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Chapter 3

Freedom...wild and pure...

The Hunt...so many prey...Bite! Kill!

Hunger...Feast...Eat...

Rest...

Pain...Darkness...

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"Can y-....ar...e? Liki?"

The call echoed in his head, his ears perked at the noise and he opened his eyes. He felt so tired...so sore... The ground beneath him was grassy, wet, and green. He saw two huge footpaws splayed out and chained to the ground by metal spokes...

"Liki? Can you-...me? Look-...pleas-...ou in there?"

What? Liki groaned and tried to move, but found he couldn't. He was held down by a pillory, except this one was made of metal instead of wood like the one back in the dungeons. He struggled, his feet- no, his footpaws, the very footpaws he was looking down at he realized, struggled momentarily against the chains.

"Get back Krennan!" A new voice shouted, one Liki believed he knew but couldn't place. Liki froze, somehow knowing instinctively that a gun was leveled at his head.

"No! Don't shoot him! Damn it you brought him here specifically for this!" Krennan responded, his voice easily recognized.

"He's a mad beast! He killed over a dozen Gilneans!"

"And then he also saved us so back off!" Krennan growled and he shoved the barrel of the gun away from Liki.

"He didn't save anyone he hid the truth from you!" The other man growled back.

Liki saw the familiar boots Krennan liked to wear step in front of him on the ground. The red leather was dirty and muddied, covered in grass and scuff marks. He could see his pant legs similarly dirtied and scuffed. It looked as if it'd been ages since Krennan had been indoors. Suddenly Liki felt hands grasp under his muzzle-muzzle?- and tilt his vision up. The bright light of day assaulted Liki's eyes, and he had to close them briefly and open them slowly as they adjusted.

Krennan continued to argue as Liki's vision slowly cleared. "He wasn't the only one turned who killed others that day Godfrey! If you're going to kill them for what they couldn't control, start with your own subjects!"

The other man didn't respond, giving Liki the time he needed to focus on the man in front of him. The fog on the edges of his vision slowly cleared and he tried to speak. He was surprised by how dry his mouth felt, his lips cracking as he forced a word from his throat.

"K-Krennan?"

The Royal Alchemist's full attention was on Liki at that moment, hearing him speak made him smile brightly. His hands cupped Liki's furry head.

"Oh thank the Titans it is you...you're back!"

Back? Where was he?

Slowly, the realization dawned on him as he remembered what had happened in the city. He looked over to his left slowly, seeing a massive, black furred hand with long, sharp claws. He carefully began to clench his fingers, watching the hand react in kind to it, he knew it was his own hand.

"Where..." He paused, unable to process it. How...? How was he here?

Krennan forced Liki's focus back onto his face, pulling his muzzle towards him with a look of deep concern on his face. "Relax, don't freak out over it."

To be honest, he was freaking out, but he refused to let it be obvious, keeping his face neutral as he looked into Krennan's blue eyes. He could see the reflection in them. Seeing the beastly, black furred lupine head staring back up at the Royal Alchemist confirmed it. He was a Worgen.

Suddenly the differences in how this body felt became all too real for him. He continued to test and move his limbs, feeling both of his hands, now nearly twice as large as before, trapped by the pillory that had him bound. He moved his legs, hearing the shackles tight around his ankles rattle. He felt the ground under his footpaws. The feeling of the ground was faded, due to the tough pads under his now wolfish feet meant to protect him from anything sharp he may step on.

Atop his head, his ears swivelled and folded back. A sound escaped him. A whine. It surprised him, and made another leave his throat as he choked, looking up into Krennan's eyes still as his own waterred.

"Krennan...I..." He started, choking on his words.

"Relax my friend...just relax for a moment. I'll explain everything but let yourself acclimate first..." The noble's shoulders fell slightly. "It can be...difficult to understand your body like this..."

Liki listened carefully, but then felt a gnawing rumble of hunger deep within his gut. A sudden urge rose up from within Liki with the sound of his stomach growling.

Hunger...

Liki closed his eyes and growled loudly, and his body jerked against the pillory before he could stop himself, making Krennan retreat quickly and for whoever the other person was with him to level their gun at his head again. Liki battled against the urge that rose in him, breathing heavily and his paws clenched while Krennan shoved the barrel away once more.

"No! Damn it Godfrey you know how this goes! You've seen it so many times now!" Krennan scolded the other man while he seemed to be retrieving something nearby, and then returning to kneel in front of Liki once more.

Suddenly, a marvelous smell was in front of him, and Liki opened his eyes to see Krennan holding a small piece of raw meat in his hand. His nose sniffed eagerly at the scent, and Liki felt his mouth water.

"This what you need, right?" Krennan asked with a smile, to which Liki nodded rapidly, unable to speak over the heavy amount of saliva filling his mouth.

