//------------------------------//
// Azsuna: Eye of Azshara 
// Story: World of Warcraft: The Ties that Bind 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

Getting back to Dalaran proved to be much easier than what Lyra was expecting, as all they had to do was have Azuregos shift into his dragon form and take the three of them back to the floating city. Trixie was still a little shocked by what Athissa had done to her, back in the ruins of Nar'thalas' academy, so she didn't change forms either, though she also wasn't sure if she could access her new dragon form just yet. Azuregos told her that, at some point after they had claimed the Tidestone and returned it to Dalaran, he would spend some time with her and teach her how to change into her blue dragon form... to which Lyra chuckled when she imagined Trixie's guild mates finding out that she had changed since the last time they had seen her.

Once they arrived in Dalaran, however, Azuregos let Trixie and Lyra off of his back before he resumed his elven form, to which they followed Trixie into the city.

"So how many people will we need to face Queen Azshara's army?" Lyra asked, because this was going to be her first 'dungeon run', as that was what Trixie had called what they were about to do, and she was excited for the experience.

"I'm thinking that we'll need at least ten adventurers to start with," Trixie replied, knowing that they would be fighting quite the army, especially since their enemy was Queen Azshara and that they had no way of knowing what to expect once they returned to the portal that Parjesh had entered, "The three of us will need a tank, someone that can keep the enemy's attention on them for the entire fight, and a healer, someone that can mend our wounds and even inflict some ranged damage at the same time. Once our group is filled out we should be able to get another group of three damage dealers, another tank, and another healer to round things off... and then we can head back to the Hatecoil's camp and follow Parjesh to wherever he has gone."

"What is this about needing a healer?" a new voice asked, to which the group stopped where they were standing and faced the direction it was coming from, though at the same time Lyra was interested in seeing who was talking to them.

Lyra watched as a blue skinned eredar walked out of the building that rested in the middle of the city, though it took her a few moments to realize that the person in front of them wasn't one of Sargeras' cursed followers, but rather one of the draenei that had fled from Argus, according to what Trixie had told her during their time together. The female draenei was wearing a set of robes that told everyone that she was a priest, though at the same time her hood was pulled back so they could see her face. The lady seemed kind and even smiled at them, though Lyra was a little interested in the staff that was on her back, as it seemed to radiate a light that wasn't of this world... or maybe it was and she hadn't see it yet.

"Maraa? I didn't realize that you were back in Dalaran." Trixie said, to which she smiled at the draenei, who seemed very happy to have been recognized, though at the same time Lyra noticed the emblem for the Celestial Dragon guild pinned to her belt.

"I only arrived a few minutes ago and I was seeing what had changed since the last time I stepped into the city," Maraa replied, though at the same time she glanced at the pair behind Trixie, while noticing something odd about her and Lyra, "You know, I had heard that you recently found the other Equestrian that had been sent to Azeroth, but no one told me that she was a demon hunter... much less Illidan's replacement. And the last time I saw you, which was sometime before the events of Draenor, you didn't look like you were half dragon, so what exactly did I miss?"

"Plenty, my friend." Trixie stated, though that was when she turned to Lyra and Azuregos, who were staring at her as they waited for her to explain herself, "Maraa here was on the Exodar, when it crashed on Azeroth seven years ago, and was one of the first draenei to seek out the Alliance for aid. Landan and the other members of my guild noticed how skilled she was in the healing arts, as she was on par with our best healer at the time, and she agreed to help us while we were traveling through the Outlands. Since then she has been fighting Azeroth's greatest foes with me and the others, though when it came time to go to Draenor I got so preoccupied with everything that we got separated..."

"I went and aided the soldiers that were wounded from their fights with the Iron Horde," Maraa explained, to which she rubbed the back of her head for a moment, before growing serious once more, "I was also there on the Broken Shore, healing our allies to the best of my ability, though while I didn't fight the Legion I saw what they did to our leaders and fled when everyone else ran. Since then I have been perfecting my craft and acquired this artifact, along with the two other priests of my order gathering the other two remaining weapons as well."

