//------------------------------//
// Temple: The First Day 
// Story: World of Warcraft: The Ties that Bind 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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The first thing that Lyra did, now that she was awake and fully alert, was easy breakfast, which consisted of some bits of food that Kor'vas had brought to the room for her to eat. It was mainly a few slices of bread and some strange cheese, though despite the fact that Lyra found that both pieces of food had a strange taste to them, and was sure that the taste would linger in her mouth for a few hours, she actually enjoyed the food. She was also given a waterskin of sorts that was filled with spring water, though Lyra had no idea where Kor'vas had gotten the water to begin with, mostly because of the fact that everything she had seen outside the temple had been fire, ash, and lava. She guessed that there had to be some water reservoir that Kor'vas had drawn the water from, though she had yet to see one and had no idea if she was even right.

It also appeared that Kor'vas was to be her first teacher, as Kayn happened to be speaking with his master or doing something else that was keeping him occupied at the moment. They spent some time in the bedroom, where Kor'vas showed Lyra how to properly walk with a couple of steps and then asked her to repeat what she had just showed her. Suffice to say that Lyra wasn't as graceful as her teacher, as the moment that she tried to get onto her new feet, and tried to properly balance herself, she ended up falling on her side. She got up and tried again, attempting to gain her balance once more and attempt to walk, but found that she fell again and would have to try everything again. Lyra was finding life without her tail, the source of her balance, was actually throwing her off more than she originally thought it would, which only served to annoy her a tiny bit.

Eventually, after the first couple of minutes in learning how to walk in a bipedal manner, it was clear that Kor'vas was getting tired of seeing her fail, because she got up from the chair she had been sitting in and approached Lyra.

"Here, let me show you how its done," Kor'vas said, slowly moving her legs and feet so that Lyra could get an idea of what she had to do, "Based on what you told Kayn, about being a unicorn and whatnot, I can only assume that you have been trying to walk like something from your home world that walks like Kayn and I. I encourage you to follow how I walk, repeating my steps until you find your balance and can walk without falling onto the floor again... otherwise we'll be here all morning."

Lyra stared at her instructor for a moment, watching what she was doing the entire time, while silently being thankful that Kor'vas was even taking the time out of her busy day to bother to teach her how to properly walk. She was sure that Kor'vas was supposed to be doing something else that day, and that her training was likely interfering with whatever that something was, but she was determined to overcome everything that was thrown her way.

It took her some time to get close to what Kor'vas was showing her, and it involved hitting the floor a few more times, but eventually Lyra managed to stand straight and not fall over within the first few seconds. She still missed her tail, and the balance it gave her, but she was learning how to walk in this new body and knew it would be some time before she would be walking like everyone else. Lyra secretly hoped that Lord Illidan, and whoever was helping him study the magic that had brought her to this world, would be able to figure out a way to send her back home quickly, because she honestly had no desire to stay in this strange world.

"Well, I'm glad that you have the basics down." Kor'vas eventually said, though there was a pleased tone to her voice for a few seconds, long enough for Lyra to detect it before it disappeared completely, "Now then, I think its time to see where Kayn wandered off to and show you some of the Black Temple, because if you are going to be living here for some time you had best know where everything is."

Lyra was somewhat surprised that she was being taken outside her room so soon, because she had figured that she would have been confined to her chambers until she was able to walk without falling over, but it seemed like Kor'vas, and likely the other instructors, expected their students to know everything from one lesson so that they could move onto the next lesson as quickly as they could. In the end, however, Lyra merely nodded her head and followed after Kor'vas, who watched her as she shakily walked to the room's entrance before taking her out into the hallway. Kor'vas then took her outside, back to where Lyra knew the air would be filled with ash and a hint of fire, and kept an eye on Lyra in case she happened to fall.

Unfortunately Lyra did fall once or twice on the way out of the hallway, though when she stepped outside the temple she found that they were high in the air. She could easily see the mountain she had spotted when she had first opened her eyes and found herself in this strange world, though when she looked over the edge to her right she found that she was correct in assuming that they were high up. Apparently this was some form of ramparts, like a fortress had, only the ones at the temple appeared to be used in some other fashion than anything she could have read about.

And to make matters worse she spotted dozens of demonic creatures walking around the main gates that served as the entrance of the Black Temple, including a massive stone monstrosity that reminded her of the creature that had struck her, only this one had blue flames instead of green flames.

