The Blog of the Biggest Geek Ever

Eltorae Windrunner
By Simon VanVactor-Lee

Chapter 1: Eltorae
Eltorae said as she ran through Silvermoon City, "Make way! Excuse me! Sorry! Make way!" She ran towards the Alchemist Shop.
"Hi, uh… wush yer name agin?" The village drunken idiot, Flint Stoneforge asked.
She ran in to meet Telora, her best friend.
"Hi, El!" Telora said.
"Hello. Do you have it ready?"
"Yes. Fifty packs of oil of Impact, just as ordered." "Thanks so much."
"Well, you are my best friend."
She ran back to the tavern room she practically owned by now, and poured all the packets into some small lead containers. She put the fifty lead containers in her belt.
"Now to have some fun with cousin El'qor!" She grinned, and ran to the weapon smiths shop. She tossed the one of the containers through the air, and it left a great big scorch mark on the side of his tower. He stuck his head through the window. "Eltorae! You'll pay for this!" as she rolled around laughing. Then she chucked one through the window, and it landed on a battle-axe and pretty much destroying it. El'qor ran downstairs, and looked at the used-to-be-battle-axe.
"I just finished that!!!"
She kept laughing. She paused long enough to chuck another one at his head.
"Ow! Stop it!" She was rolling around in the street, laughing her head off.
"I promise you, you'll pay for this!" He socked her in the jaw. "Really, you're one-hundred and fifty-nine! You act like your ninety!"
She went to the temple of the sun, where she trained in the ways of the druid, still laughing. Her brother Elindor was even more fun to annoy, but he had left Silvermoon a while ago to avenge the death of their parents, who were burned alive by some Horde bandits. She was still laughing when she opened the temple gates.
"Eltorae! Where were you? Off having 'fun' again? I told you to stop doing that!" He said as she slowly nodded.
"Well, let's get on with it! Come! Try the entangling roots spell again." She was supposed to make vines come up from the ground, wrapping the target dummy's legs so they couldn't move. Of course, the target dummy wouldn't be moving anyways, but it was good practice. She worked through the incantation.
"Elsaray oltar ithras!" she finally shouted. There was a flash of green light, and vines came up from the ground-- wrapping around her teacher's feet. Her teacher said,
"Very good, but you must focus on the dummy. Now let us see if you can deactivate the spell." She sighed, and worked the counter curse. The reason she had been focusing on her teacher was because she was trying to impress him.
"Sorry." She said as the vines gave way and went back into the ground. Her teacher was a tall elf that had just barely got the robes of a master druid. The only reason she knew this was because she liked spying, and saw the whole thing from behind a bookcase. She tried again, with the same result.
"You are focusing on me. You are trying to hard, and your thoughts keep drifting towards your teacher." He said as the vines were removed from him a second time.
"Let's try a different spell." She succeeded at this one, resulting with a hurling ball of energy destroying the target dummy. He set up a new one, and her training continued.

"By the gods! I went overtime!" she said as she stepped out from the temple of the sun and noticed the time.
"I'm late for archery practice!" she ran as fast as she could towards the archery range on the other side of town.
"I'm here!" she shouted with the last of her breath.
"You are always late, but thirty minutes? I can't believe you!"
"Sorry." She hung her head low.
"Now get onto the field this instant!" She did as the master said, and she strung her bow. With the "Fire at will!" from the instructor, she let lose her arrow. The arrow struck the very edge of the target, and she stamped her foot. She fired arrow after arrow. All were failures.
This is not my day. She thought.
Finally she got so aggravated that she chucked one of her lead containers at it. Unfortunately, this hit dead center. The target was completely ruined. "Off this archery range this instant!" her teacher shouted.
She knew things that she shouldn't about this teacher, as well, but none of that matters at this moment.
"And never. EVER. EVER. EVER. EVER come back! Do you understand?"
"Fine. I don't care about this stupid archery range anyway!" she fumed, as she stomped off the field.
What have I done? She thought. I can't practice archery. If she had a mother, what would she say? Well that was easy. If she had a mother, she wouldn't tell her.
Well, this leaves me more free time. She went towards the tavern. There was a creaky sign that said "The Dragon's Roost" Over it was a dragon sitting on top of a mountain, spitting spurts of fire. She opened the door. She instantly heard a band playing a soft tune over on the other side of the room, on her left. Straight ahead of her was a bar with a tall shorthaired elf with a uniform on wearing an eye patch. Between her and the band was a large seating area, full of a wide variety of people. There were Adventurers with swords and arrows clinking mugs and eating. There were rich merchants sitting alone, nursing their wine. There were filthy drunken dancing with wobbly limbs and holding ale and beer sloshing out of the mugs. Flint Stoneforge was at a table, drinking a beer, but he was having problems getting it into his mouth. An enormous pile of mugs already sat in front of him, taller than he was.
