The air was crisp and cold this high up, the silence spread for miles like a comforting blanket in the clear afternoon sky.  Laerchel had parked her flying machine on a slight cliff high up in the peaks of the Alterac mountains, she saw the world spread out below her covered by a pink haze as a finger reached under the side of her goggles to scratch her temple.  It was not for the view she had stopped, though it was impressive, it was the need of fuel.  A quick glance down at the machine made her smile.  Many hours of hard work and banged up hands went into building the thing and she couldn’t wait to show it to Cris later.

The elf huffed and looked up again, it sure was taking a while to empty the gas can into the fuel tank.  Well no, that wasn’t quite right, the time was short enough but her patience were shorter.  She had to get to Booty Bay for a meeting with Cris and the crew.  They were going to attempt a rather brash attack on an airship bound to Northrend.  When Cristianno had informed her of it she’d felt a rush of excitement.  But the lack of details was perturbing.  Had he thought this through?  The more time she waited to hear more the more doubt had time to sink in.  She’d fought for the Horde once.  She’d bled and killed and seen all manner of horrible things happen in the field of battle for the faction.  Could she really throw away that honor and the pride she felt at being a warrior of the horde for this?

Yes.  Yes, she could.  Gormeck was gone, dead somewhere likely, and there was nothing other than Cris in her life to be family.  The horde war machine would do fine without her, and the money brought in by the heist would finally give her the rest of the money she needed to get a small place somewhere far from town.  Blinking, the woman realized she’d been so lost in her thoughts that the gas can had emptied.  She shoved it back into the storage bags on the machine and fished out a bundle of food.

“Might as well eat while I’m already stopped.”  No one was there to hear her talk but the sound of her own voice comforted her in the thick silence of the mountain top.  Lightly the agile elf sat herself on the edge of the little cliff she’d found and spread out her lunch; a piece of dried beef, a hunk of crusty bread, and a bit of cheese.  A slight smile spread on her lips as she looked down at Hillsbrad spread out bellow her.  The lightly wooded foothills had long been a favorite place of hers to hunt and camp.  The Alliance and Horde were too busy fighting each other to pay much mind to a lone girl out in the fields.  The forest trolls avoided the place too, making it all the safer.

The silence was broken by a loud rumbling from the earth.  While she’d grown quite used to the earthquakes plaguing Azeroth Laerchel was not prepared for what was happening now.  One violent jerk broke her little ledge off the mountain, the weight of her plane was more than the little ledge could hold with such a violent quake.  With a scream she tumbled down, the heavy chunk of metal accompanying her.

The shaking continued as the world spun, snow spilled around her and she could hear the flying machine break apart with the rushing of snow and tumbling of rocks.  Reaching out Lae desperately sought something to cling to but nothing would stay solid under her fingers.  Desperately she flopped and grabbed and finally her hand closed around a tree branch.  For a brief moment Laerchel stopped sliding with the rubble, the world faced one direction and she tried desperately to pull up.

SNAP!  CRACK!

The sick, wet sound of her shoulder dislocating and something breaking.  She’d found a hold at the absolute worst moment.  The pain was delayed in her shock, in the dizziness of the world spinning and falling out of control.  Blackness set in.

This was not the first time she found herself laying in the rich, wet smell of the earth after a fall.  Lae’s head throbbed in time with her heart beat.  She didn’t dare open her eyes, as pain rushed in, and not just from her head.  At least I’m not dead. It wasn’t a comforting thought exactly, but she supposed life in pain was better than death.  One hand groped at the ground, she couldn’t feel much snow so she’d ended the fall somewhere below the snow line.  I really need to open my eyes, to get up. She didn’t want to do either, breathing hurt, thinking hurt.  She didn’t dare face the light, it’d burn her eyes.  More blackness.

Time is irrelevant when you’re unconscious.  But none the less it passes.  Laerchel came round to yet more throbbing in her head.  Okay, I really have to get up.  I might not live if I don’t. But did she really want to?  What a stupid question, of course she wanted to live.  She forced her eyes to open, and the sun blinded her briefly.  “Okay, I’m alive.”  Her voice was alien in her slender, high pointed ears.  With one hand she tried to push herself up, the pain in her right shoulder was unbelievable.  Her entire torso screamed in complaint.  Her arm shuddered and buckled, unceremoniously dropping her wounded body back to the ground.  All she could manage was a whimper at the pain.

