Wrathion’s Kiss

As she handed the last of the re-stolen vegetables to Farmer Yoon, Kamalia felt a sudden burning sensation on her forehead. It flared intensely for a second or two, then faded away.

Puzzled, she rubbed at the spot.
“Are you okay?” Farmer Yoon asked. “Your eyes turned red there for a moment. Come, sit down.”
He prodded her up the stairs, into the house, and onto a chair, then bustled around making up some ginseng tea while Kamalia tried to figure out what had just happened.
As he handed her the steaming mug, Farmer Yoon’s gaze fell on Kamalia’s mace. He frowned at the deep black gem glimmering on the pommel, and, shuddering slightly, hurried back outside.
Then Kamalia remembered. Only a few days after the Black Prince had given her that gem, she had visited him again with the news of the arrival of the Horde and Alliance warfleets on the shores of the Krasarang Wilds. He had received it with a rather childish degree of glee — but then again, she supposed, he was still very much a child, especially as dragons age — and challenged her to prove to him that the Horde was worthy to be the ultimate victor in the ongoing strife with the Alliance. Then he had done something entirely unexpected…

Without warning, Wrathion sliced his thumb and pressed it against her forehead. His blood burned to the touch, but rapidly disappeared into her skin.

“There!”, he said, “My eye is upon you, shaman. I am watching.

The Pandaren, like the Horde, value the concept of “Valor.” There are many ways to prove yourself valorous on this continent, from daily tasks to the defeat of heroic enemies within their lair. I will let you choose your own course.

Prove your bravery to me!”

That had been nearly three months ago. Much had happened in the interim. Blood and oil soaked the sands of once-pristine beaches in Krasarang Wilds. Pressured by Warchief Hellscream, the Sin’dorei had helped him obtain a dangerous ancient mogu artifact — costing the Sunreavers their neutrality — and the Horde’s foothold in Dalaran — in the process. The young Prince of the Alliance, at once wise and brave and very foolish, had destroyed the Divine Bell. It had collapsed on top of him. Kamalia did not know his fate, but she hoped that he had survived, somehow. At this worst of all possible times, the Shado-Pan reported that the ancient mogu hero, the legendary Thunder King, who had been stolen away and resurrected by the Zandalari trolls at about the same time as the Horde and Alliance first arrived on Pandaria, would soon return to his full, terrible strength. While the Warchief continued to press the battle with the Alliance in Krasarang, the displaced and utterly outraged Sunreavers took this matter into their own hands, hoping to show the Shado-Pan that at least some of the Horde were interested in honorably helping. Kamalia had helped them secure an outpost on the island where the Thunder King’s stronghold was located. She’d spent most of the last month there, fighting trolls and mogu and mogu and trolls and occasionally some saurok and more trolls and more mogu, until finally the way to the gates of the palace itself was cleared. She had carefully stayed out of the sniping between the Sunreavers and the Kirin Tor, who were leading the Alliance’s effort to aid the Shado-Pan. She had a handful of keys to the palace treasure room that she hadn’t yet mustered up the… greed to use. And yet.. and yet… after all of that, it was completing a simple task of service, one that Kamalia had done many times before and would probably do many times again, that had apparently been the final “proof of bravery” that Wrathion wanted.

Kamalia carefully placed the empty mug with the rest of Farmer Yoon’s dirty crockery, and, smiling, went out into the garden to tell him that everything was just fine.

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jumping games

Last night I was questing in Ighaluk Crag when I saw the Shoulder of the Chamberlain waaaaay up on the tip of a rock. I jumped around the base of that rock pile for several minutes, growing increasingly frustrated with my inability to understand the variables that control Saurok-form jumping. Why did sometimes I jump far and sometimes short? Why could I not get onto that one rock no matter what distance I jumped from, even when it seemed that the apex of my jump was high enough that if I jumped from just the right horizontal distance, I ought to be able to make it? Large muscle coordination has never been something I was good at in real life, either. Eventually I got so fed up that I looked in my quest log to see if the Crumbled Chamberlain quest rewards valor points. Upon finding that it doesn’t, only money and a Shan-ze Ritual Stone, I said forget this! and dumped the Head of the Chamberlain and the two other parts I’d already found right there on the beach.

Having run through the rest of the day’s quest sequence, I got to the Swollen Vault and found this little challenge awaiting me:

Despite an impressive and slightly intimidating number of skeletons on and around the pillars, I didn’t find that jumping game to be particularly difficult — well, this time, at least. Maybe it was beginner’s luck…

It reminded me of a cross between this:

and this:

So if the Swollen Vault’s lightning pillars are giving you trouble, you might want to go practice jumping in Blackfathom Deeps and staying out of the fire with Darwin.

