Aestu & Sharizon

The object of Aestu's exhortations, a tall, indolent male night elf, did not respond. Aestu took a step closer and raised her voice - slightly, at first. "Warrior. When I say taunt, you taunt. Understand? Yes? HAI? KROS SI? GE'HAIN!" Still the warrior did not respond.

Losing patience - she could not afford to let this issue remain uncertain, the mission lay at stake - the paladin drew her mace, dripping with holy magic - spun it like a baton, and prodded the warrior with the hilt - hard, in the upper back. Laconically came his response:

"Hey, Aestu, that's a form of abuse."

He had been listening. Enough. Aestu nodded irately.

"Go."

Aestu ran into the room, the night elf followed her behind, on her left flank, and behind tromped along two dozen milieu in tow.

The battle proceeded smoothly, as it always seemed to - one, and then the other, Titan constructs fell. The greatest of the three continued to fixate its mighty punches, thunder and lightning, on Aestu's graceful, sky-blue form. The paladin ducked, dodged, parried and countered, dividing her attention between the twenty-meter tall giant immediately in front of her, and her comrades dashing about the other half of the room.

The giant roared, and Aestu felt a fire burn within her, her life essence consumed in brilliant electric fusion that gave unnatural, frenzied strength to her limbs, made her form vast and spectral.

"Warrior! Now - Nawh! Tont!" Nothing. "Tont! TONT!"

The warrior - all attitude - leisurely walked over and with a open gesticulation of his arms, as if ordering a burger and fries, addressed the giant, conversational and sardonic:

"Hey there, big guy, you really have a thing for goat chicks, don't you?"

The giant paused mid-swing, and roared, its ponderous mass set in motion like a great boulder towards the warrior, who suddenly felt a pang of dread and began to back away. Aestu, her form enlarged to twice its normal proportions, made a dash for an alcove she had in mind...

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa..."

...but everywhere she turned someone seemed to be in her path. Her vision blacked with panic. Everywhere she turned - so she looked about and ran towards the one, a gnome, she realized had been at fault all along...

"...aaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!"

...her snub, triangular ears resounded with a deafening silent roar - her mind went silent -

The music of the spheres awakened the spirit within her chest, formerly extinguished by the Titans' unnatural electric combustion, and with a start, the squidgoat came to. She rose with a start - instantly sensing something wrong.

On all her two dozen comrades' faces were written strange looks - some of glee, others of awkward shame. Some looked away, others smiled at her with secret confidence. Fear and uncertainty filled the typically stalwart paladin. She suddenly became very aware that her undergarments felt - felt unsettled. She rose, and with a badly disguised gesture, adjusted her posterior and bust.

"That's - that's enough for one night, I think. Thank you everyone - oh, right." She had almost forgotten.

The great giant's massive corpse sprawled like a slag heap across the center of the great hall. Dimly Aestu drew her knife and cut open the rude satchel of scavenged cloth affixed to the leather strap around its waist. Out tumbled...first, a fist-sized object, a luminously radiant nodule of orange hematite, eliciting some small applause from her comrades and a grimace from the great woman herself...and a pentad of palm-sized platinum disks. Whimsically, Aestu tried to phoneticize the ancient Titan runes engraven upon the first: Evn...Ein-Hvn-Ste...Ein-His-Sta...Ein-His-Sta-Ela...whatever...

The goods were auctioned off and the proceeds split. Thank-yous of varying levels of sincerity were passed around. The human female and Aestu shared an apologetic look. Far more so on the part of the latter.

...

Aestu reclined awkwardly in her room at the Stormwind inn. Her tail - and the flesh around it - continued to bother her. It was night out, the crickets chirped loudly and the bells of Cathedral Square rung once - but she needed -

Out she went and down to the city park. It was a humid evening, the heavy air made worse by the miasma rising from the canals and the almost canine smell of humans. Badly Aestu wanted to bathe in the cool, still waters of Tirisfal - or Nagrand - a dream took form in her mind-

She arrived in the park, where a solitary gnome mage manned an ice cream stand. Characteristic of his people, he seemed whimsically cheerful and melancholy at once, using his arcane skills for the most mundane of purposes, and at night, customers so seldom, no less.

"I'll take - a cone, please."

"What flavor?"

"Flaver? Ah - what please you."

"How about...blueberry?" The gnome's beady eyes danced mischevously. Lasciviously?

Aestu's brow furrowed and her blue eyes burned phosphorous white. The gnome's smile faded, and Aestu suddenly felt somehow sad. Her anger gave way to remorse.

"Yes - blueberry, certainly. Thank you, gnome," she said, finding her delicate manner once more.

She drew her coin purse and pulled out a crown and four bits. Upon the crown was engraven, in hideous, vain, overdramatized relief the figure of the human King. Tasteless. And this coin - not gold, some bastardized alloy of pyrium and bronze. Airships, royal edifices and new harbors were expensive, you know. Everything has a price. You'd think the Stonemason's revolt would have taught the humans that, but nooo... The paladin felt weary, and a terrible sense of foreboding. She gave the crown to the gnome, and tossed the four bits in the glass jar on the counter. The gnome cheered enthusiastically. Aestu took a bow and left with her ice cream. She pecked at it with delicate blue lips and cobalt tongue. Didn't do anything for her - not eating it, but -

Back at her room, she tipped the ice cream cone into some silk cloth, chucked the cone, and pressed the unsoiled side of the cloth against her lower tail. She mused what an ironic sight she must be. Something in her felt warm - maybe she should have been content to give them a good laugh? Or...whatever...they enjoyed? Err.

....

Telaar was everything she had hoped and more.

Well. Some days Aestu got up - saw her gleaming lavender breastplate, propped on its display rack, with its flattering bust and abguards, its brilliant epaulets and hoofguards - the only hoofguards she'd ever found made for squidgoat by squidgoat, and the first she'd ever seen real action in - some days she saw that, and felt a little sad, felt the call within her. That call was drowned out by satiety, and a sense that her time lay elsewhere. Yes, it had been the right decision.

The morning sun rose over the graceful hills of Nagrand, the intoxicating air enervated with the smells of spring. Aestu looked out and felt at peace. But she did feel-

And her prayers were answered, or so it seemed. It always seemed that way, didn't it - when one least expects it. She extracted the tightly wrapped package, three centimeters thick and thrice as high and wide, from the mailbox. No return address...Maybe it's a bomb. She wasn't forgotten yet, and that made her smile.

With squidgoat grace she unwrapped the package.

Hey Aestu =),

That one time in Ulduar, you remember? It's been a while, thought you might like a reminder - we took pictures!

Aestu's eyes widened and she clasped the hideous album shut. I have a mind to - The clammy feeling on her tail seemed to return, and then - she opened the album, turned through the pages, and, slowly, a smile spread across her face.

No regrets.