Bored

Bored. Bored, bored bored. I've been so bored.

The city that excited me so much when I first arrived a few months ago has failed to keep my interest any longer. I've walked the streets a hundred times. Even if I've only been here for a small fraction of a year, it feels like Stormwind has been my home forever.

And yet, I don't really understand why. I've lived in places a lot longer than I've lived here... even my stay in the remains of the Exodar were longer than this. Sure, I've been bored before, but never to the point like now where I can look back on my day and realize I've done nothing productive. Everybody recently has seemed to be more focused on the problems in Northrend, but nobody has seemed to want to request my help, and I'm reluctant to go up there without a specific task to do. It's supposedly dangerous, cold, and I wouldn't want to go alone. So instead, I wander around Stormwind, seeing what I can do, but the routine has been proving very dull.

And the weird thing is, I don't think I've ever been as excited in a new place as I was when I first came to Stormwind. Perhaps there's some correlation? It would make sense, I suppose. Stormwind's not any less exciting than anywhere else I've been, but because my initial opinion of it was so high, it seems more boring in comparison now that the novelty's worn off. Will the Exodar seem similarly boring the next time I make the trip home to visit my father?

With as bored as I've been, though, the visitor I received a couple days ago was most welcome. I was in the park district, laying on my back and watching the clouds, when I was approached by the kaldorei who'd escorted me to the Rose Hallow's End party, Kerias. Of course, her presence would be welcome even if I had not been bored, but the chance to reunite with someone I hadn't spoken to in a number of weeks provided instant relief to my ennui. I hopped down from the ledge I'd been resting on to stand face-to-face with her.

As we exchanged pleasantries, I noted that she appeared to be fully armed and armored; she confirmed that she'd been fighting the Scourge — I'd assume she meant in Northrend, since that's where the action seems to be from everything I've heard, but she never explicitly said that.

I expressed my dissatisfaction that nobody seemed to take me seriously as a candidate for helping fight back the Scourge, and she suggested what I'd already been doing — to practice and become stronger. Then, she proposed to me an unusual test. She held her arm up, bent at the elbow, and had me hold mine up against hers in the same pose; once I'd done so, she instructed me to try to push her arm toward her, in a demonstration of my strength.

An interesting idea, to say the least. I'd never had much doubt in the strength of my arms — after all, I'd been attempting to use weapons sized for my father when I should have been too small to do so, and he'd always joked that if I wasn't careful, my arms would end up larger than his. That prospect never bothered me, honestly, and I continued lugging around implements that didn't weigh much less than I did. And since I've left home, I've been in a number of hand-to-hand fights, and came out alive, so I've obviously got something there. But I've never actually tested my strength explicitly against someone else's in a controlled situation, so I was interested to see how this would go.

Kerias varied the amount of resistance she was providing me, testing how strong I was, exactly. I have no doubt she's the stronger of the two of us, but apparently I did well, and did manage to push her arm all the way back to her chest at one point. I was lightly complemented for this, and told to follow her. I dutifully trailed along, and we ended up in the cathedral district.

A little while after the Hallow's End party, I had been wandering through the cathedral district, and had noticed a gathering in a building there, with a few familiar faces from the party. I loitered near the door, but was noticed and invited in, to find out that those that I'd met and other members of the Rose were having a meeting. Since then, I'd shown up a few more times, always being sure to check if I was allowed to, but every time being told that yes, I could attend. It gave me something to do, and they were fun to be around, even if I wasn't exactly familiar with everything they were talking about. Anyway, it was to this building that Kerias led me now; unusually empty compared to my usual view of it, as she and I were the only occupants of the main room.

She didn't waste words once we arrived. I was informed that she wanted me to join the Rose, and she'd be willing to sponsor my entry!

I told her I was certainly interested, and we spoke for a bit longer about the entry process and what I would need to do, to include me writing letters to certain people. Eventually, she needed to get back to work, and I had some writing to do anyway, so we parted ways.

Excited. Excited, excited, excited. I'm very excited.