"Heh, just a moment." Krennan reached into his satchel and produced a bottle of purple fluid. As he uncorked it, the other man, Godfrey, stomped up beside him. Liki looked up at him, recognizing the man from times he'd gotten to see him back in Greymane Manor. He was an impressive man with white beard, wearing a pair of rounded glass spectacles that gleamed in the light of day and hid his eyes. He wore an extravagant suit and top hat, both were also caked in mud like Krennan's own attire.

"Krennan don't! You'll waste it all on one...beast?!"

"This is -not- just a beast Godfrey. Blast you're thick. We've been helping dozens of Worgen recover for a week now." Krennan shot back. "It was only your insistence that Liki "be punished" for keeping the cure hidden that he's the last of them to be treated."

"Cure..." Godfrey spat out the word and suddenly turned and started to stalk away. "Even after coming back they continue to have moments of aggression and anger...they're endangering us all."

Krennan didn't opt to respond as he instead poured the fluid onto the meat in his hand, carefully saturating it as much as he possibly could. By the time he seemed satisfied, half the bottle was empty and Godfrey had vanished from Liki's line of sight. Krennan held the small piece of meat up to Liki's face, so that he could eat it right out of the palm of his hand.

"Here, eat it."

Liki eyed the meat carefully. Every part of his new body ordered him to eat it. He was starving, but his human mind knew better. "Was that the cure you just poured on it?" He asked slowly, finding it difficult to form words with his canine muzzle. He ended up biting his tongue a few times, making him wince.

Krennan nodded. "Yes. Our last bottle we could make."

Liki stared at him, taking that last bit of information in. That didn't sound good. "What?"

Krennan just shoved the raw meat against Liki's lips. "Eat first, then I'll explain while you do."

Liki relented, and he carefully opened his maw and took the piece of meat with his sharp teeth. Krennan was wearing gloves, but he didn't want to risk infecting him with this Curse as well.

He had thought that raw meat would have been disgusting, but to his Worgen body, it was the best thing he'd ever tasted. In moments he was trying to vigorously tear it up with his teeth while Krennan stood and began to explain.

"With what had happened in the city, it wasn't long before nearly 60% of Gilneans were infected." Krennan walked away around Liki, but the newly awakened Worgen was too busy enjoying the food to think about what may be behind himself.

"The entire city was pretty much ruined, ransacked by the Worgen. Those of us that were saved or managed to escape, have been taking refuge at Duskhaven." Between his chewing, Liki's ears twitched. Duskhaven? That was a little village below the cliffs on which Greymane Manor stood, about five miles away from the city on the southwest shores facing the sea. They'd been forced that far out?

"Multiple things happened after we managed to gather our strength here." Krennan continued. "For one, Lorna found me and gave me your message..."

This made Liki nearly choke as he swallowed the hunk of meat. He coughed and Krennan was quickly kneeling back in front of him, looking concerned. Liki avoided looking at him, he didn't want to see Krennan so concerned for him, given the circumstances that had led him to this moment...

The Worgen coughed and sputtered until he recovered his breath enough to mumble. "I'm sorry..." He whispered.

"Whatever your reasons were my friend..." Krennan said, reaching and gently holding Liki's left hand, which looked comical considering the size difference. "If you hadn't given Lorna your key and told her to find me...we'd all be running wild throughout Azeroth by now. I don't know about others...but know you have my forgiveness..."

Liki's ears folded back once more. He remained silent, looking away from Krennan still, who seemed to take the silence as acceptance and stood up. "Anyway...after we found your message in your drawer, production of the cure was our top priority, but..." He sighed deeply. "Just as we were beginning to cure those that had been bitten...the Horde showed up."

This snapped Liki out of his self pity and he looked up to Krennan from the pillory. "Horde?!"

The Royal Alchemist nodded. "Yes...it turns out that they've been filling the mountains north of our walls, forcing out the Worgen that had made home there and causing them to scale the wall. This forced the ones already on our side to fight them or be forced out too, and eventually it spilled over into our city. The Horde did this to weaken us."

Krennan stood, grinning brightly. "We would've been utterly destroyed...if not for the cure. The Worgen we brought back to sanity have been fighting for us! The Horde have been barely able to even touch our shores!"

He kneeled again in front of Liki. "That's what I meant earlier. You may have nearly doomed us by hiding the cure, but you've also saved us by getting it to us just in time!"

Krennan launched into a long explanation of everything. He told Liki how they had begun capturing Worgen and delivering the cure to them. They had no idea which Worgen was him, yet partly through the first day Lord Godfrey, the man who had been there earlier, had demanded that Liki be the last to receive any treatment. That man and several others demanded he be punished for keeping the cure hidden. Their reasoning for this was that if the Gilneans had the cure at their disposal -then- the Horde would not have been able to use the Worgen for their attack.

