A Cat of Her Own

I've been with the Stillpine furbolgs for the past few days, but yesterday was my last full day with them. They've had plenty of things for me to help out with, but they saved the biggest task for me for last.

I suppose they saved it until yesterday to make sure I was up to the challenge; it's not as if I didn't notice the defenses they'd built up facing the cave in their camp, nor the large number of corpses of what they called moonkin — large, two-legged creatures with the face of a bird and wings, although it doesn't look like they could fly. Anyway, whatever their reasoning, they finally decided to send me into Stillpine Hold with a number of tasks.

The moonkin and furbolg corpses really didn't make the cave look very inviting. But I knew I was going to be okay; I had my crossbow and sword, and I would be cautious!

The first task was a simple clearing. Since the moonkin were a threat to the Stillpine, I was to do my best to clear the cave of them.

The second task was a little more interesting. Apparently, the wildkin hadn't always been hostile; only recently had they started attacking the furbolgs. My job was to see if I could find out why. I had some sort of nagging feeling associated with this one, but at the time, I couldn't place it.

The final task was to find some beast called "the Kurken" who made Stillpine Hold his home. The furbolgs considered him to be a threat as well, so I was told to put him down and bring back his hide.

So, with a full stash of arrows for my crossbow and some other supplies, I entered the cave.

Fighting in a cave was something I'd never done before, and it turned out to be more challenging than I'd expected. My usual strategy for hunting something was to shoot it from afar, and try to finish it off with crossbow shots before it got to me. If it did manage to get to me, it would be very weak, and I could finish it off with a melee weapon — dad taught me how to use a few different weapons, but I'd been favoring a sword recently.

In the cave, though, there were very few places where I could get a good, long-distance shot. The cave constantly twisted and curved, left to right, up and down, and as a result, I was much closer to my prey than I'd like to be before I could even see them, let alone shoot them. Without the advantage of distance, I wasn't able to weaken them significantly before they got to me, and was forced to actually fight them in melee, rather than just finishing them off. I... managed, but let's just say I was glad that I had bandages in my supplies.

Eventually I did manage to clear out a good portion of the cave, although at the time I had no idea how long it had been; I hadn't thought to pack any sort of time piece, and I couldn't see the sun from inside the cave.

But what interested me was that at the back of the page, I found a pool of water. Two things were interesting about this pool of water... one, there was a large glowing crystal that looked like a piece of wreckage from the Exodar, and two, there was a large, two headed beast that matched the description of the Kurken, and he didn't look too happy that I'd disturbed him.

I decided it would probably be wiser to deal with the latter interesting thing first.

He put up a good fight, and I was at a disadvantage in the closed area, but I did finally manage to put him down and skin his hide for the furbolgs. Without that threat, I was able to finally recognize why I'd felt uneasy about the second task.

The piece of the Exodar would have arrived at about the same time as the moonkin started acting up. We did this.

Well, as with the infected cats a few days ago, we hadn't meant to crash our vessel, but it was our responsibility to deal with the results. I'd already done that by clearing out the hostile moonkin, but I owed it to the furbolg to explain what had happened. If nothing else, they should be glad to know there was a reason for the fighting they'd been dealing with, even if it was my people's fault.

They didn't seem particularly happy when I told them, though. I was told I was welcome to continue to stay — after all, I suppose I did help them rather a lot — so I doubt they were angry at me, but I'd given them a lot to think about.

Anyway, I was told to give the Kurken hide to the camp's leatherworker; he told me that he could craft something nice for me out of it as a reward for the help I'd given their tribe. Even though it wasn't quite dusk, I headed back to my own little corner of the camp for the evening and spent a little while doing my own processing of leather before retiring.

I woke up sore this morning from the injuries I'd received in the cave yesterday. Still, I didn't let that hinder my gathering of my things; after all, the furbolg were done with my services for now.

I stopped by Moordo, the leatherworking expert; as he'd promised, he'd made me something out of the hide of the Kurken... a [Kurken Hide Jerkin].

