Disdain
Lilliana - March 29, 2006
The morning air was crisp, and still held the moisture from the
rains that occurred during the night hours; it chilled Lilliana
as she sat upon her raptor. The sun was rising, and the green
hill where Lilliana rested was slowly being bathed in its light
as the land was relieved from the oppressive darkness of night.
Boots, the young Darkspear mount that Lilliana had purchased when
she first learned how to ride, gnawed at his bit. The raptor’s
fierce fangs have split the contraption in two more than once, so
Lilliana roughly pulled at the reins, quieting the annoying
beast. She was not in the mood for his disobedience.
Lilliana was watching a small camp that lined the meadow below
her. Lilliana had come out to this remote land of Azshara with
the goal of being alone. She had performed her required duties in
the Grim, and desired a break from the intensity that such
services brought. Lilliana’s duties were indeed much, but that
was not the only reason that Lilliana pursued solitude. She
muttered something dark beneath her breath, nearly inaudible, but
if someone was listening very carefully, they would be able to
discern “sandfury”, and “king”, said with much disdain.
Lilliana had been woken early; her keen ears had caught the sound
of night elven speech. When she arose and saddled her raptor, she
discovered a small group of night elves, two adult females, an
older adult male, and one small child which seemed to be carried
by one of the adult females. She suspected that the youngster was
ill with something, for it often cried and was definitely large
enough to walk on its own. The small elven band had set up camp
within the red and green grass of Azhrava, thinking that they
were safe from prying eyes. Little did the group know that they
were being watched by a member of the Horde, and a shadow
priestess of the Grim legion.
While the troll observed the elves that unknowingly went about
their business below her, Lilliana’s mind raced with many
thoughts. She was overwhelmed, and such an emotion brought anger
to the surface. Like steam from a boiling kettle it was nearly
erupting from her, threatening to make her explode. For a moment
Lilliana yearned for the life she had before she had entered the
ranks of the Grim, before she had discovered her roots that
rested in the Sandfury tribe, before Boggart had left her life to
find his own. She yearned for things to be simple, for the rogue
that she kept her heart with to find her and escape this world
with her. For her life was so very complex now, she found herself
entwined with so many twisted webs and schemes that it made even
her keen head hurt. Lilliana wanted release.
The young elven child that had to be ill with something let loose
with a horrific cry that spoke of pain and misery. Lilliana shook
her head as the little creature’s wail echoed against her
sensitive ears. The sound brought her back to the present, and
she snarled silently. How weak of her to think of such things,
how weak of her to wish for things to be as they once were, she
thought to herself. This temporary lapse in strength only fueled
Lilliana’s anger further, and it hit her tenfold. She still had
her loyalties, and despite her anger towards the Sandfury King
they remained strong, and despite her weariness of constant
battle, Lilliana found that she did not wish for anything but the
Grim and for the purpose that she served within its legion. Peace
for their lands through the complete annihilation of the lower
races, the Alliance, beat a song in her heart.
Lilliana was about to leave, the alliance elves that had made
camp below her were hardly worth her time. Weaklings by the
Grim’s standards, and she had been taught to allow her pray to
fatten up before she came to play with them, But as she turned
Boot’s, one of them spotted her and began to yell. Lilliana felt
the familiar and annoying sting of moon fire from a druid’s
power. She cursed, and pushed her raptor forward and she trotted
the beast slowly down the hill, towards the elven camp. She was
not thinking, it was her instincts that moved her towards the
elves, calling for her to spill their blood and rid their
presence from this sacred land. Lilliana had always killed for
pleasure, it was sport for the little priestess to see her
Alliance foes crumble to her feet before her and her shadow
curses. Those that had fought beside Lilliana knew her killing
style. She entered battles with the carefree demeanor of a child
entering a game that had nothing to do with ending lives and
creating suffering. Although she was wretched to her enemies,
never once showing them mercy, her take on why she was killing
mirrored an innocent child’s, it was as if she did not understand
the severity of what she did. Lilliana rarely killed when she was
angry, but she was angry now. Somewhere in the back of her mind
she was angry with Warneshi, she was angry with the Grim being
forced to do what the legion does for the good of the world, she
was angry she and the rogue could not escape this life, and she
was angry with Boggart for having left her so long ago to force
her to fend for herself within the world of Azeroth. Most of all,
Lilliana was angry, no, a better term for it would be
furious….she was furious with herself for having such thoughts!