"I'll have to check with Meryl later and see if the other two weapons I didn't choose are still available," Trixie commented, though that was before she shook her head and looked at her friend, "Listen, we managed to track down one of the Pillars of Creation, but it's being guarded by Queen Azshara's forces... and we're looking for some people, namely a healer and a tank, to aid us in our quest to recover the artifact."

"I will gladly join you in recovering this artifact," Maraa said, to which she held up a hand to stop anyone from complaining, not that Lyra and Azuregos were even thinking about that to begin with, "though I did overhear you mention that you would need at least ten adventurers to take down Queen Azshara's forces... something tells me that five will be just fine."

"And I take it you have a tank in mind?" Trixie inquired, as the only reason for them to deviate from her plan was if Maraa had one of the best tanks in mind, or at least the one that was on the Alliance side anyway.

"I do," Maraa said, though at the same time she glanced back at the tavern that they would have been entering if she hadn't stopped them, as if she knew something that they didn't, "and, if my calculations are correct, he should be walking out of the tavern any second now."

The four of them watched as a figure walked out of the tavern and turned towards them, though Lyra was a little shocked to find that the creature they were looking at appeared to be a wolf that walked like a man. She had heard of this race as well, the cursed worgens of Gilneas that had a bitter hatred for the Forsaken and their queen, though she could easily tell that, by the creature's body structure, that it was male. The worgen was wearing what appeared to be a suit of plate armor that reminded Lyra of a forge, as it was almost all black and had some places that looked like exhaust from a forge could erupt out of it at any given moment, though at the same time he wore no helmet. His weapon, however, appeared to be some sort of sword that appeared to have been crafted out of the bone of a creature or something... though at the same time Lyra noticed that it came with a matching shield, which appeared to be made out of a scale that must have dropped from a large dragon.

Lyra could see that both Trixie and Azuregos were staring at the weapons that the worgen was carrying, which meant that one of them had to know what they were, but before she could say anything the worgen stopped in front of them and stared at them... almost as if he was determining their skills and classes without asking them anything.

"Allvar Darkwalker," Trixie said, realizing who was standing in front of them, because while she and many other belonged to the Celestial Dragons guild, one of the largest guilds among the Alliance's ranks, this one worgen belonged to no guild, preferring to walk alone and lend his aid whenever he was around to help.

"Trixie Lulamoon. It has been some time since we last saw each other." the worgen replied, though he did not smile at her or her friends, which caused Lyra to worry that he might be here to stop them from leaving, "I hear that you are in need of a tank... I would like to volunteer for the position."

"I think you'll do just fine," Trixie stated, though that was before Allvar walked passed where she and the others were standing and made his way to where the flight master was located, before she beckoned for the others to follow her, "Look, he may not like the Forsaken like the majority of the other worgen, but he's one of the strongest warriors that Azeroth has at the moment... he's on par with Kurost Skullcleaver at least."

Lyra, having seen the orc warrior in action, knew that having another warrior on that level as their tank would mean good things for them... though she had to wonder what was waiting for them in the location that Parjesh had run off to.





It didn't take the five of them long to reach the area that the Illidari had claimed, and returned the bats to the person they had acquired them from, before they began the trek back to where they had last seen Parjesh. During their ride Lyra noticed that Allvar was riding a nightsaber, one of the mounts that the night elves used all the time, while Maraa was riding a large elephant type of creature, one that she called a elekk. Fortunately Allvar was more than willing to follow Trixie to the magical portal that Parjesh had entered, though as they arrived in the area around the portal they found the forces of Prince Farondis keeping the naga in check... allowing them to get close to the portal without having to actually engage in an unneeded fight.

In the area in front of the portal, however, they found Prince Farondis and his nightwatchers standing guard, though it appeared that they were finishing things up before they went back to the ruined palace they had found him at.

