Chapter 4
Chrysalis sipped from a jet black cup as she stared at the elf that sat cross legged across from her. The elf meanwhile inspected the cup he held in his hands, holding the ornately carved crystalline piece up to the light to inspect it.
"I do not know how precious this material is to your people, but judging by the craftsmanship this is quite the piece." Dizastrous commented before lowering the cup and resting it on his knee and staring at the green contents of it.
"Are you familiar with that it is made of?" Chrysalis asked, a mildly impressed look on her face.
"I have seen the crystalline formations insect species can make, most can be quite sturdy as well. However the producing of the crystals is always different." Dizastrous said, still scrutinizing the liquid he was served.
"Impressive, and while some of our material we use for construction is quite common, the material these cups are made from is quite hard to come across. To make it you need to capture the energy of the purest form of love. The love a mother has for her children, or siblings have for one another will not do, you need a love that persists over all others." Chrysalis said with a hint of pride in her voice.
Dizastrous stopped staring at the cup and met the queen of the changeling's gaze, "Love?"
"Yes, and this set of tea cups I personally made from the love I harvested from a princess and a military boy. Their love was so strong they did not care one of them would grow old and die while the other would live on in her immortal life." Chrysalis chuckled at the misfortune that time would bring to her bitter enemies.
"Love... That word is almost alien to my ears..." Dizastrous mumbled solemnly.
Chrysalis quirked a brow up, "Oh?"
"Where I am from once a year, for a week, there is a holiday in which lovers may meet, or flings can begin. However, I usually find myself too busy to partake in the merriment." Dizastrous sighed.
"Busy with what?" Chrysalis asked, interested to hear the story.
"Well, if it is not a war that needs fighting, I find myself fighting in an arena in hopes of attaining enough wealth to retire. Unfortunately there are too many years left in my life to retire on what I have. Besides, growing old next to someone is not everyone's dream. What is this stuff by the way, I cannot tell if it is harmful to me or not..." Dizastrous broke off from his story setting his attention back on the contents of the glass.
"That is a local blend of tea, sweetened with love honey, harvested and produced from the love of ponies." Chrysalis said calmly.
Dizastrous shrugged and gulped down the contents before cringing and making a disgusted face, "Too sweet for my liking."
Chrysalis thought over what she had been told of the elf, despite the crown he wore he seemed to merely be a soldier of fortune. What was more, love seemed to almost be a non existent part of his species everyday life, if they had to devote a holiday to love just to get couples together there would be no possible way for a changeling to get a substantial amount of food from them.
Chrysalis frowned as a thought donned on her, "You mentioned a war..."
Dizastrous smirked, and even began to chuckle before he began to explain, "Not just a single war, over the course of my life I have been involved in four of them. First there was the invasion of my world by the Orcish Horde, while they came multiple times, I only was present for their final invasion in which they took up permanent residence in Azeroth. Then there was the war against the Scourge, an army of the undead that ravaged the land and destroyed the Sunwell, the source of power my people drew from for thousands of years. After the Sunwell was gone, my people sought out power elsewhere, and our crown prince went into Outland to serve the demons in hopes of fueling the addiction to magic the Sunwell left us with. I was one of the many that crusaded into Outland to stop him.
That was called the Burning Crusade, I spent years in that hellish landscape hunting down the demons and my lord. Not only once, but twice I had to kill my prince. Before I could even come home and wipe his blood off my hands, I was ordered to travel to the frozen north and put an end to the war on the Scourge. And through all this time, the war between the Alliance and the Horde has never ceased."
Chrysalis's mouth hung open at the tale of unending war. The mere aspect of it was horrifying.
"So, the alliance is where your loyalties lie then. Seeing as you killed your crown prince?" Chrysalis asked in an attempt to piece together the story she was told.
"No, my allegiance is to Silvermoon and my people. Unfortunately Silvermoon's allegiance is to the Horde." Dizastrous said in a disgusted tone.
"But you said you fought against the Horde..." Chrysalis said, confusion written on her face.
"The alliance was unwelcoming to my people during the times when the scourge first showed up. Their racism forced us to side with the horde, unfortunately the new leader of the horde is just as bad as the leaders of the alliance were back then." Dizastrous's face was a mask of barely controlled anger as he spoke.
Chrysalis fidgeted where she sat as she watched the look on the elf's face. She was just about to find an excuse to remove herself from his presence when a drone burst into the room with a panicked look on its face.
