Fusion

Tinged red fingers of the dawning sun crept into Stormrages’ chambers like a thief. Instinct high and on full alert, he focused his thoughts on the source of his unrest as he continued his pacing the long path from one end of the room to the other.

Something was different.

Experience had long taught him to trust his gut feelings. One did not become this powerful by mistake or simple chance. But there was a threat, a threat so large he could no longer deny that his position was indeed in jeopardy.

“But from where…who..”

… questioned his own thoughts, a slow breath hissed between his teeth and he felt the blood in his veins begin to surge as no answer presented itself. Frustrated, he began his pacing the path which had become so familiar to him over the last seven hours. All the while his brain ticking and searching for the clue to his unrest. His thoughts trailed…to near madness.

Miles away, at that same moment, Swill whispered his three closest friends, and said,  “The time has come. Meet in Ironforge.” The cryptic message signaled the friends that indeed this was the moment they had been awaiting. Loyalty, and the promise of triumphant battles to come, baited them. One boarded the tram, one a griffin and the last the boat. Each lost in thought of the meeting to come.

The three friends, met on the bridge, and with a slight nod in one another’s direction, said not a word but stood, side by side, each looking to the crowd for the face they traveled so far to see. Looking for he who had summoned them.

Swill, who had recently been imprisoned for four months, for reasons unknown to the friends, had returned.

He silently moved in from the crowd behind them and they jumped as he startled them as he snapped, “You three took too long,” a little too loudly for their somber mood.

Swill walked across the bridge and the friends followed. Once they were seated inside the inn with fresh mugs of Dwarvian Stout in their hands he leaned in across the table and in a voice hushed, laden with urgency and strength, he said one word and one word only,

‘Fusion.”

With that word, miles away in the treacherous area known as Shadowmoon Valley, Illidan Stormrage roared.