The Tome of Agrimar

Chapter Eleven

Following the wolf was difficult. He set a loping gait that left Kendra breathless and Talon did not seem to even be taxing himself. He kept glancing back as if to check on her and would occasionally make a brief stop to check the trail, his nose lowering to the ground to take in a deep whiff of the earth. Barely able to keep up, Kendra had no energy for conversation. That did not, however, stop her imagination.

She focused on her own heavy breathing, imagining the deep strong breath of a dragon. Glancing upward at the occasional fluttering of black feathers combined with her lightheadedness due to the taxing pace made it easier to imagine soaring. She felt as though her feet were being lifted from the ground, her own hurried steps touching nothing but air. The thrumming of her heart became the beat of dragon wings. In moments, she felt as though she were flying above the treetops instead of running beneath them.

A cool breeze became the gush of wind on her face as she sat astride a magnificent dragon. She saw before herself a sea of silver scales and found she was riding Vexitraenylaesk, the dragon depicted in her statue and Talon’s ring. Of course, it couldn’t really be him. He was long gone, had died centuries ago at the end of the Great Dragon Wars. Kendra just smiled. It felt real enough to her, and soon perhaps she might get to ride a real dragon.

She was drawn from her imaginings with a sudden jolt as she ran into Talon. She stumbled backward and fell flat on her rump, only to have Luscious make a buzz for her head. Kendra grabbed her hair and glared at the bird before glancing back at Talon to find out why he’d stopped. They’d come to a stream. Talon growled softly, as if asking her to stay put and then leapt over the stream to the other side. He began sniffing the ground, his tail going low as he started to whine. Kendra’s stomach growled. It was growing dark.

She hated to say it, but it looked like they had lost the trail. Talon seemed unwilling to give up, his circle going wider and wider past the point of crossing and his whining growing more insistent. “Talon,” Kendra called and received no response. “Talon!” She picked up a rock and chucked it his direction, hitting him square on the nose.

With a yelp, Talon turned to glare at her. “You should change back,” she said. “We need to make camp for the night. We can find the trail in the morning.” Talon gazed deep into the woods before turning back to Kendra dejectedly, wading back through the stream and flopping at her side. He gave his fur a good shake, and as Kendra went to retrieve firewood, she heard the tell-tale snapping and popping of his joints as he shapeshifted. When she returned, Talon was once again human, the raven toying with the clasp in his hair.

“What if we never find him?” Talon asked. “Or worse. What if we find him, and he’s the wrong night-elf?”

Similar questions had played through Kendra’s mind, but the unknown only filled her with excitement. Talon, on the other hand, seemed depressed. He seemed afraid that he would reach the end of his journey only to be left with nothing. No answers. A dead end. Kendra had met others like him who seemed to think that such dead ends meant their journey had been meaningless, that their life now held no purpose. Kendra sighed as the fire sparked into life and sat down next to him.

“Let’s say we do find him and he is the one who killed your father, like you suspected,” Kendra ventured. “What will you do then?”

Talon’s eyes narrowed with a hidden rage, “See justice done.”

“And what if he’s not the Darkwalker?” Kendra asked.

“He is,” Talon practically growled, apparently still harboring a little wolf instinct after his transformation.

Kendra tilted her head to the side and raised her brow in a look that was almost reprimanding. “How can you be so sure?”

Talon just shook his head, clearly unwilling to answer that. Was he protecting some secret source of information? An informant he couldn’t reveal? Things just kept getting more and more interesting for Kendra, and she found herself subconsciously squirming in her excitement.

“Alright, so no matter what, you are going to find this Darkwalker person who killed your father whether it really is Thradris or not and kill him, right?”

Talon nodded his eyes narrowed angrily. “Of course,” he said.

“Then whether or not Thradris is the right night-elf isn’t really the question you need to be asking yourself,” Kendra offered, though Talon clearly wasn’t asking himself that question anyway. “What you really need to be asking yourself is what will you do after you kill the Darkwalker- assuming you succeed?”

