Furry-Within

(For those joining in, my character is a female Worgen Death Knight, named Shanalaia)

The Death Knight Worgen sat there, in the room allotted to her by her friend and lover, staring at her small little recipe book.

A missing page! In her baking recipes!

Damn it!

She snorts and rifles through the pages of the paw-sized book, the binding well worn, the leather cover of the otherwise nondescript notebook water-logged and weather-worn, but she keeps flipping back to the gaping hole in her past life, furrowing her furry eyebrows, the train of thought crashing to a stand-still at a lack of tracks again as she eyes the jagged page bits where a recipe, and the first page or two of notes about it, would have been, left with only a warning about not using a particular wood in the baking process.

DamnitDamnitDamnit!

A Forsaken mage, one Abyoyo, caught the faint hint of swearing on the frigid north wind that blustered intermittently into the palisade surrounded depression  in the south of Frostfire Ridge.

She hustled across the  snow-covered grounds towards the small bakery set up for their strange, semi-permanent visitor.

Aby put her bony fingers up to hold her purple, pointed cap on her head when an errant wind flared up.

Her robes swished across the snow as she stuck her head through the entryway, smiling brightly, "I get the feeling someone's upset in here. Tell we Shana, what troubles you?" The question seemed friendly enough, but there was a probing nature to the words.

Shanalaia was, indeed, strange, though it could be explained. She didn't quite follow the Alliance/Horde battleline, being part of the Ebon Blade giving her some wiggle room to associate with those across the lines, which she happened to do. How she managed to get her own bakery in a Horde outpost is a straightforward yet confusing tale, best left for another day.

Presently, though, she is seated at a small table, near the counter where business was done. At Abyoyo's entrance, she looks up to her, giving a frown. "Very. I seem to have a few... pages missing in my recipe book." She stands and moves over to the doorway, showing the Forsaken the jagged tears in the binding and the obvious gap in the notes. "I'm... sure I don't need to tell you as to why this troubles me so much." She looks to the side, distress in her twitching and bodily movements.

After the Liche King's destruction, the Ebon Blade members scattered, their tasks complete. Some fought for their former factions, some the cross faction, and yet others still sought out their own path. Shanalaia was one of the last, seeking out the dregs of her former life. Loooong story short, she found her past life, she was the owner of a baking shoppe, located in Ambermill, just to the south of Lordaeron in the Silverpine Forest. So, that completed, Shanalaia set out to continue a semblance of her past life and become a baker. She takes pride in her work and modest calling, dedicating herself to her shoppe, and to have something unknown missing from her only link to her past life is, well, troubling, when she doesn't remember any of it.

"Right, right, your past," the mage says, waving her hand almost dismissively. She studied the torn pages with real interest though, her lamplight eyes casting a moldering glow across the old pages.

Abyoyo was more or less indifferent to the distress the worgeness was facing, but the prospect of a mystery, hidden knowledge no matter how petty, had put its hooks into her.

She looked up and stared at the worgeness for a long minute, then asked, "So, where are we going to start looking?" She folded her arms, as thought he decision for her to accompany Shana had already been decided, and in her mind it had been quite decided.

Shana nods, still holding the small notebook for Abyoyo. As Shana's gaze held Abyoyo's own, she smiles at the question. She closes her notebook with a muffled 'thwip,' slipping it into her small shoulder bag. "Ambermill is the first stop, in Forsaken Territory. Should be very familiar to you!" She smirks, knowing full well Ambermill was just a stone's toss from the Undercity, the main city for the Forsaken. "We will be leaving in a moment, and having you along will benefit me greatly. Just need to change into more.. suitable attire. After that... Undercity, likely." She lopes over to the door, fixing to lock it after they leave, turning to smile to Abyoyo. "After you."

After locking up, she would return to her small collection of belongings and don her plate armor for the long, dodgy trip back to the Eastern Kingdoms... unless a mage was involved, then it would be very simple, indeed.

The forsaken smiled brightly, "Ah! Ambermill. A bland little place, though there is a banshee there, she's always interesting to chit-chat with. Here, hold on a moment..."

She turned away, facing a blanket patch of snow by the side of the path cutting through the light snowfall and began to mutter under her breath. Light shone between her fingers and with a resonant thrum, the portal split open.

"Nothin' to it! Now, after you," she grinned, adjusting her pointed cap and giving a rather over-dramatic bow, "We can discuss what your plans are in Undercity."

Shana smirks. "Ambermill is small, likely why it was the location for the large bakery. Located out of Lordaeron." She watches her open the portal, smiling softly. "Very handy. Now, what we check in Undercity will depend on if we find anything at Ambermill."  Before she knew it, Shanalaia had walked through the portal, but instead of Ambermilll like she had assumed the portal led, she suddenly found herself face to face with... another forsaken?

Both of them, of course, are rather taken aback, with Shana reaching for her blade, while the forsaken lets out a screech of surprise.

