Chapter 10 Chapter 9: The Trail of the Dragon

Druids are exhausted because they've given it all.Although Van Dahl told them that their efforts were not in vain, it was obviously difficult to convince most people.Teldrassil didn't look any different...and, in fact, there were things about the World Tree that bothered Hamuul Runetotem more than ever. To make matters worse, his mind was still mixed with Fandral's curiosity about Blore's sudden departure.With so many virtuous gatherings and so many emergencies, could Blore's departure go unnoticed? — until after the vote.But now, the Archdruid seems to be particularly interested in it.

Hamuul had promised to find Blore, but this was mainly to appease Fandral.Unfortunately, there was only so much Hamuul could do, and he -- with a great deal of guilt -- knew it was a promise with no hope of fulfillment. He tried to stay away from the rally, but he knew his disappearance would eventually be discovered.To avoid further questioning, he lingered on the fringes of the crowd, moving constantly, pretending to be looking for Blore. Hamuul approached Naralex.Though exhausted like the others, the night elf stood and watched a seed in his hand.As the tauren approached, Naralex flicked his other hand above the seed, grunting like a baby.

These seeds burst suddenly, and a tiny tendril grows from it.When the tendrils were more than four inches long, Naralex brought his free right hand to his left.The seeds become arched along the direction. The night elf curled to the right.The new plants start growing in the suggested direction while maintaining the arch on the left. "This is what I was wanted to be," said Naralex to Hamuul gravely. "Nourishment of life. Gardeners of heaven..." "This is what Azeroth would look like if everything was alright." The tauren nodded, "but it's not now."

"Yes, it's not." Naralex bent down and planted the seed in the ground.Draw a circle around the seed. The land in the circle began to flip over and over again.The seeds begin to sink, exposing only the shoots. Naralex cleared the ground around the plants, then turned his attention to Hamuul. "Have you found our brother Blore?" The tauren's nostrils flared: "I'm always looking for him." The night elf's eyes narrowed. "We both know he will never come back to us, my brother Hamuul." Hamuul neither admitted nor denied it. "I promised Archdruid Fandral that I would get Blore back. So I must keep searching."

Looking at it as a dangerous move under certain circumstances, Naralex still stretched out his hand to stop the tauren who was about to leave. "High Priest Fandral is focusing on other things. He's not even here now, my brother Hamuul." "Not here?" The tauren tried to hide (1) his cautiousness again. "While you were... elsewhere... he suggested that we should gather our thoughts as best we could, so that when he returned we could begin another spell of Xin's spell on Teldrassil." "Then where has he been during this time?" Naralex stared, absorbed. "On the estate, naturally. He said he was seeking guidance far from the Temple."

Hamuul couldn't help humming.He had his own idea of ​​where Blore Bearskin had gone, though what the night elf actually thought was nothing more than speculation.The tauren could imagine a thing with impunity, but Blore wasn't that rash... what about him? Naralex lowered his arms. "I thought you might want to know. Don't you think our brother Blore might be thinking about something like us...seeking guidance in the upper realms? I mean..." Hamuul understood perfectly, and replied, "I suppose Blore will be found there." The night elf nodded slightly. "I think so too, glad we are on the same page."

Leaving Naralex, Hamuul thought about the problem.Naralex tried to warn him, lest Blore would actually appear in the territory.The night elf wondered why Blore hadn't returned to the Gathering, and came up with what he thought was the most likely answer. Meaning there's a good chance Van Dahl did the same. The tauren frowned and began to search in an unknown direction.He hoped he was right about one thing, and that was that Blore Bearskin would no longer appear in the Domain.In fact, the only reason he was there was to find the sanctuary of the druid elder Fandral.Hamuul fears that his friend's ultimate goal is the idol of Remulos.The tauren only knew that the idol might be of use to Broll.After all, it connects to the Emerald Dream, even though the dream form of the druid elder Malfurion Stormrage has disappeared there.

And there must be a way that someone, as reckless as Blore, might go looking for what they've disappeared. He shouldn't... Blore shouldn't take the risk... Hamuul blinked.Yes, Blore won't. A figure brushed past him.Turning around, he saw a huge storm crow descending from the sky.It could be that Fandral is back, and the archdruid has chosen a more artistic approach to the gathering this time than the lightness of a bird. When this storm crow landed, it transformed.Wings became arms and legs grew.The claws became feet.Feathers faded, or turned into hair and clothes.The beak starts to disappear, becoming a mouth and a nose.

