Storytime: Giving

Slow crappy computer and lack of WoW-time has not overcome holiday writing binge. /flex
And yes, I know it's a few days late. Enjoy anyways!

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Stormwind was glowing, multi-colored lights chasing the evening darkness away. Windstar and Jahira were perched on the roof of their little house, silently enjoying each other's company as they admired the view. Eventually Star noticed Jahira glancing in her direction, and gave her a questioning look. The elder elf just smiled and slipped one arm around Star's waist. "Nothing, my love," she assured her. "Just enjoying the scenery." Star blushed faintly as she rested her head on her mate's shoulder.

A few minutes later, Jahira broke the silence again. "Tomorrow is Winter's Veil," she said. "Greatfather Winter is supposedly arriving in Iron Forge and handing presents out to everyone."

Star raised her head, quirking an eyebrow at her tone. "'Supposedly'?" she asked. Jahira gave a slight shrug. "After all the years I've been around humans and dwarves, some of their habits still seem a little odd." she replied. "Sometimes I think they invent holidays just for the excuse to throw a party." Star chuckled quietly. "That's not necessarily a bad thing, is it?" Jahira smiled, giving her companion a gentle, one-armed hug. "Not at all. In fact, gift giving is one of their better customs, I think." She straightened, moving her arm from around her young mate and giving her an expectant look. "So. Ready for bed yet?"

*** *** ***
Star was woken up the next morning by the sound of voices, followed by the front door closing. She blinked sleepily up at Jahira as she came over for a good-morning kiss. "That was just Kal," the older druid said in response to the unasked question. "She needs a small favor, so I'll be a bit busy this morning. I should be done by early afternoon, though. Would a short visit to Moonglade sound good?"

Star nodded. "I can keep myself occupied until then. Would we be spending the night there? Or shall we just see how it goes?" Jahira pretended to think about it for a moment, then replied, "I think we'll see how it goes. For now, I need to go see about acquiring some silver."

*** *** ***
Two druids walked slowly around the southern shore of the lake. As they reached the first tiny inlet, near where the flight master kept her hippogryphs, Jahira stopped and turned to face Windstar. "Dearheart, remember our conversation last night? About Winter's Veil and my opinion about gift-giving?"

Star nodded, tilting her head curiously as Jahira took a tiny box from her belt pouch and handed it to her. She opened it carefully, then stared in surprise. "Jahira, I..." She slowly took out the small, silver locket inside, first admiring the tiny antler design etched into the outside, then opening it to find a miniature portrait of her and her mate inside. She finally looked up at Jahira's smiling face, her expression caught halfway between joy and tears. She reached for Jahira's hand, managing a very quiet, "But... I didn't get you anything." "Ah, love," Jahira replied. "You've given me more than you can imagine. I'm only repaying some of it."

The only response Star could manage was to pull Jahira into a hug. Which was more than enough of an answer for Jahira.

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Kal tried to hide her impatience as she watched Channi pull the colorful wrapping off of the tiny box. She mentally thanked whatever gods were listening (again) that she was related to a jewel-crafter, as her lover opened the box, then, with eyes gone huge with surprise, she slowly lifted out the silver locket. The wolf's head etched on the outside glinted in the soft firelight coming from the hearth, and Kal knew she was going to owe Jahira a danged big favor for the gift.

Channi finally opened the locket, and smiled at the portrait of the two of them inside. Kal couldn't resist a smile in response, and she reached over to gently brush Channi's cheek with her fingertips. "You like it, hun?" she asked, already sure of the answer, but wanting to hear it anyways. The girl turned and threw her arms around the elf in a quick hug, followed by a much longer kiss, before she finally replied, "It's beautiful! I love it."

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I know Kal's part is short, but it's kind of hard to write about someone else's character (at least it is for me), especially when there has been no in-game RP between those two in months. Star and Jahira, on the other hand, have been stuck inside my head off and on ever since they 'hooked up'. It would be almost annoying if they weren't such total sweethearts with each other. :P

And in case anyone is wondering, yes, they did wind up spending the night in Moonglade. It's a semi-regular occurrence.

Anyways! Hope everyone had a good holiday. I, personally, am just glad it's mostly over. /Waves

I'm still here...

Yes, I'm having another fail-blogger spell. Work has been insane with the holidays, and me and sis have been trying to get ourselves ready as well. And then there's the stupid $%^$ing virus that got on my good laptop. I'm having to use my old one for now, (thank goodness I've been keeping it more or less up-to-date) which now can only run Lord of the Rings. So unless I get desperate enough to borrow sis's old laptop, WoW is unavailable until my 'puter is cleaned up and fixed.

Lesson from all this? Never trust a website that has issues with pop-ups. Even something as innocent-seeming as a site for song lyrics. :(

This will likely be the only blog post I make til my good 'puter is fixed, since all my screenies and most of my story-related stuff was on that one. Good news is, my dad has a friend that can fix it. Bad news is, I have no idea how long it will take. Hopefully not more than a couple days. This old thing I'm using now has it's fair share of issues, and is slow as heck. If I didn't need my gaming fix, I would probably not even bother. *sigh*

#1 Reason Why Transmogging is Awesome

Kalenedral has her Quel'Delar again.

