A Search for Answers

[Tasera]

Things had changed, she could feel it, not through the nature but through the creatures Tasera had chosen to become close to on her path of the hunter. She had been so out of the loop, so lost and confused these past months. She had her kin of Nyx, and the creatures close to her, but there was a void that had opened and she could not figure it out, and she refused to try. The troll was strong willed, and refused to let this void take hold of her; it was not in her nature. Things were a weakness, and moons ago when she let her frustration known; it only led to embarrassment as curious on lookers of a tavern starred.

So, this time she choose to seek guidance. Tasera had taken a days journey to the forgotten jungles of Stranglethorn. The ancestral realm of the jungle trolls was familiar to Tasera, she ventured there in her younger seasons. Yet, these jungles were still dangerous and wild, the Gurubashi had their stronghold in Zul’gurub, and Hakkars wings still shadowed that lands in an ancient evil. The evil is what she wanted to investigate. To her, it would take knowledge of evil to understand the evil that was plaguing her and her kin.


Not far from Zul’Gurub’s gates Tasera traveled on foot. Yards behind her she tied her antsy black Talbuk to a tree, any farther and she felt the once loyal beast would flee in a panic.

Tasera held a cloak over her and did not adorn her usual armors of battle. She had on her gown, and on her back she had her twin blades of the hakkari. She used these as a symbol to any of the gurubashi that could be watching, to not mess with her. After all, it was from the fingers dead Gurubashi trolls that she plucked the luminous blades. In her hands Tasera held a linen bag, red fluid seeping through the bottom and leaving a visible behind her on the ground.

Deeper into the jungle she walked until she came across a shallow cave. Bones littered the grounds of the cave, and various charms hung from its roof, twirling gently in the breezes. The bones that made up the small girth of the charms knocked and rattled as she approached. Tasera looked to the side and then notices a hut. The familiar, yet some how strange trollish charms also dangling from the old hut who’s bindings looked ready to break at any moment.

The huntress lowered the hood of her cloak, her brilliant red eyes peering around, “Zumzuma I come ta seek yous guidance!” She announced into the winds. Her voice was carried into the cave, the winds seeming to accept her request and carry it to old ears.

A cackle echoed out of the cave, and a frail old troll emerged. The being that hobbled to her was hunched over, his posture even worse then a healthy male troll. His body was covered in bone charms that clicked against themselves with every step. Piercings of bone and metal were all over his shriveling old ears. He had no hair on his head, albeit the few grey strands that came out of his ears. Both eyes were clouded over with cataracts, yet, even with those blinding his vision, he still starred directly at Tasera, not through her. He pointed a finger towards her, the finger and nails caked with dry blood of the many animals he had sacrificed in rituals of Voodoo…

“I knew yous where commin’, if yas wish ta be seekin me guidance I‘m hoping ya brought me a gift,” he spoke through decaying teeth.

“Yah..I thought you’d like dese” Tasera loosely tossed the bag she was carrying at the feet of Zumzuma. He looked down, and gave a wretched smile. Pulling the bag in his hand, he opened it and let the contents roll to the ground. Two heads laid at his feet now. He kneeled, groaning as his joints creaked, “Da head of two alliance I see, enemies of yours?”

Tasera said nothing.

“Ah…Nightelf.. an’ a human female. Dese were recent, I can sense battle over yous bein’.” The witchdoctor brought up the night elf’s head and peered at it carefully, holding it by the hair of it’s scalp, “Ahh yes..very fresh, his final expression still be pullin his muscles tight. Ahh…whats dis smell…” the old roll took a long wiff off it’s scent with his huge nose, “Da waters of Menethil be all over dese heads.” He cackled, “an dese were young, youngah den you hunteress..”

Again Tasera said nothing.

“Dese will be good, I tink da sprits will take kindly to da residuals of da souls dat once ruled dese bodies.” Placing the heads back in the linen bag, he stood, groaning, “Come den huntress o’ da Shatterspear, I will see what knowledge I can get from da spirits for joo.” He beckoned her to the cave.

