The Ancient Leaf

[jawaa]

((A journal of Jawaa's quest for Rhok'Delar))

A dull glow lit up the corner of the inn in Everlook, slowly building until a tall, thin blindfolded troll faded into presence in the corner. The glow withdrew into a stone hanging from her belt, and Jawaa surveyed with her ears her surroundings. She had tapped her stone to come here from Orgrimmar, where The noise and heat was becoming too much for her to handle. As she stepped outside the inn, she took in a long deep breath and tried to relax in the relative silence of Winterspring.

Jawaa lost track of time for a moment, stewing in her thoughts, one hand still lilting across her axe, the other toying with her blindfold. She snapped out of her trance when she heard the crunch of snow behind her, and smiled as Jayoba walked up to her. Orgrimmar faded, and she could feel nothing but his feelings for her... she was calm again.

They stood smiling for a few moments, exchanging their typical greetings. Then Jawaa pulled a rather large faintly glowing green leaf. Its surface was riddled with small fractures, and the veins stood out black from the rest. It looked incredibly fragile, but felt as if it were made of stone.

Jayoba leaned down and cautiously sniffed the leaf. "Da's an old leaf..."

"Yeh..." Jawaa slowly turned the leaf, holding it by the stem. "Ah's tinkin' mebbe ah try ta find out wheah it came from... An' ah tinks mebbe ah knows wheah ta start."

"So le's go den!" Jayoba smiled at Jawaa.

"Chu wanna go?"

"Yeh!" Jayoba was already on Urahj, his green raptor.

Jawaa grinned and called for her own raptor, Tapp, and the two took off for Felwood.

A short time later, the pair reached the three giant and dead trees in the middle of Irontree Grove. They stood in the center of the three ancient forms, Jayoba looking around warily, and Jawaa listening closely. Jawaa slowly pulled the leaf from her bag, and slowly began to feel the presence of three great spirits around her. She heard Jayoba gasp. the two stood still, taking in the sight in their own way. Three ghostly ancients stood before the dead forms of their physical bodies. Jayoba pointed at one.

"Ah tink dat one wants ta talk wit cha..."

Jawaa nodded and slowly approached it, still holding the leaf in front of her. "'Scuse meh dere.... but ah has dis leaf ah finds in de Molten Core place... does chu know anating about dis?"

The spirit of the ancient leaned down and lightly plucked the leaf from Jawaa's hand. The leaf took on the translucent state to match the ghostly tree holding it. "Ahh, this is one of my own leaves... thank you for returning it to me, troll."

Jawaa bowed and started to leave, when the spirit of the Ancient spoke again. "Perhaps... you would be interested in a task I have for you."

The ancient told Jawaa of four powerful demons still on the world, still causing trouble wherever they went. When he asked Jawaa to bring him their heads, she simply nodded.

"But... these four will only fight you if you challenge them alone. You can not have a friend healing you or fighting with you." Jawaa tilted her head as the ancient being spoke. "Not even your pet can assist you. I leave you to this task. You were strong enough to find this leaf, and smart enough to bring it to us. I trust you will be able to defeat these four."

Jawaa nodded quietly and slowly backed away towards Jayoba, as the three ancient spirits faded back into the three giant snags from which they appeared.

[jawaa]

GRRARRR.... *WHUDD*

Jawaa knelt next to the corpse of the fallen shardtooth bear. Laying her hand on it's hide, Jawaa whispered something to it in a language no one but the bear would understand... if it was still alive. She stood slowly, and wiped her hair from her face. Despite the cold air of Winterspring, she was coated with a sheen of sweat from training, and her hair stuck to her face and ears no matter how often she pulled it back.

"Gnrrhh..."

Griztan lightly bumped his forehead against Jawaa's leg. She patted his head gently,

"Ah's ok... i's jus' been a while since ah fought tings up close like dis..." Jawaa reached down with her other hand and picked up her Barbarous Blade from the snow. The blood of her last kill dripped from the weapon, revealing the orange glow of the demonslaying enchant Deviance had placed on the blade earlier. It was with this sword she would kill the four demons the Ancient trees had asked her to.

