Wallaroo’s Thoughts

There was a memory…

Other members of the Iron Horde often came to the Pit, usually for supplies, picking up the gigantic shipments of ore and raw materials to fuel the war machine. Once in a while other…sorts…would appear, whether the giggling and suspicious Laughing Skull, whom the overseers were trying to settle an uneasy alliance with, or Blackhand’s men, looking for more slaves. And the mages, sent by Gul’dan or his minions, checking up on production in general, dark and reeking of fel magic. 

Wei would always shudder, keep her head down, and stick to the steaming ovens that was her home these days. Even if it was a particularly hot day, she dared not draw the attention of the fel mages. Their energy, the flow and the balance of the world, was twisted and knotted and so corrupt it hurt her eyes and her stomach to look at it. Aside from the that, given how surprised some of the orcs had been to see a pandaren for the first time, she didn’t want to think about any mages and their possible ideas for experimentation should they discover she was a monk as well. 

That thought alone was enough for her to keep her abilities and practices buried deep, save for when she was meditating. 

Wei peeked around the edge of the cage, for such a mage had arrived earlier in the day. She’d flown in on a giant of a bird, twisted with as much fel magic as it’s master, cawing and snapping at the poor peons who were tasked with restraining it for the day. Somone lost a hand before the creature was penned safely. 

It was something to pity, the poor thing, for all that it glowered with evil intent. The fel magic was obviously not natural to it, for Wei could see how it twisted and burned the creature’s spirit, causing so much of it’s bad temper and so much pain. There was so much excess energy that it flickered and glowed in the bird’s feathers, bright sickly green, and burned off in green embers along the edges of it’s wings. The bird howled again, raising it’s beak high and causing it’s master to shout curses from their tent. 

“SILENCE YOU STUPID BEAST!”

Wei sighed and shrunk back, but through out the day she kept sneaking glances to the bird. It hurt to see the creature in so much pain, even though the fel magic was hard to look at.  She couldn’t do anything, but…but. It was part of her calling. Monks made thing right, eased the balance of the world. But…but. She had to hide it, keep it away from the prying eyes of her masters. She didn’t want to go away to the dark places the other slaves only whispered about.

But.

It was dark now, very dark, and very still despite the constant, distant pounding of the forges. The bird was a sullen glow in it’s pen, head down and surrounded by the simmering fel light. Wei crept forward, hands clutching the chains around her wrists to keep them from clanking. She paused at the edge of the pen, trembling. 

The bird’s one eye snapped open, and it stared at her. Menacing. Waiting for her to come closer. 

Wei gulped and prayed it would not cry out again. To do so meant certain punishment, and who knows what else. But she had to try. She had to help ease the pain. She raised two trembling paws, took a deep breath, and tried to settle into the healing stance. The bird still watched, suspicious, as the green energy began to flow, swirling and swirling around it.

There was a sudden, sharp clank of chains as the bird struggled. Something was being done to it. The little furry meat sack seemed to be surrounded by a pure, almost white light, tinted with a soft and gentle jade. It burned, it burned like the worse kind of fire, but the bird could not cry out. Sound died all around it, within it, as the kinks and tears of the fel magic surged and struggled and wrestled with the jade light. 

Wei kept the flow going, as hard as it was. Tears were in her eyes as the bird writhed, but maybe…this would be for the best. Already the excess of the fel was draining way, slinking back from the good energy. She could not remove it entirely, not when it was so bound into the essence of the bird, buit she could ease it’s pain.

After a few more minutes the bird finally broke, falling down with a thud of dust, and Wei lowered her hands, watching. She ducked between the rails of the pen, trembling, and gently, carefully, touched the still glowing feathers. She let out a breath. It was still breathing, and…resting, yes, resting easy. She did not have to fear it. There was a tiny smile, even when the bird’s eye cracked open and gazed at her. An intelligence was there that had not been before. It lay quietly, accepting her soft touch, the strokes over it’s quivering feathers.

“I am sorry, poor thing. I cannot fix it all, but I hope I have fixed some.”

Wei awoke with tears in her eyes and a soft gasp, but the tears were better this time. She did not feel the choke of fear, or with a scream on her lips, for once. The memory was a good one, the only good one. She had helped that bird, she knew. 

She turned over in her bed and snuggled down, trying to get back to sleep. She had helped someone. That was worth something, maybe.