Despite not knowing his reasons, others defended Liki, saying that keeping the cure hidden had allowed them to catch the Horde off guard. Indeed, Worgen suddenly fighting alongside Gilneans had been quite a shock to them, and their ferocity in battle had the Horde waylaid on the southwest shore near Duskhaven, where they had attempted to invade. The attacking force consisted of undead; Sylvanas Windrunner and her Forsaken, probably due to their own resilience to well...being killed...they were the ideal force for dealing with the Worgen after taking care of the Gilneans. They'd been at a standstill on the shores for four days now.

While this was happening, Worgen Hunters captured and secured more and more Worgen, who Krennen then cured. Just on coincidence, Liki had been one of the last they'd captured as the cure was running out.

Krennan sighed at this point and rubbed his forehead. "There's a bit of an issue though. While our cure has brought back their sanity...it doesn't do away with that feral side completely. The Cursed are helping us in battle, but outside of it we've had to keep them separated from those not cursed. When startled, angered, or as you felt earlier, hungry, the Cursed lash out. They quickly realize what they're doing and reel themselves back, but it's caused a few others to be bitten already. I'm worried that if someone gets too emotional they may revert."

"Revert?" Liki asked him carefully.

"Yes, as in go back to being completely Feral...While it hasn't happened yet, those we first cured have been saying they're finding it harder to fight these urges as more time goes on."

"And you've almost ran out of cure..." That was a worrying notion.

Krennan nodded. "The herbs I need to make more are to the north of the city, but that area has also been invaded by the Horde. The still feral Worgen there are what's keeping them at bay for now..."

Liki took all this in, and he steeled himself. He had to fix all this. "Krennan, where is Greymane? I need to talk to him."

The Royal Alchemist looked down at him. "I wish I could take you to him friend, but...he was also bitten..."

Liki's eyes widened. "What...?"

"He was bitten shortly before we managed to escape the city, and I barely managed to give him the cure before he turned. It's kept his body from changing but it's still affecting him slowly...he can feel it. He's been being watched over at Greymane Manor."

Liki nodded, but he continued forward. "I can get us help...I need to see him."

"How can you help?" Krennan asked, his gaze studying Liki intently. "I want to help you friend...but unless you give me a good reason, I cannot let you free."

Liki paused. He knew there was only one way he could really get Krennan to free him, but if he revealed his secret, he'd be kicked out of SI:7 for it. He considered not doing anything, but if he was just stuck here in this pillory for however long the Gilneans intended to keep him there he couldn't do anything at all to help them. From what Krennan had told him, there were two things that were likely to happen. One was that the cured did turn feral again, and turn on the Gilneans and systematically infect them all. The second was that The Forsaken eventually got reinforcements and overran them.

Liki could not, would not, let either of those happen. He'd already failed his mission. Hell, he'd probably be kicked out of SI:7 just for being a Worgen. He had expected to never return from becoming a Worgen, thinking that someone would kill him. He owed these people too much to let his pride get in the way.

He took a deep breath and fixed Krennan with his steely gaze, which was more effective than he realized due to his new form. "I can help us get a message to the Alliance for help...I'm an SI:7 operative..."

_______________________

"He's even more of a traitor than he was before!"

Liki's ears folded back at Godfrey's words. The black Worgen was wearing shackles around his wrists and ankles and nothing else but a loincloth to hide that more animalistic nature from the rows of Lords and other high members of Greymane's court inside Greymane Manor. The King himself sat between all of them in a larger chair, gripping his side where he had been bitten and looking at Liki with mixtures of curiosity and the pain radiating from the wound. The whole lot of them were dirtied and their clothing torn in some places. Liki realized that their time fighting the Worgen and now the Horde must have been hard on them.

Weak...Kill... Liki shook the unwanted thought away, closing his eyes and wrestling against his own body as his feet twitched.

"Why-" Greymane winced, gritting his teeth a moment and hissing out the rest of his sentence, "would the Alliance send an SI:7 operative to spy on us?"

"It wasn't just me..." Liki added, opening his eyes as he managed to finally calm that voice inside him. "There were three others with me. A warlock, a mage, and a druid. I have no idea where they are. My mission was to gather intel and information, and to facilitate any available situation where..." He paused, lowering his head. "In which Gilneas would be forced to ask the Alliance for help in exchange for joining it."

Several of the Lords sitting around the court table bristled angrily. Another of the Lords shouted out. "He's the reason we're in this mess! He hid the cure knowing the Worgen were close to invading the city!"

Liki remained looking down at the floor as he listened to the Lords argue with each other and shout at him. He couldn't say they were wrong because it was true. While he hadn't directly been monitoring the movement of the Worgen, it was something he had been counting on. If he had, perhaps he would've noticed the Horde's oncoming attack instead.

