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"I see. Who would have thought he was serious about the Kaldorei language research..." |
"I certainly didn't expect that from him." |
"You should put more effort into trying to see the good in others." he chuckled. |
"I can't, you take up all of my energies." the bitter answer came. Though the night elf meant the comment as a raillery, deep down Illidan was delighted by her words, taking it as a sign of her care. |
However, their friendly banter did nothing to evaporate Lysende's shock, and Maiev finally noticed it. |
"Lysende, this is Illidan. Illidan, she's my niece, Lysende." She introduced them to each other, not suspecting that there was no need for it anymore. |
"This? This madman is your Illidan?!" she blurted out in frustration. |
"I see you made a good impression." her aunt smiled, glancing at the person sitting next to her, who straightened up with pretended pride. |
"What can I do, it's my personal charm..." |
"Your what?" Maiev asked sarcastically, but her words fell on deaf ears. |
"Listen, he is a brutal beast!" the teenager jumped up from the table. |
"Well, what a surprise. Do you know each other? |
"I think something is coming back..." said the demon hunter, with his chin cupped in his hand. |
"He threw us out of a club with Za'zul!" Lysende recalled their last meeting, seeing that her relative had taken her statement lightly. |
At the accusing words, Maiev looked questioningly at her companion, who finally put the pieces together in his head as to why the girl was familiar. |
"Did you throw them out?" |
"Good." She replied, then immersed herself in her work again. "Just a moment, I'll finish this. Until then, order something." |
"You alright with the usual?" Illidan asked as he headed for the checkout. |
"Of course. Lysende, you want something?" Maiev asked the girl, but she was still completely floored. "Get her some ice cream. Caramel flavour." |
As the man finally got out of earshot, she poked her niece. |
"Are you disappointed?" she asked teasingly. |
"You can't imagine!" the teenager replied sulking. |
"I really don't know what you expected." she laughed, then returned to her work. |
"Not this for sure! Some charming guy. But this...? He is so repulsive!" she whispered contemptuously, then folded her arms and continued to pout. |
Maiev didn't say anything, just frowned as if she was thinking about Lysende's words. The girl would dare to bet that she noticed something on the woman's face that she could best describe as slight embarrassment, and she immediately got ashamed of her earlier statement. It wasn't nice of her to flout someone's love in... |
"Well, looking closer, he is well built." she finally whispered apologetically, the only thing Lysende could bring up as a positive about the man. |
"One bad boy at a time is more than enough. Don't bite bigger than you can chew. And believe me, he is a big bite." Maiev scolded the girl, but her words were completely misunderstood by her niece, her face coloured dark purple. |
"He sure looks big..." she thought blushingly, her thoughts drifting again towards her boyfriend. They had been together for two months now, and it was obvious that the boy was running out of patience. |
"Your ice cream." Illidan put the caramel dessert in front of her. She muttered a thank you in embarrassment, trying to get her aunt's earlier words out of her head. She raised her curious gaze at the demon hunter peacefully munching on his sandwich, trying again to figure out who he reminded her so much. |
"Could it be an actor...? He could be quite charming if..." but her train of thought was interrupted by a vibrating sensation in her pocket. She pulled out her phone carefully, and at the sight of her sweetheart's name, her heart almost jumped out of her chest. She put the device back into her pocket and pleaded to lea... |
"She's lying." Illidan crumpled the leftover napkin. |
"I know. She's gonna chat with her boyfriend over the phone. I'd say for at least half an hour. So, feel free to eat the ice cream." Maiev bit into her sandwich, then wiped her mouth and continued. "Can you see her inside?" |
"Yes." he spooned into the ice cream. |
"Good. Keep an eye on her." |
"You think she will try to escape?" |
"That's a possibility, yes. Anyway..." she put down her half-eaten wrap and took out a notebook. She flipped through it and then turned to her companion. "Bills?" |
"Rent, water, electricity paid. They're coming to check the gas usage next week." |