"Ah, I was not expecting you to return so soon," Prince Farondis said, to which he nodded to Trixie, Lyra, and Azuregos, before shaking the hands of both Allvar and Maraa, "Allow me to explain the situation; Warlord Parjesh has ventured into the magical vortex just ahead of us, allowing him to return to an island off the shore to the southeast, where Queen Azshara is no doubt staging more of her forces. The Queen is beyond angry because we, once again, opposed her... though in retaliation she is summoning up a monstrosity known as her Wrath to, which she plans on using to exact revenge for our defiance and drown the Broken Isles. I cannot stress the fact that you must defeat the Wrath of Azshara, before the Queen lets it loose to destroy us all!"

"And recover the Tidestone." Lyra added, knowing that one of the reasons that they were even going into the portal was because the naga had the Titan artifact and were planning on using it against them.

"Agreed." Prince Farondis said, to which he beckoned to the magical portal that he and his soldiers had been standing near, noticing that the group looked at the portal for a moment, "You had better get moving... there's no telling how long it will take the Queen and her minions to summon her Wrath, so you had better move fast."

Trixie nodded and beckoned for the others to follow her to the gateway, though once they were in front of the magical vortex she stepped through it and disappeared from where they were standing. A few seconds later she reappeared on the other side of the vortex, though that was before she noticed that she wasn't in the ruins that were surrounded by the Hatecoil's camp. What rested in front of her was the naga forces that they had been warned about, though she had to raise an eyebrow when she noticed that there weren't as many naga as she would have thought there would be... it was like Queen Azshara had assigned a few of her weaker forces to secure the Tidestone, which made her sigh for a moment.

It appeared that Lyra's first dungeon run was going to be slightly boring in the end, but she guessed that her friend would enjoy the experience anyway... to which she turned around and watched as the rest of the group teleported into the area behind her.

"The landwalkers are here!" one of the naga near them shouted, her voice echoing through the area around them, warning the others that Trixie and her friends were here to stop them and collect the Tidestone, "We will drive them back by salt and scale!"

"So they know that we are here," Allvar commented, merely walking forward and counting the enemies that stood between them and their target, though it was clear that he was slightly disappointed by what he was seeing, "We should be done with this soon enough."

With that said Allvar charged forward and slammed his shield into one of the enemies that were in front of him, though as Lyra joined him she noticed that he appeared to have some sort of intimidating aura or something, as none of their enemies even turned towards her when she cut into them with the Twinblades. Trixie and Azuregos focused on the spell caster enemies, apparently noticing the signs of a powerful spell or benefit and stopping the naga from casting that particular spell. Maraa, true to her word, watched what they were doing and threw a healing spell around when someone needed it, though for the most part she was free to simply wait and watch... while at the same time using whatever harmful spells she knew to help them move faster, by damaging their enemies.

Lyra also noticed that the turtle creatures that were walking nearly, which originally seemed peaceful and wanted to ignore them, also came into the area to attack them... though Allvar had no problem adding them to his list of enemies and swung his sword and shield at them. Even when one of the larger brutes, the feral like one that walked on four legs and stood twice as tall as one of them, engaged them it didn't really make a difference, as it only targeted one person at a time and that allowed Lyra to slip passed it's defenses before she and the others brought it down. They even took out the group that was standing in front of the first real opponent they had to face, Warlord Parjesh... though even at a glance Lyra could tell that he didn't have the pieces of the Tidestone anymore.

"Ah, we meet again, weaklings." Parjesh said, to which he turned and faced them, though at the same time Lyra noticed that he had to have grown since the last time she had seen him, making her wonder if Queen Azshara's power was boosting the size of her champions for some odd reason, "Now it’s just you and me… and my guards!"