He felt a gentle touch on his large, furry, muscled arm, and he looked to his side to where Krennan had been standing beside him, never leaving while he presented himself before the court and told them the truth. He gave him a kind smile and Liki appreciated his support.

"I would never ask the Alliance for assistance, especially not after what you've just revealed to me." Greymane growled at him through his teeth.

"Perhaps we should." A new voice spoke up, this one coming from a Worgen who was sitting around the table, a Lord who had been bitten. The other Lords had edged away from him, obviously suspicious of the Worgen who sat with them. He was wearing a set of plate armor, shiny and glistening.

"What are you talking about Crowley?" Godfrey snarled at the Worgen, "Why are you even here? I thought the cursed were being kept separated from the unafflicted."

The Worgen ignored Godfrey, instead focusing his gaze on Greymane, "Genn, you know exactly what will happen if we don't get assistance. Exactly as Liki here has said. The cured will either revert, or the Horde will overrun us. We -need- help if we're to get out of this."

"You intend us to leave our homeland?!" Another of the Lords shouted.

"One way or another Gilneas is already lost." Crowley said back sternly. "Why am I the only reasonable one seeing it?"

Before another argument could rise up, Greymane answered him. "You're not Darius...you're right."

The court fell silent as every eye fell on the King as he continued. "Gilneas has fallen...but the people will not suffer for it anymore." He fixed Liki with a stern glare. "We will accept the Alliance's help...but not in exchange for us joining them...this is your compensation to us for what you've done."

Liki lowered his head once more and he took a knee before everyone in the room as he spoke. "In revealing myself as an agent of SI:7, I broke their commandments. I'll be banished from the organization and from being part of Stormwind's military...I will do anything in my power to ensure that your people are safe."

Greymane watched Liki for a moment in silence before he nodded to Krennan, and the Royal Alchemist came forward while producing that half empty bottle from his satchel.

The King took the bottle and drank just a few drops of the precious fluid, giving it back to his alchemist before he continued. "You are a dedicated individual Liki. I remember when Krennan found you and brought you before me to make you his apprentice. I had attempted to do a background check on you in our civilian records, but nothing was found. You had just suddenly appeared. I should've seen it then, but I instead attributed it to you being a normal, everyday Gilnean citizen up until that point."

Greymane continued to look at the Worgen kneeling before him. "You gave nearly four years of your life to being a spy here...how long were you an operative before that?"

Liki gripped his knee with his clawed paw at the question as he was made to remember all those years spent toiling, training...

"Nearly Ten. I joined SI:7 when I was just sixteen. I've fought in many battles..." He paused.

"You hesitate..." Darius prodded him.

Liki folded his ears back. "I hesitate because it would sound like I'm bragging..."

"Oh?" Greymane sat back, holding his side but it didn't seem to be bothering him at the moment anymore. "Tell us."

Liki sighed and he looked up from where he was kneeling, "I don't expect you to know about it...but I've fought and beaten back Ragnaros the Firelord in the depths of Azeroth below Black Rock Mountain, travelled to the Outlands and battled the Burning Legion and defeated Illidan Stormrage, and have travelled to the frozen lands of Northrend and battled the Lich King himself."

As he listed his adventures and triumphs, the gathered Lords around him became visibly more and more impressed, even Genn leaned forward once more.

"You seriously believe that they would banish someone like you from their ranks?"

Liki nodded. "If not because I revealed myself during a mission, then they would because I am now Worgen...I would pose a risk to them that wouldn't be acceptable. No amount of battle experience can make up for loyalty in SI:7's eyes, and the risk of me infecting others speaks for itself."

Greymane studied him once more. "Then, what about pledging yourself to my kingdom?"

Liki's eyes widened, but before he could even think about that offer, Godfrey slammed his fists on the table and stood up, rage clear on his face. "I will not have you give this...DOG a pardon for his crimes against Gilneas and let him become a citizen!"

Greymane turned and fixed Godfrey a stare. The well dressed Lord's face fell a bit, but the anger clearly remained and he did not sit back down. When this became apparent to Greymane, the king's brow furrowed and he spoke calmly. "I will not argue that he has wronged us. In doing his mission, he endangered our people, and got himself bitten and turned. At his last moments though, he gave us the literal key to what is our fighting chance."

Genn turned his head back to Liki with a short nod. "He is a dedicated individual who would never break his vows unless he had no other choice in the matter, that much is evident in that he believes that in becoming a Worgen, he has already been removed from SI:7. Perhaps he wishes that to be true in his own way..."

Liki thought on that. Was that true? Sure, four years ago he had wished for nothing more than to be done with SI:7 and just live a normal life. Had going undercover for the last three years softened his view somewhat? Enough for him to just leave without even finding out if they really would kick him out?

Greymane continued. "If you continue to prove that loyalty to me while we find safety...we will speak again about this."

Liki nodded.

