Equestria Was Merely a Setback!

by Thunderscourge


Level 9-10: Mile High Club

A/N: Special thanks to SilentMech, refferee, GamerGoddessNayru, Ozymandias, Ketvirtas, and nioniosbbbb for the comments last chapter! They are very much appreciated, and I hope to hear from you and even more this chapter.

I hope you all enjoy, and I hope to hear from all of you in the comments below!


Kael found himself carrying everything, including the now folded up purple sheet, as Trixie approached the only other Elves awake in the early morning at the settlement. Kael would have liked to stay and talk with some of the people around, but he was the one more worried about leaving so he silenced his inner curiosity. This seemed like a good place for one to launch one’s journey from, and he was sad to be leaving it behind.

Trixie, however, was quite ready to not be dealing with other people. She was still rattled a bit by transforming back and forth from a furred creature to an Elf, as well as what that meant about herself. It wasn’t just Kael now questioning who he was, for Trixie now was worried that perhaps she wasn’t like every other Elf either.

Well, of course she wasn’t, she was The Great and Powerful Trixie and far better than all the other plebeians (facts be damned), but that was beside the point.

Two women stood outside the inn chatting with one another in hushed voices when Trixie exited it with Kael in tow. It was fortunate for the two magicians that his face was covered completely by the large blanket folded and sitting atop his arms, though it almost made him fall off the spiral staircase they had to go down to meet the others who were awake.

“Excuse me, we are looking to travel and escape the drama in this area. May you find us a vehicle or pack animal to aid us on our journey?”

One of the women, whose features Trixie could not make out due to a combination to their full armor and the darkness, rose a hand in response. Their words however were a combination of sadness and apology.

“I am the flightmaster here, but I am afraid I have but one Dragonhawk left, and its flightpath is limited to the point of uselessness. The elder, more trained ones perished yesterday as we attempted to combat the Fel Horde.”

Fel Horde…Trixie assumed that they meant the Orcs, though the lack of mention of Kael’thas was good. If they didn’t have Kael’thas on the mind, perhaps they wouldn’t pay much attention to the handsome Elf she had carrying her things in addition to his own. She’d feel guilty if not for the fact that she was doing the talking in this journey for the most part, so for things to be equal he needed to pull a different kind of weight.

So long as it did not go north, Trixie didn’t really care where the Dragonhawk went. She assumed it to be the orange-yellow being floating beside the woman who spoke, the beast previously having been perched on the ground and thus not noticed by Trixie in the darkness. Its faintly glowing eyes reminded Trixie much of its owner’s own pair, and from there Trixie could observe a very impressive beast. Its serpentlike body stretched on to be as long as she expected a full grown (not miniature, like herself) horse to be, with an impressive wingspan beside it that had been hidden before when it was curled up on the ground.

Still determined to leave her starting zone for the safety of her friend, Trixie decided to ignore the ‘uselessness’ of the Dragonhawk.

“Where will it take us?”

Despite wearing armor over her face, the Elf’s eyes shined out of the helmet and Trixie could make out the expression of a glower as they stared down at their animal, “It only knows Alliance lands, such as Westfall, Elwynn Forest, and Duskwood. We were allies with the Humans when we began its training, and there has not been time in recent months to retrain it.”

Alliance? That meant the Humans from what Trixie could recall about what she had learned up to that point. It seemed the lore of the land would come a piece at a time. Humans didn’t like Elves…but she didn’t need to actually be around the Humans. She just needed to not be here. She could travel there with Kael and lay low until they could figure out enough to not get him executed for treason or something of the like. Perhaps get him a haircut and make him grow a goatee.

Trixie found herself wondering about what Kael would look like with a blonde goatee, and perhaps a moustache as well. Heck, she even felt like she had seem something similar before, but couldn’t put a picture to the thought about why.

It took one of the other women clearing their throat to rouse Trixie from her thoughts of Kael and facial hair.

“Very well, which of these regions has the least dangerous foes?”

“Elwynn forest, but it is directly adjacent to the Human capital, so Westfall is the safest…” the Flightmaster was baffled. Someone wanted to go to Human territory? Were they unintelligent or a traitor? “You would adventure to such a dangerous area?”