Sure enough a trio of naga came in at Parjesh's command and focused on attacking Allvar, allowing Lyra, Trixie, and Azuregos to focus their efforts on hurting the boss, who was purely focused on the worgen. Lyra noticed that Parjesh's main weapon was the trident, which a lot of naga seemed to favor, and that the large naga liked to rapidly move across the area they were fighting in, forcing Allvar to follow him. At the end of that movement, however, Parjesh would lift his trident into the air and randomly target one of the members of their group, though that was when they used his own guards to their advantage... as they forced him to accidentally target his guards at the last second and impale them, leading the warlord to yell at the surviving naga before pulling his weapon back and continuing the fight.

The fight went on like that for a few minutes, where the group make sure to force Parjesh to take out each and every one of his guards, before Allvar and Lyra dealt the finishing blow at the same time, causing the massive naga's body to go limp and collide with the ground.... where it finally went still.

"Whose the weakling now?" Allvar asked, though at the same time he knelt beside the dead naga and noticed a small bag that had survived the battle, to which he grinned as he pulled it up and held it for the others to see, "It appears that he had picked up some loot while he was here... and now his treasures are ours to use as we see fit."

Lyra and the others nodded and followed after the worgen as he walked the path that went to the left, when coming from where the portal was resting, though at the same time Lyra felt the need to ask Trixie what Allvar was talking about. She quickly learned that, when running through one of these dungeons, the tank of the group, who was always considered the leader since he kept the attention of their enemies on himself and always led the way around wherever they were, always picked up a bag of treasure from each boss type creature they took out. Once they were done with the dungeon, however, they would gather someplace and see what sort of loot the creatures had been carrying, which was sometimes better armor or trinkets that they could wear.

Trixie also told Lyra that, at some point in the future, they were going to have to get Lyra some better armor, as she was positive that the Illidari robes she was still wearing would eventually fall apart... to which Lyra focused on the task at hand and worried less about acquiring some trinkets, as they still had several more enemies to defeat before they were finished with this island.

As Allvar lead them right into a naga spell caster, who seemed attuned to some sort of shield, Lyra also noticed that, in what had to be the middle of the island, was some sort of ritual that a number of naga were performing, while above them rested the Tidestone. The naga mage didn't approve of them being here and immediately attacked them, to which Allvar repeated the same movements he had used on the earlier groups, allowing Lyra and the others to fall right back into the pattern they had established. When the naga fell a few moments later one of the other naga in the area yelled something about a shield weakening, where Lyra noticed a larger naga mage floating in the air... and she was surrounded by a shield.

That was when Allvar led them on a quest to find all of the naga that were powering the larger one's shield, where the five of them outwitted and cut down each and every naga that was standing in their way... until at last Lady Hailcoil, as the other naga had named the larger one, was no longer surrounded by her protective barrier.

"Continue the ritual!" Lady Hatecoil shouted, to which she lowered herself into the small watery area that she was in, before she turned and looked at her guests, "I will handle these fools!"

As the battle started, and Allvar struck the first blow, Lady Hatecoil's first action was to summon the power of lightning to shock them while they were all standing in the water, though before that could happen the group moved onto the small bits of ground that were poking up out of the water, protecting them from any damage. Lyra silently admitted that she had been the last one to reach a patch of ground, as she had no idea that such a thing would have happened to begin with, but she had learned from her near mistake and knew that she needed to pay more attention to their opponents. Lady Hatecoil then summoned some sort of globe like creature, a small group of seven to be exact, and when they died they slowed down whoever was really close to them... leading Lyra to wonder why the naga didn't stand with the globes and then summon the power of the storm.

Lady Hatecoil even tried to shock them with the power of the sky itself, though Lyra noticed something odd about that attack; if they were standing in the water they would suffer a small shock, but if someone was standing on one of the small patches of land, however, the bit of sand would be obliterated in an instant and do slightly more damage to whoever had been standing there. Azuregos, who had been the unlucky one that caused that to happen, merely laughed at the naga as he resumed the battle, while at the same time Lyra noticed that Maraa's spells healed the small wounds that the disguised dragon had suffered so far. Two minutes later, after a second round of the same attacks, they dealt the finishing blow and slew Lady Hatecoil where she was standing, weakening the naga's forces even more.

