Nat Thoughts: Diaries of a Darkshire Girl

[Natasha Ebonlocke]

November the Third

It was a lazily busy morning in the workshop. Celeste McCullough and Natasha Ebonlocke sat at a workbench cluttered with bits and pieces of fishing rods, a diary, an open inkwell of purple ink, and an open cherrywood quill case. There were also cotton balls, a bowl of lukewarm water, liquid soap from Mags’ store, toothpicks, tweezers, reel oil, a small wrench (Dordy had his wrench, Celeste’s oldest one and his favorite toy, under the workbench and was gnawing on it noisily), and needle-nose pliers.

Celeste currently had her murloc skeleton rod in front of her, the blank (the long rod itself) lying with the guides (the rings that the fishing line run through up the length of the pole) pointing upward. She’d already cleaned the guides of the mineral buildup gunk, and now, with a cotton ball in hand, she was swabbing around inside the guides to see if it would get snagged on anything, which might indicate a nick in the guide she’d have to fix. She was partway through the first guide already, and planned to check their alignment once they were all done, as out-of-alignment guides would negatively affect distance and accuracy of casts. Celeste was totally in the zone, as she usually was when she was focused on one sort of work or another, and barely noticed the goings-on around her.

Nat, meanwhile, had her ravenfeather quill in hand, already dipping it for purple ink. She had a lot of stuff to write about this week, and was eager to just get to it! With her diary open to the next blank page, she applied the tip of her quill and quickly began to write.

Dear diary,

Holy smokes, what a loaded week! I’ve been busy every single day! From Hallow’s End stuff to Deathrolls to adventures, I’ve been super active this week!

Meanwhile, over the workend, Celeste had gotten to have super lazy days for the first time in a long time! She looks so much more well-rested and energized now that she isn’t spending seven days a week fending off devilsaurs so she can scrub a giant direhorn down to heal him up! She’d even gotten to have a lunch party with our Anglers’ Wharf friends, in which she told the tale of our Un’goro Crater adventure with her usual… angler’s flare. Ha! I’m so happy for her that she’s had a chance to rest!

I got to have a little fun over the weekend as well… I got to go see Mags in her new Hallow’s End costume Saturday night, even if only for a few minutes on the way home! She was at a market doing some shopping and having fun with lots from her company, like some friends I’ve only met a few times before of hers, Veldana, Ryck, Gnoll, Mat, and a new one named Sir Aladar Dalant! There were lots, so I hope I remembered everyone!

Mags’ costume was adorable! She had on a yellow shirt and a yellow bandana covering her face, and cardboard tubes in orange glued all over her… she was Magsaroni and Cheese! She even had on blue overalls to be the bowl! HA! How awesome! Very adorable and clever! I had my witch costume on again, myself… I knew I’d have to come up with new things too next time! And I did, which I’ll write about soon!

I didn’t get to stay long. I just wanted to see the market in Upton Borough in Boralus and see Mags’ costume there, because I said I would, and because it sounded fun! Then I had to go home after they all wanted to go with Magsaroni and Cheese to get lemonade. It was a fun little stop, even if it was just brief!

Then Monday was the primary day of Hallow’s End, the last day! There was a HUGE market going on in Stormwind City, and I got to go see Mags’ booth, and she was wearing her Magsaroni and Cheese costume! This time, the Quicksilver Company was doing candy instead of soaps, I guess for the theme of the holiday, and it was like doing a whole night of Trick-or-Treating in one single spot! I’d done some other Trick-or-Treating at different inns and stuff already earlier that night, but this booth really took the cake!

I had a costume, too! I found an orange dress the color of a pumpkin and with lines going up it like they do on a pumpkin, so I got that and these like orange gloves with green stripes around them like bands, and got a jack-o’-lantern carved up so a person can wear it on their head! With that and an old, gnarled root enchanted to be on fire but not burn, I looked like a pumpkin on a vine! It was a super fun costume to wear! I was really happy!

Mags was all set up with a multiple-page-long menu, including normal candy, a Wheel of Mystery Flavors game in which you could pay a silver and Mags would spin the wheel and draw out a mystery candy depending on what number (1 through 100) it landed on, so you could get trick candies or normal candies, and a Super Sour Lemonade Grenade Challenge game to play where like, if you could stand the sour and finish eating it, you win a prize!

I loaded up on Mallow’s End, a cleverly-named marshmallow candy covered in sugar and made in different spooky shapes, Glow Worms, gummy worms that glow in the dark and leave your tongue glowing, and Bag o’ Bones, hard candies shaped like different sorts of bones that you can assemble into a full skeleton of something before eating! The candies are so much fun, and so tasty, too! A super clever idea for sure!

I played the Wheel of Mystery Flavors too, and got one that tasted like whole milk. It was so weird to have a candy that tasted like milk! I got a Trick! HA! Then I did the Super Sour Lemonade Grenade Challenge. It was SOOOOO SOUR! OHMIGOSH! I only just barely managed to force it down, but dang, my taste buds felt like they were melting right off my tongue from acid or something! Goodness gracious! I won a prize though! There were lots of things to choose from. I really wanted the gummy worm plushie and the chocolate giraffes that come in a six-pack! I chose the gummy worm plushie. It’s so cute! Big adorable face and big adorable eyes, and each segment of the worm is a different brilliant gummy worm color! He’s so squeezable! I did the challenge again later because I really wanted the chocolate giraffes, but I LOST so badly! I’d had food from Nate’s stand, getting used to sweet food, then the sour after did me in! OOF!

Nate being Nathan Caldwell, a worgen from the Quicksilver Company and a longtime friend of Mags, not First Mate Nate from the Whitewind Company, of course. He was doing a food stand! He had lots and lots of breakfast items on his menu as well, which of course is my favorite food! He even had a Hallow’s End-themed thing where you could build your own pancake stacks in different Hallow’s End shapes with Hallow’s End sprinkles! I was tempted to get that, but then I saw it… the PANCAKE MELT! Oooh, it made me hungry just reading it! It was essentially a stack of pancakes with maple bacon and fried eggs in between each one and maybe syrup all over it. What a flavor combination! I loved it! I also had hot cocoa to drink, since it was a little chilly out, plus I had to take off my pumpkin head to eat it, so yeah, hot cocoa was great! The hot cocoa on the menu was all loaded up with lots and lots of alcohol, so I got the alcohol-free version for half the price! It was such a tasty dinner!

But the best part of all was seeing so many FRIENDS there! I ate dinner with Mairy and Maya, and got to see an old friend, Elinore, for the first time in a long time! Then of course Mags, Nate, our new friends Mat and Gnoll, from Mags’ company, and a brand-new friend I got to meet that was running the candy stall with Mags, a gnome in her company, Popille Coldcrank! He was dressed like a kobold, and even had a candle balanced on his head! How adorable and funny is that?! I had such a great time with my friends there!

There was one huge bombshell dropped while hanging out with my friends, though… Maya and her friend from the Voyagers that she brings for Deathrolls, Xamaran the Ren’dorei, are now apparently dating my bestie Nah in some kinda love triangle?! I’m happy for my bestie, because she’s been saying she’s ugly and unlovable for years and hasn’t dated anyone, but I’m also concerned, because Maya was with Cari for like a year, and was going to get married, then I find out that she’d only left Cari for reasons best known to herself and gotten with my bestie – and a THIRD – a month later! But, it’s none of my business, not really, and they’re all three adults and can make their own decisions. I just hope that everyone is happy and everything works out okay! Goodness gracious…

Elinore and Maya had to go eventually, but I got to hang out with Mairy all the way to the end of the market! We sat on the ledge overlooking the harbor (the market was being held up there) and talking and eating our dinners (she had just a regular stack of pancakes and some water) and watching the goings on at Mags’ and Nate’s stalls in between talking to them too. It was a really relaxing night!

Eventually everyone went home, though I was still pretty wound up from all that sugar and wanting to do things. So, I went and bobbed for apples at the Lion’s Pride, the inn in Goldshire.. and all of a sudden, the HEADLESS HORSEMAN attacked! OH GOSH!

I ran outside, still in my pumpkin costume, and saw tons of people out there throwing water on fires that the Headless Horseman was lighting from his ghostly flying horse! I ran (falling down twice along the way…) quickly to the giant tub of water over by the orphan matron and her orphans she was caring for and taking Trick-or-Treating and got some water after assuring the children that everything would be okay. I got water and started flingin’! Eventually all the fires near me were out, so I was chucking buckets of water to people standing on the roof to take care of the rest. It was the most accurate throwing of things I’d done in a long time! Bucket after bucket I threw, and, more and more, the fires were going out faster than the Headless Horseman could light more! It took a lot of hard work, but we succeeded in putting the fires out! WOOHOO!

But that didn’t deter the Headless Horseman! He came down to the ground in the middle of Goldshire and started FIGHTING! Boy, was THAT a mistake! He got ganged up on hard and didn’t last very long at all! He was talking in rhyme like he does every year, and said that in order to stop him, it was his HEAD we must kill!

That meant going up to the Scarlet Monastery Graveyard and putting an end to the head once and for all! …Or at least, until the next time he rises. We could at least keep him under wraps until Hallow’s End was over!

So, I went up to the Monastery with four adventurers that hand banded together to do the deed. We didn’t really talk and get to know each other, so I don’t know their names. All I know is, between my fel minions and the steel, might, and magic of the other four, the Headless Horseman’s HEAD didn’t stand a chance either! He did summon lots and lots of little pumpkin-head guys to come at us, but those were quickly mowed down too! Then, we killed the HEAD! With the Headless Horseman down, we all dove in and searched for loot. I got some Tricky Treats! Imagine looting CANDY off a HEADLESS HORSEMAN! HA! Not to mention a magic wand that turns people into a ghost! WEIRD!

Yet victory was had, so the primary day of Hallow’s End was filled with fun and capped off with spooky adventure! What a great holiday Hallow’s End is! I love it!

Then Tuesday was DEATHROLLS! It wasn’t a long game, as people had to leave a couple hours after it started, but it was fun while it lasted! Nah didn’t get to come, as she was recovering from some kinda something that had evidently happened during her trip to Uldaman in the Badlands. I haven’t had the chance to meet with her yet and see what that was, but apparently it really wore her out! But the game was still fun, and with good friends nonetheless! It was me, Grimmie, Maya, Xam, and Anna from the Quicksilver Company, and we got to play at Angler’s Wharf! We were going to play at our usual spot, the lowest deck of the wharf that sits right on top of the water where the Wave Dancer and Other Nat’s boat are tied off, but people weren’t wanting to get trampled by the pandaren that was fishing on the deck, so Maya had the idea to move us to the sandbar nearest that. I spread out my picnic blanket on the sand for us, and off we went!

I was wearing my pumpkin costume again, and Maya had come as an owl, complete with a white owl head, but that was all the costumes. Anyway, the first round ended up being Anna being Truthed by Mairy, and she went and asked what sort of prank would be good to do involving my pumpkin head! Oh gosh! Immediately everyone thought of Nah, what with the prank part, so Maya was talking about putting a stink bomb inside my pumpkin head – which, RUDE! – but Anna said she could see Nah exploding it when someone walked by and covering them in pumpkin goop! GOSH! My HEAD was in there! Then there were super spicy Truths involving the… amorous nature of Maya’s and Xam’s relationship with my bestie. I learned things I did NOT want to know! Goodness GRACIOUS! Then the next round, when the Deathrolls got down to rolling out of just two, everyone kept rolling two, one after the other, which usually prompts us to all yell, “TWOS!” But this time, when I yelled it, Mairy looked at Maya and Xam and was like, “Don’t go yellin’ TWOS at ‘em!” Oh, GOSH! Then there was Anna – a priestess of the Light, no less, and in training to be a paladin! – asking Truths about watching the three of them do… things… this game was getting out of hand! Everyone was blushing and stammering and Truths were getting worse and worse, and then Anna was like, “Wow, only Truths and no Dares so far, and already we are in shambles!” and Maya was like, “Yeah, absolutely demolished and only a half an hour in!” Too true! The game did, thankfully, eventually settle down, and then there were Dares too! The first one came from Xam to me, who Dared me to scream out the first word that came to my mind, and for some reason, it was, “MAGGOTS!” I dunno where that came from – I was all discombobulated from the Truths! Then Anna kicked off a round by rolling a one out of one hundred, and she was like, “That is the third time I have done that, out of less than ten total times playing.” HA! Rolling a one out of one hundred to kick off a round means you have to get Truthed or Dared that round, with the winner of the Truth or Dare rolls picking Truth or Dare FOR you, AND you have to join in on whatever happens in the next round as well! To make matters worse, Maya and Mairy both rolled twenties on their Truth or Dare rolls, so they BOTH got to choose Truth or Dare FOR her! She was SO doomed! Plus, losing free will because of rolling a one out of one hundred AND losing it because someone rolled a twenty out of twenty on the Truth or Dare rolls was totally unprecedented, not to mention with TWO people rolling a twenty out of twenty at once in that situation! Poor Anna was like, “These are not the records I want to be setting!” HA! Maya Dared her to catch one of the crabs on the sandbar and keep it in her lap for a round, and she looked so freaked out, holding it by the rear end in her lap while it crawled around in her lap! Then Mairy’s Dare was to poke it in the butt! Oh gosh! She almost got pinched doing that! Next round, Xam got to Dare her, and she Dared her to give the crab something she had on her person. Anna gave the crab a prayer card… which it promptly started EATING! HA! Then later, after the round was over, she freed the crab… then had to stand up and brush CRAB POOP off of herself! Oh gosh EW! Then I had a Truth for Xam, and I asked her, if she were single, and someone she definitely was NOT attracted to asked her out on a date, which of the following would she be most likely to give as an excuse? A: She can’t, because she pees herself frequently, B: She can’t, she has to go floss her crab, C: She can’t, she’s already dating a kodo, or D: She is King Anduin’s secret concubine, and she will see this person HANG for this treason! Without hesitation, Xam chose peeing herself frequently. HA! EW! Then Mairy got to Dare Xam and I both at once, because I rolled a one during the Truth or Dare rolls after Xam lost the Deathrolls round, and she Dared us to do handstands! She KNOWS I’m far too much of a klutz for handstands! But I had Grimmie there sitting next to me, so I decided to use him to balance myself and lean on. I thought I had a great idea, but it didn’t work! Once I went up on my hands and got my feet in the air, they kept on arching forward and I couldn’t stop them, and CRASH! I landed right on Grimmie, draped down his front and back at once. Grim was like, “Oh, the possibilities this brings up!” which embarrassed me SO MUCH! Then he shrugged me off, and CRASH! Down on the picnic blanket! At least I didn’t break my pumpkin head! Goodness gracious… Xam’s didn’t go much better. She didn’t do a slow-motion flip like I did, though… she just couldn’t hold herself up, and faceplanted right in the sand! OOF! Grim got crabs and saltwater dumped on his head from a bucket by Maya on a Dare from Mairy and then said that no one better go around telling people that Maya gave him crabs, because that would be taken the wrong way. EW! This game night! Then Maya, who had gone crab-hunting in worgen form on all fours to make it faster and had gotten all wet in the process, was like, “AAAAA I can’t stop myself any longer!” and everyone got up and RAN for it, because we all knew what was coming… the WET DOG SHAKE! Saltwater shower all over, even on my picnic blanket! GOSH! Then there was a Dare from Mairy where she got to Dare Maya and I both because rolls, and she Dared us to flick each other in the forehead, and the first one to flinch would get tossed into Turtle Bay! Oh geez! To everyone’s surprise, especially my own, the tough worgen druid Maya flinched first, even as tiny and dainty and pale as my helpless little fist is! So, we all grabbed her and yoinked her up, and everyone helped throw her into the water! She went SO FAR! And was flailing around like a rag doll besides! Then, SPLASH! HA! There were many more spicy Truths and funny Dares, even in a game that short, and we all had lots and lots of fun! It was a really great night! I LOVE Deathrolls!

Then, that night, after Deathrolls, Celeste, Penny, and I went back to Un’goro Crater to make a quick camp at the blind in the tree Celeste had built last week in the middle of the crater… it was time to get that giant devilsaur back! It was time to PRANK BIG GRUMPYPANTS!

We didn’t end up seeing him Thursday after I got done writing in my diary post, so this time, we went back with a plan! After an early breakfast of bacon, fried eggs, and coffee, we set out to the jungle floor in our V.I.N.E. suits, fanning out to find bait. The goal was to hunt one of the pterodactyls in the jungle and dangle the carcass from a tree branch near our hunting blind, where Celeste hoped the devilsaur would come and find it and reach way, way up to sniff and bite it, exposing its soft underbelly and neck for a tranquilizer shot from Celeste’s hunting rifle!

First, Celeste thought we should walk along the base of the trees, listening for the screech of the flying lizards overhead. They have large wingspans, so they would likely be perched where there was enough room to fly off, in plain view of the ground. Everyone was to spread out and use their communicators to signal if they spotted one.

She checked her rifle and signaled that she would be headed in a circular pattern to the west, towards the edge of the forest. I nodded, circling to the right. Penny indicated she'd go straight ahead.

I moved right, making my way cautiously forward in my VINE suit. I keyed her communicator.

”Nat here," I said, though of course they already knew it was me from the sound of my very familiar voice. "I see no sign of the pterodactyls yet. Anyone else see anything? Anyone know what to look for as sign of their passing, besides just the flying lizard itself?"

”They'll likely leave spoor at the base of the trees. Look for bits of bones maybe or small broken twigs dropped from their passing. Compare the base of trees against others. You'll see the disturbances. They live in trees and probably don't have the instinct to be careful not to litter the ground below,'' came Celeste's quiet response through the communicator. ''You might hear them screech or something too, if there are several in the same tree.”

"I'm heading further West. No sign of any flying critters so far. If you guys spot something else that's not too big, it'll work too. We just need a fresh kill.”

"Got it," I acknowledged.

"I got it too!" squeaked Penny in her tiny gnomish voice.

I made my way through the undergrowth, constantly getting snagged on it with my VINE suit, which was just fine; collecting more foliage onto it was only going to conceal me more. I moved onward, spotting signs here and there. A broken twig, still green from the passing of a smaller animal. A giant paw print from a dimetrodon. A giant branch, broken off by something from above, though the breakpoint of the branch was so dark that I was sure that whatever flying creature, if any, had broken it, it was long since gone. Undaunted, I pressed on, determined not to let the heat, the constant snagging, the insects, or the worry about being on the ground with devilsaurs on the loose get to me.

''I made it out of the woods,” I heard Celeste report over the comms. “No sign of any flying creatures. I'm going to steer back towards camp but a bit more to the south. Maybe I'll be able to track the devilsaur and find it asleep. Doubtful though...''

Celeste said later she’d been looking through her scope at some larger lizards near the sides of the crater when she’d said this, checking them out. Too big to carry, but if they had to, maybe just a shank would do… assuming the devilsaur didn't just fetch the rest of the carcass.

''Penny, how's it going on your end?” I heard Celeste ask next. “I know there were a few of those pterosaurs near you last week, though Grumpypants mostly chased them off. Some might have remained in the higher those trees there. Check those out rather than smaller trees.''

"Got it!" I heard Penny reply in her little mechagnome voice. "Proceeding toward larger arboreals at this time. Negative visual at this time."

I pressed on as well after acknowledging Celeste. I, too, looked up into larger trees, though she wasn't seeing anything either.

I found herself facing some particularly thick undergrowth eventually, though there was room to crawl under it. I did so, getting down onto my belly and crawling, finding myself pushing through twigs, clambering over roots, and knocking spiderwebs out of the way as I went along.

"Uhhh... I have located our scaly-hide fowls, friends," Penny squeaked over the comms. "Rather sooner than I anticipated, even. But not to worry... I believe I have inadvertently attracted them to some rather appetizing bait! You'd better get here quick! I'm southwest of the tar pits a bit; you'll observe large arboreals at my location upon your arrival. You'd better hurry... I doubt this bait will last long before they devour it and take to the skies again!"

''I'm on my way!'' Celeste said. She told us later that, at that point, she was shouldering her rifle's strap and taking off at a run towards the tar pits. The VINE suit seemed to snag on everything and slowed her down too much, so she decided to abandon it in favor of more speed, tossing it into the bushes. It wouldn't be hard to make another later. Coming close to Penny's location, she checked her rifle, flicking off the safety and slowed down, crouching as she moved forward.

''Penny, I'm not far from you...'' She said into the comms.

"I'm coming too!" I assured my friend. "Though I'm stuck crawling through some undergrowth... Still, I'll get there as fast as I can!"

"Glad to hear it!" Penny squeaked. "Because the bait... is ME!"

At that point, a scuffle was heard over the comms!

"Back! BACK! Back I say, you winged barbarian! BACK!”

More scuffling could be heard over the comms, followed by a few mechanical whirrs and clicks, and then, suddenly, a terrible SCREECH!

"HA!" Penny crowed over the comms. "Eat Phillips-head, you leathery-winged cretin!"

A frantic flapping was heard, great leathering wings beating the ground, though more distant than it had been.

Celeste abandoned all notions of sneaking up on her prey at that point and ran towards the sound of the flapping wings, rifle raised and ready to fire.

The scene Celeste arrived upon was Penny, back pressed to the trunk of an enormous tree, vine suit shredded in the front, though she wasn't bleeding. Spoor and bones are in evidence, though it's plain Penny had stumbled into the view of the nest out of sheer bad luck, having been crawling through underbrush before reaching the tree, and emerging likely just as a flying predator happened to be looking down. Front her mechanical right hand, out of the palm, extended a bloodied Phillips-head screwdriver. Oh gosh! The pterodactyl, meanwhile, had a tiny puncture wound in its underbelly, blood flowing and flying everywhere from the creature's frantic flapping. Dust and debris were being kicked up by wind and wing.

After a moment to assess the scene, I stumbled out of the far end of the clearing, making the same assessment. I looked across the clearing to Celeste, saw that I was directly on the other side of the creature from Celeste and her rifle, and moved to my left, getting out of the line of fire and circling around quickly to Penny.

''Penny, on my mark drop, to the ground and stay low,'' Celeste said in the comms. She raised her rifle and aimed at the creature’s torso. It was the easiest part to hit with all its flapping and moving. A proper shot to any vital organs would be enough, she said later. The flying lizards looked fearsome, but weren't really built to fight things, just snatch smaller prey from the ground. ''NOW!'' Celeste shouted, and fired a heartbeat later.

Penny dived for the deck with a squeak, tiny arms going up over her dirty-blonde head. I ducked as well, instinctively, though she was not remotely near the line of fire.

The experience and training from being a hunter and being in the military sent Celeste's shot true! Passing through the heart, the bullet exited the far side of the creature, and it instantly fell and was still, mercifully feeling no more pain.

I hurried over to Penny, who assured me she was alright. The shredded front of the VINE suit was simply from her struggles in the undergrowth, the noise of which, she said, must have alerted the flying creature in the air, which she had no idea was there. Assured that Penny was okay, I turned to look at the creature, which was now devilsaur bait!

“Great work Penny!” Celeste said as she jogged to the pterodactyl, making sure it was well and truly dead. She placed her rifle on the ground and looked Penny over. “Though the goal was to find bait, not turn you into bait! But, now that we have what we were looking for, it’s time to set our trap!”

She outlined the next part of the plan by drawing in the dirt. We would suspend the carcass from the highest branch near the blind, hopefully forcing the devilsaur to raise its head to sniff or bite it, exposing its less armored neck. Had there been time to make more poison, she would have laced the carcass with it. The carcass would have to smell as much as possible. While she had initially planned to gut it before hanging it, she decided to do something a little more... gruesome. She would hang the dactyl from the tree and open its belly, leaving the guts to hang out. Oh gosh EW! At least it was sure to work! But first, the carcass had to be brought close to the blind.

I paled at Celeste's plan to gut the carcass and dangle its entrails, but, after what I'd been through in the Ghostlands recently, this seemed less macabre.

I helped Celeste and Penny drag the carcass "home," then rigged up a pulley in the blind to help get it high into the air. Looking around at the branches, I found one almost level with the ground extending out from under the blind, and wide enough for two or three people to walk along its length comfortably. Pointing it out to Celeste, I asked if that would suit their purposes.

Celeste peered up at the branch and nodded. ''Yeah that'll do. Let me get my spear so I can finish working on this carcass. The blood will undoubtedly draw in other critters and possibly those carnivorous plants. You and Penny should stay in the blind.''

I nodded, doffing my VINE suit for the nonce. I sat in my camp chair, sipping at a water skin while Celeste dragged off the carcass. I knew better than to try and help; a total klutz like ,e would likely send both of us falling to the rain forest floor! So, I sat and waited, hoping the devilsaur is hungry and will come soon.

With the bait hanging rather disgustingly from a nearby tree, Celeste finally joined us in the blind. She fashioned another crude VINE suit for herself to replace the one she lost. That done, she lay down on the platform of the blind, belly down, and rested her rifle at the ready, facing the carcass.

''Now... we wait,'' she whispered, chambering the poison-filled projectile she modified for this very purpose.

I got my VINE suit back on and lay down next to Celeste, peering forward through the jungle. Penny lay down on Celeste's other side, a sniper spotter's scope, taken from the Mechagon junkyard and repaired, in her hands, zooming in and out as she peered through the jungle, whispering findings of different critters, plant and animal alike, scurrying around through the forest on business of their own.

The waiting period may have taken days or seconds... I wasn't sure in that particular moment. All I knew is, the scariest part of the whole adventure was to come next!

''The poison will probably take a bit of time to work,” Celeste mused, checking again that the adjustments on her scope were tightened. “The devilsaur might get attracted to the sound of my shot and remember it as a source of pain. Our VINE suits should give us visual cover, and the plants I scattered around will mask our scent. Stay quiet, and we'll be fine, even if it gets really close.”

"Oh gosh, okay...” I whispered back. “I trust you, and your marksmanship, and your concealment. I'm ready."

The next hour passed without any sign of the devilsaur. Celeste stayed immobile, hardly even breathing.

Then, out of nowhere, a crash, the sound of a breaking branch, and a loud snuffling could be heard! Penny was the first to see the terrible devilsaur as it moved closer between the trees. Alerted to its location by Penny, Celeste swung her rifle in the right direction and adjusted the focus on her scope.

''Mister Grumpypants has arrived, girls,” she said as she focused in. “Lets see if it'll take the bait...''

The devilsaur moved cautiously closer. It was clearly smarter than just a simple beast. It stopped about fifty feet away from the carcass and seemed to scan the area with one large yellow eye. When its gaze fell on the blind it seemed to focus on the three women. They all held their breath for what felt like an eternity. Finally, the devilsaur crept closer until it raised its head to sniff at the carcass.

BANG!

Celeste's shot rang out, loud in the silence. The devilsaur roared, Celeste’s shot having found its mark on its large neck. It started thrashing its head from side to side and charged in the direction of the shot! It stopped right next to the blind, maw opened and giant teeth looming in front of us! It sniffed the air and breathed putrid air in their direction. It smelled SO BAD! Celeste reached to each side and placed a hand on the Penny and my arms, holding us still.

I shook like a leaf as I stared into that maw of violent death. I felt sure the beast was going to chomp the blind to bits and gobble us all up! I was just glad Dordy and Nosebleed were back at home. Surely, their friends at Anglers Wharf would take care of them for us...

SCREEEEEEECH!

FWOOSH!

Onyx swooped down overhead, buffeting the great dinosaur's head with his wings and raking it with his claws as it flew by in a flash! He was gone again before the devilsaur could turn his head, and now he was distracted once more!

Though only for a moment...

The devilsaur turned away from the now-out-of-reach netherdrake, staring into the blind again. I dared to hope again... had Onyx just bought us a little more time for the drugs to kick in...? I held stock-still, not wanting to be seen moving and attract even more study into the blind...

The devilsaur snorted and sniffed again at the blind, then turned and started wandering off. It didn't pay any attention to the carcass anymore, and was clearly moving more slowly. A hundred feet or so more and it stopped, teetered from side to side, and then crashed to the ground on its belly, legs stretched out behind it. It lifted its great head once in a vain attempt to get back up but it was no use. The poison had taken hold, and it drifted off to sleep!

''Got it!” Celeste cheered as she got up to hug Penny and I, overjoyed. “We'll have to get a nice present for Onyx when we're done here!''

''Time for our revenge!” she said next. “First we'll hobble it. Tie its mouth closed with some rope, as well as its rear legs together. I think that poison will last a while, but better safe than sorry.''

"Right!" I said. Descending the tree to the ground with the MUTT, I quickly cut up some ironvines and brought them to Celeste, dumping them on the ground. Blinking down out of the MUTT, I helped Celeste hobble and basically muzzle the devilsaur. One more trip with the MUTT later, and I was back with all the paints!

"Well," I asked, looking giddy now. "We ready?"

''We sure are! I think the Dordy doodle you said you wanted to do will be perfect. I'll leave the flank to you for that. I think I'll draw that silly makeup on its head, a pattern of rainbow colors on its tail too. Penny, want to chip in? There's plenty space to use!''

I gleefully stepped up, going for the purple paint and going to the devilsaur's spine, painting his name on BOTH sides.

BIG GRUMPYPANTS!

"Wouldn't want someone to be on the wrong side and miss seeing his name!" I explained with a giggle.

Next, I went for the yellow and red paints, pouring a little of both to mix orange. I used the orange to paint Dordy on the devilsaur's left flank, where Celeste had indicated, and then used the green to paint a giant devilsaur. Now, Dordy was chasing Big Grumpypants, while Big Grumpypants was clearly fleeing in terror!

"HA!"

Further up the side, just before the side curled to the underbelly, I painted a green devilsaur wearing a purple tutu doing ballet with tiny, short arms. Giggling maniacally by this point, I goes for my finishing touch... an adorable purple bunny with a ridiculously gigantic hairbow holding red, green, purple, and yellow balloons! I was just WHEEZING at that point, and, my work done, I sat and laughed until I cries, laughing even harder to see Celeste's rainbow tail and absurdly hilarious makeup on the previously-scary devilsaur’s face!

I laughed herself hoarse at Penny's own touches... a green devilsaur wearing yellow overalls and wielding a yellow wrench that's clearly bigger than its tiny arms, an adorable red kitten gamboling around with a ball of green yarn and wearing a blue (she'd mixed the yellow and green!) hairbow that dwarfed its head, and yellow nail polish for all its claws on its hands and feet! HA!

Celeste joined Nat after finishing her revenge coloring and draped an arm around her shoulders ''Well. Revenge properly done. That one will be remembered for a while. And y'know, I have just the thing. Go ahead and call Onyx down. He should be in this too.''

Celeste positioned Onyx between us and the devilsaur, then Penny and I together close to him. Setting her camera on a low branch, she put the timer on it and raced to join Penny, Onyx, and I. It was gonna be a S.E.L.F.I.E. picture with us and the prank-painted Big Grumpypants!

''Ok, silly faces!'' she shouted, pulling out her tongue and puffing out her cheeks. HA! Good one!

Onyx had swooped in when waved down from the sky, lying down and curling his tail around one side of the three of us, his long neck around the other. Dragons being intelligent creatures, he decided to get in on the silly faces himself. He opened his mouth and extended his tongue, twisting it into a spiral and squinting his eyes! HA!

Penny, meanwhile, had opened her mouth and pulled her cheeks open wide as she could pull them with her pinky and ring fingers on either hand, and then used both forefingers to push the tip of her nose straight up! Too funny!

I cackled once more to see the funny faces of my three friends, and pulled a face of my own... crossing my eyes, I blew a raspberry at the camera while pulling my ears out through my hair! I felt so silly! It was so much fun to cap off the prank painting with silly faces in a S.E.L.F.I.E. in front of Big Grumpypants!

The camera clicked and buzzed. A priceless S.E.L.F.I.E. to prove to the world who the artists were that had painted a devilsaur! Travelers to Un'goro will likely wonder at the strange creature for months! HA! Well, until the paint wears off, anyway!

"MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!" I cheered, cackling with glee and releasing my silly face. "And with photographic proof, even! What a great couple of ideas, Celeste! This one will, as you said, be remembered for EONS! Gosh, this was so much fun!"

Penny cackled with glee as well. She hadn't been there to experience the need for revenge before, but she wanted it badly enough herself, since the dinosaur had pestered her friends so much! She cheered and clapped, and even Onyx looked pleased at how things had turned out!

''Come on, girls,” Celeste said, hugging her friends and giving Onyx a loving pat on a leg. “Let's untie this guy and head home. Tomorrow, I'm taking you both fishing in Turtle Bay!”

I returned the hug, hugging the rest of my friends as well, including giving Onyx a hug around the base of his neck. Blinking back up into the MUTT, I got it cranked, as well as the Flying Nosebleed, and had Onyx ready to go at a moment's notice – if, on the minor chance Big Grumpypants woke up as they were untying him, I wanted us all to be able to instantly ZOOM!

Next, she helped untie Big Grumpypants, and then, in a moment of rare daring, she retrieves Celeste's S.E.L.F.I.E. camera, waltzes right up to Big Grumpypants’ face, and posed, giving him a kiss right on the nose for the camera! Cackling and fleeing like mad, I handed Celeste her camera and climbs up onto Onyx, sitting sidesaddle as usual. Penny waited to see which mode of transportation Celeste would select, clambering up into the other for herself. We were ready for the portal to the Shrine of the Seven Stars in Pandaria, and a quick flight home!

