Leaving the Isles

Dad seemed even more nervous about me leaving the Isles, but once again, he didn't stop me. I know I'll miss him as much as he'll miss me.

By the time I said my goodbyes, Daari was already ready to go. I'd made us some new shoulder armor; she gladly accepted the gift, we both put them on, and we headed up out of the Exodar and down to the dock.

The boat that serviced this dock, Daari said, would take us to Auberdine — a night elf port town on the mainland of the western continent. It would be about an hour ride by boat, and we had to wait for the boat to arrive at our dock as well, so we got to Auberdine right around lunchtime.

Stormwind, however, was on the eastern continent, and the boat that would take us there was not ready to leave, so we spent a little time in Auberdine proper. The architecture was familiar — I'd seen a few elven buildings in Azuremyst — but to see an entire town of such structures was breathtaking. The buildings seemed to have been built very deliberately, with an incredible attention to detail, and yet they still looked natural enough that it was hard to believe the trees they were made from weren't still alive.

And the elves! As with the human camp I'd visited a few weeks ago, it was amazing to see so many elves in one place, when I was used to seeing them one or two at a time in the Exodar. We were the strangers in this town. They seemed reasonably hospitable, though; I suppose, though, that they must get all sorts of travelers with their port, so non-elf visitors probably weren't that uncommon of an occurrence here.

I could have stayed in that town for hours or even days longer, just looking around, but soon enough it came time for our boat to leave. From what I'd heard, this would be a long trip; although the boats were very fast, it would still take a few days to get to the eastern continent. Daari and I brought our supplies aboard, and staked out a spot in a cabin.

I was very glad to have Daari with me; the boat ride itself quickly became very boring, as the scenery never changed once we could no longer see the shore. I was very glad to get off the boat when it arrived in Menethil Harbor.

Night had just set in, but neither Daari nor I were in any mood to just rest; we'd been resting for several days, and there was plenty of moonlight to travel by. So we made a quick stop at the town's inn for food, and headed out along the road into what the town's citizens called "the Wetlands."

We didn't have any difficulty seeing that night.

The journey was mostly uneventful, other than Daari's insistence that we run most of the way. I had to keep yelling for her to slow down; there is something to be said for making the journey take less time, but if we wore ourselves out and had to camp for the night, it would take even longer!

A few hours later, we arrived at a dwarven town that I can't remember the name of. It was quite late, so there weren't many dwarves around save for a few guards. They did have an inn, but Daari didn't seem quite ready to stop, and I could go a bit further myself, so we pressed on to the dwarven city of Ironforge.

As we ascended through the mountain passes, it became noticeably colder, and then... I saw snow for the first time!

Daari had been here before and had described snow to me, and it had sounded interesting, but the description did not do it justice. Exiting a mountain pass and seeing everything covered with a sheet of white was absolutely amazing; so beautiful, in fact, that I nearly forgot how cold I was until Daari scooped up a handful of the snow into a ball and threw it at me! It melted as it hit my skin and got my clothes a little bit damp, so of course I had to return the favor and throw one square at Daari. She didn't seem to mind.

Fortunately, once we got to the snowy area, it wasn't very far to Ironforge; although I liked the snow, I didn't like the temperature, and the moon didn't really help me feel any warmer. So I was thankful when Daari pointed up into the mountains at some lights, letting me know that was Ironforge.

When we got to the gate, I paused. If the snow had been beautiful, the gate of Ironforge was simply awe-inspiring. The sheer magnitude was dizzying, and I probably could have stared at it for hours had Daari not run off again.

Ironforge was just as grand on the inside as the gate had been. Although both were underground, it was a bit darker in Ironforge than in the Exodar, and it had a bit of an odd odor permeating the air that seemed to come from the forge in the center of the city (that Daari insisted I see). It would have made a good place to stop for the evening, as it was already almost morning, but Daari said that now that we were in Ironforge, the trip to Stormwind was very short; apparently they had some sort of transit between the two cities that she called a tram.

She was right. The tram was a moving platform that ran through a tunnel between the two cities, and it was fast. So fast, in fact, that when it suddenly started, I actually toppled over before I could brace myself. A little warning would have been nice! But I wasn't injured by the fall, and once I stood back up, I made sure to brace myself against one of the support columns for the rest of the ride.

Dawn was just barely breaking when I stepped out of the tram tunnel into the city of Stormwind for the first time. I was finally feeling tired, and even Daari had less energy than usual, so we took a room at a lodge near the tram exit. Exploring this city would have to wait until we rested!