/Happy sigh

Silence...

Not much interesting going on lately. Mostly just goofing around on Rift, with occasional visits to LotRO or WoW. My rogue on Rift is 45 now, only 5 more levels til I can start seeing what the endgame content is like. And, ya know, start on my next alt. >.>

I've had some interesting things going on in my head, RP-wise. Such as Kal getting a new (and rather impressive) scar, and some back-story stuff for a few LotR characters. The only problem is getting everything sorted out enough to write out. There may be some Storytime posts in the future, but I don't want to make any definite promises. Because I have a bad habit of failing them. :(

One interesting (to me, at least) thing I've been doing is taking screenshots. Enjoy!

Some of these animals in Rift just can't get along...










Moonshade Highlands may be the prettiest zone in the game...


Iron Pine Peaks is second (although the constant snowfall makes me lag)...


Kelesaria the rogue got a new buddy, courtesy of the FaeYule holiday event (and lots and lots of dailies)...


The Defiant capitol, Meridian...



My champion Aravann got himself a fancy horse, and I spoiled him with a /mountrearup emote as well...


My hunter Kelvren in Evendim, another gorgeous zone...


Another shot of Evendim...


And I think that's enough for now. :P
Thanksgiving went pretty good for me. Having the whole weekend off, except for coming in to help another department Saturday night (fun and easy compared to what I usually do), helped a lot. Just have to make it through Christmas and New Year's now. It never stops surprising me how rude and impatient people can get during holidays. Angry people in the check-out lines, drivers in the parking lot acting like they're on the friggin' freeway, it's enough to make me want to hide at home until the season is over. I lost track of how many times some driver came within inches (literally!) of hitting me, whenever I'm bringing the shopping carts back inside. Come on, people, aren't holidays supposed to be happy? What's the huge rush for? Geez... /endrant

Anyways, hope all the (few) people that read this had a good Thanksgiving, and have a good (and safe!) rest of the holidays. /Waves

Meet Khaltagg

Woof.

Lord of the Rings has a version of PvP, called PvMP (Player vs. Monster Player). Once you have a character at or above level 10, you can begin Monster Play. You can play as one of several different classes of orcs, as well as a spider, and a warg. Each monster is a counterpart to a Free Peoples class, with fighters, healers, and an archer. The warg is the baddies' version of a burglar.

Khaltagg is loads of fun. Monster Play starts you off right at max level, so you can head straight out into the Ettenmoors and start beating up Freeps (jargon for the good guys, us bad guys are called Creeps). There are also daily quests everywhere, and they all give destiny points (currency for training traits and skills) and most give infamy (sort of a cross between honor points and rep). Raising your infamy high enough gives you new ranks, which in turn raises your stats and gives access to more skills. So far, Khaltagg is rank 1, with only some limited play time in the evenings, when I'm bored but not sleepy enough to go to bed.

I'm planning a more or less IC post with Khaltagg in the (hopefully) near future. He may become something of a 'silly post' character, being a not-too-bright warg surrounded by not-much-brighter orcs, trolls, and goblins. We'll see how this goes. :D


Something I just found today, was a band in LotR, actually on the Laurelin server, that writes their own music and plays in public events. The band is called The Shades, and right here is an example of what talented people can do with LotR's music system.

And on that note, my minstrel Kyrreth is almost 28. Must go get a ding before this dang cold I'm getting makes me conk out.
... Well, at least getting sick might help my insomnia? :\
Anyways,... /waves

Ah, accomplishment

On one hand, holidays usually mean that work is crazy and everyone is stressed out and cranky. But on the other hand, yay holidays!

Warcraft has been rather neglected lately, while I work on Lord of the Rings holiday stuff, and World Event stuff on Rift. My main character on Rift, Kelesaria the rogue, has been collecting the current event items to trade in for a pretty neat mount. Earlier today, after doing as many dailies as I can stand on my alts (yay for BoA items), her new raptor mount was 'leveled up' enough to use.

Yes, that is supposed to be a raptor. I have no idea what the idea behind the feathers and stuff is, but I still think it looks cool.

Lord of the Rings is having their Harvestmath celebrations, complete with a haunted burrow in the Shire. I have spent so much time inside that place, I don't even get lost anymore. I've been doing dailies on most of my characters there, too, to collect tokens for cosmetic items, as well as getting some pretty horses for several alts. In fact, for my burglar Daeren, I actually got both of the special holiday mounts. And I managed to do it mostly in one day! (That was a lot of tokens.) I haven't taken a lot of screenshots yet, but here's my minstrel Kyrreth, on Silver, and my champion Arrwyn, on Sable, both on the RP server, Laurelin.




I will admit that the festival has been frustrating at times. There are deeds (like achievements in WoW) to use a bunch of items with annoying effects during the holiday, and people have been abusing them left and right, without bothering themselves about whether their victims want their character to randomly faint, or cower in fear, or get mobbed by swarms of bugs/crows. It really isn't a huge deal, but when someone runs up to you without warning, and starts spamming the 'tricks' at you, it gets old really fast. The only reprieve is the fact that the items don't effect people on mounts, so my toons have all been sitting on their horses whenever I have to be around crowds of holiday-frenzied morons.