Celeste opens a portal and blinked into the MUTT, giving the other two a thumbs up to show she was ready. She waited until everyone was through before following us. The Un'goro adventure was finally complete! Nosebleed was healthy as ever, our revenge was as awesome as expected, and everyone was safe! A relaxing few days ahead, then it would be time to head to Grizzly Hills and maybe catch a few salmon! WOOHOO!

I flew Onyx through the portal after Penny headed through, waiting on the other side for Celeste. I was giddy with excitement and happiness, and to fly over Turtle Beach and see Nosebleed happily sunning himself and munching on the edge of the tree line's overgrowth, healthy as an ox, only made me that much happier! Next up... a very short workend, and then, a relaxing fishing trip to one of the coolest and most gorgeous places in the entire world, with the coolest and most gorgeous woman on the planet! I couldn’t wait!

Then, later that night, it was time for the Whitewind Company’s weekly adventure! We’re ready to decide on which of the last two pieces of Princess Ariel Sunstrider’s armor we want to go after next, the right-hand gauntlet held by the Night Elves in Feralas, or the unspecified piece located in Hearthglen in the Western Plaguelands (they really gotta rename the region since the plague is mostly gone there these days)!

I decided that, with my bestie Nah on vacation and Grim not able to attend due to life stuff, we’d hold off on starting the next one, though I still gotta post the next poll to see where people wanna go next!

In the meantime, just for something to do, I decided to ask those who wanted to go where they might want to adventure. Mairy and Maya spoke up, choosing the Arathi Highlands! We flew up, visiting Refuge Pointe to see if there were any jobs to be had. It turned out there were several, including an excursion into Stormgarde to investigate Syndicate gang activity, a merchant wanting an escort across the dangerous region, and a bounty on Witherbark trolls that had been abducting and doing unspeakable things to people! Oh gosh! The group chose the Witherbark trolls, so the field marshal there told us the bounty was one hundred gold per adventurer if ten pairs of Witherbark tusks could be collected and brought back, and also let us know that the mages were buying up troll medicine man pouches for studying at five gold apiece. With visions of gold in our head, we flew to the southwest corner of the region, where they live in the foothills of the surrounding mountains, with huts arrayed around a small lake, and a cave entrance their medicine men like to do weird voodoo stuffs in.

It was me, Maya, Mairy, and Anna, along to heal us from the Quicksilver Company again. We approached sneakily from the northwest, maintaining stealth at Maya’s advice. It was a good plan, too – we didn’t want the entire tribe coming down on us at once!

The first hut we came to was investigated by Mairy and Maya, with Maya going into stealth in her druidic cat form, and Mairy sneaking along, beseeching the spirits of the earth to muffle her footsteps. Much to my embarrassment, they reported that there was a male and female troll in there, doing… well, things I’d frankly rather not write! Too embarrassing! They said they were completely ignorant of the outside world in that moment, and were prime targets for attack. Gosh! I couldn’t attack someone doing that, so I stayed outside and waited, and Anna elected to do the same.

Next thing I know, Mairy and Maya are coming out with bloody sword and claws, and two pairs of Witherbark tusks! I hadn’t heard them do a thing… good stealth!

After that, we moved south around the lake, finding another hut uphill. There were two there that Maya could see, standing next to a bonfire, and Maya was all for jumping them then and there. But then Mairy stopped them, pointing uphill out of our sight. Mairy always goes barefoot, and the earth speaks to her the way it speaks to shamans. She said there was another troll up there, a medicine man, and he could see the hut… and, what’s worse, there was another hut somewhere around the next couple of foothills that it also had a line of sight to! If we attacked these two trolls at the bonfire, it could easily alert the next hut, and we’d be outnumbered! Oh, NO!

Maya came up with a plan. Still in her cat form, she’d stealth once again, climbing the cliff’s foothills until she got behind the medicine man. Then she’d take him down quietly and return to us! We agreed that it was a good plan, and Maya headed off out of sight. A short while later, she returned… with another pair of Witherbark troll tusks, and even a medicine pouch! An extra five gold!

With that done, we moved in on the two trolls at the hut’s bonfire. A thrown sword by Mairy, a beam of burning Light from Anna’s shield, a few shadowbolts and felfire bolts from my imp and I, and a cat weighing like four hundred pounds were just too much. One troll fell in an instant, though he did get a few swipes of his daggers at Anna, and the other had a battle-crazed Wildhammer dwarf dangling from his back, arms around its neck and strangling it. He did get one good hit off, though, by turning around and backing up HARD into the nearest tree, crushing Mairy behind him and successfully dislodging her, though Anna had herself and Mairy healed in a quick flash of Light. But it was too late for the troll to enjoy is short-lived victory in dislodging Mairy before she could strangle him; steel, spells, and claws finished him off! The trolls had fallen even before they could even get a scream off to alert others!

It was a good thing Mairy had sensed that medicine man troll guy… the hut she’d reported being around the next couple hills had FOUR trolls at it! They were doing some kind of ritualistic troll dance around their bonfire, and seemed utterly oblivious of the silent chaos going on around their camp. There were too many, though, to hope to get rid of before at least one yelled an alarm!

The group was talking about an ambush, drawing one or two away from the fire. I knew the perfect little poohead for such a job… Wikpik, my foul-mouthed little imp!

I summoned him, and, after making him stop calling me sarcastic, ridiculously grandiose but evil titles, got him to go distract a troll or two. He went up to the edge of the little dirt spot that the hut and bonfire were on and started cackling madly up at the nearest two trolls, insulting them, their ritualistic dance, and their ancestors, and then offered to show them how to dance.. without wearing ANYthing! Gosh! What a little poohead!

The trolls, of course, broke off and gave chase, leading the nearest two trolls straight to us. It had worked! The far two trolls were too immersed in their ritualistic dancing to want to stop, leaving the other two to deal with this one little miscreant.

Their mistake!

Wikpik came capering gleefully back to our position, where we waited in the shadows on either side of the path. The same happened as had happened before, a short, quiet, muffled battle that was over as soon as it had begun. Leaving two trolls lying on the path, Wikpik went to lure the others over with more insults.

Wikpik hopped, skipped, and sprinted back to our position again, cackling like a mad fiend. Whatever he’d said to those trolls, it couldn’t have been very nice! The trolls stopped for a moment when they saw the bodies of their bonfire dance comrades, then drew their weapons. Too late! A heavy cat leaped from the shadows, pinning one down and snapping his neck. The other was overwhelmed by Anna, Mairy, and I, and the fight was one! That was now NINE pairs of Witherbark troll tusks, and a medicine man pouch to boot! We just needed one more pair of tusks!

The options we faced now were either to go around the next hill and into a cave entrance I spotted with a summoned Eye of Kilrogg, or else go left around the lakeside to a hut on the lakeshore I’d spotted with the Eye. No one wanted to get stuck deep in a cave probably filled with trolls, so they chose the lakeshore hut, and off we went!

We were able to see from a distance one troll fisherman with his line cast in the water, about halfway between us and the hut further down the shore, which had two trolls near its bonfire. Mairy noticed that this line was in the middle of an eagerly-biting school of fish, magically lured to his line somehow. Since we only needed one more pair of tusks, the group decided to just take out the fisherman and call it good. Maya strode forth, going into stealth once more.

Leaping from the shadows, Maya got her massive jaws around the trolls head, and we could tell even from where we were that she’d snapped his neck. She let him drop into the water with a splash.

Bad move, as it turns out!

What the group had failed to perceive was that the magic luring the school of fish to the fisherman’s line was being done by two troll medicine men at the lakeshore hut! Concentrating their magic on the school of fish as they were, they saw Maya attack the fisherman! Instantly, new spells were cast, and the smoke from their bonfire billowed and grew, becoming a huge, giant, grotesque red SKULL! Instantly, spooky troll drums sounded all over the hills, and troll shouts could be heard all around us! The drums rolled, TUM-tum-tum-tum, TUM-tum-tum-tum, TUM-tum-tum-tum, incessantly beating their foreboding beat as the hills seemed to come alive with sound all around us! The only two trolls we could see so far were still keeping their distance at the bonfire, maintaining the big red skull of smoke!

Everyone was for getting out of there then and there, especially as that was the tenth pair of tusks! Maya snapped them off and rushed back to us, and we rode hard for Refuge Pointe, hoping to get away fast enough that the troll hunting party clearly being mobilized wouldn’t catch us. With the head start and our mounts, we did!

We’d gotten away, and made it all the way to Refuge Pointe safely! There, we got paid one hundred gold apiece for the ten pairs of Witherbark tusks, and five gold apiece for the single medicine pouch we’d found! One hundred and five gold apiece! WOOHOO!

After that, everyone was ready to head home, another victorious mission in the bags for the Whitewind Company and friends!

Now, this morning, Celeste is prepping our fishing rods with some maintenance. She’s got them out on the workbench in the workshop, sitting beside me, totally in the zone. Today, as promised, she’s taking Penny and I FISHING in TURTLE BAY!

I’m very ready for that, so I am gonna wrap this up. Goodness gracious… Hallow’s End market and hanging out with friends, Hallow’s End adventuring to stop the Headless Horseman’s attacks, Deathrolls, pterodactyl hunting, giant dino pranking, troll dino hunting, and Turtle Bay fishing! Gosh, what a loaded week! I can’t wait to see what we get into next week! It’s sure to be lots of fun! YAY!

Nat smiled at that exciting though, tapping off the excess ink from her quill and returning it to its case. She capped off her inkwell, taking both of these upstairs and placing them in her desk drawer in her office, taking up a couple of empty coffee mugs in her other hand. Refilling the mugs, she left Celeste’s black and put a little liquid hazelnut creamer in hers and went back downstairs. She placed her mug in her spot and put Celeste’s in front of her, who was spooling up a brand-new fishing line on Nat’s rod and still totally in the zone, not noticing the coffee nor the kiss on top of her head as she worked. Nat smiled, knowing how content and peaceful Celeste always felt when she was zoned in on her work. She looked at her diary. The ink on the pages was now dry, so this went upstairs to her office as well, going into its home on its bookshelf.

Returning to the workshop downstairs, Nat happily watched Celeste work. Celeste was also happy to teach, and she came out of her zone to teach Nat all about fishing rod maintenance. Reels, guide eyes, fishing lines, cleaning of mineral and salt (if fishing off a coast) build-up, freeing the guides of nicks, and many other things were taught and learned, and, by the time Penny arrived for fishing, the rods and tackleboxes were already prepared, as were a lunchbox apiece for them.

The Wave Dancer revved up as Celeste got it out of the no-wake zone around Anglers Wharf, finding a good spot in the middle of the sunny, warm bay that “smelled good,” according to Celeste, and Nat enjoyed the rest of the day, just fishing with Celeste, Penny, and the ever-present, beloved Dordy, who barked. Barked and barked. Barked at the fish visible through the see-through bulletproof bottom of the boat, barked at the motor, barked at the rods bending double as fish were caught, barked at them being brought aboard. He looked quite pleased with himself at his barking, just as Celeste, Nat, and Penny looked quite pleased with their catch, which was shared with Anglers Wharf friends on a Turtle Beach dinner party that lasted until Nat’s early bedtime.

It was a great finish to a super-jam-packed week for Nat, and she was already looking forward to see what the next week would bring!

[Natasha Ebonlocke]

November the Tenth

The sun had yet to cut through the mid-morning fog still lying heavily on the redwood forest that ranged up the side of a mountain slope that would eventually lead up to the Storm Peaks in Northrend. Its rays’ inability to penetrate the fog did nothing for the morning chill in the air, and yet, it was not an unpleasant chill. The fog left visibility to about twenty feet, getting thicker the closer one got to the roaring mountain stream splashing down the mountainside. The smell of cold air, earth, pine, and cedar mingled with wood smoke and delicious smoked fish that brought to mind a comfortable, cozy homestead. Security, warmth, and good food, one could tell instinctively, could be had here, and that meant a home away from home!

Natasha Ebonlocke sat in a camping chair pulled up close to the bonfire with Dordy the molten corgi curled up underneath and dozing. She was wearing furs instead of a dress, and fur-lined hiking boots instead of her usual light shoes, though she’d decided to leave her gloves on the camping table beside her and had her hood down, wanting to experience the weather and environment she loved the most. In her bare, chilly right hand was her ravenfeather quill, and next to her gloves on the camping table was a thermos of hot coffee with liquid hazelnut creamer, her opened cherrywood quill case, and her opened inkwell of purple ink. The frigid morning breeze gently blew through camp from time to time, and, each time, she’d stop, smile, and hold her head up, allowing the chilly air to blow through her long black hair and sting her ears and nose in a not-unpleasant fashion. Sighing happily, she looked around the campsite.

Two tents, one much smaller than the other as it was made for a dwarf, stood behind and to either side of the campfire, with openings facing the scenic mountain stream, and to the warmth of the fire. The interiors were much the same, set up with a canvas camping bed apiece and mechagnomish power cells wired to thermal cells that filled the canvas tents with warmth that took the edge off the autumn Grizzly Hills chill and, combined with warm fur blankets on the beds themselves, made for enough warmth to sleep quite comfortably at night. A folding camping table stood in each, with folding camping chairs that alternated between being next to the tables, or else next to the warm fire outside. The stream was crossed with a few rows of fishing lines, with additional lines attached to the crossing lines and dangling in the water, pulled down to a slant by the stream’s current and baited with lures for the annual salmon run. Left of the fire when looking out from the tents was a handmade wicker smoker, a sort of triangular teepee made from sticks that held a pair of hand-made racks inside and surrounded and closed by sticks outside over the main frame. Fish on the racks inside were smoked slowly over a low, but warm fire that steadily gave off smoke through its top opening and was the source of the delicious smoked fish smell that mingled with the other intoxicating smells of the northern mountain wilderness.

A number of things looked out of place, however: the MUTT and the Flying Nosebleed, each parked outside the campsite, with the MUTT in MAD mode at night, whirring and clicking almost soundlessly as it scanned the area for intruders continuously. A wispy black netherdrake also came to land from time to time, Nat’s childhood friend Onyx coming down to rest from time to time after riding the mountain winds high above the camp and doing some hunting and fishing of his own. The last unusual thing about this camp was a large pen constructed of thin logs and large tree branches containing a thin grizzly bear cub with ribs showing, dozing next to a bowl of water and a pile of fish bones Nat would need to clean out.

The campsite was the same as previous visits, where the stream that ran down the slope to Amberpine Lodge curved south from its source further east, with a fork that also ran west to the Dragonspine River that marked the west boundary of the beloved Grizzly Hills. The west bank of the frigid mountain stream held a flat, open spot conducive to a campsite, and the stream itself was loaded with salmon!

The salmon was the original reason for coming here, though now there was elk! Celeste and her dwarven “uncle” Rugnar, the former wearing her fishing outfit and wide-brimmed fishing hat and keeping herself warm with her fire magic, the latter dressed in light (being used to the cold as a Bronzebeard dwarf) mountaineering gear, were both across the river somewhere in the fog, butchering the elk out of sight of the fog-covered camp, much to Nat’s relief. Nat was monitoring the drift lines set across the mountain stream for salmon, ready to bring them in when they were all full from the horde of salmon fighting their way upstream to their spawning grounds.

Heaving a happy sigh at her happy place, Nat glanced at the drift lines once more before taking a warming sip of her coffee and then dipping her quill for some ink and applying the tip to the next blank page of her diary, which lay open on her lap.

Dear diary,

Oh my gosh, it’s been such a super happy and relaxing week! My bestie Nah has returned from her mission to Uldaman and came to see me, we had a super fun game of Deathrolls at a new location, and, for the first time in a year, Celeste and I are camped in my favorite spot in all the world… our old campsite in GRIZZLY HILLS! And this time, Celeste’s uncle RUGNAR is with us! WOO!

We’ve got drift lines set up across the mountain stream like last year, though this year I actually caught the biggest fish! A monster of a salmon, even Dordy knew it; he was “helping” me fight the fish ashore by chomping down on the back of my boot and pulling! HA! The drift lines are catching the most fish by far, but there’s just no substitute for having a rod in your hands, a comfortable camping chair to sit in and relaxed with loved ones, and, from time to time, a thrilling fish to fight!

Rugnar likes our drift lines. Celeste said her father taught her how to set those up, and Rugnar lauded him as a very wise man! Sometimes the old dwarf falls asleep in his chair, his lure and bobber drifting to the shore. When he wakes from dozing, he’ll harrumph about having just had a fish hooked, but it got away, or else say he was just resting his eyes for a moment. One time, he went to reel in the drift lines when they were full, but the weight of the fish and the downhill current dragged him right into the creek! Oh gosh! He went about a good fifty yards downstream from the camp before we could get him out. Celeste got him dried and warmed with her fire magic in a trice, and I set him up with a fur blanket in a camping chair close to the fire and a steaming mug of hot cocoa. Heroically, he’d held onto the drift line the entire time, and saved the entire row of fish! Then he fell asleep again under his blanket in his chair by the fire the moment his hot cocoa was gone. Ha! I love uncle Rugnar! He’s so pleasant to have around, whether we’re camping, visiting him, or him visiting us!

It was then, however, that we first noticed something wrong. Celeste found a couple of chewed-up fish in the smoker, and said that one more was missing! She asked if I’d seen Dordy getting into the smoker, but I hadn’t. She set up the MUTT in MAD mode after that so we could be aware of intruders.

After that, Celeste announced that she wanted to hunt. We all love love love fish, but Celeste’s mention of elk steaks grilled over an open campfire in cold northern mountain forest air just sounded amazing! Celeste invited Rugnar to come and hunt with him, but Rugnar said he was too old for that sort of thing, and that he would rather just sit and hang out with his niece-in-law (awww!) and rest his old bones.

''That sounds good to me, uncle Rugnar,” Celeste said. “I won't be gone long. There are a few friends I want to check up on down the estuary first. I'll probably find an elk easily near the Lodge.''

By that, I knew Celeste meant that she wanted to creep up on the goblins to see what they were up to. Maybe her doubts about the pilfered salmon brought her suspicions there? I noticed Celeste taking out her VINE suit from the backpack strapped to the side of the Flying Nosebleed too!

''I shouldn't be gone very long,” she said. “I'll bring my flare gun. Once I get an elk, I'll need one of you to fly the FB over to me to carry the carcass back to camp.''

The idea of piloting the Flying Nosebleed seemed to perk Rugnar up a bit more. He nodded, grinning.

"Aye, flyin' tha' ol' souped-up version o' th' flyin' machine soonds like a grand time!" he said. "Af'er all th' stories I've had from ye lot on dodgin' infernal lizards an' pirate cannons an' who knoos wot else, I fancy a go."

I had to giggle at that, nodding agreement.

"Oh gosh, yeah, you gotta try it!"

I went along with the piloting conversation, not wanting to bring Rugnar's attention to the fact that Celeste is bringing out her sneaking gear, and might be connecting last year's dots with this year's, a plot that was highly likely, given a goblin's desire for being rid of that which negatively impacts profits.

Celeste joined us by the fire for a bit, but quickly finished her drink and set off, rifle in hand. She was quickly lost from sight amidst the growing darkness of the short days in Grizzly Hills and even more once she put her VINE suit on. Meanwhile Rugnar described to me how to properly cook elk over a campfire. I listened carefully, chatting happily with Rugnar about elk steaks, gleaning much wisdom from the much-experienced dwarf. Eventually, as the afternoon wore on, he got up from his chair and went to fetch some rope for the FB’s winch to haul the elk.

I, meanwhile, was sitting close to the fire with Dordy when I noticed the pup perk up. His ears turned forward and his head slightly tilted to the side as he stared at the fish smoker, clearly having heard or seen something. Turning my attention that way, I eyed it closely, waiting to see if some sort of critter would pop out... or a goblin!

At that moment, which was about an hour after Celeste left, a bright red flare shot out into the sky. Rugnar gave a shout of joy for Celeste's successful hunt and climbed into the Flying Nosebleed. My attention was drawn momentarily away from the smoker by the sight of the red flare, as I was cheering for Celeste as well. Dordy, however, suddenly jumped out of my lap and ran full-speed towards the smoker, barking!

Rugnar, his heavy flying goggles on, paid no heed to Dordy’s latest chase, waving to me and firing up the machine and taking off, eager to bring Celeste and her catch back. I gave a quick wave and smile to Rugnar, then hurried after Dordy to the smoker.

"What is it, boy?" she asked. "What's in there besides fish?"

I knelt behind Dordy, peering closely at the smoker, waiting to see if something was about to emerge, flushed out by the yip-yipping molten corgi...

I heard a sort of cry from inside the smoker. Dordy put his nose under the wicker door and pedaled his hind legs until he managed to squirm underneath the door and into the smoker. I heard the cry inside as well as Dordy's playful barks (he wasn't growling). Suddenly, I saw a brown... something run out of the back of the smoker! It had a flash of salmon showing – whatever it was making off with another fish! Oh gosh! Dordy barked again and chased after it, easily seen in the darkening woods from his fiery shine.

I gasped as the critter ran out with Dordy hot on its heels. I knew I'd never be able to keep up with them even if she wasn't so clumsy, so I quickly blinked up into the MUTT and began chasing the fireball dog through the dark forest!

"No Dordy no!" I called, though Dordy couldn't hear me over the MUTT's engine and his own barks. I could do no more than simply continue the chase and see where the critter ended up!

Dordy's glow was visible as it chased the intruder through the tall redwoods, allowing me to be able to keep him in sight. Then glow stopped suddenly, and Dordy continued barking. I ran the MUTT up near him in time to see him barking up a medium size tree at... a small, fuzzy grizzly cub! Awwww! The cub's stolen salmon lay on the ground near Dordy. The baby bear looked scared as it cried out as if hoping to call its mother or silence the too-friendly pup. I felt so bad for the poor little guy!

Not wanting Dordy to get eaten by Mama Bear, I Blinked out of the MUTT, scooped him up in a hurry, and Blinked with him back into the MUTT. I left the salmon there for the bear cub, then sat in the cockpit looking around, wondering where the adorable little bear cub's mother might be, or how else I might help the little guy and set his fears to rest.

The bear cub kept on crying out for a while. Normally if its mother had been nearby she wouldn't have strayed far from her cub and certainly would have come running if she heard it crying like that, scared as it was. After a good while, the baby bear finally settled down climbed down from the tree. It sniffed the salmon and starting eating it. I noticed then how thin the poor little guy was, its ribs showing. It kept an eye on the MUTT as it ate, clearly still frightened but too hungry to run off.

My eyes misted over to see how thin the poor little guy was. I wiped a tear or two and watched over it, intending to keep it safe while it ate, and also watching for a parent.

With none present at the camp for the length of time that it had apparently been helping itself to fish, none coming to answer its cries here at this tree, and with how thin it was, I began to wonder if the poor baby was orphaned. I pondered what to do with it if it was.

"Nat here," I keyed my gnomish communicator. "I found what was getting into the smoker! Dordy flushed it out and chased it up a tree a ways away from camp. It's a grizzly bear cub, and a bone-thin one at that! I think it's an orphan; it has no mother watching over it at camp or out here at this tree! I've got Dordy corralled in the cockpit of the MUTT -- I used it to chase Dordy as he chased the cub -- and I'm keeping watch over the bear so it can eat the fish it took in safety. What do you guys want to do with it?"

I thought then on how the story of a thin, helpless orphan would resonate with Celeste after how her own childhood – and, indeed, adulthood – had gone as I waited for an answer, wondering what Celeste might want to do for the cub.

''So that's where you went off to.'' Celeste's reply came over the comms. ''I think I know why that cub is alone. It won't survive on its own for long. Look on the right of the controls in the MUTT's cockpit. There should be a button with a doodle of sad bunny face. I rigged a net launcher in the MUTT's right arm. Penny was starting to see those large rabbit critters generally seen around the farmlands in Pandaria around the farm lately and wanted a way to safely relocate them before they started eating our crops. I haven't tested it yet, but it should work well enough to capture that cub. It’s the only solution we have right now. Once it’s caught, use the MUTT to bring it back, gently as you can. We'll keep it here in a large pen and keep it fed and watered. I'll tell you about what I found when you get back. We're working on the elk I managed to kill, but we're on the opposite bank of the river so none of the guts attract animals to our camp.''

"Got it!" I replied, wrinkling my nose at the mention of animal guts and planning to ask why the cub is alone when I got back to Celeste. Had the goblins been butchering massive amounts of grizzly bears? Or found a way to corral them in pens? Either way, they'd given no thought to the starving orphans the parents would leave behind, those rotten little pooheads! Feeling angry at the "little green boogers," as I called them while muttering to myself, I located the sad bunny button. Nodding at it, I got Dordy harnessed in so he wouldn't be able to bother the cub when I brought it up. Working the levers, I got the arm pointed at the cub. My mood softened to see the cub happily munching away at the fish, and I regretted the idea of interrupting its meal. But then again, I could bring that fish with me!

I got the arm aimed, and then pressed the button. BMMF–... the net shot true, ensnaring the bear cub, which immediately turned frightened and began to cry again. Crying just a little myself now, I Blinked down to it quickly, scooping it and its fish up. I Blinked with it and its fish back into the MUTT and brought it back as gingerly as I could, with the fish immediately placed inside the net with it. Distracted by its deep hunger, and noting that Dordy was unable to get to it, the cub returned to munching on the fish.

Moments later, I arrived at camp again, Blinking out first with Dordy, letting him know in no uncertain terms that he was not to chase the bear cub again, then Blinked back up and returned with the yet-again-crying bear cub. Soothing it with gentle words and pats and pets and cuddles, I gave it the last bit of its fish as Celeste brought it water from the stream. Rugnar had the inspired idea to go and get sticks to prop up the net with, giving it a temporary refuge of sorts to both keep the cub contained and keep Dordy at a bit of a distance so it could finish its meal in peace. That done, I looked up at Celeste.

"So erm... you mentioned knowing why the cub is alone?"

”Goblins,” Celeste said simply as she wiped her hands on a rag and shook her head. ''Goblins. They have some kind of device strapped to the heads of bears that’s making them fish salmon from the streams. I'm not sure how they are controlling them, or even if it’s that great a way to catch fish. Maybe they can just pretend that the bears are fishing without admitting it’s for them. There are several cubs in a pen in their encampment. I think this one managed to not get caught. I'd like to figure out a way to thwart those darn goblins again, but I'm afraid to hurt the bears or the cubs. We'll need to be careful and smart about this.''

I frowned at the news, a frown that became more pronounced the more Celeste told me about what the goblins seemed to be doing. Nodding agreement with Celeste's desire to thwart the goblins again, and at being careful, I responded.

"Gosh!" I exclaimed. "Those dirty goblins! If they're not rigging boat races or building undead-looking robots to scare off anglers, they're enslaving bears to fish for them! You're right; we do need to be careful and smart about how we do this. We'll need a plan. But for now, we need to settle in for the night, I think. Let's have some dinner and come up with a plan in the morning when we're fresh."

Celeste and Rugnar agreed, and the elk steaks were amazingly delicious! And, elk being so huge, there is tons more meat left! I am keeping it chilled currently with my frost magic, figuring that whatever we don’t eat now or take home to the Spire with us later can supplement the smoked fish – Pilgrim’s Bounty is the next holiday coming up, after all!

After that was bedtime, and then, after waking up this morning, Celeste and Rugnar went to go take care of the rest of the meat on the elk while I keep a watch on the drift lines. I dunno what kinda plan we’re gonna come up with to thwart the goblins today, but gosh, I hope it’s a good one, and one that will teach them a lesson they’ll never forget!

The rest of the week besides the adventure with the bear cub yesterday has just been lots and lots of relaxing after all our hard work during those weeks at Un’goro Crater, and gosh, has it been refreshing! Fishing, relaxing, camping, hanging out around the campfire to talk and laugh and reminisce, it’s been such a great week!

And that’s not all the fun… DEATHROLLS was this week as well! We got to play in a new location, too: Stephen’s Food Court in Hook Point in Boralus! Surrounded by stands and booths selling this and that, with a towering tree in full fall colors and all its leaves on the road and ground around us, strings of lights running all around above us, taking in the chilly air and occasional snow flurries, and having good times with friends really made it a great night!

It was me, my bestie Nah, returning from her adventures finally, our old buddy Grim, Maya, Xam, and Mairy! Right off the bat, the game was chaotic, with Maya Dared to sing a really sweet song about Xam that made her blush, but then having to deal with Nah being Dared to shift to her bear form and sit on Maya’s lap. Oof! Nah was gentle, but even then, you could see the strain on Maya. Ha! Then Nah just laid down on the ground in her bear form, looking pretty comfortable. She’s so big in her bear form that she can see the tabletop while laying down, and can reach a paw up to flick her dice around. Then Nah got to Dare me, and she Dared me to come sit with her, like, just leaning back against her. That spawned a whole series of Dares from Nah in which the entire table had been abandoned eventually, over the course of the night, with everyone being Dared to join the “Nah Pile,” as she called it. I gotta say, the lot of us bunched up against Nah’s bear fur was way warmer than sitting at that table, especially with the wind blowing the snow flurries around! Nah said that we were all caught in her “bear trap,” and I was like, “What if I gotta tinkle?” Xam suggested that I just pee my pants! OH GOSH EW! HA! Before everyone else eventually joined, though, when it was just me there, Mairy got to Dare Nah and I both because of how the rolls worked out, so she Dared me to be a knight and Nah my trusty steed, and I had to ride Bear Nah around all gallantly and stuff! Nah was jumping over the table with me on her back and running laps all around it and stuff. It was really fun! Then there was a Dare from Mairy to Xam to get up on the table and scream to the world how much she likes fish popsicles. EW! So, Xam got up on the table, and she was like, “I REALLY DO NOT LIKE FISH POPSICLES!” I pointed out that that was the opposite of the Dare, but then Xam, climbing down from the tables, said that the Dare was to indicate how much she liked them, and she’d done so. Loopholes! HA! Then Grim got TWO people rolling twenties on him after he lost a round, and, instead of a roll-off for a tiebreaker, the rule is that BOTH people that roll a twenty get to exercise the rule about how someone that rolls a twenty in a Truth or Dare roll gets to choose Truth or Dare FOR you! HA! Grim was DOOMED! It was Xam and Nah, and Xam Dared Grim to get up on the table and dance while taking his shirt off, which Grim happily obliged to do, taking his time getting the shirt off, which of course made me blush and avert my eyes. Then Nah’s Dare was for him to join the Nah Pile, the latest to get down on the ground and use her as a couch, or, as Grim had called it earlier, a “Nah bed.” HA! Then Maya and I both rolled ones, so we got Dared to act like each other by Xam. Of course Maya really hammed it up, blushing and saying “gosh” a whole bunch, so I decided to ham it up too, ticking her head in her hair and making bug sounds like the insect swarms she controls as a druid, along with trying to make myself say lots and lots of lewd things, which only made everyone laugh at me. Oh gosh! Hehe… Mairy ended up being the final one to join the Nah Pile, and boy, did she join it in dramatic fashion! She got up onto the table, leapt into the air, and BELLY-FLOPPED onto my bestie! Oh gosh! I was like, “Welcome to the Nah Pile, Mairy!” and she was like, “Given th’ choice, I’d rather be on th’ Grim Pile.” Goodness gracious! Then Xam suddenly got up, taking up a handful of mud. Everyone was instantly alarmed! Xam went around the Nah Pile to Grim’s end, down by Nah’s hindquarters, and knelt in front of him, smearing the mud all over his bare nipples and saying lewd things to him in a seductive, sultry voice. Oh gosh! Then, her voice deepened like a ton, and she was like, “Grim. Your time has come.” Grim was blinking at his muddy nipples and looking up at Xam and back down again in confusion, going, “What the h***...?” and everyone else was looking really confused too, and then Xam was like, “Dare complete,” and returned to her spot. Grim looked at me and was like, “This is your doing.” And he was right! That was ME! WHISPER DARE! I’d whispered it to her earlier, having her wait three rounds and do it when everyone least expects it, without warning and without context. HA! GOT ‘EM! Then Maya got Dared by Mairy to go bear form as well. Double Bear Pile! That gave everyone a little more room to get comfy, too! Then Xam Dared Mairy to get on the Voyager company comms and tell them all that she was farting and needed help doing it. What made it funnier is that the folks on the channel mostly seemed to be plastered already, and one guy was like, “…You came on the comms to say that you’re farting?” And others were getting on telling her to never eat anything in Boralus that didn’t come from a shop, and just a general uproar of confused laughter. HA! Good one! Then Nah got both Xam and Maya, and she Dared Xam to help her tickle Maya, still in her bear form. That was the squirmiest bear I’ve ever seen, not to mention the bear-voice cackling! HA! Grim followed that up by getting Nah to do the bear dance in her bear form. That was silly, and roundly entertaining! Grim got Nah again in the very next round, daring her to drink her own pink potion… oh gosh… the libido one! Nah remained a squirmy bear for the rest of the night! Goodness gracious! Grim had a Whisper Dare for Xam to go pretend to sneeze into Maya’s hair and then do my hair into pigtails. I thought she was coming over to pretend to sneeze in my hair too, so the pigtails were a relief! Gosh, Grim! And then the final Dare of the game, a Whisper Dare to Grim… he got up, and, without warning, without context, went over to Nah, who was now in her cat form, gently opened her jaws, and put his head all the way inside her mouth like guys do with alligators for show. Then he stood up straight and took a bow and was like, “TA-DAAA!” HA! Everyone was so confused by Grim’s random show of bravery, and Nah was just like, “Sheesh…” There were numerous other Dares and spicy Truths had throughout the game, too! It was such a great night, filled with fun and gut-busting laughs and great times with great friends! I LOVE Deathrolls! WOO!

