The Ironsong Tribe

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It had to have been close to a year. Perhaps it was even a little longer. For the paladin, it was rough knowing just when it happened.

Southshore had belonged to the Alliance since it was created so many years ago. The day Kardwel discovered the Forsaken had plague-bombed the entire town into nothing was a day he felt hollow. All he could remember was the dread that settled in his chest when he saw what became of the once lovely town. And all he could do was ask himself over and over again...did she escape? Did she somehow make it out alive? He revisited the area now, hoping to once again find some clue that would point him in the right direction. But amidst the Dark Rangers, the plague goo and what remained of the buildings, he once again found nothing.

Many of the undead here figured he was just checking in on the Horde's current situation. None of them thought to question him nor knew he was looking for a missing, human woman. Kardwel didn't come out here often, but every now and then he felt the urge to. Last night had been like that. Not because of a simple urge, but because he had seen her in his dream. And he didn't believe it to just be any dream, but an actual vision. She was speaking to him, but he hadn't been able to tell about what. Just that she had something important to say. And so it was that he had rushed out here to see if perhaps something would actually happen this time. It would be a lie if he said he didn't feel disappointment at once again seeing nothing.

Stepping back over to his steed after a while of searching, he sighed. Perhaps it really was just some dream. Mounting up onto the horse, he turned and began slowly heading in the direction of Tarren Mill.
Kardwel had spent the previous night in Tarren Mill but his dreams were disturbing, He kept dreaming of her. What was it she kept saying in the dream? "there is something I must tell you."

He had planned to head back to Silvermoon the following day, but somehow he could not go. Something was pulling him back...something in his gut. Maybe it was just wishful thinking, but he had to be sure, so instead of leaving he took another day and searched the ruins of Southshore again. Yet his search once again proved useless.

By the evening it was too late to return to the town and that was just as well with him. He wanted to be alone anyway and so found himself camped alone on a lonely stretch of beach with only the sound of the waves, his horse and a crackling fire for company. He sat quietly, poking a twig at the fire that was almost ready to die.

The horse whinnied, then panicked, then reared. Kardwel jumped to his feet with one hand on his blade. He reached out his other hand to calm the animal.

"Be steady...there is noth..."

The oceans roar crashed all around them. It would have been quiet otherwise...except that he heard a sudden whisper...as if someone was breathing it right into his ear.

"Kaaardwel."

He looked around trying to check his hearing...but there it was again.

"Kaaaardwellll."

He looked about but there was only the ocean waves.

"Help me."

That time he recognized the voice.

"Dis...paya?" He said out loud.

Something stirred in the water. He thought it at first a large fish or naga...a lost murloc perhaps...but no...the figure moved out of the waves...and then there were eyes. The eyes glowed but were dim. Kardwel dropped his blade and stumbled into the water. the figure slowly closed on him but he instinctively knew there was no danger. He reached it and held out both hands just as a sudden wave knocked the figure into his arms. It was frail and light and Kardwel pulled it from the tide easily. Once on the beach the two collapsed in the sand.

Two skeletal hands clung to him. They pulled him closer. the stench of a rotting corpse was almost unbearable. Kardwel looked down but did not see who he expected. He pulled away with a start and scrambled a few leg kicks away. The thing he pulled from the ocean was not her...it...couldn't be.

The creature was old and fragile. It was a corpse for certain and an animated one. It looked up at him with pathetic eyes only barely lit with their former unearthly glow. A hand reached out for him and grabbed only sand. He stared at it with pity and contempt. The corpse thing looked as if it had been lost at sea for many weeks. The skin was mottled and gray. Seaweed clung to it intertwined in what was once a head of long hair. The mouth was toothless and wrinkled. there was a hole in one cheek that looked as if something had chewed its way out. Still the taloned claws clutched for him. The thing whispered his name again.

"Kardwel...it is...me...Dis...payaaa."

Kardwel's green eyes opened wide at the realization. His mouth dropped open. He searched his mind for some way to understand, but finding nothing he regained his composure and crawled back to her gently lifting her head in his arms.

"Sunwell's grace..."

"Shhhh...Kardwel. My dear ....friend.

It was her voice...but it was older...much older...as if she had aged a hundred years.

He tried to think...to put it together somehow. She had left and had traveled through the caverns of time back to Southshore some 50 years in the past. He had gone there once also to see her but after he had returned he had assumed she had stayed there to live a happy life. He had been unable, forbidden even, to return. As a human she would have aged. She would have been some 70 years old in human years now. But this thing he held was no longer human but undead. It looked like the misshapen corpse of an old human woman that had just risen from the depths of the sea.