After seeing off the rest of the furbolg (who seemed to be reservedly thankful for my help), I began to head south along the road back to Azure Watch; after all, I still had some things to do for them.

The walk wasn't terribly far — I would probably reach Azure Watch before midday — but I must have allowed my mind to wander, as the next thing I knew I was face-to-face with a healthy nightstalker.

I froze, but it was obvious that he'd seen me. Fortunately, it also seemed she was just as startled by my presence, and was still sizing up the situation as well. I had my sword, but I didn't really want to fight this cat if I didn't have to. How to convince it I wasn't a threat?

I slowly reached into my bag and pulled out some of the [Roasted Moongraze Tenderloin] I'd saved; it would be cold now, but it could serve as a peace offering. Maintaining eye contact with the nightstalker and avoiding any sudden moves, I carefully set the piece of meat on the ground between us, and then took one very slow, deliberate step backward. My heart was racing.

She leaned down and sniffed at it a few times, before devouring it. She then looked up at me expectantly.

Well, she was probably still hungry. I gave her some more of the meat.

This seemed to satisfy her; she looked up with what I could swear was a happy expression, and then trotted off into the trees. Relieved, I sat there for a few more minutes to collect myself, then started walking down the road, trying to pay more attention.

Not five minutes later, I noticed the same cat I'd met earlier come dashing up behind me with some dead critter in its mouth. I found myself reaching for my sword as I froze in place and my body involuntarily prepared for fight or flight — having a large cat running at you is scary, no matter how friendly it was a few minutes prior! But my fear was unwarranted; the cat dropped the dead critter on the ground between us, and looked up at me, purring.

I wasn't sure what to make of this. Was the cat trying to return my favor?

As if it could read my mind, it used its nose to nudge the dead critter just a little closer to my feet.

It probably wanted me to eat it. I leaned down and felt the critter; its body was still warm, so the cat had obviously just killed it. Well, I normally cook my meat, but I wasn't going to argue with a cat that probably weighed at least as much as I did, so I took a knife, carved a small portion of meat for myself, and ate it. It was kind of tough, but all in all, I've eaten worse things. The cat seemed happy, though; after I indicated I was done eating, it approached me and circled around my legs, purring. I guess I'd made a friend!

I bent down again and salvaged what useful parts of the critter I could, storing them in my bag. After putting the knife away, I reached for the cat, who allowed me to pet it on the top of its head.

"I'm sorry, girl, I've got to head on now." I knew she couldn't understand me, but it felt weird to leave a friend without saying something, and with a final pat on her head, I began walking again.

She walked beside me.

"Oh, you wanted to come with me?"

She purred and nuzzled up against me. I guess that was a yes.

Me and my new friend.

So I continued on to Azure watch, stopping just outside the town proper to feed my cat again; I didn't think she'd attack anyone there if I was with her, but better to be safe and make sure she wasn't hungry! She was a good cat, though; a few citizens of the town seemed uneasy to have a predator that big moving nearby, but when it became obvious that she was simply staying with me, it didn't seem to be too much of an issue. I kept my hand on her shoulders whenever possible.

The task Azure watch required of me was a diplomatic mission. There was a camp of humans on the southern coast of the island, although there were supposedly some night elves and other races in that camp as well. There was apparently still some mistrust of us draenei with our eredar heritage, and although we'd been making some progress, it was thought that offering them whatever assistance they needed would help improve their opinion of us. Now, I'd seen the other races before; they'd already sent emissaries to the Exodar. But I hadn't really had any opportunity to interact with them; that was for people older and far more important than me to do. So getting to go and introduce myself firsthand would be interesting!

First, though, I took advantage of the small lake west of town to go clean myself and my clothes. After all, I wouldn't want to go on a diplomatic mission smelling like I'd been out hunting for the last week! My wounds needed to be redressed anyway, so the bath in the lake gave me a good chance to clean up my injuries as well. My cat simply sat on the shore with my possessions; she seemed very curious about what I was doing out in the water, but didn't appear to be interested in coming into the lake herself.