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the Divine Bell

Yesterday, I became Revered with the Black Prince (I still have to gain 1.5K Valor for his other Test).
Today, I finally completed the Dominance Offensive Campaign.
Tomorrow, I start exploring the Isle of Thunder.

Because this is a very screenshot-heavy post, I’ve put the rest of it behind a cut:

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Kamalia, Pandaren Ambassador

Only a few days after my last update on Kamalia’s progress (or lack thereof), I finally defeated the last challenger at the Cradle of Chi-Ji.

Poor Ellia Ravenmane! I felt rather bad about having inadvertently played the part of recurring villain in her personal tragedy. I wish there could have been some way to truly save her.

During my first three weeks of running Wrathion’s Valor Point hamster wheel, I chose which faction(s) to do dailies for based on which one(s) I was furthest behind with. By this method, I got them to all be even with each other.

Yesterday, Kamalia had a very busy day indeed:

Now I can sail across Pandaria’s skies in true Pandaren style!

Yesterday’s questing put me just over the 4K Valor Points mark. Those last 2K Valor Points will come rather slowly, I fear. I’m only at 8/12 plot points of the Landfall storyline, so I still have several days of Dominance Offensive quests to do before I’ll be ready to start on the 5.2 isle o’ dailies. But I will have less motivation to do dailies for factions other than the Dominance Offensive now that I’ve finally gotten to Exalted with all the 5.0 factions. I stopped running heroics after I got Exalted with the Huojin Pandaren and the Bilgewater Cartel. I stopped running LFR after I got all the things I wanted from T14 — though I suppose I will start running T15 LFR as soon as it becomes available (will that be next week, or will LFR be delayed by a week from the opening of normal raids, as it has been in the past?).

My desire to do anything at all that rewards Valor Points is also being sapped by the amount of afternoon, evening, and weekend time that I now find myself spending on lecture prep. Some days, I can only muster enough energy for WoW to tend my gardens and scan the AH for the items on my Transmogrification shopping list. I love my job, though, and I am still so thrilled to have this opportunity to be doing exactly what I kept telling everyone I wanted to do with my career during my years of graduate school — Wrathion, you can go jump in a lake!

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lazing away in Halfhill and Sunsong

At first, I thought that perhaps I hadn’t gotten any Tauren alts to 90 yet because I wanted my Human Mage to be my second character to 90 so that I could score Dynamic Duo and Double Agent simultaneously. So I took Kinevra to Pandaria and found that I didn’t particularly want to play with her, after all. She’s back in Stormwind with early Paw’don Glade quests in her log.

After I’d thought about it a bit more, it occurred to me that BTH and I were making good enough time with our Monks (relatively speaking) that perhaps I’d subconsciously decided that I wanted my Monk to be my second character to 90. Once I’d consciously acknowledged that, however, I began to feel like maybe I was holding back some of my other high-level characters unfairly.

Perhaps what it really comes down to is this: I don’t feel the need to be out-and-about in Pandaria with alts because Kamalia, my main, still has so much to be doing out-and-about in Pandaria.

I confess that after I reached Revered with the August Celestials and the Shado-Pan, the only faction I continued to regularly do dailies for was the August Celestials — and even then, it was almost exclusively when it was Cradle of Chi-ji. Even so, I’ve reached Exalted with the August Celestials without finishing the Cradle of Chi-ji storyline, so I’m still visiting Sage Lotusbloom to see which AC wants my company today. Perhaps I shouldn’t have bought the August Celestials Grand Commendation, after all.

Also contrary to what I said previously, I did continue to run LFR after obtaining my Sha-touched gem. I still wanted the shield that Gara’jal drops, so I queued only for Guardians of Mogushan by myself each week until he finally coughed it up for me last week. I’d kind of like to make a Transmogrification kit to go with that shield, but mini-Kam is the one who has most of the pieces I think I’d want to use in it… sigh.

Wrathion’s quest for 6000 valor points gave Kamalia the stomp on the tail she needed to start doing dailies for the Shado-Pan, the Golden Lotus, and the Klaxxi again. After completing my Dominance Offensive dailies, and if the AC dailies weren’t Cradle of Chi-ji, I’ll go do one or two of the others, depending on my mood. On a couple of very ambitious feeling days, I’ve even done all three! By the time I’ve earned those 6000 valor points, I think I’ll probably have managed to finally reach Exalted with the Shado-Pan, the Golden Lotus, and the Klaxxi, too.

After three weeks of diligently capping out Kamalia’s valor points, though, last week I just didn’t feel like it. My semester (which began in the first week of February) was finally kicking into full gear. My upper division biochemistry lab class students had turned in their first lab report for me to grade. My general chemistry lab class had had its first meeting. And I had to prepare, give, and grade the first quiz of the semester for my general chemistry lecture course (a literally last-minute addition to my teaching contracts — the department chair decided to split the class and give the new second lecture section to me on the Friday before the Monday when classes began). So, I didn’t. I did play WoW, and I did do some dailies and some dungeons and get some valor points, but I didn’t expend any effort at all toward trying to cap my valor points. I suspect that this week will be much the same.