On WoW, Kel finally got her 'Hallowed' title this year. It only took 2 years for her to get that blasted squashling for her achievement. >.< She got the kitty familiar pet, too, but I couldn't make myself farm the dailies/candy buckets long enough to get her the mini wickerman. :( Oh well, maybe next year...

That's pretty much it for now. Time to make myself get some sleep before I have to face the craziness at work tomorrow. /Waves

On a serious note...

So, I was poking around on blogs while trying to get sleepy enough to go to bed. I probably shouldn't be making a post when it's this late, but I really want to point out this right here.

Having been raised in a Christian home, and hearing the 'gay people are wrong' sermons, reading that post (and most of the comments) gives me some hope. Maybe not a lot, but some.

I'm going to make this short tonight, though I might maybe have some more in-depth thoughts later, when I'm awake and not in the beginning stages of a cold. For now, I'll just finish with this:



/Waves

The Last One (for now)

So, remember when I mentioned in my last post, that I wouldn't mind having a go at taming Deth'tilac? Well, my trusty pet-finder (a.k.a. sis) finally spotted him today. See for yourselves:




On one hand, my arachnophobia is going crazy. *shudder* On the other hand, I actually sorta like this guy. He's not going to spend much time out with Kel, though. Probably just for PVP (gogo mounts for achievement) and to show off. I'm not sure if he's keeping the name either. I just haven't been able to think of a good one yet, so he's named after Kel's silithid, who he's replacing. Kel has a rename scroll in her bank, if I ever think up something better.

It was a surprisingly easy tame, to be honest. Sis came to help with Pitch, and she just kept Deth rooted as I sent in my trash pet for the Deth Strikes. Tamed him while still rooted, and then bam, new pet. This seriously is her last new pet, too, since I had to put her cat Damien in her very last stable slot to make space to tame Deth. Unless I do some stable-cleaning, which isn't very likely, since I'm pretty attached to all the pets she has now. That's okay though, Rajji still has room in his stables. And I am eventually getting Maxwill and Shadepaw leveled up. >.>

I'm still spending most of my game time on LotRO. On the RP server, Laurelin, my champion (and sis's guardian) are over level 20 now, and my minstrel just hit 23. My burgular on Crickhollow is almost 15, and my hunter 'main' on Windfola, the server we both originally started on, is 32. I actually spent some time today working on some of his older deeds. I think I've figured out my problem with playing on that server, as well, just by looking at the OOC chat channel. On Laurelin, it's usually quiet, with only a few guild/event advertisements, or a couple people goofing around. On Windfola today, the channel was full of trolls, arguing and name-calling, and just generally being disrespectful. It kind of reminds me of why I switched my WoW characters from Gilneas to Feathermoon. RP servers are just have nicer atmospheres, or something. I'm thinking of looking into how to transfer some of my characters, if it's possible and not too pricey.

And now, how about some screenies to finish:

My champ Arrwyn (playing her lute), with sis's guard Raedbor.




My burgular Daeren with sis's character (which I can't remember, because she hasn't been on him in ages :P) on their holiday mounts. I really love the horses in this game. :)


Outside the south gate of Bree. I just thought it looked pretty. >.>

And now, it's late and I must go sleep. /Waves goodnight

I don't even.....

While tinkering around on LotRO, I was reminded that today was the last day for Brewfest. I hopped over to WoW to give all my available toons a Direbrew run, for fun and one last chance for easy shinies. Kalenedral wound up getting the kodo mount, which I was mostly 'eh' about, because she most likely won't ever use it. She also got one of the tanking trinkets 'stolen' by a mage. *grumble* Poor Jahira didn't get anything, and then it was Kel's turn. She got a tankard in her keg, my only character to get it this year (still no ram, though), and then on a whim I decided to go out to Hyjal and check for Magria. I really wasn't expecting anything, because it was around peak time for the server, so if one of the kitties had spawned, they would've been tamed/killed already. At least, that's what I was thinking as I flew Kel over to the spawn/patrolling route. Well, guess what?









And after the tame was finished, and my little blue kitty stepped to his place by Kel's side, I spent several minutes quietly hyperventilating over my keyboard.

Kel now has 8 spirit beasts. If I remember correctly, the only one she's missing is Ghostcrawler, who, as I've said before, I have no interest in. I can't ever describe the feeling when I saw the glowing shape on my screen and Silver Dragon blared out who it was. I was shaking so bad it seemed to take forever to actually get clear of the elementals, get Magria tagged, and wait for the cast bar to slowly tick down. Magria was a bit harder to convince than Ankha was, and for the last second or two of the tame I was wondering if Kel was going to live. But she made it, and now I officially want no more pets for her. Although, if I ever see Deth'tilac undisturbed, it will be very tempting. >.>

Kel and Sky had some bonding time while Kel did her Molten Front dailies, where I got to find a 'new friend'. A Belf hunter was doing the Shadow Wardens dailies, and she pulled her own version of Magria out to show off. There was a lot of emoting for a minute or two before we each got back to finishing our quests. And then to top it off, I saw another blue spirit kitty while killing spiders afterwards. It was really nice to see other people with that pet and not have to suppress any jealousy. :P

I'm not sure when my head is going to come down out of the clouds after this. Seems like lately, just when RL stuff starts getting me worn down and depressed, something happens that makes it all alright again. Not sure exactly how long my in-game luck is going to last, but man I'm enjoying it as long as I can. My only problem now is which spirit beasts Kel will have with her. Poor, poor Loq, he has so much competition now. Between him, Sky, and Icestorm, I don't know how much 'out' time anyone else will have. At least it might be easier to make myself keep grinding through dailies and heroics with her now. Although LotR is still taking most of my attention.

