The sound of outraged troll cries echoed through the valley.
Ringo Flinthammer chuckled.
“Bloody Winterax are the stupidest o’ the trolls; they wait fer the Alliance and Horde tae a truce tae invade Alterac Valley again.”
“Nice of them to give Beli something to hit,” Kildris Blackfire said, surveying the valley from Dun Baldar’s South Bunker.
“When she’s away from the boy too long, she either hits the Horde or starts eyein’ me.”
Kildris grunted.
“I can understand that.”
Ringo winced.
“Ah’m sorry; I dinnae think about yer wee one … is she stayin’ with yer ex-husband while ye were deployed?”
“No!” Kildris barked, halfway between a laugh and a snarl. “That idjit got some strange ideas after Ragnaros died. Joined the Twilight Hammer, went around tellin’ everyone there’s a ‘war on Winter Veil.’ There’s no war, it’s just not proper to assume! The draenei have one of their bloody depressing holidays this time of year, with lights and deprivation and all the rest! ‘Happy holidays’ is just good manners!”
“Right, aye,” Ringo said. “Well, your little girl should be happy to see ye; did ye pick her up a gift ta …”
“Lt. Commander Flinthammer, you’re here! And you’ve brought … your husband.”
“Always glad to get back to Dun Baldar. It’s been too long since we’ve been here.”
“Always a pleasure to have you back, Lt. Commander. We reached out because our forces in Alterac Valley have recently captured some adolescent frost wolves and were able to train them to take Alliance riders. Given your achievements here, we thought it only fitting you have the first pick.”
“Of these two?”
“Ah’ll take the frisky one!”
“Er, Knight-Commander Flinthammer, the frost wolves are a reward for the Lt. Commander. One of them, at any rate.”
“Flinthammer! Flinthammer! Field medic Flinthammer! Over here!”
Beli Flinthammer hauled the Alliance soldier to his feet, satisfied herself that his bandages would survive boarding the waiting ship and propelled him on his way with a hand between shoulder blades.
“Stormwind’s that way,” she said, before turning to the sound of the voice. “What can I do ye fer?”
“Three more coming in,” Master Sergeant Zaren roared over the sound of flying machines ferrying in casualties from higher up the burning city of Dazar’alor.
Beli looked around the Mobile Alliance Surgical Hospital and nodded, pointing.
“We’ve got four cots open.”
The man’s eyes fluttered open after a nearby explosion left everyone’s ears ringing.
“Lieutenant Commander Flinthammer?”
“Private,” she said, wrapping a bandage around a now-clean wound. “You’ve done enough for now. We’re sending you home.”
He started to object, but Beli was already turning away, eyes on the pyramid rising up above the jungle canopy.
“Your husband up there?” Kildris Blackfire said, appearing at her side. The Dark Iron was on guard duty, keeping both Zandalari and Horde away from the hospital.
“I reckon,” Beli sighed, blowing her hair out of her eyes. “Or somewhere. All they told us of the plan was ‘stay here and have everyone ready to leave in a hurry.'”
Both dwarves winced as there was another explosion and what sounded like the cry of a great jungle beast.
“Yer husband fighting for the Alliance, too?” Beli asked.
Kildris barked with bitter laughter.
“That would be something to see,” she said sourly. “Not everyone gave up the old religion once Ragnaros was defeated back in Molten Core. My useless husband’s in the Twilight Hammer.”
Beli blinked, unsure of what to say.
“Aye,” Kildris said. “At least when you don’t know what your husband is up to, you know he’s not trying to destroy the world.”
“I reckon not. He’s an idiot, but at least he’s not an idiot.”
The portable buzzboxes all burst to life, with half-screamed Gnomish coming out. All of the gnomes around the mobile hospital leapt to their feet, with a few even climbing off the stretchers in their panic.
“What’s going on?” Kildris said, hoisting her mace.
A gnome soldier pointed at the sky, where a badly damaged mech suit flew into view.
This is a super rare non-dwarf post, but bear with me!
In patch 8.1.5, the Two Sides to Every Tale achievement was added to the game. One of the mount rewards is the Ironclad Frostclaw, a wolf from Alterac Valley decked out in Alliance armor. A mount from a dwarven battleground? Yeeeeeeessss. Of courseI wanted it!
That meant I needed to play catch up on my horde priest to unlock this. I looked over the Zandalar quests I had fallen behind on and deflated a bit at the timesink ahead of me, but that Alterac Valley wolf was howling my name!
Got started on Vol’dun, cleared out the necessary quests and was about to complete my last one when I got too close to a couple of mobs. I briefly considered just outrunning them, but screw it, slightly faster to nuke them down. That’s when I looted an unexpected surprise: Captured Dune Scavenger. I was just stunned.
“Wait. Is this the one that Beli can ride? IT IS!!”
My horde alter ego with the Dune Scavenger in Vol’dun. The snake is so jelly.
It was one of those mounts I wanted for my dwarf, but “maybe someday,” you know? It was basically a dog from the desert (I grew up in a desert!) with a beautiful brown color (my favorite!). This really made my whole day. Totally blog worthy!
I love that my goblin is effectively smuggling over two different mounts for my dwarf. The hyena has been named Murdock. I’ll think of something for the wolf.