I reached Revered with the Dominance Offensive last week. Although I’ve purchased Grand Commendations for all the other factions, I decided not to buy the Grand Commendation for the Dominance Offensive just yet. I will wait until I’m Revered with Wrathion, too, before I do that. I’m about halfway through the Landfall storyline, having completed six of its twelve sub-achievements. Ideally, I’d like to reach Revered with Wrathion at about the same time that I finish the plot; I definitely don’t want to be coming back to Domination Point to grind Wrathion rep after I’ve completed the story. But any alts that I may decide to take through the Dominance Offensive/Operation:Shieldwall stuff? Yeah, I’ll want them to be able to do it at double speed.

And even when I do get to Exalted with the Klaxxi, the Golden Lotus, the Shado-Pan, and the Dominance Offensive, well, by then Patch 5.2 will be well underway and there will be a whole new faction and a whole new isle o’ dailies to keep Kamalia busy.

Most tellingly, though, when I haven’t been playing with Kamalia, the alts I’ve been spending the most time with have been, well, not in Pandaria.

My Paladin tanked LBRS from level 57 to level 60 without seeing the Plate of the Shaman King drop even once; while she wasn’t dungeoneering, she was running around doing Pet Battles. After I’d defeated all the Kalimdor/Eastern Kingdom trainers (minus the ones in Cataclysm zones, of course) and gotten my lead team of Kiamore the Brilliant Kaliri, Ariel the Pandaren Air Spirit, and Navie Chan the Pandaren Monk up to level 20, however, my enthusiasm for pet battling petered out. Partly this was because I wasn’t ready to take my Paladin to Outland yet. But mostly, I think, it was because the upcoming changes to pet battling on the PTR sounded like they’d be worth waiting for.

It’s my DPS Warrior who’s really been getting the love. After reaching level 68, she hung around in Netherstorm for another few levels callously slaughtering blood elves until the Scryers at last agreed that yes, they liked her, they really really liked her, and allowed her to buy their tabard. She’d decided that she wanted it for a Transmogrification kit, which I shall have to get together and display sometime soon. She’s now in Northrend, doing all the Kalu’ak questlines — I needed a change from my usual Northrend questing sequence, it had been awhile since I’d done anything for the tuskarr, and I remembered that I liked their quests. By the time my Warrior finishes helping out the Kalu’ak, she ought to be level 77 and ready to become an Argent Aspirant. I’ve done a few pet battles with her, too — enough to get my lead pets all up to level 21. Perhaps while my Warrior is goofing around with oversized toothpicks in Icecrown, my Paladin will go to Outland and start working down that “Master Pet Trainers To Beat” list again.

And then there’s my Tanking Warrior, who wants to get to level 40 and be able to wear Plate, finally… and my Priest, who wants to get to level 60 so she can start tagging along on LBR runs to AQ to collect scarabs and Brood of Nozdormu rep and other bug junk so that someday she can get the Vestments of the Oracle… and my Feral Druid, who wants to level because making new Transmogrification kits for my Monk is spinning off other ideas for leather sets that I think would be better for a Druid, and….

Oh, and speaking of AQ and scarabs and Brood of Nozdormu rep and other bug junk, I don’t generally care much for bugs, but the two bugs I got this past week are pretty cool indeed.

I was happy to give one of Navimie’s Imperial Silkworms a good home.

Not one but two Red Qiraji Resonating Crystals dropped in LBR. I got the first one by default because Repgrind and Helke both had one already, and the second one went very sadly unused.

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the Underpowered Death Knight reevaluates her existence

By the time she could finally afford flying training, Kaumalea had been in Hellfire Peninsula for so long that she felt like she’d burned to a crisp.

She could only afford it at all because she’d decided that, being a Taunka, she needed a Vrykul Drinking Horn when she returned to Northrend. Thus, she’d taken up Archaeology. The XP from that is not so much different from finding treasure chests, is it? Her first rare find was the Voodoo Figurine, which sold for a nice sum on the Auction House. Leveling this new skill to Outland competency also brought her from level 65 to level 67. Collecting Coins of Ancestry during the Lunar Festival got her to level 68.

At level 68, Kaumalea could finally wear all of the various items that I’d collected for her to use as RP sets in the event that she ever reached max-level. She could also go “home” to Camp Winterhoof, so I took her there for a photoshoot.