Aaaand I should probably go make myself try to sleep, it's getting late and I have work again in the morning. Dang I wish I could get my old schedule of afternoon/evening shifts back. I am so not a morning person. :P
...*stares and squees at Sky some more*
/Waves

Catching Up

Okay, starting with WoW-

Jorren my death knight on Arthas is now Jhorren on Nesingwary. (His name was already taken on the server, and I'm getting tired of putting funky letters in my character's names. :P) I'm sort of unintentionally taking a break from him, but the next thing I'm planning for him is to start collecting a couple heirlooms. That means gearing up will take longer, but I really have been having more fun leveling my alts than grinding gear on my max-levels, so I'll deal with it.

Kel has yet another spirit beast in her menagerie. I took her up to Grizzly Hills and parked by Arcuris' spawn point. Another hunter was already there, so I logged her out there, so I wouldn't disturb the person that had gotten there first. Well, I logged on her again later, the hunter was gone, and guess who was just sitting down there waiting for me?


He's not going to be taking Loq's and Icestorm's spots as favorites, but I really like this guy. Yay glowbear!

So after all that excitement, I actually haven't even been on WoW for the last couple days. I've been getting back into Lord of the Rings Online. They just had their newest big update, and they changed/added a lot of stuff. Also, sis has been on with me a lot, and we've been trying to get into a little of the RP there. We made new characters on an RP server, Laurelin, and we each have one that we're trying to level together. Sis made a guardian, and I have a champion. I also made a couple alts to play with when sis is on WoW or at work, a minstrel and a runekeeper. Holy cow, did they change minstrels! I had one a couple years ago, when LotRO still required a subscription, and it wasn't nearly this fun. I've really missed the music-playing system LotRO has, too. The only thing slowing down my minstrel's leveling has been my habit of parking somewhere in Bree and playing her lute for the random people passing by.

(Have a random screenshot of Bree)


And... that's all I can think of for now, as far as games. Real life hasn't been all that interesting (or fun) lately. My job continues to tire me out, and the changing weather isn't helping. I think I would enjoy fall a little more if it wasn't for the fact that winter will be coming after. Though at least the next couple days are supposed to be warmer, so my achy joints won't be as bad.
/Waves

Meet Jorren (and bonus pic)

Meet my newest level 85 character, and the proof that I really can focus on one character when I really want to.

Little bit of a story behind this guy. My brother wanted to make alts on a pvp server, and apparently he knew someone on the Arthas server. So me, him, and sis each made a toon over there, got them in a guild, and even got them all up a few levels. I had a tauren priest, sis a troll hunter, and brother soon had his typical small army of different alts. Getting to the point- our toons all reached the level where they got their first glyph slots, but the AH prices were ridiculous (the fun part of starting fresh on an older, well-populated server). So I decided to make a death knight, and power level inscription with him. Well, in the process of getting through the starting area, then the massive amounts of farming to skill his professions up, I wound up getting attached to the little guy. My little alts became neglected, and eventually I got tired of being broke all the time and dropped inscription for mining. After making sure he learned all the DK glyphs he could make, of course. >.>

Well, he's now 85 (obviously), and I'm having a ton of fun with him. I think this proves my little theory of needing to 'click' with a character to be able to enjoy playing it. (My 'lock Rynia is another example. I'd started and deleted at least 2 other warlocks before I created her.) The only real problem I have with him is the server, and it's more of a small annoyance than a problem. Apparently most of the Alliance on Arthas are jerks, who like to gank afk/lagging/stuck-at-the-loading-screen Hordies, especially if said Hordie is at least 2 levels below them. Getting ganked by epic-geared 85s in Northrend was a bit mind-boggling. (Do you people really have nothing better to do?) So, sometime soon-ish, he's gonna be switching over to another server, and my baby alts on Arthas will probably go bye-bye, although I may remake my undead hunter. Not sure where yet, but I'm leaning mostly towards Nesingwary, so Shadepaw can have a level 85 around to spoil her.

And now the next thing. This right here, this is what happens when my druid girls get stuck in my head. I wind up drawing the two of them in cute, affectionate, and/or cuddly poses. I'm trying to do a sketch of them both stalking something, but they refuse to cooperate with that. And yet I can do something like this one in less than a day. Argh, what am I gonna do with them...

...Obviously, love them and continue drawing cute, cuddly pictures of them. -.-
This is really making me wish I had the nerve to try drawing them in their elf forms.