"For now, you have my pardon. You will help us fight off the Horde until whatever help you can summon arrives." Genn made a slight motion with his hand, and two guards near Liki came forward and carefully removed the shackles around his wrists and ankles. Liki flexed his paws while looking at them. Freedom...

And then it struck...

Just as they began to move away, the entire manor shook! The ground rumbled and quaked. It felt as if Azeroth was tearing itself apart! Liki fell forward, catching himself on all fours, his hindlegs bending to allow him to stand on all fours. He steadied himself as he looked around rapidly. What was happening?!

Crowley had done the same as Liki, and had gone under the wooden table as plates, goblets, and silverware clattered and broke along the floor. The remaining human Lords, and Greymane, had fallen to the ground as they were shaken from their chairs.

Sizable cracks began to show in the walls of the Manor as the quake continued on, and finally, Greymane himself voiced what Liki was questioning in his head.

"What in blazes is going on!?"

"Sire! T-there's! Outside!" A guard shouted, trying to point out the large window behind the King.

Liki quickly focused his gaze there, and his eyes widened in shock. The quake was forgotten in that moment, as the remaining members in the court also looked.

In the air, high in the sky, a massive black dragon was rising into Azeroth's atmosphere.

_________________

Liki had to wonder. What was that large dragon that had appeared three days ago. Tearing through the skies and vanishing from sight. What did it do to cause the whole of Azeroth to shake like that?

It...was a cataclysm.

That was the only thing Liki could reasonably call it. The black dragon's emergence had created a massive wave that crashed over the south western shores of Gilneas. Anyone that hadn't been in Duskhaven at the time was killed and the water level swelled and covered a large portion of the land. The farm lands that had dotted the shore were now completely submerged.

The attacking Horde ships were washed ashore by the wave, destroyed as they were crushed onto land. Surviving sailors continued to fight the Gilneans, the disaster did nothing to dissuade them.

The order was given to surviving Gilneans to flee further inland, and so Liki assisted civilians travelling further along the south shore where the wave had not hit, to a village called Stormglen. Here, the Gilneans fortified themselves. Even Greymane himself was brought with them. The Manor was too far from Stormglen to effectively lead from the Manor anymore, and so the estate was abandoned.

The Royal family, Greymane's wife Mia, his son Liam, and daughter Tess all were with him. His wife and daughter cared for Genn, while he struggled to control the rising infection within with the cure, but it wasn't working to stop it. At some point, Genn would also turn. That came to a full when Krennen's last bottle of the cure was completely used up and there was nothing to stop Genn from turning now.

By the middle of the second day after arriving at Stormglen, Genn Greymane, King of Gilneas, was also a Worgen.

Liki had already sent his message to SI:7 for assistance by eagle the day he'd been given his pardon by Genn. Gilneas was not too far away from Ironforge, and the message would be carried from there to Stormwind by the Deeprun Tram. He was sure it had already arrived, and that whatever help could be given was already on the way.

With the Gilneans huddled at the south shores of their nation, the Horde had seemed to finally fight a way through the Feral Worgen of the north and had taken over the city.

And then to top it off, when Greymane succumbed to the curse, Godfrey and a few other of the southern Lords declared they would not follow "A beast". They and several of their own subjects left Stormglen, declaring they were seceding from the rest of the nation, and vanished without a trace.

The Gilnean Worgen who had been first to be cured were finding it more and more difficult to fight against their instincts and violent urges. One explained it as "Fighting back a beast who only grew in power with each hour." So far they had kept their sanity and no one else had been bitten, but it seemed only a matter a time without more of the cure that they would turn back completely feral. Even Liki himself could feel this beast inside him.

It was raging, full of hate and anger that Liki wasn't where he belonged. In the wild, hunting and living free. Once again Liki had chosen to bind himself to the word of another. Liki had thought of using his Hearthstone to get himself away from all this or get help from the Alliance faster, but with its location outside his home, he had no idea of knowing if he'd be seen, and in his current form that would not be a good idea. That and he refused to abandon these people in their time of need.

There were no answers for him here, stuck in Gilneas tending to those injured or at times fighting back the animal he still felt inside him.

And then finally, on the dawn of the third day after the cataclysm, their salvation did arrived.

___________________

One the dawn of the third day, a new stranger arrived in Stormglen. A white Worgen who stated that he could help the Gilneans maintain control over their instincts and urges, even give those who were Worgen the ability to change back and forth to their human form at will.

Liki was suspicious of this Worgen at first, and so was everyone else. To ease everyone's fears, the Worgen demonstrated this ability to them. There was a brief puff of black smoke, but what stood before them was not a fellow Gilnean, but a Night Elf. Liki instantly recognized the Night Elf as the one who had helped him enter Gilneas nearly four years ago, Tenebrae.