Sundered/Defender’s mail with Azure Shoulderguards, Wound Dressing, Dark Phantom Cape, and The Oathkeeper

Outrunner’s (dark blue) and Sundered/Defender’s (light blue) mail

Imbued plate with Alabaster shoulders and Commander’s belt

Symbolic plate with Circle’s Stalwart Helmet, Talonguard shoulders, and Warlord’s/Warmaul belt

Warleader’s chestpiece & leggings with Symbolic shoulders gloves & boots and Ango’rosh belt

Since then, she’s been campaigning to wear her “pretty clothes” all the time. I spent a certain amount of time and gold to acquire all those items because I wanted to see her wearing them, did I not? So now that she can wear them, I should let her wear them.

Kaumalea picked up Cooking at Winter Veil so as to be able to give Great-Father Winter the treats he desired, so after she trained Archaeology, she also picked up Fishing because it amused me for her to have no primary professions, but all four secondary professions. I haven’t leveled her Cooking and Fishing even enough for her to do the Darkmoon Faire cooking and fishing quests, though.

Kaumalea had only recently started doing Archaeology and was on her way to a digsite in Winterspring when another player recognized her as an Ironman.

As pleasing as that was, I think I am not really very well-suited to the challenge conditions I set for Kaumalea. I keep gradually relaxing her rules. Even though I probably regularly use only half a dozen or so abilities with any of my highest level characters, having constrained myself to use only the five abilities a brand-new Death Knight receives still feels slow and boring. Although I like how she looks in the various blue and red low-level items I collected for her, I’m beginning to chafe against the inability to Transmogrify her gear.

So what now, Kaumalea?

I don’t mind leaving her talentless and glyphless while she continues to level, but I feel that for the sake of my own fun in playing with her, I ought to either expand her allowed ability list or let her wear her “pretty clothes”. I shouldn’t do both, however, because then she wouldn’t really be “underpowered” anymore.

She needs to continue questing in Outland at least until she saves up enough money to afford cold-weather flying. Her Archaeology is not quite to Northrend competency yet, so she needs to dig some more in Kalimdor/Eastern Kingdoms or Outland.

Kaumalea exists as much because I want a blue-and-white Taunka Warrior Ice Princess as anything, so I don’t have any particular desire to play her through the Cataclysm or Mists content. Perhaps I should lock her XP when she reaches level 80 and gear her up as if she were trying for Herald of the Titans (even if I don’t ever find a group with whom to run for that feat of strength)?

Update:

While Crushing the Crown in Terrokar Forest, Kaumalea has been wearing her pink, black, and white plate set and using her restricted five-skill action bar. After the holiday is over, I think I do want to continue leveling her as a pseudo-Ironman. At this point, I think it’s clear that although playing a DK to max-level with just the five starter skills *could* be done, it’s too boring for me. Regular Ironmen don’t have an ability list restriction, so I am going to “unlock” Kaumalea’s action bars to allow her to use any skill she has available, but continue with the “chestpiece & leggings must be wearable by a character of level 10 or under and all other slots must be Common or Poor quality” dresscode.

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going to see a Hyldnir about a Bear

A few weeks ago, Ketura went back to Northrend and began camping in Brunnhildar Village, smacking around poor tired miners and Hyldsmeet contestants and aspiring Val’kyr in hopes that someday Gretta the Arbiter would deem her worthy of a Warbear of her very own.

A week or so later, I brought Kinevra back to Brunnhildar Village, too, thinking that if I had two characters doing those dailies, I might get the bear a little sooner.

Today, Kinevra opened up her sack of Hyldnir spoils and lo and behold, there was the bear!

Hurrah! No more snowballs and salted yeti cheese!

That’s one more mount for my tally, but more importantly, now my Dwarf gals can have a loyal bear friend without having to be Hunters.

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“Forget injuries. Never forget kindnesses.” (4/4)

Physically, the towering personage who seemed to be the leader of the strange beings camped around the hermit Wei Palerage’s hut reminded Kaoling very strongly of Wugou. He had nothing of the ancient earth spirit’s sleepy, placid nature about him, however. As the — tauren, Kaoling remembered from her childhood lessons — briskly described to Ji, Aysa, Kaoling, Koralyra, and the others who had come from the Academy and the Temple the circumstances that had led to the crash of the sky-vessel into Shen-zin Su’s side — a battle of ships off an unknown coast, the capture of himself and his “Horde” companions by their “Alliance” enemies after their ship capsized, an insurrection against their captors, an attack by lizard-men who had stowed away on the airship that took everyone by surprise — and his efforts to locate his comrades and survive in the Pei-Wu Forest over the past weeks, he was also listening to reports from his people and issuing new instructions. The tauren’s decisiveness impressed Kaoling, as did the shelters, the pile of crude weapons, and what appeared to be the skeletons of several small boats he and his people had constructed from broken bamboo trunks and other woodland materials.

