The Purging of Snowfeather
Lascivious - January 3, 2006
Lascivious was furious. It took all the little warrior’s will not
to reach out and wrap her fingers around the warlock’s scrawny
neck. It started when she was riding into Ratchet and saw
Snowfeather and Daala riding out.
“Hello, Coddler,” Lascivious greeted the druid as she nodded at
Daala.
“Hello, Las,” Snowfeather nodded in return. “Daala has an idea
about my leg we are going to test out. Would you like to come.”
“Cut if off?”
“I hope not!”
“I do not know about demons and magics,” the warrior told them.
“But I will lend what help I may.”
She turned Sam around and followed the women into Ashenvale.
After making their way carefully down the path passed
Splintertree, they came upon the Satrynar.
“This is where we found the hoof,” Snowfeather told her noticing
her question look.
“We are looking for a special demon up above,” Daala told her. “I
will enslave him and interrogate him. I will need you to protect
me from his minions Lascivious.” Lascivious nodded and withdrew
her polearm. Making their way to the top of the hill they found
the demon. Daala spoke its name, but Lascivious could not
understand the word. Speaking the language of her dark magic the
little woman cried out and launched a stream of energy at the
demon. It howled in anger as a circle of magic energy surrounded
it.
“I have you,” Daala said. “How does it feel to be the slave?”
Daala continued to launch energy at the beast. She continued
speaking, but Lascivious could not understand, nor barely hear
what she was saying. All around demons began to appear. She kept
her blade busy as the warlock continued her interrogation.
Suddenly the druid howled in a disgusting language, transformed
and began running through the forest.
“What the hell was that?” Lascivious asked.
Daala did not answer. She lay the beast low, bringing it to its
knees before she finally released it. She bent over panting
heavily and trembling. “Hurry,” she gasped. “We must catch her.”
Tracking the druid was pointless. She ran circles around them and
was almost impossible to find in the heavy forested areas of
Ashenvale. Riding past the road to Satrynar where they confronted
the demon, she reigned in Sam and cursed. There near one of the
temples was the Coddler, sitting and staring at the wall. Daala
rode up and to her and began speaking to her. Lascivious paced
and fumed. They seemed to speak in two different languages.
Neither of which she understood. Suddenly, the druid was up and
gone again. She quickly changed into a yellow cat easily
outdistancing them before she leaped into the river. They rode up
the river bank until Daala stopped.
“She’s gone.”
And so she found herself here in Ashenvale confronting the little
warlock. She teased the druid often. But to her 'coddler' had
become a term of affection and was no longer said with the
derision it once was. In truth, Snowfeather's predicament
concerned her more than she thought it would. She would get
answers now. If not she would kill the demon whore regardless of
the consequences. “That’s it!” cried the warrior. “I want to know
what is going on now. Or, Dark Lady help me, I will lay you back
into your grave warlock.”
“That will not help her!”
“You have made things worse!”
“Don’t you think I know that?” She took out a book and handed it
to Lascivious.
“It’s all in there.”
“What is?”
“Everything you want to know. My journal.”
Lascivious turned the book over in her hands. “I am not in the
mood for reading. Why don’t you narrate?”
“We don’t have time!”
“Bah! We aren’t going anywhere now.” Lascivious sighed. She
reached out touched the little woman and spoke softly. “Daala…”
“What?”
“Just tell me.”
“Tell you what?”
“Everything,” she girl told her. “We were all tormented by the
living. It is why most of us are here. Tell me, sister. It may
ease your burden.
Daala spoke of her time as a living slave. An object of desire. A
toy for men. One in particular cherished her for his base
desires. An elf named Kari. He tormented and violated her with
all sorts of objects. He removed her breast, cut holes in her
chest. Until one day, Daala took her vengeance, carving up her
tormenter as he slept. Releasing all her anger in one swift tidal
wave of violence.
“Then we went to the meeting in Thunder Bluff,” Daala explained.
“I drank the sapta and fell into a dream world. There were
several guides there. But one of them did not belong. It was not
suppose to be there and it terrified the others. Time seemed to
slow, and a terrible malevolence radiated from that one, and I
heard a terrible voice in my head that "It's just you and me now,
Lass. I knew it to be Kari.
”You see, after Kari cut me up in that way, the other overseers
helped me, the one and only time,” she continued. Her voice was a
soft whispered and she stared passed Lascivious as if she were
looking back into a different world. “I was in the hospital.
Nobody thought I'd live. I shouldn't have been able to walk, when
I crawled to their little "brig". I crept in with a scalpel from
the medical ward. I cut out his eyes. I off his ears and his
stalk.”
“How did you manage that?” Lascivious asked. “You must have been
young.”
“I don't know how.”
”You do not remember?”
“I do,” she said. “I just don't know how. Perhaps my strength of
a resolve infinitely stronger than his self preservation.”
“Sounds like he had it coming.”
