Prologue

Six weeks ago

Keina breathed in slowly, and out slowly. Not a muscle in her body twitched, and she made no sound. Only her eyes moved as she watched the two beasts stalk toward her, sniffing the air, drool dripping from their fangs.
They looked around, slowly, cautiously. But they could not see nor smell Keina, hiding among bushes surrounding the tall Ashenvale trees. They drew closer to where she was, unaware of what lay ahead.
When the beasts were about 25 yards away, Keina whispered something, words that were immediately lost to the cool breeze that coursed through the Ashenvale forests. From one of the branches above the beasts, a large, white owl gracefully took flight and swooped downwards. It let out a loud hoot, which drew the attention of the beasts upward. One of them let out a quiet snarl- they were hungry, but the bird was several feet above their reach. They watched the owl, waiting for it to come lower.
There was a sharp thud, and a yelp. One of the beasts fell backward, a sharp arrow sticking out from its chest. The other looked around, and saw an elvish outline against the backdrop of the forest. It had barely registered what the outline was, and had just started to move, when another arrow pierced its skull, almost dead center between the eyes. The beast dropped to the forest floor with barely a sound.
The beast which fell first stirred, its heart still beating. It rolled over and began to get to its feet when Keina was upon it, stabbing her sword into the beast's back. It fell to the ground again; Keina pulled her sword out and waited, but the beast did not rise. With a death rattle from its mouth, it twitched and was still.
Keina retrieved her arrows, then immediately reached into a puch on her belt, scattering dirt over both beast's wounds to cover the smell of their blood. Then she dragged them into the treeline and hid them in the bushes, returning briefly to cover the spots where they died with the same dirt.
She whispered again, and the owl, her pet, flew ahead above the path, scouting for more beasts. They were curious creations, Keina mused, the work of some demon or wizard. They had the build and posture of men, but the fur and heads and teeth of wolves. Where they had come from, she didn't know, but that was precisely what Melyria had sent her to find out.

**********

Keina Mooncaller had come to Astranaar, a large village in Ashenvale forest, to see her long-time friend Raene Wolfrunner. The two had trained as huntresses together, had fought the corrupted furbolgs in the Ban'Ethil Barrow Den together. While Raene moved on to serve the Sentinel Army, the night elves' elite guard, Keina had remained behind in their home village of Dolanaar, crafting bows for warriors and adventurers. Raene's father, Tanavar, had fought against the demons of the Burning Legion. In one fierce battle, he was seriously wounded. The skill of Keina's father, an herbalist and alchemist, had saved Tanavar's life. The two became close friends and remaind so through the milennia since, as did their daughters.
Shortly after arriving in Astranaar, Raene told Keina of a Sentinel who had disappeared not long previously, named Velinde. She had been tasked with standing vigil in the northern region of Ashenvale against demons and agents of the Burning Legion. Her disappearence was a total mystery, but Raene had recently heard from Velinde's replacement, Melyria Frostshadow, that she may have found a lead. Keina offered to ride and speak with Melyria about it.
She came to Raynewood Retreat, where Velinde had been stationed. Melyria told Keina of a place near the northern borders with Felwood, where strange howls and cries pierced the night and haunted travelers along the nearby road. It was this area, Melyria had learned, where Velinde was last known to have been. She asked Keina if the huntress might be willing to take a look around and see if she could find any clues. Honorbound by her friendship with Raene, whose main responsibility was the safety of all Ashenvale Forest, Keina agreed.

