As promised (sort of), here's a quick story of when Alanon came to help Arien find a couple lost druids in the Underbog. We did most of it in character, though this was before I got my chatlogger addon, so I wrote it afterward from memory. It happens right after
this. (Also, please forgive the rather rushed editing job. :P)
Shortly after noon, Arien met Alanon at the draenei post of Telredor. The druid and paladin set off. They soon reached the mass of pipes in Coilfang Reservoir, marking the drain-entrance, and Arien slid off Snow's back into the water. Alanon dropped out of his bird form and splashed in with her, where he promptly turned into a sea lion. Arien was a bit startled, but quickly got used to it, and even thought to herself that it was almost rather cute. They swam quickly, and soon were through the water-filled tunnel, entering a large cavern. There they found the contact for the missing scouts, Watcher Jhang, kneeling on the shore holding her leg. "I twisted my ankle, or else I would be with the others. Don't worry about me, the others are in trouble. Can you please go find them?" she pleaded. "Rayge and Claw are somewhere in the Underbog, and Bite and Greenthumb got lost in the Slave Pens." They agreed, though Arien hated to leave the scout without healing, even for a simple twisted ankle. They slipped down one of the huge branching tunnels into a place the scout had called the Underbog. Aggressive sporebats greeted them, and Alanon quickly changed to a bear and charged them. Arien gave him a moment to grab the attention of all of them, then came up behind and began swinging her axe. With just two of them, and Alanon being very skilled at this kind of thing, Arien felt more comfortable helping him to bring their enemies down, rather than just sitting back and healing him. They progressed relatively quickly through the damp muggy caves, to the point where Alanon mentioned that they made a good team. Arien felt a small flush of warmth at that, and agreed.
After a while, they left the crude tunnels full of sporebats and elementals, and found some constructions rough-made of metal. Arien felt a very different flush at the familiar sight, this time of anger. Sure enough, a pair of naga guards came down the narrow ramp, where Alanon surprised them and, with Arien's help, quickly dispatched them. As they stepped past the bodies, Arien quietly grunted in disgust. "Hm? You ok?" Alanon asked. "Yea," she replied. "Just hate nagas." She wondered briefly what he would think, of a paladin admitting to hating something, but he just shrugged and went on. As they fought on through the hallway, they found a huge room, with a ramp leading to a platform with a enormous hydra. Alanon and Arien looked at each other, and Alanon switched to bear form. They charged the 'guard dog', Alanon giving Arien a warning to watch out for it's tail. She quickly discovered that the creature gave off a toxic sort of aura, which was making her too nauseated to fight, so she backed off and worked on just keeping Alanon healed. The aura didn't seem to bother him, and the thing was quickly dead.
They both moved to the edge of the platform afterward. Arien looked down at the water below, then glanced back at Alanon. "Guess we're jumping?" she asked. He nodded, and they both plunged in. The drop wasn't as bad as it looked, and Arien got a surprise when she hit the water. It was warm, almost hot. Alanon shifted into a sea lion, and lead her to the small niche in the surrounding wall that allowed them to climb out. From there it was another drop, into more of the crude tunnels. Different creatures lurked there, vicious nether rays and huge glowing insects. Arien was kept busy, using the Light to cleanse the bugs' poisonous spit, as well as helping out with her axe. At the end of the first stretch of tunnel, Alanon, in bear form, suddenly stopped and started sniffing the air. Arien heard a faint rustle almost immediately after, and slowly moved to investigate. She jumped and almost tripped over herself when a Night Elf suddenly appeared right in front of her. It was one of the missing scouts, Rayge, and he thanked them profusely for clearing the monsters out of his escape route. He too was slightly injured, but assured them that he was only resting before healing himself and escaping. He had a warning before they left him and continued, however. "There is a hunter up ahead, and he has somehow managed to trap my comrade Claw in his bear form, and is treating him like a pet!" he told them indignantly. "I'm afraid you might have to fight Claw in order to free him." The druid and paladin nodded to him, promised to be careful, and continued.
Down a few more bends of the tunnel, they found the pair. A broken hunter was sitting by a small fire, with a large bear with the typical markings that druids have on his shoulders and face. The smallish horns he sported marked him as a tauren, but druids held themselves mostly apart from the Alliance/Horde squabbles, and Alanon and Arien had no hesitation about helping him. "He's in the wrong shape for me to hold him still much," Arien whispered, as they tried to figure how to not hurt the bear. Alanon looked unhappy, but all he could say was, "We'll just have to try not to beat him up too much." She nodded, Alanon shifted again, and he trotted out to challenge the hunter. It called the bear to attack them at once, and Arien had to pull back her axe-swing more than once to avoid him, but after a long, dancing battle, the hunter fell. The bear continued his attack, however, and finally the two were forced to fight back to defend themselves. Before too long, the bear's angry red eyes seemed to clear, and he suddenly broke off his attack. He stood panting for a few seconds, then shifted into his tauren form and walked to the campfire, plopping down next to it, still looking confused. Arien slowly approached, Alanon right behind her, and she told him about his friend they had already discovered, as well as the two still unaccounted for. Alanon looked him over for any major injuries, as he thought for a moment. "Well, now that I'm free of that hunter, I can get out of here fine. Perhaps I will collect my companion on the way out," the tauren finally decided. Alanon nodded, having found nothing more serious than some small cuts and bruises, and the two of them continued, hearing some strange noises ahead.
Around another bend in the tunnel, Arien noticed some dark shapes on the ground. As they neared, she saw they were more nether rays, dead. She shuddered a bit at the sight of so many, and Alanon, a bear once again, remarked wryly, "You should be glad you can't smell as well as me right now." They turned the last corner, and saw a huge, strange creature moving about the piles of ray bodies. It was similar to the tall marsh walkers that roamed the waterways of the marsh, but much bigger, and solid black. It made low hissing noises as it fed on several of the half-rotted rays, and Arien began feeling slightly ill, watching it. Alanon was looking at her, and seemed to pick up on it. "Let's get it," he growled. She nodded and tightened her grip on her axe. Once again Alanon led, Arien letting him grab the monster's attention. As she moved in to join the battle though, it started casting magic, throwing chains of lightning around the cavern. Arien got too close on one blast, and was knocked back, lightning crackling around her hands as she stood back up. She stayed back after that, throwing healing spells on Alanon, and as the creature weakened, she called a hammer made of holy energy and threw it as hard as she could. The monster fell, leaving a small opening in the back of the cave clear. Bear-Alanon backed a few steps from the body and sat down, breathing hard, and Arien came up beside him, checking to see if he needed more healing. He was fine, though, if slightly out of breath, and they went to inspect the small doorway, finding it dropped into the same tunnel they had started from. They both looked at each other and shook their heads. "How convenient," Alanon said, with an ironic tone. They dropped down together, and wearily backtracked to the entrance.
+ + +
The two of them sat around in the instance for a while afterwards, chatting and such, but I'm gonna end the story there, because I don't have the entire dialog, and I don't want to wind up forgetting anything important. Hope you enjoyed it!
And now to go finish setting up my new laptop that I just got for Christmas. :D
Hope everyone else had a good holiday! /Waves