“A breathe of fresh air,” Trixie countered as she brought a hand back to point at her partner, “We can manage.”

On a normal day, the Flightmaster would laugh off such a request, but it wasn’t as if she cared that much about why someone would be so foolish. She had lost all of her pets and companions sans one a day prior to a brutal Orcish attack, and she had the misfortune of only being able to save and heal one of them…the most worthless one. She’d be busy training a whole new batch of others to replace those lost, and in the meantime this one would just distract her from her efforts with the others.

It did not mean she wanted to lose it, but she wouldn’t be as hurt if it didn’t come back like some of her others. For this reason, along with apathy, she waved a hand and sighed as she ushered the beast towards Trixie, “The Dragonhawk will bring you to the edge of that territory then. You will have to find passage to wherever you want to go after that.”

That was enough. Trixie didn’t have a destination in mind other than ‘not here’, so it could drop them off literally wherever and she would be fine, “Of course.”

Kael would protest about going into enemy territory if not for the fact that staying in allied territory could mean he would be lynched from citizens, hunted by the military, hunted by his double, hunted by that forsaken Hunter who seemed to want his head for a bounty, or other situations in which his wellbeing would be put at risk. At least he could be around enemies and expect nothing but the worst, while he could no longer trust anyone outside of Trixie, Mitter’meyer, his wife, and Reuenthal…should any of them be alive.

It was then that the other woman spoke up finally, her voice full of cheer as she took the role of an oily salesman, “You two will be needing to travel quite some ways to return. You will need to have ground mounts should you desire to do so swiftly.”

Trixie could tell that she was about to be offered something to buy, so she quickly found a way around revealing she had no money, “I do not believe we can transport horses over…” she waved a hand at the Dragonhawk, “That.”

This did little to deter the opportunistic woman, “Oh, of course not, but a magician powerful enough can summon one with the right training, and dispirit it the same way. I sell such magic and training, as well as Hawkstriders for you to ride upon.”

Oh great, a Stablemaster or something of the like Trixie surmised. Just what she needed to think about…

She diverted her mind from horse thoughts to the unfamiliar word used by the saleswoman/stablemaster, “Hawkstriders?”

It was their turn to do show and tell, and so the woman pointed to the edge of the settlement where a crowd of two legged animals with round, feathered bodies stood. Their necks were long as were their legs, giving Trixie the impression that these were like mountable Ostriches, “Just as fast as a horse, while taking up less space. Much more graceful beings than those Human owned beasts.”

Not exactly proud of her other self, yet still feeling insulted, Trixie balked at the statement and crossed her arms angrily.

“I will have you know that equines are not simple beasts, but beautiful, intelligent creatures!”

This outburst actually caught the two other women off-guard, though it came Kael a moment to clear his throat. He was passive and would let Trixie take the lead, but he wasn’t about to let her use her speaking role to possible alienate the group that was about to let them take a ride out of this place.

Realizing this, Trixie steeled herself and took a breathe in to calm down. They were simpletons who didn’t know better…they had no idea that she was a horse, so they can’t be expected to be polite when speaking about the mount of an opposed race…

“Sorry. I am…fond of horses. Particularly ponies.”

Her explanation for her behavior not only explained a cause for her reaction, but also turned the surprised duo into a pair of laughing friends. They used eachother to stand up as the Flightmaster fought to maintain a composed look despite snickering, while the Stablemaster took to a fit of laughter.

“Hah, I bet you wanna go and marry some prince too and live in a big ol’ castle!” she bent down as she realized just how stereotypically feminine a statement had been said, “Seriously, how old are you?”

“I…” Trixie realized she couldn’t back away from her previous statement, as well as that she had no idea what her own age was. She appeared younger than almost all the women she had come across, though she didn’t feel like a child. A young adult?

She shook her head to remove the line of thinking. It didn’t matter. She was independent, and she was doing this no matter what. She could do what she wanted, and she wasn’t going to let people laugh at her! “That doesn’t matter! And so what if I believe myself worthy of a prince? My private life is not of your concern. I only wish to leave this place before anything else crazy happens.”

Kael wanted to cough again and point out that he was a prince, and he might have had he been alone with Trixie, but he kept quiet because of the company they held.