Fandral turned back into himself again and stood up straight.Of all the druids gathered, his eyes were on Hamuul in the distance. The night elf's eyes were filled with disappointment.In Hamuul's view, this showed that Fandral already knew everything Blore had done. The tauren prays that his friend knows what he is doing. They move again.Blore knew that, though he still couldn't stare long at the piece of apprentice that made them move.He was pretty sure it was the Emerald Dream - but why was his memory of these dreams as hazy as the fog that hung over Auberdine? And, more importantly, how to make a human being - a real human being! —Can mentally traverse the foggy world without affecting it?

However, there was no time to get an answer from Lucan now.The three are still on the move.Lucan's actions at the critical moment were not to escape them from the dragon - but to place them under it. "Lie down!" Tyrande whispered. The shadow blew past them like the wind.This strong wind in turn almost swallowed the high priest's suggestion, and the three were still knocked down hard. However, the dragon did not come back.It didn't jump on them.Instead, it approached them, sprinted toward the hills and out—and never came out. Blore was the first to express everyone's thoughts: "At what speed, either he flew out early, or he hit the wall and died..."

"What is a black dragon doing here?" Tyrande asked. "No matter where it is..." "It's not black." The night elf looked at Luken.His eyes widened, and he said to himself, "It—it's not black...it's green..." "A color blind," Blore mumbled. "If he's colorblind, he won't see black as green," the high priest pointed out.Her tone was convincing, and she said to Lucan, "Tell us why you said that dragon was a green field." He shrugged: "Of course you can see it so close!" Druid shook his head: "Look, that's the answer. But it's not the correct answer. We're standing close enough, it's obviously black." Tyrande watched the humans.Finally, she said, "That answer strikes me with some underlying truth, Blore—at least as far as Lucan knows." She looked at her broadsword and said, "I think we should look into this Whether the dragon is black or green. There must be a reason why we are so close to it." "What if it's a black dragon?" She looked at the place where the dragon took off for the last time, adjusted her weapon and said, "In that case, we will kill him." Luken looked at Blore, as if wanting to prove to him that she didn't mean that.Instead, the druid grabbed the draftsman's arm and said, "It's best that you stay with us—" However, Luke didn't seem to believe this sentence at all. They crossed the mountains as fast as they could, as long as Lucan's physical condition allowed.In fact, he is not slow, but he is not in good condition now, besides, he is only a human being, not a night elf.But his pace was faster than Blore expected. They stopped only once because Blore's neck was itching.He looked behind him. "What's wrong?" Tyrande asked softly. "I always feel like we're being followed—hope I'm wrong." After a while Tyrande asked for a pause, and Lucan could finally catch his breath, while the two night elves began to confer. "If the dragon landed—it should be nearby," Tyrande said. "I thought so too. We've seen some caves, but nothing big enough to hide in for such a monstrous creature—this dragon is larger than normal, no matter what color it is." "And we haven't seen it in the air or on land. With so many slopes, even if you climb it, you must be exposed to the ground." Blore considered. "Perhaps as Luken said, if this dragon..." Tyrande exclaimed, "Where's Luken?" Druid looked around, that person was no longer where he was just now. At this moment, the night elves looked at each other, and they thought of the same possibility—Luken was once again trapped in the Emerald Dream that Blore suspected.Then they breathed a sigh of relief with the sound of rock crashing, and Luken just walked away a few steps. Rather... he was climbing the mountain at an exhausting pace. "Luken!" the druid called him as carefully as possible: "Luken!" But the cartographer ignored him.Blore eventually went after him.Tyrande followed behind.It's very close to the dragon's cave, but they can't retreat. Lucan finally made it to the top of the hill.As he was about to flip over to the other side of the hill, Blore grabbed his ankle.Druid stood beside him. "Are you crazy...?" Blore thought for a moment, as Lucan stared at him, his remaining senses banishing him again. "It's just below here." Luken finally said.He pointed to one of the rows of caves below. "That's the entrance. That's where the dragon hides." "How did you know?" In reply, Lucan just shrugged. Tyrande caught up, "Did I hear correctly? He said that the dragon is there?" "He's sure, if nothing else." A voice caught Blore's attention.He looked at the way they had come. "There's something or someone behind us..." "Leave him alone! Luken is gone again!" Blore looked back intently and watched as Al let go of Luken. The two night elves were distracted, and the human was already walking towards the other side of the mountain.Although they were followed by someone behind them for a moment, they followed Luken. Blore overtook the draftsman as he was approaching the foot of the hill.Pulling past Luken, Blore saw an almost expressionless face. "Do you want to die?" he asked him. "No..." Luken seemed to have finally figured out where he was now.His face grew even paler. "I just—I just had to be here." Blore lost all confidence in his companion, and he began dragging Lucan back to Tyrande, with her on their heels. A low, mournful hissing sound resembling a reptilian came from the