The World Is So Big, I Want to Go See It

"What exactly do you want to know?" Alleria asked.

"I heard about some very useful skills, but I can't find the person who told me about them anymore. So I've been wondering whether you know about them, or whether they're even possible. More importantly, I want to know whether they count as magic!" Yu Lin Bloodhawk said after some thought.

"What sort of skills?" Aurelia asked, intrigued.

"One of them is called Beast's Eye. When you use it, your mind enters a beast's body, and you control the beast to infiltrate enemy territory. Through your pet's eyes and ears, you can see and hear everything going on, just as if you were there yourself. I want to know whether this skill is magic, and whether it's possible in magical theory!" Yu Lin Bloodhawk said.

"Beast's Eye?" Alleria thought for a moment. "That really is an excellent skill. As you said, if you could keep an eagle or an owl, you could use it to watch the enemy's every move, all without putting yourself in danger. I can say with certainty that this is indeed magic! It should fall under mental magic. What other skills are there? Let me hear them."

"There's another called Eagle Eye. It works much like Beast's Eye, but with a few differences. You don't necessarily need a pet to use it. Here's how it works: right now, for example, we can see the city of Zul'Aman from here. But it's so far away that I'm afraid my magic might break off before a beast could fly over it. So instead, I would cast Eagle Eye over Zul'Aman. Then, even though I was still here, it would be as if I were up above them. But I could only watch from that fixed spot, and I wouldn't be able to hear anything. Unlike Beast's Eye, I couldn't move around or listen to conversations." Yu Lin Bloodhawk explained some of the hunter skills he knew in detail.

"There's a skill like that too?" Alleria's eyes widened. "Where did you hear about it?"

Alleria knew better than anyone what such useful skills would mean to an army commander.

"So it doesn't exist?" Yu Lin Bloodhawk said in disappointment. "Then it was all a lie! I thought it was real. I don't even remember who told me."

"In magical theory, it is possible!" Alleria said. "These two skills are important-extremely important to commanders and scouts, at the very least. The information you've provided is very valuable. Are there any other skills?"

"Quite a few!" Yu Lin Bloodhawk said.

"Wait a moment!" Alleria took out a pen and paper, then motioned for him to continue.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk knew what she intended to do, so he launched into an uninterrupted account of every hunter skill he knew.

Alleria wrote furiously. She could get almost nothing else done that day, but she felt as though she had glimpsed a whole new world, an opportunity to greatly improve the fighting strength of the High Elf rangers.

When Yu Lin Bloodhawk finally finished describing everything he knew, she set down her pen and gazed at him. "I'm certain these aren't things you just happened to overhear. There are too many, and the details are too precise. Although you won't tell me how you learned about them, I thank you on behalf of Quel'Thalas, regardless. If others can develop these techniques, then Quel'Thalas can too! Sylvanas happens to be at Falthrien Academy right now. I'll send these to her. It's time those Arcane Mages did something for us rangers."

Yu Lin Bloodhawk smiled, glanced at the darkening sky, and said his goodbyes.

Alleria agreed to let him go.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk had just stepped outside when Alleria's voice suddenly came from behind him. "Do you know where I can find an eagle? I suddenly feel like keeping one."

Yu Lin Bloodhawk very much wanted to joke, I'm a hawk myself. Would you like me? But he didn't dare. By the time the words reached his lips, they had become, "If you can give me enough funding, perhaps I can get an owl for every elf ranked Squad Leader or above."

Owls were a rarity in the Eastern Kingdoms, for they were found only in the Night Elves' homeland and Winterspring, with a few in Felwood as well. All those places were in Kalimdor, separated from the Eastern Kingdoms by the boundless Great Sea, which made owls exceedingly rare.

"If I give you enough funding, can you get a battle pet for every ranger?" Alleria's teasing laughter came from behind him. With nearly seventy thousand rangers, that was an impossible task.

"Perhaps! The world is so big, I really want to go see it," Yu Lin Bloodhawk said without turning around.

Half a month later, a military report on army reform was placed in the council hall of Silvermoon City. Those attending included not only Alleria, but also numerous senior military officers, members of the Silvermoon Council, Arcane Archmages from Catherine Magic Academy, and His Majesty the King. After five days of heated arguments, the meeting came to a close. At the same time, a new order reached Yu Lin Bloodhawk at the foot of the mountain south of Tranquillien.

Reading the appointment letter in his hands, Yu Lin Bloodhawk did not know whether to laugh or cry. He had been promoted! He was no longer a Company Commander responsible for just over a hundred men, but a Unit Commander in charge of roughly six hundred. He was also the commander of an independent Battle Pet Ranger Unit that answered directly to the Military Department rather than any legion. The unit's code name was Bloodhawk.

