Matuscarantos

  Ceritas's summoning finished first. A Night Elf appeared near his roots. Standing 7 and a half feet tall, and being unusually muscur for an elf, this guy looked ready to y the smack down on anyone making fun of his excessively long pointy ears. However, I suspected that from his tool belt and well appointed clothing, this almost blue skinned fellow was more of a craftsman, than a brawler. His well groomed dark purple hair was a fg as he took in everything with glowing silver eyes. As he spotted me he smiled, and came over.

  "Ishnu-ah." A melodious baritone. Sigh, he was going to steal all the girls, I just knew it. Now, I was sure what he said was a common greeting, but I couldn't remember precisely what it meant. I certainly didn't know a proper response.

  "Sorry, I don't speak Darnassian." I should've paid more attention to all the lore bits in the game, but I never could help wanting to rush ahead to the fights. The thrill of the hunt, and the joy at every level up, I missed that rush.

  He cocked his head at me, while tapping his chin. Then he seemed to brighten up and began rummaging around in his toolbelt. He pulled out an earring and fitted it to his left ear. It seemed to clip on and a small spark leapt from the earring's sparkling blue stone to the Elf's ear. .

  "Can you understand me now?" He tried again. He was still smiling as if everything was going his way.

  "Sure. A transtion enchantment?" Hmm. Was he the enchanter or did he find the magical accessory?

  He nodded a bit too much. "Yes! Isn't it great?" His fangs were gleaming white, his smile was hurting my eyes as well as my sanity. "I'm Ethrisal Mirer, Enchantmaster. Pleasure to meet you!" It felt like he was trying too hard, but I could tell this was just how he rolled.

  "My eyes... Sorry, I'm Guy," I shook his hand, then I picked up Ryll, " ...and this is Ryll." The dragonling trilled at him. "What does being an Enchantmaster entail?" I shouldn't have asked.

  The nearly ten minute long expnation that followed, could be boiled down to; he was about as good with enchanting as a being could get, and had started studying other crafts. If it could be considered a Profession, he had a little bit of skill in it. which caught my attention immediately.

  "Wait, you're not just limited to two main professions?" My game knowledge seemed to be becoming less and less useful by the the day. Was there even a Burning Legion out there? Nope, of course there was a horde of Demonic beings out there, my luck was rarely good about not finding trouble.

  "Great Trees, no! Why would you think that?" He sounded genuinely confused by such a prospect. So you could learn whatever you could keep in your head. that was an advantage.

  Thankfully, before he could further elucidate his points, we were interrupted by the arrival of Borasis's summoned Elf.

  A string of liquid Elven nguage filled the air. I really wished I had one of those transtor earrings right now. That sounded amazing. Her voice was a warm silvery soprano, lilting and slow. Every word slightly drawn out. I understood none of it, but I wanted to, very much.

  Her intricately braided silver hair matched her bzing eyes. Her fwless skin was a shade of purple that was almost pink. She wore a type of leaf mail armor. Literal green leaves, though I had no doubt them were capable of protecting her. She stood about 6'11" and had a solid but slim build, and she seemed to dance her way towards us on the tips of her feet. The bded polearm she walked with looked menacing indeed. I admit I liked what I saw, but I was sure her looks were as much a weapon as the give at her side.

  Ethrisal greeted her, but I was much less interested in hearing him. Then he turned to introduce me. I heard my name. Hers was Selimaeth Surestrike, a Warmaster. She gave off a simir no nonsense vibe as Jar'thal.

  Ethrisal elbowed me lightly, "Hmm. Don't let it get to you, Guy. She's taken vows to Elune at some point. The Goddess likes to give her favored the gifts of beauty, amongst others. Whatever you do, don't follow her into the forest alone, on the night of a full moon." His grin actually became brighter, and wider. Seriously my eyes might never recover at this rate. I was also certain he was fucking with me right then.

  Ethrisal patted his toolbelt down and found another one of his transtion earrings. Handing it to me, he added, "I'll make more ter. Though do try to pick up some of our tongue at some point. It will make things easier in the long run."

  I sighed, more sitting around and learning. Fine, I'd try to make time for it. I put the earring on, and much like the transtor circlet that Martann had given me, things changed almost immediately.

  "Hostleader, I look forward to working with you." Selimaeth's voice rang loud and clear. Her expression was fixed into a perpetual unimpressed mask.

  "And I you, Warmaster." I had a feeling I'd be training with yet another fighting style soon enough.

  I brought the two of them up to date on everything. And the other summons all arrived as we were talking. After a quick pause to assign them tasks, I continued. Finishing with some of my ideas for the future.

  "Interesting. I thought those patches of skin to be an odd form of scarring. That your eyes didn't glow, I though you had yet to partake of the Waters of the Moon, for some odd reason." Selimaeth stood at rigid attention, yet somehow still looked ready to float into a dance at the next second. "And I am more than willing to face the Scaled Ones in battle." She nodded.

  So my eyes might start glowing at some point? I'd need some shades. Jackie'd probably make fun of them otherwise. at least I'd have some protection from the Enchantmaster's ever bright smile.