She walked up to the bar.
"Ah, Eltorae. You are a very common customer. Very common indeed!" The elf laughed. "What'll it be tonight?"
"Just some Dwarvish wine, Arthal." She walked towards a single table with her mug. One of the drunken elves walked over to her and put his arm round her shoulder.
"Hey dere! Wanna come dansh wish me?"
"Get off of me!" She shoved him off and he stumbled backwards, surprised.
She sat down at the table and saw that someone had left a book there. It was a boring history called "The War of the Ancients." That she put back on the bookshelf next to the band. She picked out a more interesting book called "Forlithas Hornstalker" about an elf that goes on a wide series of adventures, Etcetera. That was it, but it was interesting and exciting. She plopped it down on the dusty table. Thump! Dust rose up in the air, making her cough. She sat down and looked into the book, sipping wine. When she was done with her drink, she put it back on the counter, and carried the book up to her room, still reading.
"There he was, his bow drawn, ready for the shot that would change it all. If he missed, he could say good-bye to his whole life. If he hit, he would have completed his life's goal…"
When she reached number sixteen, she stopped.
She unlocked the door, and stepped into the room. She plopped down on the bed, and looked around. There was a table beside her bed, where she put the book. There was a desk and a chair across from her with papers on it, where she drew and thought out more mischievous ideas. There was a mirror next to her, beyond the bedside table. There were torches to light up the room, and there was stuff strewn all over the floor, completely devices for mischief. She looked around, blew out the torch, and quickly fell asleep with not a thought about the disaster on the archery range.

Chapter 2: A special day.
She woke up, and since she had nothing better to do, she opened her book. She tried to focus on the words, but she was still too drowsy. So she got out of bed, and looked out of her window. The Dragon's Roost was on the very edge of town, so she could see onto the forest and the path. When up the path came a figure. That was unexpected. Silvermoon city didn't get many visitors. She went down the stairs.
It's probably just another person trying to sell something. She thought, but it didn't hurt to see who was there. She rushed down past the sleeping drunken elves. It was a gnome selling stuff. But it was very interesting stuff.
"Five gold for this Turbo-gun!" He shouted!
That's the perfect device to annoy cousin El'qor. Hah! She thought. She rushed down, exchanged the money for the strange looking gun, and rushed up to her room again. She had made a trap door that led up to the roof. She looked at the brightly colored pistol she was holding.
"Not my style, but it'll do."
She jumped, grabbed the roof, and swung around to the top. She could easily target El'qor's large tower from here.
"Ready… Aim… Fire!"
The ball of energy struck its mark, and she could see from here the large, fifteen-foot long scorch mark. A tiny piece of the tower came off to, about the size of a thimble, but of course, she didn't see it from the edge of town, since her cousin's house was right in the middle. She never did any harm. She was just amused from peoples' reactions when she annoyed them. She thought she could here El'qor's screams. She laughed her head off. She believed in living for fun, and she couldn't think of anything more fun than annoying the elves of Silvermoon city.
"Oh my god I am so late for work!"
She worked part time as a waiter at the same inn she lived at. She rushed into her room, put on her uniform (A simple white shirt and brown pants, and a white tabard with a blood red dragon on the front and black boots), tied her wild hair into a ponytail (so it would be acceptable for the customers), and ran downstairs. This was the best shift she had. There were few customers in the morning, so she could just sit and let her imagination run wild.
"Late again, Eltorae?" Arthal clucked his tongue. "I'm sorry, but if you do that too much I'll have to fire you. Now get to work."
"Um… There aren't any customers yet. How can I be a waitress?"
"Right you are, right you are. Well, until that door opens, you can scrub the floors. It'll make up for being late."
She sighed, and reluctantly picked up a hand mop and a bucket from the corner, and started to scrub the mess the people had left last night. She recounted what had happened in her book………
"Watch where you scrub!" Arthal shouted. "You just went over my foot for the ninth time!"
"So sorry!" Eltorae said hurriedly, snapping out of her daydream. Suddenly the door opened. A large troop of fighters, archers, and spell-casters came in.
That was, let's say… unexpected.
"Feed us well, now! We're going into the Blackfathom deeps later today, and we want to be charged up!"
"Don't worry about it, we'll do the job!" said Arthal, trying his best to sound hearty when he was so tired. They sat down at the big table in the center of the room. She let them get a good look at the menu, and then walked over to them, notepad in hand.