The Flightmaster jabbed a thumb over at the Dragonhawk, which had been patiently hovering above the ground next to them the entire conversation without going anywhere, “Yeah, yeah. Normally I’d charge gold for a ride, but we’re supposed to do the trips around here for nothing. Since the guy who collects the gold is dead now, I’ll let this one go for free.”

Free was good, especially since Trixie hadn’t even considered the fact that she might need money. Money she didn’t have in any capacity…and totally hadn’t been planning to borrow from Mitter’meyer until everything went to Hel at Silvermoon.

“Thank you. Now, how do I ride this thing?”

“Just climb on the saddle it is wearing,” the woman’s apathy continued to show as she gave a bored yawn, “I’m not supposed to let people go two at a time, but have fun. The guy who does the safety regulations has an axe in his neck right not, so he’s not going to argue.”

Trixie wanted to be thankful that she had the opportunity for a free ride away, but even she could realize that expressing any joy at the circumstances was too soon…


It took some time, but eventually both Kael and Trixie found a way to strap themselves in to the Dragonhawk’s seat worn on its back…the solution being Trixie sitting on top of Kael, and the securing methods going over here. This of course made things awkward for Kael, but the issue was helped by Trixie falling asleep almost instantly after taking flight.

Her falling asleep despite the up and down of the Dragonhawk’s movement was because of a combination of both her tiredness and her sudden realization that she didn’t want to look down at the ground they were flying dozens if not hundreds of feet over.

Her sleeping made Kael more, but not completely, comfortable for the ride because it meant she stopped shifting around and being a general nuisance. Truth be told, he too was afraid of heights he realized once they actually were taken off the ground, though he steeled himself to be awake for the ride. It wouldn’t do if he fell asleep too and they both fell off the blasted beast which was flying way too high for his tastes.

He took to looking at the map provided to them by Reuenthal previously, and to his delight it actually had some detail. The map seemed to display an explored area, with the words “The Deadmines” wrote on the lower section of the area they were headed to known as “Westfall”. Westfall was basically on the exact opposite side of the continent, being in the south west (as its name partially implied) while Silvermoon City was in the north eastern area called “Everson Woods”, with Fairbreeze Village slightly to its south.

Kael knew he should take more care and mentally look over what he passed over more, but in the end he only managed to spare glimpses of what was below him. Some of the land about halfway through the long flight was ground that appeared blackened, much like the “Dead Scar” Reuenthal had made note of by Silvermoon. Skeletal beings with varying levels of flesh roamed the land, and Kael could see some of them even engaging in what appeared to be civilization, but by the time he took more note of the situation it was gone.

Further down he flew over a mountain in a region he believed to be known as the “Burning Steppes”, though at that point some of Trixie’s sleeping movements drew his attention. She had begun to wake up, though was not quite there yet, and so she was constantly shifting around after what Kael realized was a full day’s flight. The night was already setting, and they had set out right when the day started. Why couldn’t a flight like this take five or less minutes, he pondered, curious as to why no-one had come up with a better method of transportation yet. It took some restraint, and by some it was really a godly amount, but he managed to not disturb Trixie’s sleep in any manner while also making sure she didn’t start rolling off the creature.

When she did wake up though they were just passing the edge of what Kael realized with the help of the map to be “Stormwind City”, a large, sprawling structure that looked like an extended castle or keep. And when she woke up, she first yawned and then next gave Kael a near heart attack.

She took breath in through her nose and moved to cover it with one of her delicate hands.

Realizing that she was about to sneeze, Kael brought a hand over her face and squeezed her nose. This was not the time for her to transform, and given that they were a few hundred feet in the air Kael did not want to try out the “slow fall” spell he had looked at briefly in his own book over the flight, along with others like “Fireball”, when not perusing the map. Anything to keep himself from looking down at the ground.

“Don’t do it,” Kael warned, though the groggy Trixie couldn’t really comprehend his words just yet.

“Ahhh…” she slowly started, her voice modified because of her tightly clenched nose.

The fact that even though he was closing her nasal passage, admittedly hard enough to hurt because they were in danger, Kael realized that she was still about to sneeze.