  "We'll take the other Kaldorei under our wings and coordinate with your Protoss friends as best we can. I hope we can understand each other, my transtors were not really designed with thoughtspeech in mind." Ethrisal looked at the Protoss Vessel and buildings with fascination. I could feel his mind marveling at the possibilities.

  "To think, they too would count as Children of the Stars, in a way." Selimaeth pondered, she caught sight of Jar'thal. "Excuse me, I'll see if we can communicate without the transtion devices." She stalked after the Praetor, the Cssed Night Elves following in her wake.

  "I'll explore a bit, see what I can find." Ethrisal wandered off, his craftsfolk in tow, leaving me blessedly alone again.

  The Kaldorei seemed far more independent than the Protoss, and I was absolutely okay with that. As long as they followed orders when it mattered.

  I'd had enough interpersonal interactions for the day, I retreated to the area by my bunker. To rex and clear my mind I practiced my Martial Forms. I let the motions drain my tension and empty my thoughts.

  Ethrisal, I couldn't say I liked him at first gnce. He reminded me too much of a used car salesman. I knew I didn't have much of a leg to stand on there, but still. However, I also knew I'd probably get over that reaction in time. As long as I didn't go blind from his overly shiny teeth. Seriously, what did he do to them?

  Selimaeth, would likely work out fine. Despite the Enchantmaster's expnation, I wasn't that enamored of the fierce Warmaster. She was beautiful, but I knew all too well that glittery things often hurt you the most.

  As a fun reward for my diligent practice, the new Reaver was ready as I finished settling my mind.

  Now let's see if the Naga could handle staggered releases of the Scarabs.

  Frustratingly they could, but they paid a price for it. A few more Naga were removed from the rooster and my gold stores grew as I offered the test kills to the System. The tower even had a nice wide crack starting from the ground and reaching almost to the top. One more mistake on their part and that tower would fall.

  Yet soon after our test barrage, one of the four armed females taller than the rest, perhaps a Priestess, slithered towards the cliff under a white fg of truce. Truth be told, I didn't even know that was a thing here.

  "Landdwellersss," Oh good the transtion earring worked on them too. Or she had her own way of making herself understood. "We are defeated, we will depart and bother you no further. Please do not pursue us with your mighty weapons." She was not very convincing, the Naga didn't believe in mercy. There was no way they'd ask for it, except as a distraction. I heard the Kaldorei snicker or grumble from beside me. They knew the nature of the depth dwellers, better than I did.

  "Alright, we'll just finish destroying that tower. Hope you don't mind?" I called back to her. Seeing if I could provoke her.

  She hissed in displeasure, "Foolish Mal.... Wise leader, of course you may do what you please to the tower after we leave." Her about face made it all the more certain they were up to something. She quickly left and soon after all of her fellow serpents swam back into the sea. What could they have in story for us next?

  "I don't believe they've given up for a second, do any of you?" I voiced my thoughts.

  I got a chorus of , "Noes."

  "Martann how is the underwater guardian project coming along?" I was trying a trick to speak vocally, but also project the proper thoughtforms at the same time. It seemed to work.

  'We should be ready to start production sometime tomorrow, Hierarch.' Martann answered quickly, he seemed a little more onboard with my ideas now, though I couldn't say what changed his mind.

  "Jar'thal, Selimaeth after the Reavers finish bsting that tower apart, take your people and see if the snakes left anything useful behind. Don't linger, and remember to fall back under the cover of the cannons if there are any surprises." I pointed at the beach then swept my hand to the east, "Once you finish sweeping the beach, guard the tree line while Martann builds a defensive line there. That way our craftspeople can search the woods for useful goodies, without worrying about a sneak attack."

  "Any Questions?" I got another round of "Noes."

  "Alright, Reavers finish off that tower." I tried to hide the glee in my voice, but I doubt I did a very good job of it.

  Half a dozen Scarabs raced for the tower. They reached it and cmped on to various parts of it before they all went off at the same time. The initial explosion of blue energy was glorious.

  However, the dark energies that they were gathering in that tower were also released. This magnified the bst many times over. The bst wave swept over our position on the Cliff's edge.

  The Protoss shields, of each of the Photon Cannons, held firm. They were reinforced by the Shield Rechargers and kept us all safe. Fortunately, the dark bst wave petered out before it got to the Trees, or the Naga might still have achieved a small victory today.

  When we could see clearly again, there was now a small goon almost all the way to the cliff's edge.

  "I'm not usually one to compliment those snakes, but that was a pretty good pn on their part." I grinned, "Too bad for them, it failed. Though I'm sure there's got to be more to this little ploy. I don't know exactly how they think, but now would be the time I'd try to sneak a force behind my opponent." I turned and jogged to the Southern cliffs. All the Tempr and Cssers followed me.

  Yet there was nothing going on back there. Martann added that the western Observer detected nothing. He had it do a quick sweep to the eastern side of the Isnd. Nothing.

  Jar'thal thought to me, 'Perhaps they seek to make us jump at shadows.'

  "Could be. They understand treachery and deceit very well." I rolled my eyes across the violent surf below, almost willing the Naga to pop up.

  What could they be cooking up?