“Me. I’m the child,” Red Earth answered. “They want me to go to the Firelands.”
Reknor nodded. “Good, we need help there. We need to defend this world!”
Red Earth frowned. Once again, he didn’t understand. “Remember the other day, I said there was going to be a journey. Now I know where to go.”
“Yes. To the Firelands? And fight the wolves?”
Red Earth frowned again. She looked doubtful. She remembered the dream she’d been having. “Did I fight the wolves?”
“No,” Reknor remembered with her. “But you didn’t know how the dream ended.”
“It ends with fire. It ends with black.”
“So. . .you don’t believe you’ll come back. . . .”
“I don’t know, I just. . . .’You are one of us, we will show you.’ That’s what the wolves said.”
And that’s when Reknor remembered. “Oh. . . .the druids. I saw Druids of the Flames. Traitors to the Cenarion Circle in the Firelands. Could this have to do with it?”
Red Earth raises her head, startled by Reknor’s words. “Druids of the flame? Traitors?”
He explained to her what had happened among the druids. About Fandral Staghelm and how he had turned to serve the Firelords, how he had converted others to do the same and was continuing to do so now. Red Earth’s face grew pale as she listened to this. Then she started shaking her head again, she brought her hand up to it and started tapping once more.
“Is that what they want? They want you to join them?”
“Shhhhh!”
Reknor, who was about to ask more, shut his mouth and stepped back.
“No, no,” she said to him. She was shushing the voices in her head. “They’re loud again. They know. They know I don’t want to go now. Shhhhhh. . . !” “If you don’t want, you can resist!” Reknor demanded. He was getting angered now, seeing her in this state. “We can gather other shamans, try to calm down the elements. You’re not alone in this!”
Red Earth whimpered as she took a hold of her head again. She fell to her knees, shaking her head vigorously. She started to cry. “No. Nononononono, I can’t-“
Reknor bent down over her and took a hold of her. “You’re a strong, a great, leader. You can resist if you want!”
“Shhhh, shhhh, shhhh, nonono. SHHHHHHH! I’ll go! I’LL GO! LEAVE ME ALONE! I’LL GO!”
Red Earth fell against Reknor, as if she had just been released. She rubbed her head and her face, as she whimpered. She could feel the disappointment from Reknor as she leaned against him. She wiped at her eyes with her shaking hands.
“I’m sorry, my friend. I’m sorry. I can’t. I just can’t. I have to go.”
“At least gather the tribe. Explain what’s going on,” he offered.
“Not because they demand me,” she continued.
“Then why?”
Pulling on the rails of the bridge, she raised herself up again. Reknor helped her stand as she shakily held onto the bridge to regain her balance.
“Because the Ancestors say I will. Because my father showed me the vision of the kodo and how they went after the wolves. I do not know what will happen. But they say I will go. And I will listen to them.”
He was confused still by it all, but he said the words anyway. “Of course, I understand. But?”
He could see it in her eyes. There was something more she wanted to say. But Red Earth shook her head, dismissing her last thought. “You are right. I must try and gather the others and tell them what must happen.”
They were quiet now, the voices from the Firelands. The noise had stopped. Red Earth was exhausted, but she was once again calm. They would leave her alone now because she had resolved to listen.
“I’m sorry. You do not know me very well,” she apologized. “And now you’ve seen what is the hardest, yet necessary, part of my life. My visions.”
“No, but I think I would like to know you better. And who knows, we may still get that chance. And, mmph, no matter. I swore loyalty to you and I will never back down from such an oath. If you believe you are doing the right thing. . . .then you have my support.”
“Even into possibly the deadly unknown?”
“I’m an orc. And have you seen the kind of crazy stuff our Warchief orders us into?” Reknor grinned, and it made Red Earth chuckle.
“Thank you, my friend.”
Rest. It was time to rest. She would have to be strong. For the others when she told them. And for herself when she did as she was being told to do.
_________________ I am not the strong cord. I am not the ropes that bind.
I am what brings them together. I am the knot.
I am a shaman.
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