The snow-covered ground crunched under her hooves as Niashado followed the trail. The golden light of the sunset was flashing through trees as it descended toward the horizon. The temperature was on the edge of being too cold for comfort. She readjusted her cloak tighter around her body.
The path seemed familiar, yet completely new. Inviting, and yet somewhere just beyond the periphery of her senses, was a near undetectable, yet present feeling of threat. More than a few times had she stopped to take stock of her surroundings. The feeling never got closer, but nor did it fade.
She continued on until she was at home. Like the trail, there was a sense of familiarity, but she wasn’t sure where it came from. She couldn’t remember ever visiting a house like this.
Inside, the it was distinctly kal’dorie in design, but it was an older style; one she hadn’t seen often. It smelled of tea and incense. The bluish glow of the lanterns filled the shadows where the yellow glow of the sun wasn’t able to. A warm fire flickered at the hearth and its warmth was welcoming.
Her hoofsteps echoed hollowed on the wooden floor as she slowly explored the house. But the feeling of familiarity and peace was still warring with the faint sense of danger just beyond the next shadow.
Opening another door, Niashado suddenly smelled oils and paints. All around her were paintings and sketches of plants and animals. A figure sat with his back to the doorway, concentrating mightily on the painting he was dwelling on.
“Jaou?”
He shook his head, and, seemingly not hearing her, continued to study what was on a sheet of parchment. "Hmm, that's not what a tree looks like," he said with exasperation. The sheet of paper revealed the drawing to be nothing more than nonsensical scribbles.
Niashado carefully approached and touched his shoulder. "Jaou?" She repeated, knowing how he was when he was lost in drawing.
Jaou turned around from his seat. "Oh, you're here. That reminds me, I had some tea brewing." As he stood up and walked to the kitchen, the walls of the house began to ripple. From the ground up, the walls fell away like broken glass and revealed a dark forest and a campfire.
Over the fire was a kettle and three cups. Jaou retrieved the hot kettle and poured the liquid into a cup, offering it to Niashado. "It's not as cold as it should be, but it might hit the spot."
Niashado took the offered tea with a confused look of her countenance. She looked around the forest. "It will be fine," she said slowly, looking at the tea and noting how the cup felt ice cold in her hand. She noticed a third cup waiting.
"Are we expecting a guest?"
"What are you doing here?" a voice growled out from behind a tree. Niashado spun around to see another Jaou step towards the campfire. It appeared to almost look like Jaou, but his skin tone was darker in color and there was mistaking the large wing silhouettes that flickered in opacity. He reminded Niashado of the demonic form Jaou had taken during the battle in Harrax’s mansion.
Niashado dropped her tea, hearing the small cup shatter. She stepped back and took stock of the startling doppelganger in Jaou's form. The draenei suddenly realized that this must be the demon that had been placed in Jaou’s body by Ghazeel.
The inner demon eyed Niashado curiously, but with a frown. "You don't belong here."
Jaou looked at the inner demon and back at Niashado. "Ah, a conjuration. That makes more sense."
"What? I-I who?" She stuttered. But even more surreal was Jaou's calm reaction. And then, the pieces came together.
She cautiously said. "What, why are you here like this?"
"What? You expect me: a collection of fragmented demon essences, to know what I looked like before I was forcibly shut into this body?" the inner demon shrugged. "I don't even have the privilege of knowing my own name, so of course appearing like this vessel was the most logical course of action."
"Really, is this going to be the fourth time you're going to prevent me from sleeping?" Jaou asked, with a growing sense of annoyance.
The inner demon regarded him incredulously. "You... You are asleep. And your girlfriend is right here even though she isn't in the waking world!"
"Oh no, I'm not falling for that. That's a clever trick you're fabricating, but I'm not falling for it."
"You can't be serious." The inner demon seethed. He looked at Niashado with an unimpressed expression. "My condolences that you know such an imbecile.
Niashado glared angrily at the demonic form. "You, taking residence in his body was not his choice," she snapped.
She turned away and reached out to Jaou. "This is not a dream. Well, not completely. "
The environment started to shift again, this time the forest rippled away to the ranger camp in Azsuna. Though oddly, it featured Falathir and Ganymede sharing coffee over a card game.
"No, this is very much a dream," Jaou said with a shrug. Niashado sighed as she watched the sabre and owl sitting at a table and calmly studying their cards.