Aysa and some of the others left to find the survivors from the other side of the sea-battle the tauren had described as soon as he had finished telling them about why the airship had crashed.

“We want to return to our homes,” the tauren was saying, “but that airship isn’t going anywhere ever again. We can help you dislodge it from your island, but we need to find our engineer. He parted ways with us when we were escaping the wreckage. We’d also appreciate it if you helped us find a way back to our own country.”

Ji quickly agreed, and Kaoling could see the twinkle in his eyes that meant he was thinking up a Plan.

They found more small groups of “Horde” survivors, including the engineer, as they pushed through the woods toward the crashed airship. They also discovered that the strange lizard-men had survived the crash, too, and were wreaking havoc on the entire Pei-Wu Forest ecosystem.

The “Alliance” survivors had gathered and set up tents quite close to the wreck. Their leader, a slender creature who looked to Kaoling very much like an oversized, oddly-colored sprite, gave a rather different account of the sea battle, the fight aboard the airship, and the crash.
“This island wasn’t on any of our charts… we came through a thick mist and ploughed straight into the forest. We didn’t see it coming,” she said.
She explained that over the past weeks, she and her people had been scavenging as much as they could from the wreck, but their efforts had been severely impeded by the lizard-men. She praised Aysa for having gone off immediately to distract the leader of the lizard-men so that a final collection of materials from the airship could be made, and she asked for help in reclaiming the supplies and rescuing those of her people who had been wounded during the most recent clashes with the lizard-men.

“I think I like these people,” Koralyra mused quietly as the two girls carried a stack of crates back from the wreck to the tents. “See how they have gotten all of their people into one place. See how they are salvaging as much of their own material as they can, so that they take as little as possible from our land.”

“But they had taken those other people prisoners,” Kaoling replied.

“Their ship was sinking. They saved them from drowning. And it doesn’t seem like they’ve made much of an effort, in all these weeks, to go find them in the forest and re-capture them,” Kora pointed out.

Kaoling didn’t have a good answer for that, but she still felt more sympathetic toward the tauren and his fellow Horde.

~*~*~

The blast knocked Kora to the ground. The land heaved beneath her as Shen-zin Su groaned in agony. It was the most awful sound she had ever heard, worse than a whole herd — worse than ten herds — of yaks in labor. She struggled to her feet. The wound in Shen-zin Su’s shell gushed terrible rivers of blood. Though she was not at all squeamish, Kora began to feel a little light-headed and quickly looked away. Nearby, Kaoling was getting up. Kora saw her friend sway and her face pale as she caught sight of the awful wound. Quickly, Kora grabbed Kaoling’s shoulders and turned her away.

“Remember Master Firepaw’s plan,” she said urgently. “Hurry, go find as many healers as you can and bring them here to save Shen-zin Su!” Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a movement — the strange lizard-men, maddened by the scent of blood. “I will stay and defend the healers once you get them here. Hurry!”

Kaoling nodded and dashed off. Kora settled into a comfortable stance and began running through warm-up movements and incantations. Soon Kaoling was back, carrying one of the slender, white-robed Alliance priests over her shoulders. Like the wind and fire of the philosophy she favored, Kaoling darted about, bringing back one healer after another. Like the earth and water of the philosophy she favored, Koralyra was both firm and fluid as she fought off the frenzied lizard-men and kept them from attacking the healers. All around, others from the Academy and the Temple were doing the same.

For hours, it seemed, they fought while the terrible flow of blood continued and Shen-zin Su groaned and writhed. The healers poured all of their energy into their spells, until they began to collapse from exhaustion. Slowly, the torrent quieted to a stream and then to a trickle, and then, almost suddenly, the wound sealed. The troll and tauren healers joined their hands in a great spell, and everyone stumbled as earth shifted out from under their feet to cover and protect the raw flesh. The Horde healers then flung enchanted seeds over the dark, bloodsoaked soil. As they chanted, grasses, bushes, and trees sprung up, magically, to further stabilize the earthen scab. It would still be centuries before Shen-zin Su’s shell completely recovered — and there would always be a scar, a weak spot, in that place — but for now, at least, he would not die, and his pain, while perhaps greater now than it had been when the wrecked ship had still been embedded in his side, would eventually subside and vanish.

~*~*~

~*~*~

For a fleeting moment, the scent of the breeze shifted from canal water and pumpkin pancakes to cherry blossoms and ginseng tea, and a piece of parchment hastily folded into the shape of a crane tumbled through the second-story window of the inn in Stormwind where Koralyra was packing her bags and came to rest at her feet.

Kora picked up the parchment and carefully unfolded it, smiling as she recognized the calligraphic scrawl.

