Broken - Part II

GAME: WORLD OF WARCRAFT
CHARACTER: KALEYEN

Light laughter and whispers could be heard from the small valley where the unit of young Blood Knights made their rest. Small groups of three to four spread out to converse amongst themselves, some were trying their hand with the dice while others were spinning tales of wine and women. It had been almost an hour since their commanding officer left to check out the road ahead, however with the heavy rains it was only to be expected that travel would be slow and they were all grateful for the chance to get off their feet. The young white haired adept went from group to group checking on the men and women he was left in charge of. Coming up towards the last of the groupings he sat down and grinned at the three men encompassing the circle. Before he could react an arm reached out and wrapped around his neck putting him into a head lock.

Kaleyen ducked and tried to pry the arm away from his neck without much success, rolling his eyes he tried to speak with his most authoritative tone "Tch, let me go Finis".

Finis smirked from ear to ear as he only tightened the hold on his friend. "Ah take it easy snowball, I'll let you go only if you promise to let me meet her when we get back this time" his voice full of laughter as he let his childhood nick name slip. The two other men within the circle couldn't help but to burst out laughing, clutching their sides as they fell over.

Through narrowed eyes almost filled with tears from laughter they both spoke almost in unison "Who started calling him that?". At this point Kaleyen was doing his best to get out of Finis' hold, he needed to try to salvage what remained of his dignity and the first step was to get free.

Finis feeling his friend struggle took it upon himself to answer "My older sister is the one who first started it. Out in her travels she managed to end up in Winterspring over on Kalimdor for awhile and when she finally made it back home the first sight she saw was Snowball here and I playing Blood Knights and Ghouls," he paused briefly as Kaleyen settled down and folded his arms across his chest and just glared at his life long friend.

"It was a rather warm day, and we were both sweating from running around and Snowball here had the great idea the day prior to cut his own hair short. So when she came to look at us his hair was all poofed and fizzled up in a ball on, well around his head. Thus Snowball was born."

Finis finished the story with a grin, taking pride in causing another outbreak of laughter from his comrades. Kaleyen however didn't share his enthusiasm as he had hoped to have shed that aweful nickname when he joined the Blood Knights.

Letting go of his hold on Kaleyen, Finis laughed himself seeing the glare on his friend's face. Sitting back on his heels Kaleyen took both his hands and smoothed out the hair on his head, making sure that there wouldn't be a repeat of the horror story of his childhood. Turning to his friend glaring at him he folded his arms against his chest "I'll introduce you to her if you promise to not tell that story to anyone ever again, and to stop calling me that ridiculous nick name".

Finis put a hand on his chin and rubbed the small amount of facial hair he had in thought, a small grin starting to form after a few moments "You have yourself a deal Snowball!"

Groaning Kaleyen put his face in his palm "You're impossible."

Still grinning Finis sat back and stretched out his arms "I don't see what the big deal is, I mean you told me she is in training to become a Farstrider. That alone could help in mending things up with your father, sure his only son didn't follow the path of the family but if you two had little Snowball Farstriders then he couldn't stay mad at you!" Nodding at his own logic, Finis looked at his friend to see if he was following his reason.

"First off, my father doesn't even know I am training to be a Blood Knight, he thinks I'm off in the woods thinking about what path to take in life still, and secondly we just started courting, it's a little early...."

Kaleyen's voice trailed off as he lifted his head and perked his ears up. Something was off, the birds were no longer chirping and the small animals that were playing in the trees no longer were frolicking about. His friends stopped talking as the smiles faded from their faces, their eyes following Kaleyen's. Getting up to a crouching position, Kaleyen closed his eyes and started to breath in deeply, the air was stagnant and the wind had a hint of...dried blood. Grabbing his sword and shield, completely forgetting his helmet he shot up to his feet.

"Everyone fall in line now!" His voice carried authority, his friends who were joking around with him moments earlier were now on their feet armed with their weapons. Kaleyen felt a surge of energy, a battle was about to happen, what they were about to face he was unsure of. He shifted the weight of the hilt of his blade in the palm of his hand as he waited for the attack, just as he turned his head back to look over his men the sky darkened as the sun was shut out by bodies of rotting flesh.