We were also going to do a big adventure to go and get some kinda Nah doppelgangers, which, apparently, is what Nah found during her time away at Uldaman. Some bronze dragon went a bit nuts with all the many threads of the timeline concerning Nah and wanted to get rid of her or something! He brought in different Nahs from different timelines to attack her, a death knight Nah killed and raised during the Third War, and a Nah that was still an Illidari! The Illidari Nah came first, apparently, and then the death knight was brought through second. The Illidari Nah was super bitter and hateful and wanted to kill the real Nah on sight, but the death knight Nah was, in her timeline, still loyal to the Alliance, having been long since liberated from the Lich King’s control and a member of the Ebon Blade. There was a big fight, the Illidari Nah and the bronze dragon in his human visage form fighting the real Nah and death knight Nah, and Nah was able to escape, but so were the other two, as well as the dragon!

So, the adventure last night was going to be led by Nah to go and deal with her doppelgangers, specifically the Illidari one, that had been spotted in east Dun Morogh, heading toward Loch Modan. But then there was a terrible storm that kept Mairy and Maya at a distance, and then Nah as well, as it turned out, so we decided we’d pick it up another time. Bummer!

I think I can hear Celeste and Rugnar coming back, though, so they might be done with the elk-butchering. I’m glad I didn’t have to watch that this time! It’s never pleasant to see. But what IS pleasant to see is my dear, dear family, this amazing campsite, and this amazing scenery, so I’m gonna go off and enjoy it some more! Celeste said we’re gonna plan against the goblins’ latest fiendishness today, then she and Rugnar would fish and smoke fish throughout the workend while I’m gone, and, Monday, when I am back on my minication again, we’ll deal with those miscreants but GOOD! In the meantime, I’m gonna enjoy the rest of this day, keep this bear cub happy and well-fed, and enjoy time with my family in my favorite camping spot in the world! YAY!

Nat smiled, excited to do just that, hurriedly tapping off the ink from her quill and replacing it in its quill case. She capped her inkwell, and that and the quill case went back into her pack. She hurried to get coffee going again, so that the mighty hunters returning from the field would have something warm to drink as they warmed themselves next to the fire. Checking the drift lines once more – they were filling up, but could stand to remain out for the time being – she went back to her diary. The ink on the pages now dry, she returned that to her pack as well, then carried the pack back inside her and Celeste’s tent, placing it out of the way under the folding camping table.

Greeting Celeste and Rugnar as they emerged from the fog, she helped them unload the meat and placed her chilling spells on it to keep it fresh. She got steaming thermoses of coffee into both their hands as Dordy devoured a scrap of elk that was brought to him to placate him so Nat could take care of the meat. The family sat down, Dordy finishing off the bit of elk meat and the rest warming themselves and brainstorming not only ideas for the goblins, but also happier ideas, ideas to keep the bear cub feeling safe and happy, as well as happy thoughts for the camping trip itself and of bringing back smoked salmon and elk to the Stormwind orphanage for Pilgrim’s Bounty, the upcoming feast of thanksgiving for the year’s harvest. The orphans sure would be happy! And, Celeste said, they’d also be able to save some for Suyin, Penny, and all their Anglers Wharf friends!

The rest of the day passed in peace and happiness, full of fishing a salmon-heavy stream and having good times in the chilly northern mountain redwood forest, enjoying the sights and the smells and the fun activities with family. A stark contrast from all their hard work in Un’goro Crater, this trip was sure to be full of peace, happiness, and relaxation, and Nat couldn’t wait to see what the next week in this beloved, blessed spot would bring!

[Natasha Ebonlocke]

November the Seventeenth

The sounds of a solo fiddle drifted idly through the northern mountain forest of Grizzly Hills, speaking of a hard, cold life, yet not unpleasantly so. The love of the land, the mountainside, the forest, and all creatures great and small that inhabit it spoke to the heart in the music, and brought to mind a chilly, but beautiful, scenic, and highly relaxing land to live in. It reminded Nat of her own home in Pandaria, as though a cold, northern version of that fat, idle little land were now found on the opposite pole of the world.

The giant redwood trees here let in enough sun to the forest floor for other flora and fauna to thrive and keep warm. The giant sentinels of the mountainside swaying in the wind gave off a fragrance of wood and leaf and earth, blending with that of the cedars, and the smell of chilly mountain air chimed in with its own not unpleasant sting of nose and ears, an indescribable sort of fragrance that simply spoke of cold. The smoke from the campfire and the salmon smoker topped off the feast of olfactory senses.

That campfire and smoker were going now, despite the early hour, and the campsite itself was busy with activity, yet, in keeping with the fiddler’s slow, relaxing tunes, it was a relaxing sort of busy. The morning’s fishing had been good, and the salmon run was predicted to be only half done. Rugnar was cleaning everyone’s rods, now in the habit of doing so from having lost a bet with Celeste over the weekend over who’d catch the biggest fish that day. Celeste was busying herself with the bear cub from the previous week, as was Dordy, who’d become fast friends with the little grizzly. The bear was in her lap, getting a few mats untangled in its fur, which already no longer showed the ribs underneath. Nat, meanwhile, was sitting by the fire, her diary in her lap, a thermos of steaming hot hazelnut coffee next to her on a folding camping table, and a knit cap pulled low over her ears to protect from the morning breeze that blew through the camp in the mid to high twenties in temperature. Loving the cold, and loving the warmth of the campfire Celeste kept going to keep the camp in the mid to high forties, Nat took a fortifying sip of hot hazelnut coffee and reached a knit gloved hand for her ravenfeather quill, withdrawing it from its cherrywood quill case and uncapping her inkwell of purple ink. Dipping for ink and tapping off the excess, Nat applied quill tip to diary page and began to write.

Dear diary,

Goodness, it’s been such a strange and startling week! Deathrolls never happened due to the sudden arrival of a people called dracthyr from someplace called the Dragon Isles, fourteen-foot-tall draconic soldiers of Neltharion from like twenty thousand years ago! They were apparently created by Neltharion to stop foes like Galakrond, a giant protodrake that was like the size of a large hill or very small mountain (who was actually already stopped before they were created, but just to point out the sort of threats they were created to face, I’ll mention), and one I hadn’t read about or heard of before called Raszageth, some kinda giant protodrake empowered with storm magics! Neltharion created like tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of soldiers that combined the powers of the five dragonflights with the resilience, resourcefulness, and adaptability of the younger mortal races that existed at the time. Much more powerful than your average mortal, but nowhere near as powerful as a dragon of a specific flight, they were meant to act as a well-disciplined, well-trained, well-equipped (with bit of power from each dragonflight’s magic) draconic army, and they sure did the job against Raszageth and her like three or four equally powerful, if not even more powerful, protodrake allies! These got themselves imprisoned when they were stopped by the dracthyr, but now the dracthyr came to look for help because their general, Neltharion, known these days as Deathwing, is dead, and they have no leadership or organization anymore!

As an additional surprise, these dracthyr, some going about the city in their natural form and some in their humanoid visage form, were accompanied to Stormwind City by none other than the black dragon Wrathion, from Neltharion’s brood! He came to explain the entire situation with Raszageth to the Alliance Supreme Commander Turalyon, and Kalecgos, the blue dragon aspect, did the same in Karazhan with Khadgar! Even as I write, they’re making plans to get an exploration expedition to the Dragon Isles, and building a ship for the purpose! It should be ready in about two weeks, and then off we go!

In the meantime, Wrathion wanted adventurers to go back to the ancient Titan facility of Uldaman in the Badlands, where the Titan Keeper Tyr had his allies hide the Discs of Norgannon, which tells the story of the origin of the Dwarves. What Wrathion wanted was to get us to go look for another disc in a previously unexplored section of Uldaman, one that the Dragon Queen Alexstrasza learned of after returning to the Dragon Isles… and this one holds the actual MEMORIES of Tyr himself! She learned also that this knowledge would restore the power of the Dragon Aspects, the powers they gave up to stop Deathwing, and she wanted Wrathion to get some adventurers to get in there and recover them, so she could secure the futures of all dragonkind!

So it was that me, my bestie Nah, Xam from our Deathrolls games, and a dracthyr she already met named Nazenath (who, as what’s called an “evoker,” can evoke the powers of the dragonflights and is truly a wonder to witness in battle!) went with another guy we hadn’t met before, a dwarven paladin, to Uldaman. We ran into a trio of dwarves that had been down there digging for so long they were losing their minds, and they attacked us, thinking we were after their riches (which they hadn’t found at all yet), but eventually came to their senses and joined us to do more archaeology work from behind our cover as we pushed deeper into Uldaman. Gosh, there were titan golems troggs and giant bugs and bats and, toward the end… the INFINITE DRAGONFLIGHT! GOSH! Nah frowned; she knew why these were here from her previous adventure of a few weeks ago. And then, sure enough, Chronolord Deios, the crazed bronze dragon Nah ran into a few weeks ago, was there once again, directed the infinites to find something… which turned out to be the Disc of Tyr, the one with Tyr’s memories, the one Alexstrasza needed to get the dragon aspects’ powers back! He wanted to steal it to stop that from happening! Oh gosh!

The fight that broke out this time was against him in his dragon form instead of his humanoid visage form like what Nah fought, and boy, is time magic brutal! I don’t even know what was going on half the time… time itself was being hasted and slowed and going backwards, and casting spells and conjuring fel minions to fight sure was difficult! But, in the end, in all the chaos, Chronolord Deios yielded… and fled! We didn’t get to finish him off! But, at least we got the Disc of Tyr! We got it and headed back to Stormwind, and boy, was Wrathion happy to see that thing! Now the dragon aspects can get their powers back!

After that, there were these cultists called elemental primalists, followers of the primal elemental protodrakes like Raszageth, causing chaos in the Badlands, Un’goro Crater (boy, did we get outta there just on time!), and the Northern Barrens, summoning enormous elementals and empowering them further, making them tall as trees and enraging them to the point where they wanted to destroy everything in sight, so that was a thing scores of adventurers were heading out to put down, my friends and I among them! They’re still attacking as I write, but at least they’re not here in the Grizzly Hills, and there are still scores of adventurers at each site, keeping them at bay until relieved. Gosh, this whole awakening of the Dragon Isles is chaotic!

In light of the brand-new situation with the dragonflights and the elemental primalists cultists, we were working on that stuff last night as well, so there was no Whitewind Company adventure to be had. At least there was adventure in general! Next week, I think, we’ll resume. I can’t wait to see what we might get into next! There are still the last two pieces of Princess Ariel Sunstrider’s armor to find, and Nah’s doppelgangers to deal with! Only time will tell what we do next!

The situation back at camp is much more peaceful, though the enslaved bears thing is still a thing! Celeste has a plan to stop them, though! She spent the weekend while I was at work alternating fishing with Rugnar and having fun with him and Dordy, and working on a device to counteract the goblins’ mind control of the bears they’re forcing to overfish the mountain streams for them and killing off too much salmon. It seems to be based off the old Gnomish Mind Control Cap that’s been around for like a decade and a half or more. Celeste has modified one of our own gnomish communicators, converting it into a control module for such caps, which is engineering far beyond what I have any clue on how to do. Gosh, she’s so darn smart! I’m so proud of her!

We also worked out a plan to take out the device controlling the bears! Celeste has already snuck in close using the VINE suit to scout out the goblins’ place down in the river delta, where they have their Venture Company buildings set up in what they’ve named Venture Bay. She found a shack they’d tried to camouflage on the cheap with cedar branches piled all over it, one with a radio antenna sticking high up out of it! That’s gotta be where the signal for the bears is coming from! From there, we were able to set up the plan together!

The plan itself is a beautifully simple one. Rugnar will distract the goblins as noisily and chaotically as he can (leave it to a dwarf to do that! HA!), Celeste will use the VINE suit to sneak up to the radio shack and destroy it, or, hopefully, subvert it, and I’ll be on hand to use the controller rig Celeste modified from the comms unit to redirect the bears, if Celeste succeeds, as well as pinpointing which signal I’d be picking up was the goblins’ signal. I’m keeping in mind what Celeste taught me:

“This dial shows you the signal strength. You’ll have to direct the antenna until the gauge is in the green, here. Once that’s done, start the recording. See here? There’s a roll of paper in there. It’ll come out with squiggly lines in different colors on it. That’s a graph of the frequencies recorded. Keep that paper safe and dry and come back after you’ve recorded enough. I’m not sure how long that is but if you see a repeating pattern in the graph, that’ll be it. Okay?”

We won’t be able to use the scanner this week, as Celeste is still working the kinks out of the device, which means the whole plan will have to wait until Monday probably, when I am back from the workend. The salmon run is massive this year, and lengthy, so we think their numbers will hold up to this level of fishing for a few more days and still be okay, but we also know we gotta stop those rotten goblin poo-heads soon! I can’t wait to see how things turn out Monday!

In the meantime, I’m just gonna enjoy the rest of the day of fishing with Celeste, Dordy, and Rugnar! We plan to hop the creek to the island out in the middle this time, and fish right in the thick of things! That’ll be fun! We’ll have a fire out there to keep us warm, and Dordy can come and have fun too! The goblins may be poo-heads, and so are Raszageth and her elemental primalists cultists, but we’ll deal with all those guys when the time comes! In the meantime, it’s relaxation time, and Light bless whoever is playing that relaxing fiddle music! I’m gonna put my diary stuff up and go fish and enjoy the rest of the day, and the last of the minication, with my family, and, when the goblins are dealt with and the salmon run is over, we’ll even get to take all the extra smoked fish and chilled elk meat to the Stormwind orphanage and donate it all to the orphans there! YAY!

Nat smiled, bouncing happily a bit at that happy thought before tapping the excess ink from her quill and returning it to its case. She capped off her inkwell, returning it and the quill case to her pack. Getting up, she topped off her hot coffee thermos and added in a bit more liquid hazelnut creamer, then took the blue aluminum camping coffee pot around to Rugnar and Celeste, topping off theirs, getting a muttered word of thanks from Rugnar (who was scrubbing worm guts off his reel and muttering about not knowing how he’d got them there), and a smile and a kiss from Celeste, who was seated on the mossy ground next to the stream and had the gnomish communicator off to one side while she tried (and failed) to get the grizzly cub to chase and fetch her oldest wrench, something Dordy was surprisingly trying to help with, fetching it and dropping it in front of the cub and pawing at it to show what the bear was supposed to do with it. Nat laughed, taking the coffee pot back to the heating rack set up on one low side of the campfire and closing her diary, the ink on the pages now dry. She returned it to her pack with her quill and ink, then returned to Celeste, joining in the play with the bear, who was much more interested in being cuddled and fed smoked salmon than he was in playing with Celeste’s (Dordy’s) wrench.

As the morning wore on, lunch was had, a bit of smoked fish made into sandwiches with veggies procured from Amberpine Lodge, and then an afternoon return to fishing, which Rugnar grumbled about, as he’d have more rods to clean. Celeste and Nat knew better – Rugnar wanted to fish as badly as they did, and, despite his grumbling, the eagerness to his actions proved it.

Rugnar didn’t end up having to clean anything after, however; the latest bet was who could catch the pinkest salmon with their first catch of the day, and Nat, though catching a respectably-sized fish, ended up with the darkest of the three. Laughing with the others, she agreed it was now her turn to clean the fishing rods and do their maintenance, especially as Celeste had done so at home before coming to camp here. Not that that put the slightest damper on her fun; indeed, she had a good few exhilarating fish fights on her hands that day, and so did the others. Dordy enjoyed himself immensely as well, barking and spinning around in circles and helping reel in fish by pulling on the backs of each angler’s boots each time a fish was on the hook.

As the evening wore on and the trio grew hungry for dinner, they retired to the campsite, using the MUTT to carry their many catches back across the stream from the island and into the campsite. Celeste worked on cleaning the fish and applying them to the smoker, Nat worked on cleaning and maintaining the rods, and Rugnar worked on cooking up a family favorite of breakfast for dinner! Sausage gravy over biscuits, with scrambled eggs and bacon on the side!

It was with a full belly and a happy smile that Nat went to bed, thinking that time spent having fun with family and enjoying their presence was the perfect remedy to a world being threatened once again by a powerful new foe. That battle would take care of itself when it came. For now, Nat was one happy camper!

[Natasha Ebonlocke]

(( Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! :-D <3 ))

November the Twenty-Fourth

The warm morning campfire crackled and popped noisily, giving off a cozy heat that staved off the early morning chill of the Grizzly Hills. The breeze occasionally blew a chilly wind through the camp, but Celeste’s fire triumphed over each one. The fire gave off little smoke, yet the slight smell of campfire smoke could be scented, mingling with the smell of cold northern mountain air, the earthy smell of the northern mountain forest, and the smell of smoked salmon… and biscuits with sausage gravy!

Rugnar sat by the fire, getting things sorted out and prepared to cook one of Celeste’s all-time favorite breakfast meals, one that Nat thoroughly enjoyed as well, and was quite looking forward to. Celeste herself was doing a pre-flight check on the Flying Nosebleed and the MUTT, as well as Rugnar’s own flying machine, which she, Celeste, and Rugnar would be all flying out later that day when they broke camp. Onyx lay curled up nearby, the black netherdrake ready to escort Nat’s flight that day as well, when camp would be closed up. The camp was mostly packed, with a few last-minute drift lines still going across the river for the last bit of the big annual salmon run, and everything else crated up and stowed in the Flying Nosebleed’s or the MUTT’s cargo holds. The tents were similarly stowed, returning the campsite to its original pristine state: a mostly flat creekside area with the redwoods towering around, and, this morning, another thick, foggy mist that had yet to be burned away by the rising sun.

As though bidding them farewell, the fiddler was at it again, whoever that was playing that solo fiddle with that relaxing music that drifted through the trees and over the mountain, the fiddle that fit so well here in this northern mountain forest setting. The sound was perfect with the sound of a crackling fire and knifework of cooking preparation being done, not to mention the rustling creek and the waterfalls not too far away!

Nat sat contentedly in her chair, wearing warm clothes, but, as usual, foregoing anything to cover her ears and hands, reveling in the frigid morning breezes that occasionally blew through camp. Her diary sat in her lap, her inkwell of purple ink and cherrywood quill case sat open on the folding camp table to her right, and her ravenfeather quill was in her hand, and she smiled to remember most of her week, though a sad look crossed her face for a moment as she recalled one particular event. But then the smile returned, and she happily reached out for the other item on her camp table, a steaming thermos of hazelnut coffee. Taking a fortifying sip of the strong, hot, delicious liquid, she inhaled the smell of the Grizzly Hills, the merrily crackling campfire, and the biscuits and sausage gravy still being prepared for cooking, then dipped her quill for some ink, tapping off the excess and beginning to write.

Dear diary,

It’s been a really cool week! Celeste and I finally got to use the device she’s been working on to undermine the headsets the goblins have been using to subjugate the grizzlies to overfish the salmon run for them, I got to enjoy Pilgrim’s Bounty with my friends in a game of Deathrolls, and we got to deal with one of Nah’s doppelgangers in this week’s Whitewind Company Adventure! (I don’t know when we’ll start the next adventure to get the last pieces of Princess Ariel Sunstrider’s armor, as that expedition to the Broken Isles is set to go this coming Tuesday! YAY! But that means that the Whitewind Company and friends may be working on getting a foothold there the first few weeks before we return to the armor!)

Using the Celeste’s device here in the Grizzly Hills to free those bears was Monday, but we also got a little more done on Thursday, not too long after my last diary entry!

“I’ll help uncle Rugnar make his flying machine look like it has problems,” Celeste had said,” and then adjust the VINE suit to make it more… bushy. Shouldn’t take too long. Then we’ll set out on foot so as to make as little noise as possible and not be seen.”

Celeste jogged over to the dwarf’s machine, grabbing a wrench from one of those who were ever present in her pocket. “I’ll loosen the carburetor cap, just a little I know!” she said when her uncle looked like he was going to speak. He grinned and nodded, and continued working on another part of the craft.

"Right!" I said. "I'll just start messing with this gizmo and getting used to how it works."

I pointed the antenna this way and that, getting a feel for how to get it working. I noticed a faint signal, something doing little smidgens of lines, as though it was a fair distance away, but still just barely within range of the device. I had a seat on Rugnar's flying machine's wing, working next to Celeste as Celeste worked. A little green line was being produced, with just barely a bit going this way and that once in a while. Nodding to myself, I figured I was getting the hang of it. I'd be ready when the time came!

When the changes to Rugnar’s flying machine were done, the craft looked, on the surface, to be in a state of disrepair. A headlight was hanging by a wire, a landing strut wobbled, and, when it was started, it belched out a cloud of black smoke.

Meanwhile, Celeste went to gather her VINE suit and stripped a few branches off of a few young cedars, adding them to the mesh. When put on, she looked like any normal bush found in the Grizzly Hills, if unnaturally mobile. An ingenious touch!

I looked curiously at the messed-up flying machine, a look of worry on my face. A sabotaged flying machine brought back memories of someone I'd rather forget.... fortunately for me, the mission here (not to mention time elapsed since I last saw the guy) was helping me to forget about all that bad history easily!

Smiling, I looked over the Grizzly Hills VINE suit. It looked like any brush pile or fallen, leaf-laden branch one might find in the Grizzly Hills. Perfect for sneaking!

"Looks like we're all ready, Celeste!"

An arm protruded from the bush and gave a thumbs-up, then slipped back in. ''Let's go!'' came Celeste's somewhat muffled reply.

Celeste and I approached the goblin camp. It was already late in the evening, and the sun was just an orange-pink sliver on the horizon. It was still enough to see where we were going though. Celeste planted her... bush close to the area cleared by the goblins. Out in the open, a few goblins were moving about, but most were laughing in front of their fires, drinking whatever grog they had and eating salmon from their already large ill-gotten bounty. Most of the fish caught by the bears was being carried in nets by goblin shredders and dumped on a barge anchored in the delta downstream. I could make out half a dozen bears, and Celeste pointed out the pen where even more bear cubs were being detained. Smack in the middle of the camp, there was a shack made from wooden planks and covered in cedar branches in a cheap effort to camouflage it.

''That's where I need to go,” she whispered, pointing at the shack and the large antenna poking out of its top. ''You'll likely get your signal from there. As soon as Uncle Rugnar makes his diversion, I'll sneak in, grab a headset if I can, and sneak out. Wish me luck!'' She slowly moved into camp but not too far yet.

Right on cue, Rugnar's flying machine stuttered and popped and came out of the dark sky. It circled the camp a few times, leaving a trail of smoke behind it, then suddenly dropped! It came close to crashing down, but Rugnar gave out a yell and seemed to recover his machine just in time! He flew closer to the ground for a moment, disturbing a few goblins, then landed abruptly.

''Darn machine! …hic!'' Rugnar roared, pretending to be drunk and slurring his speech a little. ''Hey you, yeah... you two! Ch'mere and gimme a hand would ya?'' he said to a single goblin who had come closer. ''Some... hic! Sh...omethin' be right wrong with my carbo... carba... carburatshur!'' Rugnar continued and as soon as the goblin (and another who had joined him) came closer, he suddenly made his flying machine sputter, start and hop several paces forward. He continued this silly maneuver several times, dragging a crowd of annoyed goblins in the opposite direction from Celeste and I, one hop at a time. It was so funny to watch, I had to stifle a laugh for fear of giving away mine and Celeste’s position!

Celeste made her way into camp. Every time a goblin came by, jogging to see what the commotion with the drunken dwarf was about, she would crouch, thus planting her fake tree in the ground and wait for the danger to pass. She made her way with tiny, silent steps; a strange mobile bush moving through the camp. When she got close to the shack, she left her VINE suit standing and slipped into the building...

Meanwhile, I was looking at the scanner, and I was able to easily pick out the signal Celeste mentioned, as the goblins were blasting it out from the shack in a wide radius. The dials moved to the green as soon as I turned it on, and, when I activated the printing and a roll of paper churned out, the needles inside moved left and right as they recorded the signal in bright colored ink, covering the paper in parallel lines that moved up and down.

Lying there on the cold ground in my own VINE suit, I kept an eye on things near Celeste's infiltration point, having crawled in with her to the outskirts of the goblin camp, still stifling a giggle at Rugnar's crafty beguilement of the goblins. I remained in place as Rugnar distracted the little green gremlins and Celeste crept up to the shack, keeping an overwatch over the operation and ready to call out an alarm over the comms if anything untoward should happen.

Another eye was kept on the graph paper coming out of the scanner. The goblins' signal was all too easy to pick out! I nodded to myself quietly as I saw the lines zigzag up and down, then looked out over the camp again, seeing Celeste reach the shack and slip from the VINE suit into the building...

The interior of the shack, as Celeste described it to me later, was full of equipment. There were radio emitters, signal converters, and large cables going up to the antenna above. There was barely enough space for the tiny desk and chair the goblin operator in the shack was using. A narrow path led between the consoles to a space on the opposite end of the shack, where the goblin operator was currently looking out a window that was just a hole in the wall.

“Wot’s that drunken idiot doing here?” he was shouting at a passing goblin.

Celeste quickly looked at the equipment, identifying what it was used for and wondering if she could sabotage anything. Unfortunately, the operator would likely hear her if she tried anything. A hook near the goblin’s table had a few of the headsets she had hoped to acquire, though! She rarely used her fire magic anymore, but there were still a few arcane tricks she liked to employ. Concentrating for a moment, she willed herself to turn invisible, and then crept forward as quickly as she dared.

I kept an eye on the scanner and an eye on the goblin camp. I noticed the goblin inside the electronics shack calling out to the goblin outside it, grinning to myself from within my VINE suit to see that Rugnar was distracting that goblin as well, and Celeste had free reign inside. I scanned the camp, not seeing any other goblins heading to the shack at this time.

"Nat to Celeste..." I said as I keyed my comms. "You're clear. All goblins distracted by Rugnar. None heading your way. Now's your chance!"

Celeste’s invisible fingers brushed the edge of a headset just as her radio crackled! I didn’t know she didn’t have the headset on, instead having comms on speaker… oops!

“Nat to Celest-…” Celeste hastily slapped her hand on her wrist comm., muffling it and hastily shutting it off. The goblin at the window turned around, ears perked up and cunning eyes sweeping back and forth.

“Wassat!? Who’s there?” the goblin demanded, stepping forward and craning his neck to see past the table and towards the shack’s open door. Celeste’s invisible form was silent and still only a few feet away. Her spell wouldn’t last long though; she had to do something!

Despite the love-hate relationship with her fire magic, it remained a tool. Though sometimes her use of it in the past had made her hate herself, she decided a tiny trick wouldn’t compromise her principles…

Celeste concentrated again and… set the goblin’s SHOES on fire! Oh gosh! Well, they mostly became hot and smoked a little… She needed a distraction, and wasn’t trying to hurt the goblin!

The goblin howled in surprise and stamped his feet. Celeste lunged forward and grabbed a headset, then turned around and Blinked out of the shack! She had barely managed to slip into her VINE suit as her invisibility spell wore off, getting back into it just in the nick of time!

“Package acquired,” Celeste whispered in her comms as she made her way quietly back to me. “Heading back to camp with Nat, Uncle Rugnar, thanks for the great distraction!”

I never noticed Celeste come out of the shack, so I was alarmed when Celeste's VINE suit suddenly just… took off! I was about to call out a warning, but Celeste's voice came over the comms first, and then came the goblin bursting out the door with smoldering shoes screaming about another goblin's incompetence with electronics and pointing fingers, and I put two and two together. Not knowing that Celeste's headset part of the comms wasn't activated, I didn't know what I'd done to nearly blow Celeste's cover… Oops! All I knew was, the mission was accomplished!

I remained in place, closely watching the camp until both "drunken" Rugnar and Celeste had made their way safely out of the camp, then crept out myself, making my way back to our campsite. I burst into laughter when we got back; both Rugnar's act and Celeste's little prank had been brilliant!

Our quest complete, all I could do now was wait until Monday to come, so I could get back to the others for the mission!

I got back Saturday night to find Celeste having gotten the hang of the headset’s functionality. Over an exceptionally tasty dinner of wild shoveltusk boar soup, I watched Celeste work.

The bear cub was oblivious to the odd device on its head as it greedily fed on a fresh caught salmon. Celeste had managed to gently place it on its head, between its adorable little round ears. Now she sat on the ground near the cub, watching the readings on her signal detector and takings notes on the readout the machine was churning out.

So far, she had tried different things to see how it affected the readings. Startling the cub by suddenly clapping her hands, taking away the salmon and keeping it out of reach, or gently pinching it.

Thanks to all those tests, she was getting a baseline of what a free and not mind-controlled bear’s mind looked like, or at least, what it looked like as depicted by graph paper and ink!

She’d have to compare the cub’s readings with the signal I had captured that the goblins were broadcasting to the adult bears, she explained to me. The difference would be what she’d have to negate in order to free the bears the goblins had enslaved!

By Monday, she’d mastered it, and was ready for the operation! She explained it to me over dinner Monday night.

''... so just adding a competing frequency won't work,” she had been saying. ”Imagine if that fiddler out there started playing badly. Adding another fiddler, even if he or she plays well, will just make more noise. It wouldn't cancel the first.''

Celeste watched the dials on her frequency analyzer. Next to the analyzer, her communicator wristband was emitting the goblin's frequency. She adjusted another dial on the analyzer and shook her head. Rugnar, sitting in a chair in the back of the tent and smoking on his pipe, remained silent. He didn't know much about signals that messed with one's head. His presence was comforting to Celeste, she said, as was mine, while I lying on my stomach on the fur-covered camp bed, looking at the printouts of the goblin signal and the one showing the bear cub's baseline reading.

Celeste sighed and shut off the analyzer and her comms. She turned around and looked at Rugnar and I.

''I have an idea,” she announced to us. “I think, right now, those bears are being convinced that they need to constantly feed for their upcoming hibernation. The goblins are making them not realize that they aren't actually eating the fish, getting that important fat to survive long weeks asleep; they’re just constantly trying to catch fish instead. So what if... what if we add to the frequency by sending them a signal that isn't competing, but rather, augmenting… say... giving those bears a reason to believe they are getting sleepy? It would fit with the current state of mind they are in. Might just make them go look for a place to sleep instead. Nat, that last readout on the bear cub yesterday, the cub was really tired. Maybe the signal has what we need.''

I grinned, quickly rifling through my printouts. Flipping several to the side, I came up with the one with the timestamps from when the bear cub was sleeping.

"Got it!"

I reached up from where I was lying on the bed, Rugnar leaning in to look out of curiosity, though he didn't understand what he saw in the brainwave patterns. I turned the paper to face it towards Celeste as I handed it to her.

"See how it sort of went relatively idle for a while, then went into what was probably a dream, with this sudden flurry of activity here further along the line?"

''Hmm, yeah I see what you mean,'' Celeste said as she examined the printout. ''So which part do we try? Maybe just the last part before it goes idle… If it’s drowsiness... Here, let me try to mimic it with my modified comm...''

Celeste turned around and turned on both devices again. She tuned her comm device and watched the readouts, then let the analyzer print out the readings and handed it to me so she could compare the two.

"I'd say the deep sleep before the dream," I suggested. "Starting right off the bat with a dream might make the mind too active for it to shut down into unconsciousness. But I'm willing to try it as many ways as need be until we find the right pattern!"

I watched as Celeste tested out the pattern with her modified communicator. I accepted the paper back and studied the pair.

"Drowsiness works!" I said, smiling and nodding up at my ingenious love. "You think you can transmit that right into a bear headset?"

''Yeah,” Celeste nodded. “That part is easy enough, except for the bit where I'll need to hitchhike on the goblin signal to reach the headsets on those bears. That means sneaking back into camp and connecting my comm device to their equipment. I'm not sure what's to stop those goblins from just waking up the bears. They'll be sure to find my comm device too, eventually...''

"What is it you ultimately want to accomplish?" I asked thoughtfully. "A bear attack on the camp? Destroy the shed? Discover a way to use the device to manipulate the bears' limbs into taking the headsets off their own heads? Use this sleep bit to get them to hibernate deeply enough that we can take them off their heads ourselves?"

''Much as I'd love to see angry bears rampaging through the goblin's camp,” Celeste laughed in response, “I fear the bears would be hurt in the process. Destroying that shed would put my mind at ease since I'd know the goblins couldn't just reactivate those headsets, but I'm not sure how to do that without declaring war on them. Throwing stink-bombs is fair game, but violent destruction is more than that. I don't think my knowledge of mind control devices is good enough to actually get the bears to remove their headsets themselves. If the bears fall asleep, we can take off and destroy their headsets, but how would we do that in full view of all those goblins?''

"Well, if we get them to fall asleep at night, we should be able to manage it," I mused. "Also, for the ones close enough to their camp to see even at night, if any range that close, if we put a distraction on the far side of camp... say, the aforementioned stink bombs? ...then we should be able to get them to go that way to see what happened, or... or use them on the SAME side of the camp as the bears, actually, to use as a smokescreen! Visibility to the bears will be blocked, and the goblins won't wanna go near the stink bombs to try to get through and see again anyway, not after what they went through last year! HA! And then we can get the last of the bears' headsets off, the ones right near their camp!"

“Stink bombs would clue in the goblins on who is thwarting their plans again,” Celeste replied. “A stinky smokescreen would be all that we need, that’s true, but I doubt they’d forget that stench we put on them last year anytime soon. That still leaves the pen full of bear cubs we’d need to liberate as well. Unless…” Celeste trailed off after that, biting her lower lip as she seemed to think about some new idea…

"Unless what?"

