Living On

Asiling sighed as she rubbed the oiled cloth over her armor again, polishing off the last of the mud and dried blood. It looked better than it had in while, the heavy plates reflecting her own tired face back at her. She yawned and stretched, catching a twinge of hunger from her belly. It was just a few hours after McStabbers had left, she'd been avoiding her own guild for a while now so he must have worked to track her down. She didn't feel bad about avoiding them, they didn't understand. Not really. They hadn't been there...



She moved into the small dim room, half distracted by the murmurs of her undead and demonic sensing, which never seemed to quiet here. She could see the lump of his body still in his bedroll where he'd been when she left this morning. He'd refused her healing telling her to save her energy- that he'd see a priest as soon as they hit Stormwind.



"Pandaris? Hey!" She said striding over to kneel next to him, her armor jingling softly. She shook his shoulder, gently at first and then harder so that his reddish hair fell out of his face. She jerked back from the corpse, scream caught in her throat. His eyes stared from sunken sockets ,his dark skin was a strange papery texture. She settled to her knees, praying fervently.



"In the name of the Light, brought to us by the Naa'ru,

Let me open the door between life and the darkness of the nether,

Let me call forth the soul of the one before me,

Let breath fill his lungs and let his heart beat again!"



And nothing happened, there was no breath, no sudden start as his heart resumed it's rhythym. She prayed again, and again until the sun had set and the moon had come out. But there was no reaction, only the slow welling up of despair and rage that had no outlet but herself. Finally, with tears streaming down her face Asiling leaned over to press her warm cheek to his cold one and wept until she felt nothing.



The Draenai pressed her palms to her eyes and pushed the thought away. She needed to eat, she looked like she had the plague herself. So with a groan she took herself down to the common room and spoke with the innkeeper. He eyed her curiously, as she leaned on the counter waiting for her food.



"Never did see that Night Elf leave." He said after a few moments, not quite hostile but certainly concerned. Asiling couldn't help the slightly bitter sound to her chuckle.



"Neither did I, but that's how he likes it." She looked up at the man wrily. "I assure you that his mangled carrcas isn't secreted in my room, and won't be stinking up your inn." The man had the good grace to look abashed and as her food arrived that moment she ended any further attempts at conversation by going back to her room.



She settled herself on the floor, leaning back against the bed and began eating slowly, focusing on the food and nothing else. A bite of bread, a bite of meat, a bite of cheese and a couple of berries. The meal fell into a rhythym after a while and when she ate the last berry she was startled to see no more food before her. She considered how she felt and then stood up, rolling her shoulders.



In short order the room was empty of her meager possesions, and everything she needed was packed in to her backpack and various other packs she kept on her person.



Shattarath was always a busy bustling hubbub of people and she didn't even try to make her way through it quickly. Trolls moved side by side with night elves and sneering blood elves drawled on street corners with orcs. She kept her hand to the handle of her mace but it was just out of comfortable habit, the city guard was more than capable of tossing herself and anyone else who got into a fight right out of the city and she hated to miss one of the rare guild meetings.



"Asiling! Sister!" called a lilting accented voice from behind her. She spun around and then stopped looking down at the male dwarf whose face was currently buried in her generous cleavage, the edges of the plate armor over her breasts pressing against his orange beard.



"Hello Isengrim, Cathulu." She said raising an eyebrow at the dwarf pressed against her with no signs of moving and and at his wife who grabbed his pony tail and pulled him away.



"Hello Sister in the Light." Isen replied formally as though he hadn't just been buried in her breasts and then threw an arm around her. She knelt to hug him back.



"You look better, Asi." Cat said coming up on the other side of Asiling to hug her as well.



"I... feel better." She said, knowing it for a lie. She could still see Pandaris every time she shut her eyes and she was beginning to wonder if it would ever fade. Cat clapped her on the back as she stood up.



"You will sooner or later." The other paladin reassured her.



**************************

I'm back guys! I've really missed writing these I hope they'll help me get back into WoW before Cataclysm comes out. Sorry for the lack of sex in this chapter. I promise I'll make it up to you in the next one. Rating and Reviewing is love!