With his demonstration, it was Genn Greymane who volunteered to go first with the druid to verify that what he offered was true. There were protests from his wife and several of the Lords in his court. People did not go into the forest north of Stormglen, known as the Blackwald. The forest had recently become filled with large spiders that would kill on sight much like feral Worgen. Tenebrae gave his assurance that he had the locale spider populations under his control, he had been using them to keep people away, but now knew it was time for him to reveal himself and help. Genn took his word and went with him anyway, despite the continued protests.

When Genn returned, back to his human form and in full control, he announced to everyone to follow Tenebrae into the forest. People were excited. The news that Genn had control, and that full control was possible for anyone, travelled quickly, and two of the three Lords who had left with Godfrey the day before returned with their people, rejoining the main Gilnean force.

Throughout the day, Liki watched as more and more people met Tenebrae at the entrance of the woods then returned from the forest with him hours after, either back into a human form or still in their Worgen one, but happy and fully in control of their emotions. Jealousy was boiling within him, and this was making the voice within his head harder to ignore. It wanted to be free, to run wild. The sight of these happy people made him angry, and the voice whispered at him that it wasn't fair!

It was the end of the day and night had fallen when Liki was finally told to meet the druid at the entrance of the woods. Liki approached carefully, feeling rather moody and upset at how he had been ignored throughout the whole day. Why did he have to be last? Tenebrae grinned at him knowingly.

"If you're wondering why you had to be last, it's because I wanted us to be alone, so that we can discuss our plans later." He said with a slight smile.

Liki nodded, but the explanation did little to calm that rage inside him and he wasn't able to stop himself as he growled loudly. Tenebrae held up one of his palms.

"Calm yourself my friend. I had no intention of not treating you. You must understand the purpose in us having privacy and the urgency in which the Gilneans needed treatment. Come, follow." With that the Night Elf Worgen turned his back to Liki and started to lead him.

The black Worgen nodded again, and Liki managed to calm that raging beast inside him a bit enough to speak. "What are you doing out here?" Liki asked when they began to enter the forest. The spiders skittered away from them, hiding in the trees.

"Like you, I had a mission of my own here in Gilneas." Tenebrae said over his shoulder at Liki. "It was a personal mission, I asked to be given the chance to get into Gilneas, and when SI:7 created your mission, I was finally given it.."

"A personal mission?"

The Night Elf turned Worgen nodded as they were following a trail through the bushes. "Soon after seeing that you were safely within Gilneas, I found myself a Worgen, and allowed myself to be bitten."

Liki balked. "You...let yourself be bitten?"

"That's correct." He held out his hand, which Liki saw a scar mark on the back of it. That was where he had been bitten. Liki looked to his right shoulder, where a similar scar of his own was hidden by the lush black fur, then back to focusing on the back of Tenebrae's head as he followed him.

"Why would you do that?" He asked, while stepping over a tree root. "And why didn't you show yourself before now to help us?"

"I did it for this exact reason..." He said softly, turning briefly off the path they had been taking, going deeper into the woods. Liki followed him carefully while he continued. "To learn and teach control. I used the spiders of the forest to keep people away from discovering me while I did this."

"But..." Liki began, then paused, thinking hard. "Did you know this was going to happen?"

"I heard whispers of it on the wind." Tenebrae answered readily.

That seemed to be the only answer Liki was going to really get, so he kept his muzzle shut the rest of the walk, until they entered into the darker areas of the forest. Here, the trees canopies were thick and blocked out most of the light.

"Where exactly are you taking me?" Liki eventually asked, wondering if it was a good idea to agree to come alone here with the druid.

"To where I learned my control. It is where you will learn yours." Tenebrae said, just as he parted a bush. From an opening in the canopy, moonlight shone down into a clearing. There was just one large, leafless tree surrounded by a small pond of water. The tree's roots looked like the limbs of a spider themselves, extending up out of the ground to hold the tree up into the air, creating a small clearing underneath itself. The water was pooled around the roots of the tree, which itself was slightly hollow, allowing some of the moonlight to flood through it. Within the small clearing under the tree were three pillars with bowls on top of them arranged in a triangular pattern, one for each edge of the triangle. They were bathed in the moonlight which game through the tree. Water dripped down from the tree's underside into these bowls. A little off to the side of these, was a small nest of leaves which, as Liki neared the area under the tree, he guessed was where Tenebrae had been sleeping for the last three years. It reeked of his scent.

Tenebrae walked up to the three pillars and he pointed at the ground in the middle of them.

"Please, sit there." He said, while walking to one of the pillars and pausing to stare into the waters collected in the pool.

Liki raised an eyebrow at the druid, but he did as he was asked and sat down, crossing his legs, one under the other, and watched the white Worgen walk between each of the pillars, checking the amount of water in the bowls.

"How do you feel?" He asked softly, looking up with a soft smile on his muzzle as Liki was watching him.

