Alleria eagerly opened the letter in her hands. It was an urgent letter from Yu Lin Bloodhawk, delivered from the Hinterlands. She had not heard from him in days, and she missed him.
Over the past few years, caught in the merciless maelstrom of this brutal war, Alleria had seen far too much pain and misery, far too much bloodshed and cruelty. She had almost grown numb. But as commander of the Eastern Route Army, she could not vent her feelings whenever and wherever she pleased as an ordinary soldier could. Sometimes she felt utterly exhausted-not physically, but mentally.
The warmth in Yu Lin Bloodhawk's letters often became her solace in this dark vortex of war, whose end was nowhere in sight. It reminded Alleria that she was still a living being of flesh and blood, with feelings of her own, rather than a robot that knew only killing and remained unmoved by any amount of human suffering or loss of life.
The fighting in the Burning Steppes had long since subsided. After the decisive battle at Blackrock Spire, most of the routed Orcs had fled toward the Redridge Mountains, passing through Lakeshire before retreating to Stormwind City. Clearly, they hoped to hold out behind the city's formidable defenses.
Only about a third of the routed Orcs had attacked in successive waves along the mountain pass Alleria guarded, which led to the Swamp of Sorrows. In the end, however, Alleria and the Eastern Route Army defeated them all and took many prisoners.
Since the routed Orcs had concentrated their breakout efforts on the Redridge Mountains, the Central Route Army and the Western Route Army joined forces and fought desperately to block them. Even so, some Orcs broke through the blockade and reached Lakeshire. Fortunately, most were intercepted and either killed