The air was clean and fresh on the tundra near Lake Kum'uya Alliance
Of course Love had been taking special care of him while he was unwell...maybe lying around wasn't so bad for the druid after all. Mert chuckled and noticed a dark look from the druid. "What?" he said and thought...ok tree-boy is getting a little spooky...no way he can read my thoughts. "Come on tree-boy lets head 'em up and move 'em out...those salmon ain't gonna catch themselves" Mert jumped up on his red drake and took off. Brian and Orious followed immediately.
The sun was still wiping the sleep out of her eyes when they arrived in the hills. They picked out schools of the salmon and began casting their lines. Fishing was good here. The salmon were running fast and hard...Orious had the urge to turn bear and just fish them out with his paws, but that made it hard to hold his coffee cup, so he continued using the rod and reel. A loud yell came from somewhere at their right. Orious was the closest to the cry and suddenly an orc in battle gear leapt toward the druid. The druid dropped his fishing pole and threw up both arms with the right arm poised to take the body slam and suddenly a green glow appeared around the druids black arm and resolved itself into a shield shape. The ephemeral shield threw the orc a body length away. Orious stretched out his arm palm upward toward the orc and a red fireball slammed the orc as he rose from the ground. That knocked him another 8 feet away. Orious turned his arm over and a green ray with tendrils like vines and leaves that evaporated snaked toward the orc on the ground and wrapped him in a green glow. The singed scars on the warrior healed before their eyes and the warrior was fast asleep.
"Orious!!! WTF, why did you put him to sleep? You know I can't kill him if he's asleep. It wouldn't be proper!" yelled Mert. 'Damned druids!" Brian asked quietly "Orious, do you have a shield spell, a fireball spell or a healing sleep spell?" "No", said the druid. I have a hibernate spell for beasts and dragons, but it does no healing. "Hmmm, interesting" said Brian. "Did you purposely cause any of those spells?" "No", said the druid. "They happened spontaneously, but during it I was unable to think of which spell I should cast, like the arm was thinking for me before I could react" "Let's see your arm." Brian examined the arm, noting something new. "When did this glyph appear?" He pointed to a red raised mark on the inside of his wrist. It was a mark he had seen associated with the red dragonflight. "I hadn't noticed it before just now" said the druid. As they watched a glyph like an hourglass tipping over rose upon his arm, it was a pale gold. "Looks like all the dragonflights are signing up for you even as we speak." said Brian.
"You will have to take this up with Alexstrasza at the Wyrmrest and see what is up. I'll bet she knows." Orious agreed and so the trio saddled up and flew to the temple in the midst of Dragonblight. Orious flew to the top tier of the temple and landed on the terrace. He was greeted by the dragon quartermaster and allowed to pass into the great columned circular area atop the temple where Alexstrasza held court. He was quickly recognized by the aspect and he walked toward her now human form. He knelt in respect and then she bade him come near. "I think I know why you are here old friend" she said. Orious smiled "Thought you might have a clue about all this" he said gesturing at his right arm as he presented it. "Yes, I am aware of your appendage...quite a job you did there" she said. "Me?" said Orious with incredulity. "Yes, while the glyphs that adorn your arm now are the dragonflights and the strange one from Argus, you made the arm as it is." Orious left eyebrow arched, but he said nothing. The queen had chairs brought for her guests and a tea was set for them. "In pulling that massive amount of power from the earth to channel into your Love, you concentrated the power of the Earthbinder in your arm...thus its color...the powers of the black dragonflight; the warders of the earth are one with your flesh. We marked you as well, partly to keep you from the corruption of the black dragonflight, and partly because you have done great things for the dragonflights throughout your career. We have fought side by side my dear druid, and you lost much at that meeting. You spent many lifetimes of men in service to Yessera, and have on many occasions helped the bronze dragonflight in their efforts to manage the time streams and stabilize the dimensional energy of Azeroth."
