Once the Black Dragonflight disappeared, the gale naturally died down as well. Knight Duncan recovered his wits and shouted orders for the Paladins to put the tents back up.
Watching the Paladins raise the collapsed tents, the old knight gazed into the distance and said gravely, "That wind came far too strangely. We need to double the guard. I don't think this is normal."
"No need to go to the trouble." Aaron shook his head, then pointed at a red-haired mage lying amid the scattered bedding. "My guess is that some old Black Dragonflight just dropped my employer back off."
As he spoke, Aaron approached Rhonin and cast Light of the Protector on him several times. A little color finally returned to the mage's pale face. Then Rhonin slowly opened his eyes and saw Aaron crouching beside him. He managed a smile. "Aaron, I'm so glad to see you again."
"Rhonin, you should get some rest first." Aaron looked at his employer, who seemed to have suffered quite a fright, and reassured him, "You look like you could pass out at any moment."
Rhonin said nothing more. He simply closed his eyes and passed out again. It seemed the mage had suffered considerably while everyone was looking for him.
That was only natural, though. After all, he had spent more than a day abducted by an old Black Dragonflight that had been mad for over ten thousand years. An ordinary person probably would have buckled under that kind of psychological pressure long ago.
Aaron stood up and addressed everyone, though mainly Duncan. "I think Rhonin needs rest. What do you think, Knight Duncan? Since he's back already, I think we'd better wait until he wakes up to ask him exactly what happened."
A resolute expression settled over Duncan's weathered face. "The Silver Hand will never make things difficult for someone unable to resist. However, I must post someone to watch him. I believe the Holy Light will deliver the fairest judgment."
"I'll stay here and watch him." After a moment's thought, Aaron said to Duncan, "Please rest assured, Knight Duncan. In the name of the Holy Light, I won't let him go without permission. You will definitely see a mage in one piece tomorrow morning."
That was what he said, and Aaron really would not let Rhonin go, but just how much credibility his oath in the name of the Holy Light carried was highly questionable.
"Young man, you needn't swear an oath. I trust you, and I trust that elder's judgment." Knight Duncan said no more. After assigning the night watch, he returned to his tent to rest.
Watching Duncan leave, Aaron vaguely felt that the old knight seemed to have misunderstood something. From the look of it, had he taken Aaron for Tirion's disciple?
As night fell, the entire camp grew quiet. Only the flames before Aaron crackled. Finding himself with nothing to do, Aaron closed his eyes and pretended to rest, while actually leafing through the strange book in his mind.
As he saw it, since the pony summon had lit up after he met Rhonin, then after encountering a Red Dragonflight once and Deathwing twice today, surely Red Dragonflight mounts, Black Dragonflight mounts, and the like could light up too?
To Aaron's disappointment, however, he could still summon only those few differently colored ponies. He could not even summon the faster thousand-gold horse.
But when he flipped to the skill section to check which skills he could currently use, Aaron vaguely seemed to notice a change in his toy collection. Flipping back a few pages, he saw that he had finally unlocked his first toy: the Orb of the Sin'dorei.
Hmm? This thing? Didn't it only become available after The Burning Crusade? Aaron studied the orb with interest. This toy dropped from Kael'thas. Aaron had never actually gone out of his way to farm it, but what could he do when he still hadn't gotten the white Hawkstrider that Kael'thas dropped?
Aaron tried tapping the orb and felt as though his body had undergone some slight changes, but for the moment, he could not tell exactly what had changed.
Just then, Aaron heard a startled cry behind him. "Ah! Who are you?"
Aaron looked back and found Vereesa staring at him in surprise. She, too, was wondering where this member of her race who had suddenly appeared in camp had come from.
Aaron hurriedly stood up to explain, only to discover that his arms seemed a little longer. Raising a hand before his eyes, he found that his hands had changed slightly too. Then he looked at the hair drifting into his field of vision. Not only had it grown much longer, but its color had changed from black to pure gold.
As though remembering something, Aaron reached up to either side of his head. Sure enough, he felt ears that had grown long.
"It really works." Aaron marveled, then turned to Vereesa. "Well, um, Vereesa, let me explain..."
"You're Aaron? You have a transformation toy on you too?" Unexpectedly, Vereesa was not overly surprised. She had even recognized him from his equipment. She merely approached him curiously and reached out to touch his ears.
Feeling the slightly cool touch on his ears, Aaron felt a tickle deep inside and hurriedly protested, "Vereesa, stop touching them. That tickles."
Without seeing the scene before them, anyone hearing Aaron's words alone might have thought Vereesa was doing something to him.
"Huh? This toy of yours is pretty sophisticated. Even the ears have sensation? But why are your eyes green? There aren't any green-eyed elves in Quel'Thalas."
"Well, maybe the fellow who sold me the toy got something wrong." Aaron hastily came up with an explanation that sounded reasonably plausible, thinking, Of course you don't have green eyes now. You'll have to wait until that idiot prince slaughters you and Kael'thas screws you over before you get that effect.
Aaron hurriedly canceled the transformation, thinking that he would not dare carelessly test anything else he unlocked in the future. Vereesa seeing it was one thing; high elves had advanced magical technology and had seen plenty. If someone ignorant saw it, who knew what trouble it might cause, especially when he was surrounded by a group of Paladins.
"Your transformation toy lasts such a short time. Mine can all last a whole day," Vereesa said as she watched Aaron return to human form.
"Of course. Quel'dorei technology is the best in the world. We humans even learned our magical arts from you."
"The best in the world?" Vereesa shook her head. "You're a Paladin, so you probably don't know, but the strongest mage hasn't been a Quel'dorei for a long time. I heard from my eldest sister that an extraordinarily powerful mage emerged among humans in recent years. But he seems to have gone down an evil path. He's the one who brought the Orcs here."
"Medivh?" Aaron ventured. Of course he knew Medivh was powerful, and Medivh's mother was powerful too. Those two mighty figures simply had not come to mind for a moment.
"Yes, yes! You've heard his name too, haven't you?"
Aaron nodded. If he had the chance in the future, he would definitely visit the cellar behind Medivh's lair, Karazhan. There ought to be quite a few artifacts and such there. But that was a long way off. After all, Karazhan was no safe place either.
"By the way, you said you heard that from your eldest sister. If I remember correctly, your eldest sister is... Alleria?"
Aaron knew perfectly well who Vereesa's eldest sister was: one of the renowned Five Heroes of the Dark Portal, Turalyon's wife. By now, she should have gone through the portal and be roaming all over fighting demons.
"Yes, my eldest sister... she..." A somewhat sorrowful expression suddenly appeared on Vereesa's face. "She was trapped on the other side of the portal several years ago."
"I'm sure you'll see each other again. A legendary figure like her can surely survive even on the other side of the Dark Portal." Seeing Vereesa's sorrowful expression, Aaron felt something stir within him and offered reassurance.
Aaron knew very well that Alleria should by now have joined the Army of the Light under Xe'ra's leadership along with Turalyon. The couple should be fighting the Burning Legion all over the place. Though judging by their later circumstances, they were mostly taking a beating, at least both of them were indeed still alive.
Come to think of it, the Five Heroes of the Dark Portal were already presumed dead, so statues had been erected in Stormwind City to commemorate them. Yet later events proved that all five were still alive and well. Instead, four of the five people who had written the inscriptions for their statues had died. Of course, some of them had not stayed completely dead, but that was another matter.