“Trixie, we will die. Don’t you dare.”

Trixie’s head moved back as her body prepared to sneeze forcefully, “Ahhhhhhhh….”

Her head moving back made her hit Kael in his nose, causing him to curse loudly as he reached to grab his aching nose. This freed Trixie’s head of his clasp though, at which point Trixie let out a big breath.

“Phew,” she rubbed her crunched nose with one hand, “See? I’m fine—chooo!”

Her sneeze was followed by a purple flash, and Kael felt the buckle binding them snap instantly. Realizing that this would be the case though, Kael wrapped his legs tightly around the Dragonhawk right before her sneeze to clench it and keep hold, while his arms did the same to Trixie. Her body shifted forms and nearly forced his arms apart, but fortunately she was not big enough for him to not reach all the way around. The Dragonhawk squawked with its beak at the sudden change in weight for its passengers, and it began to plummet the moment Trixie’s weight crashed down on its back.

Trixie flailed with her front hooves for a bit before seizing up entirely and curling up as much as possible in fear. With her having no hands to do what was necessary, Kael was forced to grab the best grip he could with one hand on her while using the other to pull out something he stole from the inn earlier from his bag.

“Pepper!” he shouted as he shoved it between Trixie’s hooves, not being able to reach her face on his own and not thinking in the moment to just wave it upwards. Trixie fortunately managed to clench it between her front hooves as they continued to plummet downward while the Dragonhawk fought to stay up in the air.

Trixie shoved the pepper container in front of her nose and shook it as violently as she could. It took not a moment more for her to sneeze, and suddenly the descent ended as the Dragonhawk finally managed to go upwards instead of downwards.

The flight leveled out after a few moments, though the seemingly exhausted Dragonhawk began to angle itself at landing down at a nearby shore. Neither Kael nor Trixie could blame it, especially after all of the flying from the day, and so they let it touch down. Even after it gently landed though they stayed on top just a minute longer, each of the anxiety filled Elves nearly hyperventilating from how close they had come to dying.

Kael had looked. There had been about ten feet left until they hit the ground when they finally went up. Trixie had still been in her sitting position despite the change in form, and while this did not make her unable to look down it did help her decide to just look forward during the fall.

It took a little while, but Trixie realized something: first, her robes were loosened after stretching suddenly and by a bit. Second, and more importantly, Kael was still gripping part of her tightly. She did not know much about Elven customs, but she had not seen any males grabbing females there, so she could presume in addition to making her uncomfortable that it was also taboo.

“Kael, I don’t think you should be grabbing there.”

“Sorry, but…” Kael blushed as he removed his hand from her torso. She hadn’t exactly had all of herself in the same places when he grabbed ahold of her, and he hadn’t really noticed the change when he tried to calm himself down.

Trixie felt her face flushing red, but she tried to ignore it. Why was she tingling? This body was surely weird…

“It’s okay. If you didn’t grab me I’d have fallen off and died. Just forget about it.”

Kael could agree to that, being quite embarrassed that he hadn’t thought ahead. Wanting to move on, he decided to bring up another subject, “That was too close…I don’t think we should ride these such lengthy distances in the future.”

Trixie couldn’t help but feel as if it was all her fault, which in many ways it was, though it wasn’t something she could help yet, “Sorry…”

Kael brought a hand to her exposed shoulder, its purple robe hanging slightly off it just to the side of her, “It’s fine…” with his other hand he brought it to her hip and began to help her off the Dragonhawk, “We were at the end anyways.”

Trixie’s legs just began to wake up from her long sleep and so she stumbled a bit as she got off the creature, Kael following suit at a faster pace since he had already been awake and had been moving his legs back and forth to find better ways to not penetrate Trixie’s sleep. Once both of them were off of it, the Dragonhawk squawked again and then took flight, seemingly not caring to hang around them any longer.

“That, or it just wants to get rid of us,” Trixie snorted. She decided she was not very fond of the animals, since her back really hurt and she was sticky with sweat because of the sudden adrenaline rush. Sure, she caused it, but if it was a better mount it wouldn’t be a problem. Why couldn’t she just ride a dragon or something more…suitable for a mare?

