#presunderingau

15.a gentle “i love you” whispered after a soft kiss, followed immediately by a stronger kiss

Shortly after arriving in Eldre’Thalas Illidan’s health returned thanks to the abundance of left behind mana crystals and the like. It was a relief to the pair of elves that their long struggle to find a safe place to hole up for awhile had ended in sucess.

Illidan was amazed at how much of the city had held up after the sundering but its inhabitants had fled anyway.

He tried not to wander to far off without Shan as he felt he owed it to her to not make her worry that he had gone and disappeared again. He still felt incredibly guilty that he had done that in the first place.

They sat around a small fire after dinner as they usually did, Shan resting her head on his lap as he read to her from a book they had found in their explorations. Illidan noticed that she seemed to be dozing off and so he set the book down and scooped her up instead, standing up to take her back to their tent.  As he shifted her in his arms he gave her a gentle peck on the lips.

“I love you so much Shanarra.” He whispered in her ear.

He was caught off guard by her hand coming up and cupping his cheek gently guiding his head back down toward her. She then kissed him back more aggressively than he had been expecting given that he thought she was half asleep.

He nuzzled her neck breathing in her sweet scent as they pulled away for breath.

“We can continue this back at the tent you know, safer too I’m less likely to drop you.” He teased.

“Hmm yeah that would be unfortunate wouldn’t it.” Shan teased back.

@archdruidstormrage

He grunted in acknowledgement, too tired to argue. The Archdruid rose from his kneeling position and began to follow Tyrande. The vacant expression on his face caused some elves who had started towards them to rethink their approach, and they backed away to give the pair space.

They returned to their quarters, and Malfurion just blurted it out.

“It’s all my fault Tyrande,” he exclaimed, his voice laden with distress. He began to pace around the tent, his cloak whirling with his movements. “I should never have agreed to lock Illidan up… Yes he did a bad thing, yes he frightened them, but I should have fought harder for him! He’s my brother… My twin… I know he didn’t remake the Well to call the demons back, he wouldn’t do that!”

His hand came up to his face, his fingers tangling in his hairline.

“If it was me… If I had done what he had done, Illidan would have fought them all to protect me. He would have told them all to shove it where the moon doesn’t shine! That he believed in me and that was that! Why couldn’t I do the same for him?”

His hand caught something sharp and he hissed, pulling his now bleeding hand away from his head.

“And these damn antlers are giving me the worst headache I just can’t think straight.”

Tyrande frowned, it hurt her to see her mate so upset and distraught. It hurt more that she didn’t necessarily have the answers to his questions either but she would do her best to listen to him and help him were she could even it that meant all she could do was listen. 

She approached him now that he had stopped pacing and took his injured hand in hers. “Malfurion.” She began her hand glowing silver with the power of Elune as worked at healing his cut hand. “I cannot begin to know the stress this must have put on you, because you’re right Illidan is your brother you have grown up inseparable for so long.”

“I cannot say what Illidan would have done in your position, the war has changed the both of you. Illidan he was always so logical but he’s behaviour lately I just don’t understand it, he’s scared Mal, all his actions have been taken out of fear. I have to agree thought that locking him up was definitely a mistake. We left him alone in a bad place with his thoughts and a woman who hated him, he was never going to learn his lesson there.” 

Once his hand was healed she moved her hand gently to her mates temples and again  let them glow hoping help relieve his pain. 

In the passing weeks the duo of Shanarra and Illidan had crossed a vast swathe of the new world. It was beautiful Illidan had to give it that and Shanarra had been right about it being exciting. 

However he longed for familiarity, the settlements they came across belonged to the Tauren and while a peaceful people they belonged to the day a concept which the former sorcerer found bizarre in itself. Shanarra seemed to get along with them well but he tended to stay back with Sho when things got a bit more social then he would have liked. 

The farther they travelled the more something felt inherently wrong to Illidan, he would still have small doubts of sudden onset sickness but Shan would heal him after they woke up and that usually fixed things for a bit. 

That was until one night when they had been travelling through the countryside as normal but seemingly out of the blue Illidan felt extremely odd, not odd like he had been which could be chocked up to stress. No the second this feeling had settled in Illidan felt that something was direly wrong with him. 

He felt very cold all of the sudden and he felt his face flush, his sense of balance was suddenly thrown out of whack and he clutched to Shan desperately. 

“Shan we need to stop.” He said a bit amazed at how coherent he sounded as his thoughts felt like they were floating in syrup. 

It had been rough to adjust to suddenly being homeless, but at least it wasn’t lonely. Illidan knew that had Shanarra not chosen to come with him, he surely would have perished in the wilds by now. 

