Dinudeiros felt some pride when he was sent on operations like this. Sometimes, as a druid, it was hard to know where the Night Elf started and the beast took over. He was swimming deep beneath the waves, transformed into an orca. A killer whale, master of the sea. When he was underwater in this form he often felt more secure, then when he would be above the tide. His hearing adapted and what would sound muffled to his night elven ears, sounded like a symphony to his orca form. Here, underwater, everything was brimming with life. Small plankton floated around him, some weeds were always being dragged by the waves above, and the jelly fish joyfully sparkled with their nettling tentacles. It was never silent, underwater but often more peaceful. Dinudeiros always felt like humanoids had this tendency of being loud and obnoxious.
He knew that above the waterline somewhere, was his target. He was tasked by the Kirin Tor to place a 'tactical' mana bomb as the mages of the silver covenant put it. Apparently using mana bombs was only immoral if the blood elves resorted to such tactics. Dinudeiros was spending time in the Emerald Dream when Theramore got bombed, but he was told of the horrors. He sure hoped that the Kirin Tor knew what they were doing, as he didn't feel very comfortable with holding a volatile explosive in his flippers.
The idea was for him to bring this tactical mana bomb to one of the Sunreavers' ships, attach it to the hull, activate it and get out of there, before the explosion would be triggered. The only downside to the plan was that if he would get caught, the Sunreavers could disarm te bomb or worse, make it explode right in his face.
Dinudeiros did not encounter any difficulties locating his target. The Sunreavers had engaged quite a large fleet at the Isle of Thunder and he was supposed to bomb one of the flag ships. Something deep inside him wanted to give warning to the blood elves before he attached the bomb. Give them some time to flee or an added chance to survival. But he knew the Horde wouldn't spare any members of the Alliance either.
This conflict between the Horde and Alliance had been a long war, but he didn't know if it was a just war. Dinudeiros assumed to he just kept fighting to protect the ones close to him. Moving from one crisis into the other. He didn't like standing still and thinking too much about it. If he was completely honest to himself, being able to turn into predatory animals had also brought him a sense of might and a knack for drawing blood. When he was stalking around like a giant cat, he didn't often feel remorse for his victims.
Now that he was handling the mana bomb, he did feel kind of nervous. He was not used to the ways of the arcane and the Night Elves had long mistrusted any use of this kind of magic. Attaching the bomb to the hull did come quite easy. Now he had to change out of his aquatic form and turn into his humanoid self. Not only did he need to hold his breath for a while, his vision blurred, and he was sure it would be easier to spot him now. The Kirin Tor had instructed him on how to activate the bomb and he would only have a few seconds to dive away to safety. He started feeling nervous and he felt like he was wasting his breath because of it. "Three turns right, and two left", he thought to himself while he held the installation method in his shaking hands. He could hear a soothing sort of click. Now the bomb started glowing in different hues of blue and it made a sort of bubbling noise underneath the water surface.
Panicky Dinudeiros pressed his legs against the hull and he kicked himself into the deep while shape shifting back to the orca form. As an aquatic mammal his vision bettered and he could hear the activity of the mana bomb more clearly now. It kept making noise in a rather high pitch. He worried that the noise might attract some attention, but he didn't have the time to look or turn back. All he could do now was flee and return to the Kirin Tor's camp.
As the bomb exploded he could feel some kind of warm wave shivering through his body. He had expected a very loud bang, but it didn't come. Apparently a 'tactical mana bomb' was much more subtle. Dare he look back? He shouldn't, he didn't want to be seen in these waters. He dived as deep as he could and he passed the body of a giant leviathan. The Horde had controlled these same monsters when trying to defend Orgrimmar against the fleet of the Alliance. Even death, the monstrosity still scared him.
When he finally resurfaced at the beach, he was spotted by some Zandalari, before he could stealth around in his cat form. He was going to have to fight his way out of there. One of the Zandalari threw a thunder spear at him, he knew he wouldn't be able to dodge it, but he shifted into his bear form to be able to sustain the attack. The spear was able to thrust its way through his thick fur. It was sticking out of his shoulder, but he was able to bite off the pole. He would have to deal with the metal tip later. Dinudeiros embraced the pain and grew his rage. He tauntingly growled at the Zandalari and rushed into them at the same time.
The Zandalari empire had been the longest standing empire on Azeroth. They saw themselves as pure bred trolls and proud themselves in their height and power in comparison to what they called the 'lesser races'. This arrogance was going to be their downfall Dinudeiros thought to himself, as the Zandalari didn't run away from him, but engaged at full strength. There were four of them, one of them was a healer who stayed in the back, in the hope to heal his comrades, the one that had thrown the spear was now rushing into Dinudeiros holding a big two handed sword. The druid dodged the first strike, shattered the shin bone of his Zandalari adversary and then bashed in his skull with a strong swipe of his right claw.
One down, three to go. The Zandalari priest buffed his two remaining allies and called in a thunderstorm at Dinudeiros' position. The Night Elf used his build up rage, to encourage his body to heal, while he was being hit by small jolts of electricity. The pain was softly numbing his limbs, but he didn't lose any battle prowess. Now that he had bloodied his face and claws, he must have looked more fearsome to the Zandalari. Their approach got a bit more careful. One was using a pole arm and started prodding it from a distance. The druid was able to dodge all the attacks due to his heightened animal instincts, but he was not able to close the distance. While dodging the tip of the pole arm, he calmly backed away, and started focusing on the priest's movements. The other warrior didn't seem to dare and pursue the bear.
