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Snowfeather
01-03-2006, 12:33 PM
Snowfeather arrived in Ratchet at Yichimet’s request. She would have traveled to the depths of Blackrock Spire if he wished her too. It had been over a moon since she had smelled his endearing scent and heard his staunch voice. Only in her dreams did she see him, and in those he became a weak, twisted meal for an animal.

She watched him for some time in Ratchet, hidden among the shadows. His massive frame moved with a grace she only witnessed from other Grimtotem. She stalked up to him, unseen and revealed her true form.

“It has been too long, Yichimet..” she quietly spoke as she felt the tips of her ears heat up.

“It has, lioness..” he answered with his gruff tone, not rude, but serious.

They sat down near the dock, both looking out at the port, but both within each other’s peripheral sight and began to talk. Questions and answers, mostly about Yichimet’s sudden departure to the Nether. Snowfeather was burning with a passion on the inside to spill her woes to him about all she had suffered since he fell ill, but she kept silent and focused on him. She didn’t want to go over it all again out loud, she had done enough of that in her head..every hour of every day. It was time to focus on him and look for a glimmer of sunlight to wipe clean the dark shadows in her mind.

Fate or circumstance, the conversation and allusions were soon over. Yichimet was tired, she could hear it in his voice with every word. It was not long before Snowfeather heard the familiar voice of her new Sister, the Forsaken Warlock, Daala. A few pleasantries were exchanged and introductions made, all the while Snowfeather felt covetous of her time with the Grimtotem. Snowfeather had told Daala many a secret the past few days, and she was nervous around her for fear of Yichimet learning anything unsavory about her. Thankfully, Daala kept her confidences personal.

It was time, Yichimet was leaving. He bid Snowfeather good evening and promised to provide some intimate time with her the next day. She watched him walk away wondering if this would be the last time she would see him. Once she could no longer see him, she turned her attention to Daala.
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The conversation started off harmless..as usual. It was not long before both of them felt the heavy weight of responsibilities weighing on their words. Soon enough, the playful interchanges were replaced with realities.

“What is this proposition you spoke of, Sister” Daala asked. “You keep avoiding me when I ask..”

“It is not quite a proposition, but a plea...” Snowfeather begrudgingly replied. “You know more about my situation than any Grim, and yet you were not even one of us when I told you my plight. Now you are my Sister, and I look to you for your knowledge as a warlock and a scholar. I tire of this life. Either I find a way to live with this new demon leg or I end it. I can’t suffer through these nightmares every night any longer....” Snowfeather was deadly serious in her request.

Her words were true. Daala had accompanied Snowfeather in Winterspring when she quested to find her birth home. Once found, Snowfeather spilled her soul out to the Forsaken. Told her every dream, detail, hope and fear she had ever known. To this day, Snowfeather did not understand why, when she could have told any other Grim the same things, she told a stranger. The point was moot now, Daala was a Grim and Daala would help her.

The demure Forsaken wove a tale of woe for Snowfeather again. One that revealed Daala’s life before her unlife. The pain suffered as a lesser elf. The perversions of those put in positions of trust over her. The name “Kari” as the one that took something from her .. More than just flesh, more than dignity. Something Snowfeather could not understand completely. It was too painful to hear and comprehend. Daala told Snowfeather she killed this monster for his deviant assaults on her. Relief came over the Tauren as she heard the words slip from Daala’s mouth. Why, though was she telling this story to her now after asking for help?

Daala’s stories always made their way back to a pertinence in Snowfeather’s life, and this tale was no different. Was it trickery? Fate? Certainty? It mattered not to the druid. She could feel the anger and the green mist building in her mind again listening to Daala speak. He was about to make her stop caring once more. He was about to shut her out and resume control of her. She carefully put her pets away, her thoughts drifting to the burial mound near Stonebull Lake.

“What was the name of the Satyr you took that leg from again, Snowfeather?” Daala asked, without a hint of concern.

“His name.. What did they call him... Geltharis?” Snowfeather answered as she scratched the scar where Maledictus attached her new leg to the stump.

Daala looked down as whatever color that was left in her pallor face dissipated. She looked to Snowfeather and once again began to narrate a scenario. One that cut too close to Snowfeather and one that may tie them together more intimately than she could ever imagine.

“Show me this demon. I require shards if this is going to work. Hurry before I change my mind!.” Daala called out to Snowfeather as she called her demon steed and rode north towards Ashenvale. Snowfeather whistled for Proot, mounted up and quickly chased after Daala. Along the road, they met up with Lascivious and she joined with them on the hunt. It was decided they would hunt the denizens of Felwood for shards.

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Six shards were gathered and the three women made their way back through Ashenvale to Xavian. It was not long before Snowfeather could smell him. Soon she could see him. His leg fully intact and beautiful once again.