With another one of Queen Azshara's minions taken care of Allvar, after collecting Lady Hatecoil's treasure bag, led the group to the northern part of the small island, where they encountered a whole mess of wildlife that seriously wanted them dead. It wasn't because they were under the naga's control, if the few dead bodies were any indication, so that told Lyra that the animals didn't like people intruding on their territory and had only allowed the naga to remain because they hadn't come this far. Something told her that if Queen Azshara herself had come here the wildlife could have simply bowed to her and followed whatever her orders were... but Lyra was thankful that the Queen hadn't thought about that.

Lyra was still amazed that they had to cut down a large number of pincer crabs, four legged sea creatures that Trixie referred to as 'Hardshells', the occasional hydra like creature that walked towards them and tried to hurt them with lightning based attacked, and even a seagull or two.

When they had cleared a significant amount of the wildlife, and had spotted a cave that they could easily reach thanks to the amount of dead animals they would be leaving behind, Allvar stopped them as a large green reptilian head, like the ones that the hydra's had, erupted from the middle of the area they were in and stared at them.

"So this is Serpentrix," Trixie commented, causing the group to look at her for a moment, as they hadn't been told anything about this creature, "One of the nightwatchers mentioned something about hoping that we didn't bump into this monster... but it appears that we'll have to take it down as well, as I don't think it will let us leave without a fight."

Sure enough Trixie was right about the the creature not wanting them to leave, as Serpentrix immediately started spraying it's poison like spit on the ground and forced them to face it. Once again Allvar held it's attention as the others moved in with their various attacks, though occasionally one of them had to break ranks as the large serpent looked at them, where poison would follow them for a few seconds before turning back to the worgen. After a minute of fighting Serpentrix retreated and slipped back into the water that had to be beneath them, though that was followed by it and two more heads, a red one and a blue one, returning to the surface all around them. Lyra immediately noticed that if they left the red head alone it would start spewing fireballs and other fire related attacks at whoever was closest, and the same could be said about the blue head, to which she and the others focused their fire on the two other heads while Allvar fought the main head.

Once the two heads were down they returned to what they had been doing, up until Serpentrix repeated the same pattern and forced them to move once more... though once all of the heads had been defeated a third time they collpased against the ground and stopped moving. That was when Allvar simply pulled the treasure bag out of the mouth of the green head, before turning and heading towards the cave, forcing the others to follow him.

Inside the cave they found a sea giant sitting near the opening, though it chose to ignore them for some odd reason and allowed them to progress through the inside of the small cave. They had to deal with two groups of murlocs, a group of what appeared to be goblins that had grown up underwater, and even an angry snail, before they emerged on the back end and followed the path that was in front of them. That meant taking a right and heading along the fine path in the sand before they found a path that would take them up to where a pair of sea giants were standing... and behind them rested an even larger one, which had to be the king of their kind.

The two sea giants had an interesting attack pattern, as one would stomp the ground and stun them for a few seconds while the other tried to hit them with small water geysers that it created... though they proved to be no match for the group, even if they sustained a few injuries had had to wait for Maraa to heal them before they moved up to the larger seat giant.

"Come landwalkers, face the power of King Deepbeard," the sea giant said, to which it turned away from the ritual that was happening below them and faced the group, "I don't know which group of landwalkers killed my son, but I will gladly let Queen Azshara drown all of you!"

King Deepbeard had the power to summon lightning from the sky, summon up water bubbles that would drown whoever was trapped in them unless they could break them first, and even caused the ground beneath their feet to quake a few times while they were fighting. Lyra noticed that the King had a personal hatred for her and the others, as if they were the ones that had taken out his son, which told her that he must have actually cared for his child before someone killed the prince. Fortunately King Deepbeard was angry, which meant that he wasn't actually controlling his powers to the best of his ability, as that meant that none of them were actually damaged by any of his attacks... though he was damaged by their attacks.