“The map seems to show that this is the right place…I think we’re good.”

Trixie snatched the map from him, her mind too jittery to be polite, “Let me see.”

It didn’t take her long to find the same spot on the gigantic map Kael had been gripping tightly on the flight. The continent was shaped like a jigsaw, messed up rectangle of sorts that was larger in height than it was width.

While Trixie began to study it, Kael excused himself to wash himself with the nearby seawater. Yes, he knew it would smell bad later, but he needed to get his filthy robes cleaned before they moved on any further. He did not even know how he managed to ignore them up to this point, especially with that torturous ride he just was on. Trixie took no notice as he completely emerged himself and them into the water, for which he was grateful.

Moving her gaze up the map, Trixie continued to not notice his absence at her side, even going so far as to reach back and try to grab his arm to get his attention before just calling out his name and explaining why.

“Let’s conquer Stormwind!”

Stormwind. Human capital city. If Kael didn’t feel so good for the first time since he woke up, he would have scoffed in an abrasive manner instead of a joking one.

“As if.”

Trixie glanced back towards him, only to notice him in the water with his clothes floating a few feet away, and so she looked back down to the map. Then she shot her eyes back to find that all their other stuff was safe on shore and not soaking alongside her friend, and so she regained some of her calmness as she continued to explain her insane plan, “It can’t be that hard. Elves have magic, but I bet not all Humans do. We get strong enough to fight, get about forty people, approach them from the port the map says they are building, attack from a landing ship by coming around at sea, and then tadaa, Human peons! Then we own both ends of a continent, and everyone in-between will be pincered and eventually be forced to serve our greatness.”

“Where do we get these forty people? And why forty?” Kael laughed as he relaxed in the waters, “Trixie.”

For that she had no real answer, so she repeated her previous statement as if on loop, “…We get strong enough to fight, get about forty people—”

By this point Kael began pulling on his soaked, yet no longer grime infused, clothes, and as he did so he started to leave the water and head for Trixie (after his pants were of course secure).

“Enough of that nonsense, we have bigger matters to handle,” when he got to Trixie his tattered and dripping wet shirt was slung over his shoulder. He reached over her far shoulder to point down at the map with a finger he knew to be dry, “This map actually has detailed notes from Reuenthal, so I take it he has been here before. There are Human farms all over this region, and he marked the coastline with X’s and the word Murgle…” he paused as he thought about what that actually meant, only to come up with a complete blank, “What in the Sunwell is a Murgle?”

Trixie tried pronouncing the word down on the page, though she had some difficulty reading it because of her newness to the language, “Mrglegle?”

“No, I think you only say it with one gle,” Kael corrected, only for Trixie to shove the map in her robes chest compartment, it being her largest “pocket”, and then pointing towards the flat plains that lay away from the shore.

“Murgle-murgle-murgle, I don’t care, let’s just find a place to camp.”

Kael paused as his eyes caught Trixie staring at his bare chest. He hadn’t intended to give her eye candy, but he supposed the muscle and tone could be seen as impressive. He did nothing to deter her gaze, though after a moment she removed it. What was she thinking while looking at him? He did not know, but a large part of him really cared to know.

To break the silence Kael thought best to bring up something that had been on his mind the past few hours, albeit in the back of it, “I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry.”

Trixie scoffed at the mention of food even as her stomach began to rumble audibly, “What are you going to do, ask the Humans?”

“Well, the date on the map seems to be after Humans turned on our kind, yet he took notes of the region. My bet is that the Humans here are either more friendly or that there is a population of Elves not associated with our kind that look similar enough that he was mistaken for one. It also might be helped that he is half-Human.”

As soon as Kael finished his explanation about how it might be possible for them to acquire food Trixie’s stomach spoke up again, this time loud enough for the man to laugh at her expense once more.

“…you want bread?” Kael snickered, his gaze falling to her stomach.

Trixie brought a hand over her gut, not really liking that her skinny body felt so hungry. She knew the reason for it though, not that it helped matters at all, “I am eating for two after all.”

Once again, her word choice brought some confusion to Kael, “Two being…”

Trixie crossed her arms angrily, suddenly beginning to pout as the morning’s revelation came to mind, “Myself and my other, much larger stomach! Don’t make me say it out loud.”

