Beckyann moaned, feeling entirely out of sorts as she regained consciousness. Everything was a hazy fog for a moment as she tried to recall what she'd been doing just before the current moment. It was difficult to recall, the feeling vague as if it had happened to someone else.
She knew that she and Red had been examining some sort of device, maybe goblin or gnomish in nature, that had been looted from a Kor'kron encampment. She couldn't remember exactly what the thing had looked like, but they'd theorized that maybe it had been used by the enemy to send spies in amongst the Alliance or perhaps amongst the rebel Horde. Beyond that her memory failed her. Had they managed to activate the device? Where was she exactly and why did her head ache like this when she shouldn't feel it at all?
She blinked, clearing the fog from her eyes and looking around. She wasn't in her own quarters, that was for sure. She sat behind a desk that had neat stacks of papers on it. Quite a lot of them. In fact, there were so many papers that she immediately felt pity on whoever had to process all of them. Looking around further and seeing little in the way of decorations and much in the way of cobwebs, she came to the conclusion that she was in Red's office, without Red. She brought her hands up to her head to lean on as she thought.
Only, her hands were giant claws. Also there was the little fact that her head seemed to be totally covered in hair, including her face. In absolute shock she put her hands on the desk before her, her mouth hanging open as she saw two large male worgen paws. What was going on...?
She rose from the desk, stumbling sideways as her balance was thrown off. She looked down and gasped in shock to see an armored male worgen's body. Not only that, but the armor looked suspiciously familiar. With dread growing in her heart, Beckyann reached up again to her head, this time touching where her hair should be rather than her face. As she almost knew would be the case, her hands came back down with a battered old hat, a hat that was as familiar to her as the inside of Acherus. She could still see the black marks where her tears had stained it once.
"Having problems, dear?" a voice said. Beckyann whirled, eyes wide as she saw the outline of a ghostly woman sitting on the edge of the desk, a smirk on her face. "I know that's not you, just so you know. I know when his spirit isn't there. We're connected."
"H-how...b-but....w-what...?" Beckyann sputtered, her eyes opening even wider as she heard a guttural worgen voice come out of her mouth. She stood silently, blinking at the ghost of Red's wife in shock.
She laughed, shaking her head, "Playing with magic that you don't understand I would guess. It's a good thing you're not really my daughter. You'd be a willful and naughty child if you were."
Beckyann simply shook her head, backpedaling away from the ghostly woman and turning towards the door, opening it clumsily before dashing out into the hall, ghostly laughter following after her with a final thought thrown in, "I can't imagine how bad his day must be going!"
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She ran down the hall towards her quarters, ignoring the startled looks of Knights on duty who were not used to seeing the General dashing through the corridors. As she approached the door, Beckyann put her hand out and slapped it against the wards she used to keep her rooms secure.
The second her paw hit the warded door the wards triggered, dark necromantic energies flowing through the mark and into her hand. The spell triggered, hurling her backwards with a blast as the ward failed to recognize the hand pressed against it. Beckyann hit the far wall of the corridor hard, sliding down the stone wall with the scent of burnt fur in her nose. The fact that she was able to smell was a mere curiosity compared to the burning ache in her hand.
As she lay on the floor, two shadows fell over her. She looked up to see two geists looking down at her. She blinked once, one furry eyebrow raised in question.
"WHY ARE YOU LAYING ON THE FLOOR?!" the first geist yelled directly in her face.
"GETTING LAZY NOW, WOULDN'T YOU SAY?!" the second one added.
"W-well you see I..." Beckyann began. She was immediately cut off.
"THAT'S A STUPID REASON! YOU SURE YOU DON'T WANT TO RECONSIDER?" the first one yelled.
"IS THE FLOOR BETTER TO LAY DOWN ON THAN YOUR DESK CHAIR? OR DO YOU MAYBE NEED LIKE A DOGGY BED OR SOMETHING? IT'S HARD TO SEE YOU IN THE DARK! SOMEONE COULD STEP ON YOU!" the second one added.
Beckyann groaned, rolling over and getting to her feet slowly, "N-no, I'm not laying on the floor. Light why are you two yelling everything?! Just go away!"