I'm happy with the fact that I got their size proportions right this time. Windstar is a big kitty. Also, taking my sketchbook to work makes me return from my breaks late. :\ But getting compliments from my coworkers was a nice ego-boost. Which is something I've been needing lately.

And now I need to go try to sleep, so I can get through my work day tomorrow and be awake enough after to run Jorren in another heroic or two. And finish skilling his cooking up. :P /Waves

I don't even have words...

So, you know how I mentioned looking for Skoll last night, when I had those two surprise tames? Apparently, he heard me. Or something. Because my sis found him waiting when she was out leveling her worgen druid. I am still completely boggled by this, so I'll just let the screenshots tell what just happened.





Just to give some idea of how I feel right now, I have been camping for Skoll off and on ever since patch 4.0 brought the new stable space. Since that was what, almost a year ago? I am just... wow. I think this actually beats my Loque'nahak camp, which was the longest and most frustrating camp that I have ever had. It still hasn't completely sunk in that he's finally Kel's.

The funny thing is, I don't even really like the Northrend worg models. They're way too skinny, they have a very awkward run, and the sounds kind of annoy me. I had started looking for Skoll just to get Kel all the current spirit beasts, just for the fun of it. I never really expected her to use him much whenever she did find him. But now that I finally have him, all that has changed. Just one look at that face totally makes up for any so-called 'problems' with that model. I seriously love this guy, and he's not going to be seeing the stables for a long, long time.

And one last thing- Thank you, sis, for finding Kel's three newest friends, and telling me so I could come tame them. And for being willing to share your computer yesterday, instead of making me wait for mine to start up. I <3 you. :)

Like Potato Chips...

...You can never stop at one. Or three.

So Kel has two new spirit beasts, and neither one is the one I thought I wanted. I had been checking the cats' spawn/patrol route whenever I did Kel's Firelands dailies, hoping for Magria. I hadn't seen a whisker of any of the new spirit beasts, though I had heard of one Ankha tame that happened about 5 minutes after I left. So last night, after I had gotten home from work/grocery shopping, I was getting ready for a quick shower when sis asks me if I had anyone that wanted to tame Ankha. At first I was thinking, no, not Ankha, I want the blue kitty. Then I stopped and really thought about it. Coming to see Ankha wandering around on sis's computer convinced me. Fortunately, Kel had been logged in Aviana's shrine, so it was a short flight down, and there she was.


Kel already had an equipment setup to strip for the tame, which went smoothly. Ankha didn't even hurt Kel much, which should've been my first hint.

About 10 minutes later, sis called me again. Ban'thalos was up, which she thought was odd since he's supposed to share a timer with the kitties. Another hunter was there, but when sis whispered him, he said he already had Ban, so sis let me have her computer again to log on Kel. She had to get Kel onto the tree, and remind me to place my trap, and once again it was a perfect tame. Banny didn't even get off any moonfire spam.

It took forever to come up with a name for this guy, but finally 'Arrow' just sort of popped into my head. Being that this is a spirit beast, and the only bird-form one at that, I wanted it a little more 'special' for him, hence the funky letter. :P

Winter has bonded with Kel already. I would still love to get Magria, but I'm happy with her. Ærrow is getting along well too, but I'm not sure how much active time he'll get. But I am planning on taming Banny on Max, so I'm not worried about it.

Not long after this, sis's troll Booggah got a couple new buddies, which she tells all about here.

So, now Kel's ambition to tame every spirit beast in the game (except Ghostcrawler, sorry but I'm just not into crabs. Even shiny spirit ones) has been rekindled. The only thing that kept me from running to Northrend to check Skoll last night, was how tired out I was. And the shock of the two unexpected tames in such a short time. Kel is going back to camping him again soon, though.

So besides all the huntery stuff, I have had my druid pair stuck in my head a lot lately, and I have a new sketch of them done, and working on finishing another. I'll be posting them soon, along with a small RP update. And my soon-to-be newly 85 alt that has been taking up all of my game time. >.>
/Waves

Story = Art Inspiration?

After that last story I did, I had a sudden urge to draw Rathiel. So, well, here ya go.



He's not a very pretty kitty. But then again, he's not supposed to be.

I've been continuing the story, but I'm not sure whether anything more will be posted or not. *shrug*

Well, that's it for now. Probably gonna have another WoW update soon-ish. Most likely to show off my newest level 85 character.

What? I've accepted the fact that I have no life. :P
Anyways... /waves

Storytime: "How long?"

Random story inspiration FTW?

Little bit of backstory for this one- Jahira was the mother of twin boys, who both grew up to become druids. In the War of Shifting Sands, one of them was killed. The surviving twin went a little berserk, and when the war was over, he disappeared. Jahira thought he was dead as well for a few years, then she began hearing tales of a very intelligent cat, hunting the remaining Qiraji. She finally found her son, but he had gone completely feral, and it took days for him to even let her approach. Over the years, she has kept an ear out, and will periodically seek him out, to check on him and try to make sure he's doing alright. He roams over various places in Kalimdor, hunting not only the Qiraji, but anything he considers a threat to his people. This story is current in-game, after Jahira heard rumors of something killing orcs, which led her to Ashenvale.

