Future VI

Eladea was in her beloved panther form, curled up by a small pool in the shade of Darnassus. Her ears pricked forward, listening as a long unheard hoot of a messenger owl was heard returning to it’s roost, and she lifted her head, sniffing the air. There was something familiar about the scent left in the trail of the owl’s path and she stood, stretching out her massive paws before her and arching her back. She couldn’t quite place it, but she knew it was familiar, and friendly. She ambled along the walkway toward the tree and saw the Duskheart girl also making her way – but at a much faster pace – to the same place. Ela narrowed her eyes and thought hard, still trying to place the scent in several thousand years of her own history, and her plodding quickened as well, as if drawn to it.

While the younger night elf retrieved the owl and gently rubbed it’s head, chattering softly at it, Ela approached and sat, curling her tail around her feet, still bewildered. Araeliea pulled the parchment from the tube and squealed, sending the owl fluttering. What on earth… Eladea let out a soft rumble in her chest and followed the girl as she dashed off, likely back to her father.

As she trotted along, it dawned on her and she stopped in her tracks, just outside the Duskheart home. The owl had come from the southwest. The familiar scent was - could it be? Were there still draenei on Azeroth? Eladea’s yellow eyes widened and her tail twitched anxiously, ears straining forward to hear the excited girl shout to her father.

Eladea could only sit back on her haunches as she listened to the nearby ruckus the message had created. If panthers could cry, certainly her eyes would be welling up at the tug of fondness in her heart. After her time with the Sha’nash, she had followed the Shadows of Argus, lead by Nhadiya, Maeorra, Arloth, Glyllena, and the human, Isadori. Ela had drifted away after the passing of the human, opting to return to Teldrassil and the ways of her people. She was always out of place with the draenei, even when the newer order was far more inclusive of the other races and other professions and talents.

And when the Exodar had finally taken off for good, she mourned briefly, the loss of good friends, sage defenders of her world, even if it was not their own. It was one of the reasons Eladea had elected to return to her people. She couldn’t bear to lose more people in her life, like the younger races who passed on within the blink of an eye of her own race, or the draenei who clearly longed to return to Argus. She stayed in Darnassus, taking comfort in the familiarity of where she was supposed to be.

But if there were still draenei on Azeroth… She thought hard. Why had they stayed? Ela chided herself for assuming that draenei were unable to survive for long with the majority of their kind returning to the Exodar and hopefully to Argus. Her head snapped up as she peered at the Duskheart home. What if it was herdraenei? The ones she knew and loved and fought beside for so many years?