Kaledain & Khaotic

Couldn't think of a title for this one. Oh well.

Oh, and I got Khaotic into her first battleground (Arathi Basin). It lasted all of about 5 minutes and we lost miserably. If I'm remembering correctly, they 5-capped us at the end. >.<

One mark down, 29 to go. Then 30 each from the other 2 battlegrounds. /dramatic sigh


___________________________


The relative quiet of the Western Plaguelands was broken by the sound of two people arguing.

"Come on, Kaled, if you really didn’t see that bear just because you were distracted by an herb,” Khaotic was saying, “what kind of hunter are you? If I wasn’t watching your back, where would you be?” “Home,” laughed Kaled. “And probably still camping in the woods because I’d be too anti-social to buy a house.” She laughed with him. “You’re probably right. Now aren’t you glad I found you?” she said. “Wait, who found who?” he countered. “I seem to remember I saw you first.”

Their banter continued until they reached the Bulwark, there on the edge of the Plaguelands, and turned in the samples they had gotten from the Scourge cauldron. Then they headed back out again. “What’s next on the list, love?” Kaled asked. Khaotic scanned the notes that the Forsaken priestess had given them. “Umm, the Writhing Haunt,” she said, then checked their map. “It’s further south, near Andorhal.”

They reached the field and began methodically thinning out the undead, so they could safely reach the huge cauldron spewing something out into the air. Once at the cauldron, they searched the Scourge bodies for the one that held the key to the cauldron's spigot, then gathered the sample they needed and headed back again. “On our next trip out,” Khaotic suggested, “let’s get the kitties. They need to stretch their legs.” Kaled nodded, and Kechara hooted from her perch on his shoulder, sounding like she agreed.

Once they had returned and gotten Ashke and Alti from the resident stable keeper, they realized how late it had gotten. They promised the Forsaken there that they would return the next day to finish up, then headed toward the Undercity.

As they rode back home, Khaotic said to Kaled, “I would almost like to know what they plan on doing with the cauldrons. Somehow I doubt they’re trying to cleanse them.” “Not likely,” Kaled agreed, “but I’m not sure if we’d want to know, love.” She conceded the point.

They trudged into the house together and immediately shed their armor. Kaled racked everything while Khaotic started looking for something quick for supper. “I’ll have to clean this before bed,” he told her while he examined a tear in the leather backing of his chain shirt. “It has Scourge blood all over it.” Khaotic shook her head. “I imagine it all does, love. Come eat, then we can both work on it.”

They spent an hour working on the armor after supper, then finally went up to bed. Kaled was standing beside the bed, pulling off his shirt, when he heard a low whistle. He glanced over to see Khaotic sitting on the bed, looking at him with a mischievous grin. He gave an answering grin and stepped over, bending down to kiss her tenderly. She grabbed his belt before he could move away and pulled him down next to her, determinedly unfastening the buckle. He reached up and cupped her cheek in his hand, making her pause and look at him; he was smiling broadly. “O fulo osa, su balah,” he said softly, and she grinned back, then leaned in and kissed him soundly. He returned it, with a good bit of heat, then moved to her neck and shoulder as he reached to help her with her own shirt. She moaned softly and leaned back on the bed, and he slid closer to her. That was when they both heard a deep, blood-chilling growl.

They both looked up to see Alti at the top of the stairs heading toward them, his eyes fixed on Kaled, an unfriendly glint in them. Kaled cursed softly and moved away from Khaotic, but she grabbed his arm. “Nuashdie, Alti!” she commanded, and the lion obeyed, coming to a halt. She proceeded to scold him soundly, with a few choice curses thrown in. Alti stood still, eyes closed and ears flattened, while he took it all. “Anord, Altiuiqo. Baar,” she finished firmly, and he looked at her, his eyes calmer now, then with a quiet rumble he turned and went back downstairs, where he lay down next to Ashke.

Kaled gave Khaotic a shaky grin. “Maybe we should put him outside when we’re going to do this,” he said, but she shook her head. “He’ll behave now, or else we’ll have a new rug,” she said firmly, then reached for his arm again and pulled him close. “Now, where were we?”

* * * * * *

Later, as Kaled cradled her spoonwise against his chest, she said quietly, “We’ll have to watch him for now. I don’t want one of my pets turning into a killer. I don’t care how protective he thinks he’s being.” Kaled kissed the back of her shoulder. “I think he’ll be alright, love. He listened to you right away, so he’s not turning mindless or anything. He just worries, like I do.” She turned her head to look at him, and sighed. Then she twisted around in his arms to face him and kissed him gently. “Naaru burn me if I’m going to let my cat keep my husband from touching me,” she said, then she slipped out of his grasp.

She started down to the main room, but stopped when Kaled said, “Ahem, love?” She looked back to see him holding out a robe. She gave him an impish grin, then continued down, ignoring the robe. Kaled sighed, then watched her as she went down and knelt next to Alti. She spoke to him quietly for several minutes, the cat watching her raptly. Kaled caught a few words now and then; she was just speaking nonsense to him, her equivalent of baby talk, but the big lion was paying attention to every word she said, not even moving except to twitch an ear or blink at her. Finally she stroked his head; he pressed against her hand with a throaty purr. Then she stood and made her way back to bed. Alti watched her go but stayed where he was, and shortly he laid his head down and closed his eyes.

Khaotic clambered back into bed, climbing over Kaled to get to her side, then snuggled back into his arms. “He’ll be fine,” she said sleepily, closing her eyes. She opened them again abruptly as Kaled began rubbing her back and shoulders with both hands, and looked over her shoulder at him in surprise. “What, again?” she asked, and he chuckled. “Hey, you’re the one running around without even a robe on,” he said quietly as he pressed closer. She managed one laugh before he silenced her with a very thorough kiss.

_______________________

Running through those quests got them both almost to level 57. I'm going to go back & finish up the cauldrons, then maybe take them to Eastern Plaguelands. That will definitely ding them.

I'm having thoughts of just getting them up to the next PVP level bracket & seeing if it's any better there. If they hit 60 before they get their mounts, I have no problems with them buying the epic hawkstriders. Although Khaotic will be pretending she is NOT on a big pink/purple/what-have-you bird...

The commands Khaotic uses are not what you would get from speaking Thalassian in-game. I used a translator for them. Apparently what comes up in-game is different from "real" Thalassian. O.o