieannan closed his eyes, if only for a brief second. There was a calm, almost peaceful expression on his face, Laandra noticed. And again she felt the consuming urge to touch him that she had barely managed to repress until that moment.

"To the left", he suddenly said, to warn her. They passed through a patch of blighted land, glimmering with a green, sickly light. Ruined buildings and dying trees...each being, each leaf wearing the mark of the plague. With a sigh, Erieannan showed her something to their right...It looked like a deep gush in the soil, that ran far away, as far as her eyes could see. Painfully scarring the land with is ugliness, remnants of strange siege devices lying everywhere and, Laandra discovered startled, gruesome undead wandering along it.

"That's the Dead Scar", Erieannan bitterly explained. "Arthas' path to Silvermoon. So awfully corrupted that to this day all effort to cleanse it has proved useless."

Laandra pointed towards one of the half-burned vehicles that lay closer.

"What was that?"

" A meat wagon. They would...dig up OUR dead and through them back at us...Feed the ghouls with the remnants. Or raise the corpses to battle their own kin, if one was a skilled necromancer...Inventive one, the Lich King..." Erieannan ended up sarcastically. "I'm sure though it didn't look this bad from Stormwind, or Ironforge..."

" But enough with the dark memories..." he suddenly shuddered. "We're almost there..."

Unable to resist, Laandra held out her hand and hastily brushed her fingers against his shoulder.

" It's ok to be dark. It's ok to hurt..."

" I could tell creepy stories all night", he agreed, as they quit the road and carefully made their way down a small slope, through the trees. "But I'd rather hear you...Laan...you haven't told me much about yourself..."

She let out a small burst of laughter, unexpectedly cheering up the atmosphere.

"There's not much to be said...I don't remember anything before the Exodar crashed. What I might have been through on Draenor. And it's better like this",she whispered, eyes darkening..." since I had my fair share of horror tales from the survivors...Then I joined the Hand and helped establish a home for ourselves on Azuremyst Isle. Delved into some magic. Nothing more."

"You made it sound so simple..." Eireannan managed to force a smile, even though memories kept assaulting him with their unwanted precision. " But here we are..." he continued with a gesture, making Laandra turn her head.

The house loomed over the top of a little hill. It was dark, unfamiliar, cold, she thought, as they went closer. Hard to imagine it as a home.

He didn't have one, she understood and again a feeling of crushing sympathy washed over her.

Well, she was used to make do with less than that, Laandra thought, as the familiar words of a prayer came into her mind, and she whispered them silently to herself.

"Behold now, bless the Light, all you servants of the Light,
you that stand by night in the house of the Light.
Light , you are in the midst of us and we are called by your
Name: Do not forsake us..."