Liki blinked at the question. "Um...fine, I guess."

"Good. No rage or anger or other dangerous emotions?"

Liki blinked again, and he realized what his companion was really asking. He looked inward, but...there was nothing...that beast...it was as if it was...sleeping? Just moments ago he had been feeling so much anger and resentment. What had happened?

"No...none." The black Worgen answered. His curiosity must have been obvious as Tenebrae chuckled.

"I don't expect you to understand much, but I'll give you a brief explanation. The Worgen were created here, under this very tree, long long ago."

Liki looked around rapidly, expecting to see wild Worgen around suddenly. "Really? Right here?"

"Indeed. Shortly after, those Worgen were banished to another realm. The-"

"The Emerald Dream." Liki answered, and Tenebrae smiled at him.

"You did some research during your time as Krennan's apprentice, that's good. What else do you know?"

Liki recalled his research. "I only know back from the time they had been brought back out from the Emerald Dream by a Kiren Tor mage that Greymane knew in the earlier years of his rule. They were used to fight off invaded Horde and Scourge, but the mage lost control."

"Good." Tenebrae lightly interjected. "No need to go through the whole history, I'm sure you know it. The only other important thing to know is that, in the realm of the Emerald Dream, this tree is known as Daral'nir. Here in this realm it is known as Tal'doren. In the Emerald Dream, Daral'nir was the home of the Worgen after they were imprisoned there. As such, this area holds a special connection for all Worgen..." He dipped both of his paws into the bowl that was in front of Liki, bringing it back up with his paws holding the water in them. He carried it over to the other Worgen, held it over his head.

And then let it fall on top of Liki's head.

Liki sputtered in surprise, as he had been looking up when the white Worgen had held it over him and hadn't been expecting to get a face full of water.

"What the heck!? Why did you do that?"

Tenebrae chuckled again moving to the second bowl and reaching in to get another hand full of water. "It's part of the ritual. Now. I want you to calm yourself, close your eyes, and imagine yourself lying in front of you."

Liki huffed and he moved to wipe the water out of his eyes, but suddenly Tenebrae's other paw held his wrist.

"No. Do not remove the water." He said sternly, then released his wrist. "Just keep your eyes closed, and relax. Picture yourself lying in front of you."

Liki relented and lowered his hands and held them in his lap. "Myself as in...?"

"Yourself as you are now. Your Worgen self, or if you prefer to think of it that way, your Worgen half. Picture him in front of you..."

"Okay..." Liki consented and he kept his eyes closed and relaxed his body, just as he felt yet another small splash of water fall over his head, wetting down his head fur. He fought back trying to react to it, but his ears folded back over his head, prompting Tenebrae to chuckle, and oddly, an odd sound came from him. A rumbling growl that was soft and light...murring?

"Relax...don't think about what I'm doing, keep thinking about the Worgen in front of you."

In front of him? Liki couldn't help it. He opened his eyes.

The black Worgen that was suddenly in front of him growled deeply, crawling forward on all fours and snarling. It's green eyes were locked on Liki's own. Liki looked down, he realized he was human again, completely naked. The ground around him was suddenly green and healthy, not slightly mottled and dry like it had been earlier. He tried to move, but found he couldn't. Or...no...he didn't want to move? There was a Worgen in front of him, why was he not afraid? His eyes returned to the Worgen in front of him as it was slowly coming closer. He looked into those green eyes, they were very familiar...

"You see him. Do you not?" Tenebrea's voice called to him. "You need to calm him."

"How do I do that?" He asked softly, making the Worgen growl loudly and retreat back a few steps for some reason.

"You know him, that should be all you need."

He knew the Worgen in front of him? What did that mean? Liki studied the Worgen. It's body was powerful, that black fur shimmering and shiny. It growled, baring teeth at him and crouched low on all fours, its lips quivering as it also seemed to study the human in front of him. Liki felt another splash of water on top of his head and he had to close his eyes. The snarling stopped. The water flowed over his face and he opened his eyes again slowly as it left. The Worgen was now just sitting in front of him, head tilted in confusion.

Liki narrowed his eyes slightly as he saw the Worgen's right shoulder, where its fur was slightly ruffled due to the hard scar underneath that Liki could just barely make out. He gasped.

"You're me!"

The Worgen in front of him merely tilted his head the other direction and amazingly, began to speak in his own voice! "Do you know who you are?"

Liki blinked, greatly confused. "I'm...I'm Liki."

"Are you?" The Worgen asked, keeping his head tilted. "Do you remember nothing?"

"What?"

"Do you remember nothing before that day?" The Worgen repeated.

"That...day?" Liki asked, but just as he finished the question, his head throbbed and he closed his eyes again.

Anger, rage, jealousy. He felt caged and trapped. He wanted to be free! Why couldn't he just be free!? He had thought he had gotten away but it was just another cage! It had been nothing like he thought it would be!

