A Link

The sands blew across the dunes, the abrasive particles getting under clothing and into boots and equipment. Rosellina had covered herself with a cloth head wrap and long robe to keep the worst of it off her, but even so the sandstorms of Tanaris could come unexpectedly and cover an area with new, freshly blowing sand and dust at a moment's notice.

The sun was starting to rise as she made her way across the final set of dunes, her journey nearly complete. She had been let ashore in the darkness of the night near the wreckage that was once the Steamwheedle port. The area was rife with piracy, and the 7th Legion submarine's captain had wanted to move with some degree of stealth to avoid open conflict; it was supposed to be a top secret mission after all.

Once ashore, Rosellina had set out on foot for Gadgetzan. They'd estimated that it would take her the remainder of the night to reach the town and she'd made fairly good progress. The sun was just starting to peek over the ocean behind her as she approached the gates, her form still wrapped in the protective clothing.

The goblin guards there took one look at her and drew their weapons, setting shields and preparing their brutal looking maces for work. Rosellina paused, surprised by the reaction and keeping herself very still, her hands far from her body to show she meant no harm. The goblins chattered amongst themselves, calling out for others and soon there was quite a crowd of them, several of them leveling rifles at her.

"Put your hands on your head!" one of them shouted. Rosellina complied as two of the goblins approached her, weapons in hand.

"I-is there a problem..?" she asked.

"Yeah, we don't let Waste Wanderers into the town," one of them spat back. "You people should know better than to just walk up here with all the raiding you do. 'specially after the Cataclysm. You think we got a bunch of spare supplies for you to make off with here thief?"

"W-what...W-waste Wanderer? I don't know what you're talking about-" Rosellina began.

One of the guards shoved her with his shield, forcing her forward, "Shut up sand trash! Don't need ta hear your excuses. We'll be taking your gear and you can go right back out into the dunes where you belong."

Rosellina paused, despite the shield prodding her towards an area where the goblins obviously meant to strip her of her things, "I'm a citizen of Stormwind, and you will treat me as such. I have no idea why you've mistaken me for a desert wanderer but I've had about enough of this."

"Oh is that so toots?" one of them smirked. He looked over at the other guards and Rosellina quickly found herself being restrained by a goblin on each arm, her legs kicked from behind to knock her over. The goblins stood over her, maces held and ready to bash her skull in if she resisted. "Lotta nerve coming in here and acting like you've the right to."

They began to remove her things from her, starting with the clothes used to cover her from the sands and continuing with her swords. Rosellina quickly found herself stripped down to a tank top and devoid of weapons, the goblins forcing her into a sitting position. One of them smiled, reaching down to grab a chain at her neck. He blinked in surprise as two shiny metal tags were pulled free from the top of her tank top.

"What's this then...?" he said, turning them over in her hands.

"Those would be my 7th Legion dog tags. I told you I was a citizen of Stormwind," Rosellina said, giving the goblin a hard stare. Although she was not actually a member of the 7th Legion, the disguise had been part of the mission parameters and she was glad now she'd been carrying the credentials. In a more firm tone, she addressed the rest of the goblins, "I WAS sent here to look into the purchase of arms and armor, but apparently you don't want 'my kind' to ruin the atmosphere of your town, so, you know, we can spend all of the gold I was allotted to contract with you elsewhere."

"Whoa! Whoa now, let's not be hasty!" the goblin said, eyes wide. He turned and snapped his fingers, gesturing to Rosellina's things. "Let's give the nice lady her pigstickers back and get the Boss down here eh? He can sort this out."

Rosellina smirked as the goblins scrambled to return her things, strapping her sword belt back on. She shrugged when they handed her the robes back; there was no point in covering herself up in the town, and if they were going to think she was a local Waste Wanderer wearing the garb she'd rather not worry about it. A minute later a goblin in a very expensive looking suit with golden rings on his fingers appeared gesturing to her to follow. She walked over to him, falling in step beside him as they made their way through the town. Rosellina could not help but notice a few stares directed her way by the people within the walls.

"Look lady, we're real sorry about all of this trouble," the goblin said. "My name's Blazer, and I run a bit of business out of town here having to do with the merchandise you're looking at. You shoulda just told the boys at the gate you were with the 7th and the Alliance. You gotta excuse them, but you are the spitting image of one of the bandit lords that rules out in the sands out there."

Rosellina paused, feeling as if she were slapped, "B-bandit lords...? W-what...?"

Blazer turned and looked at her, smirking, "Come on now, can't pretend like you don't know you look like one of the natives eh? Look at you. Not only that, but your face and the color of your hair's the spitting image of one of the worst of the raiders out there on the sands. You related to those people or something?"

"I-I...I don't know," Rosellina murmured, filing the information away for further investigation. "I-I'll have to study that a bit later...a-after we d-deal..."

"Whatever you want toots," Blazer replied with a smirk, turning to keep walking. "That's the other thing I wanted to mention before you get your hopes up. We already got a buyer here today, and he already put down coin. Not sure if I'm gonna be able to sell you any stock today, although we can cut a deal for new weapons once they're made eh? I always like to get some wet ink down on a new contract."

With that he turned and lead her towards one of the goblin dwellings there, pushing aside the curtain that made up the door. Rosellina ducked as she entered behind him, her eyes adjusting to the dim interior. When she was finally able to see, she saw there were a few goblins sitting around a conference table, coins laying on the wooden surface and their buyer sitting at a chair at one end of the table. Rosellina's eyes widened as she took him in.

It was a blood elf with long blonde hair and glowing fel green eyes.

Tension instantly ran through her, and her hands darted to her swords. For his part, the Sin'dorei jumped up from his chair, his hands reaching into the sleeves of his robes; sleeves that were more than large enough to contain blades. For a moment human and blood elf just stared at each other, the potential for violence between them almost a thing that could be tasted on the air.

"Hey hey! None of that in here," Blazer complained. "You two wanna make moon eyes at each other, do it outside and we'll just call the whole deal off."

The blood elf smirked, relaxing only slightly and breaking his stare off with Rosellina, nodding at the goblin, "Very well. Our business here is through then. I'll take possession of the shipment in two day's time as we discussed. I'll let you get to your other, less important business now."

He looked at Rosellina as he said this, his lips rising in a half smile as he walked past her. For another moment brown eyes locked with fel green eyes, the promise of a future battle unspoken between them. Rosellina shook her head after he'd departed, looking over to Blazer.

"Yeah so, the elf bought all our stuff up for the next week," he said. "If you wanna wait around though, we might be able to produce more. There's an inn across the way where you can stay while we work it out."

Rosellina considered the situation carefully, thinking about how she would continue with her mission. Her objective was to find the weapons that were getting into the barrens, and identify which Sin'dorei had been making the arrangements from House Falconoak. It looked like she'd just stumbled upon the very information she was seeking.

She smiled at the goblin, nodding and looking out through the thin curtains across the doorway, watching a lean Sin'dorei form as he walked away towards a private residence in town.

"Yes, I do believe that will work just fine," Rosellina replied with a smile. "I'll stick around for a bit, and see what kind of deals there are to be had."

It was going to be an interesting mission; she could tell already.