"Mother we are under attack! We need to evacuate you!" The drone exclaimed.
"What is it? Who is attacking?" Chrysalis asked, forgetting about the elf.
"An Ursa is approaching the hive to devour the honey we have stored." The drone explained.
The Blood Knight laughed as he clenched his sides and dropped his cup. The ornate piece rolled across the floor and ended in front of the hooves of Chrysalis.
Chrysalis gasped and adopted a look of anger on her face, "You find this amusing?!"
Dizastrous wiped a tear from his eye as he chuckled, "Yes, a giant hive of insects being ransacked by a bear for their honey. I can only assume the bear is quite large too?"
"It is a nearly full grown Ursa, not yet a major but still standing nearly a hundred feet tall!" The drone exclaimed.
"What will you give me if I kill it?" Dizastrous asked, the jovial tune in his voice lost for a more serious one.
Chrysalis and the drone merely stared in silence at the Blood Knight, moments stretched on until the silence was broken by the sound of part of the hive being crushed. The ground shook and the drone fell, leaving only Chrysalis standing and the elf still sitting with a serious expression on his face.
"You cannot be serious..." Chrysalis said, her gaze locked on Dizastrous's.
"Make me an offer..." Dizastrous said calmly.
Another crash and shock wave went through the hive and Chrysalis looked up to see a few cracks forming in the ceiling of the room they were in. The queen on the changelings bit her lip as she thought over the situation. If the Ursa continued to destroy the hive and consume all of the love honey, her children would all starve, and even herself in time would die off without drones to protect her.
"You mentioned before about searching for a cure to the addiction your people suffer? I will personally aid you if you save my children and my hive." Chrysalis said desperately as another shock wave caused debris to begin to fall from the ceiling.
Dizastrous hummed to himself in thought as he slowly got to his feet. He strode over to Chrysalis, looking down into her eyes before smiling, "Very well."
At that moment a large transparent blue claw crashed through the roof and slammed down onto the forms of Dizastrous and Chrysalis.
Dizastrous turned his gaze away from the wide eyes of Chrysalis as he looked up at the giant paw that was pressed against his divine shield. The indestructible barrier of light was all that stood between them and the crushing force of the Ursa's blow.
Dizastrous drew his sword with one hand, unsheathing it before grasping his blade in both hands and plunging it into the pad of the Ursa's paw. A roar shook the hive as the paw was pulled back, Dizastrous still gripping his blade that was lodged into the paw of the beast.
Turning the paw over to get a look at what had hurt it the Ursa noticed the Blood Knight that now stood on its upturned paw. Rage filled the transparent bear's eyes as it began to snarl.
A ball of light formed in Dizastrous's palm for a brief moment before he pointed his palm at the right eye of the Ursa, causing the light magic to burn the large optical orb. The Ursa let out an earth shaking roar of pain as it stumbled back and began flailing its paws around the air, crushing the giant trees around it as blood dripped from its closed eye.
Dizastrous held firm to the blade that was still stuck in the pad, only pulling the blade out and kicking off the paw to land on the shoulder of the beast. The Blood Knight took a moment to bless himself and add magical buffs in the moment of confusion he had bought himself. The Ursa looked onto its shoulder, but could not see the Blood Knight with its good eye, causing it to take a blind swing at its shoulder in an attempt to remove the elf.
Dizastrous ran across the shoulder to the neck and jumped across the front of the Ursa, burying his blade into the soft throat. The blade was not long enough to bridge the entirety of the Ursa's esophagus, but it did manage to penetrate the thick layer of fur and hide.
Dizastrous grabbed onto the fur and swung out of the way as a large claw swiped past where he just was at. His great sword dangled in one hand, as his other gripped the fur before he once again plunged the sword into the fleshy throat and slashed sideways, assisted with holy might.
The paw struck the Blood Knight this time, but not before he was able to erect a sacred shield around himself absorbing the majority of the force. The Ursa stumbled further back as its throat bled down its chest, matting its transparent fur with the glowing liquid that served as its blood. The Paladin crawled out from underneath the paw onto the left shoulder of the Ursa and took a low ready stance.
The Ursa spotted the Paladin with its good eye and snarled, the sound was garbled by the hole in its throat, but the message was clear, it was pissed. The Blood Knight only smiled as he thrust his open palm at the beast, causing a hammer of judgement to slam into the retina of the Ursa. Completely blinded now, the bear fell onto its behind as it began to lose strength and focus.
