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Chapter 1
As Far As Memories Go
Or
Hope For The Best, Prepare For The Worst
In a clearing in Ashenvale, not too far from the capital, but far enough away to be peaceful and serene, there was a very odd house. It has been there for more than a century, and changed as the generations moved through it – it seemed that once, a long time ago, it had been just a four-room shack. However, since then, numerous floors and rooms had been added, mainly upwards, making it look as though it would fall over at any moment.
Around it is a whole village of small huts, each neat and decorated pleasantly. But the house stands alone, its space revered and respected by its neighbours.
At that particular moment, there was quite a commotion going on in this space. Many vehicles had parked in its front yard – mainly horse-drawn carriages, but there was also one of the very new automobiles, the smelly, black car filled with all sorts of junk, most notably a large guitar.
But what is so odd about the house will not be found on the outside, but on the inside, for this has, for three generations, been the home of a family of psychic taurens, the Thunderhorns.
Today is their yearly reunion.
Ysra pulled the blanket over her lap a bit further, and re-perched her glasses on the end of her broad muzzle. One hundred and twenty six years… quite an age, even for a tauren, but she still felt she could take whatever life threw at her. Another adventure may be out of her league, of course, but a handful of children weren't.
In the room with her were her great-grandchildren – all of them. Tarok and Baine, two spritely young brothers of eight years and ten, fought each other furiously in the corner. They were always fighting, and their mother, Tari, was always trying to separate them. But Ysra left them to it; she knew that trying to separate them would just result in more hostility, and some of it to her.
Sari, a six-year-old girl with a white coat and long pigtails, sat on the floor, gazing around quietly. She had inherited the psychic powers of her great-grandmother, as well as the white colouration, and Ysra was very proud of her. She showed a great grasp of magic, even at such a young age.
Two night elf children, who looked at most two years old, but were really almost a century in age, were playing with blocks in the corner. Nathaniel and Diego, Ysra knew, her good friend Locki Hellbourne's children. Twins, as well – the first twins to survive since the Stormrage brothers. And Nathaniel was blind, too… perhaps a coincidence, perhaps fate. Ysra would never be able to tell for sure.
Shaka'zu Sihnargah, technically her grandnephew or something (Ysra never devoted a lot of thought to how exactly her family was strung together. They were related, and that was enough for her), was busy drawing on paper with brightly coloured pencils. However, you wouldn't think they were related – Shaka'zu was a seven year old forest troll, for goodness' sake! But, by adoption, they were.
However, the children most occupying her attention at this moment were Bova and Amin, Sari's older siblings. Although it was true that Bova, nine, often gave in to his sister, a year older than him, they were both little terrors, with loud voices and stubborn personalities. Currently they were playing with their toys, although playing was perhaps the wrong word…
"Illidan zaps the Lich King with his laser-beams! Zap! Zap!" yelled Amin, holding up a soft-toy version of the deceased demon elf. It was only a bit bigger than her hand, and very floppy, but that wasn't stopping her. Bova glared at her. "Illidan does not have laser-beams!"
"He does now!"
"Yeah? Well… Ner'zhul uses his circular saw!" yelled Bova, and brandished a wooden Lich King doll, complete with Frostmourne sword. Ysra sighed. "The Lich King never had a circular saw." she corrected, and then looked over her glasses at the two young tauren, "And Illidan didn't have laser-beams, either. If you are going to re-enact battles from history, children, please play historically accurate?"
The two siblings gave Ysra an annoyed look. "Aw, man…" complained Bova, looking around in irritation. "I hate playing historically accurate."
"Shut up, Bova! We have to do what Grammar Ysra says, remember." Grammar. That was what they called her… cute, in its own way. Ysra smiled, and then glanced around the room again. Sari was staring at her with big brown eyes.
"Yes, Sari?" asked Ysra, and the little girl gave her a curious look. "You saw that battle, didn't you, Grammar?" Ysra looked slightly uncomfortable for a second. "Well… not personally. But I did see it, even if it was second-hand. When I was only a few years older than you too, mind."
Suddenly the rest of the room was paying attention to her. "Really?" asked Amin, looking at her, "Can you tell us the story?"
"Yah, mon, I wanna hear a story." commented Shaka'zu, looking up from his drawing. Ysra looked around, thinking about it. "Oh, I can't tell you that story… it's not really for little boys and girls, you know…"
"Another story, then." said Amin, and the rest nodded. "Story! Story!" chanted Tarole and Baine from the corner, suddenly losing interest in the murder of each other. Ysra sighed.
"Well… I suppose I could tell you one story… have I told the one about the third invasion of the Burning Legion yet?" The children shook their heads. "Fine then. Gather round."
They all walked over to in front of her and sat, cross-legged, in front of her, staring up at her. Ysra smiled. "Everyone settled? Then I'll begin…"
Date: Unknown, Year: Unknown, Special Holidays: Unknown.
Dear Diary,
Such a pathetic phrase. Why do I bother with it? I really do not know. It is not as if you are a person or anything, after all…
As you can see, I do not know the date. I do not even know why I decided to start a diary in the first place… it is not as if anything exciting happens here…
I apologise for not writing in here sooner. My mind has been…elsewhere. Hah. Anyway, I added a second story to the house today. It has a library, very comfortable, I believe. Psutira is pleased with it.
On that note, Psutira is doing fantastically! The last time I wrote in here she could barely speak coherently, now I am teaching her to read. She is up to G is for Grass already, bless her.
I do so miss life. But what can I do? My place is here, now. Hmm… this may need some more thought. I will write again tomorrow… if I can work out the time around here…
Illidan Stormrage.