Daala suddenly moved her head to the side. “Something just
shifted.”
“I felt it too.”
They mounted back up and searched around the area. But again
there was no sign of the druid. A vicious growl issued from their
stones.
“Um.. Snowfeather?” Laughingcrow’s hesitant, disembodied voice
responded in this stone.
“Do not respond to that hell spawn, Crow,” Lascivious told him.
“He has trapped the Coddler and is seeking to escape us.”
“It sounds like you could use a priestess,” came Thrysta’s voice.
“All who wish to help are welcome,” responded Daala.
“I would certainly welcome a hunter,” the warrior commented,
knowing from experience on that battlefield the elusiveness of
druids.
“I am available,” came Mohan’s voice, answering the call. “I will
help you search.”
“I feel her…” Daala closed her eyes. “She is on Thousand Needles.
Hiding, Kari? Like a sniveling like a tiny maggot? I will put you
down like a dog, Kari. But it won't be friendly like last time!”
“All you sorcerers are mad,” Lascivious told her, muttering the
only word of magic she knew. The word that activated her
hearthstone taking her to Ogrimaar.
“I won't disagree.” Daala activated her own stone.
I can't help but wonder if she has gone among those of her kind
that we have issue with,” Thrysta commented.
“I am on my way,” Mohan told them.
They arrived at the Grimtotem compound in Thousand Needles later
that day. Their welcome was not warm, but the Grimtotem blood on
Lascivious’ blade was. She carved her way through the tribe as
they searched for their fallen friend.
“She made me swear not to cut that leg off,” said Daala. “That’s
why I am trying to exorcise the spirit. She'd rather die than be
crippled again, even if only for a minute, she told me. If she
has come here than she has some control.”
“I am sorry, Mohan,” Lascivious told the hunter and she fell
another Tuaren.
"Don't worry, Lascivious," he told her. These Grimtotems do
nothing to welcome us."
There was nothing. No sign. In frustration the warrior screamed.
“Snowfeather!”
“Yes, Lascivious!”
“Where are you!”
“With the dead!”
Lascivious growled in frustration as Mohan, Daala and Thrysta
made their way back to the valley floor. Something caught her eye
as she moved to follow. On the mesa across from her were the
bodies of Grimtotem carefully wrapped in leather and lifted off
the ground. She made her way across the rickety bridge to the
graveyard.
“Snowfeather?” She walked around, wondering if she was there in
cat form. Laughing at her. She put away her blade and removed her
helm. “Snow. I am not going to hurt you. No one will hurt you. I
promise. We only want to help.” She heard Mohan’s excited voice
in her stone as he found his prey. “They are coming back. Your
friends. They want to help you. I want to help you.”
The others arrived as Lascivious spotted the druid. She was
sitting on the ledge staring into the distance. “I'm.. alive,”
she said.
“What?” asked Daala. “Your bones are down there.”
“Yes. I jumped."
"Amd yet, you are alive? Here?"
"Made the eyes close for a bit.”
“I can feel the life in her,” Thrysta the Forsaken whispered
“...something we do not have...”
Mohan’s shadow engulfed them all as he fidgeted nervously behind
them.
“Snowfeather, please, give me a yes or a no. If we were to leave
you in this state, would you live without permanent damage?”
Daala asked.
“I can't answer that, can I?” signed the druid. “I hope… I don't
see the future.
“You never did,” answered Lascivious. “You saw things it 'wanted'
you to see. It’s thoughts and dreams are not yours.”
“Sister, I'm sorry to say this… I'm not sure if he's there or
not. I think I need to complete the ritual.”
“Can’t we wait?”
“I'd really prefer not. If he retakes the reins, we might have to
hunt you down again.”
“I don't like the sound of that,” Snowfeather responded, grinding
her teeth.
I know, Sister,” replied the warlock with sympathy. “But it's a
sharp pain to rid yourself of this. I cannot promise that it'll
be over, but I can tell you that I truly believe it will.”
Snowfeather started to dig her nails into her palms. “I would
really rather you didn't.”
Daala threw her arms around the other woman in a tight embrace.
“Alright. But, I can't promise anything, then.”
Snowfeather began to shift nervously. Lascivious began taking a
few steps toward the bridge. She has seen that look before on the
battlefield. The look of someone about to flee.
Lacivious took another step back, but she was too late. In the
blink of an eye the druid had shifted. She bolted by Lascivious,
her tail slipping through her fingers.
“Sister! I won’t hurt you!” Daala cried. “Might be a ruse,
please, do not let her go! That was not Snowfeather, I'm sure of
it! She burned with resolve when we set out."
Lacivious didn't hear. She followed the druid as swiftly as she
could in her clanking armor. She headed toward the side of the
cliff. She would jump down to the path below. Dangerous, but she
could cut off the druid's escape. But there was no need. To her
horror the cat leaped from the side of the cliff.