cavern. The three froze.The High Priestess took a step towards the entrance of the cave. "There must be another entrance!" she murmured. "It's too small for a dragon." Blore frowned and thought: "Then——this is a good entrance for us!" Tyrande nodded.Luken swallowed his throat and said nothing. Considering that this human, unlike Varian Wrynn, was inexperienced in combat, Blore said to him, "There are a lot of big rocks there. You hide there. If we don't come back in an hour , you continue along the road we took. I think I already know where we are, and we are now closer to Ashenvale than we expected." To the night elf's surprise, Luken firmly replied, "No. I'm going with you. You helped me—I brought you here." There is no time for further discussion.Blore nodded in agreement.Tyrande drew a dagger from his waist and handed it to Lucan.He took it, though he knew it was of little use to a dragon.Still, the weapon was a relief to her—it was likely that the human knew he would use it to end himself if necessary. Blore had intended to let him lead the way, but Tyrande was already on the road.She looked almost eager to see the dragon, as if it could bring Malfurion back to her. Or, even if she dies, she will die by his side?Druid suddenly thought with some worry. As he walked into the cave, Tyrande held the hilt of his sword ready to draw it.The cave was dark, which might not be convenient for Lucan, but it didn't affect the night elves in the slightest.The high priest made a soft sound, perhaps to guide Lucan, or perhaps to get the dragon's attention. "Come on!" Blore reminded the cartographer.He trusted the man to obey, but with his penchant for wandering around, it was best to remind him. The holes curved from side to side, and became narrower as they went deeper.Now there is only room for two of them to walk side by side.The presence of the dragon here means there must be another entrance.This must be remembered if this entrance does not work. Of course, another entrance also gives the dragon a chance to escape. It was getting colder in the cave.Black dragons generally prefer warm shelters, which more convincingly proves that Luken's speculation is correct.It was Blore's mistake.But both Druid and Tyrande saw a black animal at the same time.If it's not a black dragon, then why do dragons of other colors pretend to be like this? The dire situation they were in now brought back something from Blore's memory.Once, he faced the terrifying daughter of the black dragon Deathwing.Onyxia was a monster in her own right, but Blore remembered that she could transform into other forms—including becoming smaller. He patted Tyrande on the shoulder.The High Priestess turned her head silently. "Be careful," Blore whispered. "These passages are big enough for that dragon." She narrowed her eyes.Tyrande Whisperwind also knew about this strange ability of the dragon, and she knew even more than Blore, who was unaware of her relationship with the red dragon Kryostrasz. "Yes," she responded, "we have to be very careful—" From deeper there came a sound, a sound of movement.The three of them immediately became tense.Blore kept Lucan behind Tyrande and himself.Before Blore had time to block the high priestess behind, the high priestess had already rushed forward. After a few yards they came to a larger house.The house was riddled with holes for people to pass through, the room was about ten druids high, and there were many paths around the edges - some dangerous - to possible passages. But more importantly—in the middle of the stalagmites strewn across the floor of the room, Blore found footprints.He knelt down to examine it carefully. "It looks like one of us." The druid said to Tyrande: "Or Luken's footprints. They are stacked one on top of the other. Whoever they are, this person is wandering here A long time." "I felt a draft," she said.She lowered her broadsword. "There's at least one more entrance around here." "Are we going to find it?" "Which direction are most of the footprints facing?" He looked more closely, finally pointing to the right: "Over there—" Blore stood up, and Luken blinked, ready to say something to Tyrande.The High Priestess sensed this, and she reached out her free hand to gently grasp his wrist. "The direction of the airflow is consistent with what you said." The high priestess said, and she let go of the human's wrist. "We can follow or—" Tyrande stopped, her eyes suddenly focused. Elune's light illuminated the space they were in. There was an image in the light that they hadn't noticed until now, but Lucan, with his strange gift, had already felt it clearly.Knowing he was going to speak out, Tyrande held him back, to surprise the bystander. The man was wrapped in a long hooded coat that looked both like a wizard's tunic and something worn by some human priest. The figure stood there, a few inches taller than the already seven-foot Blore, and softer in form.His hands looked like those of a night elf, and although his face was somewhat similar, his face looked paler, and he didn't know which race it was. The three of them only took a quick glance, and the hat-wearing figure immediately stretched out a hand towards the most obvious threat—the high-ranking priestess. Blore took full advantage of this mistake. The druid took action towards the mysterious figure, but not in the form of a night elf.Blore disappeared, replaced by an ugly, hairy figure twice his size.The mouth and nose of the druid were elongated, and he grasped the figure in his enormous claws.Blore had now transformed into a ferocious bear. His opponent backed away under enormous size and pressure.For a moment, the hooded figure looks like it's about to fall. Suddenly, a