"Relax, they're not going to hurt you," Kor'vas commented, seeing the look on Lyra's face once she saw how many creatures were walking in the courtyard between the main gate and the temple's entrance, "Despite whatever you are thinking at the moment, and I can hazard a guess as to what that something is, not all of the creatures down there are demons. In fact that only demon between the gate and the entrance is Supremus... who happens to be the large infernal that's got blue flames inside of the usual green. The vast majority of the creatures you are seeing are orcs, of the Bonechewer Clan to be exact, and some of their brothers from the Dragonmaw Clan, including some number of their dragon mounts."

"They ride dragons?!" Lyra asked, shocked that any creature would have the ability to conquer a dragon and tame it to the point where they would be able to ride one.

"I take it the people of your home world don't do that?" Kor'vas asked, though by the tone of her voice Lyra could figure out that she was somewhat surprised by the idea.

"No... our dragons are, from what I've been told by others, jerks who hate ponies," Lyra replied, shaking her head as she moved away from the edge of the rampart, just so she didn't have to look at the ground anymore, "Other than that I have no idea what else the dragons of my home world do, because they have kept their culture hidden from us since the founding of Equestria."

Kor'vas seemed a little confused by what Lyra told her, which was fair considering that Lyra was confused about this world's type of dragons, but she merely shook her head and beckoned for Lyra to follow her again. The next area of the temple that they walked to, while taking breaks for Lyra to rest her weary legs, was what appeared to be a training ground of sorts. Lyra noticed that there at least a good dozen night elves, both male and female, training at the moment, but that was when she noticed that a second type of elf, similar to what Kayn looked like, training along side them.

"Blood Elves, or the Sin'dorei," Kor'vas commented, knowing that Lyra was going to ask what they were without even bothering to look back at her, "they are named that way because they honor their fallen brothers and sisters that died during the Third War. The ones you see here came with Lord Kael'thas Sunstrider, one of Lord Illidan's allies, and they have dedicated themselves to our Master's teachings... which is why you'll see them carrying around a pair of warglaives whenever they aren't practicing."

Lyra had been somewhat interested in the bladed weapons that the trainees had been carrying, a weapon that had a blade on both sides of the handle and some sort of shield that covered where the wielder would be holding the handle itself. The weapons looked deadly, though as Lyra watched the trainees use them against the dummies they had constructed she felt her jaw drop as the dummies were, for lack of a better term, hacked to pieces. The trainees didn't seem impressed that the dummies fell apart so easily, though they did appear to enjoy the feel of the weapons that they were carrying.

There was only one blood elf that wasn't swinging his warglaives at the moment, as they were hanging on his back in some sort of harness that he was wearing... though that was also when Lyra noticed the blindfold that he was wearing.

"This is Varedis Felsoul, our head trainer for new recruits," Kor'vas said, beckoning to the blood elf for a moment, who bowed his head slightly as he turned in their direction, "Varedis, this is Lyra Heartstrings. Kayn, Altruis, and I found her near the Hand of Gul'dan and saved her from an infernal that had been summoned some time ago. Lord Illidan has offered her a place to stay in the temple, until she can be sent home that is, so that means that we'll be showing her how to fend for herself."

"Oh... I see." Varedis stated, walking over to a weapon rack and picking up a pair of warglaives, before returning to where they were standing and holding them out for Lyra to take, "Here... let's see what you are made of."

Lyra looked at the weapons for a few seconds, unsure of what the blood elf was trying to do by giving them to her, but she sighed and took them in her hands. What happened next, when Varedis released his hold on the warglaives, was Lyra bending over as the center of the weapons hit the floor not a few seconds later. She hadn't been expecting the weapons to be so heavy when she took them in her hands, but then again this was the first time she had ever held a weapon in her entire life. Back in Equestria the only ponies that had weapons were either evil villains, like the dreaded King Sombra, or the Royal Guards, who usually carried spears into battle. Lyra was a musician, so there was no reason for her to concern herself with carrying a weapon or even trying to protect herself, not when the Royal Guards were around to protect ponies like her all the time.

"I should have expected this." Kor'vas commented, letting out a sigh as she took the warglaives from Lyra, allowing her to stand straight once again, "You said you were a musician... so that means you've never carried a weapon before. Tell me, is there any magic you know, or will we have to start from the basics with that?"