He ought to have laughed, but he could not. Another five hundred men would soon be reporting to him. They were all new recruits, but this batch was of the excellent standard used by the main fighting legions, with a 2-4-4 configuration. Anyone else would have grinned from ear to ear, but he was worried sick. Five hundred more men meant five hundred more battle pets.

Yet he had led over a hundred men and ten Dragonhawk Riders in working day and night for more than twenty days, and they had barely managed to capture fewer than sixty lynxes. As they caught more, the wild adult lynxes became scarcer and harder to find. They could only keep widening their search. At first, they had caught five a day; now, finding two in a day was enough to make them happy. To find another five hundred, he reckoned it would take quite some time even if they searched all the way to the Sunwell.

The messenger watched his gloomy expression, utterly puzzled.

"I know what you're thinking. You think I ought to be happy, don't you? You're right, I should be happy. But where the hell am I going to find five hundred battle pets? In this area"-he pointed at the map-"my hundred men, plus ten Dragonhawk Riders, searched and hunted day and night for more than twenty days, and we caught fewer than sixty lynxes. Six hundred? Do they want me to turn every inch of Quel'Thalas upside down?"

The messenger finally understood the source of his distress and said sympathetically, "Exactly. Lynxes aren't pigs that come in herds. How could they be that easy to find?"

"Pigs?" Yu Lin Bloodhawk suddenly erupted with joy. He excitedly clasped the messenger's hand and thanked him over and over. The messenger was utterly bewildered. Thinking Yu Lin Bloodhawk had gone mad, he hurried away in fright.

That evening, the hunting party brought back two lynxes. Everyone had been pleased at first, but when they heard that another five hundred

men were coming, their faces turned pale with fright. Finding sixty had already been so difficult. Where were they supposed to find another five hundred? The Dragonhawk Riders looked unhappy too. Were those people in Silvermoon City trying to work them to death?

Yu Lin Bloodhawk, however, said nothing. After giving everyone a few instructions, he said, "Do your best to pick up the pace. Tomorrow, one squad will stay behind and come with me on an errand. Everyone else should carry on with their duties. I may not be back for a while, so if those five hundred brothers arrive, get them settled in. Hunting is a form of training too, though our dragonhawk brothers have been working especially hard. I don't think we need to limit the search area anymore. Search all the places where they're easy to find first. Even if you have to go all the way to Silvermoon City, catch any you find and bring them back. We have plenty of manpower, so distance isn't a problem."

Everyone could only agree.

The next day, Yu Lin Bloodhawk took the written authorization Alleria had given him to Tranquillien's quartermaster. After drawing a considerable sum of money, he set off for Sunsail Archorage with a squad of rangers. His justification was perfectly sound: they did not have enough battle pets and needed to buy more. Thus, the request went through without any trouble.

After two days of travel, they finally reached Sunsail Archorage and boarded a ship bound for Westfall. The ship spent more than twenty days at sea before their party of a dozen or so finally arrived in Moonbrook, a town in Westfall under the jurisdiction of the humans' Stormwind City.

The town was quite prosperous overall, with inns and taverns. The arrival of their party of elves caused a stir throughout the town, and people often came in on one pretext or another to steal a look at them. High Elves rarely appeared in the Human Kingdom. When they did, they generally appeared only in Dalaran, the City of Magic. Ordinary commoners naturally had few chances to see elves!

After staying for two days and asking various people for information, Yu Lin Bloodhawk had a fairly clear idea of the price of a Giant Bloodfang Boar. To be honest, they were very cheap. The locals killed them and sold their meat, but it was tough and tasted bad, so it fetched little money. Even at that price, few people bought it. Yet the locals had no choice but to kill them, because there were so many Bloodfang Boars here that they frequently destroyed the nearby residents' crops.

Yu Lin Bloodhawk discussed it with the innkeeper and offered to buy adult Giant Bloodfang Boars for five silver coins each and piglets for one silver coin each, taking as many as they could supply. He would come to collect them once a month. He could pay part of the deposit upfront, with the remaining balance paid in full when they were transported to Quel'Thalas.

The next day, after the innkeeper posted the notice announcing the purchase of Giant Bloodfang Boars, hunting parties streamed out of Moonbrook as though heading to a fair. Five silver coins was no small sum to these residents. Normally, a dead Giant Bloodfang Boar fetched at most one and a half silver coins. Now that these wealthy elves were offering five, why bother farming? They could just catch boars!

Seeing such a flurry of activity, Yu Lin Bloodhawk abandoned his original plan to take a look around the Redridge Mountains. He told the innkeeper that there were Giant Bloodfang Boars there too. If the supply here ran low, they could go catch them there, and he would pay an extra silver coin for transport. As soon as word spread, boat after boat set out from the harbor for the Redridge Mountains.