Story Snippet: Where Kings Walk

The following is a piece of a story, or rather, a glimpse of my death knight's character, that I'd forgotten I'd written. I found it while looking for another story about her that I'm considering finishing and submitting to the 2010 Blizzard Writing Contest. And as with anything that one's forgotten about and uncovered like a buried treasure, I was really fond of this snippet I found. :) So I thought I'd share it here.

It's a depiction of my death knight's experience of the quest Where Kings Walk, the alliance-side end of the death knight quest chain from Acherus. In short, since it's not explained here, Rehina was a young gnome warrior of high standing from Gnomeregan who, instead of being left to rot on a battlefield of the Third War, was taken by agents of the Lich King to be resurrected as a death knight. Before this happened, she "lost" everything she cared about, which fueled in her the anger necessary to be a respectable death knight. I don't want to say much more because it would give away my other story!

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It felt strange to be walking through the canals of Stormwind to seek reacceptance. Before becoming … before the events of the Third War, Rehina had only been to the human city a few times, on minor diplomatic missions as a representative of Gnomeregan and guardian to the emissary. Most major dealings she had were with Ironforge and its surrounding towns. But now Stormwind was the figurehead of this new “Alliance”, so this is where she must be.

But then again, many things felt strange recently… willpower being one of them.

And thankfully she had the willpower to avoid reacting to the less-than-joyful cries that could be heard; spectators lined the streets as she walked among the other armoured Death Knights toward the keep. There were not only humans here, but seemingly every race of the alliance. They had come to watch this new addition arrive, for it would be difficult to describe in words all the different feelings that were radiating, almost tangible, arising from this… macabre sight. How fitting, she thought.

Although she knew any emotions and reactions toward the Death Knights, toward herself, would be negative, it was still somewhat saddening to hear it all. She couldn’t help but be a little put down. Things began raining down on the parade of knights as they marched, to highlight the fact they were unwanted. A bright red tomato smacked into Rehina’s cheek, smothering it in pulp and juice, then slopped to the ground. It got to her nerves a little bit, but she wasn’t worried about the physical pain of the impact… no one wants to feel unwanted. Wiping her cheek clean with the back of her gauntlet, she kept her face straight, a skill all “retaliating” Death Knights seemed to be good at, and continued on as if it hadn’t affected her.

“What a waste,” She whispered dully to no one in particular. A human on her right glanced down at her with the constant glower that seemed to be etched into his face, then looked forward again. She wasn’t sure why she said it, and she wasn’t really intending anything when she said it. Maybe he was amused by the dry humour of her utterance.

Impatience was growing on her. Scrnn, scrnn, scrnn, the footfalls of her plate boots on the stonework. Clang, clang, clang, the uniform sound of their march. It will be over soon enough, she thought, then I can get back to... what am I getting back to?

Why am I even here?