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Then it all went blank in Snowfeather’s mind. There was an attack, a binding, and a betrayal. Snowfeather’s mind had splintered from the inner battle. She was no longer tauren, instead an entity of depravity and demonic euphoria.

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He had taken over and he was none too pleased to have two Forsaken women dabble in his affairs. Remarks were made trough veiled threats .. Some truthful.. Some gathered from the fear in their breath...all hateful and full of resent and disgust.

Snowfeather fought against the Voice. She ran towards the water in hopes of choking him out of her mind. She jumped in and sank. He yelled in High Elven.. Demonic.. Low Elven.. As the water filled her lungs she felt him sleep. Quickly, she ransacked her satchel and found her hearthstone.

Thunder Bluff. Blurry vision and ears ringing, Snowfeather made her way to the flight master, brokered passage to Freewind Post and collapsed on the beast as it took flight. The Freewind master rolled her off the beast and tossed water on her face. “Wake up you drunk! You nearly drove that poor Ithu into the cliff there.” she shouted as she caressed the animal.

“Apologies...” Snowfeather grunted out as she tasted blood in her mouth. He was coming. She felt him swirling again in her mind trying to find the door out. Snowfeather tried to drown Him out again, this time with thoughts of better times.

Dancing with Grainger on the Maiden’s Virtue..
Licidion on his war horse the night he was free..
Maledictus in Brackenwall calling the Horde to battle..
Nights in Gallow’s End with the Grims drinking and telling tales..
Fishing in Aszhara with the Mountain, Lily, Clys, Grainger and Sehkar..
Fighting with Sehkar over chocolate..tickling Winslow..
Yichimet...

Snowfeather lurched and stammered to the lift, barely making it before it sunk below. She transformed into a cheetah and ran off as fast as she could for Dark Cloud Pinnacle. She would once again try to find Yichimet. Baring that. .there was always the walk off the edge.

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Sitting at the funeral needle defeated in her search for the Grimtotem, Snowfeather contemplated her next move. The blood was running down her nose into her mouth and her ears were ringing with a cacophony of agony that no other sound could be heard. The water stopped Him an hour ago. The dust below would too, wouldn’t it? Maybe if she hit hard enough he would be tossed from her mind for good.

That guess would have to wait. He had wormed his way out. He had bested her attempts once more and this time he was staying. Snowfeather soon heard battle behind her and heard Lascivious screaming her name to the sky. Soon, more Grims arrived. Daala, Mohan the Grimtotem hunter and Thyrsta the Forsaken priestess.

“Make this look good” Snowfeather said in a guttural cough, “Tricky tricky, pet..”

The group approached with caution and soon they assembled around the stark white druid. The conversation was a sporting one and seemed to work in His favor. The facade was working, the tears seemed genuine enough... almost.

“Snowfeather, we must do the ritual. And we must do it now. Thyrsta here will assist us. You can trust her. I do not know if he is there or not anymore, but we cannot take that chance.” Snowfeather heard the words, but He was speaking now. Calming them.. Reassuring them.

“I’d really you rather didn’t, Daala. I am very tired.” Snowfeather mewed.

“You poor thing, you need so much love.” Daala tried to hug Snowfeather and He nearly vomited on her with disgust. He pulled away from her and ran towards the nearest bridge. He had enough of this game. They would soon see He was not She and He would be in dire straits.

She fought him. “Help me..” Snowfeather called out as she struggled one last time to be herself, switched forms to the cheetah tried to run for low ground. He lashed her mind like a whip on bare skin and struggled for control once more.

“Forgive me..” and she leapt off the edge.

Instead of peaceful tranquility on the way down, Snowfeather heard laughter. His laughter.. And then nothing at all.

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Snowfeather
01-04-2006, 11:54 AM
Lying crushed at the bottom of the hill, any passerby would have assumed the dead cat to be a crag stalker caught unawares and continued on. Though the beast appeared dead, there was still a battle being fought inside the yellow and black spotted carcass.

Snowfeather had done it once before - left her body at the bottom of Freewind Post and searched for Yichimet. She was trying desperately again to struggle free from His grasp. He held on to her like a lover holding his dead dying mate, refusing to let go. Somehow, she gathered the last bit of her inner strength and seeped out of the dead cat’s nostrils free.

As the gray mists surrounded her, she looked down at her broken form with anger. Inside that damaged beast dwelled a monster of unspeakable hate and power. It was her hope that he would decay like her body and be cast out across the tiny grains of red sand covering Thousand Needles. Nothing more than a bad memory.

Free again and seeing the truth of the world as a spirit, Snowfeather traveled the long walk to Thunder Bluff. To see the capitol of her people one last time was her goal and nothing more. After, she would simply cease to be, and that brought her a finality of acceptance of all that had gone wrong in her short life. Things that should have been but never were.. Things that happened that should never have..none of that mattered now.

