The Greenes: War of the Thorns

Eve hovered in the grassy crevice they had wedged themselves into in the hills, already smeared in dirt and blood. Nothing about this fight was going how she imagined it. When she had received word there was fighting pushing toward the southern border of Darkshore there wasn’t a moment spent considering the possibility they would fail to build a proper defense. Yet here they were. She was looking out over fighting, just far enough to allow them a moment of peace and fresh air.

Somewhere in that mess were the harder hitting units fighting alongside Blightsworn and McGryer. There was a moment’s consideration as to how smart that was now. Blightsworn was already dead, but the majority of the men and McGryer himself were very much alive. Or rather, she hoped they were. The small team with her and James had spent the better part of the day slithering around to help wipe out straggling Horde, or aid the other teams out sabotaging the Horde’s equipment.

James was settled beside Eve, rifle nestled in a small divot in the dirt he had dug by hand, allowing him to peer over the ridge through the scope down into the fighting. While Eve was contemplating the benefits and the cons of having sent units into the fray, he was watching the ebb and flow of the battle itself. His finger avoided the trigger and the safety remained on. He had no desire to draw unwanted attention to them at the moment, hidden in their little nook, but still he sought out weaknesses or possible openings.

The two were both careful with their movements, avoiding tearing open wounds that had only just barely dried to minimize bleeding. A number of the team along with them seemed to be doing the same. When the fighting had pushed closer to Lor’danel the couple had thought to swing up and around the primary fight to run south along the mountain ridge bordering Felwood. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Move south, start wiping out targets from the other side, sandwiching the Horde even if minorly. Neither of them had expected to see a wall of Horde coming over those mountains.

Though they had the wounds to show just how disastrously that had gone, they were far from calling it a day and heading home. It was lucky the team following the Greenes were aware of their tendencies, because not a single word had been spoken. The two had been sitting there for a solid amount of time, silently communicating back and forth. Eve weighing whether or not they needed to pull their heavier units back, and James determining the next steps beyond that. He had spotted an adequate target, an easy kill. A demolisher with a broken wheel, engineers huddled around attempting to get it running again, the greasy sweaty goblins yelling at each other. In exchange for giving away their position, so close to the enemy, and for so little gain? What difference would one destroyed demolisher make in the long run? It wasn’t worth it. James looked back to Eve, the thought flowing through his mind to hers: ‘There's nothing more we can do here.’

There was no need for further dialogue. The pair of them were on the same page. They were watching Lor’danel fall, and once that was achieved the Horde would undoubtedly push hard for Teldrassil itself. The path was clear enough to recognize where the fighting would lead. Eve had pushed back from the ridge they were peering over, and finally orders were delivered.

“McGryer and Blightsworn, you push until the primary Darnassian forces withdraw, then pull back to aid them however you can.” Once her order had been relayed over the communicators she glanced to James, as if ensuring they were on the same page, and then continued toward the smaller team hiding right alongside them. “We’re flying ahead to Darnassus. See if we can’t help them prepare, find some good vantage points.”

She didn’t look particularly confident with the number they had. The few they had directly with them were talented, certainly, but it would realistically have little impact. There was a brief frown at her lips before she turned to start slithering down through the hills and toward the small grove they had hidden their mounts in. It was far enough from the fighting that the sounds of the battle faded as they moved. Or was that simply because the town was rapidly approaching the point of being lost? The urge to glance back and determine this was pushed aside, and the group pressed on.

It was almost peaceful where the oversized birds hovered, the heavy plant growth providing a deceptive quiet. Had it not been for the complete lack of wildlife, it might have seemed almost normal. All of them were tired and wounded, and each likely tempted to rest in the cool grove, but there was no time for rest. Once each of them was settled the only sign they had ever entered the grove were the few loose feathers that floated to the ground behind them and a few subtle marks in the dirt.

Both James and Eve flew in absolute silence, their minds flowing back and forth to bounce ideas off one another. Methods of helping them prepare in Teldrassil, how to aid best, what vantage points they already knew; it was a consistent, smooth flow of analytics. Neither of them expected there to be so little time. Or so much fire.