"Time to finish this you poor bastard..." Dizastrous mumbled as he climbed the fur onto the Ursa's face and stood on its nose.
"May the light have mercy on your soul..." Dizastrous said with a smirk as he mocked the bear with the prayer the Paladins of the Silver Hand used to give to defeated enemies.
With the built up holy power from casting his spells Dizastrous unleashed a titanic force behind his blade, causing massive damage to the bear's skull. The flesh had parted away where he swung, but the skull was only cracked, causing the Blood Knight to whistle at the thickness of the beasts skull.
The Ursa moaned in pain as it began to sway, its paws dropping to its sides.
"Die this time..." Dizastrous mumbled as he held his hand in the air, allowing a hammer of pure light energy to form. He then heaved the hammer of wrath into the the spot his previous strike had cracked, and was immediately sprayed in the gore from the Ursa's skull.
The Ursa went limp and fell backwards, as Dizastrous stumbled off backwards off its nose, falling to the ground. The Blood Knight wiped his eyes as he fell and saw the ground in time to adjust his fall and land on his feet, bringing a snapping sound into the air before the ground shook from the Ursa falling. Dizastrous buckled to the ground, his legs broken from his fall.
All was silent for minutes after the Ursa fell dead to the forest floor, all but the grunts of pain from the Blood Knight. Dizastrous lay one his stomach, face in the dirt as he waited for his opportunity. Slowly changelings began to peek from the holes of the hive the Ursa had left to see why the commotion had stopped.
Dizastrous looked up as Chrysalis approached him, a look of concern and relief on her face.
"I can't believe you fought an Ursa on your own... But you are hurt..." Chrysalis said with a frown.
"Give me another minute..." Dizastrous said through gritted teeth.
"Drones, get him inside the hive, tend to his wounds immediately!" Chrysalis ordered, causing a number of changelings around her to salute and move closer to the elf.
"Its just broken legs, nothing I cannot heal myself. Just give me a few more seconds and I can heal it without having to waste any mana..." Dizastrous said, jaw still clenched tightly in pain.
Chrysalis looked at the disgusting angles the elf's legs were bent in and gave him a worried look, "You can heal this? Are you sure you did not sustain any cranial injuries as well?"
Dizastrous placed his palms on the ground and forced himself onto his back before sitting up, biting his lip and drawing blood. He then grabbed his legs and forced the bones back to where they belonged, grunting in pain as he worked on himself, a pool of blood forming around where he sat. The Blood Knight then lifted a hand into the air, where it began to glow with the intensity of the sun, before he placed it onto his chest.
Immediately the bite marks on his lip, and his legs along with the rest of his body were restored to perfect condition. Dizastrous stood up shakily and tested his legs, satisfied with the healing he had done for himself.
All eyes were on the Blood Knight, as wide as dinner plates. Dizastrous noticed the sea of green eyes that surrounded him, and looked into Chrysalis's eyes that mimicked those of her changeling's. Dizastrous moved to take a step and stumbled slightly.
"That took more out of me than I thought..." The Blood Knight muttered as he wiped the sweat from his brow.
"What are you...?" Chrysalis asked in an amazed tone.
"Tired..." Dizastrous mumbled.
Chrysalis then noticed the bags that hung under the elf's eyes and she remembered that he had told her before that he had not had a chance to rest in over a day. She turned to look at one of her drones and gave it a look. The drone nodded and zipped off to prepare a room for their savior.
"Come inside the hive, we will have a place for you to rest." Chrysalis said uncertainly, keeping her eyes on the elf as she wondered if it was wise to allow such a monster into her home.
Dizastrous stumbled after the changeling queen, too worn out from his fight and fatigue to think of anything more than finding a place to rest. Before entering the hive he took one last look back at the beast he had slain.
"Shorel'aran" He muttered in Thalassian.
Dizastrous then followed Chrysalis to a chamber that was filled with luxurious looking pillows that were piled into a sort of nest. The Blood Knight found this to be an acceptable substitute for a bed and slowly began removing his armor and setting it in a pile on top of his cloak before falling onto the silky pillows and shutting his eyes.
"Rest easy, I will honor our deal..." Chrysalis said as Dizastrous drifted off into slumber.