“What if we sent out the same signal as the bear cub when I surprised it by clapping my hands? It was startled then and likely scared. Most of the adult bears are females, mothers of the caged cubs. If we send out a panic signal, their mama bear instincts should kick in and they’ll rush in to defend their young, hopefully by rampaging through camp on the way to where the cubs are kept!”

"Oh gosh, Celeste, that's perfect!" I said, grinning. "Two birds with one stone, there! When do we go?"

“Despite my fears that some of the goblins might fight back,” Celeste said slowly, “I think they’ll mostly try to save their own skin. The more I think about it, the more confident I am that it’ll work! I’ll need your help though, the both of you..”

"Goblins only have two loves in life,” I said. “Money, and themselves... chances are, I think most of them will save their own skins when an angry horde of six-hundred-pound mama grizzlies start ripping through the place, though the other love, money, might have a few fight back somehow, yeah... What's the plan?"

“I’ll sneak back into their shack,” Celeste now said more decisively. “Input our signal into their transmitter. I’ll use the analyzer as a signal relay. Nat, you’ll be in charge of sending out the signal. I’ll have to tweak the analyzer to be able to send out signals with the help of your communication device, but it won’t take long. My own comm unit will be receiving the signal so I’ll have to leave it in the shack. First, you’ll send out that panicky signal. I’ll program it in the analyzer. Once the bears rescue the cubs and chase the goblins away, you’ll switch to the sleepy signal. That should put the adults to sleep, hopefully. At that point, I’ll need everyone to help me remove the headsets on the bears before they wake back up again. We toss ‘em in the shack and… set it all on fire. There, goblins thwarted! Uncle Rugnar, you’ll bring the bear cub so it can find its mother.”

"Sounds like you've thought of everything," I smiled at Celeste, impressed. "Alright, I'll get into my VINE suit again."

I donned my VINE suit while Celeste got the devices programmed. I smiled to see that bear of a dwarf take the bear cub into his arms. Once all was in readiness, I left with Celeste.

Back at the gobbo camp, I crept in with the others, taking my time, crawling slowly and checking each spot I placed her arms and legs down before going, not wanting to snap a twig or something and alert the goblins before the mama bears did exactly that. Once in position, I looked through Celeste's Night Watch scope, checking out the camp.

"I see a light coming from the shack," I whispered. "One shadow. Got two bickering near the shack, on the near side... we'll have to hope they split up and leave, because they're right in your path. There are three more on the lowest point of the slope in the camp, watching the salmon run. They're pretty distracted there, all smiles. Greedy grins, I should say. Got one at the top of the slope, looking in our general direction, but not right at us. I doubt he sees us. One big one, center of camp, looks grumpy and giving orders. Suppose he's the boss. That's all I see."

I slowly, carefully passed Celeste's scope along so the others can take a peek. I then looked to Celeste, moving my head slowly to do so, not wanting to draw goblin eyes.

"On you, love."

“Alright, wish me luck!” Celeste whispered back, then, as silently as she could, she crept forward, stopping every now and then. Just another bush in the dark, nothing to see here! HA!

She made a wide arc around the first goblin who had been peering in our direction earlier. The two goblins bickering near the shack posed a problem as they, like the one inside, were too close to the emitter array for Celeste to sabotage it. She’d have to lure all of them away, somehow. Spotting a shut-down shredder about a hundred feet away, she decided to try something…

She moved in short bursts in her VINE suit, from cover to cover. There were torches set up closer to the center of camp which she wanted to avoid.

Reaching the shredder, she took a pair of wire cutters from one of her various pockets and cut the hydraulic line passing through the machine’s saw-hand arm where it was easily accessed in the elbow joint.

Next she Blinked out of her VINE suit and into the shredder’s cockpit.

“Let’s see… this cockpit is a mess… why is that wire even there, it’s not even shielded!”

Celeste, frowning and shaking her head at the lack of care the goblins give to their machines, locked the controls in order to make the shredder walk in circles. She starts the engine, then Blinks back to her VINE suit.

The shredder immediately started walking forward, saw hand hanging limply at its side. Celeste remains as still as she can while the machine moves away then slowly moves back to the shack.

The runaway shredder was already creating an uproar as it stomps through the camp, clearly without a pilot. It crushes tents and scatters supplies.

Both goblins that had been arguing near the shack ran and shouted towards the shredder, hands on their heads in dismay at the destruction.

That just left the goblin in the shack…

"Great distraction, Celeste!" I whispered over the comms with a stifled giggle. "You've got two coming at you from the shack, three more that were watching the creek coming from the opposite direction. They're going to reach you faster than you can crawl, so you're going to have to anticipate their paths and try to hide and not get stepped on as they rush through!"

The goblins from the creek came rushing to the pair of goblins from the shack, both sides noisily pointing fingers and blaming each of the others instead of themselves for damaging the shredder.

Meanwhile, the boss goblin was shouting even louder, now throwing things from his spot in the center of the camp. Anything he could get his hands on, he threw, and everything from sticks to rocks to hard-packed, half-frozen dirt chunks came flying in the general direction. I was really hoping Celeste didn’t get struck, or yelp if she did and give herself away!

A rock zipped close to Celeste’s head, making a hole in her VINE suit and sending twigs and leaves flying in every direction. Just a few feet away, several goblins were shouting and arguing about the shredder, which finally managed to stumble into another idle shredder, both toppling to the ground. The first shredder, lying in top of the second, continued to peddle its legs in the air uselessly.

I had to stifle another giggle at the shredder's silly peddling legs, knowing the situation was dire. Goblins were still on a direct course to Celeste's position, and could walk right into her at any moment, and she was stuck! I held off on speaking over the comms any more now that they were getting so close, not wanting to give Celeste away again...

Celeste slowly backed away from the goblins, then turned around and started heading for the shack, where she almost bumped right into more oncoming goblins!

I gritted my teeth, wincing at the near-collision, hoping Celeste could make it out stealthily!

The goblins ran past, then stop dead -- the goblin boss was still throwing things! He shouted more orders, which they scattered hastily to follow. Celeste was now in the clear to get to the shack! There was just the matter of the one inside...

She skipped left, paced right, and managed to dodge the goblins. Fortunately the goblin boss was distracting everyone with his tantrum, and no one looked twice at the hop-skipping bush!

A few minutes later, Celeste was creeping up to the shack’s door. It was opened, and the goblin inside was again peering through the window at the commotion.

“Well… it worked once so why not twice…” Celeste muttered to herself, grinning. She peeked into the shack and concentrated on the goblin, heating his shoes until they started smoking. She didn’t make them hot enough to burn, but they were sure hot enough to cause serious discomfort!

”Not again!” the goblin yelped in surprise, stamping his feet to try and put out whatever fire was apparently eating at his boots. When that produced no results, he ran out of the shack, headed to the river in a straight line. He looked so silly! HA!

Celeste jauntily strode into the shack, free to work without being caught!

I had to stifle another giggle to see the hotfoot goblin, and breathed a sigh of relief -- Celeste was now all clear for the shack work! I kept an eye on the area, providing overwatch and ready to make another call-out on the comms should there need to be one.

"Celeste, you're all clear! Work your magic, love!"

“I’m jacking my comm into their transmitter,” came her reply over said comm “It’ll be just a minute or two. Get your transmitter ready, Nat!”

"It's ready now! On your go!"

Celeste tucked the comm unit in a crack behind two bulky consoles, making sure the wires snaking out of it and into the transmission array weren’t obvious.

“Ready!” she called back soon. “Make those mama bears angry! I’ll uh… I’ll shut the door, though…” Celeste said, as her comm unit could still be reached, though her voice sounded far-off.

"Oh gosh, right, yeah, you don't wanna be out there in the middle of that mama bear rampage!!"

I input the signal the way Celeste showed me, and, sure enough, the red line on the graph paper began to match that of the time Celeste had startled the bear cub. The lines began to print rapidly, and, all around my hide, I began to hear roars of fury. Realizing suddenly that I was caught out in the open, I Blinks up a redwood tree to a nice, broad branch, right into the middle of a cluster of leaves. Still hidden, I cast a bit of illusion magic to make Rugnar invisible.

"Oh gosh, Celeste! INCOMING MAMAS! IT'S A RAMPAGE!"

Celeste moved to peek out the shack's ''window'', making sure to extinguish the lantern behind her so she wouldn't be so easily spotted. The cries of bear cubs calling for their mothers mixed with the roars of the angry adults as they made a beeline for their progeny. Goblins, tents and anything else in their way were either chased off or trampled. The bears sure made short work of the thin fence corralling the cubs! A few adults chased the goblins all the way to their barge in the delta and started pacing on the shore, growling menacingly. The goblins wisely decided to stay onboard! HA!

Rugnar, having trouble containing the squirming and crying bear cub in his arms, let the little one go. It ran off, looking for its mother until one of the adults ran to it, nuzzling it with its snout.

''Looks like our little friend found his mother.'' Celeste said over her comms. “Look! The goblins are bringing their ramp onboard, probably scared one of the bears will go charging up to attack them! Now's our chance! Give me a moment to pull the fire from the torches, Nat, to make it really dark outside. Then you can make the bears go to sleep. We'll remove the headsets under the cover of darkness so the goblins don't know it's us.''

Celeste concentrated on the torches, snuffing them out one by one until the camp was almost pitch dark, the ground only lit by a dim moon overcast by clouds.

I keyed the next command script programmed into the device, changing the signal from "Rampage" to "Hibernate." A midnight-purple line went active next, giving a rather gentle line that doesn't move all that much. I smiled, my Duskwood-adapted night vision piercing the darkness to see the grizzlies, fresh out of goblins to chase and reunited with their clubs, seem to settle down and curl up to sleep right where they stood! Awww!

Now, instead of goblins and noise, the camp was suddenly dark and quiet, dotted with massive lumps of furry omnivore. I kept a good watch for a while, making sure neither grizzly nor goblin can be seen active in the camp.

"Nat to Celeste,” I called. “They're all out... should I move in and help with headsets?"

''Yes, get uncle Rugnar to help too,” came the reply. “There are quite a few bears here, and they’re all over the place. Move quickly though; those goblins might decide to come and try and regain their profit-making bears!''

Celeste, eschewing her VINE suit, jogged out of the shack and headed to the closest bear. She gently removed the headset (she had to unfasten a clasp behind its head), kept the headset to destroy later, and moved on to the next one.

Eventually, she headed back to the shack where she had told Rugnar and Nat to meet once they were done gathering headsets from bears. Rugnar had ventured closer to the ship to get the ones near the shore, and said the goblins were starting to argue about going back to their camp already. We were running out of time!

''Alright,” Celeste said quickly. “Let's get this over with then. Toss the headsets you gather into the shack. I'll get my comms, disable the signal, sabotage the equipment to make sure they can't easily fix it, and then set fire to the shack.''

I reached the bear nearest my overwatch position and quickly but gently unclasped the headset from it. Stuffing it into my magically expanded pack, I moved on to the next bear, repeating the process. Bear after bear I liberated, taking care of all the ones that were highest up the hill, as they were nearest my original position and therefore reached first, clearing all in a zigzag pattern before reaching the shack in the middle of the camp.

I thought about Rugnar's report, casting a worried glance down the mountain at the goblin ship in Venture Bay, then hurried to withdraw all the bear headsets from my pack and unceremoniously tossed them on the floor with the ones Celeste and Rugnar got. Giving my pack a double-check just to make sure I had them all out – there is a lot of stuff in that bag, after all – I headed outside, watching the ship for the plank to be lowered, ready to call out an alarm if I saw it.

"That's all mine," I reported with a grin to Celeste, who had headed inside the shack. "Ready to melt it all down?"

''Absolutely!'' Celeste said from inside the shack. There was the sound of wires being pulled and metal banging together, then she emerged, shut the door firmly behind her, and gestured for the others to stand back. ''Time to torch this place and get out of here. Goblins or not, the bears are starting to wake up too!''

"Good timing for them to wake up, too,” I replied, “as they'll want to be away from this shack when it goes up!"

Celeste moved so her magic wouldn't be obvious from the ship, keeping the shack between herself and the goblins to block the goblins’ line of sight. Raising both arms, she concentrated. A large, superheated ball of fire appears between her hands. She tossed it directly at the shack, where it exploded in brilliant, bright, hot flames that greedily took to devouring the cheap wooden structure. By the time the shack and its contents became a blazing inferno too hot to even go near, we were already heading back to camp!

I gasped in awe at Celeste's Pyroblast, watching for a short moment as the shack went up in flames, but hurrying out with the others to be free of all those grizzly bears before they could wake up. Taking one last look down the mountain, I could see the goblins all but rioting on the ship! HA! Serves ‘em right! Cackling with glee, I headed out with Celeste and Rugnar, returning to the camp triumphantly.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

Now all that remains is to eat breakfast, break camp, and get all this smoked salmon and elk back to the Stormwind City Orphanage… just in time for the primary day of Pilgrim’s Bounty! WOO! They’re gonna feast good this time!

That was all Monday, and then Tuesday was DEATHROLLS! What’s more… to celebrate Pilgrim’s Bounty with my friends, we went to Lakeshire in the Redridge Mountains, one of the towns partaking in the holiday with a fully-loaded Bountiful Table, placed right on one of the docks on the lake! It was beautiful! There was turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin pie! It was all soooo delicious! And I got to go in my pilgrim hat and pilgrim dress, too, a full pilgrim’s outfit! That was fun to wear!

It was me, my bestie Nah, Maya, Mairy, Annabelle from the Quicksilver Company, Xam, Maya’s friend from the Voyagers, and my old buddy Grimmie, all coming together to feast in thanksgiving for what we’ve been blessed with… and have Deathrolls shenanigans in the process! Hehe!

The game kicked off with me getting Dared right off the bat! Maya Dared me to let her tie my hands behind my back and eat a small plate of stuffing with no hands! That was so weird to do! Then Nah got Maya while I was doing that, Daring her to wear Nah’s blindfold and reach for things on the table and eat them. She was supposed to eat the pumpkin pie, but Nah, AKA Miss Troublemaker, kept snickering and changing what food was in front of Maya while she was blindfolded. Maya had to keep going until she could find pumpkin pie! What’s more, she had to do it with just her bare hands, no utensils! She got so messy! HA! Then Anna got me with a Dare to eat a dish that Lakeshire natives eat… jellied eels! OH GOSH! They actually weren’t terrible, if you isolate the flavor from the revolting texture, but still, that texture made me gag so hard! EW! Maya got curious and came over to taste it, though she had to spit hers out. Mairy came over to try some too, but she just shrugged and said it wasn’t bad. Riiiight… This from a Wildhammer dwarf whose native cuisine includes HAGGIS! Then Nah Dared Anna to eat mashed turnips with her hands bound, just dipping her face down to eat them like I had the stuffing. It smelled so gross, but Anna ate it anyway! She ended up with mashed turnips all over her cheeks, nose, and chin! HA! Then I had a Truth for Anna about how she feels about Steamy Romance Novels. Being a priestess of the Light, of course, she isn’t a fan at all! Then Grim had a Dare for Mairy and I, as we both rolled ones that round. Mairy was supposed to be a knight, and I was her trusty steed. I was supposed to run around the dock with her on my back, and then… buck her off into the lake! OH GOSH! So I did so, staggering around, since I can’t run, and ended up not only dumping Mairy into the lake, but also falling in myself! Oh gosh! My pilgrim’s hat came off, and I got tangled up in my pilgrim’s dress and Mairy’s skirt, and she had to drag me out as I dragged my hat out! Anna had a Truth for Mairy, along the lines of everyone’s reaction to jellied eels: what was a native food she had that the rest of the world might think was gross? Mairy instantly named more than just one… sheep intestine haggis, sheep lung haggis, pork liver pie, black pudding (made from pig fat) and oats, pickled mudfish, and fermented cabbages. Oh gosh, EW! Maya next gave Nah and Anna, who both rolled ones, the ol’ Screw, Marry, Kill Truth, and she said she’d, “give Grim a good time for an evening, marry Maya (I guess as they’re dating now), and kill herself before she’d ever kill any of my friends.” Oh goodness! Grim sure liked that one! Anna replied that she’d kill Maya for asking her such an awkward question, have a one-night stand with Nah or Mairy, and marry either me or Grim. Gosh! Then Anna and Maya both rolled twenties out of a roll of twenty for the Truth or Dare rolls after Grim rolled a one, which meant they both got FULL POWER! If you roll a twenty out of twenty, you get to choose Truth or Dare FOR the roller of a one, AND, if multiple people roll a twenty, they don’t have to do a roll-off for a tiebreaker… instead, they BOTH get to go! So it was that Anna Dared Grim to go dive into the lake and not come back until he catches an eel, and Maya added onto it with her own Dare… he has to catch it with nothing but his TEETH! Grim stripped down to his knickers, not wanting to get his fancy black clothes soaking wet, which made me blush and look away… oh gosh! Then he took a running start and dived into the lake, and we could see him darting around in the water in a school of freshwater eels, and, sure enough, he GOT ONE WITH JUST HIS TEETH! WOW! He brought it back up, spit it out onto the dock after climbing back up, and then started flexing and showing off. Goodness gracious, Grimmie! He reminded us that he himself was a Lakeshire native, and that he’d been hunting eels since he was a kid, so I guess that explains that! Maya got the eel back into the water, and we went to go sit back down. That’s now three of us wet, and, of course, Grim just HAD to come and stand beside me when I got in my chair to shake himself out like a wet dog! GAH! Then he got Maya and I after we both rolled ones, and Dared us to strip down to our knickers, get up on the table, and have a steamy food fight! GOSH, Grimmie! Maya had no shame, and did exactly that, but I just used my charm bracelet to change into my bikini instead. We got up on the table, and, by the time it was over, we had food smeared all over our chests! Grim and Nah sure enjoyed the show! Anna hid behind her chair, averting her eyes, and Mairy had herself a good laugh at it. Goodness gracious! That’s when Xam came in, a late arrival, wondering what was going on when three people were wet, and two were on the table with food smeared all over their barely-clad chests, Anna was hiding behind her chair, and Grim was on the dock next to the table, rolling around and laughing his rear end off! She stopped and blinked, not knowing what to say… HA! What a moment to arrive! Late as she came, though, the Deathrolls game was about over, with people already talking about heading out. But we stayed for one more round, though, and it ended with me finally getting to Dare someone! It was actually me rolling the one and Maya winning yet another Truth or Dare roll, like she’d been getting all night, but she decided to be nice to me and flip it so I could finally Dare someone! What a great friend! I ended up Daring her to use a turkey leg as a paintbrush, with all the different foods on the table being her different colors of paint, and paint a picture on the fur on Nah’s side, as she’d been playing in her druidic cat form for a while by this point. Nah griped about getting dirty, but she cat-smirked as she did so and held still. Good old Nah! Maya obliged, grabbing a turkey leg and drawing the outline of a face with sweet potato and pie. It was a thin sort of face, with pointed ears… and she was looking up at our Void friend Elf Xamaran as a model! HA! She finished off the face and did the hair, then did the eyes with cranberry sauce. It was a Xam! HA! There were lots more spicy Truths and lots more hilarious Dares, but it’d take eons to write them all down! Suffice to say, it was an epic, fun time with great friends, enjoying the holiday of Pilgrim’s Bounty and being thankful for our blessings, including each other, and also being thankful for DEATHROLLS! WOO! I love this game!

The following night, though, was all business… it was time for the weekly Whitewind Company adventure! It started off small, with just me answering a note from Lady Cellica Whitewind to investigate sightings of one of Nah’s doppelgangers I’ve written about before… apparently Fel Nah had been seen causing trouble in Dalaran in the Broken Isles!

I went there to investigate, hoping to meet up with other Whitewinders or associated contractors. The only one I found there was Maya, who I came across in Dalaran’s Beer Garden. She looked like she’d been through the mill, all busted up and worn-out looking and her arm in a sling! Oh gosh! That explains why she hadn’t been in Uldaman and at the elemental battles with us the night before!

After talking with Maya, who said she’d been on a Voyagers mission to Drustvar and got in a fight with a wicker beast that had given her these injuries, we noticed a strange, hooded human woman with glowing pink eyes there in the garden with us. We asked her if she’d seen the Kaldorei Illidari we were searching for and gave her a description of a Kaldorei Illidari with short black hair, and her markings. She said she herself was actually looking for just that same Illidari! We talked a bit, then formulated a plan. Maya was going to search Dalaran’s Underbelly, I’d take the towers, and the woman, who called herself Tashaleth, or just Tasha for short (that’s what my bestie calls me! Tasha!), would take the ground level.

I ended up finding a spot on the tallest tower, on the balcony of a Kirin Tor tavern called The Purple Parlor, where someone had either landed hard, or pushed off into flight hard. It looked like how an angry Illidari takes off or lands! Then inside, recent signs of a fight that had only just finished a few minutes before I arrived, in which an Illidari Sigil of Flame was burned into the floor, and the burned form of a man an Illidari had attacked was slumped over the top of a bookshelf! Investigating, I found a note in an envelope regarding a large sum of gold being stolen from the mail. Boy, did he choose the wrong person to steal from!

Tasha never found anything, but Maya did… evidence of Fel Nah at the Black Market Auction House down there, and then in the arena down there! When I arrived on the scene, there was this blood elf guy in there that looked pretty badly beaten up. He said that the short-haired Illidari woman he’d fought had headed to Krasus’ Landing… which is where the flight paths out of Dalaran are!

The three of us rushed there as quickly as we could, only to find Fel Nah standing there on the edge of Krasus’ Landing, sneering back at us before spreading her Illidari wings and coasting downward. She was heading right for the Broken Shore!

We flew down as well, Maya assuming her druidic giant owl form and carrying Tasha down, and me heading down on Onyx. We lost her in the clouds, so we started investigating along the coast there. We ended up finding another Illidari patrolling the area, who said she’d seen the one we were looking for heading up to a nearby flight master. We arrived at the flight master a short time later, who said that Fel Nah had already rented a felbat back up to Dalaran – the whole thing had been a trick! She’d let us see her fly down so that she could ditch the tail and then go back to Dalaran and head elsewhere!

We flew back up immediately, discovering from eyewitnesses on the scene that Nah had gone to the portal to Stormwind. We followed, learning from mages in the Mage Tower that she’d only just been through, heading to Boralus’ portal.

We dashed through that one next, walking around a moment until we ended up next to the Seventh Legion’s ship on the dock. They were in a bit of an uproar over reports that an Illidari matching Fel Nah’s description had been through their building at the old Ashvane Company Yards, and had caused quite a scene! We rushed there next!

Once on scene, we discovered from the troops there that Fel Nah had already left, fighting the troops and even abducting one! Sergeant Edenborough, they’d said, had been snatched away!

It was here that Mairy arrived. A bit late, but better late than never! We were definitely happy to see her come and help us out!

We dashed out, investigating where to go next, as no one had seen quite where she’d gone from there. I summoned an Eye of Kilrogg to fly around and scout for us, Maya flew around in her owl form, and Mairy used her connection as a shaman to the spirits of the earth to search. I spotted some ruffians around the Hook Point slums in an uproar in an area with a lingering fel aura, Maya spotted something shady there, and Mairy’s earth elementals told her something fel and evil had angered them there. We headed there next as quick as we could!

Once on scene, we discovered a couple of injured ruffians that had tried to fight Fel Nah. Maya used her weird bugs to do healing stuff on them, and the guard on the scene that was trying to quell the disturbance said that he’d seen Fel Nah head to the bridge across the canal. We dashed away again!

Once there, I had no idea which of the two directions from there fel Nah had gone, out of the two available: Crosswind Commons, or Upton Borough! It was Eye of Kilrogg again! Mairy and Maya used their talents as well, and we ended up tracking Fel Nah through Upton Borough and into Unity Square, where we found another injured guard that said Fel Nah had run around the corner and jumped down a ledge. We followed, getting down the ledge and finding ourselves in the Boralus City Guard’s stables! From there, we found another guard, and she said Fel Nah had gone up the stairs behind her, crossed the road going uphill from Upton Borough to Unity Square, and disappeared into the alleyway across the road there.

We gave chase again, finding ourselves in a hanging garden. There was an open cellar door that gave off a bad fel aura, so we snuck in, with me sending my wrathguard Mek-barash in ahead of us. I’d rather a disposable fel minion with regenerative capabilities from my warlock magics be the one to walk into a Fel Nah ambush first!

Sure enough, when we got down there, the cellar doors slammed shut above us, and an unnatural darkness flooded the room, darkness beyond that of just suddenly losing sunlight from cellar doors being closed! I know by now that that is an Illidari spell simply called Darkness… we had found and cornered Fel Nah at last! Oh gosh!

I was on the staircase, not wanting to see a murderous-looking form of my bestie that was out to get us, feeling ready to cry over even just the thought of it. I was controlling Mek-barash for the fight instead. Mairy, Maya, and Tasha were all downstairs with Mek-barash, and they were there when a glowing warglaive, choice weapon of the Illidari, lashed out of the unnatural darkness and bit deep into each of them. The fight was ON!

I had Mek-barash swinging his axe forcefully, but with controlled accuracy, what with friends in tight quarters and all. Mairy had her stormhammer and sword dancing, visible now that the Darkness spell was dissipating. Maya was casting healing spells from behind the group, keeping them going, though nature healing doesn’t work on fel minions, which meant if Mek-barash fell, I’d have to summon a different minion and put them back in the fight! Tasha was using strange magics, stuff I’ve only seen in books, besides when Onyx or Cloud Dancer hunt. That and the glowing pink eyes made me wonder about Tasha’s true nature…

The fight was surprisingly even, despite Fel Nah being so outnumbered, with those numbers having a healer behind them besides. She was dishing out damage rapidly, though we were fighting back hard! I still controlled Mek-barash from the stairs, still not wanting to see the terrible image of my best friend corrupted once again by fel magics and especially not wanting to see her look at me with a murderous rage. Tasha’s strange magics and Mairy’s weapons still flashed on pace with the quick Illidari’s warglaives, and Maya’s weird druidic control over insects still somehow continued to heal us when not attacking Fel Nah. It seemed like a stalemate in progress!

Soon, though, Fel Nah wised up, leaping across the cellar to Maya and lashing out at her, wanting to take our healer out of the equation. In doing so, she leaped right in front of me, and I could SEE her! My bestie, my best friend, looking at US with murder in her heart! It was too much, all I could do was let the tears come. I tried to cast spells, to command Mek-barash, but the best I could do was stand him on the spot, not letting a fel minion of the Burning Legion loose upon all of us. It was so sad and heartbreaking!

Then the worst happened… Fel Nah noticed me on the stairs and CHARGED RIGHT AT ME! Being attacked by my dear best friend – even though I know, logically speaking, that it wasn’t really her – was just the most heartbreaking image of the night, and, rather than try to hurt her back, I just fell over on the stairs, tears coming at their hardest yet…

That’s when Tasha confirmed my earlier suspicious from her spell usage… she LEAPED across the cellar, landed in front of me on the stairs, and assumed a Dracthyr Form! Suddenly, she was so tall, she had to duck on the stairs, and she had a humanoid-looking dragon body! Ohmigosh! She landed right in between Fel Nah and I, and a sudden tail-whip tripped Fel Nah up, and an almost simultaneous wing buffet launched Fel Nah across the room and into the far wall, where she fell, unconscious. We’d done it! We’d stopped the Fel Nah doppelganger! Now all we had to do was get her back to the Caverns of Time in Tanaris and get a bronze dragon to send her back to her own timeline!

We found the Seventh Legion guard, too, Sergeant Edenborough. He was in the opposite corner of the cellar, unconscious and entrapped in an Illidari Imprison spell. I used my power over fel to break the Imprison spell, recovering the guard and giving him to Mek-barash to carry out.

The cellar doors were still locked ahead of us, though, so I had Mek-barash smash through them. I peered around, wondering who had shut the doors on us. It turned out to be Boralus guards, not knowing we were in there, shutting the doors on what they thought was Fel Nah until they could figure out what to do with her!

We cleared the air, and then handed over the sergeant so they could take him back to the Seventh Legion building he was abducted from to recover. From there, we moved on to the Sanctum of the Sages, the Boralus equivalent of Stormwind’s Mage Tower, to take the portal to Stormwind and then the one in the Tower to the Caverns of Time.

We caught a ride on a Keeper of Time there, a bronze dragon, down the twisting, winding corridors of the Caverns of Time, handing off Fel Nah to Zaladormu, a bronze dragon as big as a large house and a great leader of Bronze dragons. He had another Keeper of Time come to collect Fel Nah and take her away, back through a portal to her own timeline. That was it! MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

Now we gotta go find the supposedly good doppelganger, Death Knight Nah, and hope she goes quietly back to her own timeline as well. An adventure for another time… for now, it was time for everyone to go home, so we all went our separate ways. I bid everyone goodnight, thanking them for their amazing efforts and promising them that the gold from the bounty on Fel Nah would be delivered to them as usual, then returned to camp here in the Grizzly Hills.

Today, I have a much more calm adventure in store for me… Celeste, Uncle Rugnar, and I are breaking camp and heading back home! The salmon run is on its last vestiges, the goblins are dealt with, the bears are free, and now, on the primary day of Pilgrim’s Bounty, we’re gonna go take all this smoked salmon and salted elk to the Stormwind City Orphanage and deliver it to them for part of their feast! There’s the orphan I found in the Scarlet Raven, the inn in Darkshire, a few weeks ago that I’d like to go and visit in the process. Then after that, we’ll be heading home to our own Pilgrim’s Bounty!

At home, my father and sister will be meeting me there, Uncle Rugnar will be with us, and all our Anglers Wharf friends will be with us as we use part of our salmon and elk haul, as well as our Halfhill farm veggies, to make a Pilgrim’s Bounty meal of our own for our family and friends in our own home on the House-On-The-Spire! YAY!

Nat smiled and bounced happily in her camping chair a bit at that happy thought, tapping off the excess ink from her quill and stowing it away in her cherrywood quill case. She capped off her inkwell of purple ink, stowing it and the quill case into her pack. Rugnar had breakfast ready by this point, so she dished herself up a hearty plate of biscuits with gravy and a hearty side of bacon, making one more for Celeste. Dragging Celeste away from her engineering work on all the flying machines took its usual amount of effort and time, but soon she was sitting by the fire, eating her breakfast, sipping at her hot black coffee, laughing as she, Nat, and Rugnar all shared old stories of Pilgrim’s Bounties past. Pilgrim’s Bounty breakfast passed slowly but merrily, everyone taking the time to have a good time.

Soon enough, the meal was done, the dishes washed and packed, the fireplace put out and the rocks of the fire ring buried, the ashes scattered, and the campsite was returned to its original pristine, beautiful, northern mountain forest state. With everything packed up and loaded into the flying machines, Nat Blinked up into the MUTT, Celeste Blinked up into the Flying Nosebleed (with Dordy wearing his adorable aviator goggles and yip-yipping excitedly from his harness in the cockpit), and Rugnar clambered up into his own flying machine. With Onyx following, the three lifted off, ready to head through a portal to Stormwind Celeste conjured, and the trip to the Stormwind City Orphanage with all the food fished and hunted for them commenced, and Nat couldn’t wait to see the orphans, or her family and friends back home, and have a great time with the rest of her Pilgrim’s Bounty holiday!

[Natasha Ebonlocke]

( Important note: The following entry contains lore written by Blizzard Entertainment. I do not claim a single shred of credit for the lore mentioned on the Dragon Isles. The post is for roleplaying purposes only! )


December the First

The chill of Ironforge was much like that of the Grizzly Hills campsite, a sort underlying chill that was really a cozy sort, something comfortably beaten by the heat of fire. In this case, it was the fire that lives inside a mountain, a roiling, bubbling mass of magma that made the chill an afterthought, something really only noticed if one thought about it. The cozy warmth of the massive, cavernous city of the Bronzebeard dwarves echoed with the sounds of dwarves going about their daily business, the echoes causing the clang of a hammer on an anvil sound like it was not far from one’s home, when really it was far to the center of the city, at the unrivaled Great Forge. Tinkertown, too, had its share of contribution to the noise, a whirring and clicking and tapping of ingenious engineering that put one in mind of fantastic gizmos that would improve the quality of life of people everywhere. But, much like the heat of the mountain beating the chill, the sounds of a dwarven home rendered the rest only noticeable if one thought about it, much like the smell of molten magma was overridden by the mouthwatering smells of food drifting from the many homes and inns that never really escaped the mountain to dissipate. The city of Ironforge was a safe, secure, warm place of friends and family, and that made it a great place for anyone to call home!

In one such home, Celeste sat with her practically adopted Bronzebeard dwarven uncle Rugnar, poring over a few old notebooks. Nat sat at the same table, not having personally known the woman in question and therefore not having much insight to their puzzle, with her diary opened to the next blank page, her cherrywood quill case opened and ravenfeather quill in her hand, and her inkwell of her favorite purple ink opened next to a steaming mug of hazelnut coffee. With bellies full of Uncle Rugnar’s “famous” biscuits with sausage gravy, scrambled eggs, and bacon, all three were throwing themselves into their work… all save for Dordy the molten corgi, whose full belly (stuffed with a hearty amount of each of Rugnar’s dishes of the morning) had him curled up under the table in the center of all his packmates, snoozing happily and occasionally twitching as he chased something in his sleep. Celeste and Rugnar were speaking in low voices, concentrated fully upon the notebooks as they studied them while Nat dipped her quill for some ink and began to write.