++ ++ ++

Ashenvale, east of Silverwind Refuge

The white panther entered the clearing slowly, dragging her offering by the neck. Setting her burden down in the center of the glade, she looked carefully around, sniffing the evening air. After making a complete circle around the dead stag, she gave up and settled down next to it, waiting.

The cat woke to the predawn darkness, instinct holding her perfectly still until she could identify what had disturbed her. It took a few seconds for her to make out the darker shape sitting among the trees at the edge of the tiny clearing. Slowly, carefully, she sat up, unsure of his mood, but grew hopeful when he didn't turn and run. A moment later, the cat shifted into a female Kaldorei, long white hair shining faintly in the darkness. "Hello, Rath."

The shadowy shape didn't move for the first minute, then slowly stood and approached, revealing another cat. His dark, ash-grey fur blended almost perfectly in the darkness, the white-ish Elune markings across his shoulders barely visible. Other pale lines criss-crossed his coat, marking far too many scars. Jahira felt her heart clench at the sight of him. He was starting to grow his winter coat already, and that plus the darkness made it hard to see how thin he was. He was also favoring his right hind leg. Jahira bit her lip as he came up to her, sitting just out of arm's reach.

Jahira gestured at the dead stag. "I don't know if you're hungry or not, but.." she offered. Rath looked at her for a moment longer, then turned his head to inspect the deer. After a sniffing the carcass over, he began picking bites off of his favorite parts, pausing every so often to glance back at the druid. She simply sat still, watching him.

Several minutes passed, then, apparently satisfied, the cat turned back to the elf, sitting a bit closer. Jahira looked him in the eyes, and slowly raised one hand, fingers glowing a faint green. His expression hardened, and he moved as if to draw away from her. Her hand went still in midair. "Please, Rathiel," she asked softly, her voice catching in the middle of his name. He froze, staring at her, then laid his ears back and inched closer. She gently rested her hand on his head, and the glow intensified. He stiffened, then drew back as it faded, rumbling softly deep in his chest. Jahira let her hand fall back into her lap, and watched him as he paced around the clearing, testing his healed leg.

Jahira finally shifted back into her cat and stretched out on the grass, next to the stag's remains. Rath stopped his pacing, and for a moment he glanced back and forth between her and the forrest. After several tense seconds, which felt like hours to Jahira, he slowly walked over to her and laid down at her side. She turned her head to gently wash his face, as he grumbled quietly, shutting his eyes. They stayed like that for almost an hour, the white cat lovingly grooming the grey, while he eventually dozed for a little while. As the eastern sky slowly brightened, he abruptly raised his head. Jahira left off her grooming with a quiet sigh, causing him to turn his head to look at her. She shifted back into her elven form and returned his gaze sadly.

"How much longer, Rath? You can't keep this up forever, can you?" she asked, her tone pleading. His expression went stone hard again, and he looked away. Jahira bit her lip again, wondering of she should have kept silent. Finally...

"Nothing will bring Fauren back, but making our enemies suffer helps the pain." His voice rasped painfully, so hoarse from disuse that she could barely understand him. She looked down at her hands, clenched together in her lap, and closed her eyes. Then something gently wiped away the single tear that had escaped to roll down her cheek. She opened her eyes to look at the dark golden ones of her son, catching his hand and holding it up to her cheek. He allowed her for a brief moment, then gently pulled away, turned, and started towards the trees, shifting back into a cat as he went. Jahira could only sit and watch him vanish into the gloom. She finally pulled her gaze away from where he had disappeared, wiping her eyes and taking a deep, ragged breath. She stood and looked up at the sky for a moment, then fumbled her hearthstone out of her belt pouch, only to put it away again. She shifted into a stormcrow and took off into the air, turning northwest, towards Lor'danel.

She wanted nothing more at that moment than for Windstar to hold and comfort her, but she needed to be alone for just a little longer.

Catching up

Work is making me feel very 'bleh' lately, but here's a few things I've been up to.

I have had 2 big dings in the last few days. First, Rynia the warlock has archeology-ed herself to 85. Then, I finally made myself get Jahira the last 5 bubbles of xp that she needed.





Both of them have run through the beginning Firelands stuff, and they have the ilvl needed for heroics. Rynia has even been in one, Shadowfang Keep, and has a pretty new robe from it. Jahira will be waiting a while though. I'm too much of a noob at boomkin'ing, so I want to look up stuff and get her some more gear before I attempt a heroic. Not to mention my other characters that have been so neglected lately. Kal especially has been begging for some attention. Ryn is definitely getting her share of play time, though. I'm amazed sometimes at how much fun warlocks are. There's just something therapeutic about setting things on fire... *evil grin*

I'm still trudging along with Maxwill as well. It's slow, with all my 'bigger' characters keeping me busy, but he is currently 64 and moving along. He also has (another) new friend. This guy is a strictly OOC pet, because, well, it would be hard to explain ICly why Max has a little patch of fire following him around...