Oh. She meant her horse stomach. That was better than what Kael was thinking.

He voiced exactly this sentiment as relief washed over him like the water had before, “Better than what I was thinking. I was going to question how it was possible, since we’ve had our clothes on, though there were times I was passed out…”

Trixie’s confused glance made him realize that once more this was all going over her head, and he would rather keep it that way, so Kael tried to change the subject again.

He pointed a finger in a way that the map showed to be south, “But onto the matter at hand, or rather hoof, how about we head this way until we find someone who’s awake and willing to take us in? If not, they are only farmers. We can just run away with the speed of a horse.”

His statement made Trixie apprehensive, given the assumption the statement had, “Wait, you don’t intend to…”

Kael patted Trixie on the shoulder as he laughed, “Oh I fully do, though you may draw some attention…”

It only made sense that they would use her transforming quality to its logical advantage. As a horse she could move faster than they could on foot, and it would keep Kael’s own legs fresh. She could also likely carry things better than he could, so with the right setup it made perfect sense for him to ride her as they traveled. She might think it mean or unfair, but the way he saw it she could carry things now, and he would later provide servants to carry things for her…given that he was, after all, a prince it seemed. Not to mention that he had just been forced to make sure nothing fell off during the entire flight, which was quite the task, and he was glad he had been provided a bag for the blanket before the trip by the Flightmaster.

Trixie kept up her façade of anger, not wanting to admit that it made sense and instead trying to find an issue with whatever she could, “Draw some attention? There must be a million horses. In this one instance I am not one in a million.”

“You’re blue,” Kael retorted snarkily, already knowing he had won the conversation before it really began. Trixie could be haughty and on occasion obnoxious, but she could tell what made sense and what didn’t, and she’d give in to reason if he pressed enough against her stubbornness.

“And able to talk, yet you don’t seem to be minding that part,” Trixie noted, given that a talking horse was most certainly an uncommon one. Even if she was strange, she still was at least unique. There was no chance that there were more like her, or at least enough to really matter since her being a small horse was most certainly out of place in this setting.

“You’re a Unicorn too,” Kael smiled, now bringing a hand up to pat Trixie’s flat forehead. There would be a horn there if she transformed, though Kael began to wonder what it would be like to see her with the horn in this form. It certainly was a sleeping hazard, so perhaps they could find a solution to it. For now though he would sleep with his head at the other side of the bed, just in case she changed forms in the middle of the night again.

“Why yes, I am, at least some of the time…” Trixie grumbled, not seeing the use for the horn. What was she to do, stab people with it? That was disgusting. Imagine what it would feel like to have a sharp horn pierce your body! Trixie internally groaned at the idea of having a horn go through her.

Seeing as Trixie had admitted to her other form’s features, Kael was ready to hit her with his solution to their transportation method, “So…”

Despite everything Trixie did not want to just go and let him make this point. Sure, it made sense, but she wasn’t just some pack animal. She turned around to face him and shot him a frightening glare, “Don’t you dare say it.”

Kael wondered if he had a problem, or if it was just a thing, because he found her angry, pouting face to be adorable, “Oh come now Trixie, buying the official training and registration for using a mount is expensive it sounds like, and I’d bet purchasing one is just as expensive. At least this way, with you being my mount, we both can travel far quicker than we otherwise would be able to without paying twice the hefty fee!”

“Hmmph,” Trixie spun around and crossed her arms again. It took a moment, but she couldn’t argue with him. They weren’t rolling in cash, and she could be trusted not to buck him off…provided he behaved while on top of her, “But call me that one more time and you won’t be mounting anything for the rest of your life.”

“So you’ll do it?”

The response was a mumble, bringing both exasperation and amusement to Kael. Her stubbornness was cute, but it also was time consuming, time that could be spent consuming food, which he hadn’t eaten all day or the night before.

“Trixie, would you rather walk around all night and not get any food, or would you rather take advantage of this blessing while we can and eat some warm bread?”