Finished, and feeling a lot cleaner and better, I hopped back on the road to the humans' outpost.

I wasn't really certain what I was expecting their camp to look like, so I wasn't really surprised when I actually did see it. It was obviously incomplete, but the humans were certainly very busy using the trees to make structures. What amazed me was that there were so many of them. I mean, as I said, I'd seen humans before, but never so many in one place.

Although I hadn't had a chance to interact with them directly before, I had been taught the humans' language in the year and a half since we'd arrived; it was rather obvious we'd need to interact with the native races we were trying to ally ourselves with, so there was no shortage of linguistic training available in the Exodar. Apparently the other races also had their own languages, but they all also spoke the human tongue, so that was the most important one to learn. Still, I'd never had the opportunity to use the language in a non-academic setting, so I hoped I'd actually be understandable to them!

My cat and I approached a human who seemed to be functioning as a guard; I asked him if I could speak with the camp's leader. The guard apparently understood me, as he told me to follow him, and I sighed in relief.

The leader of the camp, an Admiral Odeysus, had dealt with a few other draenei before, and was actually reasonably welcoming toward me. My cat didn't seem to bother him at all. He also had a task for me immediately; goblins had stolen some of his property, and taken it to their camp, along the coast to the east. He pointed, and I could see the smoke from their campfires.

Fortunately, their camps didn't seem too heavily guarded; although I think I've gotten over what I did at the Bristlelimb furbolg camp a few days ago — it was necessary, and they shouldn't have provoked the good Stillpine — I didn't relish repeating it if I didn't have to. And yet, it looked like I would have to; after all, I was supposed to be proving myself to these humans, and if the goblins had stolen from the humans, they deserved what they got, right? But with a lightly-guarded camp, at least I wouldn't have to deal with too many of them.

There seemed to be two very distinct forms that the goblins took. The more common form was something that was built similar to the few gnomes I'd seen visit the Exodar; however, these creatures were green, and had long, pointy ears. There was a second type that was a bit taller (though still shorter than me), a lot furrier, and walked around with a hunchback. They had a nose that stuck out of their face like a cat's nose, as opposed to the smaller green variety, whose facial features seemed similar to mine. Maybe one type was the female goblin and one type was the male?

Regardless, I was able to retrieve the Admiral's goods with only two goblin deaths; again, regrettable but necessary. The surprising thing was that my cat was willing to help out; as soon as she saw me attack a goblin, she ran in and started attacking it herself, and she looked mighty proud of herself after she brought her prey down. This cat could prove to be a useful ally.

I returned for the admiral, and performed a few other small tasks for the camp, although it seemed that returning the stolen goods did more to endear me to them than anything else. By late afternoon, they told me I'd done plenty for them, although they did ask me to consider returning if I was ever looking for work. For the second time that day, I began to walk toward Azure walk, although this time I was coming from the opposite direction. After all, I had to report the results of my diplomatic mission.

They seemed satisfied with my progress, and told me that I might be able to be useful up in Bloodmyst Isle, and that I should report to the pack handler just outside the Exodar for further orders!

Well, that was an interesting development... if I headed there now, I'd be at the Exodar around dusk, and I'd need to spend the night. It would be nice to visit home again, even if I've only been out for a week... and I knew my dad would want to see me again. So I agreed, and took yet another lengthy walk, this time to the west, with my new cat alongside me.

Getting orders from the pack handler didn't take long, and I entered the sloping passage down into the Exodar (after feeding the cat first). As I predicted, my dad was happy to see me, even when I made it clear that I'd be leaving again tomorrow.

Although some people seemed to find such a big cat in the city disconcerting, dad just laughed and said that it was just like me to manage to befriend a dangerous animal. She's not dangerous, though; you just have to be nice to her! He asked me if I had a name for her yet, and I admitted I hadn't. I'll have to think about a name for her tomorrow.