//------------------------------// // ...Sadly, They're Also Quite Devious // Story: Mark of the Wyld // by DarkParable //------------------------------// Well, once again all on my own in a strange place I did what any marginally sane individual would do. I went looking for something friendly. Needless to say, that went over as well as a lead balloon. Now I'm not saying I ran into anything here, but yeah... I have no clue what I was thinking stomping around in some unknown forest hollering out "HELLO?!" every few seconds. Sometimes I swear, I'm the biggest idiot I know. After about five minutes of that, I gave it up and instead went back to looking for some water. Heck, at this point I figured if I was a deathknight I could just freeze it and use that as a mirror. Ice is reflective enough right? Well yes, but not normally. Gotta have something behind it like any mirror, but I didn't know that at the time so give me a break here. I'd like to see how'd you'd react to waking up sans testicles, covered in fur, and un-bloody-dead. To make a long story short I found myself a nice little stream, and found out what it feels like to be a pin cushion thanks to a run in with a rather annoying porcupine... Well more like six of them, but I digress. Sighing softly I took a seat at the water's edge, finding it surprisingly easy to settle myself into a sort of sidelong position, the kind of position that left me mostly upright but with my legs folded beside me. Couldn't get comfortable any other way, so meh says I. I heaved a heavy sigh and did the smart thing. I dipped my hand into the water and drew a ring, cutting off a section of the stream from the rest. Such was the unnatural chill pouring off of me that I made a neat little arch of ice that ran right down to the stream bed. The water I'd contained went still, cut off from the flow by my impromptu divider. Bracing myself for what I'd likely see I bent over the water and gazed into it. My hazy reflection stared back at me, and needless to say my jaw dropped a bit. I was looking right into the face I'd spent a good half hour in the character designer of WoW making. Don't judge me, I'm just very deliberate in my choices... Even when everything is kinda canned. Anyways, the face staring up at me was fierce, as expected of any Worgen, but held a few softly feminine notes that left my gender clear if my body didn't. The fir was as uniformly black as the rest of me, and that really made my eyes just pop. The clearest part of my reflection was those eyes, twin points of bright icy blue and slightly nebulous light that sent a soft shiver down my spine as I stared deeply into them. I almost missed the fact that my hair (or was it more of a mane now?) was wild, but by no means tangled as it tumbled down to drape lightly over my shoulders. My ears did catch my attention though, long pointed canine ears that twitched slightly in response to sounds just on the edge of my hearing... I'm not even going to mention the fact that having a muzzle freaked me out a bit though, that'd take too long to go into. All in all, I can't say I wasn't shocked (well I could but I'd be lying through my teeth) to realize that I was now, indeed, Runewulf. Well... Mind, please kindly inform the rest of me that we're no longer in Kansas any more... Guess that'd make me Toto. Strange thoughts aside I couldn't help but grin a little. Dreams of power dancing through my head. Hey, don't judge the nerd... Everyone's thought of what they'd do with their videogame character's powers at one point or another, and I obviously was packing some now. Granted I couldn't really use them due to not knowing how... But what else was practice for? DJ, if you would kindly queue the fail montage? "YOUCH! Note to self, undead, can still feel pain..." I muttered as I freed my hand from a block of ice I'd dropped on my foot...Paw... Whatever it was. "OW!" Making trees rot is hazardous to the wholeness of one's skull... "Well at least this one worked..." I muttered as I looked down at the ghoul I'd made out of a rabbit corpse I'd come across. I wound up punting it with a slightly girlish "Eek!" when it looked up and croaked out in a voice that'd put Barry Manalow to shame in terms of depth "Mommy?" Yeah, that's how my first day in wherever I was went... Making an utter ass of myself and just generally being a total failure when it came to wielding the powers of Frost and Death. I'm just glad I apparently healed up in moments from such minor injuries as a broken toe or being mauled by a disgruntled badger. Thankfully I could at the very least use my axe properly. Weapon triangle be damned, I'd wanted to learn to use one of these things since I watched some movie when I was a kid. Can't remember the name, but I thought battle axe's were cool... and they gave you an excuse to quote a certain dwarf when offering your services. As such I'd gone outta my way to learn such things, even if I couldn't really do anything with that knowledge being the noodle armed gamer that I was before. Here was a different story. Here I had the strength to swing my weapon about like it was made of balsa wood, and as I worked my body through a few old forms I know about I couldn't help but smile brightly. Maybe this would be fun after all. Like something out of a fanfic, probably a poorly written one with a lot of cheesy lines and goofy misadventures. It was these distracting thoughts that were interrupted when the haft of my axe was stopped with a resounding clang. Blinking I looked down and found a sword blade holding my weapon in place. Following the blade to its source I found a Diamond Dog giving me the stink eye. Frowning slightly I lifted my axe away and stepped back only to feel something stop me short and shove me back towards the D-Dog. The one who'd stopped me flashed me what can loosely be called a grin as he beckoned with sword of his. Glancing around I found myself surrounding by a good number of dogs, each armed and lightly armored ringing the two of us in. Well... Shit. "Pretty bitch think herself warrior? Black Jaw wish to see this for himself. Bitch will fight, or she will be killed. If bitch win, we keep her... If loose she work mines." said the damned dog who'd decided that I was apparently supposed to be put in my 'place' here and now. Not surprising considering I spotted the two I'd frightened off earlier among the ring of bodies that surrounded me and my opponent. What a bit of opposition he was too. He was huge, standing head and shoulders over the other Dogs. He wore some weird harness adorned with several vials, and unlike the others his sword actually seemed to be in good condition. "So... Bitch ready to taste Black Jaw's sword?" he asked, accompanying that question with a rather lewd shake of the hips. I heaved a soft sigh and settled into a rather open stance, holding my axe across my chest and close to my body. "My name..." I spoke softly, and got a small bit of satisfaction when the sound of my voice got a brief flicker of unease to roll through my tormentors, "Is not Bitch... I am Rune Wulf." With that I reached for that icy core where my heart used to be and let the cold of the Frozen North fill me... Or something like that. In any case the same icy mist rolled off my body once again, chilling the air and coating the earth a few inches around me in a light layer of frost. The Diamond Dog before me just laughed and shook his head as a small glass bottle impacted with the earth at my feet. "That's fine, but you Bitch now. Alpha Black Jaw was right... Bitches be stoopid." I had enough time to blink before I passed right the hell out. I didn't know this at the time, but apparent the dog I'd been talking to wasn't Black Jaw... Nope that was his kid. Black Jaw had been chilling in the crowd right behind me, and apparently those little vials were full of knock out gas... Who knew?