Thanks to the King's anger, and his inability to actually hurt any of them, the fight went relatively quickly, allowing them to claim victory over the King as he collapsed on the ground... though before any of them could rejoice they heard the sound of something happening in the ritual area.

"THE STORM AWAKENS." a menacing voice shouted, to which the group ran towards the right of where they were standing and came to a drop off that would allow them to jump down to a broken ship below them.

What they saw, in the middle of the island, was a large monstrosity that appeared to be made up of water, though some parts of it seemed more solid than the rest of it. The large creature resembled a naga, which made sense considering that it was supposed to be Queen Azshara's Wrath, though the lower part of the body appeared to be incomplete at the moment. Lyra suspected that the creature was only partially formed and that, if they acted quickly, they could easily defeat their opponent and claim the Tidestone... before it got too powerful for them to destroy without even more backup. Allvar took a moment to return to the body of King Deepbeard and claimed the bag that was hidden on his body, before he returned to the group and started jumping down the various parts of the broken ship... before he made it to the water below them.

Trixie and Azuregos cast a 'slow fall' spell on them and Maraa, allowing the three of them to simply jump into the air and slowly glide down to where their friend was standing... leaving Lyra to use her fel wings to glide down as well, though once she was there they started moving.

At this point it appeared that there were only four more naga left in the entire area, which meant that the Wrath must have sucked the life out of nearly all the summoners that had been present, though the four naga were so distracted by their task that they didn't notice the group approaching them at first. Allvar was able to take the head of the first summoner before they moved onto the second, who tried to slow them down and blow them up with an arcane bomb of sorts, which failed in the end. The third one tried to turn them into frogs so she could kill them faster, which ultimately failed thanks to both Trixie and Azuregos stalling the spell before it could be cast, while the final naga simply tried to blow them up like the second summoner.

Once all four of the summoners were taken care of the progress the Wrath glared at them, indicating that it was furious thanks to the power that Queen Azshara had fused into it, but that didn't stop the group from getting ready.

The Wrath's attacks consisted of targeting one person at a time and blasting them with a powerful water blast, targeting someone with an arcane bomb, summoning small twisters that knocked people into the air so they could b easier for the creature to punch, and calling upon waves to prevent people from running. Since they were attacking water, even in a slightly solid state like the Wrath, Lyra had no idea if there were actually doing any sort of damage to their opponent, as the Wrath didn't appear to be capable of feeling pain. Trixie and Azuregos, who were more attuned to this sort of magic than the others, said that they were doing just fine and that they needed to continue avoiding the attacks to the best of their abilities.

Eventually they dealt the finishing blow, which caused the creature to explode and completely empty the pool it had been resting in... though at the same time it's crystal shaped heart floated to the ground and rested just above the floor, while at the same time the completed Tidestone floated down to them.

"We had better get this back to Dalaran," Trixie commented, to which both she and Azuregos wrapped their magic around the Tidestone, forming a barrier that would allow them to safely move it away from this area, just in case Queen Azshara had any more tricks in store for them.

"That means we've secured the first of the five Pillars of Creation," Lyra said, to which she smiled as she sheathed the Twinblades on her back, as while the dungeon run had actually been fun she knew that there was more that they needed to do, especially with the demons gathering their forces on the Broken Shore.

"Come, I will open the way back to Dalaran," Azuregos stated, to which he expanded a little more of his power and summoned a portal for them to use.

Lyra smiled as they all stepped into the shimmering portal that had been opened in front of them, because they were now one step closer to driving back the Legion and stopping their invasion of Azeroth. She knew that, one they had gathered all five Pillars of Creation, they would turn their attention to the Broken Shore and attack the Tomb of Sargeras... though until that point in time they had to patiently wait and gather their forces. She didn't want them to make any mistakes that could lead to the Legion winning this war and bringing about the destruction of Azeroth, because then her home world would be at an even greater risk of being discovered and destroyed.

Lyra hoped that this was one of a large number of victories that she and the others would be having over the next few months... and she was sure that Trixie was happy to be one step closer to protecting this world from the Legion.