But first...

Jawaa heaved the sword over one shoulder, similar to the way she had seen Jayoba or Kimdreg hold their weapons when she could still see. It had been a long time since she had used a two handed sword... and the ones she had used were not nearly so large and heavy... or so deadly. She was out of practice... and these bears were doing well for her to practice on.

"Dat one nex'." Jawaa said quietly, pointing at a bear off in the distance. Griztan followed her direction and nodded. And so Jawaa's practice continued.

[jawaa]

Jawaa, Jayoba, and Yutia trotted through the marshes of Un'Goro Crater. Yutia had cast a couple spells to help Jawaa, and Jayoba was there for support. Or maybe protection. Before long, they reached the southern wall of the crater, and they got off their mounts. Jawaa told Jayoba and Yutia where would likely be the best place to stand, so as not to interfere with the coming fight. Both already knew not to assist Jawaa in any way, or else she would lose the fight. Then Jawaa went down to a narrow space between a large tree and the base of the cliff, to wait for her prey.

She didn't have to wait long. A tall slender troll woman and her wolf companion soon approached. Jawaa couldn't feel the troll's presence the way she could nearly any other being, because, this troll was a demon in disguise. Jawaa sat quietly as the demon walked past her, only knowing she was there by the sound of her footsteps, and the smell of the different places of the jungle she walked in. After the demon-troll had walked a few paces, not paying the hunter any mind at all, Jawaa stood.

"Simone de Seductress."

The demon stopped shortly, her wolf bumping into the back of her leg for the sudden halt. Another great hunter wants to challenge me for those dead trees it seems. Simone scowled, thinking to herself. Well... she shall die like the others before her.

Simone turned to face the tall troll standing several paces away, and grinned. "Oh, it's you! The blind hunter the Ancients sent to me. Didn't you learn your lesson last time? Or do you just enjoy the pain?" Simone chuckled lightly to herself.

Jawaa nodded slowly, neither smiling or frowning. "Ah learned wha' ah has ta do ta kill chu."

Simone laughed louder now. "Big words from a blind troll." Her expression changed, a look of anger and hatred so strong that Jawaa almost swore she saw it through her blindness. Simone's shape changed, morphing from a troll to what could almost be described as a warlock's succubus. Her wolf growled, turning into a giant felhound. "Be ready, hunter. I will not nearly be as gentle as last time."

Jawaa faintly heard Jayoba call to the spirits for her, and inwardly, she did the same. Jawaa took a deep breath, and backed away from the demons. Simone stayed put, waiting out of curiosity for the hunter to make the first move. When Jawaa was as far away as she could go while still being able to accurately shoot her target, she threw down a freezing trap in front of her, and quickly took aim at Simone.

The shot she fired stunned the demon, but her felhound charged ahead at Jawaa. It never had a chance to touch her, for it found the trap and was soon encased in a block of ice. Simone on the other hand had found her footing and was running to Jawaa. She had been firing shots at the demon, and when she got too close, Jawaa dropped her gun and drew the heavy glowing sword she had practiced with so much, and stepped forward, the blade meeting the demon at the end of her run.

After a brief flurry of lightning bolts from Simone, and sword strikes from Jawaa, the hunter seemed to have the upper hand, as the lightning bolts were charring Jawaa's armor, but not the troll underneath. Simone was getting frustrated, as Jawaa was slicing and hitting her harder than she could hit back. But then the tide of the fight changed. The ice encasing the felhound thawed, and it finished it's charge, clawing and biting viciously at the hunter.

Jawaa gritted her teeth. She hadn't expected the trap to thaw so quickly. she danced and dodged what blows she could from the two of them, but took several painful hits. gripping the sword with one hand, she grabbed a healing potion she had tied to her belt earlier, and quickly drank it, some of her strength returning. Finally, Simone fell to the ground and didn't move.