 Still he was having his doubts that things would ever be the same with them, he knew she still cared for him and saw them as mates still, but they hadn’t gotten as close to each other as they had been the night he’d left. That being said things were far from tense between them, they acted like this was just another trip that they’d went on.

As they sat next to a fire for warmth Illidan felt her shift closer to him and tried his best not to acknowledge in case that made her stop what ever she was doing. The next thing he knew she was perched in his lap and leaned in an brushed her lips agaisn’t his neck.

He wrapped a hand around her waist and waited to see if she’d protest, she didn’t only moving her lips to different spot. “I was worried.” He purred into her hair. “ I thought I’d turned you off wanting to do this with me.” 

“Illidan, I think you’ve got that blindfold on to tight it must be cutting off blood flow to your brain..” She replied. 

Tyrande had been so busy in the last weeks that she barely had time for herself. It seemed everyone needed their high priestess now more than ever, she had scarcely had the time to process the events that had taken place practically in a whirlwind.

She had just stepped back into the camp after slipping away to  see off Illidan and Shanarra. She had been so scatterbrained lately that she hadn’t even had time to consider how Malfurion would feel about his own decision in private. That was until she walked into the tent temple and notice the her mate sitting before the altar. 

She waited for him to finish as she knew she had no right to come between him and the Goddess, then silently she approached him and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.

The war was over, the demons defeated, the portal sealed, the Well gone. The resulting magical backlash had torn the world asunder in a catastrophic display that surely everyone who witnessed would never forget.Things were far from normal now of course, it would take a long time for things to feel normal again everyone knew. For  Mages of Night Elf society it  was clear something else was frighteningly wrong. Illidan’s natural instinct to get to the bottom of things was peaked, but he was not faring well.

He had taken with him seven vials of the Wells power before it could be destroyed, something in his gut telling him that such power could not be allowed to be destroyed. He had travelled with Shanarra, his Mother, and the rest of the remains of Night elf society to Mount Hyjal  were they had set up camps until a more permanent solution could be discovered, the journey had been taxing on everyone. 

 Illidan had decided to take a walk on his own, maybe he just needed some air away from everyone else to de-stress. He crossed paths with a sprawling lake and he sat on its shore, as he did so a voice filled his mind. 

“You should recreate the Well, Illidan, such power should not be missing from this world.” 

He could not resist the compulsion and watched the water of the lake slowly turn to a shimmering font of power. A smiled crept on his face, yes this was the way things were supposed to be. His ear twitched as his sensitiveness hearing picked up the voices of others approaching.

Jarod and a group of elves appeared in the clearing. “ They want to take this source of power from you Illidan. They will not let you have it again.” 

Illidan hissed taking the voice in his head as fact and as the others advanced towards him the blind sorcerer tensed and it wasn’t long before he pounced. He should have expected to get caught.

Nelana paced around the small fire pit outside her tent at the latest stop the Resistance {rather the Refugees she thought to herself } had made. Many days had passed since one of her sons vanished and he had not been seen near camp since. It pained her to not know where Illidan had gone, she loved her sons with the whole of being and to only know one was safe was not enough.

She was no well practiced mage (though she did have a proficiency for some spell work) nor was she a priestess. The most she could offer Ravencrest’s forces was standard first aid, patchwork for their clothing, a meal, and an ear to listen to whatever they wanted to talk about. It might not have been much in the grand scheme of things but she liked it helped.

She checked the kettle she had hung above the fire for tea, she was expecting a visitor. In the wake of Illidan’s disappearance Nelana had extended a hand Shanarra to be someone the younger woman could talk to. She would show up everyday around the same time save for if they were under attack. Shanarra was basically a daughter to her, Illidan and Shan had been friends as long as she could remember and they always had seemed to make each other happy. She knew it was just as difficult for her to deal with Illidan’s absence.

She turned as she heard the leaves on the path behind her and saw the young druid approach.

“Still no news?”

“I won’t do it.” Illidan hissed crossing his arms and glaring at his father each man stood on one side of the door frame to Illidan’s room. 

“This isn’t a yes or no question son, you will get dressed, go downstairs, and then come with me to meet Ms.Blackfeather  and that’s final.” Thyendras said his tone unwavering. He was determined to marry his talented amber eyed son to  a highborne.

“And then what? Resign myself to life of sitting around in a harem looking pretty all day? I don’t want that, I want my life to mean something notjust be the hottest new toy to some Highborne women before she finds a newer better toy than me.”

“Son what’s going to be better than an Amber eyed sorcerer?”