"May I take your order, gentlemen?" She spotted a mage with a frown on her face, and quickly added,
"And ladies! Sorry about that, miss."
So she took all of their orders. She counted, and there were fifteen of them.
"Mighty big party you have!"
"The Blackfathom Deeps are very dangerous. We must be well prepared."
"Yes, I have heard of the Blackfathom Deeps… full of great monstrosities only the greatest heroes can defeat by themselves!" She tried to sound as enthusiastic as possible.
"Exactly!" A great warrior said in a loud tone.
"Yes!" An elven ranger supported him.
"Well I'll just say I hope we all come out in one piece." said a surely Dwarf. "NOW GET ME MY AIL!" he shouted, thumping the table.
"Right away sir. So sorry."
"Yes. I would like my food as well." Said a man with a long staff politely.
"Yes, yes, right away."
She hurried into the kitchen and gave Orlas, the cook, the order.
"Right away." Said Orlas.
"Thank you!" In no time, the cook whipped up the meal as ordered.
"Here you are! A meal to fit kings!" She said as she laid down a third of the meal. "The rest will be with you in a moment. She separated the meal to each person, as they wanted it.
"And a pint of ale for the Dwarf." She finished. She went back into the kitchen to get more of the food.
She came back out, set it down, and went back in for the rest.
"There you are!" she said finally.
"Thank you, madam."
"You're quite welcome." She went back into the kitchen and nearly collapsed with exhaustion. But here came the flood for breakfast. She worked long and hard, being bored all the way through, but trying to be as polite and cheery as possible. Once she had to go to Flint Stoneforge again.
"Get me uh… wush it called? Oh yeah. Fifty pints of beer." She brought back five, but he didn't seem to know the difference. Three hours later, it was finally over. Then she had some free time between now and the time she had to go to the temple of the sun. She went up stairs, undid her ponytail and let her hair run wild again, changed into her usual clothes, grabbed the turbo gun, and strapped on the belt carrying the oil of impact. Who would she harass today…? Onthal the gambler seemed good enough. She walked over to Onthal's house, scrambled up on the roof, and let out a series of blasts from the turbo gun. A piece of the roof fell in, landing on a bedroll below. Around the hole was a gigantic scorch mark.
Uh oh… she said as Onthal came at her with a spear.
"Heh. Bye!"
"Come get some, filthy bugger!" She ran. As fast as she could, she ran. Once she had gotten some distance between them, she turned around, hoping this would work. She started saying something, not to the elf chasing her, but more like at him.
"Ithras!" She finished. Sure enough, the roots came up from the ground, entangling his legs.
"You… you… you!"
"Um… sorry about what I did. The turbo gun didn't hit it with that much force last time."
"TURBO GUN?!?! You used one that close to the target? The shot weakens over distance! Up close, they could blow someone up!"
"Oh my god I am so sorry! I didn't know… I'll give you enough money for the repairs, and I'll give you some extra as well!"
"And untangle me?" He asked. She laughed.
"Yes. I'll reverse the spell."
"Good."
As she walked away, she thought; there goes a week's payment down the drain… She walked toward the temple of the sun, and she performed the entangling roots spell perfectly, she just imagined the dummy was chasing after her with a big spear.
"Very good! You've been practicing!" After that she performed everything exactly right, except a new spell that her teacher was trying on her for the first time.
"Soon, my student, very soon." He kept saying. This didn't make much sense to her, but she kept going. After she got out, she said,
"Late for archery again?" Then she remembered that she didn't have archery anymore. So instead of practicing on the field, she practiced by herself, shooting at trees. Surprisingly, she was much better by herself. She shot arrows over and over again. None of them missed the tree, but they didn't always hit the exact middle. None of them really hit the very middle, but a lot of them came close to it. She decided to back up so it would be harder. That night she went to bed, hearing the dancing people downstairs, and Flint cheering them on and trying to drink beer at the same time, and for the first time she realized that on that date, April third, she had become one hundred and sixty.

Chapter 3: A new form of life
The next day as she walked towards the temple she wondered what her teacher had meant when he said "Soon… soon."
It's probably some special part of my training as a druid… "Ah!"
"Hey watch where ya going you filthy… elf, right? I forgot…" When she got there she found out.
"This is a very special day in your druid training." Said her teacher. "I found out your little secret about archery when I was arranging for it to be canceled."
"I'm sorry." She hung her head.
"Don't worry about it. Your instructor is a good friend of mine, and I know for a fact that he ends up not letting most of his students go through full training." He replied.
