5028

Draenica: Zor Kunda

Galactic Date 00:08:383 5028

Morning light struck my face, making me scrunch my eyes and nose. As I dragged myself to sit up, I became painfully aware of the splitting pain in my head. I groaned, lying back down in my bed, holding my fingers to my temples. Wait... my bed? I sat up again, looking around. I was back home in the Shack. Was everything from the night before a dream? The Soulless, the Celestial, was any of it real?

As I sat up, I felt pain shoot through my body from my back. I took in a sharp breath, recalling the sensation of those claws digging into me and the burning feeling they left behind. Opening my shirt, I found bandages wrapped around my torso. I closed my shirt, took some deep breaths, and pulled myself to my feet. As I moved to take a step forward, I felt my foot bump into something. The sword I'd used last night clattered to the ground. I felt something like a shock pass through me. I recoiled, feeling my hairs stand on end again, just like the night before. Cautiously, I knelt down, my hand wrapping around the red wood of its hilt. The metal of its guard and pommel were gold, inlaid with silver. The blade stood tall, its metal shadowy and gray.

As I gently cradled the sword, I noticed something else in our home. A smell and a sound. Sizzling echoed across the walls as the aroma of breakfast wafted through the air. I turned the corner into the living room, seeing Tara sitting at our table, and the old Furin man standing over our stove, tapping away at something akin to bacon frying in a pan. Tara looked up to me, as she took a sip from a mug, seeming to look for anything that might be wrong. I looked between them before I spoke.

"So... it really wasn't a dream, then?" I asked. The Furin put up a finger, moving some slices of bacon to a plate, before sliding it to the table. There was an assortment of different meats and pastries across it. He gestured to a chair across from them.

"Sit, eat. You need to rebuild your strength... William." The way he said my name was... I could only describe it as pointed. He furled his fingers and closed his eyes. I pursed my lips.

"Now hold on, I have some questions-"

"And they will be answered. First, eat." Tara just shrugged as I looked to her. I groaned, but I couldn't deny that I was hungry. I reached forward, grabbing a few things from the platter, pulling them to a plate near me. Tara spoke up as soon as I had food in my mouth.

"I had to pull you both back after you passed out." She said, "I thought... you might have died from one of those things." I looked down at the table. "I told you it was a terrible idea to go out there. We could both be dead out there now if-" The Furin raised a hand to her.

"William was reckless, yes, as he has always been." She pursed her lips. "But had it not been for his instincts I would likely not have survived," He eyed the sword, then her again, "nor would much of the planet." She looked to the sword.

"You're saying that old dusty thing is..."

"A powerful relic, handed down to me by a sister-in-arms when she passed." He said. I stopped eating, lifting the blade from the table. Unlike the night before, I didn't get that rush of power when I held it.

"Last night, when we found you, I could use magic when I held it. I'd never cast a spell in my life, yet it seemed to come to me like instinct." The old Furin lowered his head, a shadow cast over his eyes as he sighed.

"Yes... you certainly did, didn't you?" Tara leaned forward, eying him.

"Alright, you aren't telling us everything. What exactly is going on with him?" She demanded. I'd never seen her so riled up, but then again, I could only imagine the night she'd had. I reached out to put a hand on her shoulder, but she smacked it away. "No! You almost died," she screamed, pointing to me. She turned her gaze to the Furin, poking a finger at his chest, "you crash land with Soulless on your ship and some sword that makes William spew blue stuff from his hands, and I had to jury rig a sled to my speeder just to get you both back here in the middle of one of the worst storms we've ever seen!" Her face was flushed blue with frustration and anger as she slammed a palm into the table. "We deserve the truth. From the beginning." She lowered herself to her seat, folding her arms over her chest, the feathers in her wings puffed up and frazzled. The Furin sat up, glancing between both of us before he stood. Even now, after I'd grown, he still towered over me.