green gas enveloped Blore's opponent, and the druid flew sideways, eventually colliding with two solid stalagmites, one of which was shattered.Bear soon fainted to the ground. Tyrande was ready to fight, but didn't make a move.The High Priestess met the figure's gaze. Only now, seeing those eyes, did the high priestess think that she should know who he really was.There was some change in his attire, Tyrande was sure of that, otherwise Tyrande would have figured out who he was.She tried to remember his name— Then, to the shock of all three of them, he suddenly let out a cry of agony and covered his face with one arm - and he began to deform. "Wait!" Tyrande yelled. "Wait! We seek your help, not battle! Unless you are a member of the Black Dragonflight!" The metamorphosis had just begun, so that his real image was still indistinguishable and stopped.He lowered his arms and looked at her with a guilty expression. "You're going to face Deathwing's blood, little night elves! One of them is more of a monster than me!" "Monster, are you?" Blore grumbled, changing back to his original form.He looked around to see what was holding him back as he transformed. What Blore was looking for fell at his opponent's feet, and he picked it up from the ground. "Ah! Damn it! I can feel it! If only she hadn't asked me to lend it my strength!" Druid stood up. "Then you are the green dragon bound to the idol!" "'Binding', what a perfect word!" The idol flew towards Blore.The night elf caught it with one hand.The dragon hissed, "This is where I am all - though not even my Ysera could have foreseen the horrors that stemmed from it. From the day it was born, it has demanded of us Remulos or whoever he thinks has the right to use it." He glanced at the druid. "Speaking of using—I know you for your spell, not your name! You used it Bing with serious consequences—” Blore grimaced. "Yes. Very serious consequences - then, when I thought it was lost, I found it tainted with evil." The figure with the head wrapped laughed sharply. "That kind of pollution has nothing to do with real danger, druid—you're lucky, I just destroy creatures instead of entanglement, and entanglement may have touched your heart long ago..." The druid stood still and prepared for the second fight, but he still sensibly did not take any action.There's still a lot to learn - and there may be a silver lining to avoiding bloodshed. "What do you mean by that?" His opponent looked at him incredulously. "Didn't you see the nightmare? Didn't you feel it?" "Yes, I feel it, like many others who have the same mission as me! Maybe we are not dragons, but we will fight to protect the Emerald Dream—" "It's all bullshit!" said the lanky "genie," his body beginning to swell, and he finally snarled: "You don't understand anything! You don't understand anything! I don't even understand, I— He was on her side! But he betrayed her, betrayed the dream, and helped the Nightmare King devour everything here—not just here, but also the spirit world!" Now Blore at least understood what they were facing.Even as the dragon slowly shed its "elven" form and became closer to his original form, the druid slid toward Tyrande.If they want to escape from the dragon alive, they have to do their best. "I know you now." He said calmly to the half-transformed monster. "You are one of the corrupted creatures! You are one of the creatures corrupted by the Nightmare Lord to rebel against Ysera—" Huge feathered wings swept across the room, and the long, pointed horns on its head receded.The dragon's body takes up two-thirds of the space.Normally green dragons are smoother and lighter than other dragons, but this one has a huge body and has to shrink his long neck when standing.Those eyes—Blore noticed that the green dragon had been staring at them, and the eyes of ordinary green dragons were closed, because they had been in a semi-dream state— "Corrosion - such a simple word, little night elf - you have no idea what that means! You don't understand how it makes your mind, your heart, your soul - we dragons The 'soul' understood - expelled, swallowed by darkness, rushed into your ridiculous shell!" The shrill laughter sounded again, shaking the whole cave so violently that some stalactites were shaken loose.The three began to try to avoid the stalactites falling beside them, but the dragon was unmoved at all, and a large number of limestone and mountain stones hit his scaly fur. "'Corrupted creature'" the green monster repeated mockingly. "I'm just one of them!" The giant lowered its head, only a dozen inches away from the three of them.Blore and Tyrande stood still, and even Lucan swung his dagger. "It's more than that, little one! I'm her most trusted and dearest—and that's why the consequences of my betrayal are far more serious and terrible! Do you see the sleepers? Did you see their shadows? That was all done with my help-" Tyrande tried to speak, and her voice was calm and soothing: "I know you now, though you have taken on an unfamiliar form. But it is clear that you have now escaped your corrupted fate. Clearly you have overcome it— —” "In other ways - I didn't know then it would wake me up again - every moment - it beckoned me! It wanted me more than ever...for I was her most beloved... her spouse ..." "'Spouse'?" Blore gritted his teeth, "Are you..." The dragon interrupted him with a growl.Those eyes... cold, emerald eyes - stared at the druid and Tyrande. "Yes——I am Eranikus, Ysera's consort..." He opened his jaw, "Now that you know this, and know that I am here...then you all have to die..." Remark: (1) It was "demonstration" in the original book, but it was corrected to "cover up" after proofreading and confirmation.