Jawaa didn't have time to pause, and turned on the felhound. She knew she wouldn't make it. The felhound was rested, and very angry from the trap, where Jawaa was tired and injured. She ducked a bite but was nearly swept off her feet by the demon's paw. She heard someone yell "Kill de dog!" and almost instantly, a lightning bolt hit it and the dog ran towards Jayoba. Jawaa scrambled over to her gun, and began firing at the demon until it fell. She felt waves of healing energy wash over her, taking her pain and lesser injuries away. Amid the cheers of victory, Jawaa collected Simone's head.

The three of them cheered for the moment, but already Jawaa was thinking of her next target.

[jawaa]

Cinders crunched underfoot, and smoke billowed from the cracks and crevices in the ground. Nearby, dragonkin stood idly, occasionally snapping at one another. Klinfran the Crazed, although he preferred to be called Franklin the Friendly in his human form, called this beautiful. As he walked through the Burning Steppes, he took in the sights of the tortured earth and smiled.

As Klinfran stepped off the road, a troll stepped in front of him. He stopped, and gave the troll a winning smile, which appeared to get ignored. He took a closer look, noticing the blindfold over the hunters eyes, and the smell of demon blood on the blade she carried. "So... you must be the blind one that killed Simone. I've heard of you. Haven't you fought me before?"

Jawaa nodded slowly. "Yeh several times. Chu know why ah's heah, an' ah know who chu is, so le's get dis ova' wit'." She started backing away from him.

Klinfran smiled as he shed his human shroud and stood tall, his demonic form displaying scars from other battles. "Besting Simone is nothing to brag about. You'll have to try harder if you wish to beat me!" Klinfran's smirk widened into a crazed grin as he spoke, and his eyes seemed to glow with flame.

Jawaa stood for a moment, before laying down a frost trap. Rasing her gun, she carefully aimed her first shot and fired, the bullet catching the demon squarely in the chest. As Klinfran began to charge, Jawaa had re-loaded and fired a second shot, hitting near the first, and stunning him with pain. He roared and ran for Jawaa, tripping over her trap and sliding on the layer of frost it created on the ground. Slipping and stumbling, something in Klinfran's mind snapped, and he flew into a rage and charged off the ice.

Jawaa reached into her ammo pouch and quickly found the bullets laced with scorpid venom she had set in a pocket away from the rest. Loading it into her gun, she quickly shot and slung the gun over her shoulder, reaching for her sword. She heard Klinfran shout in agony as the scorpid venom burned into his body, sapping his strength. Jawaa charged him in turn, and swung viciously with her sword, the enchantment Deviance had put on it momentarily stunning the demon.

A few more swings and Jawaa could hear his strength returning. Jawaa swung the heavy sword against Klinfran's knees, and darted off to one side, as the demon shook off the effects of the venom. A burst of adrenalin coursed through his body, but was instantly negated by another venomous sting from Jawaa's gun. Again Jawaa charged, lashing out with her weapon as the demon tried weakly to fight back.

Nearby, Blythee, Jayoba, and a night elf watched the fight unfold. The tauren and troll kept glancing nervously from the fight to the elf. They both knew not to help Jawaa, but they didn't know if the elf knew that. Jayoba turned to face the elf, and pointed at the fighting pair. "Please, don' help her... she gotta do dis on her own."

The elf blinked at Jayoba and responded in some language that he didn't understand. Blythee nudged his tiny glasses further up his nose. "Perhaps... if we kept her entertained?" and began dancing. Jayoba grinned and followed suit. The elf laughed at the pair, cheered for Jawaa, and realized it might be better if she left.

Jawaa was growing tired. The demon had managed to block two of her swings intended to slow him, and Jawaa barely had enough time to finally land a third and run away from him as he flew into another rage. She hit him with another venomous bullet, and started to run back to him, but stopped short. By the labored sound of his breathing, the way he stumbled towards her across the cinders, the hunter knew the demon didn't have much fight left. She stood and fired at him, until he stopped moving towards her. Jawaa fired one last shot, and Klinfran the Crazed fell first to his knees, then fully to the ground, his last breath emptying into the cinders.