"Yes, it is. However she isn't," the inner demon retorted while pointing at Niashado.
"What if you just made her up to trick me?" Jaou pointed out in suspicion. "Are you looking to toy with my emotions?"
"Why would I...? Alright, that does sound like something I would do, but I didn't this time!"
“How is this possible?" Niashado pondered aloud. She looked at the camp and then back to the Jaou's. That's when she noticed that her clothing and hair were soaking wet.
It was raining in Ratchet when I was running from the Inquisitor, she mentally recollected. I-I hid near some crates that were under a tarp near the docks. I must have fallen asleep, but somehow, I am here in Jaou’s dreams. How, how is this possible?
As Jaou and demon Jaou continued to argue she paced near the fire. The drug in my food. The meditation. My conversation with Azgard. I must still be going through the effects. But, to share Jaou’s dream...
Niashado looked back at the two figures and noted Jaou’s fatigue. Had he been enduring this every night since this demon had taken residence in his body? Is this normal for a demon hunter?
She turned reproachfully toward the demon. "What have you been doing to Jaou? He is so confused."
"I might have kept him up for a couple of nights," the inner demon said with a carefree shrug. "But have you been in a standard dream? Nothing makes sense."
"I have walked many of my dreams and visions. This, this is symptomatic of someone who is psychologically exhausted,” she said, gesturing to the surreal forest “What are you doing to my mate?" she demanded.
"Well, I might have kept him up for forty-eight out of nearly seventy-two hours," the inner demon quipped. Her eyes widened.
“Why would you do that?” she snapped angrily.
"I just want some sleep, do you mind keeping it down?" Jaou interjected.
"And I just want some acknowledgement that I exist, but we can't have everything we want," the inner demon said with hands on his hips and a roll of his eyes. "And you already are asleep."
"I acknowledge your existence on a daily basis," Jaou argued back. He then turned to Niashado. "Well, dream-not-dream Nia, why are you here? I may as well humour myself if you are a figment of my imagination."
Niashado gave the demon an eye roll before turning to Jaou. "I am not sure why I am here. I do not completely understand this,” she explained, sitting near him and taking his hand. The draenei could see the exhaustion in him. "But, do not worry about me. You look exhausted."
"That's just the way I look," Jaou said in a confused manner. "Anyway, you seem quite real. Are you sure you're not a fabrication of my mind."
The inner demon sighed and sat down. "Accuses me of making this up," he said under his breath. She shot him a reproachful glare before looking back at Jaou.
"I think I am really here. I do not know how," she said, deliberately ignoring the demon.
"Well, if I may, you looked pretty distressed," Jaou said, as they held hands. "I don't suppose you'll tell me what's wrong?"
Again the environment changed, but this time a crystalline forest emerged and started to blend in with the existing scenery. She looked around in awe, never having seen such a thing.
"I have been better. But nevermind me," she replied quickly. "I miss you. And I am worried about you and what that thing is doing to you."
"'Thing?' How rude!" the inner demon scoffed, actually feeling insulted by the remark.
"I miss you, too," Jaou said to Niashado. "You're becoming quite convincing that you're actually her. But you needn't worry about me, things are fine! You just worry about yourself."
"Jaou," she began, pausing to collect her thoughts. "This is not ideal, the situation you are in. But… but we need to find a middle ground for you both."
Jaou looked at the flame of the campfire. "I do want to say that I need to learn to live with this," he said. She could see the pained resignation in his eyes.
"I can't say I'm particularly fond of the company," the inner demon added. "And I think the feeling is mutual."
After considering Jaou’s situation for a moment, Niashado stood up and regarded the demon.
"And what happens to you if Jaou dies? As you said, you are nothing more then fragmented essences. When you return to the Twisting Nether, you will never be able to reconstitute yourself. You will survive as a mere echo of what you were. And I feel no pity for you in that regard.
"Perhaps you should adjust to the reality of the situation. It is in your best interest to help Jaou."
She turned to Jaou and took his hand. "I loathe to tell you this, but it shares your body and mind. Perhaps..." She paused, not believing what she was about to say. "Perhaps you will need to accept Junior. Hear him. Accept his advice, when it aligns with your morality. He may have wisdom to impart, if only because it allows it to exist longer."