One of the female night elves screamed in terror when she
realized the strength of the troll riding straight for their
camp. Lilliana urged her raptor to move faster, and the reptile
crashed through the camp, his fangs ripping apart the one tent
that the group had set up earlier during the night. One of the
females and the male were upon Lilliana, lashing out with spells
and with weapons, while the other female night elf took the child
and ran out into the meadow, screeching for her companions to
follow. Lilliana dropped from Boot’s scaly back and called to the
nether, inviting its embrace upon her slender form, and the dark
tendrils of shadow that she so willingly embraced erupted across
her body in a snake like hiss. She took the female down quickly,
shattering the woman’s body with shadow curse and pain as easily
as she may place healing upon a comrade. The male proved more
difficult, and Lilliana and he danced through the broken camp,
each parrying spells until Lilliana had her way with him. When he
fell to his knees, crippled by her curses and screams, Lilliana
finished the job by slashing out his throat with her sharp
talons. The elven man gurgled helplessly as his life blood split
across the priestesses blue skin, and onto the ground.
Boots was pacing the camp, his wild blue eyes watching his
mistress indignantly. The raptor hated Lilliana, but was bound to
obey her, and he must remain where she bade him to. Lilliana
returned to his back, and rode out into the meadow, following the
path that the other elf female, escaping with the child, had
made. The woman had gone on foot, as none of the elven tribe had
mounts, and it was not long before Lilliana caught up to her. The
elven woman cried out upon seeing the troll, there were tears
running down her face. For a brief moment Lilliana contemplated
the oddity of seeing an elven child in this woman’s arms. Only
once before, in Ashenvale, had Lilliana seen a night elven child,
such a rarity they were in this world. Those thoughts were brief
however, for Lilliana jumped off of her raptor and screamed at
the night elf, causing her to flee in a desperate fear driven
run. Lilliana then prepared a spell to enter the woman’s mind.
While the elf ran in circles around the troll, she was suddenly
stopped short as Lilliana’s magics gripped her mind like a vice,
forcing the elf female to do her bidding and to obey to the
shadow priestess’s will. To the elven woman’s horror, she found
herself holding her elven child up into the air. The sick
creature wailed. He had been ill with a curse placed upon him
that her and her family could not seem to mend, and worsened
every day. The elven woman’s gentle eyes followed her child, and
she watched helplessly as she dropped him to the ground, which he
hit with a cursed thud. Lilliana then asked the female elf to
kneel down beside the child, and place her long fingers alongside
his neck, and then clasp them around his neck, and squeeze. The
elf woman tried to resist, but Lilliana’s voice was so demanding,
it was all she could hear in her mind, her body, her entire world
was the troll’s sweet laughter and gentle voice calling her to
strangle her own child until he could breathe no more.
The act was done and the child was dead. Lilliana broke her mind
control of the night elf woman, and stepped before her. The night
elf’s slender hands were still wrapped around her child’s swollen
neck. She was staring in horror at her child. Lilliana pried the
woman’s hands away from the child’s neck, and picked up the
child. Lilliana’s dark sapphire eyes inspected the child, and
looked dissatisfied. She tossed it away as if it was but broken
plaything, and smiled wickedly at the night elf that was crying
desperately at her feet, for playtime was not yet over. The night
elf was weak, and her mind had been corrupted by Lilliana’s dark
magics. Killing her would be easy, and with a cry she finished
the woman off, cursing her and finally flaying her mind to mush
in a glorious display of trollish screams that came forth from
Lilliana’s mouth. Lilliana was left panting and sweating, she had
used all of her strength and all of her control against the elves
in mutilating their very existence and sending them to the next
plane. She sat upon the ground, wiping her bloodied hands on the
rusty colored grass. With her eyes closed, she took a deep
breath, relishing in the lives that she ended, reliving the last
few moments that she had granted the elves before they departed
this world.
It seemed ages to Lilliana before she got up to her feet to brush
herself off and whistle to her raptor to return to her side. The
sun had crept mid way through the sky, and it beat down warmly
against the priestess’s skin. Lilliana patted Boot’s upon the
neck, and the raptor tried to bite her. She slapped the beast
across his snout, raking her talons cruelly across his nose. This
quieted the raptor, and Lilliana climbed atop his back. Her red
eyes found the dead elven female and the child that lay by her
side, their bodies to rest eternal here, unless their alliance
comrades found them to offer a proper burial. Lilliana tilted her
head, watching the dead pair as the wind played with their hair,
the rusty colored grass waving its slender tendrils across their
bodies. The priestess sighed, but it was not out of sadness for
the lives lost here. Lilliana sighed for the chaos she caused was
not enough. She gathered the reins and kicked Boot’s. She would
seek out other night elven camps, and perform the same duty she
had with this pathetic group before she returned to Orgrimmar,
and the duties that waited her from both of her loyalties….