[jawaa]

The snow fell silently through the frigid air of Winterspring. Artorius the Amiable nervously shuffled from tree to tree, glancing this way and that as he moved. One of the lesser demons had informed him of a hunter on a mission to kill the corrupting demons of the world. He had a lot to be worried about, since he was, after all, one of the four likely on this hunter's list.

"Dere he is! Get 'im Jawaa!"

Artorius froze. Fear crept into his mind for the first time in a long while as the hunter approached. Slowly her turned to face her, taking slow measured breaths to hide his fear. She didn't look like a demonslayer... too wiry, blind, and tired looking. But on a closer look he realized that this troll was completely un-affected by the cold here, as if she was in her element in Winterspring. He sighed and shed his disguise, changing to a winged blue demon. To himself he began whispering the words of the spells he would need to survive, and kill this challenger.

Artorius began walking forward to the troll, beginning the incantation of a spell, when he was struck by a bullet squarely in the chest. Before he had a chance to recover, a second bullet laced with poison hit him near the first. He roared in pain and rage, and saw the troll running ahead of him. Without a second thought, the demon spread his wings and sped after her.

It was when he was nearly dead from the poison coursing through his veins that he saw her battle plan. This hunter had convinced two friends to clear the path she had intended to run of anything that might interfere. She had spells and trinkets to increase her speed so that he would never get near enough to her to cast his spells. And worse for him... she had tainted her bullets with a poison that he was weak to.

The demon's steps slowed as another venomous bullet bit into him. He stopped running to kill the hunter, and ran only to watch her as she ran, occasionally jumping and spinning to face the demon, firing a shot at him with the gun held only in one hand, before completing the spin and landing mid-stride, as if she had never left the ground. He couldn't help but forget his pain, his certain approaching death as he watched this hunter kill him with such grace. Finally, she stopped running and turned, taking careful aim with her gun and unleashing a shot that killed Artorius the Doombringer almost instantly.

Jayoba and Deviance cheered for Jawaa as she walked to the demon's body for his head. If she could see, she would likely wonder why this demon died with a smile on his face.

[jawaa]

Solenor the Slayer and Jawaa Frostdrop stood several yards apart. Te demon stood confidently, and stared coldly at Jawaa, who stood wearily, leaning on her gun for support. The wind picked up a cloud of sand, blowing it around the two, Solenor blinking it out of his eyes, and the troll wincing as it stung her skin. Around the two, a few of Jawaa's friends and clanmates kept the area free of anything that might interfere with the fight.

Solenor smirked as he eyed the battered hunter in front of him. "So, are you ready to leave now, or do I need to beat you into the sand a few more times?" He flapped his wings, lifting himself of the ground momentarily, and kicking up another cloud of dust.

"Ah's na' done yet..." Jawaa spoke quietly. She placed a burning trap on the ground and nodded at Cadere, who placed a Curse of Recklessness on her and backed away. Jawaa raised her gun and fired at the demon, though her first shot missed. Solenor laughed and charged, summoning small demonic bugs to the battle, which slowly began creeping towards the hunter.

As Solenor ran, Jawaa fired as many shots at him as she could before he was too close. She quickly slung her gun on her back, trading it for a large orange glowing blade. She parried his first attack and quickly swung the sword at one of his ankles, landing the blow and crippling him momentarily. The bugs skittered in slowly from the direction Solenor had come from, so Jawaa ran the opposite way and began firing shots, re-positioning as she needed to to avoid the slow but deadly bugs.

Solenor growled as he stood imobilized, unable to do anything but throw bugs and curses at the hunter. His curse wasn't having an effect on her, as she had a curse that negated his own. Finally, his demonic blood regenerated his crippling injury, and he charged at Jawaa, only to be rooted to the spot again as Jawaa ran a distance away to fire again. The demon roared the words to a curse intended to cause the troll to flee, maybe through a swarm of bugs, but again it was resisted. Again, and again. Solenor was getting angry.