She gave in finally at the promise of warm bread, “It’s better than having to bring around a horse wherever we go, even if I do have to do all the work…”

Trixie took the pepper and used just enough to make herself sneeze, transforming her into a horse instantly. Kael got his first real good look at her as an equine, seeing as the other times had seen her had been while she was under the covers or falling to their shared death, and he was quite pleased with what he saw. She was big enough to carry him and her stuff, but she wasn’t very big at all. She was a pony, not a real horse, and she was adorable. Her mane was even in the same shape her hair normally took, that of a curve all to one side with a lot hanging down in the back as well, and it even was the same color. Her blue fur also felt soft he remembered from when he grabbed her, and he really just wanted to pet her.

Was it alright to want to pet the person you have emotional feelings for? Was it alright if they also happened to be a horse? Was it okay to like a horse? She was also an Elf…though Kael had a gut feeling her real body was the four legged one.

It took a little bit of work, but Kael managed to set up the giant purple blanket from the inn to act as a skirt and cape all around Trixie. Others might think it odd to dress a horse in such a way, but it covered more of her than she otherwise would have covered, and though Trixie didn’t care much for modesty (being, as Kael thought, a natural pony), Kael didn’t want others looking at her in a scandalous way…or other horses to do so either.

Once she was covered, Kael got on top of her with their remaining stuff. With him straddling her with his legs, Trixie grunted. She was officially a pack animal, “One joke though about riding me and your dynasty ends here.”

Kael couldn’t tell if she meant riding or…riding, but her expected the former given who it was, though he wasn’t entirely sure.

“Challenge accepted, but no promises,” he laughed as he thought about the possibility of her following through with her threat, and the obvious side-effects that would have, “I wouldn’t want you regretting anything later,” he whispered afterwards.

Trixie heard him, though she wasn’t sure if she heard him right, “What?”

“Nothing, lets get going!”

Trixie refused to move before she decided to do so, and so she looked back at Kael as he moved his arms to get a grip around her neck. The feeling around her throat felt weird, but she ignored it as she glowered at him, “You’re loving this, aren’t you?”

“You carrying everything, including me? Yes, I would say I am loving just about everything.”

Trixie scoffed as she began to begin her trot. It felt both weird and natural as she moved, and she was at least comfortable in the night air because of the purple sheet covering her, with her actual clothes now stored where the blanket had been kept, “At least I thought ahead about the blanket…”

“Carrying that thing was tiring all these hours, but I think it’s worth it for your own modesty,” Kael admitted before sliding off her and readjusting it. His first knot around her neck had been poor, so he had to fix it lest the makeshift skirt-cape fly off with the breeze instead of cover her down to her mid-leg.

“Just mount me and get it over with already. You better not make me late to eating.”

“Trixie…” Kael sighed as she once again failed to grasp the connotations of her language. Did she not grow up with a parent to tell her what she was saying?

“This better be a short trip. Seriously, I hope it doesn’t take long for you to get off—”

Kael actually grabbed the top and bottom of her muzzle to force it shut, not sure if he could keep himself calm if she kept spouting so many (hopefully) accidental innuendos, “Just be quiet and trot.”

“Don’t you dare kick my side like they do in movies.”

“What’s a movie?”

“I…don’t know. Ignore that.”


It took a half hour of wandering around the plains, but the duo eventually were met with the nice sight of civilization when they saw a farm that had lights on in its house. Before approaching it Trixie transformed back into her Elven body and joined Kael in sneaking around to what they thought to be the side so they could peer in.

Plan: see if they were nice, and hopefully then test their kindness by knocking on the door and seeing if they would be invited in. If they were chased away with pitchforks, fine, they would call it a night and possibly loot some food from the mean farmers later. If they weren’t chased away, that was a good thing, and they would be grateful guests…and not steal any blankets and pepper this time.

While preparing to peer into the window of the wide house, a man walked out of a door they hadn’t noticed yet and turned right to them. He hadn’t been coming outside to see them apparently as he seemed surprised at the sight of them, though he didn’t run away or take any hostile action. Instead he gave them a bright smile as he lifted up a lantern to shine light on the area they were creeping.

“Welcome, my High Elven friends! I am Farmer Saldean. What brings you to our farm this day?”

