MONTHS LATER

It was a dim and soggy eventide, a light drizzle keeping a damper on things on the slim prowler anchored offshore, driving most of the crew below decks. The ship swayed against the oncoming surf, its sails tied up for the gusty weather. The sound of the creaking beams and the slapping of the waves against the hull were the only sounds that broke the eerie silence of the night.

At the prow stood a mismatched pair, cloaked for the weather. The taller of the two had a brass scope pressed against his eye, his face a mask of concentration as he surveyed the dark blot of the rowboat on the distant beach. Finally, he lowered the scope and turned to his companion, grasping his shoulder tightly.

Leaning in, his hoarse voice coming urgent and excited, "Thats them young Willowwalker, alert the captain."

The shorter figure nodded quickly, his hood dropping briefly to expose a youthful face and the long ears of a Night Elf to the elements. Sheepishly throwing his hood back up, the night elf was off like a shot with his errand, nimbly beelined his way for the stern despite the slick deck.

THE CAPTAIN

Galind Windsword, captain of the Elune's Blessing, was leaning back in his chair with his feet on the table, staring at his ceiling lost in thought to the soothing cadence of his drumming fingers. Then came a sudden rapping at his door, bringing him back to reality. It was promptly followed by the familiar voice of the ship's cabin boy.

"Sir, the scouting party has returned and is rowing out to the ship now."

Galind was relieved to hear this news, "Thank you. Willowwalker, get back out there and I'll be on deck shortly."

Dropping his feet, he quickly got up from his chair, stretched and put on his coat, cloak and hat before heading out on deck into the misting rain.

Moments later he was beside the small group gathering at the railing, and had eyes on the rowboat closing in and its four occupants. The same four scouts that had departed the ship a few weeks prior at his command. He was glad they had safely returned, but... it was not the complete picture he had hoped to see.

He turned to the cabin boy, "Send them all my way once they're aboard."

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

"Aye Aye captain."

He stalked back to his warm cabin. He had been hoping to see an unfamiliar fifth.

Galind hung his cloak up on his rack to dry and comfortably seated himself.

The captain rubbed his temples, feeling the weight of responsibility growing heavier on his shoulders. The result of this mission was of great importance to the safety of their people.

After a short while, there was steady knock at the door.

"Enter please."

The cabin boy opened the door and four drenched female sentinels wearily strode in to array themselves before the Captain.

"Willowwalker, kindly wait outside." The young elf nodded and exited while pulling the door closed behind him.

"Report."

"We found the courier's remains eight days distant. Plus thousands of worgen tracks. And a bunch of shredded armor. But zero trace of the package."

Galind's heart sank as he listened to the sentinel's words, but he kept his face blank. The courier had been transporting a powerful artifact that could not fall into the wrong hands. It should not have.

He leaned forward as one of the sentinels pulled out a flat chunk of metal and set it on his table.

Twisted plate with runes of binding on the interior. Unholy runes. He'd heard of such things before.

Galind sighed heavily and slumped in his chair, "So some sort of revenant caught up to him?"

A scout nodded, "That was our thought too, and we found evidence of a lengthy chase. From what we can tell, he was on foot, driven far west from the road, and then worgen got to both him and the pursuer."

"I'm guessing you have no clues as to who ended up with the artifact?"

"No signs of it. We split up in different directions, but our progress was hampered by the worgen haunting the area."

The captain sighed once more before acknowledging them all with a stern face, "You did well, now get some rest."

The sentinels shuffled out steadily, leaving Galind in his cabin alone with his thoughts. He shivered, less from the draft that swept the room from the opening of his door and more from thinking about the possible fallout from this failure.

He had suspected things had gone wrong when the courier hadn't been already waiting to rendezvous when Elune's Blessing had anchored west of Tirisfal weeks earlier, but the scouts had just confirmed it. He had hoped it was due to a simple unavoidable delay. That was why he had sent a squad out to search for the man.

Now who knows where the artifact had ended up?!

THE FOLLOWING MORN

Elune's Blessing weighed anchor and unfurled sails. Provisions were running low and there was none to be found in this dying land. They'd resupply at a safe port then they'd be returning home. The High Priestess in Darnassus needed to be informed in person.

Galind knew that Tyrande had hoped to prevent their Eastern Kingdom allies from discovering what was being transported in fears of them taking it for their own, but this result was worse.

With potential to get far, far worse depending on who ended up discovering the cursed weapon.

The best case scenario that the captain could imagine was the artifact laying in some random wolfman lair.

This was going to bite them back bad later, Galind felt dead certain of it.