He heard the loud growling once more. He slowly opened his eyes and saw the Worgen in front of him, once more on all fours and crouched down, snarling and baring his teeth.

"You..." Liki started. "You hate what I've become...a slave to others, a slave to SI:7...always accepting orders. Never thinking for myself."

The Worgen crouched closer to the ground, its eyes glaring at Liki, full of anger and rage.

"You're me." Liki repeated while reaching out with his hand. The Worgen watched him carefully, but it did not retreat. "We both want freedom. You don't like having others tell you what to do either huh?"

As he spoke, the Worgen's growls lowered to a low rumble, its eyes remained locked onto the hand slowly reaching out to it, but it lifted its head a bit. Liki's hand made contact and he began rubbing through its fur. It continued to growl while Liki rubbed his hand gently along its head.

"I promise...I'm not going to go back to that. To what we were before. I want to be free too. Whatever King I may vow myself to in the future...whoever my commander is, I won't let us be controlled and do things against our will anymore. If we don't like what they're trying to do, then we won't."

The Worgen's growls stopped, its eyes softening as it approached closer to Liki, rising up to sit in front of him calmly. Liki smiled and he sighed softly. "I don't...I don't want to be alone anymore I want to be able to have friends. Actual friends, not just people I use to create a fake life as a cover up! I want to find a lover...eventually." He chuckled softly, scratching along behind the Worgen's ears as it crawled up closer to his side, its body leaning up against Liki's own bare skin.

"But...I want to still help people...I want to stop those that would do harm. I want to use my talents to better people's lives. I can't ignore people that need help. Don't you agree?"

The Worgen whined softly, its ears folded back. Liki chuckled. "I know. That sounds like it will never end, but at least it'll be our choice to do it. Right?"

The large Worgen huffed and suddenly, it collapsed against him, laying its upper body on his lap. Liki smiled and he kept scratching the beast behind its ears.

"You'll help me right?" Liki asked the Worgen, who responded by taking a deep breath, letting it out in a long relaxed manner. It closed its eyes while it remained in Liki's lap with that soft growling noise coming from it, that same noise Tenebrae had just made a moment ago.

"Thank you..." Liki said and closed his eyes himself, relaxing under the tree with his new Worgen companion.

______________

Another splash of water hit his face, and Liki felt himself come back. He blinked his eyes open slowly. He was back to his human form.

"Good job, you did that faster than most of the others." Tenebrae praised him as Liki rubbed the water from his face. "I didn't even have to guide you that much."

Liki looked up at the Worgen who was smiling down at him. "That voice." He stated, at which Tenebrae nodded. "The Worgen's voice...that was you?"

Tenebrae's smile faded to a grimace of confusion and he tilted his head. "The Worgen's voice? No, that wasn't me. It spoke to you?"

Liki frowned himself and he looked down at his now normal hands. "It asked me to remember who I was."

"Well...making peace with your own rage is part of calming the beast within...but this is the first I've heard of the inner beast talking to their partner...interesting." Tenebrae continued to look down at him, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. He then lowered it and shook his head. "Things to think about for another time perhaps. For now, I want you to hand control over to your other half."

Liki nodded. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. A small puff of black smoke appeared around the human, while Tenebrae stepped back in surprise, eyes wide. In just three seconds, the smoke dissipated, and Liki was now back in his Worgen form. He opened his eyes, but was concerned to see Tenebrae looking at him like that.

"You...you just...you just did it? Just like that?" The druid exclaimed in surprise.

Liki looked around awkwardly. "Um...y-yeah?"

"Without any instructions...?" Tenebrae seemed very impressed. He again rubbed his chin and then pointed at Liki with one finger. "You are a very impressive person...I think I'd like to follow you around a bit. I've never seen someone become one with their wilder half so quickly..."

Liki tilted his head at the white Worgen. "You're welcome to follow me around I suppose...but how long?"

"However long I need to understand how you so easily connected to it." He stated, then grinned. "I can heal you if you ever get injured as compensation, and I'm not too bad in a fight myself, just so ya know."

Liki nodded. "All right then. I don't think I'd mind a personal healer heh."

"For the time being anyway. You may call me Tene." The white Worgen bowed slightly, then stood back up. "Now, we are done here, I have other Gilneans I need to help. I was told you were special, so I wanted to help you out alone. I am glad I did."

Liki was glad he had as well. He didn't think he wanted Krennan finding out about his apparent connection to his "Inner Worgen". The Royal Alchemist's scientific mind would want to study him too then.

"We have many things to worry about." Liki said as he stood up himself.

"I know, but we shall face them together. There are two others who we should recruit to our cause I think."

Liki had a guess on who the druid was meaning. "You know where they are?"

"Yes, they are close. They have been busy themselves, you'll see what they've been up to."