Koralyra–
I promised to write to you when I got to Orgrimmar, did I not? The EmperorWarchief of the Horde would consider even this contact treasonous, yet I cannot so blithely cast aside what Master Shang Xi told us so many times: “Forget injuries. Never forget kindnesses.” And you have been far kinder to me than I deserved. May your days bring you joy.
–Kaoling

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“My time has passed. Your time approaches swiftly.” (3/4)

Though she had heard the tale of Liu Lang and the story about his umbrella and the Wood of Staves all her life, Kaoling had never really expected to ever set foot in that mystical place herself. She would have imagined even less that she might do so in company with all the monks and students from the Academy, but for some reason, it had seemed vitally important to Master Shang Xi that they all attend his final meditation. As the aged Master simply faded away and his charm-bedecked staff burst into bloom, Kaoling glanced, through her tears, at Koralyra and was a bit surprised to see that the other girl was also crying. Cool, emotionless Kora was actually crying. On a sudden impulse, Kaoling put her arm around Kora’s shoulders. The other girl covered her face with her hands and cried even harder for a minute or so. Then she wiped her eyes with the back of her paws and stood, pulling Kaoling up with her.

“Let’s go, Kaoling,” she said, “We’ve got to finish the task Master Shang Xi has set us. Let’s go find Master Firepaw and Master Cloudsinger at the balloon platform and see if Shen-zin Su will speak to us.”

~*~*~

Kora’s emotions roiled like a pot of her mother’s sweet-and-sour soup. Exhilaration from the soaring balloon ride, awe at the privilege of actually speaking with Shen-zin Su, horror at the huge airship embedded in the great turtle’s side, curiosity about the strange beings in and around the wrecked vessel, grief at the passing of Master Shang Xi. It was almost too much to bear, so she merely stood, staring blankly ahead at the statue of Liu Lang, barely listening as Master Firepaw and Master Cloudsinger reported their conversation with Shen-zin Su to Elder Shaopai.

“And you, Koralyra, Kaoling,” Elder Shaopai suddenly addressed them, “Master Shang Xi thought very highly of you indeed. What do you think we should do?”

“I think that the sky has gotten dark,” Kaoling answered, “and the stars are shining, and whatever we must do to cure Shen-zin Su, it will take great effort. I think we should rest and make plans in the morning.”

Master Firepaw and Master Cloudsinger’s faces displayed identical expressions of mingled approval and dismay as Kaoling bowed to each of them and to Elder Shaopai, then turned to leave the Temple of Five Dawns.

“Come on, Kora,” she said, tugging at Kora’s hand, “my parents live just down the hill. My father makes the best steamed buns in all Mandori Village, and I’m sure we can find a couch for you somewhere in the house.”

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“Our greatest trials yet lie before us.” (2/4)

Legend had it that the first hozen had come to Shen-zin Su as the servants of the priests and scholars who had initially coaxed the four ancient elemental spirits to bring their blessings to the great turtle.* As far as Kaoling knew, however, hozen were nothing but a nuisance. She couldn’t understand how anyone, let alone a great thinker, could have willingly brought them to the Wandering Isle. She suspected that, like the virmen, the first hozen had really been stowaways. Still, she was glad to be doing something, helping Ji roust the hozen from Wu-Song Village while they waited for Aysa to finish meditating about Huo.

They’d sent the hozen scampering off, whimpering, helped the villagers gather and re-organize scattered belongings, and were starting to get a little bored when at last a messenger approached. Kaoling felt her expression turning to a scowl as she recognized her roommate.

“Master Cloudsinger has spoken with Master Li Fei,” Koralyra said primly, “and she has learned that Huo is weakened and requires fuel and fanning.”

Ji smacked his forehead with the palm of his hand. “Of course,” he said, “it’s so simple and obvious! Why didn’t I think of that already?” He shook his head and continued, “Quickly, friends” — he waved a paw at both of them — “with all the strange weather lately, it shouldn’t be hard to find some dry roots and twigs in the dogwood thicket just west of here. As for the fanning, well, if it can punch you, you can punch it back, and it won’t slip through your grasp. We ought to be able to invoke a minor air spirit at the shrine in the thicket.”

When Koralyra began gathering the kindling, Kaoling raced to the shrine. The gentle breeze kicked up into a brisk wind that whipped her hair as she battled the air spirit. She used mostly spells, but was delighted to find that she could, as Ji had said, strike the animate cloud with her quaking palm. As she forced it into her bag, she felt like the defeated mist was continually slipping from her paws. Amazingly, once she got it in, it stayed there, puffing the bag up into a fat little balloon that surely would have floated away had it not also been laden with books, her fan, and a little something for lunch.

The monk at the entrance to Huo’s cavern shrine bowed nervously. “Huo has not been well, and that has put him into a temper,” he warned, pointing at the jets of fire blossoming randomly from the floor of the tunnel leading deeper into the shrine.