Trixie stood up quickly to hide how scared she was, and she launched directly into conversation to prevent Kael from speaking. If they spoke at the same time they would seem awkward or suspicious since she doubted they would say the same thing.

“We are adventurers who are simply passing through when we noticed the lights.”

The farmer, Saldean, nodded as he continued to smile politely at them, “Oh, of course! We get visitors now and again, but they are usually from Stormwind. The Defias bandits around here usually scare away anyone else.”

Kael rose an eyebrow as he lowered the red scarf off his face and onto his neck. He probably looked like a bandit with it on he reckoned, so taking it off was likely prudent, “You have a bandit issue?”

“Yes, though they have begun to quiet down the past couple years,” the farmer looked as if he was about to sigh as he looked around the darkness for a moment, but he changed it instead into a smile again as he gestured to the open door of his home, “But that’s neither here nor there. Why don’t you two join us for the night? I would hate to let two visitors to our home stay out in the cold, especially since you don’t know who sneaks around in the dark these days!”

Seeing as how things went perfectly, Trixie was not about to test her luck, and so she instantly accepted. She didn’t know what the heck a High Elf was, and neither did Kael, but she’d pretend to be one if it got her food and a bed. She bowed while introducing herself back, “Thank you for the generous offer. I am Trixie Lulamoon, and this is my companion Kael’thas.”

Kael bowed right after Trixie introduced him, though he was worried that perhaps the Human would know his name’s importance…though the lack of instant reaction to it made his fears dissapitate. Good. He wasn’t in danger.

Trixie made her way inside, but before Kael could follow suit a noise caught his attention.

“Mrglmrg—!”

“Shhhh!” came a forced whisper as the other, much more odd noise disappeared. Things went silent after that, causing Kael to turn to the farmer who still was standing there out of politeness for his new guest.

“What was that?” Kael asked, not sure what that was, but it sounded like the noise sketched on the map.

The farmer finally frowned and shook his head, “Some of the—” he stopped complaining as his eyes caught sight of something out in the field by the farmhouse, “Oh, Hope! It’s about time to come in for supper. I was just about to go looking for you!”

Kael turned around to find himself suddenly face to face with a teenage girl wearing a grey shirt and skirt with white going down the front of the skirt and also showing from her undershirt. Her hair was lengthy and hung over one side of her face, though it curled about three quarters down her face and was not completely straight.

When had she gotten right beside him? Kael hadn’t noticed a thing, and that crept him out despite the kind smile on her face.

The farmer grinned as light shone off his own bald head, one of his hands extended out towards the new arrival, “This is my daughter, Hope. She’s pretty independent for a teenager, but she always comes back home right when we want her to.”

Her voice was a bit rough for a child, but Kael could tell that she was definitely in her teenage years overall. Firstly, she wasn’t as tall as she might otherwise be, and secondly…well he wouldn’t process the second part due to her age. He really ought not to think about a young girl that way, especially since he had the clueless Trixie to ogle to his heart’s content.

“You shouldn’t wear red bandanas around here, sir. Some might get the wrong idea,” she suggested as she gestured to what lay around his neck, though as soon as she said this she had moved on and gone inside like Trixie had.

Her father laughed and gave Kael a comforting pat on the shoulder, “Oh don’t mind her. How about we go inside and join our loved ones?”

Kael blushed at the assumption made, given that it was quite correct, “You are too kind, sir.”

“You can just call me William, though if you insist on being polite Mr. Saldean will do! We welcome all to our home so long as they are in need of it, so feel free to stay as long as you like!”

After a moment, the farmer turned back to the field and nodded towards it.

“I am a farmer though, and there’s always work to do, so any help you might be able to give me and those around here would be most welcome.”

Kael bowed to the man once again before they both went inside, “I will do everything I can to repay your kindness, sir.”

Perhaps…well, perhaps not all Humans were terrible after all.

Neither Trixie nor Kael knew much about the conflict between the Horde and the Alliance, but for now they were grateful they had a place to stay. They were as far as they could get away from where they had been, for sadly before they had even grown comfortable in their own land they were forced from it.

Luckily, no-one knew who they were outside of two allies, and what were the chances the Outlands Kael’thas could locate the one following Trixie now?

They entered the humble farm thinking these reasonable things.