"Good. Did you turn up the heating? I know you don't get cold, but the wall will mould if you don't keep the room warm." |
"Yes, to 20 degrees." |
"Great." she ticked off her list, then being pleased, she put the booklet back in her bag and nodded appreciatively to the man, who returned the gesture. "Quite impressive." |
"By the way ..." Illidan reached into his pocket, pulled out a large flat cell phone and carefully placed it on the table. "I bought it today." he grinned proudly at his new treasure. "Would you help me to set it up?" |
But Maiev did not share his enthusiasm. She examined the device coldly, though she knew exactly that her eyes were not dazzling, it was indeed a high-end device. |
"Illidan, this costs a fortune! Why do you need such a phone? Half of the features are completely useless to you, and the other half are included in a cheaper device!" the night elf scolded him, but he shrugged it off. |
"It looked good." |
Maiev's annoyed eyes spewed reproachful sparks, but she finally put up with her pal's useless reasoning, reluctantly reaching for the phone. |
"You bought a SIM card, too, right?" she asked suspiciously, but she hasn’t even finished the sentence, Illidan triumphantly tucked the tiny plastic card under her nose. She sighed and took the accessory. After some fiddling, she managed to bring the device to life. "It seems to work." she ran through the menu, then lo... |
"You... didn't... You thought you'd take it off with Eye Beam, didn't you?" she froze from the realisation. |
"Certainly not." he hurriedly closed his fist, giving a strong impression that Maiev had been right. "By the way, Lysende is trying to climb on the radiator." |
"Is there a window above it?" |
"Thanks." Maiev acknowledged it with satisfaction and began typing something on her phone, presumably to the girl. |
"Add that if she were to take off her high heels, it might be easier." said the demon hunter, and his companion grinned. |
Not even a few seconds passed and Lysende tore open the girl's bathroom door. The shocked gaze of the collared fugitive brought a smug smile to the despicable duo's face. She reluctantly sat back at the shared table, her eyes down. |
"Anyway ..." Maiev returned to their previous topic. "I'll give you Malfurion's number." Illidan nodded gratefully at the offer, and Lysende raised his head in shock at hearing her adoptive grandfather's name. |
"Wait... you mean my grandpa Malfurion?" |
"I forgot to tell you?" her aunt's eyes brightened and a grin wider than before appeared on her face. "This guy is Shan'do Stormrage's twin brother. You're more or less relatives." |
"Was everything fine?" Jarod asked his returning sister at home as she hung her coat. Upon hearing her father's voice, Lysende's already slightly colourless face suddenly turned even fainter. Her situation was already desperate after she told Za'zul that she could not meet him. And now she will be punished again for tr... |
"Yes." Maiev replied succinctly, not taking a look at her niece, who waited breathlessly to see if she would say anything else, but her fear was unfounded. |
"I'm glad." her father nodded and the girl's eyes fell as she ran to her room. Inside, she took the phone from her pocket. A tiny LED signalled an unread message. |
She opened her beloved's text, her heart in her throat. |
A muffled but all the more heartbreaking sobbing sound filtered from her teenage daughter's room, prompting Shandris to stop as she walked toward the bathroom. The woman listened sympathetically to her child's lugubrious blubber, as she recalled when Jarod had left the Kaldorei community without a word, and for ten tho... |
"Maybe the two-week detention was too strict..." she touched the white-painted door. Slowly the noises also went silent, perhaps her daughter cried herself to sleep, and Shandris moved on with the determination to speak with her beloved the next morning to find another way for Lysende to serve his sentence for disobedi... |
It was midnight when Maiev woke up to the pain in her injured shoulder. She was almost accustomed to the occasional bothersome feeling around the scar, especially when rain was expected, though she was not in the least impressed that her arm had become a weather forecast-device. She gently massaged the sore limb, and s... |