Jaou looked between Niashado and the inner demon. "Maybe I should have more patience, trying as he may be," Jaou said. He looked again to the inner demon and said, "If he has no qualms with that, I'll work with him."
The inner demon looked as though he had a palpable eye-twitch as he crossed his arms. "I would like to contest that name the others have given me." For a moment, the fel being appeared defeated. "She does bring up a good point about the state of my being, as much as revolting as the reality of it is. I'll play nice... I... suppose..." he said, trailing off in the end, as if a child that was being chided and told to behave.
Jaou looked rather surprised that the only form of true protest made by the inner demon was the silly nickname, to which he chuckled slightly. "We'll think of something more suitable. I don't really want to have the connotation that you're like an offspring to me."
Jaou looked back to Niashado. "Here you are worrying about how I am when you need to look after yourself and heal as well. Try to focus more on what you need, we'll be fine here."
“Thank you,” Niashado replied tiredly. “Thank you for always caring about me. I know I have been… distant. I do not know what I am or what I can do. But I need to know that you are well. That you and Junio- and your friend here, are going to work together.”
Niashado looked around the crystalline tree forest and smiled. “This is beautiful. What is this place?”
Jaou looked at the forest she was referring to. For a moment he struggled to remember, but he managed to recall the memory.
"This is Crystalsong Forest, in Northrend," Jaou stated. "That is, if my memory serves me right."
“Crystalsong Forest,” Niashado repeated. “When we are together, we should visit this place.”
Niashado turned back to Jaou. “I do not know where this path I am on will lead to, but I hope it ends here with you.”
"I'll wait for you, for as long as you need," Jaou said with a smile.
Niashado smiled back and started to say something when the Jaou, the demon and the dream suddenly shattered. Her world began to spin and she…
… and she was abruptly awakened by an ebon furred Tauren who was roughly hauling her upright by her upper arm. The draenei fought to break his grip, but his fingers only tightened more painfully. He sniffed her and then dropped her roughly on her hooves.
“I knew I smelled something different in here,” he rumbled at a troll that was standing next to him. “Wet draenei,” he added with a brief chortle.
“The captain be hatin stowaways,” the troll said, snatching up her backpack from where she’d been resting. Niashado noted that she was inside the cargo hold of a ship. The gentle rocking of the ship was making her a little dizzy.
The pallet of crates she’d been hiding between must have been winched onto a ship while she’d been sleeping. This was not good.
“I-I apologize. I did not realize those crat-”
“Save it, stowaway!” the tauren snapped. He shoved her forward and toward a stairway. “The captain will decide what to do with you. Move!”
With a sigh and a nervous gulp, Niashado climbed up the stairway to the bright sunlit deck above. She squinted as her eyes adjusted and when they did, to her dismay, there was nothing but ocean all around the ship.
“Oh no,” she whispered. The dream or vision must have put her into a very deep sleep for her to have slept through all of this.
“Move!” the tauren once again ordered, shoving her. Together, the three made their way toward the stern of the ship.
The crew consisted of a diverse collection of races. She saw blood elves, trolls, humans, orcs, night elves, a vulpera and a pandaren. They watched her but for a moment before continuing with their tasks.
Finally, she was stopped at a door near the back of the ship. The troll knocked and entered carrying her backpack. As Niashado waited, she studied the crew and the ship. The design looked too small to be a bulk carrier. And she spied cannons covered with tarp arrayed along the sides of mid-deck.
“If I have to eat anymore of that damn dwarf’s cooking,” one of the orcs nearby grumbled to a nearby crewmate.
“Don’t remind me,” a night elf replied as he tied off some rope around the sails on the main mast.
“If you don’t tie that down properly you won’t have to worry about whether you like dinner or not,” the tauren behind her shouted. He barked several more orders, but never released her arm from his grip.
Niashado let her mind drift back to the dream. It felt like a dream, but the fact that she could remember the details so clearly, so long after the dream, made her wonder if perhaps it was more. Had the demon inside Jaou truly been torturing him for so long? He looked so tired, even amidst a dream.
It reminded her of her own exhaustive ordeal with Vindicator Boreth. He would no doubt be searching for her around Ratchet. She wondered if her situation had improved or gotten worse.
The door abruptly opened and two blood elves wearing fashionable, ornate and clearly expensive clothing stepped out.