My sis had figured out the trick to taming this guy, and bugged me to give her a hand, since it takes 2 people to make the pet explode in the taming process. And since I had to go along anyways, I figured why not get Max his own, before Blizzard decides to 'fix' the bug. It's an amusing pet, even though it has some issues with targeting (you can't click the pet, you have to click it's portrait next to it's owner's or use tab-targeting).

That's Max's brother, Arnen, played by my sis, in the screenshot. These two got seperated when Gilneas locked itself away, and haven't ICly found each other yet. I have some story ideas poking around in my head though, whenever Windstar and Jahira let them, and I might have some bits to post sometime. I need to keep pestering my sis as well. Poor Max has a couple issues, and having his brother around will help quite a bit.

And that's about it for now. Need to get some dailies done, and maybe see about getting a little worgen up a level or two. /Waves

I'm a slacker...

Catch-up post coming soon. Getting back into the routine of work and trying to get enough sleep and etc. has been a little crazy.

That is all (for now). /Wave

p.s. Have a (old) random screenshot.

I love Vacations

Been quiet lately because I've been busy with getting ready for vacation with my family. I am now in NC, the beach is awesome, and I'm already sunburned. :D (Not too badly though.) I've had some game time in the evenings, too, and have been trying to get stuff done on 3 different games. So far, Rift has actually been getting neglected (although I've finally got all my characters on one RP shard now), but LotRO is getting attention (I might even have a max-level character by the end of the year :P), and of course I've been doing stuff on WoW.

Kel is taking it easy with her dailies, mostly because I can't stand to do them more than twice a day, and I want my engineering toons to open up the recipe vendor. Rajji has been easier to do stuff with than Arien, so he'll probably be getting the shiny gun recipe first. And the scope. That scope makes me giggle every time I look at it. Blizzard does come up with some pretty fun stuff once in a while.

Speaking of Rajji, he has two new friends. First, I found Terropene wandering around his lava pool, and just couldn't help myself. I'm not sure how much time Fierro will be spending out of the stable, but fire turtle(!) is just too irresistible. Then I was herb-picking on Windstar one night, and she found someone wandering around Twilight Highlands-

I give up trying to keep track of how many cats he has now. Not even including spirit beasts. Paragon is his 4th lion, though. I think he has a total of 6 cats, with 2 cat-model spirit beasts. And he loves all of them. My troll is hopeless. :P

Side-note - I'm probably going to wind up taming Sambas on every hunter I have. :P Which is funny, because when I first saw him, I wasn't very impressed with his model, but I guess he's grown on me.

I've been tinkering on alts a lot as well, and I especially realized how neglected Max has been. So he's been getting some dungeon runs, and is up to 62 already. I wish I didn't hate questing in Outlands so much though, his gear is really pathetic. And the few things he could use from instances refuse to drop. /grumble He's found a couple new companions, as well. He finally has his first 2 tenacity pets-



I'm not sure if he's keeping the crab or not. I'm planning on getting him Jadefang when he's high enough (since Rajji's pretty much out of room), and he just hasn't been that big on tanky pets. The warp stalker may be turning blue later, too. I may be doing another post later, just to show off his pets and maybe have some RP background stuff, since I recently realized I have almost no screenshots of them and he's been so neglected lately. :P

And one last thing- my sketching has been a little slow lately, but I did finish a horse I've been working on. I admit the inspiration of this one (which I call 'Resting') comes from how tired I've been lately. :P


And that's it for now. Hopefully Warcraft maintenance is done, so Max can get another dungeon or two done. /Waves

Two days late, but..

Rajji has hit the magic number, and got a bonus surprise achievement to boot. He then took a pass over Karoma's and Sambas's spawn points on his way to the portal to go train, but with no luck. He's started on Firelands, and is going to do Thrall's quest chain today. He actually dinged on Thursday, but I'm showing it off late because just after it happened my brother wanted to hang out (yay) and then yesterday I was so tired after work that I crashed almost as soon as I got home (boo). Have I mentioned I don't like my job very much lately? :P

I think my leveling binge is still going, but now I really want to work on some of my alts on other servers. Most likely Shadepaw, on Nesingwary, will be my next goal. If I can keep away from my rogues on Feathermoon. Talia, at 47, is the highest I've ever gotten with a rogue, and it's so much fun I really want to get her to 85. And then there's also Max, sitting at 59 and needing some instance runs for gear pretty bad. Having the healer in his last (and only) Ramparts run pointing out that he was last on the dps meter was kind of embarrassing. >.< And since I really hate leveling in Outlands, I think Kel/Windstar are going to be instance-running him through to 68 as quickly as possible.

I'm starting to count down to my vacation in August. My work schedule lately has been hectic, and I'm just starting to get sick of being there. The weather isn't helping, either. This has been the hottest summers I can remember in a long time, and while it's great for me, because I loooove hot weather, it also means that the managers and supervisors aren't letting me go outside and do my favorite job very much. No one seems to believe me when I say that gathering/bringing in the shopping carts in 90+ degree weather doesn't bother me. :\

But enough ranting about that for now. I have today off to spend with my troll (and some alts), and I have been seriously slacking on Kel's Firelands dailies. I must go fix that. :D /Waves

Trollin'

In between doing Kel's Firelands dailies (and slacking off a day or two, work sucks), I have been steadily working on my next level 85. Really, it should have been Jahira, since she's my next highest, but all the fun hunter stuff has me working on getting Rajji up to cap. Currently, he's about halfway through 84, and hopefully will hit the big ding later today. If not, at least tomorrow I have a day off work.