"Quite impressive. You'd have made a good watcher back in the day with sneaking skills like this." Maiev whispered as she lowered to eye-level, praise and reprimand wrestling in her voice. Frightened, Lysende tried to back away, but her aunt grabbed her by the arm and yanked her into the stairwell, then closed the door... |
"Thank you..." she sniffed, but the aunt turned her back on her in silence, then disappeared into the darkness just as she had done in the mall before. |
Indeed, Illidan was already waiting for them when the couple showed up at the club. Za'zul still stuck his chest out in frustration as they passed the security guard, but Lysende wished she could shrink as tiny as an ant, then she might not feel the weight of her relative's gaze with such weight. She buried her purple ... |
"What am I doing here? Aunt Maiev covered for me about my afternoon escape attempt, and I betrayed her by trying again... And Illidan too... I just sniffed at him all evening... I don't even deserve their help... " she hugged her love tightly, who in return kissed her on the neck. "I'll be a good girl from tomorrow, I ... |
The weekend promised a pleasant springtime for all those who wanted to spend their valuable free time outdoors. The end of winter was getting closer, and in some places the flowers - known as the heralds of spring - stuck their tiny white heads out already from under the still frosty soil. Maiev sniffed contentedly int... |
Spring no longer kept the good folks waiting at the green countryside of Hyjal. A stray breeze ran through Nordrassil's sky-reaching foliage, only to fade away in the sea of endless slopes, and finally invite the park's flowers at the foot of the valley to a mischievous dance. Malfurion Stormrage glanced warmly at the ... |
The room, once floating in a flood of light and decorated with drawings and posters, was now just as dark as the broken soul of the adolescent girl squatting in it. Panting, she tried to find something, anything on the internet that might distract her from the thoughts that kept tormenting her. But no matter how many t... |
The small and cramped dance floor compared to other clubs was crowded that night with young people, too, merely writhing dazed from the excessive consumption of alcohol. From time to time, one of the mood lights’ bright colours shone on their foggy gaze. A human girl stumbled awkwardly as she tried to climb the narrow ... |
The lace-up boots knocked with measured elegance on the marble-imitation tiles of Maestra's Post shopping mall, but shoppers heard nothing of it, the sound got lost in the pother of the early evening visitors. But exceptionally, Maiev was not disturbed by the crowd, she walked contentedly toward the exit. She finally m... |
Not far from the exit, a bookstore advertised its nowadays almost irrelevant product, including the newly released editions. Maiev glanced uninterested at the shop window from where a hairy muzzle that she knew so well that it bored her to tears looked back at her. The lead actor of the Worgen Diaries seemed to decide ... |
"I have no idea what Lysende likes about this smug barn-stormer figure." she slipped the volume into the basket quickly. "But perhaps this will raise her mood." Indeed, she badly needed some distraction. Poor girl. Maiev wholeheartedly pitied her, although she had never experienced the excruciating vicissitudes of youn... |
Her thoughts of the past suddenly disappeared into where they belonged as a book caught her eyes while walking toward the checkout. She lifted the volume off the shelf with interest. |
"From Alchemy to Pharmacy - The history of modern medicine." she read the title, then flipped through it without hesitation. "Ah, fascinating! I'm sure Illidan would be interested in this! He always studies drug brochures with such enthusiasm. Well, it's understandable... If my memory serves me right, he is not only an... |
Although it was already spring, the sun was still retiring early below the horizon formed by mountains, and the sickle of the moon soon appeared on the dark sky. Maiev ambled cheerfully toward her brother's apartment, her thoughts revolving around the gifts lurking in her bag. Will those two be happy? Especially Illida... |
"Why did you buy him a present?" a hoarse, vengeful voice snapped her out from her joyful thoughts, prompting the night elf to stop. As if she had awakened from her sleep, she reached awkwardly into her bag for the book, looking in disbelief at the simple but carefully designed cover, questioning the correctness of her... |