"I know some levitation magic," Lyra admitted, though by the looks on Kor'vas' face she knew that levitation magic clearly wasn't enough to impress her, or Varedis for that matter, "so I guess that means starting from the basics?"

"We'll have to wait for some of Lord Kael'thas' mages to pay us a visit before we can get started on that aspect of training," Varedis replied, picking up a pair of wooden swords and tossing them to Lyra, who managed to catch them before they hit the ground, before picking up his own pair, "so until then you'll be playing catch up with the rest of the recruits that I'm currently training at the moment. From what I can gather Kor'vas and Kayn will be watching you from time to time, to be sure that your keeping pace with the rest of us, while also getting in some more practice for any future missions that they are assigned. Once I have determined that you are prepared for your own warglaives they will be returned to you, so until then they will remain on the weapon rack and serve as a reminder for you to improve.

Are there any questions recruit?"

Lyra had originally expected her first day to be filled with mostly training herself how to properly walk while getting a good look at what the Black Temple had to offer. Instead she found that she was basically being roped into the training that Lord Illidan mentioned almost immediately, telling her that the people who served him liked to move fast and preferred to waste no time. It was almost as if they were preparing for something major, something that she had stumbled upon thanks to her sudden arrival in this strange world. What she needed at the moment was some time to adjust to her new body, and not be thrown at every instructor the Black Temple had to offer her.

At some point in her thinking Lyra assumed that she must have shook her head in a 'no' fashion, because that was followed by Varedis loudly saying something to her.

"Training beings now!" Varedis said, appearing before Lyra and slamming the handle of one of his wooden swords into her face, effectively knocking her to the floor and making her see stars, "You weren't ready..."

Kor'vas sighed as she set the warglaives down and walked over to where Lyra was laying, knowing that this was going to be a long training period for the poor girl if she was constantly being knocked out by everyone that she went up against. She was a little annoyed with Varedis, considering that he knew that Lyra had no skills with any sort of weapon and likely wasn't expecting to fight on her first day. She had been planning on introducing Lyra to fighting much easier than this, as in using her fists and feet for the first few days, but the instructor had simply gone over the top and now she had to wait for Lyra to wake up again.

She glared at Varedis for a moment as she picked Lyra up, because the blood elf seemed pleased to have shown Lyra something that would likely help her in the future, before returning to the lesson he had been showing the other recruits. She let out another sigh as she carried Lyra back to the room that Lord Illidan had given her, knowing that it would be some time before she would wake up and continue the tour of the Black Temple.





Lord Illidan had been meditating at the temple's summit ever since his encounter with the strange night elf that Kayn and the others had brought back with them; Lyra Heartstrings he recalled. She was an interesting creature, as she seemed to have the ability to sense his arrival when he was in her immediate vicinity, something that reminded him of what he and his fellow demon hunters could do. He knew that she must have come into contact with a creature of incredible power for such an ability to have left its mark, which made him wonder what her home world was like. Lyra couldn't be the only one of her native people who had learned that sort of skill, as he was positive that there had to be more like her back where she came from.

Still, the fact that Lyra could sense him, without even knowing where he was to begin with until he was near the bedroom, made him wonder if her home world had powerful creatures like him. If they did have such powerful creatures, and a strong source of magic that could penetrate the fabric between two worlds, than it was only a matter of time until the Burning Legion noticed her world, Equus she called it, and burned it to the ground. He had seen it happen to many stars in the night sky, one would vanish every now and then, which was what happened when the Legion destroyed another world.

Or maybe her world wouldn't be noticed by the Burning Legion for some time, giving him the opportunity to train her abilities until she was ready to head home. He couldn't deny that he wanted to see how Lyra took to the demon hunter training, so she could protect herself as he continued to remind himself, or see how much he could improve her ability to sense creatures like him. He had to wonder if she could sense magical creatures as well, like Kael'thas Sunstrider for instance, but he wouldn't be able to tell until the Lord of the Blood Elves came for a visit in the future.

One thing was for certain; he would never be able to teach young Lyra the skills that she would need in order to survive in this harsh land if she was constantly being knocked unconscious by his instructors... which meant that he was going to have some words with Varedis in the future.