"OKAY! BUT TRY NOT TO LAY ON THE FLOOR ANYMORE! PEOPLE ARE WALKING HERE!" the first one yelled merrily. The second one nodded, nearly bumping into Beckyann as it followed the first one. She rolled her eyes, turning the other way and walking towards the observation deck.
Once there, she chanted the spell to summon her gryphon, waiting for the creature to land. She'd wanted to get into her quarters to look in a mirror, but the reflection from water would have to do. She wasn't about to search Red's desk for a mirror, not that she expected him to have one anyway. In the sky a speck appeared as her undead mount descended. She watched impatiently as it landed, her arms folded across her broad chest.
The undead gryphon landed before her, and rather than hiss at her and attempt to bite her, it dipped its head obediently. Beckyann's ire shot up about three more points as she realized the creature was being respectful to Red when it was aggressive towards her. She snarled at it, startled to hear an honest-to-goodness actual snarl come from her mouth. Shocked, she backpedaled away, shaking her head and fleeing from the rather confused looking undead creature.
Ignoring the startled looks of the Knights on duty, Beckyann dashed back down the corridors, admiring the fact that she could run much faster in a worgen body than her own. She shook the thought away, refusing to get used to the entire situation as she re-entered Red's office and slammed the door closed. She pointedly ignored Nicole as the ghost sat demurely on the edge of the desk, smirking at her.
She sat down at the desk, resting her head in her hands. The moment of peaceful contemplation of the situation lasted exactly one minute before the door opened and a Knight came in with a stack of paperwork. He looked at Red and nodded, placing the paperwork in the bin labeled 'in'.
"Here you go sir, more requisitions," the Knight said.
Beckyann rolled her eyes, feeling waspish, "Am I supposed to say thank you or something?"
The Knight tilted his head, looking at Beckyann with curiosity, "Sir? Is that a question you wish me to answer?"
"I don't know! And why are you looking at me like that?" she snapped.
"Oh, well I just think it's great what you've done, sir," the Knight replied.
"D-done...?" she replied.
"Well, yes. You've managed to finally get rid of that terrible accent you had. I mean really, it wasn't very 'general' like if you ask me," the Knight replied.
"I didn't ask you actually," Beckyann snapped. She could feel a temper tantrum coming on and knew she couldn't give in to it in Red's body. It would be bad for his image as a commander. As long as she avoided looking at the ghostly Nicole who was outright laughing at her now she thought she'd be able to hold it together.
"Is there anything else you need, sir?" the Knight said, frowning. "You seem a little...out of sorts today."
Beckyann was about to snap at him a second time when she managed to pause and rein in her temper, "Yes actually, there are a few things I need."
With that she took out a fresh sheet of paper and a quill and jotted down a few things, handing it to the Knight. He looked at it, his facial expression priceless as he read over her requests. "This...is a bit unusual, sir. You want all of this brought here...?"
"Yes. All of it. Now," she replied, nodding.
Shrugging and giving her a 'I think you're crazy' look, the Knight turned and left the room. Nicole watched Beckyann suspiciously as she sat there smiling to herself, awaiting his return.
*************************
Thirty minutes later Beckyann was admiring herself in the mirror, noting the way Red's freshly washed fur looked much better now that it had been shampooed. The wet dog smell was unfortunate of course, but it would fade once she put the scented oils on to mask it. She had no idea how he managed to walk around without taking care of such simple maintenance for himself, but she'd be damned if she had to spend more hours in a corpse that was not in its prime condition.
After a moment, she studied the reflection in the mirror, attempting to focus as hard as she could. Although her body shook, she was unable to force the corpse to take on Red's human form, try as she might. After a while she shrugged, figuring there was some trick to it that she didn't know about. It was a shame because she was quite curious about what he'd looked like in life.
"Oh well," she murmured, setting the mirror down. She could already feel the magic of the device they'd triggered starting to fade, and she nodded a goodbye at Nicole.
As consciousness began to slip from her a second time, Beckyann swore that if Red had messed up her quarters he was a dead worgen. She also swore that she'd never do his job or wish to be in his shoes ever, for as long as her undead state lasted.
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