Dear diary,

Goodness gracious, this week went by so very fast! None of the usual things have happened this week – no Deathrolls or Whitewind Company adventure or even chasing the other doppelganger Nah, the death knight one, down to send her back to her own timeline. Instead, big news has happened… the expedition to the Dragon Isles has finally launched, and, what’s more, I’m on VACATION for the next TWO WEEKS to go with the expedition to explore it! WOOHOO!

I met my bestie Nah, my old buddy Grim, and our good friend Maya at the ship, and we were aboard the very first one to set sail to the Dragon Isles! We were also in contact with our old friend Cari and our new friend Xam, who were there with different groups that had apparently been somewhere on the boat with us before we knew it!

There were also rumors that we’d be arriving at the same time as the icky hordies, which meant our boats would be alongside each other and possibly ending up in a big battle, but that never actually materialized, so it just ended up being a super relaxing, scenic, peaceful ride in, and OHMIGOSH WOW was it scenic! You could see from the Waking Shores, where we made landfall, all the way to the mountain where Valdrakken, the capitol city of the Dragon Aspects, is built! And that city is HUGE! It’s like a mountain itself!

But that was not our first stop! We ended up getting introduced to lots in the expedition, everyone from profession trainers to Wrathion himself, and lots of other leaders as well, as they sent our expedition onward. We went further inland, learning of the Djaradin, an ancient enemy of the dragons from when they were on this land ten thousand years ago, and helping the dragons clear lots of them out. There were also the Red and Black dragon enclaves to explore! The Ruby Life Pools of the red dragons is absolutely beautiful, with sunshine and trees and lots of ponds and stuff up on its cliff, and home to dragon eggs and whelps of all five flights to be nurtured, hatched, and nurtured some more until they’re ready to go home, all presided over by the Dragon Queen, the Lifebinder, the Preserver, the Queen of the Dragons herself, Alexstrasza! There was also the Black Citadel, where the Earthwarder Neltharion, who was corrupted by the Void and went all crazy and became known as Deathwing, used to preside in his magma flow-covered mountain opposite the valley from the Ruby Life Pools, a general of soldiers to protect the dragonflights! Protecting the latter from the Djaradin and the former from the Primalist cultists with Raszageth that invaded and tried to do weird things to the eggs was a tremendous honor for everyone in the expedition!

From there, we headed up out of the valley, pressing further inland, eventually ended up high on a plateau onto a vast, sprawling land of grassy plains called the Ohn’aran Plains stretching as far as the eye could see! It was so HUGE! We met the Green dragonflight in their groves, and even a band of centaurs that we helped defeat a clan of theirs that betrayed them, attacking them out of nowhere to try to wrest control of all centaurs and dominate and rule them. THAT one led to a huge battle that ended up with us having to use new dragonriding abilities to race against time to stop them all! I still need to go back and check on the Greens and see if there is anything I can do for them besides observing the centaurs and the daughter of the old slain Green Dragon Aspect, Ysera, whose name is Merithra, reaffirming the peace made between them after a war from many millennia ago. I guess she will be the next Green Dragon Aspect? I dunno, but she’s really cool, so I’ll be happy to help whatever the expedition does to go and help her! That’ll be more adventures for another time!

After order was restored by the expedition and the centaurs were peaceful once again, we finished crossing the plains and found ourselves in the beautiful Azure Span, which is easily my favorite region on the Dragon Isles! The land here is beautiful, a sprawling forest on a gentle slope that leads from a beach on the far south to the chilly forest and its peaceful, quiet mists, with autumn-colored grasses covering open meadows here and there in the forest, eventually leading up to a snow-covered mountain. The whole place reminds me of the Grizzly Hills so very much; there’s even a fiddler that one could swear traveled here with us from the Grizzly Hills! He sounds just the same, although the song is different! The beautiful, chilly northern mountain forest is another place I could easily find myself camping and fishing sometime!

Anyway, the Blue dragonflight makes its home here! There were issues with the primalists in an area a group called the Cobalt Assembly were having problems with, as well as a group of gnolls, as aggressive as ever, causing problems in the western parts of the forest, called Brackentide Hollow, that needed clearing out. Both were rough fights, but the expedition won out!

The expedition came into the Azure Span from the Ohn’aran Plains to the north, sweeping eastward before turning north again, this time into a darn-near impassible mountain range that would have defeated us if not for our newfound dragonriding skills! The mountain range is known as Thaldraszus, and it’s really super pretty too! Thaldraszus is home to the Bronze dragonflight, which I haven’t had much time to work with a whole heck of a lot yet. It’s also home to Tyrhold, where the Beacon of Tyrhold was lit as the Dragon Isles reawakened, clearing away the mists that hid it and summoning the five dragonflights home! The story there is like, ten thousand years ago, when the Legion invaded and the big Sundering happened, the dragonflights that went to save Azeroth weren’t able to come back, because the war sapped the life from the Isles, which stopped the Beacon of the Titan Watcher Tyr and shut it down, obscuring the dragons’ home from them for ten thousand years until finally, lately, the magic has recovered enough that the land has awakened. Somehow, the Beacon of Tyr was lit, which revealed the lands and summoned the dragonflights home again!

The mountains of Thaldraszus is also home to Valdrakken, the capitol city of the five dragon aspects, which is where I’ve spent quite a lot of time, learning new stuff with engineering and fishing and stuff! That’s on the western end, right within sight of the Ruby Life Pools across the canyon on the cliffs to the west, in the Waking Shores! To the north is a magic academy for young dragons called Algeth’ar Academy, which we explored thoroughly and helped put a stop to some mischief there, as well as learned some kind of dragon game in an arena called Lish Lrath, or, in the Common tongue, Talon Toss! I don’t really understand the sport well yet, though it involves magical things happening to the arena when all these leather balls are tossed through goals high above either end. That was fun, though it was less fun when giant birds invaded! Gosh! But we drove them off, my friends and I and the rest of the expedition! WOO!

To the far east of the Thaldraszus mountain range, past Tyrhold in the center (and the mysterious Halls of Infusion below it), lies the Vault of Incarnates, the dragon prison that held Raszageth and the other Dragon Incarnates that caused a war with the five dragonflights like twenty thousand years ago. We won’t be going in there for like two weeks, but it’s sure to take a huge group of friends when the expedition decides to start advancing through it! Gosh, that one’s gonna be scary, especially as the Primalist cultists wanna free the other Dragon Incarnates… just having one being loose and causing chaos all over the world is bad enough; imagine if the rest get free! Goodness gracious!

Meanwhile, in the middle of all this, Wrathion, “The Black Prince,” wants to set himself up as the next Black Dragon Aspect in ol’ Neltharion’s (Deathwing) place, ascending to Aspect levels of power and ruling the Black dragonflight, but, much to everyone’s surprise, out of nowhere came ANOTHER powerful Black dragon! This one’s name is Sabellian, and he wants to be the Black Dragon Aspect too! Both have styled themselves the “Heir of Neltharion,” so it’s a power struggle, and the two are bickering like mad! Both want the expedition, with all its heroes of Azeroth, to support them, but I don’t know which one to support! Wrathion is an infant in dragon years, only like what, twelve? Yet he’s done a ton to save Azeroth (even though he’s blundered into causing problems for it a few times as well), and Sabellian has done nothing at all! He simply showed up from where he’s been in the Outlands for the last few decades and decided to take the throne for himself! Yet he’s far older, far wiser, and far craftier than Wrathion, having rid the Black dragonflight in the Blade’s Edge Mountains in the Outlands of the Void corruption that tainted their flight when it spread from Neltharion, helped bring about the defeat of the dangerous gronn Gruul and his many rampaging sons and their ogre allies, as well as helped his dragonflight survive all this time on that broken, borderline inhospitable world. Yet for all his achievements in Outlands, he’s done nothing for Azeroth in all this time, and for all his years and wisdom, he’s no more mature than Wrathion, having set up a crafty scheme to make Wrathion look dumb in front of Alexstrasza herself. I dunno which of the two to support, but I currently lean Wrathion, because, lack of years and maturity aside, his heart has always been set on saving Azeroth, and he’s risked his life many times to help save it! We’ll just have to see how things go, I guess!

Anywho, that’s it for my first week on the Dragon Isles. There are lots more places to explore, lots more things to do, and likely lots and lots and lots more battles to be fought! There are still so many things to go and do, and that’s not to mention the recent resurge of professions and all the new ways of doing things people have been discovering lately!

That’s not to say that there has been zero going on at home, however. I know we didn’t have Deathrolls or a Whitewind Company adventure this week, but there is still a new mission Celeste is set on… finding her mother’s old fairie dragon, Whisperwings!

Also known as fae dragons or sprite darters, these adorable little guys are really close to the Kaldorei, who cherish them, and are found in places like Feralas and Mount Hyjal and such. They’re like two feet long, light blue bodies, with colorful wings and make adorable little cooing sounds. They’re also highly magical, able to go invisible I think? And definitely do some sort of phase change that phases them out of the natural world and makes them immune to physical attacks. They’re really cool creatures! Fun fact: the day Celeste very first revealed her feelings to me, we were sitting at Pinky’s Groggery having lunch in the beautiful Upton Borough in Boralus, waiting on a magic-activated moving plushie I was having made for her… which was a fairie dragon named Frank the Fae! Oh gosh, the memories…

But now, Celeste really misses Whisperwings, feeling that this is the last missing family member, and wants to find him! I really wanna find him too! I’ve even been setting aside time here and there from the Dragon Isles to help look for him, though we haven’t had much luck finding a lead yet…

The visit to Mechagon she wants to make to restock on engineering supplies from the junkyards there (we’ll get to go with our good mechagnome friend, Penny!) isn’t scheduled for a while, considering I was headed to the Dragon Isles like so many others, so Celeste has been keeping herself busy with the search.

Celeste, who still fears most strangers to a certain degree after what happened to her the last time she regularly visited Stormwind and put her trust in someone, and especially dislikes large, noisy crowds, wasn’t planning on going to the Dragon Isles with me. Her real adventuring days and interest in such things seem to be pretty much done, her thirst for adventure now as quenched as her use of fire magic (both quenched due to the hatefulness of a bully). Her quiet life in Pandaria suits her just fine, which makes me so happy for her! She is curious to hear about my adventures away from home, still, of course! A bit worried for my safety, naturally enough (that is never going away) but also confident that I will always return, as usual!

So, for the next few days, she has her own thing planned: tracking down Whisperwings. She would brave Stormwind (which would be far less populated, as everyone was going to the Dragon Isles) and try to find clues or witnesses who might help her.

I promised to help Celeste find Whisperwings in between Dragon Isles visits, and I’m super glad that the masses will be emptying out of Stormwind and the rest of the continent to go on the giant expedition to the Dragon Isles, so that Celeste can dang near have the whole place to herself for her search!

Celeste’s mother, Eowithiel, had wine shop in Stormwind. That and her childhood home were now gone. Not a surprise to Celeste, she said, since she had burned the place down to ashes, as she had been at a very low point in her life at the time.

That was the day she had lost Whisperwings.

She had managed to learn to live with what she had done to her mother, or the creature she had become, anyway. A year in Pandaria tended to put a lot of things in perspective.

At the time, she had thought returning to Stormwind had been the right choice. It hadn’t been the homecoming she had expected.

I was determined to make this return to Stormwind be different. I went with her, helping her to brave the empty city as she stared at the building that had been erected upon the ashes of the burned-down wine shop and upstairs apartment, keeping quiet, allowing her to remember, to feel, to process.

Celeste raised her hand to trace the torn flesh of her ear, where, once, several earrings had decorated it, and I could tell she was remembering heartwrenching things. Whisperwings abandoning her without rhyme or reason had been the last straw.

She knew better, of course. The sprite darter had no malice, and if it had left, there was a reason. Eowithiel had always said Whisperwings wasn’t a pet and was free to stay or leave. Maybe the little guy had simply moved on, Celeste had guessed.

Either way, she had to know. Her former childhood home was gone, and, in its place, a mining shop had been built. No point in trying to find valuables or sentimental objects of her childhood here, she said later. They were long gone…

Even someone that knew Celeste less well than I do would have been able to tell what memories were flooding through Celeste's mind at that moment, if they were but familiar with a few of Celeste's most dire memories.

Knowing Celeste particularly well, I remained silent, taking Celeste's free hand when Celeste's other hand went to her torn ear. Giving the gentlest of squeezes to Celeste's free hand, I remained silent, allowing Celeste to process, to take inventory, to peruse memories that had shaped her life, but also quietly offering the comfort of my presence.

The day hadn't been all bad. Breakfast at the House-On-The-Spire had been full of tales of soaring on Onyx at breakneck speeds through the air with my friends and the other dragons of the five primary flights, aiding each flight alongside my bestie Nah. Breakfast had concluded with the agreement to take a break and head to Stormwind with Celeste to help look for Whisperwings, and now, Nat stood on a cobblestone street that needed work, quietly staring at the new mining shop alongside Celeste.

“…There was a reason Whisperwings left,” Celeste eventually spoke up the next morning at home. “That was about the time that demon started popping up. You encountered it just a week or so later, Nat, remember? By the canal? I wonder if Whisps thought it was Mother and followed it. I didn’t see him in Feralas though, where it was buried.”

Celeste, sitting on the porch overlooking Turtle Bay, sipped at her coffee. In her lap was a notebook with her ideas about where Whisperwings was and her findings so far. Since she had discovered little and had even less to go on, the notebook was mostly filled with absentmindedly-drawn doodles so far.

“How’s the dragon stuff going, Nat?” she finally asked, picking up a thermos of coffee to refill her cup and mine as I sat next to her.

Nat shuddered at the memory, quietly thanking Celeste for the coffee refill. The undead Kaldorei woman that had come out of nowhere after I'd met Celeste for the first time had demanded to know who she and the red-haired woman were, and had not been satisfied with my answer, swinging her huge two-hander sword a time or two. She'd missed me, but she'd sent sparks flying when she'd hit the wall that Nat had done a Tarot card reading for Celeste (at the behest of the bully, who had torn out her earring in the process of coercing her into meeting me for the reading… not that we can complain too much; her making Celeste meet me led to us being together so happily!) on only minutes before.

"Y-yeah..." I managed. "I-I remember her... gosh, that was a really sad story... but yes, she did have Whisperwings with her! I just dunno what that does for us as a lead. It just depends on how smart fairie dragons are. Would she have been able to find her way across the ocean and back to her kind on Kalimdor?”

I puzzled over that, wondering if a fairie dragon would take a Stormwind ship that it somehow knew was going to Kalimdor.

"As far as dragon stuff," I lit up a moment later. "Oh gosh, it's going so great! All my friends have been there, the adventuring kinds, anyway, and we've been learning really dynamic and powerful new ways to ride our dragons, not to mention aiding the dragonflights themselves! We helped out the Reds and Blacks in the Waking Shores, then the Greens in the Ohn'aran Plains, as well as some centaurs there that really needed our help, then the Blues in the Azure Span, as well as some gnolls and dwarves there, and then the Bronze dragonflight in Thaldraszus, and even got to see the capitol city of the Dragon Aspects in that region, called Valdrakken! We still need to stop that Raszageth from destroying the Dragon Aspects before they can get their power back fully, though! It's really been an amazing adventure altogether!"

"Also, how fitting is it that the Dragon Isles awaken, and even someone who isn't wanting to go is now wanting to go find a dragon herself! A fairie dragon! Don't worry, Celeste... we'll find that little guy!"

And now, we’re sitting at Rugnar’s dining room table, trying to do just that! Rugnar is helping Celeste look through some of her mother’s old journals, trying to find leads from her research into fairie dragons that might give us a lead on where to search for Whisperwings next. Hopefully one of Eowithiel’s old insights will lead to a thought, which might spark an idea, which will end up an adventure to successfully recover the final member of the otherwise-complete family! I can’t wait to see what happens on the search!

As the Dragon Isles awaken, each of us have our own dragon adventures, even Celeste and Rugnar! I can hardly contain my excitement to go on all these adventures, both on the newly-rediscovered continent, and at home with Celeste as we search for Whisperwings! It’s sure to be lots of fun, adventure, and excitement! YAY!

Nat wriggled excitedly in her chair, though it didn’t distract Celeste, hyperfocused as usual when in the zone and focused on her work, though Rugnar quietly looked up at Nat with a grin and a wink from one old eye before taking a fortifying sip of coffee and returning his attention to his journal. Dordy noticed too, however, and reared up on the front of Nat’s chair from his place under the table, tail wagging, warm paws on her legs, earning himself a few pats in the process before he plopped back down on the floor to curl up and return to napping.

Tapping off the excess ink from her quill, Nat capped the former and replaced the latter in its case. These went into her pack in the upstairs bedroom she and Celeste always stayed at when visiting Rugnar in Ironforge. Returning down the stairs, Nat topped off everyone’s coffee, earning another quiet smile and wink from Rugnar, though Celeste, still in the zone, seemed to notice neither that nor the kiss to the top of her head as she worked. Nat, totally used to his endearing quality of Celeste’s, had known for what was coming up on two years (!) now that Celeste simply tended to get super-focused this way when concentrating on work, and also knew her well enough to know that the coffee top-off was fully appreciated anyway, so she smiled and picked up her diary after putting the coffeepot back on the stove, the ink on the pages now dry, and returned this to her pack as well.

Sitting back down with her family, she moved her chair around the table to sit next to Celeste, peering at the notebooks with the others. She may not have known Eowithiel, but she knew the woman’s legendary intelligence, knowledge, and wisdom always left much to be gleaned from her writings, and, perhaps, a third set of eyes might help to find such gleanings and formulate a lead. She could only hope!

Settling in to finish off what was to NOT be the last day of minication for once, but rather, just another day in what was basically three weeks off (as Nat just worked the weekends, so the week before the first weekend off and the week after the second weekend off would amount to nearly three weeks off), Nat felt sure that she and her family would solve this mystery and find Whisperwings, and, as Eowithiel had said, see if he wanted to move on, or come home, as he was not a pet. If he didn’t come home, Nat was sure, everyone would be at least relieved if they could at least find him happy in a new home he’d chosen for himself! Only time would tell!

[Natasha Ebonlocke]

December the Eighth

The sound of waves crashing against the towering rock spire came in drifted through the windows, as did the occasional cry of the morning’s seagulls. A dull murmur of quiet chatter drifted up from Anglers Wharf as well. The salt sea air was a welcome scent through the windows, though this time, so far, there was no smell of breakfast to accompany it. The smell of coffee did waft up over the wrap-around inside balcony that overlooked the lower floor, as well as from Nat’s coffee mug, which rested on her bedside table, next to her opened inkwell of purple ink and opened cherrywood quill case. Nat herself lay on the bed, her pillow tucked up under her shoulders with her arms reaching across it to her diary, which lay at the head of the bed past her pillow.

Nat looked to her right, seeing Celeste sleeping soundly there next to her. She sighed; the signs of how she’d cried were still there on her face. She reached her hand out to gently brush back a few of the stray hairs from Celeste’s face, like Celeste often did when she was awake. She looked past Celeste, watching a fairie dragon named Whisperwings sleep beside her, curled up into a ball, head under a wing. Dordy was laying further down the bed, head on his paws, staring at Whisperwings, clearly wanting to play. Nat told him once again to stay as he gave a few silent wags of his tail at being noticed, not wanting Dordy to wake Celeste up, though it was well past mid-morning and Celeste was sleeping unusually late.

Giving Dordy a reassuring smile, Nat dipped the ravenfeather quill in her hand for some ink, taking extra care to tap off the excess so she wouldn’t stain the sheets with ink, even though she had an old towel under her diary as an extra precaution against just that. Applying quill tip to open diary page, Nat began to write.

Dear diary,

Well, it’s been one loaded week, though it’s mostly been dragon stuffs; we still haven’t had any of our usual events because of how excited about this new continent everyone is!

We do plan to have Deathrolls tonight, however, and MAYBE a resuming of the normal schedule in the coming week! I haven’t decided where tonight’s game will be. I half want to have it in one of the really cool inns in Valdrakken, the Dragon Isles’ capital city, and half ready to take a break from the new area to return to one of our old haunts. I’m thinking the World’s End Tavern in Shattrath City for the live comedy and rock shows they have there, or the Salty Sailor inn in Booty Bay. If we decide against taking a break and want to stay in the exciting new place, any number of inns here would do!

The BIGGEST thing that happened this week was that CELESTE FOUND WHISPERWINGS! I have no idea how she did it, and I was surprised when she said she wanted to go alone, as I was gonna go with her, but I came home late last night from my most recent forays into the Dragon Isles and found her in bed, having obviously cried quite a bit… and Whisperwings was lying next to her!

I am waiting on her to wake up to make her a nice breakfast in bed and ask what happened, though I’m guessing it’s something to do with her mother Eowithiel (who was practically crippled by her brother and then destroyed by the bully that used to mentor us), as I last saw Whisperwings with the felguard-possessed reanimated body of her mother, who had seemed to be hunting down the bully as well as Celeste. When the body had been destroyed and buried by the bully, Whisperwings had disappeared. With Celeste having once said that Whisperwings had always stayed by Eowithiel’s side, I had speculated that maybe the little guy was intelligent enough to have found his way to the afterlife – he is a magical creature himself, after all – and found a way back to Eow once again. If so, that would explain Celeste’s tears. I’ll just have to wait until she wakes up to find out! And I’ll have a breakfast of Uncle Rugnar’s “famous” biscuits with sausage gravy, scrambled eggs, and bacon with coffee when she does!

The rest of the week in the Dragon Isles has been quite eventful! I’ve found out how to craft and set up fishing nets in a river, though I like Celeste’s drift lines better, as they aren’t as heavy. But yeah, a fishing net at a spot frequented by fish is really helping make the big hauls! I’ve mostly been selling those at the auction house in Valdrakken. It’s been bringing in more coin for Celeste and I! I’ve also still been supporting Wrathion for Black Dragon Aspect over Sabellian, run a number of errands for him, and even participated in the Siege of Dragonbane Keep, helping to clear lots of Djaradin out of the lower areas of the Keep that the Djaradin had claimed as their own when they woke up along with the Dragon Isles’ reawakening.

Another couple of things I’ve done is the Trial of the Flood and the Trial of Elements! The Trials are elemental uprisings in certain areas – the Flood takes place in a spring bubbling up from the earth at one spot in the Ohn’aran Plains, and the Elementals takes place inside Chromie’s time portal in Thaldraszus, in a cave. A chest is there at the end to loot, and I’ve found some absolutely fantastic upgrades for my summoning gear that way, just like I did in the Siege of Dragonbane Keep and the Grand Hunts!

The Grand Hunts are hunts around the Ohn’aran Plains that the centaur native to the area do. The centaur call these hunts when creatures are getting to finicky and dangerous to the rest of the wildlife around them, or their numbers are overwhelming the local ecosystem. A series of tasks will ensue on site, helping out other hunters in duress, culling numbers, or stopping frenzied groups of animals, eventually leading to a final task in which a particularly fierce creature must be stopped. These usually take a large collaborative effort, like the Siege and the Trials, but luckily enough, there are always plenty of people around to help!

More focused efforts have been made in certain areas like the Algath’ar Academy, which is a dragon school for magic, Neltharus, an old fortress of Neltharion’s (Deathwing) in which the forges were used to make incredible weapons for his soldiers but are now infested with Djaradin, the Ruby Life Pools of Alexstrasza the Dragonqueen, in which the Primalist cultists have been repeatedly trying invade to destroy the eggs and whelplings of all five flights that are taken there to be nurtured, and several other places. Whew! It’s really been lots and lots of stuff to do!

That’s pretty much all that’s gone on this week. Without more in-depth storylines involving my friends and I more specifically, I really don’t have enough to write about this week, unfortunately. But, a return to Deathrolls tonight and a return, hopefully, to the regularly-scheduled events we’ve always done should happen this coming week! In the meantime, I’d probably better get breakfast prepared to cook for Celeste, so that it’s done shortly after she wakes. I want some comfort food and my (hopefully) comforting presence there for her when she wakes to talk. After that, I’ll probably take her out fishing someplace. Maybe we’ll use that portal she makes that are tied to her Boots of the Bay that act sort of like a hearthstone to Booty Bay, and go fish some really wild fish that put up good fights out of the jungle rivers or something! We’ll see what happens. All I know about it is, Celeste has completed her search, Whisperwings has come back to us, and I’ll get to spend the day with Celeste before Deathrolls with my friends! YAY!

Containing a cheer that nearly escaped her at those happy thoughts, Nat tapped off the excess ink from her ravenfeather quill and replaced it in her quill case, closing it and capping her inkwell. She climbed out of bed, returning them to her desk in her office, in the drawer where they live down one side of the desk. Heading to the spiral wrought-iron staircase, she proceeded downstairs next, her coffee mug in hand, getting a refill and pulling out breakfast stuff. Ingredients for gravy were prepared, but she didn’t make the gravy yet. A number of eggs were selected, bacon was sliced, and sausage crumbles were broken off a breakfast sausage log and placed into a bowl. Everything went back into the food chest chilled by Nat’s frost magic, and Nat took her refill of hazelnut coffee back upstairs. The ink on the pages of Nat’s diary now dry, she took it back to the office, replacing it in its place on one of her bookshelves, the one left of her desk against the wall perpendicular to her desk. Selecting a novel she was in the middle of, she took it and her coffee back to bed, climbing in, still in her sleepwear, to read and sip at coffee until Celeste awakened and was ready for some breakfast. She really wanted to be there for Celeste while the whole sad tale was recounted, just like she always hoped to be. Celeste deserved it!

[Natasha Ebonlocke]

December the Fifteenth

Celeste hummed softly as she made her inventory of her workshop. Half-finished projects cluttered a workbench while on another, spare parts were neatly separated into small bins or piles. Opposite the aquarium, the MUTT lay silent, its front panel open and mechanical guts hanging out. Celeste had been in the middle of tuning it when she couldn't find the part she needed. Since the inventory was needed prior to the Mechagon expedition anyways, she had paused work on the machine and turned to clean up her workshop. Being who she was, the workshop was always in some state of controlled chaos. Still, the process was slow going, and even in her second day of inventory, there seemed to be no end in sight for her task. She didn't mind though; sorting things was something she liked doing. It didn't required concentration, and there was always something else to do. Dordy, meanwhile, dozed on a cushion near the MUTT.

Nat, meanwhile, had been sitting at the workbench, writing down everything Celeste said she'd like to procure from Mechagon Island, in between being up and about, helping Celeste clean up the workshop, moving things to places Celeste wanted them.

The list, such as it was thus far, included power cells, thermal cells for their cold-weather camping trips, a smaller set of wrenches for some of the tiny bolts the little Mechagnomes sometimes used on lighter tech, assorted new parts for the MUTT's internal combustion engine, and some new wiring for one that was getting a little bit frayed in the MUTT's left arm, right at the elbow joint, and the list was still growing.

Slow going though the process was, Nat was thoroughly enjoying her break from the Dragon Isles, exciting and fun though her new expedition might be. Still, nothing ever beat hanging out with Celeste!

In between helping Celeste and writing stuff down on a list, Nat decided to make a start on her diary post for the week as well. Next to the list of items to procure from the Mechagon junkyard rested Nat’s diary, opened cherrywood quill case, and uncapped inkwell of purple ink. With ravenfeather quill in hand, Nat dipped her quill for more ink and moved to write in her diary for a while as she waited for more items for the list.

Dear diary,

Gosh, it’s been a busy, busy last week of vacation! I got to learn how Celeste found Whisperwings, I had a Deathrolls game Friday night with my friends in World’s End Tavern in Shattrath City while getting live comedy and rock shows! There was also a lot to do up at the Dragon Isles as well!

The BIGGEST thing that happened was Celeste succeeding in finding Whisperwings, getting to hear about how she accomplished it, and then Whisperwings’ big life decision!

I remember I was look out the window in our bedroom, smiling at the clear blue sky. I felt the instant my cup of coffee had disappeared from my hand, but still could only mock-glare at Celeste as she took a sip of my coffee, grinning mischievously.

''Good morning,” she greeted me, one hand going over Whisperwings to pet Dordy's head lovingly. “How long was I out?''

Sitting up, she handed me my coffee back and brushed her strawberry blond hair back behind her ears. She blinked back against the light.

“Bright in here,” she observed while I was trying to determine the answer to her question. “I guess it would be. Everything seems flooded with light after spending several days in Ardenweald.”

"You've been out since I got home last night, and now it's like, lunchtime," I answered after a moment to think, bringing the breakfast in bed I'd planned for when Celeste woke up. "Got all your favorites here! Your OWN cup of coffee,” a giggle, "biscuits with sausage gravy, scrambled eggs, and bacon! And gosh, yeah, I guess you would be feeling the glare of the sun in Turtle Bay after all that Ardenweald adventuring. Wanna talk about it?"

Celeste immediately started wolfing down the food, mumbling her thanks with her mouth full. She took a sip of coffee to wash it down and nodded to my question.

“I do owe you an explanation for leaving on my own,” she conceded. “It wasn’t because I didn’t want you or your help. Last time I was in Ardenweald I had to find a way to leave with Tom’s soul. It involved anima and a distraction that was mostly fire. I was trying to go more anonymously, and, if things went sideways, I didn’t want you barred from Ardenweald as well.”

"Well, I have zero plans to ever return to Ardenweald myself," I replied, "But still, thank you so much for being considerate of me! So what actually happened out there?"

“I found Whisps; I guess that’s obvious…” she started.

“He’s a bit tired, Dordy. Maybe he’ll be able to play later, ok?” she said to Dordy, who seemed just ready to burst with his interest in this new playmate.

“Whisperwings was there, like you thought. Just lazily floating over one of those glowing ponds, chasing after light motes. Poor thing looked like he hadn’t eaten in days.” She reached over to gently stroke the sprite darter’s thin flanks where his ribs were showing “We’ll have to get some fruit for him. It’s all he really eats.”

Celeste looked back at me, and I could see that her eyes were becoming wet again with unshed tears.

“He was… guarding Mother, in a way,” she continued. “There was this pod thing lying in the pool he was flying over. I sensed her. Maybe his bond with Mother was strong enough that he went to her, even in death. Later I learned that, as you know, some of those rebirth pods were just abandoned, because of the scarcity of anima. Whisps, he, he did his best to stop them from abandoning Mother’s pod, even giving some of his own life force to keep her pod alive. I had some anima left over from my time in the Shadowlands. I bartered with the guardians. Gave them enough to keep Mother’s pod and save a few others too. Until… until Mother was finally able to…. move on…”

Celeste brought her hands to cover her face, crying softly.

"Gosh..." I said, as I moved to take Celeste into my arms and comfort her, and Dordy, sensing Celeste's sadness, abandoned his attempts – for now – to play with Whisperings, giving a soft whine and curling up next to her, putting his head in her lap and looking up at her with wide puppy-dog eyes.

"Well," I said as I rubbed Celeste's back. "You may take some comfort in knowing that, since Sire Denathrius and the Jailer were dealt with, the anima drought ended, and new anima should be building up more and more in over the coming weeks and months. With that, all of Ardenweald should be restored to its former balance! Your boost even gave it a head start! I'm sure Eowithiel and the others there will be fine, peacefully nurturing and caring for the forest there from now on."

"I'm really sorry you had to experience all that, though, and that you had to lose your mother far, far earlier than you ever should have. But I'm also glad you got to see her finally get to a peaceful place. I'm here for you if you need anything."

Celeste nodded, wiping her eyes “I know. I’m ok really, I just.., I could sense Mother’s anguish. I think she left this world believing she had failed me. Her soul was restless. I think she felt my presence, somehow. I camped out next to her pod. Talked to her. I told her about you and Dordy, uncle Rugnar. Tom too. I told her about our life here, our friends. I told her that the bully had admitted killing Father, how I didn’t give in to her. How I was free now. I think I got through. I felt her becoming more and more at peace. I guess it was her time. I woke up one day and she was gone. Reborn, I suppose. Whisps was sleeping next to me. I told him he could stay in Ardenweald since things were improving, but he just tagged along.” She took a deep breath and even smiled. “It was sad, but at the same time, I think we both needed this. That closure. I know Mother was proud of me and while I made mistakes, despite her guidance, I think she was happy for me. Content. I’m happy here, with you. You know that, but I think I really feel light again. Like this dark cloud over my head finally went away.”

I held Celeste through it all, all the time she spoke. I smiled to hear Celeste talk about how she and her mother both had finally found peace in the aftermath of the bully's terrorizing. She let Celeste speak without interruption, getting it all out, holding her all the while. When Celeste finished, she completed the hug with a big, warm, prolonged squeeze, something Dordy wriggled his way in between, now laying his head on Celeste's shoulder. Whisperwings, though still tired, mounted up on her other shoulder, resting himself there with his tail draped around Celeste's shoulders. Cloud Dancer and Onyx swooped around closely outside, and Nosebleed and Ebonhoof trumpeted and neighed from Turtle Beach. The magic of familial love flowed through their entire family, all coming to Celeste as she spoke of tragedy, closure, and finding peace and happiness again.

Celeste had moved herself, Dordy and Whisperwings to Ironforge for the following days, not wanting to be alone while I was on the Dragon Isles and needing to tell her Uncle about what had transpired. I, of course, joined them in her uncle's cozy stone home, staying there at night to sleep and during the day whenever I wasn't off traipsing around with dragons.

Rugnar had listened to Celeste’s story in silence, several times muttering apologies for all the smoke from his fireplace that was stinging his eyes and making them water, drawing knowing grins from us despite the somber nature of the story.