“And what, pray tell, has my bosun found hiding in my ship?” the elf demanded. Niashado surmised that this was the captain.
“She was sleeping among the cargo that were brought in at port, captain,” the tauren reported.
The captain nodded and looked back at the red-haired female behind him. She merely shrugged as if to say she didn’t care. With a sigh, he turned toward her.
“Alright,” he began. Turning to Niashado, he clasped his hands together. “Let’s make this game. GIve me, in one sentence, a good reason why I shouldn’t just throw you overboard.”
Niashado was startled by the response. She was hoping she could explain how she got in this mess and try to barter or something. But, this was completely unexpected.
She tried to consider what her friends would do, but completely came blank.
“Is she deaf, bosun?” the captain asked.
“She talks, captain,” the tauren replied evenly. He gave her a rough shove.
“I…” Niashado’s mind raced as she tried to figure something out. And then, she thought of what Acantha and Izdazi would do and suddenly said: “You are not a fool.”
The blood elf’s eyes grew wide for a moment and then stroked his goatee while nodding.
“I have to admit, that’s the first time anyone has responded that way. Please, draenei, tell me why you don’t believe me to be a fool.”
“You did not become captain of this ship by foolishly casting away skilled people,” Niashado continued.
“And you are a skilled sailor?”
“One of the first jobs I had upon arriving in Azeroth was to serve on a fishing boat similar in size to this one. I served as a cook and a medic on board that ship.”
The captain shook his head. “We already have a cook.”
“You do have a cook. But your crew is not satisfied with the meals your cook has produced. And I recognize some of them from their visits to the clinic where I worked in Ratchet,” Niashado explained calmly. “A well fed healthy crew is a productive crew with high morale. I apologize for explaining this, because surely you understand.”
The she-elf standing behind the captain suddenly laughed aloud. “I like her, captain.” He shot the blood elf reproachful glare and then turned to her.
“My crew work for a percentage of the take, draenei. They’re not going to think too highly of having to share their spoils with a stowaway,” he explained.
Niashado looked back over the deck and sighed.
“You are pirates,” she stated, having already surmised this by the way the captain spoke and the cannons hidden on the deck.
“Pirate has such a negative connotation. We don’t like to describe ourselves like that,” he corrected.
“But you’re right, draenei. We’re pirates,” the female elf added with a mischievous glint in her green eyes. The captain scowled at her again.
“I do not ask for any money. I will work as a cook and medic until we make the next safe port. Then, I will leave. All I ask is for passage,” Niashado said.
“And what can I expect from you when I need my sailors fighting?”
“I will cook and I will be a medic,” Niashado repeated evenly. “I will not harm or steal.”
“Such a brazen thing to say, when your life is at our mercy,” the blood elf captain said. He turned to the other she-elf standing behind him. “What do you think?
“Anything has to be better than Mudfall’s cooking,” she replied dismissively. “I say let the crew decide.” The captain nodded and turned to the tauren bosun.
“I agree with Sarafina, captain. If she can prove her worth, let her stay,” the tauren replied.
“Very well,” the captain said with a clap. He put two fingers in his mouth and whistled so loudly that Niashado winced. The crew stopped what they were doing and turned to the captain. “I want a vote. We have a stowaway who claims she can cook for us. Who wants a new cook?”
There were resounding, almost exuberant ‘ayes!’ from around the deck.
“The new cook you are. If you fail to impress me or my crew, you’re off the ship. Got it?” he said.
“I understand. Thank you, for the opportunity,” she replied with a polite bow of her head.
“Thank the crew. Not me. What’s your name?”
“Niashado.”
He pulled her totems from his pocket. “And besides being a cook and a medic, can I assume you’re also practicing a shaman?” he asked.
“I-I am not. It is complicated,” she reluctantly replied.
“I don’t like complications among my crew. Speaking of crew,” he said, shoving her totems back in his pocket. “My tauren bosun here is Boomer. Sarafina Venrie is my first-mate. I’m Captain Vartigan. If you have any issues, bother these two.”
He looked up at the sun and then back at Niashado. “It seems you have four hours to impress the crew. Get to work.”
With that, the three of them left her standing in the middle of the deck. Sighing deeply, Niashado looked around and pondered what new misadventure she’d just been set on.
“Well, at least it will be difficult for the Inquisitor to find me here,” she muttered to herself, brushing her bangs from her eyes.