"Thanks."
"That wasn't meant to cheer you up. It was more to calm you down."
"Oh." She hung her head again.
"Now, back to your great lesson. This is only granted to especially gifted druids, or the Night Elves, who are natural druids. You must promise not to use it to play around with people."
"I'll make that promise when I find out what this is."
"That's exactly what I thought you'd say." He laughed.
"So what is it?" She said, excited.
"After a great test… A test that involves your survival, you… will be able to see the world from the aspect of a bear." He said the last part of the sentence very quickly.
"I get to be able to turn into a bear? Awesome!"
"THE PROMISE!"
"I promise." Her fingers were crossed behind her back.
"Good. Now we begin the test. Go to Moonglade, and find Nighthaven. From there seek out the great bear spirit in the northwestern part of Moonglade… There will be things to challenge you on the way. Some paths have more than others. Choose wisely."
"Just one question… how am I supposed to travel a gazillion miles in one day?"
"By teleporting."
"WHAT?"
"I have the proper stone to teleport you to Moonglade."
"Cool."
"Come. We druids have a large collection of these stones. One personal stone is made for each druid born. But some never get to this point, and some… died in the test."
"Okay." She shivered.
"Here is yours," he said as he pulled a purple stone out of a pouch sagging on the wall with stones of all different colors. There was writing on it. She read carefully aloud a magical phrase etched onto the jewel.
"Oh is that what it says? Each one has a different incantation."
"Why couldn't you read it?"
"Hah. Each stone is made so that only its owner can read it."
"Ah."
"Now hurry up. Say the incantation while focusing on Moonglade."
"Ok." She did as he instructed, and she wondered what it would feel like. The answer? It feels like absolutely nothing. Just a change of what you see.
One moment she was standing in the temple facing her teacher, the next she was in a thick forest. She had heard, right before she had teleported,
"And to get back, just think about wherever you were and say the incantation again."
"Right." She said. She ended up saying it to a Tauren.
"Ah. A new one. I am a Moonglade guardian, youngling. You are here to retrieve the aspect of the bear, yes?" the Tauren said to her.
"What else would I be doing?"
"Coming here for rest, or getting water form or cat for- Oops! I wasn't supposed to tell you that."
"I get other abilities involving shape shifting?"
"Yes, but you aren't supposed to know that." She said.
"So, high elf, huh? Not many of your race gets this far."
"That's what my teacher said. He said that Night Elves are the most likely to come this far."
"And Tauren. Night Elves and Tauren are equal in the art of the druid. High Elves are in second, though."
"Who's the least likely?"
"Dwarves. But they almost never even want to become druids, do they?" They both laughed.
"Who is your teacher?"
"Imalcar Othcornal. Why?"
"I was just curious. Yes, we came into Moonglade at about the same time."
"Did you like him?"
"No."
"Neither do I."
"Hah hah hah! Well, we're almost to Nighthaven. You should be lucky that you found a guide. I wandered around for hours before I found it."
"Thank you um… What's your name?"
"Rendwana. What about yours?"
"Eltorae."
"It was nice to meet you, Eltorae. I hope you will survive this journey…"
"Thank you, Rendwana." She was coming to a large clearing as the Tauren left. It was large enough to hold a small city. For that was its purpose.
"Wow." She said as she saw Nighthaven, the place where all druids would eventually come. She asked for directions to the great bear spirit.
"Follow the road north." Said a tall Night Elf. "It splits into five different paths, all eventually leading to the great bear spirit. Choose wisely, some paths are far more dangerous than others."
"Thank you, Zenin." She took the road north, through the dense, dark, forest. When she came to a big crossroad, she tried to decide the best path. She remembered her teacher saying that the majority of the people that sought the great bear spirit had died, so she took the least-trodden path.
She had no idea, but back in Silvermoon, in a secret hideaway, there was a meeting.
"We're going to wipe out every blastin' druid in Silvermoon! Everybody knows they're the city's greatest defense! And if one or two escape, we track them down!"
"YEA!"
Soon after, she heard a sound. She whipped her weapons out, her dagger in one hand, her staff in the other. It was rustling she whipped her head back and forth, looking for the source. Suddenly she heard a large yowl, and felt claws on her shoulders as she was pinned to the ground from behind. She turned her head to look into fiery eyes that belonged to a blood-red dog.
"A hellhound!" she gasped.
She plunged her dagger into each eye, attempting to blind him. It was in pain, she could tell, and she struggled loose. It still could tell perfectly where she was, which confused her. She flipped through "A Practical Guide to Monsters" in her head until she got to the page entitled hellhounds (At least the part she remembered reading.) "The average hellhound's vision is very poor." She recalled as she kept the hellhound back with her staff. "They rely entirely on their sense of smell."
