Time Waits for No One

*Over 10,000 years ago*

A bright flash illuminated the quiet woodland trail as magic swirled violently out of nowhere. Leaves tumbled around in the roaring wind created by the sudden outpouring of magic, creating a miniature whirlwind along the forest floor. The smell of sulfur and the sounds of explosions echoed through the no longer sleeping forest.

As quickly as the light appeared, the magic flickered out, leaving the trail bathed in the pale moonlight once more. The only difference was that there were now two female night elves clinging to one another and breathing heavily, both shivering with fear and looking around with wide eyes. The two were dressed in outrageous colors, their flowing garments leaving little to the imagination and clashing garishly with the natural colors surrounding them. After a moment of holding one another, they separated, turning to look at each other.

"Malandrae! We have to hurry! There's almost no time left!" the taller of the two elves shouted. Her beautiful cyan hair whirled wildly as she spun and ran off down the trail the two had appeared on, heading towards a tower that poked up out of the forest ahead of them.

The second elf gasped, quickly dashing after the first, a hand reaching out and trying to slow her friend. "Eldre'nor! Wait for me! I can't run that fast in these heels!"

She too had beautiful cyan hair, and markings similar to her friend. Both of them ran as best they could in their expensive gowns and high-heeled shoes that were more suited for a ballroom than dashing down a woodland trail. Around them, the forest gave no hint as to the cause of their fear and alarm, the evening sounds of animals and owls continuing unaffected by the drama unfolding on the trail. The first elf, the one called Eldre'nor, quickly outpaced her friend as her heels were a bit thicker and found better purchase on the soft loam of the natural pathway.

As the distance between them widened, both of the elves saw the trail opening up ahead, moonlight bathing a beautifully tended garden and cleared space in the forest. In the center of the clearing, a Highborne tower stood quietly, it's exterior decorated with marble and elegant carvings as it rose up into the night sky, inviting and safe looking. Both of the elves slowed their pace, their faces taking on expressions of relief as the tower came into view and began to loom up before them. Eldre'nor quickly crossed the distance to the tower's entrance as Malandrae emerged from the forest behind her, panting and out of breath.

"Eldre'nor! W-we made it! It's going to be alright," Malandrae said, slowing her pace further as the run took its toll on her. She was quite unused to physical exertion and the entire night had been a never-ending series of quick dashes from one horror to the next. "Are the wards prepared?"

Eldre'nor stopped, waving her hands before the arched door of the tower and chanting. The doorway glowed and the stone slid aside, revealing a well furnished interior to the tower, complete with everything that one might need to live. She turned and nodded to her friend, who was still some distance away. "Y-yes! I think so! The tower's wards are intact despite what happened to the Well! I think this will work fine!"

Malandrae was about to reply when the ground suddenly began to shake violently, driving her to her knees. She stumbled and then crawled, desperate to reach her friend, panic in her eyes. The panic was matched by the expression on Eldre'nor's face as she stared off into the distance behind Malandrae; she could see the forest heaving, trees falling less than a mile behind them as the disaster that would later be known as the Sundering finally reached this remote location.

"NO! WE'RE TOO LATE!" Eldre'nor yelled, hurling her body through the opening behind her. The tower's door glowed with magic as it's owner entered, and the stone portal began to slide shut.

Malandrae's eyes widened in horror and she hurled herself to her feet, her body obeying the frantic calls of her mind. She kicked off her shoes, dashing for the stone tower as the very ground tried to shake her off. She reached the tower door just as it closed and sealed, her fists pounding futilely on the stone. "Eldre'nor! ELDRE'NOR! OPEN THE DOOR AT ONCE!"

A muffled shout from inside was all she could hear as she turned to look behind her. A roar filled her ears as the ground shook violently, throwing her to the ground and making her roll. Less than three hundred yards away now, a wall of destruction raced towards her, the acts of Queen Azshara undoing the very world in which the night elves had lived for thousands of years. Behind Malandrae, Eldre'nor screamed as she sensed the oncoming wave of destruction with her magic.

