nightbane

“Um… Fall?”

Fallapart pulled her eyes away from the viewfinder on the Super Snapper with a huff of annoyance, glaring at Saelym’s back.

“What?” she snapped. Saelym shuffled a little, holding the blackened urn in her hands.

“Are you sure this is a -”

“YOU wanted the photo op, not me.”

“I know, but this doesn’t -”

“Shh, he’s coming!”

The spectre of the magnificant dragon rose in a blast of energy, his smoothly flapping wings creating a pulse that, rather than wind in the face, was more a thrumming, steady heartbeat that reverberated through their bones. The raiders behind her let out a collective gasp, their head priestess, Lauralie, murmuring a prayer as she clapsed her staff tight.

“Wow…” Fallapart breathed. Ahead of her, Saelym nervously took a few steps back toward the group. “Now that… is something.”

dragonflight

This photo was sent to me, undated and unsigned, by a raider from Nox Natus Iterim. The small caption on the back reads, “A collection of raiders. Storm Peaks.”

I asked Saelym the next time I saw her in Dalaran if she recognized any of the people in the photo, to which she explained that she is the elf on the netherdrake, but so much time had passed that she couldn’t remember who the others were.

the head of onyxia

I have a certain love for Orgrimmar. It was the first city I was ever commissioned to photograph, as part of a tourism campaign meant to counter the mercenary crowd that had taken over. It never really did work, not in the tourism sense, but Orgrimmar is still a bustling hub of activity day and night.

One quiet afternoon I found myself sitting on top of the bank, a favorite spot to people watch or to catch candid shots of wyverns taking flight from the tower, and I saw a huge team of peons raising an enormous pike into the air.

Soon, to my delight, the head of Onyxia was raised high above the sun-scored dirt, and the collective cheer that sounded across the commons was a deafening echo that shook the very foundation of the building I sat on.

cat killer

“Heeeere puss puss puss…” She snapped her fingers are the petite Siamese cat as it passed by, trying to get it to look at her. “Here kitty kitty, look at Auntie Sae!”

“What the hell are you doing?” Eternalash asked as he climbed the stairs behind her. “We’re getting ready to go, what could possibly…” He glanced at the cat and slapped a bony hand over his eyes. “You have got to be kidding me.”

“I want a picture before Vargos frost novas it this time!” she retorted, and snapped her fingers again. “Come on, Mister Biggle-wiggles-poo, look at Auntie…”

She trailed off in horror as a shimmering, red-eyes mass of spotted flesh and muscle appeared as if out of nowhere, landing with a snarl on the unprotected back of the small cat. She jerked back out of reflex, her finger pressing the capture button on the Super Snapper just as her beloved pet, Archaia, lowered her fangs to her fresh kill. Eternalash chuckled behind her.

“At least flash freezing it was humane,” he remarked, and tugged on her pontail. “Let’s go. Time to kill some gargoyles.”

preparing for battle

“Five minutes!” Tyraelus, their guild leader, yelled from across the stone platform. “Five minutes until we have this dragon’s head on a pike!”

Saelym glanced over her shoulder as she flipped the small magick cards in her hand, only half aware of Sasinko casting a summoning portal a mere arm’s legth away, or Vargos yelling that he was about out of conjured food and anybody not getting any in the next thirty seconds would be going hungry. Beside her, Onakoko, her best friend, shuffled slightly before nudging Saelym with one caramel-furred elbow.

“Well?” she asked. Saelym blinked and turned back to her.

“Huh?”

“Well?” Onakoko repeated. Saelym blinked, then shook her head as she examined the cards she held.

“Sorry,” she replied sheepishly. “Go fish.”

massacre

“We’re likely going to catch hell for this, aren’t we?” Saelym asked.

“Mmm…” Onakoko stared out across the large room where their guildmates were facing off with the Keepers of Wyrmrest Temple. “Best to let them work off their frustrations.”

“Feel like joining in?”