Whisperwings was getting more and more active the more we got him fed up and refreshed. One time, late in the evening, Celeste motioned for me to join her as she watched her uncle downstairs. It was quite late, and there was only the glowing embers of the fireplace downstairs illuminating her uncle seated at his stone kitchen table. He was preparing different fruits and feeding them to Whisperwings, clearly trying to see what he liked most, and quite pleased each time the sprite darter seemed to relish a particular bite.

Finally, when Celeste was ready to go home, to no one's surprise, Whisperwings didn't follow her into the portal. I remember Celeste had said before that Eow had said that Whisperwings was his own sprite darter, that he could come or go as he pleased, and live wherever he wished. Well, it seemed he had chosen a new home after all!

I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Uncle Rugnar's house. The recounting of the story of finding Whisperwings brought another tear to my eye, though I she felt no need to explain it away by the smoke from the fire, smiling quietly as Uncle Rugnar did so. I particularly enjoyed watching Rugnar and Whisperwings reacquainting themselves with each other, and was unsurprised, though slightly saddened, that Whisperwings would not be coming home with us. Yet I was super happy for Rugnar, now that not only would he now have a companion to share his home with, but that it would also be a familiar pal from the past that reminded him of good memories of a very, very good person. The same would be true for Whisperwings, staying with this nice, golden-hearted dwarf that fed him the very best fruit and reminded him of good memories of that good person as well.

''I think they both need each other,'' Celeste said to me as we arrived home the next morning. ''I'm happy Whisps seems comfortable there. I even heard uncle Rugnar say he'd bring him to some 'woodsy nature place''' Celeste said, imitating her uncle's gruff voice at the end.

"I agree," I nodded as I arrived home with Celeste, giggling at her Rugnar impression. "And I'm sure Rugnar is already busy talking over plans with Whisperwings to go camping in one of their old mutual favorite places!"

One big thing about the Dragon Isles is that I got to learn LOTS from the Iskaara Tuskarr about FISHING! WOO! I’ve increased my number of fishing nets, which I usually place in this REALLY big, broad river, where it widens out after all the waterfalls it splashes down the Thaldraszus Mountains from. There are problems to deal with, however; sometimes oversized predatorial fish like to swim in and get to the massive abundance of fish there, and otters play in the river as well, including messing up fishing nets! This goblin wanted me to go blow the otters up, but I said no way! So instead, what he made was this otter-scaring thingy that will just frighten the otter away from nets without hurting them at all. That works! The weirdest thing I’ve done so far is a daily task to use Tuskarr water-gliding shoes to zoom around on a high-elevation mountain lake to throw fishing nets to catch fish. Weird, but it works!

My next goal for fishing is to craft things that will help my fishing nets be more effective, for which I have my sights set on learning to craft Draconium Fishing Net Weights!

Then there have been more Dragon Isles stuffs going on, like politics stuff while everyone tries to figure out Wrathion and Sabellian to see who will be the next Black Dragon Aspect (Team Wrathion GOOOOOO!), and the first forays into the Vault of the Incarnates, where the Primal Incarnate dragons were imprisoned like twenty thousand years ago to stop them and their reign of chaos on the world, have started! Raszageth is sure to give adventurers fits, but I’m betting we can overcome her! The Maruuk Centaurs have stuff going on all over the plains, including the Grand Hunts, the Iskaara Tuskarr have huge Community Feasts in which I get to help them cook, I got to help in the Siege of Dragonbane Keep, take part in the Trial of Floods and Trial of Elements, assist in shutting down Elemental Storms of all elemental types, and building my reputation with all the factions here… and I keep discovering more cool, fun stuff I can do! WHEW!

I think my favorite thing besides fishing to do in the Dragon Isles is DRAGON RACING! With a lifelong bond already established from having Onyx from an egg when I was little, he and I are zooming so hard all over the place, learning new abilities to zoom ever faster and become more maneuverable all the time! The dragon races are SO fun, going to different places all over the Dragon Isles, getting on the starting line with a bronze dragonkin setting up the race, then ZOOMing forward when the race starts, soaring through the air along a course marked by green rings, with each ring turning gold when it’s the next one up. The catch is, soaring through the air doesn’t mean soaring high in the sky! You ride through the ruins of old dragon architecture, under rock arches on the sides of mountains, through trees, and so many other obstacles, whipping over, under, or around them as you make what are often hairpin turns in a super challenging course! It’s so THRILLING to zip through all these obstacles on the race course while flying like a blur through the air at what feels like supersonic speeds! WOO!

I also got to hang out with Cari, sitting on a tiny island in the middle of a forested mountain stream with a great big beaver dam! Cari has been through quite a lot lately. She did ask me to promise not to repeat the long list of troubles she has now, so I won’t write more on that, of course.

Then Thursday night was DEATHROLLS! It was me, my bestie Nah, my old buddy Grimmie, Cari, and our Quicksilver Company friend Annabelle! We got to play at the World’s End Tavern in Shattrath City in the Outlands, too, so we got to have live stand-up comedy and live rock shows while we played! It was so great! The night was actually a really a funny night, though Nah got so many drinks in me from all the Dares she got me with that I can’t remember much of it, unfortunately. At least her drinks were tasty instead of like one hundred percent alcohol that tasted like goblin rocket fuel or something!

The things I do remember were Cari Daring Nah and I to walk around the tavern blindfolded after being spun around a whole bunch (which ended up with me thinking that this one big, stout barrel was Grim, and I was talking to it as though it were Grim… oops! Gosh!), Cari getting Nah and I again in a Dare and having us go cheer on the Tauren Chieftans’ live rock show and try to outdo each other while we acted like maniacal fangirls, and… that’s about it. It bums me SO much that I lost the whole Deathrolls game from my memory! I really, really wish I could remember more, because I remember having tons of fun that night! I LOVE Deathrolls! ARGH!!!!!

Saturday and Sunday nights, though, I got to go to the Winter Veil Jubilee, a big market and festival being held up in snowy Kun-Lai Summit, in the Shado-Pan Monastery, of all places! My bestie Nah came with me for the Saturday night one, and we bought lots of stuff together! We visited Mags’ Redridge Soap Company stall first of all, of course, and we got to see Mags, her lady Elsa, and their coworker and friend Gnoll! Nah went first, picking out an assortment of things while I got to see GOMMAAN, who had snuck up on me from behind and booped my nose! I was SO happy and excited, because I haven’t seen Gommaan in FOREVER! The Draenei guy that works as a professional Jed’hin fighter and professional wrestler! He used to come to Deathrolls games all the time before he took a year-long hiatus from the scene, and now he’s BACK! Then he left to go get ready for a boxing match that was being held as part of the Jubilee, and it was my turn with Mags, so I made a purchase of all my usual lotion, shampoo, liquid soap, hair serum, and conditioner, in my usual lavender and goldthorn scents, plus another bottle of each in Mags’ seasonal scents, which were Winter Veil themed, like Crisp Snowfall and Cedar Pine! Then I got a three-pack of all four of her seasonal Winter Veil bath bombs, which were Frosted Pine (evergreen, pine, holly, woodsy cedar, fresh-cut spruce, and sap fragrances), Snowman (plums, cranberries, citrus, aquatic, damp, pine, and goldthorn scents), Snowglobe (crisp snowfall, damp, sage, light, and aquatic fragrances), and this multi-colored one called Holiday Bauble (each color a different holiday scent, such as cinnamon, gingerbread, pine, and snow), all of which are just awesome!

I also got this one sort of bread with spices, cheddar, and salami baked into it, which was like carrying around a meal in a single big piece of bread! I had apple cider with that. I shared it all with Nah. We both agreed, it was really good stuff!

Then Nah and I went back to the boxing matches, because Gommaan was having his turn! Boxing isn’t really something Gommaan has really specialized in specifically, so the human guy he was going up against did land some good punches, but I’m sure in a normal fight, that skinny human guy would have stood like NO chance at all, whatsoever! TEAM GOMMAAN! WOO!

I rounded out the first night by going to this one particular stand which made particular things to have something custom-made for Celeste as one of her Winter Veil gifts! I can’t wait to give it to her!

The next night, I went back (Nah had other things to take care of that night, so she couldn’t come, unfortunately), since the Jubilee was a three-night affair, and this was the third night (I spent the first night hanging out with other friends!). Mags’ stall was just there the one night, so in its place this time was one of her dearest friends, Nathan Caldwell, a Gilnean, who was running a pancake stand! Just like during Hallow’s End, I got the pancake melt, which was bacon, cheese, and fried eggs in between a stack of three pancakes, with syrup on top! Hot chocolate rounded out the meal nicely! I went and picked up my custom-made order from the day before at the other stand, then returned to Nate’s stand to hang out with friends there and finish my meal. Along with Nate, there was Annabelle, Gnoll, Sir Aladar, Vel, Ryck, and so many others! It was really fun hanging out with them, and, at the end of it all, the judges that were there judging the booths (including my old friend from Stormwind hang-outs ELINORE!) ended up picking Mags’ Redridge Soap Company booth, out of all of the many booths there, for third place! It was great! I’m glad I got to go to the Jubilee!

Today, however, is the last day of this nearly three-week-long vacation from work, and that is sad. But, I had a great, GREAT time, got to do SO many exciting new things, spent time with SO many friends, and got SO much done! So, a vacation well spent, I’d say! For now, I’m hanging out with Celeste in the workshop while she cleans and reorganizes it to help herself prepare for our next adventure… a trip into Mechagon for another salvaging run in the junkyard there! We need so much stuff! I have been keeping up a list of things to get while we’re at the junkyard in between helping with clean-up tasks Celeste has for me since I came to help, and that list is still growing! Later, when we’re done, we’re gonna go relax in the bay for a while! I think we’ll fish a bit first, then let Dordy loose for a while in his Dordy Bubble! It should be a really nice day! I’m glad I had such an amazing vacation! YAY!

Nat squirmed happily in her chair as she thought back on her amazing vacation, tapping the excess ink from her quill and replacing it in its case and capping her inkwell. She took these upstairs to be put away in her office desk drawer, along with both their coffee mugs, refilling them and dropping a bit more liquid hazelnut creamer in her own and leaving Celeste’s black, the way she likes it. She returned downstairs, passing Celeste her mug and getting a quick peck in thanks before returning to her diary. The ink on the pages now closed, she snapped it shut and rushed to put it upstairs in her office in its place on one of the many bookshelves in the room. Dashing back downstairs, she resumed list-making and workshop-cleaning until Celeste declared herself satisfied with both.

Their task done, the pair donned their bikinis and went with Dordy to the Wave Dancer, fishing gear loaded up and ready to go. The rest of the morning was spent fishing, with enough of a haul to make a lunch of it, even with Dordy’s bottomless pit of a stomach. The afternoon being dedicated to rest to end the vacation, the two spread out beach towels along the deck of the small watercraft and laid back to get some sun.

The Wave Dancer bobbed slowly in the waves that slowly passed through Turtle Bay. Celeste lay on the prow of the boat on her back, wearing a deep blue bikini decorated with different sort of fruits made from silver thread. She was mostly dozing, her face covered by a large sunhat made from woven straw. Held loosely in her hands and lying on her bare belly was some sort of fruity drink they’d gotten as they made a short stop in Anglers Wharf to grill up their catch for lunch. The drink’s decorative rice-paper umbrella had been stolen by Dordy a while ago.

The pup was currently in his bubble, barking at all the underwater critters. His tinny yips could still be heard on the Dancer. He was a good boy that always stayed close!

Nat rested beside Celeste on the deck, wearing the purple Shal'dorei silk her bestie Nah had gotten for her last Winter Veil. She laid in silence, watching the clouds for once instead of blasting through them at breakneck speed on dragonback.

In her head were all the events that had gone on in the last month or two. The fast-track of events had raced from a jungle visit to heal a direhorn and prank-paint a giant devilsaur to fishing up a bunch of salmon from a massive salmon run to the stealth demolition of a goblin grizzly-mind-controlling station to the discovery and deep exploration of a new continent and the rush to restore ancient Titan magical powers to the Dragon Aspects before the Primalist cultists can get the ancient primal dragons released from their prisons to wreak havoc on the world.

With a tired but happy sigh, Nat continued her cloud-watching. This was a nice moment. Though she couldn’t wait to see what would happen next in the adventures of her life, just being out with Celeste and Dordy, letting Dordy have some playtime, and resting with Celeste instead of being out zooming was a great break!

[Natasha Ebonlocke]

( Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all have a safe and happy holiday with your family and friends! )

December Twenty-Second

A cold wind blew through the junkyard of Mechagon Isle, whistling over different cylindrical openings like blowing over bottle tops, rattling discarded scraps of metal and parts, and generally making a racket like one would only find on the Isle. The air was chilly this December morning, and whatever organic critters might still exist on the isle had taken refuge where they could, leaving nothing but scrap heaps in the immediate area for as far as one could see. The air had a mingle of salt sea, oil, metal, and a faint, distant odor of the toxic sludge pools further away on the isle.

Inside one of these scrap heaps, however, was a makeshift homestead, more of a house, or at least a shelter, than it was a tent. Indeed, a look inside would find a canvas camping bed, a fireplace with a chimney made from local scrap metal, and a scrap metal table covered in power cells, tools, and other spare parts from the junkyard. A look upward and all around would find a hollow dome built with metal struts in a geodesic design, one covered with scraps from the junkyard. A look at the heap from the outside would simply make it look like just another junk heap in the junkyard.

Within this dome sat Nat, who had added a thermos of hot hazelnut coffee, her diary, inkwell of purple ink, and cherrywood quill case to the odds and ends at the table, preparing to write her diary entry for the week. Celeste was up in the cockpit of the MUTT, twiddling dials and turning levers from time to time after calling down to their mechagnome friend Penny to make this adjustment or that one. Penny, standing on the other end of the table from Nat, was elevated high enough to reach inside the torso of the MUTT to make each adjustment, her mechanical fingertips opening and closing to extend whatever type of tool she needed for the job. With each adjustment and turn of a dial or flip of a lever, different tools extended or retracted, with Penny cleaning and oiling each one.

Dordy was having a fine time, up in the cockpit with Celeste, who talked to him excitedly about each task she and Penny were performing, riling him up more and more each time even though he didn’t know what she was saying. He was yip-yipping each time Celeste spoke to him, bouncing around in the cockpit, throwing his front paws up on the top of the front wall to yip-yip down at Penny and Nat (from whom he earned giggles and more attention and talking), and turning around in rapid circles, his tail wagging rapidly all the while.

Nat smiled up at her family and their little friend, dipping her ravenfeather quill for some ink and setting to work.

Dear diary,

HAPPY WINTER VEIL! YAY!

It’s been such a fun week! I’ve already had a bit of Winter Veil gift exchanging, hanging out in Ironforge under a giant, brightly-lit Winter Veil tree with friends for WINTER VEIL-THEMED DEATHROLLS! But first, I got to hang out with Maya to get help crafting one of my gifts!

I called Maya Tuesday morning over the comms, reaching her after a bit of crackling static.

"Maya, you there? I could use your help crafting my bestie Nah's gift!"

"Hey, yeah,” Maya responded with a giggle. “I'm here, what's up!?"

"Hiya, Maya!" I giggled back. "Erm... I have this gift idea for Nah, but I could use a bit of druidic magic to make it work! Basically, a snazzy new lock pick set, but one that would benefit from her druidic powers as well! Imagine, instead of mundane metal tools, if she had a petrified tree! Super hard so it isn't breakable, but like, wood still, so she could manipulate it with her magic in addition to her lockpicking skills, and get even better at lockpicking as a result! Do you know how we might enchant them to be able to be manipulated by druidic magic? If so, could we meet up?"

Maya paused for a moment, humming to herself. "Oh! Just use runes like I do on my fingers. I can probably get a few from my old books. It will make whatever it is inscribed on respond to the provided magic. Basically I charge an inscribed rune with life magic and from then on, it will respond to it!"

"That's awesome, Maya! Are you free for me to come meet you for that now? I already have the petrified tools crafted from a rowan tree in Duskwood!"

"Yeah give me a few to find the runes needed...then oh! Nah's actually not at her house in Stormwind and that has my books so...want to meet there?"

"Oh, yeah, sure, that works for me!"

"Meet when?"

"Hmmm...I'll get ready and head there now, so anytime really!"

"Okies! I'll meet you there in just a few!"

When Maya arrived, I was hanging around sitting on a crate outside Nah's house in the alley, smiling and talking in a low voice to Onyx as I stroked the wispy black drake's head. A small cherrywood box sat on the crate to her right.

Maya smiled as she walked up, a few scrolls tucked underneath her arm. She pulled a key out of her pocket as she approached. "Hiya Nat! This should be the perfect spot; I don't think Nah's coming back here until right before tonight. Ready to get started?!" As Maya spoke she turned the key and the lock clicked on the front door.

I looked up with a smile as Maya approached, slipping awkwardly down from the crate and staggering a bit as I landed on my clumsy feet.

"Hiya, Maya!" I said happily with a wave after regaining my balance. "Yeah! Ready to get started!"

I followed Maya in the door, eyeing the scrolls with interest.

"Whatcha got there?"

Maya smiled as she shut the door behind me. "Oh, just the ritual for charging the runes. It's not exactly enchanting; it's kind of like teaching the runes a type of magic. Weird to describe but, the process is all written down!"

Maya picked through the bookshelf on the wall covered ceiling to floor in journals. On a little section over to the bottom left was a small section that seemed to be filled with hard covered tomes. "Ah! Here we are, The Basics of Runic Etchings. This book is where I learned most of my runic tattoos. Symbols are easy enough to carve...but you said petrified wood right?"

"Ooooh, coooool!" I said as I went closer to peer at the book, my interest piqued. "I don't think I've learned much about that, outside of the time in Stormheim on the Broken Isles, where that guy who's a tree told me a little bit of it during the Legion campaign. So you know how to do that?"

I held up my cherrywood box, opening it to reveal a petrified set of wooden lockpicks, remembering I was asked a question first.

"Yeah, a petrified rowan tree from Duskwood!"

Maya nodded. "Kind of! To be honest, the magic application is pretty universal. You just need the right language. Most of the inscription of it I've learned from my work on the Quiraji."

Maya pulled down the collar of her sweater to reveal a golden rune tattooed on her body.

"I have one line in gold and a line in purple down my back. That's where I learned what runes mean what! Charging the magic is more basic and just needs a steady flow of the magic you want!"

"Gosh, you have more tattoos all the time!" I said, peering at the new golden rune Maya was sporting. "So that's how you'll be doing the lockpicks? Runic magic?"

"Well,” Maya giggled as she replied, “the front ones are for Nah and the back ones are for Xam! Think I'm done with tats for at least a few weeks," she snickered. "But yes! To answer your question, this is how I'll be doing it. I'll just use probably a titanic language when I do it. These are both in Quiraji. That's better for void magic... Titanic is the most versatile!"

"Oh, that's interesting to know!"

I opened up my cherrywood toolkit case, handing the tools over to Maya.

"Here they are!"

Maya looked over the tools before opening her scrolls and perusing her books, then looked up to me. "Hmmmm... if you could tell me what you'd like it to do... it will make the inscriptions more accurate! Then I'll start to carve... after checking the wording with you."

"Well, basically what I want it to do is be able to bend according to Nah's wishes, so it can slip into locks and alter the pins more accurately than just a mundane stiff lock. I figure Nah's druidic magic would be able to manipulate the wood that way, and it being petrified would make them stronger and not splinter or break, making them even stronger than metal picks!"

Maya tapped her chin as she thought. "Okay... then I think the words we're looking for will be... Shape, Form, Will, and Store. This will allow it to take different forms, bend and change its shape, store energy given to it, and obey the will of the user. Now we just need... aha! Here we are." She pointed to a rune in the book. "Return." This is a runic double! It will return to the matching rune I can inscribe on the case, so she can't lose it! Also it will make it return to it's original shape once she stops channeling the magic!"

I couldn’t help but stare at Maya for a moment there, totally in awe of her enchanting knowledge!

"Woooow... cooooooollll..." I said, looking at the runes in the book. "Those are all ingenious ideas! That's some intelligent spellcasting!"

”Well,” Maya chuckled, "it's a more recent development when it comes to enchanting. Spellwork and armor I know almost nothing of it isn't etched." She looked over the set for a moment. "It's small, so the runes will have to be too. Might take me a minute since it's petrified. But, first is the carving!"

Maya formed a claw on her forefinger, her worgen/druidic shapeshifting mastery showing, before pulling out a metal file. "So what's been new with you?!" Maya began filing the claw to a sharper point.

"Oh, nothing new that you don't already know, I suppose," I replied as I watched Maya work with interest. "Except maybe my current camping trip on Mechagon Isle. Celeste and I went with Penny, our Mechagnome friend, to go and rummage for some spare parts to replace the stores we've used at home, and to see if we might come across some nifty new things. Other than that, just Dragon Isles exploration. What about you?"

Maya looked over at me as I spoke, smiling and replying after. "Hmmm...nothing really new! I've been shopping around with Xamaran and Nah, finding gifts for the other! Besides that I've been mostly focused on tonight!"

Maya begins to carve the symbols into the first tool.

"I guess other than that, it's just been getting back into the Voyagers a bit... talking and getting to know Nah and Xam a bit better! Though, that's... really a constant, I suppose," she added with a giggle.

"Gosh, I know almost nothing at all about Xam... and even with Nah, even with having been besties for a couple of years now, I still feel like there's lots and lots more I could learn about her! I guess that's how it is when your bestie is thousands of years old."

Maya snickered as she finished with the first tool. She picked up the second and started to carve.

"Well, that wall over there is all her journals. She's writing almost constantly! There's definitely a lot I don't know... but, I guess I feel I know all that I need to! At least enough to know how try and make her happy."

Maya shrugged it off and breathed before finishing off the runes on the second tool and moved to the next.

"Xam is a little easier because she's more shy than a mystery. Sure, she has interests that cross with mine, but her kindness is what's most interesting."

She blew the dust from the tool she held and inspected the runes.

"I'm sure it must have been like that with Celeste right!? Finding out things that are new and interesting! Common interests, likes, dislikes... all that fun stuff!"

I nodded at the bit about Nah's writing.

"Nah has always written rather a lot,” I replied as I watched Maya work her rune etching. “She's jotting down stuff in that endearingly messy Darnassian script of hers from time to time, and I wonder how much of it is her wanting to journal, and how much is her just fidgeting if she's sitting still for too long.

"As for Celeste, yeah, pretty much the same thing. Gosh, from the moment we met, we were thick as thieves. We did everything together, even when we just saw each other as super close friends. Finding out all about her life, her childhood, her likes and dislikes, her modern – at the time – life, and discovering what a brilliant head she has for fishing and engineering, it was a really awesome time!"

Maya giggled as I described the Nah she has come to know so well herself, and nodded along as she listened. She worked on the next tool as she spoke.

"Exactly! Nah and I weren't really particularly close though... even Xam happened over time. I guess both have been a little bit of a mystery, but it's been one that's been amazing to figure out! Nah's definitely always active but, I feel like learning to embrace that and the mischief has made her a lot more comfortable! I still end up cracking a smile when she pulls one over on me. Then I get to laugh about it with Xam while I'm cleaning slime or flour off of me."

She took a break to laugh before carving at the last tool.

"All goes back to what you said the first day, hm? Learning what makes Nah feel happy, safe, comfortable...it's not always easy, but I usually get a laugh or two out of it!"

I laughed as well, grinning at the thought of the years of history of getting pranked by my bestie.

"Yeah, Nah and I started off the same way – not particularly close at first. I was in tight with this other girl named Nea who headed up security for Blackflag Imports. Nah was but a coworker I saw from time to time back then. Nah was always there for me, pranks or no, and when Nea decided to retire and leave, Nah remained with me. We were always at Deathrolls games and staying after to talk, and then we ended up closer. Innumerable panties pranks or other sorts of pranks or stories of pranking nobles and other elves followed, and pretty soon, I was having more fun and laughs with Nah than anyone ever!

"Still, though, it wasn't until we stayed late after Deathrolls one December night two years ago now that she poured her heart out to me concerning stuff about being an Illidari, and about finding her parents in Ardenweald when Azeroth first got access to it, and how badly it was all affecting her.

"A long discussion in which I tried to provide comfort and encouragement followed, then more Deathrolls fun and leaving Deathrolls games together followed that, then the game where she Dared me as a game-closing Dare to go see Celeste from Kirthaven all the way to Ironforge (before we moved in together) where she lived with her uncle wearing nothing but my bikini. Somewhere in that time period we talked about how close we'd gotten, and then we declared ourselves besties!"

Maya giggled throughout the story as she worked.

"Actually,” she said as she carved, “the funny thing is that a day of pranks did wonders for us too! We ended up hiding from the guard for awhile and just talking. Telling each other about our biggest fears, what we genuinely enjoyed about one another. It was I guess in a way the first time she's opened up to me since Uldaman."

Maya grinned finished the last tool. She spoke as she made sure to triple check the writing was correct.

"I know it was a tad bit of sore spot but, that's really the only other time I'd been able to talk about my feelings with someone without feeling judged in... the longest time," she smiled. "Don't get me wrong, I know I can talk to you and you won't judge but, I'd been with the Voyagers for so long, I guess I didn't think of coming back to join the Whitewind Company. There's definitely a lot that happened while I was away and, I am completely different in some ways too! Nah was just, hmm... I guess her coming to find me just to kind of listen... it helped a lot. Xam being willing to accept that too, well... that and her having a crush on Nah... is probably what made the three of us a perfect fit." She giggled. "Even if Xam is a little shy and Nah is a little wild child now and then!"

I smiled warmly as I listened through Maya's reminiscence of her background with Nah and Xam, alternately still watching with interest as Maya worked on the magical lockpick set.

"I won't judge you, Maya," I agreed. "I may have said at the pond in Valdrakken that I don't agree with what happened, but I won't judge you as being some sort of bad person, and, like I said when you first gave me the news, I want my bestie to be happy, and my friends, so I'm happy if you're happy!

"And yeah, that shyness of Xam's and Nah's fantastic extroversion and troublemaking tendencies sure do make for an entertaining clash! Every time Nah says or does something that makes Xam blush, I just see what you guys must see when Nah does the same to me. I know now why it's so entertaining! And it's good that they've got you as the meeting in the middle to bridge the gap!"

"I'm not denying what I did wasn't on the top ten stupidest ways out of things I've ever tried... but after seeing the new me and Cari seeming to be hanging out with a resident apprentice of the Voyagers? It seems like everything will work out for the best."

She checked through her scrolls, unraveling each as she continued to speak. She looked to be counting steps on her head one to the next.

"It's always, I guess, been a bit of a dream of mine to find someone that truly got the side of me that they do! Don't get me wrong; I can tell people most things, it's just... I can tell that Nah genuinely feels like she's done, well, too many regretful things and... I've felt the same way."

Maya traced things back, checking the runes on the tools against the steps in the scrolls.

"We love and support each other more because of it, I think! We just know what the other needs to hear! Xam is a little different because she works better with positive affirmations. Being the middle ground is fun... but I do often find myself also trying to make Xam blush so... it's only so much of a middle ground."

"As many times as you've tried to make me blush, I know Xam's gotta be getting it just as much!" I giggled.

"And yeah, Nah has expressed her regrets to me so many times... I totally get wanting to support her when old incidents get into her head again."

"Well,” Maya smiled, “it's something I know a lot about and... she's so selfless all of the time I just... well, she deserves to have that pressure taken off her. I've at least been successful a little in having her see that Xam and I are here and love her, but millennia of self-doubt won't vanish overnight! I just try to focus on helping her have fun!"

Maya nodded as she finished before putting the book and tools in front of Nat.

“Just confirm these runes match the ones in the book then I'll jump start it all!"

I nodded my agreement and began to peer at each tool and the runes in the book as carefully as I possibly could, wanting my gift to my bestie to be as perfect as the other one I’d gotten her (more on that later!).

"I've pretty much been of the same mindset concerning her!" I said as I looked, eventually looking up at Maya with a happy smile. "Wow, Maya! That's an exact match! It's so tiny, yet you managed it perfectly! This is gonna work great!"

"Well,” Maya giggled, “then charging it carefully is all that's left!" Maya hovered her hands over the tools before emitting a soft green glow from them, her druidic magic now coming into play. She laid her hands on the tools and talked while she waited.

"Inscriptions like this are fun! I've been practicing for whole heaps of things. Sure, the Quiraji stuff is nice...but like... well, further down the road, if Xam and Nah wanted to take that step, I'd inscribe things on jewelry too! Well, have a jeweler do it! I also might have done some practice for some other gifts I'm giving tonight!" she snickered.

"Ooooh, tonight?” I said with a happy gasp. “I can't wait to see what you've done!"

I grinned up at Maya, then looks down at my gift to my best friend in the world as Maya works her magic on them, knowing that Maya's own care for Nah will just make the enchantment that much stronger!

"I've made a few things,” Maya giggled, “but Nah's gift will be I think the one I had the trickiest time inscribing.” She giggled wildly to herself as the light began to grow. Once it was steadied, she laid her hands on the tools. After a brief flash, the runes on the pick set now glowed green! "There we are! Should be nice and charged now!"

"Wow, gosh, thanks so much, Maya! She's gonna LOVE these!"

"No problem, Nat!” Maya giggled. "I have to lock up and head back to the island for awhile. I'll probably catch you pretty close to Deathrolls time!"

"Okies! I'm off to Tucker's Toys myself! Thanks so much Maya! I'll see you later, my friend!"

"See you later, Nat!"

I smiled and waved, following Maya out as she locked up. A hug later, and I was sitting sidesaddle on Onyx's back as Maya was heading down the alley to the Shady Lady to head out herself. Then I was flying off toward the Mage Tower and its portals, very soon disappearing into the arcane workings within for more errands. I couldn’t wait for the Winter Veil Deathrolls game!

I’ve also been having tons and tons of fun here on Mechagon Isle! I’m here with Celeste, Penny, and Dordy, here to salvage more spare parts and whatnot. It’s been a cool adventure so far!

I was pleasantly surprised to see the packing was mostly done for the Mechagon trip when I returned from my minication Sunday night. Excited, I added a few of my own bits and bobs, checked the P.I.E. (Perimeter Intrusion Electromagnet), and oohed and aahed over the freshly tuned-up MUTT. I couldn't wait to see what we might find in the junkyard this time!

Celeste had things to prepare ahead of time, for the expedition. A solution to remaining safe without using an electromagnet that would affect Penny just as much… so no PIE after all, much to my blushing embarrassment at having forgot about Penny’s metal limbs!

We set out early Monday morning for Mechagon. Penny was given the Flying Nosebleed to pilot, with the week’s gear and cargo hanging underneath. I was flying on Onyx, and Celeste had the MUTT. Held in the machine’s arms was a pile of metal struts which Celeste remained frustratingly quiet concerning their use. Celeste and her surprises!

Once we arrived, the quirky engineer led the Penny and I not to our usual cave by the waterfall, but instead directly to the junkyard. She circled the junkyard for a while until she found s suitably clear section and landed there, with Penny and I following.

“Alright girls, this is where we’re staying!” she said, ignoring the doubtful looks from Penny and I as we looked around at the piles of junk. There were all sorts of angry robotic things who tended to be rather unfriendly in the junkyard!

“First, we take these struts and build a geodesic dome! I have a plan, here!” Celeste grinned at her companions and produced a rolled plan from the bag hanging off of the chassis of the FB.

I felt quite dubious about the suggested campsite, and one look at Penny told me that the tiny little mechagnome echoed my thoughts. But at least she hadn't been present when I had thought of using the PIE and forgotten about Penny's metal parts! I blushed at the memory, then listened as Celeste brought out her plans for the geodesic dome and unfurled them. Moving in closer, I peered in to take a look and listen to Celeste, my excitement and confidence in our new campsite already growing once more!

The three of us set to work. The geodesic pattern was simple enough to build, with Penny piloting the MUTT’s welding finger while Celeste and I held the struts in place. We had to fend off at least one aerial drone and a few robodogs before it was completed, though it wasn’t anything too difficult to handle and no one was hurt. Once it was finished, Celeste had more in store for us.

“Alright, for this next part, I’ll need you, Penny, to pilot the FB away from here. A few dozen yards in the air should be enough. Keep our gear and provisions in the air too. Nat, you’ll be on Onyx overhead as well. Meanwhile I’ll be in the MUTT. Inside the dome. If this works… well, you’ll see…”

Grinning and clearly excited, she took the PIE from the crate with their equipment, moved the MUTT inside the dome and connected the PIE to the MUTT’s power source. She Blinked up into the machine, then glanced up through the holes in the dome to make sure the others were safely away.

She flipped a switch in the MUTT’s console and, quite suddenly, the scrap heaps around the dome started shaking. A few pieces of junk at first, then more and more and bigger ones flew to the dome! Oh gosh! There was a tremendous racket as pieces of metallic junk jammed against the dome, some smaller ones even flying through. A cloud of dust and rust rose into the air and obscured the dome from sight. After a moment the nearby junk piles went still.

“I’m… -ight!” came Celeste’s voice from my comm device, though the transmission cut off in the middle. “Did…work?” I heard Celeste ask. The dust slowly settled until Penny and I saw the dome, now buried under a pile of junk… a pile of junk just like all the others around it! We now had a camouflaged shelter! COOL!

A part of the pile shifted and Celeste emerged, covered in rust-red dust but looking pleased.

“Meet the H.E.A.P.! Hidden Encampment Attracted Pile! Now our camp is perfectly camouflaged, right in the junkyard! …We’ll need to clean up the interior a bit and put in some lights, but now we can be safe without the PIE!”