Elder Rise was her last stop. As she entered the tent, Turak Runetotem turned his gaze directly on her. Snowfeather approached him and he lowered his head and slowly closed his eyes.

Whispering to thin air, he spoke like a father to a daughter, “Little One, do you not know the power you hold? Have you forgotten what you are? You are Runetotem. You are shape-changer. You are Tauren. Dendrite. Go there. Do no falter or question now. You are in no shape for indignance.”

With that, Turak Runetotem tossed his giant, strong head back and began to draw in breath. As he did, Snowfeather felt herself being drawn in to his being.

Just the sound of a slow beating heart was all Snowfeather heard and nothing more.

The druid left the tent and stood on the edge of the precipice. “Winds carry you home, Little One.” He exhaled deeply into the north winds and Snowfeather’s spirit was among it, floating like a cloud. She was carried on the winds of the gray mist all the way to Moonglade and left swirling just outside the balcony of Dendrite Starblaze’s home.

The elven druid watched the swirling winds, waved a hand and stood as a statue as the winds subsided and Snowfeather coalesced back into her sprit form. She walked slowly up the steps and as she approached the deck, he turned to her and gave a sarcastic, denegrating smile.

“Why am I not surprised, Cow? We had you marked from the start of your pitiful training. What was it? Ah yes.. Paper Tauren?” Dendrite coyly laughed at her with one hand on his hip. “Seems it is true after all. Once a weakling ... always a weakling. What is the matter, Mangy? Satyr got your tongue?”

Snowfeather was not able to respond, though her mind was racing with insults, threats and bitterness.

“Yes, yes.. I heard you the first time. You hate me. Want me dead. Have since the day we met, is that not so? Now look at you. You are in no condition to idly threaten me, ghost.” Dendrite’s words seethed with venom she had heard since the first day they met. He turned his back to her and cast his gaze once again across the glade.

Slowly, with a hint of repulsion, Dendrite spoke again, “Runetotem has asked me to help you.. Prolong your pitiful existence here, Snowfeather. You have a choice. Listen now and choose wise. You are only being offered this as a courtesy of the Cenarion Circle, do not think you are special. There comes a time when the Circle must appease our ‘pact’ with the tauren, and consider this our offering.”

The elf spun around and cast his gaze through Snowfeather’s spirit. “Choose. Life with the form at the bottom of that needle or new life, new leg, new hope. Pick one.”

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The smell of Mulgore is one of a kind. Any tauren, be they Grimtotem, Runetotem, Skychaser, Stonehoof or Ragetotem, all know the smell as welcome as a mother’s embrace. She could hear a well churning and an old woman humming softly.

She looked down at her hands. They were her hands. Her clothing, fresh and clean, fit tightly across her body. Her fur white as snow. She lifted her kilt and was shocked. Both legs were pure white all the way down to her black hooves.

“Earthmother... it is done.” She cried out.

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“Ah.. There you are, Wanderspirit. So good to see you again.” Greatmother Hawkwind spoke softly to her. “The same, but not. Do not suffer that old shell, young one. Some things should be left to time, and your old body is one of them. Now go.. Speak to my son. We have much work for you here again.” The old woman wagged a finger and gave a wink to the young druid.

Snowfeather started up the hill towards the small village when she was overcome with sadness.

“I just have to know...”

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It was a perilous run, but she saw her broken body near the lift. She sat down next to it and stared intently...looking for any sign of Him.

“Hello..” came a weak voice.

It was Daala. She sat down next to the young druid.

“I’m happy now, Daala. I was that.. Don’t I look small?” Wanderspirit said sadly.

“I need you to trust me, Snowfeather. I worked some old debts and got my hands on a sapta.. Like the one that Bull’s father gave us. I have a plan. You can get your old body back, but it won’t be easy.” Daala’s words had a hint of hope to them, but it was obvious she was carrying a lot of guilt with every word.

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“I.. Like this new body, Daala. I’m free again. Only to ease your mind, though, I will drink. What do I have to lose anyway? It’s not like I’m afraid to die again!” Wanderspirit laughed and gave Daala a sly little wink.

“You will travel with me.. In my mind Snowfeather. Like Kari did to you. We will work this out together.” Daala spoke reassuringly.

“I’ll remind you now, Daala. I know what you are like... please remember I am pure.. A virgin. I would like to return that way when this is finished.” Wanderspirit spoke directly.

“I have already considered that..” the Forsaken warlock answered.

The mixture was handed out and both women drank.

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It was not long before both were sleeping.

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The world started to spin around them and all things changed...

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“It is done. Let us be off.” Daala spoke, but her words were flowing out backwards in Snowfeather’s mind.

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Being in the mind of a Forsaken warlock with a penchant for depravity was a step Snowfeather never thought she would take.. But worse things had happened...

To be continued.