“What do you mean?” Talon asked.

“I mean is that just it?” Kendra questioned. “Is that the end of your purpose? Or is there more? I mean, what about this guy from the potions shop? Why do you think he was looking for your father and is now looking for you? Are you going to confront him? What about my statue, your ring, and the sword? There must be some kind of connection.”

“Like what?”

Kendra shrugged. “Just trying to think outside the box. You don’t know anything about this man or his motives. You don’t even know if you need to be running from him. He might be trying to help you. Did you think of that?”

“Well, no,” Talon agreed.

“I thought so,” Kendra replied. “But these are all things we cannot possibly find the answers to until we find Thradris to confirm whether or not he’s the Darkwalker, and you avenge your father, and we confront this man who’s after you. Anything we come up with will just be speculation. So let’s focus on what we do know.”

Talon rolled his eyes, but Kendra didn’t think anything of it. She couldn’t fathom anyone not finding this mystery exciting and interesting. “And what do we know?” Talon asked.

“We know that you have a ring and I have a statue, both of Vex,” Kendra supplied. “Granted, you said there are probably many items made to look like him, but it’s still highly unlikely that we would run into each other like that if they weren’t somehow connected. Where did your ring come from?”

Mention of the object brought Talon’s hand subconsciously forward as he rubbed it between his fingers thoughtfully, feeling the familiar weight of the band and the grooves of the carved dragon cuffed around his finger. Kendra could see his mind wander in the way his eyes grew distant and thoughtful, and she found herself momentarily wishing she could read minds. There were so many unanswered questions to this little mystery, many of them ones Talon could provide the information for if he would just speak! Her efforts were only to be thwarted, increasing her frustration when Talon just shrugged and look away.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said.

The sudden disappointment hit Kendra like a weight and it was as though the gravitational pull of the planet had yanked her forcefully to the ground. Doesn’t matter?!? “WHAT?” she blurted, practically crawling forward across the brush to look up into his eyes imploringly. “How could you say that? Don’t you care about solving this mystery? Don’t you see that these connections are important? That this is about more than avenging your father? Look…”

Kendra held out her fingers as though she was counting off facts, “You’re father goes off to work on some book and has to dig up hard to find information. This guy comes looking for your father and acting very suspicious. You go find out your father is dead and that the ‘Darkwalker’ is the one who killed him. You go looking for the Darkwalker and get attacked on the street, and the people that attacked you were probably the ones with the statue since I found it on the road before finding you. Then I find you in prison here for reasons you won’t tell me, also probably somehow connected. Then the guy looking for your father is now looking for you. The people who attacked you had a statue of Vex, the same as your ring, and the Darkwalker who killed your father has a sword of Vex, the same as your ring. Aren’t there just too many connections and coincidences here? Don’t you think it is important to know more about where your ring came from and why these people might be after you?”

“Look, I said it doesn’t matter, and that’s the end of it, alright?!” Talon snarled. He shoved himself off the ground, forest duff fluttering around him as he stalked off muttering under his breath. “I’m going to go catch a rabbit or something, so we can eat.”

Kendra folded her arms across her chest and jutted her lower lip out in a pout, watching him disappear into the woods with disappointment. She had found herself an amazing adventure and Talon seemed to hold all the pieces she needed to figure it out. Why wouldn’t he talk to her about it?! Then her face lit up as an idea struck her. If she could talk to Thradris, he might have some answers. That is, if he actually had the dragon sword Talon was talking about. From how well Melonzriel had handled himself, Kendra did not think Talon really stood a chance in killing the older night-elf and she doubted Thradris would kill Talon. When the druid was thwarted in his efforts to avenge his father, he might just see reason and start sharing what he knows, especially if Kendra could get Thradris talking too. Content now that she had a plan, Kendra hooked her fingers together behind her head and flopped back to look up into the trees.