**********

She moved along the gently rising path, silent as death. She had all her senses on high alert, listening, smelling, waiting for any sign of the wolf-beasts. Her owl, Mush'a, scouted ahead, returning every few minutes to let Keina know if anything waited further on.
Keina had trained Mush'a since the owl was a chick, and the two were inseperable. Keina's training had taught her how to communicate with her pet. They understood and communicated with each other as well as they would have if they were speaking Darnassian, the language of the night elves.
The path started to move up at a sharper angle. The forest was still quiet. Up ahead, Keina could just make out the shape of old pillars and columns, jutting up from the ground. Milennia ago, elven cities and structures dotted the land, but after the Sundering and ensuing wars with demons and other races, many had fallen into disrepair and now lay fallen, covered with moss and vines and age. She reached the ruins, still listening for any movement, but there was none to be detected.
Mush'a came flying out of the darkness ahead, and Keina detected some urgency in her movements. She ducked behind a pillar and listened. After a minute, she could hear the quiet stepping of feet on the mossy path ahead, moving toward her at a medium pace. She guessed that there were five beasts in the approaching group. Not exactly even odds. She decided to let them pass, though when weighed with the possibility they may turn around and return the way they came, possibly to encounter her again, it wasn't an easy decision.
She withdrew a distance to the moonlight-cast shadow of a tall column, put her bow and arrow away, and melted into the darkness. The goddess Elune had blesses her children, the night elves, with the ability to become invisible at night, even in full moonlight. It was upon this power that Keina now placed her safety.
After a couple of minutes, she could hear the beasts' heavy breathing, some of which were coupled with a soft kind of snarling sound. They entered her field of vision, on the main path, about twenty feet away. One of them stopped suddenly, sniffed the air, and turned in Keina's general direction. Keina did not move. Perhaps the beast had seen something, or, more likely, picked up her scent. Keina was a careful huntress, but even she made mistakes sometimes.
After a minute, the beast continued walking. Keina counted to thirty, then silently moved back toward the main path. She could barely hear the footsteps of the beasts, moving further away. She reached a column next to the path and peered around it. She could barely make out the distant forms of the wolf-beasts in the moonlight. There was something about them, though, that bothered her. Something wasn't right. It hit her an instant later.
There were only four of them. Where was the fifth?
As if cued by her mental question, she heard a snarl behind her. She wheeled to find the fifth beast, the same one that had stopped a minute ago, staring at her, drool dripping from its glistening fangs. Keina barely had time to register the beast's presence when it let out a howl. Loud and strong, it pierced the night's stillness. Thinking quickly, in one fluid motion, Keina pulled part of her war staff from off her back, the part with a narrow, sharp blade, and shoved it into the wolf's throat, choking the howl with a sick gurgling sound. With her other hand, she drew her sword and swiftly lopped off the beast's head. The body fell to the ground as Keina pulled her pointed staff free.
Replacing the staff and sword in their leather sheaths, she jumped out onto the path, pulling out bow and arrow as she did so. She could see the other four beasts running toward her, two of them running on all fours. They were about 40 yards away now. Keina let out a loud whistle and let fly her first arrow. The rushed shot hit the closest wolf-beast in the leg, sending it tumbling forward. She drew another and shot, this time hitting the next closest beast in the left shoulder. It faltered but kept running.
Above her, Mush'a soared high into the air. Then she suddenly pulled her wings in and dove with lightning speed. Her descent led her right to the second wolf, the arrow protruding from its shoulder. With great speed and size building up momentum, Mush'a claws outstretched, bowled into the beast, tearing out chunks of its flesh even as she knocked it over. The beast fell on its side and rolled over, struggling immediately to get up. Mush'a flew in a tight circle and swooped again, this time managing to get her claws into the beast's face before it could raise its paws in defense. Her razor-sharp talons scratched one eye into blindess, the other tore a long gash along the snout. Mush'a flew out of reach before the beast could react.
Meanwhile, Keina tossed her bow aside as the beasts closed to within 20 yards. She drew both halves of the staff this time, quickly locking the two pieces together to form one long staff. It was a gift from a gnome inventor to whom she had given a ceremonial elven bow for his mantle. It allowed Keina to carry the staff with ease, concealing it if necessary, but could be assembled quickly and easily for combat situations. Situations like this one.
She twirled her staff over her head as the two beasts drew closer. Only a few yards away, they leapt at her, claws outstretched. She crouched low and swung the staff downward to the left, catching one beast on the shoulder and slamming it to the ground. Her low stance allowed her to roll on the ground under the leap of the second beast. It overshot but quickly corrected itself on landing. It leapt at Keina again, but she jabbed the staff upward, catching the beast just under its head in the neck. She let the momentum of its leap carry it up and over her head, still impaled on her staff. She slammed this beast to the ground as well, drawing her sword with lightning swiftness and stabbing the beast in the back.
The other beast was getting back to its feet, but that wasn't Keina's only problem. The first beast, the one she had hit in the leg, was back on its feet, a broken arrow shaft still sticking out of its leg. They started circling around her, growling and snarling and gnashing their sharp teeth. The half-blind beast was staggering about, trying to get its bearings, but Mush'a kept flying at it from behind, clawing it with her talons and knocking it over.
The two remaining beasts closed the distance to the elven huntress with each circle. Keina looked at each one for a second only, not daring to turn her back on either one for longer than that. Staff in one hand and sword in the other, she quickly formulated a plan.
At Keina's whistle, Mush'a wheeled mid-air and flew toward her master. When she was close behind the unwounded beast, she screeched loud and shrill. The beast started and turned toward the sound, swinging its claws instinctively, but Mush'a was well out of reach. What she had done is buy Keina a few precious seconds.
The huntress quickly turned to the other beast and threw her sword. It twirled through the air and struck the beast dead center in the chest, cutting it wide open and knocking it back. Turning back to the other beast, Keina held her staff in front of her, the point still glistening with blood.
The beast growled at her, then charged. She meant to simply impale it as it came, but at the last second, it made a feint and sidestepped to the left. Keina's momentum carried her forward and off-balance, and the beast knocked her in the back with its massive paw. She fell to the ground, the wind knocked out of her. She rolled over on her back, even as the beast turned and leapt on her. Keina swung her staff up and caught the beast across the chest, knocking it to the side.
She let out a third whistle, this one short and shrill, then leapt upon the wolf-beast. With her staff, she stabbed through its right arm, pinning it to the ground. Keina grabbed the other arm with both hands, even as it swung at her head. With all her strength, she held it at bay, her weight and knee keeping the beast's body on the ground. Behind her, Mush'a swooped down, grasped the sword in the other beast's torso and pulled it out. The owl turned and flew back toward Keina.
Even as the bird dropped the sword to the ground near her master, Keina jabbed her elbow into the beast's neck, stunning it momentarily. A moment was all she needed. She grabbed the sword with her free hand, swinging it under her arm and severing the beast's free arm. She then swung the sword high and brought it down hard into the beast's chest. It twitched twice, then lay still.
Keina got to her feet and surveyed the scene. Four beasts lay on the ground, dead, while the blind one still staggered around, trying to find its way. Keina went to where she dropped her bow, picked it up, and with a simple shot stole the last beast's breath forever.
In the distance, she heard howling- more wolf-beasts were approaching. They were only a matter of minutes away. She quickly moved about, working hard to cover her traces. She scattered dirt over the places where she had been, not bothering with the beasts. With a flash of inspiration, she drew out a small skinning knife and cut her forearm. Dripping blood, she walked about a hundred yards in the direction opposite of her destination, right to a stream. That would, she was sure, draw the coming beasts away from her as she moved further up the path.
Keina's wounds were light and almost superficial, but she dressed them quickly and continued up the path.