They had only just neared the southern edge of the tree when they were distracted by a peculiar sound behind them. It sounded vaguely familiar, like material being whipped about in the wind. Eve kept her gaze set ahead of them, though James looked back to identify the sound--one keeping an eye ahead, one looking behind, there was always purpose to these things. The sight of burning debris flying toward Teldrassil and toward the flying team of agents elicited the quick warning.

“Shit. Heads up!”

Eve’s bird almost immediately dropped, the shared sight the couple had giving her the opportunity to dodge quickly. The rest of the team knew to look, at the very least, and they were quick to follow. It was a peculiar sight, the oversized birds dipping and weaving as the riders attempted to avoid the flaming projectiles. There was only so much luck on their side, and though each of them were talented, that didn’t fight off fire flying through the air on all sides.

One by one the team of agents were sent hurtling in one direction or another, many of them in flames. Eve’s right side was pummeled, sending her plummeting toward the tree much faster than she preferred. That wasn’t going to be a pleasant landing. James had urged his bird forward, trying to follow Eve’s path. His focus on his wife left him briefly distracted, and there was a quick reminder of his environment in the form of an enormous burning projectile flying past his side. Though he was still airborne, his bird cawed unpleasantly as feathers were taken by flame, and James himself was left with the ‘pleasant’ sensation of his hair catching much the same.

For a moment he had reached up to start patting at the flaming hair, leather covered hands putting out what flame he could. He landed moments behind Eve’s less than graceful contact with the ground, allowing himself to roll more than necessary to ensure he was no longer burning actively. Eve was doing something similar, though given the nature of her gear, there were certain things she couldn’t simply roll to put out. Though she was in rough shape she was clear minded enough to reach up and rip off her right pauldron, which contained a particularly nasty gaseous toxin, and throw it far from where she lay. Her arm was put out, but even as she rolled the sheer length of her hair would not cooperate. There was barely thought to it--she yanked one of the knives from her thigh to reach up and grab hold of her burning hair, slicing it cleanly at the leather holding the ponytail in place and tossing the burning remnants aside.

They weren’t terribly far from the city, and after the couple had taken a moment to make sure each of them were alive and reasonably unlikely to die in the next few moments to some unseen injury, they were moving without thinking. Regardless of Eve’s tendency to consider self-preservation above nearly everything else, there was clear knowledge that many Gilneans called Darnassus home, and Darnassus was about to be completely engulfed in flame. James’ first thought was to keep up with Eve purely based on the knowledge that she was running straight into a city that would soon be in ashes, though as they moved closer to the edge of the city other instincts took hold. There were people in that city. Children.

Momentary imagery flashed through James mind, scenery that wasn’t terribly different from his current surroundings; buildings up in flame. The burning farm in his mind’s eye was a much more personal scenario, but he understood all too well the pain of losing family to the flames.

The couple had managed to push toward the city’s very edge, though it wasn’t nearly as productive as either would have preferred. The downside to living on an enormous tree was just how flammable that would be. The fire was spreading rapidly, the air growing more and more thick with smoke. They had managed to weasle into one building, yet even as they did the wooden structure was already beginning crumble. Chunks of burning wood fell at random, and though there was some satisfaction in managing to pull a couple of trapped people out of the structure, there was recognition how little the two could do alone. They were far from equipped for the situation.

Eve had peered in toward the city, agitated that they had made it nowhere near the primary living district for the Gilneans. As it was, they had managed to free only a few Kaldorei from the burning buildings, sending them running into the smoke. Another round of fire landed within the city, blocking off their chosen route. They turned down an alleyway between two buildings, only for one of the buildings to nearly collapse on top of them. It was hopeless at this point. They had done all they could. It was only at James consistent yanking on Eve’s arm that she gave in. The pair turned, the familiar sound of a portal shard crunching to allow the magic to be released preceding their rapid exit. At the very least, they managed the get the few they helped through the same portal. With that, the Greenes became two of the many faces having their wounds tended to in Stormwind.