Malandrae stood up, despite the heaving ground, her eyes never leaving the disaster as it sped to claim her. In a last desperate act she spoke the words to a spell that she had long ago copied down from the archives of Queen Azshara's most gifted spellcasters. A spell she never thought she'd have to use, and she was unsure if she was even powerful enough to cast.

Even as the earth began to rise up around her, all of Malandrae's magic flowed into the air, energy crackling as the supreme power of a Highborne Sorceress was fully unleashed. Every last drop of her magic was poured into the spell, and it took shape around the elf at the last moment; a stasis field of magic that froze her solid, as if she were a statue made of stone.

A wall of earth toppled the trees at the edge of the clearing, dashing on towards the tower and the statue that now stood motionless in the rose garden beside the structure. In the last moment before the earth struck, time seemed to almost stand still as the wards around the tower flared brightly, putting it too in stasis. The tower loomed silently over the frozen form of an elf who looked at the death of their world, a tear frozen forever on her face, her hand clutching a necklace formed of three moons at her throat.

The earth broke the spell, the last wards dying down as it crashed against the base of the tower. It roared over the statue of the elf, burying it in the rose garden where it stood, covering half the tower in pure earth before racing on, leveling the forest for an endless distance. Queen Azshara's mistakes finally came to claim her kingdom; a world ended forever in a moment.

Silence fell over the half-buried tower as the destruction raced on, beyond the range of sound and sight. Silently, snow began to fall in a place where winter had never touched before.

**********************************

*Several months ago*

The ground shook and heaved, the forest bucking as a massive force burst forth from the heart of Azeroth. Trees toppled and cracked against each other and in the distance along the slopes of Hyjal fires raged as the sky turned red with the reflected light of the flames.

The tremors and falling trees set off a resonance in the snow packed slopes around the area, and quickly a few bits of snow began to tumble down the side of a mountain. It raced ahead, picking up speed and more debris as it traveled faster and faster, tearing up the trees before it and the very ground as Deathwing's rebirth devastated land all over Azeroth.

The full-blown avalanche raced through the forest before it, leveling everything in its path until it slammed into the ancient form of a tower, half-buried beneath the snow and earth around it. The heavy ice and racing snow tore great chunks of marble from the side of the structure, scraping earth away from the base of the tower and dragging debris with it as it sped past.

In the end, only a thin layer of snow and ice remained near the newly torn up ground, the sun already melting it in places as the unnatural heat of Deathwing's passing temporarily returned the area to spring.

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*Two weeks ago*The beating sun ate away at what remained of the magic, the ancient forces finally giving way to the ultimate master; time itself. The tower glimmered and slowly faded to a pale white color, all traces of Highborne magic fleeing from it. From within, a voice could be heard calling out, the words muffled as whatever was within the structure tried to batter it's way through a door that no longer responded to magic.

Beside the tower's base, the earth stirred, a mound of it pushing up. A delicate hand suddenly burst through the brown soil, reaching for the sky with perfectly manicured but now filthy fingers. A slender arm followed it, the hole widening until a head emerged and a gasp of air was sucked in.

Cyan hair caked with mud and muck were touched by the light of the sun for the first time in 10,000 years, and silver eyes opened to take in the ruined and now ancient tower. Long tapered ears took in the sound of muffled shouts from within.

Malandrae Moonwhisper rolled her eyes and pulled her body from the ground like a zombie being born from foul necromancy. She shook her clothes out, letting centuries of dirt fall away. She sighed and put her hands on her hips, glaring at the tower.

"Eldre'nor Moonrunner, what have you DONE?" she said with an indignant snort. "I suppose I should get you out of there before you suffocate, although I don't know WHY I bother..."

The forest around the ruined tower was silent as a tiny figured walked towards it, using the dregs of her power to blast the stone door apart and letting her equally befuddled friend into the light of day. Two elves, reborn from the end of the world, into the end of another world, into a time they could never hope to understand.