**********

Other than two more pairs of wolf-men stalking along the path and surrounding brush, , which she avoided by hiding again in the shadows, Keina encountered no more resistance as she reached the summit of the hill, where she found the entrance to a cave. As she approached it, she felt a slight breeze coming out of the mouth. That's curious, she thought, but then realized what it probably meant. To be sure, she sent Mush'a flying up and over the cave. The owl returned a few minutes later, and Keina's suspicions were confirmed- it wasn't really a cave so much as a tunnel, and a relatively short one, probably no more thana few dozen yards.
With Mush'a perched on her shoulder, Keina moved into the cave's darkness. Her elven eyesight, though not perfect in the dark, allowed her to see enough of the path so as to avoid any walls. Her ears were listening sharply for the slightest sound, but there was none. Perhaps any wolf-beasts who had been here were now examining the sight of her battle. With luck, they'd stay to investigate for a while.
She exited the tunnel a few minutes later onto a ledge overlooking a small clearing with a small structure towards the back, unmistakably an ancient elven shrine. There were no wolf-beasts in sight, and just in front of the shrine lay a large, square stone in the ground, almost like a gravestone of some kind. To her right, a path led down into the clearing.
Leaving Mush'a on the ledge to act as a sentry, Keina worked her way down the path towards the shrine, bow and arrow in hand. She reached the tall structure and examined it, but found only a few cracks and some weeds growing at the base, nothing of interest.
Keina bent down to look at the square stone, and was somewhat surprised to see writing on it. She peered closely at the incsriptions, and saw that they were written in Darnassian. There was something unusual about them, though. It seemed to Keina that the writing had a kind of energy to it, almost like a pulse. It seemed to her, strange as it was, that the letters themselves were alive.
Keina suddenly drew a sharp breath. A thought had occured to her, something her father had told her about some years before. It was something she had found interesting, but had never seen. She got the impression from her father that spirit writing was a very rare gift, something very few night elves knew how or were able to do.
Keina's eyes flicked to the top side of the stone, where the writing began. There was the inscription, just as her father had told her it would always be with spirit writing.
Spirit writing allowed the writer of words to imbue the text with a kind of avatar of their spirit. The text was meant to be read in pure Darnassian, which limited it to night elves; not even other races speaking perfect Darnassian were supposed to be able to unlock the spirit writing's magic. What happened exactly, though, Keina's father hadn't been too sure about, only that it was supposed to be quite an experience.
Keina's heart beat a little faster as she laid her hands on the sides of the stone, as her father had told her must be done. She took a deep breath, and in Darnassian, read the inscription at the top. "Tor'anu'dora..."
"Let the truth be known."
Suddenly the air around her started to swirl. There was a power in this wind, yet it did not disturb the leaves or grass on the ground. Keina felt it blow around her, and it felt cool to her violet skin. In front of her, above the stone, a form started to take shape. Keina stood and took a couple of steps back.
After a few moments, the form was clear- it was a night elf, a Sentinel, judging by her clothing and armor. She had deep indigo hair, which contrasted strongly with her light lilac skin. She was kneeling, almost like she was bowing. It wasn't a solid image; Keina could see the trees behind it. But it was very real.
It stood and looked ahead at Keina...except it wasn't looking at her. It seemed like the Sentinel image was staring through the huntress, past her. It started to speak.
"This is the record that I, Velinde Starsong, make, on this day, the fourth since the seventh new moon began..."