With an amazingly loud roar, Dinudeiros stunned the warrior, that hadn't dared to engage. He used this distraction to charge into the priest and prevent this Zandalari from casting. It was easy enough to rip through his clothes and before long the caster was bleeding profusely. The trolls shouted something at each other in a language he couldn't understand, but he was sure it was some kind of threat towards him. When he turned back to the other two Zandalari, he could see Sunreavers running towards them. Although he was sure he succeeded in stealthily blowing up the ship, this fight with the Zandalari did get the attention of the Blood Elves patrolling close by. "The enemy of my enemy is still my enemy", Dinudeiros thought cursing himself. He was not going to win this fight.
He trapped the Zandalari in roots springing from the ground and was able to put one of the Sunreavers into a cyclone. He finally switched into cat form and started sprinting away. He could reach an immense speed like this, but he wouldn't be able to keep this up for long. He tried diving under the roots of the tropical trees to shake off his attackers. Apparently he had angered the Zandalari enough that they forgot they too had an enemy in the Blood Elves. Dinudeiros knew he was running into Mogu territory as well. Soon he would have three different races chasing his ass.
He was able to break the line of sight for a moment and jumped into a hollowed out three. He quickly stealthed himself and climbed a little up the three. He knew no one could see him like this, but he shouldn't make any noise now. Even though his enemies didn't see him vanish he was certain they saw him sprinting to this very three. As silent as he could he tried to move from branch to branch, hoping he could get a better view. His attackers weren't as patient. The Zandalari priest that was heavily bleeding just moments ago had been able to heal and was casting thunderstorms all around the tree in the hope of striking the cat. A Sunreaver mage was using the same tactic with arcane energy. Dinudeiros was moving over a large branch that was hunching over his attackers. He mused that they would never cast in their own midst as not to harm each other.
He was going to have to take some risks here. As he moved close and close to the end of the branch, it started bending. It would not be able to carry his weight for longer. Although the Zandalari and the Blood Elves had decided to chase this druid together, they didn't really trust each other. There was a small gap in between their positions. The agile cat jumped down right in between them. With the force of the jump however the branch he had rested one cracked loudly. His attackers all looked up and jumped out of the way of the falling wood. Dinudeiros held his breath and cursed himself another time. To his relief both the Zandalari and Sunreavers thought he must have been up the tree still and started to try and set fire to it. He was relieved, but not yet safe.
He decided to slow down on his way back and remain in his hidden form. He had encountered too many risks already. Wasn't it typical for the Kirin Tor to send others to do the dangerous work? On his way back the tension in his muscles released and his breath and heartbeat started calming down. Without any adrenaline rushing through his body however he started really feeling the pain of the spear tip in his shoulder. Of course the Zandalari wouldn't have been proper trolls if they hadn't poisoned it. He felt how his right front leg was starting to lose strength and feeling. He couldn't land on this paw anymore.
He made sure to look around for any other dangers and when he was positive about his safety he turned back into his humanoid form. The Kirin Tor camp wasn't too far now, and they would be able to patch him up there. You could see many things about the mages of Dalaran, but they always came prepared. As they knew they were going to encounter the Zandalari and their allies, they had brought plenty of anti-venom supplies.
As he was running onwards he could feel how the whole right side of his body started numbing. Now, not only his arm flapped around helplessly also his right leg failed him. He fell down and screamed for help. The only thing he could do now was hope that the Kirin Tor found him before the Mogu or the Saurok did.
"Howdy!" A squeaky voice made the Night Elf look up, a Gnome mage was staring at him. "It looks like your limbs have failed you. According to my anatomical diagnosis and anesthesia kit you have been poisoned. I assume that you are in a state of paralysis and pain at the same time. I know how paradoxical this sounds, but that's just the ways of facts. No denying them. Year hearing canals seem to be working properly though, so although you have turned mute, I am sure you can still be blessed by the soothing of my voice. Not to worry friend, I have already called in the help of nearby healers by using the waves of my Gnomecorder. Did you know that this device was first used to thwart the Horde assault back in Kalimdor? That's right friend! We gnomes have been able to safe some of your sacred grounds. Now don't get frightened as I am going to cast the Slow Fall spell on you. In normla conditions you could start feeling a bit ticklish, but as you are mostly paralyzed at the moment you won't feel a thing! This spell will, however, help us in carrying you to safety as it not only slows your falling speed, but with a slight adaptation of the cast it can also influence your relative body weight. I haven't been able to check into your identity yet, so for now I'll just call you druid. So druid, I will try to transport you to a slightly safer area. I'm not sure if you know this, but this tropical forests on this here island are swarmed by all kinds of danger. There is of course the local wildlife, followers of Zul the Zandalari prophet, we have some amazingly filthy Saurok surrounding us and of course this island was first inhabited by the Mogu. Well when I see they first inhabited the island I'm not telling you the full truth, am I? Did you know that we are in fact standing on top of a mountain? Now we haven't been able to measure or mathematically prove the full height of this mountain, but you'll be relieved to know that some of our best scientists in the Explorer's League or on the job as we speak. Well, as I speak to be completely factual. So before the sundering..."
Although Dinudeiros was not able to respond to the Gnome, he kind of wished he had been found by the Saurok first. At least they weren't as chatty. He started missing the calm of the sea. At least he would be able to report to the Kirin Tor, that the attack had been a success.
