(36) - Seeking In The Sands - Part I

Griffonclaw hated Tanaris.

He had spent months in his younger days here, running supplies to the expedition in the Ungoro Crater, hunting the bandits that infested the deserts south and west of Gadgetzan, and learning to make the Imperial Plate armors taught by the Thorium Brotherhood. He had raided the fortreess of the Southsea Pirates, and taken the heads of both bandit king Caliph Scorpidsting and the pirate lord Andre Firebeard.

It was windy. Sandy. Hot. Inimical to those who prefered to wear plate armor, gambeson, and a panoply of personal arms. Grit blinded you when stirred up by the cyclone winds, scorpids were aggressive and everywhere, and endless packs of Blisterpaws roamed ferally, looking for their next meal.

Even the turtles were nasty.

Griffonclaw hated Tanaris - it would take an act of the Titans to get him to willingly travel there again.

And here he was, making Stormwind brave the shifting dunes, parching sun, and stinging sciroccos - because a Titan told him to. Well, a Titan and a Goddess.

He had been in Ironforge, in the Hall of Mysteries, after a late night worrying about his love, Kestralil. She had been accused of the murder of Doctor Horatio Feldspar, and faced trial and conviction if they could not prove her innocent. She had been released into the custody of the Hammers, and Griffonclaw's own freedom forfeit if she ran.

This was his third day of fasting and meditating. Slowly, he had been letting go of the anger he had embraced following Catrionae's death, and he had begun a re-dedication of his service to Horuth, the Titan of Justice. Father Barri had helped him, sharing his healing arts, and one last task awaiting him - his vigil. Whenever an Ironforge paladin re-dedicated himself to service, he slept in the temple, and was sometimes vouchsafed a benediction or sign that his service had been accepted.

Unfortunately, Griffonclaw's vigil had been rewarded with such a dream.

The dreamscape had been Darnassus, and he had knelt in front of Horuth under the light of the Temple of Elune.

"Rise, my Fist" the Titan had commanded. "Walk with me"

Griffonclaw had followed his Lord to the moonwell, where an etherially-beautiful Kaldorei bathed, naked. Her eyes smouldered like molten tin, but Griffonclaw felt only trepidation. He knew who She was, the Lady of the Moon.

She rose from the moonwell, and strode to them, her form shifting through appearances... she was Sueno, and then Amynnas, and then Ythera, then others he did not recognize. She spoke to Horuth.

"This is he who you would place in my service for this, Cousin Windrider?" she asked, not sounding displeased.

"He is, Luminescent One" Horuth confirmed, wearing the shape of a giant bird of prey. "He seeks to dedicate himself to the arts of Healing and Protection, letting go the rage and anger of Retribution."

"Even so" She affirmed, and her gaze swept over Griffonclaw, filling him with both delight and fear.

"Will you undertake this task for me, Fist of Horuth?" she asked, formally.

"I will serve as my Lord Horuth directs, Fair Lady, and he commands it. How may I serve?" The question had been, at best, pro forma; one did not turn down thinly-veiled commands from the Goddess, especially when one's own patron commanded.

"There is one known to you of my Children, Caelestra by name. I ask that you bring her home to the Temple of Elune in Darnassus" she commanded, her voice a silken bond of steel around Griffonclaw's heart.

He knew of Caelestra, the kaldorei huntress. Always she had scorned Griffonclaw, condemning him as human, as Paladin, as adopted dwarf, and despising that he had dared rescue Dathala from the Crypts. That he had taken Dathala into his own household - and his bed - had made matters worse, and she had spat every time her eyes beheld him.

Griffonclaw bowed. "Your Will shall be done, of course" he agreed. "But if I may ask... what danger is she in? And why do you require me, instead of one of Your Own?" The entire Cenarion Brotherhood would have gladly slain each other for the blessing of doing Her will; what did she need a human paladin?

"Caelestra has fallen into a madness, Little Paladin, and needs healing, both in body and spirit. She has fallen away, and while a Mother lets her Children determine their own path... a Mother also picks her Children up when they fall" she informed, amused by his presumption in asking. "And why you? Because of all the humans, dwarves, and gnomes of the world, she hates you the most."

"I don't understand" Griffonclaw replied.

"It is not required that you understand" She smirked. "She prowls the desert of Tanaris at night. Find her, and bring her to Me in my House in Darnassus."

Griffonclaw felt rather than saw Horuth agree to this with a nod, knew that it was Ordained, and felt himself dismissed. He awoke to find himself at peace, his inner turmoil and anger perhaps not gone, but greatly reduced. What had begun with Kestralil, with his heart opening again, had completed this night, and he felt his spirit whole for the first time in many years.

The next morning he had told Kestralil of what had transpired, and what he must do. They had made sweet, tender love before she had pushed him out the door, kissing him lingeringly as he went. Her understanding and support of him in this - and her exhortation to swiftly return to her side - would warm him on the cold flight to Menethil, the lengthy ocean voyage to Theremore, and the overland trek through swamp and Thousand Needles to the goblin city.

And outward, into the sands of Tanaris.