Episode 39: All About Northrend...

There was a brief moment where I thought that Christine might not believe my story about dying in an underwater cave, and being confronted by the time-traveling bronze dragon, before being magically teleported to Northrend where she could find me.

Of course, it was a very brief moment as she squinted her nose and pursed her lips. Then, she gave a firm nod and stood up from her dinner table to offer him her hand.

“What can I do to help?” she asked.

I was glad to hear those words. I was going to need a lot of help if this was going to play out as the bronze dragon had said. Fortunately, helping was something that Christine knew how to handle without issue.

For the next seven weeks we travelled all across Northrend, pulling favors from friends and eliminating lingering threats of the old Lich King every step of the way. During the first week, I had tried to keep a checklist of friends that I made and lives that I managed to save, but that task quickly became too challenging.

Despite the lack of the Lich King, the dangers of Northrend were not lessened by any means. The amount of people that Christine and I helped in the first few days of our adventures were well over one hundred.

At the end of the second week, I got word from Stormwind that my death had been reported. According to Taylor, I died in the underwater caves of Vashj’ir, which was the name they had given to this new area of Azeroth. I quickly sent word to the King of Stormwind, and the official record keeper of the city, to let them know that I had teleported out of the cave at the last second, securing safety in the northern continent of Northrend. This wouldn’t be the first time that they learned my death had been exaggerated. In hindsight, I started to wonder if when I finally really did die, would anyone believe it?

As our eighth week began, I found himself marching through the land of Zul’Drak. Christine explained to me that this was what had drawn her back to Grizzly Hills after the Cataclysm. The troll Drakuru, the same one that betrayed us at Drak’theron Keep years before, was causing a massive upheaval here. He had apparently been killed by the Lich King before Arthas had been stopped, but his forces had already caused enough chaos to leave Zul’Drak in ruins. The area was just to the North of the Grizzly Hills, so Christine knew that putting down the scourge threat here would keep her new home safe for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, that had proven a difficult task.

With the addition of my purging fire, that changed. We swept through Zul’Drak like it was nothing more than a small bump in our crusade of the North.

By the tenth week we had become a household name through the lands. The word of our noble deeds was spreading fast. New adventurers began to appear in the Grizzly Hills asking where they could sign up to help. Seeing this as an opportunity to build strength in Northrend, I instructed Christine to add their numbers to the team.

At the end of the twelfth week, I stood in Vengeance Landing with a large sack over my shoulder and a massive Alliance ship at the docks with other men and women boarding. Not far away, Christine stood with three of her newest recruits, waving to him with a great big smile on her face.

“You sure you want to go?” she shouted to me. “We’ve been having a great time!”

“We have,” I admitted. “You will have a blast bringing these newbies up to speed on things. I don’t need to be around for that or I might teach them some bad qualities.”

She laughed.

“Seriously though, Christine,” I added. “Keep this momentum going. You and I both know we’re going to need all the help we can get.”

The paladin saluted and her smile turned to a straight face. “So, where will you go now? Off to fight Deathwing?”

“I’m not worried about him,” I replied with a sly grin. “It’s what comes after him that I need to worry about. I’ll make my way through the Eastern Kingdoms. I’ve got a lot of old friends out there that I want to visit and help out if I can.”

Christine frowned. “I understand. Just remember to call on us when you need us, okay?”

“Of course,” I replied. “The second I get into trouble I’m calling for you.”

“If I find you a stellar recruit, I’ll send them your way for the future. I don’t like you traveling alone.”

“They’ll have to be better than you,” I joked.

“You’ll have to wait a while then,” she replied. “Now get out of here, Sionis Sepher.”

I gave a final nod and headed to the ship.

"Oh!" Christine shouted. "One last thing!"

"What's that?"

The paladin whistled loudly and I heard a roar in the air. I turned around as a loud whoosh of air whipped over my head. The enormous creature set down on the ground not far from us and let out a deep growl as it stepped forward.

"That's a proto-drake!" I shouted.

"A blue one too," Christine replied. "It's a rare creature, and a strong one too. It'll serve you well on your adventures, I think."

I shook my head. "There's no way I can accept this."

"It's too late," Christine said with a smile. "I already trained him on your scent. He's your buddy now. You'll have to take care of him."

The drake stepped closer to me and nudged me with it's large head.

"I guess it likes me," I said, half-terrified. "What's his name?"

"I've been calling him Cookie."

"Cookie?"

"Yeah, Cookie."

"Alright, Cookie," I said. "How about we take you for a test run?"

The dragon lowered its head, ready for me to climb aboard. A few moments later and we were airborne while Christine waved up at us from the ground. With a few flaps of his mighty wings, the dragon set us off on the next adventure.

Three months. In that time I had created a network in Northrend. Now I needed to see to it that I did the same in Azeroth and Kalimdor as quickly as I could. I heard rumors of trouble with Garrosh Hellscream leading the Horde. If the bronze dragons knew what they were talking about, which I assumed they did, then things would only get worse from here. There was a part of me that wanted to warn the Horde of the coming dangers, maybe through Lady Jaina Proudmoore, but I wasn’t sure that Jaina would be so willing to believe my story at all, much less accuse the Horde of crimes they had yet to commit.

I bit my tongue for now and landed Cookie aboard the ship that would take me on the next step toward a new future.

TO BE CONTINUED!