"Right!" She plunged her dagger into its nose. There was a howl that could be heard from miles around. She covered her ears until the howl was over, and then ran away, leaving the hellhound, blind, behind her.
"That was close." She said as she walked. She had no idea, but at the time, a vile creature, the next part of the test, was watching her.
"Sek horla de menkor!!!" An imp hopped out of the bushes in front of her, preparing a fireball.
"AAH! Um… Onthigrial!" She cast the only shield spell she knew as the fireball came. Unfortunately, it was a wall of plants. It withered and died, but the fire didn't get to her at least. She then remembered that imps hated explosions of any kind…
I knew this would come in handy one day. She said as a small lead ball flew towards the frightened imp. It hit its mark, sending the imp away, shrieking in terror.
"HA! Wait… behind every imp comes a… uh-oh." A red-robed undead stepped out of the bushes next.
"WARLOCK!!!" She started to jump into the bushes, but the undead said (she had learned all languages of the foul race)
"I wouldn't do that… Meet my voidwalker, Helnos." Out of the bushes she was about to jump into, she saw something like an arcane wrath.
"Nevermind…" She did the only thing she knew how to do in this situation. She ran. She quickly stopped to cast entangling roots, then ran some more. She recalled her newest spell that she had learned… She sucked at casting it. But it's amazing what can happen when you're in a life and death struggle with a person that would kill her the moment she appeared. She had to decide which way to use it. Combat or speed… combat could hold them off, but speed would lose them. As she struggled in thought, She turned to see a vortex of dark magic coming from the arcanist's fingertips. She threw herself towards the ground. She decided to do speed.
"Luparous Locanos Seltorar Delcora Shethra Ponkelar!"As she did the proper hand movements and her thoughts moved the proper way, she wondered if this would work. She could see that the warlock was preparing another spell, and she hoped with all her heart that it would.
"Yes! Yes! YES!" She said as something emerged from her hand.
"YES!!!" She finally shouted as a spirit wolf appeared next to her. She quickly got on its back and told it the directions she had been given to the great bear spirit. It ran into the distance. Soon the warlock and his voidwalker were out of sight. The time the spell lasted was running out, so she got off his back and patted him.
"Thank you and goodbye for now." She knew she would need him in the future. The wolf grinned at her.
"Your welcome. And my name is Ilthiard." A look of surprise crossed her face as he spoke.
I didn't know the spirit wolf talked. She was still stunned as Ilthiard faded away and disappeared.
"Neat spell."
"Yes, it is." She spun around, and realized she had come to the great bear spirit. It was as the title. It was humongous. It was a bear. It was a spirit.
"Um… hi!"
"You've come to earn your aspect of the bear spell, I assume?"
"Uh… yeah."
"Very well. It is tiresome work on my part."
"And the warlock wasn't tiresome?"
"Well, yes. That spell takes a lot of your life force away. You should have a rest. Here, sleep."
When she got up, she felt very well rested.
"How much time did I spend resting?" She said, panicked.
"No time at all."
"Huh?"
"You have no idea how much power I have."
"Oh, right." She was still rather confused.
"Now go home. You are done."
"That's it?"
"People who choose that difficult trail don't have to do the next part of the test."
"Oh! Cool. But how do I use bear form?"
"Part of the great bear spirit is now within you, Eltorae. If you focus hard enough on the piece of bear inside you, it will come out."
"Okay…" She then realized that there was another presence within her.
"Weird…" As she teleported home, she realized she had never told the great bear spirit her name…
"Magical stuff, I guess. Imalcar! I'm back!" There was no answer. "Hello… Imalcar! Where are you?" She looked around. Then she tripped over something. She turned around to see the corpse of Imalcar Othcornal. She screamed and ran out of the temple. When her screaming had died down, she heard a few voices through her trained ears. She pressed her ear to a fence where it was coming from.
"Good work men. Our plan to take out the druids is working perfectly." A dwarvish voice said.
And if anybody flees, we chase after!" Another voice cheered.
Uh oh… She realized she would have to leave Silvermoon sooner or later. She ran down the street towards the tavern. She had to be at work right now.
Arthal greeted her warmly. She went upstairs to change into her uniform.
"Start working now!" She sighed as she picked up her notepad and pencil. Sadly she was the one to do Flint Stoneforge again.
"Just get me a lot of beer. I don't care how much."
"Okay… That would be… a lot of gold. I don't care how much." She laughed.

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