In between questing and the occasional dungeon, I have also been filling his stable. Which is almost done, literally. He has maybe 4 empty stable slots, plus the one personal slot I keep open for if/when I find something special. He has a wider collection than Kel, although he seems to be turning into a bit of a cat person, er, troll. Along with his 3 lions (one of each color), he got Shango as soon as the mob was turned into that gorgeous tiger, and more recently got himself a frostsaber stalker. Drejan has clicked with Raj much better than I ever thought-

(Because troll + tiger is so full of win.)




He also got Hell-Hoot after the change that turned him lavender. Then, sitting in Orgrimmar one day, I noticed that Erthe seemed to be trying to perch on Raj's staff. It was kind of adorable. (And took a lot of timing and position adjustments.)



Rajji's been enjoying his new Sholazar pair, too. Although Snowcloud(Loque) has been getting a lot more attention than Azure(Aotona). (I need to fix that :P) And just today, he got his newest addition to the zoo-



Funny thing is, I was never that interested in Madexx before Blizzard started putting normal-spawn mobs with his model in various places in the game. I guess seeing the other versions of him made him sort of grow on me. Maxwill will be getting a non-rare version from Firelands when he gets leveled, but I wanted to get the 'real thing' for Raj. I had been hoping so badly for a blue version (favorite color ftw?), but Madexx stubbornly insisted on spawning green the last 3 times I know of; once when sis found him, once when I found his dead body, and finally when Raj finally tamed him. I did miss his spawn last night, but I'm almost willing to bet it was green too. Silly scorpid. :/ And if anyone's wondering, I sort of combined his name and color to come up with his new name. I think it fits. :D

I am getting a blue version of Madexx on someone, most likely Shadepaw whenever I level her up (which I'm working on as well). Rajji is more than happy with his new buddy though. Green pets seem to be sort of a theme with him, especially considering that he's likely getting Jadefang too, to go along with his green scorpid, chimera, warp stalker, and serpent.

And now one last screenshot: Doing the beginning quests in Twilight Highlands, Rajji was taking a boat back to the Horde warships, and I noticed Snowcloud actually following, instead of getting stuck on the shore like what happens going the opposite direction. It was kind of a 'awww' silly moment-


(Faithful pet refuses to be left behind.)

And now to go work on getting my troll to 85, most likely in TwiHighlands, since I'm a little tired of looking at Uldum right now (lol). /Waves

p.s.- In case anyone is curious, several of Rajji's pet's names I've gotten from a Drow translation website. Erthe, Elgcahl, Drejan, and Toryll have all come from that site. I would highly recommend it for anyone looking for something unusual. :D

Tinkering in the Firelands

First of all, I love this patch. So much new stuff to do. Kel got to run through everything first, of course, and I have been trying to keep Bearkat up with her, even though the chances of him doing anything like raiding are next-to-zero. He loves Tol Barad, though. The Horde winning 9/10 battles isn't nearly as annoying now.

So, today I was doing Kel's dailies, after missing Ankha spawning (no big deal, I want Magria anyways). (And thank you, Novikova, for being awesome and telling me so that I have the spawn timer. :D) Running around exploring afterwards, I discovered three things. One, the lava spiders in Fire lands are skinnable (yay new farming spot?). Two, surprise achievement-



And three, Deth'tilac had spawned, and was being kited by a human hunter, with a couple friends-



After making sure the other hunter had things under control, I happily watched them whittle Deth's health down to the tamable point. And I may have cleared a couple spiders out of their kiting path. >.> I was too afraid of screwing something up to help with the kiting, and it was the only other thing I could think of to help.

I didn't get a screenshot of Deth and it's proud new owner, but it was pretty awesome to see that huge angry spider suddenly turn friendly. And shrink. A LOT. The other hunter was happy and grateful to me for staying out of the way and clearing the extra mobs. She even tried to give me some gold, but I refused. Getting to see the most epic rare spawn of the patch being tamed was more than good enough for me.

And speaking of achievements-




The Fire Festival is almost over, but I managed to beat down my procrastination and get the one single achievement that Kel needed for the meta. I haven't taken advantage of the free xp/gold from the bonfires nearly as much as I wanted to, but all the new patch stuff kept me too busy. That, and work. Darn my job anyways...

Between Tol Barad dailies, rewards from the beginning Firelands quests, and finding a couple decent deals in the AH, Bear's gear is ready for heroics. Windstar is about the same gear-wise, and the difference is pretty amazing. Star is killing her mobs in about half the time it used to take, and no longer has to heal herself after every single fight. She even managed to solo Tank the shark with her bear spec. Bearkat is beginning to collect some tanking gear, and I might even try to tank a normal instance sometime, just for practice. He's got a long way to go before I'll be comfortable tanking heroics, though.

And I think that's enough rambling for me. Must go get some sleep before the next Magria (or Ankha) spawns. /Waves