[Tasera]

Within the cave Tasera was slammed with a very awful smell. Rotting flesh, the flesh of animals, and sentient beings. She saw the old bones of human, and old bones of trolls. There was also what she guesses were many gnome skeletons. So mystified by the macabre sights around her, she ran right into the old troll. He snapped back, “WATCH IT, yous ruin da ceremony ground wit dose clumsy feet!”

Tasera held her breath and stepped back, making sure to watch were she walked. Settling a bit, she turned back around to look at the floor. There were serpents, hundreds of them that slithered past her. Many of which were venomous, but they did not strike or show aggression. Looking forward towards were the troll walked, she noticed shapes on the ground. He turned, and looked with those unseeing eyes back at her, “Sit were yous are, I don’ need yous trampelin’ all dat I worked hard ta mastah in me years.”

She nodded and sat amidst the many snakes that slithered past. The old troll sat as well before her. He pulled the head of human female out, and looked at it, “Hmm..dis will do.” He let it roll to the center of the designs carved into the stone they sat on. The old troll then mumbled a few worlds in Zandali, then the moment a drop of the human’s blood dripped against the carvings, they lit up, so much so they illuminated the chamber of the cave they sat in. Any sounds of birds and the wilderness she heard from the mouth of the cave no vanished, and a deep darkness seemed to curve around both the trolls bodies

“Now den… Little huntress, da spirits have already told me why you sought me out. “ He smiled and reached down to the decapitated head before the two. Running two frail fingers across the open meat of the bottom the neck, he got blood to cake over them. He lifted one, and licked it, then with the other blood caked finger he wrote a symbol onto the stone. “You wish to find out about dose runes. Yet, I’ll have you know, all I see wit dese old eyes are traces ovah yah clothing. Yous seek to find out what this void be with-in you, yet you are ignorant dat de void be da evil dat had left…or..wait. “ He leered forward and eyed her, “I sense..bloodlust…yes. Dis battle dat you laid dese two tad a wastes …dis wasn’t da first was it? “ Zumzuma leaned back and ran his fingers across his chin. Looking down, he watched as one of the snakes lapped up the offerings blood.

He smirked, “Hakkar’s sprit be please wit joo Tasera, yous let open a darkness wit in yah heart dat dose runes tried ta open by demselves.”

“Don’ be tellin’ me what I already know,. I came here to learn were dey came from. If dey are no longer wit me, den can you answer me question ,or has all dat I have heard about joo tru dose dat hold da teachin’s of voodoo close be false?” The witch doctor scoffed at her statement, but then calmed him self and leaned back.

Licking the blood away from his lips, he reached behind him and pulled a jar. In the jar floated old eyes and various body parts that Tasera never wished to question. He opened it and popped an eyeball into his mouth as if it was candy. Before he finished chewing the morsel, he began to speak, the juices dripping between decaying teeth. “Dese runes have no answer to dem, I can not tell yous were dey came from, for even da spirits seem ta be weary about answerin’ da question. Evil be afoot joo see. When I seak da answer tru da spirits, I get visions of fire an’ destruction. An old evil, da even at me age I can not comprehend.”

Tasera peered at him inquisitively, “Old gods?”

“Perhaps…” he whispered, to himself, stroking his chin, “But wit da runes only be’in traces of magics on yah body, I can’t get a definite ansah…”

Tasera snarled and stood, “So I cam all dis way for nuttin’ den? GAH” She stomped her foot, the serpents fleeing away from her.

Zumzuma eyed her as she began to storm off. He hurried to his feet and spoke out to her, “I be tinkin’ and I will still be tinkin’ of dis situation dat occurred to yous an’ da rest of Lady Nyx’s minions. Dese visions of destruction be vast, and go beyond simple towns an’ villages. Dere be so much fire, an da earth has been torned asunder. Da spirits told me..ta tell joo dis..yous will have ta find da source of da runes wit’in dose words…”

Tasera growled and looked back at him, “Hmph…what ever joo say Witchdoctor. But ..i suppose, if dey be gone now..dere be no point in investigatin’ dem any further.” Tasera pulled the cloak back over her face and began to depart from the cave, leaving the witchdoctor in total silence.

After she was well away, Zumzuma cackled and sat to feast and take from the decapitated heads what he could to fill his stomach, “Bad times be ahead me tinks.”