"For this and other reasons you need not be aware of at this time, we have invested ourselves in you as a champion of the remaining aspects of Azeroth. You showed great perseverance in your journey to rescue one you hold dear, you showed selflessness in returning from a place of peace to one of war. You showed loyalty and dedication, for you returned to help your comrades, not for some vague higher destiny. Of course the secret is that there is no higher destiny than the love of our friends. The arm may be somewhat disturbing to you, not so much because of its appearance, you will get used to that, but because its power is not consciously controllable by you. You have no way of knowing what it might do. I perceive that this will not be a pleasant side-effect for you, but eventually you may be able to exert some conscious control over it in the aspect of spell casting, though you will never be able to cast spells you don’t know at will...the arm knows these spells because they are native to our kind. You will have to spend much time getting to know that arm, for although it is yours and you can control its movements, it houses yet another somewhat alien intelligence, draconic intelligence. It does not have nor can it develop a mind or a consciousness, but it responds to stimuli and may react quicker than you can yourself in many situations. Under normal circumstances it should be fine. It won't reach out and smack Mert unless you reach out to smack him on purpose, but if someone falls off a ladder it may reach out to catch them or cast a levitate spell. For you it will seem utterly random, but I assure you it is not." said the queen, “I perceive a question and no, it will never hurt her, nor any of your friends, for you yourself would never do so. One more thing," she said as she arose and approached the druid. "May I?" she asked and he allowed her to touch his arm.
She examined it and then drew her sharp red nails down the length of the outside of his arm. A prismatic glow appeared all about the arm; she turned it over and did the same thing from his fingertips down to his elbow." Now your nerves should be regenerated and your arm will feel like your arm again" With a slightly twisted smile and patting his arm "See, doesn't that feel right again?" She was right, his arm felt like it had rejoined his body and felt normal again. This somehow made it easier to trust that it was still his arm and not an alien being. Krassus spoke and said “All in all dragonfriend, the arm will serve you well. Though you may or may not be able to use it against any of the dragons, that may be somewhat chaotic, I would suppose it would attack blue or even black, but unless a dragon were attacking you it might not help. If it were red or green, it might not come to your aid, thought the arm would operate under your physical control." "Good to see you Krassus, it has been a long time" said Orious. "Too long my friend, but the wars have kept us all very busy. Last time I saw you...you had collapsed with the paladin on that hill....I heard your call to Yessera and I came myself to help, though I told no one and made a seeming of one of the group that was the farthest away so that I could go unseen. I also helped to pour energy into you as she lay dead and you lay dying. That, my friend, that was impressive...worthy of a dragon" he said “even of an aspect." the queen said quietly with a smile.
” Heroes, Orious, are not great men, they are normal men carried to great deeds by great trials and great pain. They are the ones willing to sidestep their own desires for the needs of others. They are the ones that plod on when others can no longer stay the course. They are the ones when presented with paradise would turn away and come back for their friends." she touched his cheek, "and it will not be forgotten by those who know." she said looking into his eyes and a tear rolled down her face.” Now friends let us have tea and then you may remain with us here atop the temple for the night." "Love expects us back," said Mert. "She knows" said the queen and Orious together and then they laughed. "You two alone, Orious, you and Love know how dragons communicate. For us, with our closest companion, “she nodded at Krassus "we have a telepathic link, while yours is not capable of conveying words, at least not so far, right? It is capable of conveying emotion and even ideas or pictures. So we both showed Lovetails a picture of you all here under the stars, and knew that she understood" "Yes, that’s right" said Orious. "Continue to try to expand your telepathic link, you may one day be able to send words" encouraged the queen. The sun began setting and the air turned to gold and the snow to blood and the stars crept out of their hiding places and paraded together in celebration of the evening. The men sat after a wonderful dinner around a brazier of fire set in the quartermaster's portico. The queen and her consort had taken their leave. Whether they retired to rooms below or flew off in dragon form for a private spot, they didn't know.
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