"Lysende!" she put the volume back into her bag, and without thinking, she began to rush in the direction of the sound. A hastily dropped shopping bag lied on the ground, its contents spilt on the roadway. Soon, she heard another desperate cry, this time recognizing Shandris. |
"Lysende! Lysende!" the mother yelled again and again as she was haring in the middle of the road. chasing after a leaving car, with her daughter on the backseat beating on the window. But it was useless, the speed of a night elf could not match the acceleration of a vehicle, and the lights of the car soon disappeared ... |
"What happened?" |
"He took... that troll... he took Lysende! He shoved her... I couldn't..." Shandris panted desperately, proving her sister-in-law's fear to be true. Her words were merging into one another as she struggled with tears. |
"Pull yourself together, General!" Maiev growled at her in Darnassian, breaking the mother's panic. "Put up a warrant of caption, gather as many people as you can. Check Lysende's chat logs to see if you can find a clue where he might have taken her." she gave out the orders, handing over her bag to the woman. "I'm fol... |
Shandris took a deep breath and seemingly managed to recover after her initial shock. She nodded approvingly to Maiev, who acknowledged with satisfaction that the determination has returned to her eyes. She patted the woman's shoulder encouragingly, then chased after the kidnapper. In a few moments, she reached the int... |
"Concentrate. There has to be something that can lead to them. You've always managed to track down... Illidan...!" she caught to her pocket, and at the next moment, she was dialling the demon hunter. "Pick it up, please pick it up..." she drummed impatiently on the concrete with her feet as she waited for the man to an... |
"Hi, are you missing me already?" Illidan said suddenly into the line to the woman's greatest relief. "Come to the club, I'll go out right away." the demon hunter closed the conversation quickly after the woman briefly explained the situation, and soon Maiev was rushing toward the Hot and Misty Club on the deserted str... |
A few corners later, she could see the neon lights of the nightclub, and below that, Illidan waiting. Maiev's heart pounded as their eyes met. She breathed a sigh of relief as if a huge boulder had fallen off of her heart merely from the man's reassuring presence. |
"Tell me everything that might be helpful." the demon hunter instructed the woman without hesitation as she arrived. His voice was just as tense as hers. |
"I don't know much either, just what I've said." she shook her head. "But I can show you what type of car that worm was driving." she got her phone, and soon a picture of an old white vehicle appeared on the tiny screen. "But if they left the car..." |
"Then I'll look through the buildings." Illidan interrupted. His serious voice filled the woman with confidence, nodding in approval. |
"Then we just have to find the car." |
"Yes, and I have an idea where we should be looking." he added, to Maiev's greatest shock. Seeing her questioning gaze, the man continued. "Do you remember what Ukar said on my job interview? That a troll gang had settled in the area." |
"And you think that Za'zul is a member of that group..." |
"Exactly. When I threw him out, he had a knife on him." |
"Just like Ukar said... Everything checks out!" she gasped. Seeing her joy, Illidan allowed himself a modest smile, but his features took on a strict form soon again. |
"Then don't waste time, let's go!" |
"All right. I'm searching this street, you start on the parallel one! If you find anything, give me a call!" Maiev rushed forward, her shape was soon swallowed by darkness. |
The chilling spring night was traversed by a breezy wind, catching into Maiev's ponytail, but it didn't bother her. Her eyes kept scanning the cars parked along the road and in the side streets. The hunt was on, but for the first time in her life, she wished it were otherwise... She could only hope that Illidan had the... |
"Damn it..." she kicked frustratedly into a garbage can as she searched a street, but found nothing again. "Lysende, why didn't I take you with me?" she blamed herself, knowing full well that no one else was allowed to be present at her meetings. "How on earth did that wretched man get close enough to..." |
Suddenly her phone began to ring and she missed a heartbeat for a moment. |
"Illidan!" She glanced at the display and immediately pressed the phone to her ear. |
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