Tiffany's Experience

Tiffany felt that today was truly terrible; what was even more terrifying was that she did not know if she would even have a tomorrow.

Born into an aristocratic family, Tiffany had lived a carefree life since childhood because her father held a seat on the Stormwind council.

It was not until news of the orc invasion reached Stormwind that things changed; although her father wore a troubled expression every time he returned home during that period, Tiffany did not feel that such matters had anything to do with her.

The young girl, raised in a greenhouse, still believed this was just an ordinary war, and that those so-called "orcs" were likely just uncivilized, barbaric kin from some remote region.

The war would start suddenly and end just as suddenly, just like the navy returning in triumph from battles against the Southsea pirates. Tiffany imagined she might walk out onto the streets, pin a wreath woven by the household maids onto some army Champion, and then continue living her carefree life.

One day after the war began, Tiffany set out from Stormwind with several close friends to go on an outing to a villa owned by one of their families in the foothills of the Redridge Mountains.

Although her mother had raised objections to the trip before she left, Tiffany still felt it was of no great consequence.

It was not just Tiffany; many young noble men and women in Stormwind continued their previous lives after the war began. They would go to the countryside for outings and return home after they had their fill of fun—no war could threaten Stormwind; it was an impregnable fortress that would never fall.

However, this time things seemed to have changed—while having a wonderful time in Redridge, Tiffany soon received explosive news.

Stormwind had fallen; the orcs had breached the capital of the kingdom of Azeroth and killed almost everyone in the city.

Poor Tiffany had not yet had time to digest this bolt from the blue, nor did she even get the chance to ask the messenger who brought the news whether her father and mother had survived this catastrophe, as the messenger had hurried away in a panic.

After the news reached Redridge, the entire villa fell into extreme panic; many servants and a few guards fled in all directions, and in the blink of an eye, only a few young nobles remained, huddled together and shivering.

"We must leave here," Richard said—he was the initiator of this outing and the young master of this villa.

"Go where?" Tiffany remembered that when she asked this question, the sound of her teeth chattering was terrifyingly loud.

"To the north. The orcs should stay in Stormwind for a while, and we should be able to reach Dun Modr Fortress before they do; the dwarves there will let us through," Richard said while consulting a map—his grandfather was a veteran in the military, so even in such a remote villa, there was a map of the continent.

"Can't we stay here?" someone asked.

"Fool!" Tiffany remembered Richard saying at the time, "Stormwind has fallen, the entire south is finished. Staying here is a dead end; only by heading north, heading north can we survive!"

Tiffany did not know whether she should stay or head north, but most of the guards for the young nobles—including her own—had run away, leaving her with only Vivian, a maid who had grown up with her.

However, Richard still had a few guards loyal to him. Everyone knew that without the protection of soldiers, they had no way to survive—whether they stayed here or headed north.

In the end, Richard's view gained the support of more people. Soon, these young nobles formed a small team with a dozen horses and a carriage, and began to head north.

Tiffany, Vivian, and another noble girl named Mary stayed in the carriage, while the others rode on horseback. According to Richard's plan, they would cross the Redridge Mountains and head north, taking about a month to reach Dun Modr Fortress, pass through the Thousand Needles Bridge there, and enter the Arathi Highlands. That was the territory of the kingdom of Stromgarde; although there was not much interaction between it and the kingdom of Azeroth, it was at least a human nation.

However, Richard clearly overestimated the survival skills of these young nobles in the wild. Soon, they exhausted the food they had brought and were forced to stall not far outside the Redridge Mountains.

Along the way, Tiffany had not seen any other refugees, which she found very strange, as she desperately wanted to ask those who had escaped from Stormwind whether her mother and father were alright.

Despair and conflict soon filled the entire team. Even the few guards who had initially been loyal to Richard gradually felt that these young nobles were a burden; they abandoned the boys and girls and left on their own—taking the young nobles' only food and water with them.

The pampered young masters and misses could only rely on their own strength to survive in the wild—sadly, their strength in this regard was no greater than that of an ant or a stray dog.

Just as everyone was struggling with whether to return to Redridge or continue north—even though Richard himself did not believe they could reach Dun Modr Fortress—Tiffany and the others encountered this orc patrol. The young noble masters and misses, who were almost bare-handed and had no ability to fight back, ran into the fierce orcs; the final outcome was almost imaginable.

But only by experiencing it personally could Tiffany feel the horror of that scene.

The orcs roared as they lunged at Tiffany and her group. Even Richard, the strongest among them, was split in two by an orc's axe.

When the tragedy occurred, Tiffany and Mary were under the carriage, while Vivian was inside it.

When the orcs rushed over and split Richard in two, and the other men fled in all directions, Tiffany was completely terrified and stood there, not knowing what to do.

Vivian shouted Tiffany's name from the carriage, but Tiffany could not move her feet at all.

Mary heard Vivian's cry and tried to run to the carriage, but was slapped to the ground by an orc.

Perhaps the roar of the orcs startled the horses, or perhaps even the horses were frightened by the ferocious appearance of these creatures, but they pulled the carriage and fled rapidly to the south.

Tiffany still remembered Vivian shouting her name at the carriage door, but by then, Tiffany was already surrounded by orcs. These savage invaders held weapons larger than Tiffany's own body, still stained with bloody bits of flesh.

Tiffany fainted from fear at that moment—of course, before that, she had shouted one sentence from afar to Vivian, who seemed to want to jump off the carriage.

"Go, Vivian, don't worry about me, go!"—Vivian and Tiffany had grown up together, and despite the difference in their status, Tiffany had always treated Vivian as her sister; she knew the other girl felt the same, which was why she had tried to jump off the carriage.