Jawaa squeezed in a final shot before the approaching river of demon-bugs forced her to move again. As she ran, an intense feeling of dread filled her, and she found herself running randomly, unable to stop herself. She heard the demon yell "Finally!" and realized the curse Cadere laid on her had broken. Jawaa narrowly missed the bugs, and ran a little further before she was met by the demon, who had freed himself again. Another whack of the sword stilled his feet, and Jawaa ran a few paces away, and fired.

The bullet found it's mark as Solenor kneeled and turned his head to Jawaa. He was releasing another bug when the bullet entered his eye and smashed out the back of his skull. The world through the demon's other eye exploded turned upside down and went dark all at the same time. His consciousness faded quickly, and Solenor stumbled, and fell unmoving to the sand, crushing the creeper he had just released.

Jawaa stood for a moment, trying to decide if the demon was in fact dead. After a few seconds, she realized that he was, but the small river of demon-bugs he had summoned wee still crawling to her. She started to run, but heard fire rain from the sky as Amelicia and Cadere burned the bugs from existence.

Jawaa walked to the body and stood wearily over it, before bringing the blade of her sword across Solenor the Slayer's neck. Swaying slightly, gripping the sword handle and pressing the blade into the bloodied sand for balance, Jawaa smiled. "Now ah's done."

((Only one more part to go!))

[jawaa]

The three spirits of the Ancients stepped forward much the way they did when Jawaa had first brought them the leaf that started her journey. In the center of the triangle they formed, Jawaa knelt at the crest of the hill they surrounded. She lined up the four heads they had requested, in the order of their deaths; Simone, Klinfran, Artorius, and Solenor. To her left she laid a coiled up black dragon sinew she had received after helping to kill Onyxia, the broodmother of the Black Dragonflight.

The Ancient spirits nodded their approval. "The heads of the four demonic corrupters... and a sinew cut from Onyxia herself. You have indeed done well, Jawaa." Vartrus the Ancient held out a massive ghostly hand to Jawaa, and grew two slender tendrils, one taking a straightened shape of a staff, the other growing into the distinct shape of an un-strung recurve bow.

As Vartrus was doing that, The ancient to the left, Stoma, picked up the coil of sinew and began casting an enchantment on it, strengthening it for the purpose it was to be used for, finally tying loops at the ends.

Vartrus first held out the un-strung bow to Jawaa. She took it, and bowed. Then the Ancient Stoma held to her the loop of enchanted sinew, which Jawaa took and stretched across the limbs of the bow. All three Ancients nodded as Jawaa drew the bow, the grip permanently forming itself to the shape of her hand. "Rhok'delar, Longbow of the Ancient Keepers. May you use it wisely and with pride."

Vartrus then held out the staff he had crafted. "May we also present to you Lok'delar, Stave of the Ancient Keepers." Vartrus seemed to smile. "So that you are not forced to use Rhok'delar as a melee weapon when the fight moves too close to you."

Jawaa bowed, holding the weapons tightly. "Tank chu fo dis... fo' trustin' meh in dis."

The three ghosts of the Ancient Keepers began to fade back into their weathered and dead bodies. "No, Jawaa, thank you for putting our minds at ease, for bringing us peace."

The troll remained in that spot for some time, as if wondering in everything had really happened, and it was over. Finally she stood, and tightened her blindfold. Her prairie dog Squeak popped out of one of her bags and ran to her shoulder, nuzzling her cheek. Jawaa grinned, and tightened her grip on the bow. "I's been a long while since ah used a bow... Le's go find some arrows an' try dis one out."

(( And... i's fin. My thanks to everyone for all your help, cheering, laughing, and support! And thanks for reading this. I hope it was at least decent and enjoyable. ^.^ ))