Ysra woke up slowly. She didn't like waking up quickly. Some people would call that sloth – she called it being sensible. She sighed, and slid out of bed. Gees, she already felt sixty, and she was only eighteen! Perhaps coffee would fix it…
There was a shout from outside, and the beating of drums. Ysra groaned. How could she have forgotten? Shaka's fifty-third birthday was today! Nothing to be scoffed at, surely… but she'd forgotten. Well, she hadn't really forgotten, she had his present and all, but she hadn't even thought about it! Ysra pulled on her straight, plain dress, a stylised image of a humming bird on the front, and walked to the door.
No amount of thought could have prepared her for this. There were trolls everywhere. So many, in fact, that it was practically a solid mass of trolls, and they pushed Ysra back into the house some way.
But there were only thirty trolls in the village! Where did all these come from? Ysra pushed her way into the crowd, and scanned the tusked faces carefully. She was never going to find Shaka in all this…
And then she saw him. The troll was seated on a large throne, nailed to a platform with a kind of fabric roof over it. The wooden platform was being passed along the top of the troll mass, towards her. Well, of course. A white tauren would stick out like a sore thumb in any group of trolls.
Ysra's adoptive forest troll father extended a hand down to her, and Ysra took it, Shaka pulling her up next to him. "How's my favourite little girl today?"
"I'm not little anymore, Shaka! I'm already out of school, for the gods' sake!"
"Eh, you'll always be my little girl. Will you look at all this? A whole horde of jungle trolls turned up on our doorstep this mornin', and started settin' this up! There's even some dark trolls out there! But everyone knows trolls can't resist a good party, so it's all good, yah?"
Ysra smiled at him. "On that note, Shaka – Happy birthday. Fifty three is quite an age, you know."
"Yah, yah… 'specially since forest trolls usually only live to forty… I'm a lucky guy, you know." Shaka grinned at her.
Ysra vaguely recalled Shaka saying something, a long time ago, about never being able to grow old gracefully. However, this was clearly what was happening to him, whether he liked it or not.
Shaka was a tall troll, normally walking at a kind of slouching lope to bring himself down to everyone else's height. He was basically like every other forest troll berserker – black face, green skin, fearsome tusks. A long mane of black hair stuck up from his head, but was now starting to sag a bit from the straight Mohawk it used to form. His tusks had changed too – apparently at age forty-five or around that time, a troll male was in his prime. Hence, his tusks had grown huge, curved more than ever across his cheek and with vicious points. He wore less jewellery now than in his younger days – just one silver earring and the thin bone through his nose, at present. However, he had kept the same fashion, if that was what it was called – a pair of baggy canvas trousers tied on with rope, and nothing else.
Ysra knew that she had changed a lot from when they had first met, too. For a start, she was a lot taller – almost Shaka's height, in fact. She'd gotten bigger, too; expanded in every direction, thought Ysra bitterly. She was actually very attractive for a tauren, but Ysra didn't know this. She had been raised by trolls in a community of night elves, both of whose idea of beauty tended towards the slender, which Ysra was not.
However, she still had large floppy ears, big brown eyes and a soft white coat, even though her horns were somewhat larger than they had been. Ysra kept her hair short – she did not approve of plaits, and thought she looked fine as she was, with just her white coat all over. And she still had her special ability, too…
Shaka was amazingly happy at the moment. It seemed the percussion music, shouts and trolls in huge masks made him even happier. His mind was exploding with fireworks of emotion, joy and memories dancing across it. That was Ysra's special talent. She could see minds, read thoughts – even experience other people's memories. It was useful, sometimes, but could be frightening, too.
She looked back down at Shaka, who had been watching the celebrations silently. "Shaka… I have an announcement to make. You don't mind, do you?" He looked up at her, and then smiled. "Of course I don' mind! You're my little hummin' bird, how could I ever refuse you?" He stood up, and climbed on top of the throne. "Hey! All you revellin' bastards! Listen up here, my little Ysra has somethin' to say!"
Ysra sighed. "That really wasn't necessary, Shaka." He shrugged. "Eh, they're trolls, they don' mind. Go ahead, sweetheart."
Hundreds of amber eyes were fixed on her now, the crowd completely silent. Ysra coughed awkwardly. "Um… I'd just like to say, after all these celebrations are finished… I'm leaving."
There was silence. Shaka stared at her. "Ysra… you're gonna leave me all on my own?" Ysra nodded. Shaka looked down. "Ah, I always knew there'd be a time when you'd leave me… but not this young…"
"Shaka, I'm eighteen, I think I can look after myself."
"Yah, yah… where're you gonna go?" Ysra shrugged. "I thought I'd go to Darudan, and seek my fortune there. After all, what could happen? I can lift three trolls above my head with one hand." Shaka nodded slowly. "Yah, but… you're a tauren. Of course you can… Look, yah, it's alright. I shouldn't worry, you're right. But you will be stayin' for dinner, right?"
Ysra smiled. "Of course! I wouldn't just leave you like that, Shaka!" The troll grinned. "Ah, good. Okay guys, you can go again!" There was a cheer from the trolls, and the platform moved on, the music starting up again. Ysra let out a deep sigh. She hated to go, but… she had to. A real destiny awaited her out there somewhere, and it was up to her to find it.
Ysra, Shaka, Shaka'zu, Locki, Hellbourne's character, Diego, Nathaniel, Sari, Bova, Amin, Tarok, Baine, Psutira, Darudan.
This list will be added to in each chapter as characters are introduced.
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