Broken ribs…check.  Shoulder? She rolled her head to the side and with her left arm reached up to touch it, the swelling was intense and the whole mass felt off, a crust of dried blood and a stinging pain she knew was some sort of deep cut.  Still there, dislocated and bleeding? Oh yeah. Feeling further down she was pleased to find the arm otherwise intact.  Taking slow, deep breathes she forced herself to move her legs, they were still attached, and usable.  Both knees rose into the air like mini mountains.  She could feel air hitting parts of her that were not meant to be exposed, so there were cuts and scrapes everywhere, though she dared not look at them.

Several hours passed with Laerchel laying there, unmoving, trying to will the pain from her body.  She only succeeded in lessening the throb in her head.  Though time was probably more cause than any thing she tried to will into existence.  Laerchel attempted to sit up again, this time a bit more slowly than the last, and the results were much better.  Sitting upright she looked around and saw bits and pieces of her flying machine scattered with the rocks and snow on the ground.  The main body of it wasn’t too far to her left.  Wow, I am lucky to be alive.  That thing coulda landed on me and I’d be toast. She sighed, wincing at the pain in her sides as she did.

“I’m going to need something to use as a sling…”  She whispered to the quiet.  But nothing was readily available and she didn’t quite dare try and stand up just yet.  Her stomach growled, and lurched.  It’d been quite some time since she’d eaten.  How many days had she lost to unconsciousness?  “Okay, I can do this.”  Not much of a pep talk but she started to scoot herself to the dented, wrecked body of the flying machine.  “I can do this.”  she kept repeating whenever her body wanted to fall over.

It had been a slow move, but eventually she made it to the machine.  She leaned against it, chest hurting and forcing herself not to pant.  The next task would not be easy, she was going to have to stand up.  Getting to the machine had been a matter of getting to something to help her get up with.  She put her hand on the body of the thing and rolled, her damaged shoulder and ribs making her scream with pain.  She stopped where she was, on her knees with her body laying over the machine.  She quivered and gasped, the pain was rather unbearable.  Long, honey colored hair fell around her face, it was matted with dirt and blood.  “I can do this.” She croaked after a long pause.

She shifted once more, her ass sticking straight up in the air but more importantly, both feet were planted on the ground.  Concentrating hard on the feel of the earth below her booted feet she shoved up on her good arm and forced herself upright.  The small elf staggered a bit but did not fall.  “I did it.”  The blood rushing down from her head felt almost relieving.  There was little time to pause and congratulate herself.  She had to find something that could be used to support her dangling arm, that alone would relieve a good bit of pain.  Carefully she staggered through the wreckage till she found some of the clothing she’d had packed in her bags.  Though the satchels themselves were no where to be found.

Carefully she knelt down and snatched up the shirt.  Holding it in her teeth she moved her dangling arm across her knee and forced herself to make the hand of it clench.  The pain in her shoulder made her vision blur but the hand still worked.  With her good left hand she put one sleeve of the shirt in her right hand and carefully tied a knot.  The sling was not the best but it would do.  Several minutes later she had it around her neck and her damaged arm resting in it.  With a sigh she got up, the pain in her damaged shoulder slightly more tolerable.

The sun was setting in the sky when she finished searching the rubble at the base of the avalanche.  She was unable to find the leather satchels that once held her clothing and food.  All she could find of her food was a piece of salt pork.  Her body ached from exhaustion and injury, and she had no way of starting a camp fire nor was she in any condition to scale one of the nearby trees.  Sitting down with her back against the body of what had been her flying machine Lae looked down at her body, there were indeed some rather nasty cuts on her legs, arms, and her torso was swollen from bruises and broken ribs.  For the night she’d have to sleep here, and tomorrow set off to the south to Hillsbrad.  In the distance she could hear Yeti’s calling.  With luck they were not headed her way.

To be continued.