"Dispaya...how...what?"

She whispered softly to him. "The Forsaken sssent a...sssuprissse attack....bombsss....plague...they...hit...everyone wasss dying....their soldiers came in and killed the ressst. They...shackled me to a rock and cast me into the ocean so I might never be resurrected...but...the plague...made me...undead...once again...I lived yet I suffered....dead yet alive...unable to free myself....she tried to chuckle but it resulted in a cough as seawater dripped from her lips. "I...did not die...like the otherssss... but I am...sssooo...weak. the...Forsaken...have become so...very...cruel..."

"Dispaya...I will summon the others...we will help..."

"Nooo Kard...they cannot help meee...my needsss are beyond any of them. My undead life force isss weak and fading..."

"What do I...?"

She coughed as another burst of seawater escaped her mouth. "There isss...nothing you can do my friend...my time hasss come to an end..."

"No...I cannot accept that."

"Pleassse...there is not much time...there is...sssomething you musst know."

She raised a weak hand and pulled his ear closer as her words were trickling now to a whisper.

"I...wanted to tell you...but I feared for her safety. She...would not be accepted...in the world of elves...or...men."

"What are you speaking of...Dispaya..."



"Kardwell...you...we...have...a....daughter."



Time stopped for Kardwel in that moment. He remembered a single night they had shared now so long ago.

"What?"

"I had to...keep her safe...please understand...until it was time...until she could...fend for...herself. We have many enemies you...and I. Our races...elf...human...forsaken...none would offer her a...place...she was...in danger from the minute she was...born."

"Dispaya what are you saying?"

"...I cannot protect her any more..."

"Where is she?"

"She is...with the wizardsss...in Dalaran... they...took her in at my... request...they...hid her away...they taught her...I visited her whenever I could...she is so lovely..."

"Kardwel felt Dispaya's body starting to go limp in his arms. Her eyes had now faded to a faint glow in the darkness. Her face now lit only by the fading firelight. And perhaps that was for the best.

"Dispaya...what do I do?"

"There iss a key...here." She opened her hand and it appeared. "It iss the key to my vault...all of my possessonsss...pleassse...see that she getsss thisss. Pleasse tell her I am...sorry...I tried...to stop...

"Dispaya...what is her name...please...tell me!"

"Her name isss....K....she isss our daughter... "

With that the last of the light faded. Dispaya's eyes grew dark as the last of her life force finally faded. Kardwel held her in his arms well into the night. This time when he slept his dreams were peaceful.

He awoke as the swishing of waves wet his face startling him. During the night the tide had come in. He looked all around for Dispaya but her body was gone. Once again there was nothing other than the waves crashing over the sand. The ocean had taken her back.

Kardwel stood and looked out over the ocean and wept.

~~~

Tried to take it all away
Learn her freedom just inside a day
And find her soul
To find their fears allayed
Tried to make her love their own
They took her love, they left her there
They gave her nothing back
That she would want to own
Gold and silver rings and stones
Dances slowly of the moon
No-one else can know
She stands alone
Sleeping dreams will reach for her
She cannot say the words they need
She knows she's alone
And she is free
Ocean gypsy of the moon
The sun has made a thousand nights
For you to hold
Ocean gypsy where are you?
The shadows followed by the stars
Have turned to gold, turned to gold
Then she met a hollow soul (Kardwell)
Filled him with her light
And was consoled she was the moon (Dark haired - Forsaken)
And he, the sun was gold (Blood Elf)
Eyes were blinded with his light
The sun she gave (A daughter)
Reflected back the night
The moon was waning almost out of sight
Softly ocean gypsy calls
Silence holds the stars awhile
They smile sadly
For her where she falls
Just the time before the dawn
The sea is hushed
The ocean calls her
Day has taken her and now she's gone
Ocean gypsy of the moon
The sun has made a thousand nights
For you to hold
Ocean gypsy where are you?
The shadows followed by the stars
Have turned to gold, turned to gold
No-one noticed when she died
Ocean gypsy shackled to the tide
The ebbing waves were turning
Spreading wide
Something gone within her eyes
Her fingers, lifeless, stroke the sand
Her battered soul was lost
She was abandoned
Silken threads like wings still shine
Winds take pleasure, still make patterns
In her lovely hair
So dark and fine
Stands on high beneath the seas
Cries no more
Her tears have dried
Oceans weep for her the ocean sighs
Ocean gypsy of the moon
The sun has made a thousand nights
For you to hold
Ocean gypsy where are you?
The shadows followed by the stars
Have turned to gold, turned to gold


-OCEAN GYPSY by Renaissance