“Excellent, an obstacle course to keep us on our toes!” said Ji, darting immediately into the tunnel. Kaoling promptly followed. She and Ji had more than enough time to catch their breath by the pool in the next cavern before Koralyra finally emerged from the firestorm, carrying the kindling.

“What took you so long?” Kaoling demanded.

“I had to meditate and center myself to see clearly the path through the fire,” the other girl replied with irritating calm.

“Well, then, let’s not keep Huo waiting,” said Ji, bounding up the stairs to the next room. The spirit of Master Li Fei awaited them there, standing by a shallow pool surrounded by smoldering braziers.

“You,” the ghostly Master said after several long minutes, tipping his staff toward Kaoling, “yes, I think it should be you. You should be the one to face the challenge. You have much energy and enthusiasm. Huo likes that. But do you also have the equilibrium and endurance to weather his caprices?”

He instructed her to take a brand from the brightly burning brazier at his side and light the braziers in the other corners of the chamber. As she lit the braziers and smelled the different herbs and woods within each one, Kaoling felt invigorated and refreshed.

Even as a ghost, Master Li Fei was a formidable opponent. Ji — and even Koralyra — several times attempted to join the fight, but every time, the spectral Master had held up a warning paw and sent them back to the stairs to wait.

“You earned the right to proceed,” said Master Li Fei at last, as Kaoling stood panting in the middle of the pool, not caring that she was thoroughly soaked. “Huo lies beyond. May your offerings soothe and strengthen him.”

Huo was a tiny spark in the darkness of the uppermost cavern of the shrine. Kaoling thought she heard him growling as she approached, and her shadow flickered frighteningly on the rough cavern walls. Not knowing quite what to say to the ancient fire spirit, Kaoling simply tossed one of the dry pieces of dogwood at him and released a puff of the captive breeze from her bag. Huo crackled as he devoured the wood, and he seemed to grow larger. Encouraged, Kaoling tossed him the rest of the wood, alternating with puffs of breeze. Huo grew larger and his crackling became more and more like laughter with each piece.

His catlike face smiling broadly, Huo danced about Kaoling as she returned triumphantly to where the others had been waiting.

*see Pearl of Pandaria page 2

~*~*~

“Lyra, darling!” said Nai-nai, wiping her hands on her apron as she came around from behind the counter of the family stall at the Dai-Lo market. “I didn’t expect to see you home from the Academy so soon. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong, Nai-nai,” Koralyra said, giving her grandmother a hug. “Or at least, nothing’s wrong with me. Something has been wrong with Shen-zin Su lately, you know, and Master Shang Xi has sent us” — she waved her hand at the small group of monks and other students from the Academy who had come with her — “to bring Wugou back to the Temple so that he can help us find out what it is.”

“Ah, yes,” Nai-nai sighed worriedly. “Wugou has not been well. He fell into a deep sleep when the ground shook, just before Shen-zin Su began to carry us into harsher climates.” She gestured toward the recess gong in the center of the market. Wugou lay snuggled up against the decorative retaining wall around the gong. Kora suddenly realized that the unfamiliar sound she’d been hearing was the gentle snoring of the ancient earth spirit. Nai-nai continued, “Since then, the land has been drying out, and fewer and fewer of the seeds we plant actually sprout. We are in for hard times if Wugou and Shen-zin Su do not recover.”

Though she was shocked by this news, Kora kept her expression as composed as she could manage. Wugou had been a constant presence during her cubhood, sedately rumbling hither and thither among the fields and crops. She and her siblings, cousins, and friends had made a game of trying to corral him in the center of a field as they attended to their chores of watering and weeding, but somehow, as slow and placid as Wugou always seemed, they had never succeeded. Indeed, it had been she who had reminded Master Shang Xi that Wugou dwelt at Dai-Lo.

As she watched the impatient monk buffeting Wugou in a most disrespectful — and futile — attempt to wake him, Kora wondered again why Master Shang Xi had sent Master Firepaw to Dai-Lo, and Master Cloudsinger to the Singing Pools, instead of the other way ’round. Surely there must be a better way to rouse Wugou. Kora sat down, settling into a meditative posture, and began pondering….

The shadows had shifted direction when the resonating clangor of the recess gong and the sound of Nai-nai laughing brought Kora back to full awareness of the world around her, still without a best solution to the problem.

“Silly monk,” chuckled Nai-nai, shaking her head, “if he’d thought to ask, we would have told him that we’ve been ringing that gong three times a day just like we always do for weeks without waking Wugou.”

A delivery cart rattled into town, carrying Master Cloudsinger and the others who had gone with her to the Singing Pools. Bobbling along behind it was… Shu? It seemed that they been successful in contacting the ancient water spirit. Master Cloudsinger conversed briefly with Master Firepaw, then Master Firepaw clapped his hands together with an air of great excitement and indicated that one of the students who had come with Master Cloudsinger should go do something. The girl nodded and started in the direction Master Firepaw had pointed. Then she hesitated and turned, and, with a sinking feeling, Koralyra recognized her rival.

