Music- A Beckyann Short

The sound traveled through the forest, the melody haunting as it drifted on the wind. Distant at first, it grew louder as Beckyann pushed her way through the dense foliage. Around her, the carefully sculpted and tended forest seemed to sway with the sound, golden leaves drifting down from the boughs above here and there, the air like a warm caress on the skin.

Most of the beauty was lost on Beckyann as she pushed forward, her plate armor catching on branches and bushes as she forced herself through the terrain. She had moved into the thickest part of the wooded area to avoid being spotted by any patrols. She was, after all, in enemy territory. The thought gave her little pause as she peered through the bushes ahead, her baleful gaze seeking out the source of the music.

Ahead of her, a river ran through the white and gold forest, the clear water bubbling as it ran between smooth stones hidden beneath the surface. Flowered plants grew along the bank of the river, their colors beautiful enough even for Beckyann to appreciate. It was from the river's edge that the sound drifted, the gentle sound of a violin being played by expert hands. The melody was foreign to Beckyann, but the sound of the instrument was something she knew well, and she paused in the bushes, stopping to listen.

Her hearing was one of the few senses that she had which worked perfectly even in undeath, and her trained ears soaked in the sound of the music, the pleasure of just listening a feeling that she often no longer experienced in her new unlife. With the music all around her, Beckyann's mind wandered down the hallways of her memories, emotions stirring that normally were dormant.

She remembered when she was a little girl, how her mother would hum a particular tune to her as she brushed her long golden hair out, the sound coming over Beckyann's shoulder in a soothing wave. As she grew older, she came to realize that her mother always hummed the same exact song, and the melody became familiar to her.

When she was five years of age, she learned where her mother had heard the song. It was played by a small group of musicians who traveled through Lordaeron, making coin by selling tickets to listen to their art. They would revisit the areas they had previously traveled every few years, and Beckyann's fifth birthday was the first time they had come to Corin's Crossing. Her parents had scraped together what meager coin they had to get their daughter a ticket to listen, and along with many of the other townsfolk she had sat in the town hall in one of the reserved seats, her little green eyes wide as she heard the talented musicians play.

While all of the instruments were played beautifully, Beckyann was immediately drawn to the soft sound of the violin. The instrument's melody touched something deep within her, stirring her heart and emotions even as a child. As she grew older, she would try and save enough coin so that she could hear the musicians each time they came to the Crossing, enchanted every time by the sound. It was like a milestone in her life, marking the passing of the years and the steps she took towards adulthood.

When she left the Crossing for a brighter future, Beckyann always carried her appreciation of the instrument with her, and even learned to play it a little while in Dalaran, although she had never become an expert. The sound of the instrument would always affect her, reminding her of a simple time when life was good even in poverty and she was happy.

On the bank of the river, the blood elf who had been playing the instrument finished her song, carefully setting the instrument down beside her as she glanced out over the flowing water. Her hair blew playfully in the wind as she dipped her feet in the cool water, bending over to look down at her reflection.

Behind her, two glowing points of blue light appeared, and with a sharp and sudden pain several feet of runeblade was thrust through her body, the point exploding from the front of her chest in a shower of gore. The spatters of blood mixed with the flowing water and blurred the reflection of a mortally wounded elf, her mouth open in shock.

Beckyann smirked as the now-dead Sin'dorei slipped from the end of her runeblade, the body slumping halfway into the flowing river, blood streaming out into water. The elf had not heard the death knight as she'd approached, and killing her had taken only a moment. Beckyann had ventured into the forests of Eversong to do some scouting, given that she'd been fighting Sin'dorei for several days now unabated. The creatures liked to violate Alliance territory, and it was always wise to keep an eye on one's enemies, especially when they were so close to Acherus.

As she flicked blood from her blade and sheathed it, Beckyann smiled and bent down, scooping up the violin and studying it. It was a beautiful instrument, hand-made by the elves of Quel'Thalas and lovingly cared for. Even a very inexperienced player would be able to make beautiful sounds with it. With a happy look on her face, Beckyann slipped the instrument into its case, taking it and turning from her victim.

“Well, at least this trip wasn't a total waste,” Beckyann murmured to herself. She'd seen no build-up of elven forces, although given that she was very unskilled in the forest, she could very well have been walking in circles the entire time and have missed something.

With a shrug she murmured the words to a spell, opening a death gate. Perhaps there were more hostile elves within the beautiful woods around her, but she'd wasted enough time and had to attend to her duties. Later she would enjoy the fine instrument that she'd procured, courtesy of the Sin'dorei.