Loud? Oh yeah. This isn't going over well. Not very well at all. Totally the wrong place for a drop-off point. She, of course, tries to backpedal back out through the portal, to the welcoming chill of snow, finding herself face-down in it, panting heavily in surprise. "Aby... was that Undercity? Let's... not go to Undercity quite yet."

Aby laughs as she comes backpedaling out and falls into the snow, wiping a nonexistent tear from her eye, she clenches her fist and the portal snaps closed with a 'whoosh'.

"Ah, right, hadn't thought about that," she gnaws on her finger lightly, "Well, I suppose we could take the portal to Stonard, bit less conspicuous. Plus, I've got a neat little spell, disguises you as someone else, but only for a couple of minutes, it should be plenty of time to get out of Stonard, but then we've got a long flight ahead of us."

Shana snorts and picks herself up off the ground, dusting the snow off of herself. She reaches into her pack and pulls out a slightly-bloodied, pieced together map and searches through it. Eventually, she does find Stonard on the map, aaaaaaall the way down in the Swamp of Sorrows, making her wince.

"That is... indeed... a long flight. Well, short of meeting somewhere later, that would do. We will proceed to Ambermill first. See if there is anything left of the bakery that would point us in any sort of direction, before we resort to Lordaeron." She rolls up her map and slips it back into her pack. "Ready, Aby?" She slings her pack over her shoulder, checking her sword hilt to be sure of it and being ready to defend herself this time, if necessary.

"Hold your horses!" She frowns, and sticks her hand out, fingers spread, palm lightly slapping Shana's forehead, muttering something.

She stepped back just as quickly and paused to admire her handiwork, then turned to start opening the portal.

"There, I put a temporary illusion on you," she smirks, "You're a male Orc, by the way. Just grunt and drool a bit, you should be fine."

The portal popped open a moment later, and Abyoyo bowed mockingly, "After you, 'Lurg Smashrock'."

Shana blinks and snorts softly as the illusion is being applied, then grins. swishing from side to side, making the orc dance a little. "Mmm, yay. Guess I'll pick up the nearest, handy tree branch." She smirks, nudging her after the portal pops open. "Why thank you, Aby. Maybe this time it'll be better." She smiles, then heads off through the portal.

Abyoyo strode through the portal behind the 'orc', the rip snapping shut behind her. The two of them found themselves in the oppressive, humid murk of the swamp of sorrows. Even inside the building, the faint stench of rot was present. Abyoyo bustled past a blood elf, smiling cheerfully at him, her bony fingers snagging Shana's wrist and dragging her along behind as she made for the exit, quickly getting clear of the small outpost of Stonard.

Beyond the palisade, she found an out-of-the-way spot, and not a moment too soon, as the disguise wore off shortly after. She turned and leaned against a tree, "So, to Ambermill, huh? It's too bad the illusion wouldn't have gotten us through the Undercity. This'll be a bit of a trip, and we can't take any alliance or horde flights."

Shana urks softly, following after Abyoyo quickly, keeping up with her, grumbling deep and quiet. As they clear the palisade, she sighs and shakes her head, being pulled aside not a moment too soon for the illusion to dissipate.

"Yes, and I agree. We may want to fly higher than usual to avoid detection. My mount and I do not need air, so we are fine at those altitudes and temperatures. Or, we can hang low and away, hugging borders and tree rows until we get there. Or, we follow the water's edge once we cross the continent." She pulls out her pack and rifles through, the snorts, pulling out the leather collar and leash. "All else fails, horde party, I'm your pet, alliance, you're my prisoner..." She chuckles softly, shaking her head, stowing the leather pieces again.

Abyoyo lifts a thin eyebrow at the leash and collar, but doesn't inquire about it, smoothly continuing with the topic at hand, "If we meet an alliance patrol, I'll shoot you with a quick burst of arcane magic, then turn invisible and flee."

She grinned, shrugging her shoulders, "No sense in doing a whole song-and-dance on my account. At any rate, I'd prefer not to fly here. We'll travel on foot near settlements, fly when we're clear. For now, we need to plot a course along the roads."

Shanalaia nods. "Sounds prudent. Where would we meet if we split up in such a manner?" She pulls out her map again, looking it over. "As far as travel, could just avoid roads and travel along mountains and forests?" She looks at her map, studying it for a few moments. She pants a few times, wiping her brow with the back of her paw. "This heat is oppressive." she opens up areas as she traces her route, mostly over mountains.

"Hmm, how about this?" She steps closer to Aby, showing her route, using the mountains to their south to head east, following the mountainous shoreline north, aall the way to the border between the Arathi highlands, and the Hinterlands, but west of there is all too much open space. She pauses, then grumbles softly. "Well... north would be easy, that way, but going west, from any point, is going to be dicey. We might have to travel in the dark, which could prove to be interesting, as well, and simply stick to the shoreline through that bit of travel." She rumbles, stuck in thought, not seeing an easy way west without going out of their way. She starts to pant as she wipes her forehead again, shaking her head. "Ice would last but a moment in this damned swamp..."