#coppercurls

pre-show fic. 11K, Vanya-centric

Summary: She couldn't believe it had taken her so long. Vanya. Number Seven. Useless, Worthless, Good-For-Nothing, Oridinary.

Booze and pills and notes addressed to people who wouldn't see them. People who wouldn't give a shit when they heard what she'd done.

So she swallowed.

The night was calm. A breeze flowed in through the open windows, ruffling the curtains and moving the wind chimes hanging over the small altar. It curled around various pieces of half finished armor strewn across the worktables. Fur shifted in the wind, and settled again. The musky scent of leather faded and melded with the clean air blowing through. Chainmail clanked softly before settling again. The breeze worked its way through the small hallway, through the half open door into the haphazardly furnished room. Several bowls filled with clear water littered the floor, a number of them tipped over. Swaths of furs and blankets filled a corner of the room where the owner of the workshop and house slept. The breeze curled around the coppery curls of hair and the large floppy green ears, whispering quietly.

“Hu-wha? Vith-wha?” The goblin stirred as the breeze colelessed around her form, lifting her from the makeshift bed. She was naked, save a small piece of fabric wrapped around her abdomen. The tattoos adorning her arms, each a binding for her elementals – her furies, she liked to call them – pulsed in the dim lighting of the room. The bands of white on her left arm shifted just above her skin, rotating slowly. The rest of her was adorned with very little, and her green flesh was unmarred save a few bruises and scars here and there. Yellow eyes cracked open long enough to realize she was in the air, not in her bed, and the goblin let out a strangled cry of shock.

“Vithrin whacha doin’!? Put me down!” As commanded, the breeze let her go. The goblin crashed into the pile of furs and blankets, legs and arms flailing all over the place. “Thrall’s balls the fack ya do that for?!” She shoved a blanket off her face and sat up. The breeze coalesced into a small serpent for a moment, more mist than wind, and jerked its head at the bowls of water. She groaned and stood up, covering the short distance to them. Whatever Vith wanted to her to see, he wanted her to see now. In the middle of the night.

Typical elementals.

“A’ight, a’ight, Whacha want meh ta see?” She sat down at the nearest bowl and dipped a finger into it. “Sona. Show meh.” She didn’t need to tell the water elemental what she wanted to see. There was only one thing the shaman had been watching the past few weeks. With Garrosh contained, and the Sha dealt with, there was little to look for in the elements. They were quiet until the flickers started. Always keenly aware of changes in the ley lines and natural order of things – more so than most of the dragon flights in her opinion – elementals knew when things changed. They could sense it, and in turn, could alert their masters and mistresses of these changes. Or simply go crazy, as had happened during the rebirth of Deathwing. Honestly it was really a toss up sometimes. Lately though, they’d been focused on one thing.

The Dark Portal.

The large stone monolith flickered into view, standing tall in the red desert of the Blasted Lands. A war table sat in front of it, with rows of tents and pike walls in the clearing in front of it. A small army had been dispatched to the region after reports of increased Alliance activity, and vice versa. The two sides held heavy tension around them and the air was filled with it. At least they weren’t trying to bloody each other.

She shifted the view to the portal itself. The center shimmered green and orange. It led to the Outlands and the ruined Draenei homeworld. It was a stable connection, one that no one had really seemed fit to, well, disconnect. The green color was something everyone knew and understood, though, and it was almost common place.

It flickered blood red for a moment.

The color change happened so fast, she almost missed it in her sleepy haze. The goblin smacked herself awake, and watched the portal intently.

 It flickered again, between blood red and fel green.

Once. Twice. Three times.

Something shook then and the vision shattered for a moment. The goblin shifted to another bowl, growling at her water elemental between her teeth. “Sona, show meh.”

An image flickered into view. The portal, deep blood red, and the regimented forces spilled out of it. The image flickered again, a sign that the water elemental was having a hard time keeping the far seeing. Interferance from the portal. The next image had the two armies clashing with the forces from the portal. It flickered out again. A tense moment passed before Sona could bring the image back.

The two armies were decimated. The forces coming through the Dark Portal had all but vanished, foot prints leading off to the south. She frowned and prodded the bowl.

“Zoom en on that thin’, at da foot of da Portal,” she commanded. Sona enlarged the image. The goblin stared at it for a long time before the image flickered out and Sona gave a whine of exhaustion.

It was an iron bound orc. It was an orc covered in iron, like the stuff coating the gates of Orgrimmar, and had come through the blood red Dark Portal. Whatever had happened disrupted the flow of elements in the region, and brought a force of enemies to Azeroth equal or above the current military capacities. Whatever it was, it wasn’t good.

The goblin scrambled around, pulling on armor and tunics, and locating her hammers. She slipped on gauntlets and pulled her hair into high pigtails as alarms started going off in the rest of the city. Heavy footfalls rushed down the streets, armor clanking and making almost more sound than the alarms. Well someone got word to the Warchief fast then.

“Oi, sleepy head, we gotta go,” she said, prodding the direwolf the Wolfbound had gifted to her awake. The large black beast yawned and shifted upwards to let the goblin saddle him. As one last measure, she filled the pouches on his saddle with enough supplies to last her a few months – mostly in food and armor repair supplies – and stashed the last of her orders in the crate. She locked the door, closed all the windows and guided him out of the small stable. She swung up onto him as Kor’kron Guards marched up the street towards the Warchief’s hall.

Oi, Boss Man. We got trouble. Dark Portal’s gone red. Comin’ to Elf Land to fill ya in, she said through the rune link to the one person she trusted with stuff like this, Arch Commander Alorinis Bloodarrow. Coincidentally she had his armor repairs as well. Oh, and I got ya armor finished.

Uh—ah--- of course Ms. Stormthroddle. I’ll will be at the estate, came the groggy reply. Coppercurls – occasionally known as Cooper Stormthroddle, Tanner and Leather Worker – jabbed her heels into the dire wolf’s hip joints and sped off towards the zeppelin to the Eastern Kingdoms and Quel’thalas.

There wasn’t time to waste.

chemicalbydefault

also i can't remember what her water elemental's name is. I remember Vithrin, Modra, Roshr but not the water. who is now named Sona. so there.

coppercurls started following you

Thank you!