Onakoko cast a sly smile at her friend.

“I thought you’d never ask.”

rise

Curgle, being the cunning little misfit who convinced me to purchase my Super Snapper in the first place, was always interested in seeing what photos I’d taken, so occasionally I would make the long trek to Tanaris to visit with her. On one such occasion, she told me of some familiar names that had been helping out around Gadgetzan. No sooner had Taetra’s name left her lips than I heard the familiar whinny of a felsteed, and turned to find the young Warlock a short distance away.

She didn’t seem to recognize me from our brief meeting in Silvermoon just a few months earlier, nor did I expect her to. I didn’t make an effort to reintroduce myself, as I saw Kaliandra finishing her dealings with a merchant a short distance away and knew the two would likely be eager to move on. The felsteed, beautifully chaotic creature that it is, afforded me one incredible last shot before they disembarked. It would be one of the last times I would ever see Taetra Sorrowstar in person again.

hellriders

When the Blood Elves first came to the Horde, Silvermoon became a bustling hub of activity. Adventurers and raiders wanted to visit the beautiful city, and the Orb of Teleportation that joined it to distant Undercity made the trip quick and convenient, especially when coupled with the zepplin towers that waited just outside the Undercity’s gates.

I, however, wasn’t much in the mood to hang out in Silvermoon, and waited for quite some time before I bothered to walk the marble halls. It was much more peaceful when I visited for the first time, and was lucky enough to catch these two beautiful young Elves.

Taetra and Kaliandra would become very known to me through photographs submitted by Taetra’s older sister, Saelym, but very rarely did I meet the two in person. When I snapped this shot, they were just young adventurers themselves, hardly seasoned or experienced, having just learned the magick necessary to call their mounts to them as badges of progression.

duo

“Eternal!”

His expression was hardly cheerful, and lightened only a little when he saw Saelym running toward him across the vast vaulted room. Tossing his sharpening stone back into his pack, he rose curiously from his crouch and narrowed his eyes.

“What?” he asked. She grabbed his hand and pulled him slightly to turn him around, facing the Druid who was standing a few feet away.

“Smile!” Onakoko called, and he barely had time to shift his expression into a confused grimace before the Super Snapper flashed in his face. Before he could even think to launch a tirade of curses at the Hunter, she had darted away from his side.

“Damn warmbloods…” he muttered, and sulked off to the opposite side of the room.

glare

“Nice robes, hot stuff,” Kaliandra Mal’ashan commented with a grin. “Planning on seducing yourself some Scarlet boys?”

Cocking her jaw to one side, Taetra Sorrowstar levelled an icy glare on her best friend.

“Shut your mouth,” she snarled.

“Just walked in and picked the bustiest thing you could find, did you?”

They were standing at the entrance of the expansive library wing of the Scarlet Monastery, and with a group of the zealous humans standing only a few feet away, Taetra was in no mood to draw early attention to themselves, especially with her much more experienced sister still outside.

“They’re cute,” Kaliandra murmured, still going on about the new robe Taetra had picked up. It certainly wasn’t the rampant tomboy’s style, but as an aspiring Warlock she had to take any help she could get, and while the apperance offended her, she couldn’t argue with the magickal properties imbued into the smooth fabric. “Even you could find a man in these.”

“Get off it,” Taetra muttered, slapping her friend’s hand away.

“A woman, then?” Kaliandra suggested, and burst into laughter at the shocked, speechless expression that crossed Taetra’s face. Behind them, Saelym finally slipped through the door, her owl Baptyst at her side, and glanced sidelong at the girls.

“What’s so funny?” she asked.

“Nothing!” Taetra yelped before Kaliandra could open her mouth.

“Sure, sure,” Saelym replied, unconvinced. She edged to the corner of the short hall and pressed her hand to the stone, using her second-sight to locate the humans around the corner. “Ah, there they are,” she murmured, and when she glanced over her shoulder at the two girls, raised an eyebrow slightly. “Are those new robes?”