“Come with me to speak to Shu,” Kaoling demanded, imperiously thrusting out a paw as if to help Kora up from her meditative pose. Kora ignored the proffered paw and raised a questioning eyebrow. Kaoling rolled her eyes. “Ji thinks Shu can help us wake up Wugou,” she explained.
Still ignoring Kaoling’s outstretched hand, Kora rose gracefully to her feet. The two girls walked to the pond, where Shu was coaxing the water to spurt up into geysers.
“Shu!” Kaoling called, “Wugou is asleep and will not waken. Will you come blast him?“
Kora barely restrained a gasp. How impertinent! But the water spirit just burbled and darted to the other side of the pond.
“I think he wants us to play with him,” said Kaoling with a mischevious smile. “You go first!” — and she pushed Kora toward the water. Kora stumbled and was surprised to find herself walking on the water instead of floundering in the water. She folded her arms and glared at Kaoling.
“Go on,” Kaoling urged, “stand in the waterspout!” When Kora didn’t move, Kaoling came out onto the water, too, and pushed her toward the patch of water that Shu was churning up. Kora resisted, but finally Kaoling struck her with a quaking palm, and, stunned, she fell over, right into the agitated water. Suddenly, she was flung into the air by a geyser. The view from the top was amazing! As she fell back toward the pond, she heard Shu giggling — and she was laughing, too.
“That was kind of fun,” Kora admitted, after she caught her breath — but Kaoling did not hear her, because she was high in the air on another waterspout.
When Kaoling landed, Shu burbled in a different way and bobbled off toward the market square. The two girls hurried behind him, arriving just in time to see the water spirit summon a powerful jet of water right in the earth spirit’s face. Wugou roared and began chasing Shu all around the market. Master Firepaw laughed a great belly laugh, and Master Cloudsinger smiled.

~*~*~

True to his word, after dealing with Morning Breeze Village’s hozen problem, Ji set the monks and students of the Academy to helping Elder Shaopai rewrite the destroyed defaced scrolls of wisdom. Although this was an honorable task, Kaoling’s mind soon wandered. She sat idly bouncing her toes, barely stifling her giggles as she remembered how she had only with great effort not laughed when the conceited, pompous Jojo Ironbrow had finally met his match in the beautiful jade and bronze tiger pillar that they’d retrieved from the hozen village.

“Do you mind?” a cool voice interrupted her thoughts. Across the table, Koralyra was giving her a steady, disapproving stare. “Writing these scrolls is a form of meditation, you know, and you are disrupting mine. I would thank you to stop fidgeting.”

The sun was setting when Ji finally declared that they had done enough work with the scrolls, for now. He called Kaoling and, to her irritation, Koralyra, to go out to the lake and discover if Aysa’s contemplations had yet revealed anything useful. Aysa raised an eyebrow as they approached her, for for all of Koralyra’s practice and meditation, it was Kaoling who had run nimbly over the taut ropes and arrived first, with dry fur. Meanwhile, Koralyra had stopped mid-path to appreciate the spectacular view of the sunset over the lake, wobbled on the ropes, fallen, and now came panting up second, soaking wet.

“It is often both necessary and admirable,” Aysa said mildly, “to keep one’s eyes and mind fixed on one’s true objectives.”

(A.N. This actually happened while I was leveling these two characters through the Wandering Isle. I got across the ropes on the first try with Kaoling, but with Koralyra, I stopped in the middle to take some screenshots, fell off, and had to try again.)

~*~*~

When at last the huge black cloud serpent curled up in death, Kora thought her fur would never lay flat again. All around, static discharge still crackled from the lightning pools the serpent had spit on the ground as they tried to bring it down with fireworks. It had been a crazy plan, but somehow, it had worked. The fight had been quite exhilarating, and she had to admit that she and Master Cloudsinger — and Master Firepaw and the impetuous Kaoling — had made a terrific team. The ancient spirit of air, Dafeng, fluttered around them all, cooing thanks and relief. Master Cloudsinger knelt in respect at the great beast’s head for several minutes. For all that he had been terrifying Dafeng, Zhao-Ren had been a magnificent — and, as far as Kora knew, a unique — presence among the mountains of the Wandering Isle.

Master Firepaw shifted awkwardly from one foot to the other. Kora wondered if he was thinking about speaking to Master Cloudsinger, as she had suggested — and she was secretly glad that for once in his life, he was choosing to exercise restraint. Beside him, Kaoling suddenly dropped to her knees, too, and Kora was startled to hear her sniffling. Could it be? Obnoxious, thoughtless Kaoling, crying?

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