I was visibly relieved to see Celeste emerge from the pile unscathed and smiling. Now that I was sure my Catch was okay, I giggled a bit.

"Erm..." I began with a giggle. "Everything sort of flew at the dome and covered it up... is that what was SUPPOSED to happen? If so, then... yeah! It worked!"

”The dome is still completely intact,” Celeste replied proudly. “You see it acted as a cage and all the junk the PIE attracted stuck to it then piled on. It’s hollow inside this pile of junk,” Celeste said, waving us down to see for themselves.

I landed Onyx beside Penny, and both come up for a closer look. Dawning comprehension crossed our faces, this being the first time we realized what Celeste had done for a camo shelter, and we both squealed with delight.

"Wow!" I said. "Now I see why we don't need the PIE!"

"And you can practically fish for parts with this thing on!" Penny added in her tiny, squeaky voice.

“Well,” Celeste said, “all I did was reverse the polarity on the PIE so it attracts instead of repulses metal. It doesn’t discriminate though, as you saw. It’ll attract everything it can. I turned it off so Penny doesn’t go hurtling into the dome.”

"I appreciate that!" giggled Penny.

"So now our campsite will be plenty safe while we rummage around!" I added. "What all do we wanna find?"

“Well, the list you made is fairly complete and we can start on that. First though, we clear out the smaller bits and bobs that got through the dome. We’ll place our cots and luggage near the edge. I need to find some sort of tube that I could rig a chimney out of. We’ll cook inside the HEAP for added safety. I also want to put up some sort of table. We could use it for eating but also to sort our finds or dismantle more complex things. Whatever we keep, we’ll stick in one if the crates we brought.”

"Ah, right!" I said, peering around at the HEAP, visibly impressed. "I'll see if I can't get us a table and chairs right after I clear this mess up!"

I walked around picking up old junk inside the HEAP, tossing it outside but near to the base of the HEAP to add to its camouflage. Among the bits were a couple of power cells and a thermal cell. I brought these to Celeste with a smile and a promise to bring back lots more, returning to my work.

Once done cleaning up inside, I headed outside with Penny and spied a mechanotank spider with a big metal plate hanging off the side. Penny opened up a fingertip and extended a drill tip, unbolting the plate the rest of the way from the side. With the MUTT's help, the heavy plate was carried back to the HEAP, along with four tubes that were too small to make a chimney, but were even length and could prop up the plate to make a table!

"Well," Penny squeaked with a smile. "That's a good start to the scavenge!"

Celeste worked on setting up camp. With Winter Veil coming, the plan was to stay in the junkyard only a day or two to stock up on scavenged engineering supplies. The inside of the HEAP was quickly cleaned up and set.

While Penny and I worked on the spider tank, Celeste took Dordy and the MUTT and headed further into the junkyard, wanting to go and find something she said she’d spotted earlier from the air, but again, wouldn’t say what it was. Celeste and her surprises! Hehe.

Penny and I ended up identifying several parts that could be used at home. The Wave Dancer, the Penny Pincher, the MUTT, the FB, even a powerful pulley system for the lift Celeste wanted to build (albeit with far too short a belt). Several items were checked off from that one spider tank alone!

I also found some used tools, like a functioning power drill that simply needed a power cell and repairs to its cracked case, a ratchet set that was missing a few sockets (which replacements were found for across the junkyard in a separate case), and a large duct from a disassembled air circulation system from belowground in Mechagon City. The Flying Nosebleed sure had a full cargo net full when it arrived back at the HEAP!

Close to the end of the afternoon, Celeste returned. In the MUTT’s hands were a long metal rod and a thin metal sheet. Celeste grabbed Dordy and blinked out, letting the pup yip-yip and run up to Penny and I. She had to leave the long rod out of the HEAP since it didn’t fit inside. Blinking back into the MUTT, she had the machine roll up the thin sheet, then, using its finger-welder, she made a tube out of it.

“There, this’ll do for a chimney,” Celeste said. “I’ll go on top of the HEAP to make a hole we can insert it in. Nat, could you go inside and tell me when it’s low enough? I want it to capture any smoke from a fire inside, but not high enough to be in the way.”

"Oh, that'll work great!” I said with a smile. “We won't need this old air duct for the chimney after all! That'll give us a lot of scrap metal we can use for other purposes, too!"

I headed inside as bidden, peering up at the ceiling.

"Okay, I'm here! Go ahead with the hole and the tube!"

“That air duct will be useful to add some air circulation inside the HEAP so it doesn’t get too hot and stuffy in there. We’ll place it lower to the ground so the smoke from the chimney doesn’t get sucked back in!” Celeste said as she climbed on top of our hidden-in-a-junk-pile home away from home.

With a bit of effort, some (very quiet) cursing, and a lot of teamwork, the chimney was finally fixed in place.

“There,” Celeste said with satisfaction, “now we just install the duct about waist high and we’re set. It’s a lot of effort for just a day or two of camping, but at least I know the HEAP prototype works.”

"Ah, that's a great idea too!" I said. "And yeah, it's good to know that this thing works! Heck, with a hidden, locked door, we could make the HEAP a permanent shelter we can return to in the future at need!"

I helped as much as I could, guiding Celeste as Celeste slid the tube down the hole and over the proposed fireplace site. Penny used a scavenged chain hooked to the bottom end to help pull that end this way or that according to my guidance. With the chimney in place, I moved to collect the air duct from the FB's cargo nets with the MUTT.

Not long later, we had the air duct installed for fresh air inside the junk HEAP, and the place was really starting to feel like a homestead! I think once we get our shelter done, we’ll be able to finish the salvage and come back another time when we need it!

Then Tuesday night was WINTER VEIL DEATHROLLS! It was me, my bestie Nah, Cari, Xam, and Maya. We played in the Mystic Ward in Ironforge, since the dark room they put the giant Winter Veil tree in there reminded us of waking up early on the primary day of Winter Veil to open presents before the sun even rose. The dark room, the towering Winter Veil tree, the colorful, twinkling lights, the gifts all piled up under the tree, the feel of a chill in the air negated by the warmth of the Great Forge, it all really back the feeling of childhood magic during Winter Veil presents!

We did it similar to how we did it last year: do normal Deathrolls, and whomever rolls a One will, instead of getting a Truth or Dare, be the one to get a present next! The rest rolling out of twenty is to see who gives that person their present next! It was so much fun and excitement!

Xam, the Void Elf that loves Void stuff, I got her a plushie of a voidling, this pitch-black blob with a spooky, fanged face, wild eyes, and tentacles sprouting everywhere. I had it custom-made at Tucker’s Toys in Upton Borough in Boralus, so it was made to, when cuddled and squeezed, glow with a faint black aura, make the tentacles writhe and wiggle, and make a voice box inside do a really faint, quite Void-like whispering from within!

I got Maya, who’s still loving doing druidic magic with insects, this ant farm I pieced together from ants in Zangarmarsh in Outland. They glow just like the other big bugs there, so you can trace their phosphorescent routes all through the farm, and also, the magic inherent to them is something Maya can draw powerful, and she can also get the ants to work for her as well!

I got Cari a new wand! This wand, made from a rowan tree from Duskwood, glows with a shadow that brings not fear or doubt, but rather, a certain comfort of home and friends. The magic perpetuating Duskwood makes this a pretty powerful wand! I have another gift I really wanted to give her, but I wasn’t able to get it working quite right. I’ll write about it after I get it fixed and into her hands! I just really wish I could have done it during our Deathrolls game!

For my bestie Nah, I got her what I have labeled the Mischievous Druid’s Lockpick Set! Probably the most peculiar lockpick set ever, these are made of petrified wood instead of metal. Etched in tiny Titan runes are the words, Shape, Form, Will, and Store. This will allow it to take different forms, bend and change its shape, store energy given to it, and obey the will of the user, giving a mischievous druid a lockpick whose form and shape can, as it's made of wood, change its shape via the druid's nature magic, making it easier to use! The petrified wood being stronger than normal wood, combined with its magical pliability, will ensure durability! One final rune, Return, will ensure the user can recall the tools to themselves if lost or out of reach, as well as the tools returning to their original shape after being manipulated out of shape with druidic magic! I told her about Maya helping too; that I’d used my engineering tools to shape the tools, and Maya had enchanted them!

I also had to search far and wide for an artist for my next present, something more personal for my bestie. I found one in Upton Borough in Boralus! This exquisitely hand-painted picture depicts Nah and I in Lion's Rest in Stormwind, overlooking the Great Sea from the cliffside benches in the area. Nah is pictured laughing (probably cackling maniacally) as I look shocked and embarrassed and blush profusely, though I’m clearly grinning happily as well. The bottom of the frame bears an inscription: "Nah and Tasha, Besties Forever! Here's to many more good times with my best friend in the whole wide world!"

Everyone loved their gifts, so that was good! I also have Cari’s primary gift to give, as well as Grim’s and Mags’, who weren’t able to make the game this week. We’re gonna kick off next week’s Deathrolls game with their gifts!

I got stuff too! Cari gave everyone out jars of olives and bottles of wine from her orchard and vineyard, as well as a BEAUTIFUL hand-knit scarf, each one painted in everyone’s favorite colors! Mine was a shiny purple, fading to a shiny white at the ends. Nice and pretty! And the olives and the wine are SO good!

From Maya, I got a brooch for my cloak that’s a decorative pink and purple flower brooch with four pretty petals! The runes inscribed on the petals light up green to the touch, and, upon activation, a flower will bloom from the brooch, allowing the user to pull it completely free of the jewelry. Each flower spawned from the brooch is a slightly different color! Bless Maya and her druidic and runic magics!

Xam got me a gag gift, though she didn’t know it would be one. She doesn’t know me well yet, so Sparkles, of all people, was the one to give her a gift idea. She got me this alarm clock that, when the alarm goes off, it has a female Draenei voice saying, “Nat! Get up Nat! It’s time to get up!” as well as a hologram of a scantily-clad Draenei woman emits from the top, dancing that alluring dance they do! OH GOSH! SPARKLES! And then Nah even suggested that Celeste would enjoy it just as much as I would! Goodness gracious, Bestie! Everyone had a good laugh at seeing me blush, though, so that was good that everyone was having a good time!

From my Bestie, I got this really amazing toolbox for my tools that is decorated in Duskwood and Ashenvale motifs, symbolizing our friendship together right inside something that I love! It’s such a meaningful gift! I love being Besties with Nah!

In addition to Cari bringing everyone gorgeous handmade scarves and wine and olives from her vineyard and plantation, other awesome gifts were given too!

Xam got my bestie a centrifuge system for her alchemy set, she got beehive boxes that she hand-painted with the old Black Empire’s masters, C’thuun, Yogg Saron, and N’zoth, for Maya to have some beekeeping fun with, and she got Cari a sign for her produce stand that says, “Cari’s Olives,” hand-painted on fine oak, with paintings of olives on it. It’s a really catchy sign! Cari’s sure to draw in even more business now!

Maya got Cari a huge cornucopia of assorted seeds for her farm, including for flowers, she got Nah a gnomish extractor that separates ingredients from potions and a full recipe book of Sparkles’ trick candies to go along with her own trick potions, and she got Xam a stone replica of Ny’alotha the Waking City (the old city of N’zoth back in the time of the Black Empire) that had every pyre, every spire, every pyramid precisely done in exquisite detail!

Nah got Cari a hairpin that looks like her favorite flower ever, a starflower from Suramar, a necklace of an exquisitely jeweled scarab – Maya’s favorite insect – to wear around her neck, and she got Xam a ring that has magic similar to Void magic (or is it REALLY Void magic?) to sort of be psychic and read Xam’s emotions. When Xam feels one way or another, the corresponding color lights up on the ring’s brilliant gem! Cool!

Also, people who rolled ones out of twenty ended up all getting the same Dare: ribbons from presents in their hair, done up all festive-like by Maya! HA! It was so fun!

Unfortunately, Galewind’s adventure to go and find Death Knight Nah and return her to her own timeline ended up falling through at the last moment, so we didn’t get to adventure this week either. I’m really starting to miss adventuring! I haven’t been in WEEKS! If it doesn’t pick up again next week, I think I’ll resume the search for the legendary plate armor of Princess Ariel Sunstrider!

But gosh, what a really fun and happy week this has been! I LOVE Deathrolls! And camping adventures with Celeste! And hanging out with Penny too, and all my other friends! Here’s hoping that my final entry of the year next week is just as fun, and we get to close out the year with a BANG! YAY!

Nat smiled at that happy thought, tapping off the excess ink from her quill and tucking it away into its case. She capped off her inkwell next, picking it and the quill case up and returning them to her pack. She went to go check on Celeste’s and Penny’s coffee next, topping it off before returning to her diary. The ink on the pages now dry on it as well, she closed it up and return it to her pack with the other stationary.

Heading back to her love and her friend and her pup, Nat had a seat on the table, her feet on the makeshift bench they’d made from more scraps off of that spider tank. She began handing Penny different things she needed – oil, cloth, her coffee – as she asked for them, making Penny’s job easier. Hanging out for the rest of the day in the HEAP was punctuated here and there by another fruitful salvaging trip, a fishing trip (just for fun; the mechanical fish here put up quite the fight, but metal isn’t edible!), and a few mid-afternoon games of fetch, chase, keep-away, and monkey-in-the-middle to run off some of Dordy’s energy.

Celeste had meals brought in from Boralus by way of her drone, sending it off to Upton Borough places like Pinky’s Brewery and the Cupola Café for fish, steaks, veggies, and other tasty things. Sending it off at the end of each meal ensured that the food would be make the long trip back in time for the next meal, held warm inside the drone.

By the time the day was over, Nat was tired, full, and very happy! She was definitely enjoying the Mechagon Isle trip. She couldn’t wait to see what was in store for her, her family, and her friends next!

[Natasha Ebonlocke]

(( Warning: The following post contains a small amount of mild adult themes not suitable for under-18s! ))

December the Twenty-Ninth

A pleasant sun shone down on Turtle Beach, reflecting off the tiny waves like a million twinkling gems and warming the sand upon which the beach towels lay. The cries of seagulls rang in the sky, those airborne thieves of bait and catches, though a noisy molten corgi is plenty enough to scare them off. No birds will be taking his place as Chief Feaster of Untended Noms! Between the cries of gulls was the gentle lapping of water on the beach and the odd yowling of a jungle cat somewhere in the trees. The tang of the salt sea air, the earthy smell of the nearby jungle, and even the somewhat less pleasant smell of fresh-caught fish were all sweet smells to those who lived in the area, because they meant home.

Celeste lay back on her beach towel, wearing a sky-blue bikini with seashells of various sorts on it, getting a bit of sun and reading a fishing journal published by the Anglers. Nat lay on her belly, wearing her black bikini with the purple trim, her diary, inkwell of purple ink, and cherrywood quill case open before her. A fruity adult beverage with a little umbrella in it was stuck in the sand next to her, another next to Celeste. Nat took a sip from hers, giving a happy sigh and taking up her ravenfeather quill. As Celeste turned a page, chuckling at a fortunately-timed photograph of a pandaren fisherman being pulled overboard off his raft by a large tuna tugging at his line, Nat turned her head, chuckling as well, then turned back to her diary, beginning to write.

Dear diary,

Gosh, I had such a great Winter Veil! It was so PERFECT at home on the primary day of Winter Veil, that perfect morning I had with Celeste and Dordy and Uncle Rugnar and later, when Penny came over! I still have a special treat for Celeste, when the opportune moment comes, and it’s part of Winter Veil gifts, so I will write about our morning maybe next week, when I’ve had the chance to do this last thing. But I did get to have another game of Winter Veil Deathrolls, although it was short, so I can still write about that!

We played at the same Winter Veil tree in the same dark room as last week, the twinkling, lively tree in the dark Mystic Ward room again reminding us of childhood Winter Veils in which we’d awoken before dawn in our excitement to rush to our presents! It was me, Grim, Maya, Cari, Anna from the Quicksilver Company, and her friend from the same company, Sir Audric, a longtime stalwart of the company and a really fun and cool guy!

When we started, not everyone was there yet, so we just had regular Deathrolls. It was just Grim, Maya, and I at first. I ended up getting Dared by Maya right off the bat, who used her druidic powers to grow a flower and a mushroom off her staff, then Dared me to choose one and eat it! I flipped a copper penny, and it came up MUSHROOM! Oh gosh, I was really hoping this wasn’t gonna be a doomshroom, some kinda poisonous or psychedelic mushroom that was gonna get me weird. It wasn’t, however; it had the texture of a mushroom, but tasted just like a perfectly-seasoned steak! How WEIRD! And apparently I lucked out, because Maya said that the flower she grew was super bitter! Oh gosh! Flipping the copper penny was weird too, because when I flipped it, I lost it in the light of the Winter Veil Tree, so I was looking upward to find it, and it plopped right onto my forehead! I was so surprised, I just sat there like a weirdo with my head bent backward, then asked the others what it had landed on! HA! The tables were turned the next round; I got to Dare Maya! So I gave her a Whisper Dare, to be completed later, when people least expected it! Then Maya got to Dare Grimmie, making him sing everything he says for the next three rounds. He turned out to be very good with ad-libbing lyrics! That was when Cari walked in. Maya got up and went to her, whispering something in her ear. Then Cari grinned and went and sat behind Grim, grabbed the base of his ponytail, and started swinging it around while making loud noises like a choo-choo train! HA! Grim was SO confused! He started singing, like he was supposed to because of his Dare, like, “What you DOIN’ WOmaaaaan, what you doin’ to MEEEEeee… I GUESS I’M A TRAIN noooowww… for all to SEEEEeeeee…” and Maya was like, “Wow, he’s good!” He sounded like a classic rock singer! Cari laughed and went back to her spot, and I grinned at Grim before looking back to the girls, and I was like, “Whisper Dare complete.” It was so funny to see the look of realization start dawning on Grim’s face! Then Grim was like, “So TELL ME WOmaaaaannn… whose turn it IIIIiiiiiiissss… ‘cause EVERY TIME NAT GETS meeeee… Truth it IIIiiiiiisssss…” HA! Come on, Grim, live dangerously! Go with the DARES! Cari was like, “Wow, he IS good… like, what?!” Then there were several Truths, one of which I got to Truth Grim, asking him who the hottest five women are that he’s ever personally met. “HOLD ON NOOOOWWW… let me THIiiink… this ONE IS TRICKyyyyy… since I have to SIIIiiiing…” Then the rest of us were thinking of ones that might make the list, and then Grim was done thinking, and he was like, “I CAN SEE herrrr… I can see her NOOoooowww… NUMBER FIiiiive… is aBOOoooooout… Cari is pretty darn hot fo’sho’! Comin’ out at number five, she’s got that spice and chive!” Tiny, petite, short-haired, glasses-wearing, bookish Cari of the Kirin Tor, I never knew that’d be one of Grim’s types! Then, a bit of thinking, and then there was a bit of song that is probably too blushworthy for me to repeat, but it came up as an elf he’s referenced before in the past named Shade! Then, at number three: “Now number three, she’s cute as can be, kinda short, but great ti-… assets… if she were not taken, putting her to the test would having me achin’… She is a good buddy, one calls her Bestie and Tasha, but Nat be her name to me!” he sang, snapping to the rhythm. OH GOSH! Even that one was almost too blushworthy for me to write, and for him to have chosen ME at all?! Goodness gracious! Then: “Two… oh the number two… looking good enough, but not taking the number one slot… this purple-hued mama had me for a spell… Ol’ buddy Nat knows her to this day… you guessed it, her name is Zay!” HA! Good ol’ Zay! I wish she’d come back and hang out some more! Then, “The number one spot on my list, I can still see her, because all the ladies, wanna be her…” Then he looked at Maya like, “Looks like we have the same taste, but we’re not smoking the same cheeba (whatever cheeba is!)… Eversogorgeous Nah is in my sights!” And Cari was like, “I mean yeah… even I almost asked Nah out once, but I chickened out…” I wondered at one omission from the list, but then it came: “I listed only those among the living… no one can beat the true number one for me… Even the number one diva… no one can hold a candle to my dear, departed Nia!” Grim smiled as he finished his song. Gosh, that was a lot to remember! And now, with the TRUE number one revealed, Grim’s Truth was complete! Grim’s Kaldorei wife, who had passed far, far before her time, was the true number one!

After that, Anna – no, DAME Anna now; her paladin training is finally complete! She even wears a sword now! Dame Anna and Sir Audric came in, and it seemed like Nah wasn’t gonna be able to come, so we decided to finish off the gift exchange for those who hadn’t come last week. I finished off Cari’s main gift late, having finally found the voice box I needed for her gift. She opened it up, and immediately LOVED IT! She held it tight, squishing the poo out of it! It was a plushie of an Elwynn Forest bear cub! This bear cub is precisely modeled after a bear cub of Elwynn Forest, one found seated on his rear and looking up adoringly at his mother. Automated features include a warming box to add realistic warmth and a voice box that plays recorded bear cub noises when squished and cuddled! The bear cub is further enchanted to give off an aura of warmth, friendship, and love when cuddled, reminding the bearer of this bear that they are cared for and loved! Then it was Grimmie’s turn, since he’d missed out altogether last week. I gave him my gift that Celeste and I made for him! He had to help me get it out of my pack because it was so heavy. The heavy oak crate rattled metallically when hoisted, yet there was also the sound of liquid sloshing around. It was about eighteen inches cubed, painted with duskroses, fish, a man riding a blur of a winged treadblade with a long black ponytail streaming out behind him, a cartoon of Grim's face frowning as he listens to what appears to be a voicebox speaking, and a dragon belching fire! When he opened it up, a device that was basically a keg with hoses coming out and an air compressor came into view! A fortified keg with a voicebox on top and hoses leading out to different attached parts. It fits into the chassis of any motorbike! The alcohol in the keg is cooled by a compressor hooked up to the engine from one hose. Another hose leads up to the handlebars for the rider to take a drink! The voice box on top features Celeste's voice as she mimics a robot, giving warning about upcoming obstacles. "Tree! Tree! Rock! Cow! Barn!" might be some warnings that Grim hears if he goes too fast past these obstacles! A must-have for any true Treadblader! Grim had himself a good laugh at that one! He loves it and wanted to install it on his treadblade immediately! He asked me to thank Celeste for him, so I did! Cari’s gift was just like what she got us, a hand-knit scarf, black going to red tips, and wine and olives from her vineyard and orchard! Maya’s gift made everyone laugh… Grim, when we’re adventuring, kinda jokes around a lot about being really great when we’re fighting stuff… Well, Maya got him this cape with a brooch that has a voicebox Sparkles made, and a motion sensor… now, when Grim flexes while wearing this cloak, the voicebox blares out with thunderous applause! HA! Grim had himself a good laugh at that one too. He loves it!

After that, it was back to DEATHROLLS! I got Sir Audric and Grimmie next, since they both rolled Ones, so I Dared them to stand back to back and let me tie their ponytails together! They’d have to try and turn around and face each other with their hair tied together! HA! They did so, and Grim has like, five inches on Sir Audric, so it was awkward. I had to reach way, WAAAAAAY up, standing on my tippie-toes, and lean Grim’s head backward and down to make the two ponytails reach. Then, when I tied them, they tried to turn, and Grim couldn’t! Sir Audric managed to, and now his ponytail looked like he was scorpion-stinging Grim right in the back of the head! HA! Grim was like, “This ain’t happening, methinks.” So they thought it out, and Sir Audric suggested trying to sit down, then lay down, roll over onto their bellies, and stand that way. Grim agreed, and Sir Audric turned back around to have his back to Grim, and then, with Grim getting Dame Anna to count down from three for them, they sat. It worked! Then they tried to lie down, again with a countdown from Anna, and that worked too! Then Grim had the idea for Sir Audric to roll to his right and he’d roll to his left, and they’d end up on their tummies. Grim said TUMMIES! HA! And then, with one last countdown, they stood… facing each other! They’d done it! Anna was like, “They deserve freedom now, I think,” so I reached way, WAAAAAAY up again and untied them. It was well done, and good thinking on both their parts with their ideas! Then everyone had to go, so we did one final around. I ended up getting a Truth from Grimmie, so he decided to reverse my question on me… top five men I’d ever met that I’d wanted to… oh gosh… he used this word, not me… BONE… GOSH! I sat there, spluttering and sputtering, and Grim waved his hand at me after a good, deep belly laugh, and he was like, “That wasn’t a serious Truth. I just wanted to make you blush one last time before we go.” GOSH GRIMMIE! HA! And then, with that, everyone was getting tired and ready to go home, so that was it for the night. What a blast we’d had, even with so few rounds this time around! I LOVE Deathrolls!

The following evening, we were gonna do some Whitewind Company adventuring, but it fell through because people were sick. I hope we get to get back to it soon, though, because it’s been like a MONTH since I’ve gotten to do any adventuring outside of Dragon Isles stuff – which is still really really fun! – and I wanted to get back to it with the Company stuff! We’ve still got Death Knight Nah running around out there somewhere to find and return to her own timeline, and we still have the rest of the legendary armor of Princess Ariel Sunstrider to go and locate! Hopefully this coming week we can make our return to the stories! I can’t wait to see what happens next in either of them!

For now, I’m lying here on Turtle Beach with Celeste. We have lots and lots and lots of NOTHING planned for the last day of my minication, probably just loafing around the house and the beach and the bay. Maybe some fishing and some dinking around in the workshop. Should be a nice, relaxing day! I love being with Celeste. You never know what’s gonna happen next! And she’s so fun and loving and great! I can’t wait to see what we get into next! YAY!

Nat stifled a cheer of excitement as she tapped off the excess ink from her quill into her inkwell and returned it to its case. She closed the case and capped off her inkwell, returning them to her pack. Sitting up, she took a drink from her fruity adult beverage while smiling at the cute little umbrella in it, then got up for a stretch. Walking down to the water, she dipped her toes in, cooling off a bit after a while in the sun. Returning to her beach towel afterward, she closed her diary, the ink on the pages now dry, and returned that to her pack as well. Celeste stirred, noticing Nat was done, and packed away her fishing journal. At Celeste’s suggestion, Nat returned to the water, and the two went for a nice, cool swim, joined by Dordy, whose molten nature caused steam in the water as he played, though it never seemed to douse him!

Another suggestion from Celeste had her zooming on the Flying Nosebleed back up to the house, returning shortly thereafter with Dordy’s bubble. Dordy looked quite excited to see it, hopping in immediately. With an underwater breathing spell from Nat for Celeste and herself, the trio went exploring in the Narsong Trench, diving deep and collecting shells for the mechanical fish tank in Celeste’s workshop and allowing Dordy to chase things to his heart’s content.

When Dordy finally started to run out of steam, Celeste and Nat were ready for a break as well, so they retired to the Wave Dancer, doing a bit of relaxing and fishing. A particularly good haul led them to share their catch with their friends at Anglers Wharf, and Penny was there as well, and even Dordy seemed to be full after all the fish was all gone!

When the sun set, Celeste took Nat by the hand and returned home with her, with the two having a bit of cheesecake for dessert and watching the sun set. The minication ended on an exceptionally high and happy note, and Nat went to sleep with a smile on her face. Life was so good!

[Natasha Ebonlocke]

January the Fifth

The sound of happy humming and tinkering tools filled the workshop. Bits of incomplete projects were all over the workbench, with a few more stacked on the floor at either end. Tools were everywhere as well, and the smell of metal, oil, and fumes from welding could be detected. The lights from the flashing mechanical fish in the fish tank could be seen when the flash from the welding wasn’t overwhelming them, and the lantern on the desk combined with the lantern hanging from the center of the ceiling provided most of the light.

One spot on the workbench was clear of mechanical parts and tools, but it wasn’t empty. An inkwell of purple ink, a cherrywood quill case, and a diary lay open on the table, with Nat sitting to write while Celeste tinkered, frequently referencing a book of her own called The Engineering Angler by Squawkward Fizzlebonk. Nat gave a warm smile at the book, overjoyed to see Celeste enjoying it so much. Celeste had her work clothes on, bits of tools sticking out from the many pockets of her outfit. Her hair was messed up, she had a grease smudge on her right cheekbone, and her look of concentration and her happy humming told Nat that Celeste was in her happy place.

Dordy was in his happy place as well, curled up under the workbench at their feet, his belly full of the morning’s breakfast of what Nat referred to as Everything Omelets. Nat could feel him squirm once in a while, and, looking down, she’d invariably see the snoozing molten corgi running a bit in his sleep, chasing after something on some adventure of his own dreams. It was happening again now, with Dordy uncurling himself in his sleep this time, spreading out on his side, his short corgi legs springing on occasion. Dordy yipped a bit in his sleep, making Nat giggle. Smiling once more, she sat back up, dipped her ravenfeather quill for some ink, and began to write.

Dear diary,

It’s been a happy little week! I’ve hung out with friends a good bit, and Grim has someone named Trixie that he used to hang out with a lot coming to the Whitewind Company, too, so I’m really looking forward to meeting his old friend! But the biggest bit was Winter Veil with my family! It was such a wonderful morning!

The lights were all aglow on the festive Winter Veil tree Celeste and I had built in the sitting area of the main room of the house. So tall was it (harvested and brought inside by Celeste using the MUTT and other ingenious engineering ideas) that it could be viewed by their friends at Anglers Wharf without even leaving the docks! Outside, the suncrawlers were all alight, with me having gotten up early to spray them with their pheromones to get them started. All was set for Winter Veil morning!

When Celeste woke up, it was in the pre-dawn hour, by what looked like a fiery Greatfather Winter licking at her face. Greatfather Dordy, as Nat was calling him, was bouncing around on the bed and yip-yipping at Celeste to get up!

Greatfather Dordy was suddenly scooped up, a hot thermos of coffee being offered in his stead. The smell of coffee and a hefty breakfast of bacon, eggs, and biscuits with sausage gravy wafted into the room... and the gravy smelled like Uncle Rugnar had made it! Sure enough, blinking away the morning fog would show me in her Ugly Winter Veil sweater and a Great Father Winter hat, holding Greatfather Dordy, and Uncle Rugnar standing there dressed head to toe as Greatfather Winter, looking thoroughly disgruntled about it. HA!

WINTER VEIL'S PRIMARY DAY HAD COME!

"I'm awake!'' Celeste said, rubbing the sleep from her eyes and accepting the coffee. She sat up and took a sip, smiling as she reached to gently pet Whisperwings, who had crawled onto the bed next to her. ''Happy Winter's Veil!'' she said, pulling Dordy and I in close for a hug and giving a wink to her uncle, who was scratching at the itchy hat on his bald head. ''I'll get dressed for the occasion and meet your downstairs!''

I smiled and headed downstairs with Uncle Rugnar. When Celeste made it downstairs, she found a full spread of breakfast on the coffee table, and a full spread of presents under the tree. Dordy was fervently sniffing at his, a collection of jerky from all around the world that he clearly couldn't wait to open. The lights were all twinkling on the tree, the house was warm and cozy, and I was eating with Uncle Rugnar, who was mentioning his surprise that Dordy had given up the meal on the table for the treats under the tree. I looked up at Celeste's entry, scooting over on the couch and pointing her to her plate. A gift sat next to her already, on the arm of the couch, Celeste's name scrawled on the nametag in the snowflake-patterned giftwrap.

Dressed in her own ugly Winter Veil sweater, Celeste bid good morning to everyone and deposited Whisperwings on one of Dordy’s cushions near the fireplace. She gave me a kiss and sat on the couch, then, picking up her plate of breakfast, she laughed at Dordy sniffing at his present “Good nose, Dordy! You’ll love your present!”

”Ooh, I like the wrapping, this one is for me?” she asked me as she picked up the present next to her and shook it gently near her ear.

I gave a small, happy giggle at my kiss from Celeste, taking another sip of my hazelnut coffee and nodding.

"Yep!" she says. "That one's yours! My first for you, anyway!"

Celeste's present was lightweight and rattled like a collection of wood splinters or something when she shakes it next to her ear.

“Hmmm” Celeste said, trying to guess what it was. “A bunch of old pencil stubs you want me to try and reuse?” she asked, giggling. Then she started to unwrap her present “You’ll never guess what I made for you, Nat!” Celeste said, grinning mischievously while looking at what she’s unwrapping.

I laughed at Celeste’s joke, leaning over to lean her head on Celeste's shoulder a bit while she unwrapped her present, feeling pretty excited about whatever it was she made me. But first, looking on, I watched Celeste open her gift. Inside were a bunch of white fishhooks!

"Those are dragonbone!" I said. "They're made by the Iskaara Tuskarr from dragonbone, the densest of bones. They're very, very strong, even cut so delicate and thin, and are great even for the biggest of fish! They'll bend a little, but not break, and spring right back into form!"

“Tuskarrs are really the best at fishing!” Celeste said admiringly. “Dragonbone hooks! Uhm, I won’t insult all those new dragon-y folks by having those, will I? I can’t wait to show these to Other Nat! Oooh, I’ll finally be able to go fishing for might fish! I want to break Mother’s record; she caught one that was over a hundred pounds!” Celeste spoke all of this in a rush as she inspected the hooks, clearly thrilled

"Yeah, Tuskarrs are natural at fishing!” I replied. “And the dragons are used to the Tuskarr having dragon stuff. They don't kill dragons to get it. They just use what they can scavenge in their frozen little corner of the world. But gosh, over a hundred pounds! Yeah, I bet you could break that record, Celeste!"

