Have you seen my horse?

The two night elves stood back to back, staves held at the ready in the center of a small clearing. A male and a female, they both had the distinct markings of druids; their clothing and armor dyed to the natural hues of the forest and their green hair matching the coloration. Around them, nearly surrounding them entirely, a number of ragged looking Twilight Cultists stood, fire elementals amongst them and grins of delight on their faces.

They had been chased for what seemed like hours, but was likely only mere minutes by the band of marauders. Desperate to make contact with other druids within the forests of Hyjal, the pair had been systematically herded by the forces of the Twilight's Hammer until they had been cornered here. As the pair stood grim and defiant, the cultists began to shift towards them. The male elf reached out and gently laid a hand on the arm of his companion, smiling sadly.

"I will stay with you always my beloved," he whispered to her. "No matter what happens."

She returned the smile, her eyes closing for a moment, "No matter what happens."

The two brought their weapons up, prepared to sell their lives dearly when a sudden thrashing in the underbrush at the edge of the clearing drew the attention of attacker and defender alike. For a moment, more than a dozen eyes turned to take in a most unusual scene. There, at the edge of the clearing, a dark-skinned Draenei was pushing her way through the thick foliage of the forest. The woman's white hair was bound in pigtails that bounced on either side of her face as she struggled to free her shield from a branch that had entangled it.

She was so engrossed in removing her shield from the offending branch that she did not notice her surroundings until she had managed to pull it free. As the branch tore loose, she stumbled, nearly falling as she caught her balance in the clearing. She turned, looking with wide eyes to see more than a dozen people staring at her.

Blinking a bit, she smiled and nodded, speaking with a friendly tone, "Ah! You are seeing horse, yes? Is...vhat is vord...lost? Yes, is being lost!"

Utter silence greeted this statement. The Cultists looked at each other and then back at the draenei, as if trying to decide whether or not she was serious. The two night elves looked at her with alarm, realzing another person had fallen into the cultist's trap. For her part, the draenei merely frowned when her question was not answered.

"Are being deaf, yes?" she said with a bit of impatience. "Am looking for horse! Am being called Mariskka. Horse is needing vater and food soon please."

Several of the Cultists smirked at each other. Without a word, about a quarter of them shifted towards Mariskka, while the rest advanced on the two Kaldorei druids that they had surrounded. Fire elementals amongst them advanced, burning the ground in their wake. The two Kaldorei sprang into action, their staves whirling as they met the swords of their enemies. Mariskka blinked at the display, even as cultists rushed her. She frowned, the look more a pout than one of anger as the closest cultist brought his sword down in an arc that would surely decapitate her.

Metal shrieked against metal as his sword rebounded from the shield on her arm. The draenei had shifted it at the last moment, and the cultist found his weapon far out of alignment as one of Mariskka's hooves came down hard on his rather poorly shod foot. He began to howl in agony even as his friends rushed into aid him.

Mariskka sighed and said, "Are making difficult! Am not vanting to hurt you, yes? I vill if you are not running!"

Battle raged in the center of the clearing as the two Kaldorei fought viciously against their opponents. Behind the cultist that had attacked the draenei, other humans rushed in, fire elementals trailing behind them. Realizing that the humans would not be deterred by her scolding, Mariskka brought her hand up in front of her. Instantly a number of floating stone totems appeared around her, hovering just off the ground with a variety of colors dancing off of them. The cultists rushing towards the draenei slowed as they came into the effect of the totem.

Mariskka looked to the center of the battlefield and saw the two druids being herded, overwhelming numbers around them. With a deep frown, she pointed and an ear-splitting peal of thunder could be heard as a fork of lightning slammed into the cultists around the druids. Several fell to the ground, twitching and incapacitated. The druids wasted no time, laying into these foes with their staves and knocking them unconscious. Even as they finished up the last, the male turned and shouted at Mariskka, "LOOK OUT!"

She had not been paying attention to the rest of the cultists when she cast her first spell, and they surged within a foot of her, slashing at her with their swords. One of the fire elementals pointed and a bolt of fire surged at the draenei, striking her shield and making her give out a little 'oooof' sound as it was deflected to the ground. With almost a sigh she pointed at the cultist nearest to her, a human male about a foot in front of her and cast the same spell.

It was not the best idea she'd ever come up with.

Lightning crashed down, instantly drawn to the metal of her shield and then slamming into the ground in front of her in a massive blast of natural power. Cultists flew away from her even as the fire elementals were torn to shreds by the power of the blast. Several of the humans were tossed into the underbrush around the clearing and one, to his great surprise, found himself hanging by his belt from the branch of a nearby tree.

The two druids blinked in surprise, trying to clear the after effects of the lightning from their vision. When they were finally able to see again, a rather dazed looking Mariskka stood in a circle of burned grass, her pigtails sparking with little arcs of leftover electricity. Her armor looked like it had seen better days, black stains and burn marks scoring it in places.

As the pair looked on, one of the cultists on the ground (there were about a half-dozen dazed, burn-marked forms) around Mariskka's hooves stirred and rose up behind her, a dagger in his hands. The two elves pointed and began to shout when suddenly the foliage at the edge of the clearing parted and a rather large warhorse darted from the treeline, slamming into the man and bowling him over like he weighed nothing.

Mariskka turned and happily clapped her hands, even as the warhorse stepped on one of the man's legs and he groaned. "There is being horse! Vas knowing he vould come back!"

She ran over and grabbed the horses reins, happily patting its mane. The horse snorted, and the two druids almost got a sense that the creature was giving a long winded sigh as the draenei chattered at it and dug through one of the saddlebags for an apple before holding it out to the hungry steed.

The elves looked around them, their expressions bordering on disbelief as they took in the devastated battlefield. Only a moment before they had been preparing to sell their lives dearly and die together, and now the ground was littered with a bunch of groaning, half-burned humans and a draenei that now was giggling as her warhorse tried to lick the apple's juices from her fingers.

After a few more minutes of trying to prevent the horse from licking her (and nearly being knocked to the ground in the process), Mariskka finally got herself organized enough to turn and smile at the two elves.

"Horse is being here now!" she said happily, "Now, vhere is being....vhat is vord...portal? Yes, portal to Stormvind. Am going to Stormvind, yes!"

The two elves exchanged glances before walking towards the draenei. It likely would be a long trip, but they owed the strange creature the courtesy of at least making sure she got out of Hyjal's forests safely.

Besides, who knows what sort of mischief might occur if they let her wander off on her own...