I was speaking just as quickly, super excited to see Celeste so excited, while Rugnar chuckled to witness the exchange, scratching at his itchy hat again. Dordy, meanwhile, had gotten his hat and little beard pulled off by now. It’s hard to keep him in a costume!

"And yeah, gosh, I can't wait to see what you made for me either! I'm so stoked!"

"Your gift isn't wrapped... exactly, Nat. It's too big to fit in a box. We'll have to go outside to see most of it. For now though, I have something for Uncle Rugnar. Here y'go, Uncle.'' She stood up and picked up two packages from under the tree then handed them to Rugnar. She sat down with Nat while they watched him open his presents. The first was a pouch of pipe tobacco, from her very own herb garden on the lower level. ''I'm trying different ways to grow that, Uncle. You let me know how it is so I try different plants if I need to.'' Uncle Rugnar was thrilled over the fact that Celeste had grown tobacco just for him! Celeste said the instructions to grow tobacco were in her mother's notebooks. Apparently it had been a plan of hers to do so. ''I'm glad to take up the task for her; makes me feel as if she was still with us.'' Celeste said, smiling. Rugnar unwrapped the other gift. It was one of Eowithiel's oft-used notebooks. ''That has all her notes on caring for Whisperwings. I guess it's a gift for the little guy, but I think it'll make your life easier too, uncle Rugnar.'' Rugnar smiled as he opened the notebook, looking fondly at the things Eowithiel had written years ago. ''Bit dry in 'ere...'' He mumbled, the proud but emotional dwarf shedding a tear but pretending it wasn't because of his feelings.

I gave an excited wiggle and a small clap for Rugnar receiving his gift, knowing of course what he was getting. I giggled a bit at his "dry eyes," smiling warmly at the beloved old dwarf, and letting him know she has gifts for him as well!

Dordy, by now, was getting antsy though, so I got up to give him his gift. I pulled off a bit of the ribbon, wiggling it at him, knowing that he'd open his present if tug-of-war were offered to him. Sure enough, off came the ribbon! Off came the wrapping the same way! I cheered and cooed at Dordy, who now had his jerky present! Opening up the giant box lid, she brought out many more different kinds of jerky than he'd usually get. Instead of just one, Dordy got some yak jerky with black pepper from Kun-Lai Summit, some dried fish from our own stores, another piece that was seasoned beef from Elwynn Forest, and a fourth that was spicy scorpid jerky from Tanaris. Dordy gobbled them all down, positively vibrating with excitement. He even loved the spicy Tanaris scorpid jerky!

With Dordy munching merrily away, I got up to get Celeste's next little gift. A somewhat heavy, flat box that was twelve by eight inches and about two inches thick came out, wrapped in dark purple wrapping paper with stars and a Greatfather Winter sleight flying in front of the moon. Giggling excitedly, I placed it on Celeste's lap.

''I think we're going to need a bigger box of jerky for Dordy next year,'' Celeste giggled, watching Dordy scarf down the jerky as fast as he could. ''Just the wrapper on this is amazing Nat! This is heavy? Did you get me some new tools?'' she inquired, trying to guess again. She veeery carefully unwrapped the gift, preserving the paper she was enjoying so much. ''Next one is yours, well part of yours, Nat!'' she said as she opened.

I giggled as well, with every piece she fed Dordy, and Rugnar had a good chuckle along with the us, watching the ravenous Dordy enjoy his gift. Dordy, placated for now, understood that treats aren't meals and hopped up into Rugnar's lap, licking his chops, satisfied. Rugnar chuckled again after the initial surprised reaction, giving both hands over to petting the pup.

I smiled too as Celeste's admiration of the wrapping paper, then watched as Celeste unwrapped…

A book!

The Engineering Angler by Squawkward Fizzlebonk! The book is a compendium of engineering devices designed for fishing, containing everything from a self-reeling reel to sonar devices for fishing boats that find fish underwater! The book contains some 372 devices, all devoted to improving fishing yields!

"I found it in Scribes and Noble over in Hook Point in Boralus a couple of weeks ago, and who else could THAT book possibly remind me of but you? Engineering AND fishing! I know you would probably prefer fighting the fish yourself to using a self-reeling reel, but maybe a device in the book might strike your fancy, or else spark another idea of your own design!"

"Okay, so next one is mine, you say? Gosh, I wonder what it could be! Where is it?!" I asked, eyes darting around the room and bouncing around on the couch a bit, feeling highly excited!

''Whoa! This is GREAT!'' Celeste squealed, eagerly flipping through the pages and stopping here and there to examine a schematic more closely. Already dreaming up of ways to build some of the things she was seeing and a bit into her zone, she didn't catch what I was saying right away. ''It's under the tree like all the others....'' she mumbled, then blinked and looked up from the book. ''Wait what? Ooh, your gift. Here's part of it.'' She put her new engineering book aside and went to get a small box from under the tree. The gift was wrapped in simple paper, though it was covered in doodles of Celeste and I hand-in-hand, Dordy with a giant wrench in his mouth, and Onyx on one side, just to himself.

When I unwrapped my present, I found a communicator like the Whitewind Company one I have, though this one has new features on it. It has a small purple button on the side, and a the communicator comes with a small disc and wire that connected to the former.

''That's your new communicator. Thanks to the antenna on the roof, you'll be able to always tell which way is home. Just press the purple button once; see how all the colored gems changed color to purple? Now, the antenna is on the opposite side of the house, on the roof. If you turn your communicator towards it, you'll see the buttons light up from one side to the other until only the center ones are lit up if you're pointing straight at the antenna. You'll never be lost with that on you!''

''Then, if you hook up the disc that comes with it to the little plug next to the purple button and then hold the button for a few seconds... hold on. Give me a few seconds then try it!'' She jumped up from off the couch and raced downstairs into her workshop, an excited Dordy at her heels. When I connected the disc and pressed the button for a few seconds, a holographic image appeared on the disc. It was Celeste in her pajamas, holding Dordy! ''I'm not going to ask if it's working. I already tested it and I can see you here anyways! Remember that draenei comms engineer I met while on my last expedition with the Explorer's League in the desert? She helped me rig this up. Now, even if you're far away, you can see me and talk to me like this!'' I could hear Celeste both from Nat's communicator and from her workshop downstairs. ''You can switch the hologram off the same way you turned it on. Do so now. I'll come back upstairs and show you the final thing your new communicator does.''

Celeste returned to the couch moments later. ''It was too hard to add that disc to your communicator while keeping it discreet and small. You'll have to leave it in your pack when you leave home for a while. So, the final thing! Turn that purple button clockwise. The colored gems on your communicator will light up and start blinking, like so.'' She showed me how, turning the button clockwise until it clicked. All the gems started blinking, and then I heard a buzzing sound coming from downstairs. Up suddenly came a hook drone not unlike Celeste's, though this one's casing was mostly purple and featured more doodles from Celeste of stars and moons as well as a few Dordys here and there. The hook drone carried a small crate underneath it. It buzzed and hovered right next to me, beeping softly until I reached up and took the small crate from it.

''That's your new emergency supply drone!'' Celeste said, reaching over and opening the box. Inside were two bottles of water, a healing potion, first aid items, some jerky, a bag of nuts and dried fruit, and a handful of small tools like pliers, lockpicks, tweezers, and more. ''I put in a few obvious items, but you can tailor its contents to whatever you need before you set out for your adventures. The drone is outfitted with a wormhole generator that is tuned to your communicator, so, whenever, wherever you need emergency supplies, it'll zap close-ish to your location, then buzz its way to you! Assuming you're not locked in a deep dungeon underground...''

I boggled HARD at the device and all its amazing features. Mind = BLOWN! Once I was done wordlessly gaping at it like a crazy person, my feelings of awe and surprise turned to one of wet eyes. I turned a slightly tearful smile to Celeste, practically leaping at her with a giant bear hug!

"Ohmigosh, Celeste!" I sniffled as I gazed at it and the handy new comms unit, having carefully removed Celeste's doodlewrap with the intention of tacking it to the wall above my writing desk in her office. "That's so thoughtful, and so wonderfully creative, and so very caring! I love it so much! I can see you while I'm at work, and find my way home from anywhere, and I always have a care package from you any time I need it! You're the greatest wifey EVER!"

I spent a good while playing with the gift, zooming it around, making a hologram of everyone who used Celeste's end, and moving all around the room to make the needle move around for the home-finding compass. Eventually, I remembered it's still Winter Veil morn, and more gifts must go out!

"I have one last one for you, Celeste," I said with a mischievous grin. "But first, I have a present for Uncle Rugnar too!"

I headed back under the tree, bringing out a large present about the size of a bed pillow, but twice as thick. It was wrapped in more of the wrapping paper with the night sky and Greatfather Winter's sleigh flying across the moon. Bringing it to Rugnar, I scooped up Dordy and replaced him with the gift.

"Happy Winter Veil, Uncle Rugnar!" I said, having a seat with a squirming Dordy back in my spot and squirming excitedly myself as I waited for Rugnar to open it up.

''Ach, ye lasses are all tradin' gifts, an' ye haven't even opened mine. Celeste me girl, be a dear and get the one I brought for ye both, would ye? Careful, it's a wee bit heavy!'' Rugnar grinned, then proceeded to open his gift, commenting on how fine a job I had made of the wrapping, which made me blush. While he was doing so, Celeste went to fetch Rugnar's gift for us. She looked like she was surprised a bit at the weight. She set it down on the floor in front of where she and I were sitting and watched Rugnar as he reacted to his gift.

Rugnar's gift turned out to be a hand-woven, extra-warm blanket with strange designs on it. Thick, angular shapes in black thread on a brown background accentuated pictures of bears, moose, and wolves.

"It's from the centaur on the Dragon Isles!" I explained excitedly. "The natives there made this blanket! I had it custom made, got them to add in more local sorts of creatures to your own home for them to make it with. The other shapes are centaur blessings, blessing you and your land and the wildlife around you!"

I waited for Rugnar to examine his gift from me before looking to our own gift from him. This one had taken some time to have made, and I wanted to be sure he got the chance to thoroughly explore it before moving on!

“Ye brought that all the way from them Isles jus’ fer me, lass? It’s perfect ta keep me old bones warm! Ya see this boy? No more cold when we’re out campin’!” Rugnar gleefully showed the blanket to Whisperings, who chirped in response. “Very thoughtful o’ ye, Natasha me girl, thank ye.”

Nat giggled and smiled with delight as she watched Rugnar admire his new custom-made blanket with Whisperwings.

"Yep!" she said. "All the way from the Ohn'aran Plains, from a friendly centaur woman who makes these by hand! I'm glad you like it!"

Rugnar spent a moment longer looking at the designs on the blanket. Finally, he gestured for the girls to unwrap his gift. Rugnar had more crudely wrapped the gift. Plain green colored paper, no other decorations. TO MY DEAREST GIRLS was written in blocky letters on top of the gift. Unwrapping it eventually revealed a small wooden crate and inside, packed in hay was a bronze sculpture of Celeste and I, snuggled together under a blanket in front of a campfire with Dordy curled in the ground close to us. The sculpture was very accurate, down to little details like Celeste’s torn ear. It had likely been copied from a S.E.L.F.I.E. Rugnar must have taken of us during the last trip in the Grizzly Hills!

I helped Celeste unwrap Rugnar's present next, gasping at the bronze statue inside. "Oh gosh, Celeste, it's US! This is from that S.E.L.F.I.E. Uncle Rugnar took once we got that bear cub safe and we had that fireside time before bed that night! You remember? Oh gosh, it has that stick hanging out of the fire we were using to stoke the fire with, the blanket we brought out from the tent, oh gosh, even your poor ear! WOW, Rugnar! This is AMAZING! Thank you so much! Where will we put it? Centerpiece for the dining room table? A window? Near the spare parts crane statue? Would that clash too much, a jungle bird and a Grizzly Hills camping scene? Gosh, all I know is, I really like this one a lot!"

I admired the statue for a while longer with Celeste, silently now, giving her a chance to react herself as well.

''Wow, look at that detail!” Celeste exclaimed happily. “Uncle Rugnar, I remember you making those tin soldiers for Tom, but they were never this realistic! It must've taken you days to make this! We should put this on a special table here in the living room. It’s where we spend the most time together when it isn't warm outside. Thank you Uncle Rugnar, this is so thoughtful!'' Celeste hopped up to kiss and hug her uncle who half-heartedly batted her away, complaining about mushy stuff though, he was clearly greatly pleased!

I got up to give Rugnar a hug as well, thanking him again, giggling at being playfully swatted away like a gnat instead of a Nat.

When I finally let Rugnar be, I went to the tree once more, lifting up a very small package that fit in the palm of my hand and weighed next to nothing. This one was wrapped in purple ribbon and had plain white wrapping paper, though I had doodled on this one, unlike the others. There was a heart with a fish and a duskrose inside it together, a pair of stick figures holding hands, one with short strawberry blonde hair, the other with long black hair, and one more doodle, this one of a house on a rock spire with snow outside, but warm, glowing windows visible as though a fire kept the inside warm. I held this one out to Celeste, beaming with pleasure as I sat back down.

"I have one last gift for you here," I said softly. "I hope you like it."

Celeste sat down on the couch again and looked at me for a moment “I like the drawings you made on this one. It doesn’t weigh anything. I think I can guess what it is, but I’ll save the guessing for something else…” Carefully, she unwrapped the small present.

"I don't think you'll guess this one!” I said with a grin. “It's pretty unique! I had it custom-made at the Winter Veil Jubilee!"

I squirmed excitedly as the tiny box was opened. Wrapped carefully within a bit of fluffy, festive, red and green wrapping paper, is a tiny, shiny fish!

As more festive packing paper came away, the fish revealed itself to be a salmon! It's wrought from gleaming, sparkling truesilver, with tigereye gems to represent the golden eyes that salmon have. The fish itself is encased within the silhouette of a truesilver heart painted purple. The fish is connected to the heart at the mouth on one end, the tail at the other, and the top middle part of the heart that comes downward connects to the dorsal fin.

Flipping the fish over revealed it to be a pin! A sturdy pin and clasp runs over the upper length of the fish, and an inscription in purple runs in a couple of lines beneath that:

For the Catch of My Life. Thank you for making me the luckiest angler on Azeroth! ~ Natasha

"I wanted to add a bit to your wide-brimmed floppy fishing hat!" I explained with a warm, loving smile. "Where the hooks and lures and stuff are attached to your hat, I wanted to add a bit more of what you love to it. Pin it on anywhere amongst the rest of it! When you fish, and I'm not there, you can see it and think of me!"

“Oh my… I thought it was a new earring… this is so much better! I’ll put it right on the front of my fishing hat! Oh Nat, thank you, this is wonderful!” Gently setting the pin aside, she reached for me and gave her a long, loving kiss (Rugnar busied himself reading about how to care for Whisperings in the meantime).

“Alright,” Celeste exclaimed after she eventually released me. “Gifts were perfect this year again! How about a family S.E.L.F.I.E.!?”

I blushed madly at being kissed like that right in front of Rugnar, but then gave myself fully to the kiss, barely keeping my lips closed for the kiss from my smiling. I giggled when the kiss finally ended, remembering Rugnar was there, who seemed like he might turn the same color I just did himself, but for his sudden deep focus on his book.

"Yes!" I agreed wholeheartedly. "I LOVE this year's gifts! And yeah, S.E.L.F.I.E. time! No need for us to get into anything more than pajamas, or your Greatfather Winter suit, Uncle Rugnar... Winter Veil mornings were MEANT to look just like this! We can even keep all the wrapping paper and boxes and stuff in the pic, and all the gifts! Where's the camera?"

''It's in the workshop! I'll get it, just a sec!'' Celeste extricated herself from my embrace and headed to her workshop on the lower level. She returned a moment later and set the timer on the camera, placing it on a stack of books on a coffee table to get it at just the right height. ''Ok everyone, hop into the S.E.L.F.I.E. zone! C'mon, uncle Rugnar! Grab Whisps too!'' She settled herself on the couch with me right next to her and Dordy held between us. Rugnar grumbled bit, very gently picked up Whisperwings and moved to side on Celeste's other side. ''All right everyone, smile!''

I grabbed one more piece of Dordy's Winter Veil jerky present and placed it on a napkin folded up on top of the camera. The result was Dordy seeming to look into the camera with a smile, his jaws open and his long tongue lolling out the right side of his mouth. I was smiling a smile that had all the joy of the Winter Veil morning behind it as I clutched a beaming Celeste, who had her arms around her family on either side of her. Even Rugnar seemed completely joyous in the picture, chuckling at the camera with his Greatfather Winter suit and hat on. Whisperwings sat on his lap with his tail flopped over Dordy's back, giving the camera a serene look. The light from the fireplace illuminated the scene cheerily, and the Winter Veil family portrait was a heart-warming masterpiece!

After that, Celeste and I changed from pajamas to normal clothes and went to see Penny! Penny was delighted to have company for Winter Veil, something she hadn’t been accustomed to on Mechagon Isle. She was even planning on heading out after we left to visit some friends of her own in Halfhill!

Gifts were exchanged, including a gnomish cookbook from Rugnar he’d procured from Ironforge. Penny was delighted, as mechagnomes usually just ate tubes of some sort of weird nutritional paste, and was, to this day, still delighting in the culinary arts of others. A cookbook from her cousins in the Eastern Kingdoms really made her happy! Celeste and I got her a mechanical Grindgear Gorilla, one of the toys available from Greatfather Winter when he does gifts in Ironforge. Penny loved him instantly! She named him Gregg the Gorilla on the spot, already coming up with ideas on how to keep him powered around the clock for companionship when she was around the house alone. We also got her into a training class for cloud serpent raising and racing! Penny loves flying, and has shown a real knack for it even though she’s new to it, so she’s really excited to raise and race her own cloud serpent! Penny got Rugnar a strong, yet soft, silky-smooth leather pouch with pandaren designs for him to keep his pipe tobacco in, which Rugnar was really impressed with. He took the pipe tobacco Celeste had gifted him from the gift box and put it in the tobacco pouch immediately, pulling closed the drawstring and tucking it away, looking happy. Penny got Celeste and I a statue she’d made all by herself, a cloud serpent about three feet long she’d pieced together herself from spare parts she’d brought back from our last Mechagon trip that we took right before Winter Veil. I had no idea she had that planned all along! Wow! The cloud serpent is all silver-colored, with one of those robodogs’ heads that they build over there, an undulating body made from spent power cells welded together, and legs from a robodog as well. The wings were made from a pandaren gliding kite. The whole thing together really looks impressive! Now to figure out where to put it! Maybe attach it to the railing above the swamp pond on the deck, so it looks like he’s flying over the pond? We don’t know yet!

Penny came with us to visit Other Nat at Anglers Wharf. We exchanged gifts of tasty seafood treats and pandaren candy with our friends there, and, for Other Nat himself, Celeste, Penny, and I had written a book of all our own fishing tales (with the most impressive stories coming from Celeste’s own legendary embellishments. Ha!) for him to read, as he loves reading about fishing! Rugnar, only meeting him for the first time, was among those just exchanging treats, but that was fine, because Other Nat really enjoys candy from Ironforge! Other Nat got Celeste, Penny, and I a collection of fine, hand-crafted lures from all Alliance cultures around the world. Human fly lures, gnomish lures that flash lights and wriggle, dwarven lures of finely-cut, flashy stone, Kaldorei lures made to look like caterpillars or cocoons, Draenic lures that are orbs that shine with the Light, even Gilnean lures that look like small fish with scales that glint and flash in the sunlight. It’s such a cool collection!

Eventually, we headed out, with Penny going back to Halfhill to exchange gifts with more friends there, and Celeste, Uncle Rugnar, and I heading through Celeste’s portal to Stormwind to go and visit Father in Darkshire. Father had a full spread of Winter Veil dinner for us, with steak and shrimp, baked potatoes, pickles, olives, dinner rolls with butter, and salad. Dwarven brews were had, which really made Uncle Rugnar happy. Father got him a new pipe for smoking, a truly elegant piece with a long, sleek, stem that curved gracefully in an undulating fashion as it rose from the bowl. The bowl itself was carved in dwarven runes that spoke blessings of peace, prosperity, and happiness to the smoker. Father explained that he’d had an old friend from Ironforge custom-make it, a woodcarver who specialized in delicate tasks. Rugnar examined it wordlessly for a bit, then rubbed his eyes, grumping about going inside to a bright fire from a dark forest making his eyes water. Ha! After he got his eyes dried, he gave Father a good, strong hug, then got his gift out for him. It was a seven-part novel series! This one was about the adventures of a human and a dwarf who’d met in basic training in the military, and detailed their adventures both in battle and out, a great yarn of action and comedy. Father had mentioned once to Rugnar that he’d always wanted to find the series and read it, but could never find it anywhere. Rugnar had gone as far as Scribes and Noble in Hook Point, Boralus, and still couldn’t find it himself! Eventually consulting with mages of the Kirin Tor, a series was finally located in Dalaran, and Rugnar had set forth immediately to get it. Father was touched, and another embrace was shared by the two. Next came our present! Father got Celeste and I a scrapbook! I had no idea he’d been working on this, let alone snapping pictures! There were pictures from the time Celeste and I, with he and Uncle Rugnar, had had that amazing ceremony Celeste had for me on my birthday the year before last with the tale of the pandaren lovers who had leapt into the stars to be together, pictures from visits around Darkshire, and also dried flowers from Duskwood and Pandaria, a few rifle bullets glued in beside a picture of Celeste and I hunting, scraps of human and pandaren poetry taped in beside happy-looking pictures, and so many more scraps that would just take forever to list! We loved it, of course, and more hugs were shared, Rugnar now really being bothered by the contrast of light and dark and needing to rub his eyes some more. Dordy got more jerky, Whisperwings got dried fruits, and then Celeste and I gave Father our gift: a trio of flashy new suits, something he’d said he wished he had so he’d stop feeling embarrassed when rich or important people came through town. Of course he has no reason to; he wears very nice clothes already, and is already a tall, regal-looking guy as is. But now, straight from the finest tailors in Upton Borough in Boralus, woven from the finest cotton, linen, and silk, these suits will make a regal man look positively dapper, and make even a rich dignitary question his own fashion! Father looked quite taken aback, now stating that he’d feel embarrassed to look that flashy… and yet he was already pulling on one of the suit jackets and admiring himself in the mirror! HA! More hugs were exchanged, and everyone looked full from dinner and pleased at their gifts. Even Dordy was passed out by the fire, his belly so full of jerky and dinner scraps that I could hear him snoring!

After that, it was back home for us. We ended up passing out early from that one, bellies full, worn out from travel and being continually delighted over and over again. What a great Winter Veil it was!

Then Tuesday was DEATHROLLS! We got to play in Bruuk’s Tavern in Ironforge, upstairs! It was me, my bestie Nah, Grim, Maya, Cari, Xam, a friend of Maya’s, Cari’s, and Xam’s from their company, the Voyagers, named Riesa Farwood, who is a human mage in training, as well as Mags and Elsa! Mags and Elsa were late additions, and Xam and Riesa were only there for a bit in the middle of the game, but the rest of us had a pretty loaded night of shenanigans!

The game started with me rolling a one and Nah rolling a twenty out of twenty for the Truth or Dare rolls, which meant she got to choose Truth or Dare FOR me! Full Power to Nah right off the bat! Gosh! So what does she do? Kept me supplied with dwarven mead for the night, and every time I said, “gosh,” I had to drink! So of course before I realized it, I was getting pretty doggone tipsy! Then some Truths went around about favorite musicians, and then Nah and Maya both rolled a one, and Cari got to Dare them, so she went downstairs to get some drinks, then did some mage and alchemy stuffs to them and brought them back up. There was red, green, blue, and purple. She gave them to Nah and Maya, and had them pick out which one the other had to drink. Maya ended up with the green and Nah got the blue, and Maya’s made her feel like she perpetually had to sneeze but couldn’t for a few minutes, and Nah’s made her feel like she got a pebble in her boot! Ha! Maya had Cari balance her empty mug from that Dare on her head for three rounds, which was made easier for Cari with her flower wreath on her head to help hold it up, and then Nah got to Dare Cari and I both, so we ended up splitting the red drink. That one made us go on a belching RAMPAGE! Oh gosh! I said gosh so many times from those belches that I got quite a bit more tipsy, and that caused its own share of burps, which goshed me some more, which turned out to be a not-great downward spiral! Nah got to Dare me again, getting me to drink the last of Cari’s drinks, the red one. That one made me feel a perpetual itch in my back that I just COULD NOT FIX for like five minutes straight! Goodness gracious! Everyone had a good laugh at my misfortunes, including me, and then I got to Dare Cari. Next person who shows up for Deathrolls, randomly walk up to them and, without warning, without context, just… start play-gnawing on their arm while tapping out the drumbeat of a song on their shoulder. Sure enough, barely two minutes later, Grim shows up! He blinked at Cari just randomly coming up and gnawing on his arm as he came in and playing the drums on him, and was like, “Da-… what the fu-… what has gotten into y-… Wait, I smell Nat shenanigans all over this.” HA! Grim knows my Dare styles all too well by now! Then I got to Truth Cari, and I asked her what would be the best thing to say to a close friend that would also be the worst to say to a romantic partner, and she replied with, “WET WILLYYYY!” HA! Then I got to Dare Grim and Cari both, so I had Grim on the table bench pressing Cari! Gosh, he’s so strong, and she’s so tiny, he makes it look easy! Xam and Riesa came in for a bit after that, and Grim had Riesa on a Dare doing what he had to do the previous week, singing everything for five rounds! Riesa did an exceptional job rhyming on the fly to some familiar tunes! Her voice is pretty pleasant too! By now, Nah had been doing quite a bit of drinking on her own, and was getting tipsy, since she usually never drinks. This was getting the Truths that were coming along to be too spicy for me to really feel comfortable writing. Heh… Then Maya got Nah and I both with a Truth about the favorite moment from our friendship. But gosh, it's impossible to choose one, just one, that stands out from the rest! So many times Nah dropped what she was doing to come sit with me in Lion's Rest for an hour before I go to bed after work, on a worknight... all the Deathrolls, all the adventuring, the time we hiked Grizzly Hills... all our other hikes... our time together in other companies before the Whitewind Company... the dinners we've had at the Stormwind Gazebo... I was saying all this, and Nah was like, “Awww... I was gonna say, I definitely think that hike in Grizzly Hills is one of my favorites.” But if there's a moment, a memory, that really exemplifies our friendship? That moment would be... The time at a Deathrolls game in Kirthaven where she Dared me to go all the way home from there to Celeste's house in Ironforge wearing only my bikini! I said that, and Nah cackled maniacally and then hiccupped drunkenly, and she was like, “Ooohh yeaaaah… LOVE that moment, too.” I said that it exemplifies our friendship because A) Nah was there pranking me, making me blush, making me run around in practically my skivvies... BUT... Through it all? She was there with me, guiding me around a blizzard in Dun Morogh, getting me unseen when we flew into Stormwind and the Golden Keg was surprisingly crowded for someone's event there, through the tram, distracted the gnomes in Tinkertown, distracted the guards outside Tinkertown by telling them there was a blizzard outside and they'd rolled down their windows on their steam tonks, sabotaged the steam tonks in the Military Ward in that one building to distract more guards, then used my Explosive Decoy Sheep to distract the final guards, making sure that, prank or no, her bestie was protected and comfortable enough to move through the cities and past the blizzard and get home! Maya said that the two of us definitely have a friendship for the ages! After that, Grim kicked off the next round by rolling a sixty-nine out of one hundred. With our rules, that meant that he had to point at someone he’d do that with. Grim crossed his arms, pointing at Nah to his left and me to his right at the same time. OH GOSH GRIM! This much goshing had me pretty well smashed by this point, so things get fuzzy in the memory from here, but I still remember that I got Grim next, Daring him to drink a powerfully alcoholic drink called a Sulfuron Slammer. It’s a shot of some kind of strong dwarven liquor that they light on fire before you drink it! Grim had quite a time drinking that one! HA! Next thing I know, I’m up on the railing of the balcony outside, pointing my rear at all of Ironforge and shaking it while singing at them all to shake their booty. I THINK that was because I was Dared to? I can’t remember! Oh gosh! Then Mags and Elsa came in just as Xam and Riesa were leaving, but Xam got one last Dare in: Mags and Grim both rolled ones, and Grim chose Dare, so Xam Dared them to spend the rest of the game all mummified with toilet paper! Mags ended up with Elsa rolling her, so her arms stuck to her sides inside the toilet paper and had to burst out to roll again, and Grim was rolled by… I forget who, I was too soused by this point… but they had his arms and calves wrapped up, with thighs showing beneath a toilet paper miniskirt! HA! Good thing he still had his pants on under that! Mags had tons of Winter Veil gifts since she’d missed the Winter Veil Deathrolls game, too, so that ended up coming out in Dares as well! I ended up getting Dared to open mine from Mags first. It turns out she, Elsa, Nate from the Quicksilver Company that runs the pancake stand at markets, and Annabelle that sometimes Deathrolls with us all contributed! Bath towels, hand towels, face towels, and pillowcases, all purple, with the towels enchanted to always hold a faint lavender fragrance! I dunno who made them and who enchanted them, but they’re all awesome for making these for me! Celeste enjoys them too! Then I got to Dare Mags next – what are the odds! So out came her present! She tore into it happily, bringing out a penguin plushie from Tucker’s Toys in Upton Borough that has retractable skates and a retractable wind-up thingy in the back that allows him to ice-skate on frozen lakes and stuff! He’s dressed in a positively dapper tuxedo, and has cuddle mode (everything retracted) too! Lastly, he also does a penguin-waddle to walk when wound up without his skates out! Mags drew him out of the box and was like, “WHOA! It’s a Victor bird!” Everyone was confused that didn’t know Victor from the Quicksilver company, but he’s always wearing expensive suits like that! Mags got me with a Truth next round, so she asked me what the penguin’s name was, so Elsa and I were brainstorming, and Elsa came up with the best one by far: Vic-brr! Because of the tuxedo, and because penguins are from cold places, and because of the ice-skating bit! Mags loves him! I didn’t know Elsa was going to be there, so sadly, I didn’t have anything for her, and I didn’t have anything for Nate, whom I only see like a couple times a year, and Annabelle said she doesn’t do presents, so I felt kinda bad that they’d all chipped in on mine for me, but I’ll find a way to make it up to them! There were some more spicy Truths that I probably should write down, and then Grim and Elsa rolled a one on the last round of the game, so, just like Cari, I had Grim bench pressing Elsa! He did eighteen reps! Then it was time for everyone to go home. But gosh! Nine people cycled through over the course of the game! It was so much fun! What a night! I LOVE Deathrolls!

The next night, however, Nah’s Whitewind Company weekly adventure fell through once again, so no adventure to write about still! Next week, I’m gonna go ahead and set mine up, and that way, if Nah isn’t doing hers next week either, I’ll just get mine back on track to fill in its place for the week! I can’t wait to get back to adventuring again!

In the meantime, life is so peaceful! I’m just sitting here in the workshop with Celeste today, who’s started lots of projects from that Engineering Anglers book, but keeps finding new ones to start and leaving the others unfinished. Her eager excitement to want to try everything always leaves her poor workshop in varying states of disaster, but no one ever cares – her excitement and happiness when she works is just so infectious! The sounds of her happy humming and various tools being applied to various gadgets and gizmos is one that is familiar, comforting, and beloved in my heart, and I love writing while she works!

But for now, my writing is done for the week. Time to help her work on a few of these gadgets! I can’t wait to see what we come up with this week! And I can’t wait to see what sort of adventure we can hopefully get into next week as well! Here’s to another week of fun and excitement! YAY!

Nat tapped off the excess ink from her quill into her inkwell as she smiled at that happy thought. She capped off her inkwell and replaced her quill in its case, running these and their coffee mugs upstairs for more coffee and to replace the quill case and inkwell in her desk drawer. She came back downstairs with the coffee, giving Celeste her mug of black, smiling at how focused Celeste was on her work that caused her to barely notice beyond a mumbled word of thanks, still one of her endearing quirks. She placed her own hazelnut coffee on the workbench, collecting her diary next. The ink on the pages now dry, she closed it, rushing it upstairs to go in its home on her bookshelf next to her writing desk, then headed back downstairs to see what Celeste was working on.

Celeste was currently hard at work piecing Mechagon junkyard parts together to craft a device in the book that beeps loudly if a sandbar, rock, shipwreck, or other obstacle is directly in front of the craft’s path. It sat beside an unfinished automatic fishing rod cleaner, which was stacked on top of a partially-completed tackle box that, instead of trays stacked on trays, would eventually have trays that spun on an axle, sort of like a rotisserie, easily spinning up trays of this or that to the user. Further past that was a small pile of gnomish lures that light up and flash when submerged in water, glinting with tiny lights that make them look like bugs or something that have fallen into the water. On Celeste’s other side was something Nat couldn’t quite identify, but it seemed to be a gnomish space heater converted to do… something. Its face was off, insides exposed, and new wires were inserted, attached to a disc that Nat had no idea as to its purpose.

Smiling happily, Nat delved in to the work with Celeste, and, getting all wound up from Celeste’s excitement, Nat had a few ideas sparked as well, and the pair well and truly demolished the workbench – or so it seemed with the piles of parts and half-finished projects by the end of the day – and ended up spending the day tinkering for fun, with a few breaks here and there to get some food, or else get some sunlight and play with Dordy until the pup was worn out.

That evening, with the little family worn out from the day’s fun, they went to bed early, Nat needing to be up the next day for work. It had been an awesome week, and the next week promised even more fun!