"Honored Shaman… is it enough? Please take more if you wish! It would be the greatest of honor!" Pg a barrel down, I looked at the plump middle-aged female furbolg–she was one of our beekeepers–in front of me.

  She was a bit of a nervous wreck. Was I that intimidating? I suppose so, but it wasn't the fear of a prey she was showing. It resulted from my as and who I was. She didn't want to disappoint me. Silly, but it was what it was. And there were the usual pheromones I could care less.

  For furbolg, there wasn't any higher than me regarding social standing besides the Bear Lords themselves. I was already at the top as a shaman and ursa totemic. It reached its apex when Ursol AND Ursoc aowledged me.

  The first took me under his wing soon after, and the sed blessed me. It didn't happen sihe War of the As. And on a different gave me a valid excuse for many of my as and prote. The st articurly useful regarding what I was doing in parallel to one of the roots of a certain tree.

  It was impossible to ignore for ah a minimum education, and it was exacerbated for furbolgs.

  To top it off, I could revive the retly dead and heal nearly everything in the realm of injuries that may happen in our enviro, given it wasn't braied.

  …yeah, they treated me as some kind of bear messiah. Not that it was an inaccurate observatioe hoard and arrogant it souo me. I desired to live, and so would they. It retty mu the definition.

  I 't say I was a fan of how it did make many act toward me, though–it felt unnecessarily formal and submissive for people that knew me when I couldn't take a shit without help–but it gave power to my words.

  Respect was better than any brawn, physiagical, I might want.

  I didn't lead anything, though. Chieftain Murgut was still the chieftain, and I wouldn't challenge him. Why would I? He did an outstanding job! The same was true for the Elder Shaman, Oakpaw, and the other shamans. My words weren't ws; they just were to be heard and sidered.

  And it wasn't limited to our tribe.

  "Wouldn't want to damage the beehives any further now, do I? But thank you, Melia, for your assistance. I appreciate it. I 't say I'm an expert in ing honeybs like you. See ya." I said. She brightened up and waved me goodbye, which probably made her day. Then I looked up at the two little shits in a tree on a stealing mission, "Hukar, Karhu, e down! Now!"

  And they did, fast, g their way dowree with Hukar, a piece of honeyb with juicy rvas and honey in her jaw, and Karhu lig his chops and cws. I was thhly unimpressed, and they were thhly pleased with themselves.

  "ime, I will make you do this without the bees dreaming." I barked a ugh at their horrified faces as I picked up the three big barrels of beeswax on one shoulder. We were speaking of bees the size of a male night elf's palm, big girls.

  "Brother! You-you wouldn't dare! Ma would be very unhappy if we're hurt!" Karhu, the cleverest of the twins, tered, and Hukar, with a mouth full of rvae inside and honey, nodded rapidly with wide eyes. It was a goument. My mood ol' Ma, was someone I wouldn't want to piss off.

  She couldn't do anything physically wise anymore, and I was emancipated, but she was family, and she had ways to fiddle with me, however… there was a critical fw in his arguments.

  "What do you mean 'hurt'?" I said, raising an eyebrow as I demonstrated my words through a. I used one of my new saber-like teeth, my first pair of upper es that Ursoc's blessied in–one big reason my seeeting couldn't be hidden–and I cut open my index finger paw pad with it.

  Then I healed it before his eyes, realization fshing through them.

  "Fuck!" He cursed, ears fttening behind his head while his sister gasped and hastily csped his muzzle right after his bad word. I s their antics. It was as if they insulted the aors, Ursol and Ursoc, all at once.

  "I won't tell Ma, I promised." I teased, and Karhu gred as much as one like him could. Adorable. That, for a six-year-old, he wasly the biggest, but that didn't help his cause.

  "Yeah, it's because you made us learn it! Hmph! What do you say to that, big brother?" He shot back, running before me with an accusatory d a winning smirk showing his mah.

  "Yeah!" Hakur joio support him. As, she was more of aional support bear than anything. I doubted she was really following the versation. There wasn't muption of the universe behind her big, adorable, bright eyes.

  "True, true." I acquiesced with two small nods, enjoying their look of victory, and e even more as I crushed it to smithereens, "But that won't be me to miss on honeyed salmon and a plethora of treats, does it? I make them myself, and if you py nice, I share. Now, enough of me bullying you. Have you ever made dles?"

  And that's what we did.

  It was a fun and straightforward activity of siblings bonding, but the matter was more serious even if it didn't look like it from the present of me walking in a cave, a bulging backpack slung on my shoulders.

  To my right was my guide, Kano, a grizzled shaman from the Barkskin tribe, a medium-sized furbolg tribe dwelling North of Greenpaw Vilge in the upper level of the Barrow Deeps under Mount Hyjal. We usually traded honey, various flowers, aher for scales of multiple animals endemic to here, spider fangs, mushrooms, and the like.

  Well, it was, in truth, furbolg tunnels isoted yet juxtaposed with this very same Barrow Deeps; both worked as a description of where we were. As to what the Barrow Deeps was. It was an endless series of caverns–natural or not–stretg fhly thousands of kilometers from my estimation by transting it into my poor man version of the metric system.

  Fun fact: the deepest parts of it served as the kaldorei oubliette, where they threw their criminals, while the upper tunnels were where the Druid of the apped. It was all extremely well-guarded.

  It was itself a fra of a rger cave work stretg all around Northern Kalimdor, most of it unusable, yes, but it was still fug huge.

  And since I didn't want to wander for hetting lost with my nose even with my bad sense of dire would be hard–I asked fuide. Help was freely avaible, so why not take it?

  I immediately kneere here from the smell and sound of little cwed feet tapping on hard ground eg in the cave. But my vision lenty enough. The bright light of the biolumi mushrooms showed holes in the walls, ceiling, and ground while tools and pickaxe marks were everywhere, and the stuff lying around, notably dles, lit and unlit, were good indicators of kobold presenbsp;

  "We are here Chosen of the Twins to one of the fearful ones' endless burrows." My guide firmed the obvious, though the unvoiced questions were btant to me. He didn't know why I wao be here, but my answer will e soon.

  With a mana pulse, I informed Groot, who was currently merged with my wood backpack, to do his part. He was a ret addition to it, which should have been evident irospect, but it wasn't as simple as it sounded. It required specialized traits and entments for both the backpad him.

  The treant ope, and a woode with a rge dle atop it crawled on my head. Probably making me look absolutely ridiculous in the process.

  It was your cliché miner helmet but with a pnt twist, and it was a tad too small for my head, but the roots held it together.

  The Barkskin shaman was left utterly stunned and fused, not that he wasn't until now, but he went with it because I asked him.

  "Y is wh-and a dle… on your head? Are you disguising yourself as them? Pardon me, esteemed shaman, I… don't uand."

  "No, not a disguise, amusing as that sounds. No, it's sometimes different. Kobolds view dles with fanatical reverehe bigger, the better, and with this big guy…" I tapped the roughly ten-kilo dle on my head, "I appear friendly, kindred. I io befriend them after all. It won't have an insta, but Ashenvale wasn't grown in a day. That's why I have plenty more, to get them to trust me that I won't nib them like the mouthpieces they are."

  Cue me pointing at my backpack, where roots and braook out dles and blocks of beeswax ready for use inside.

  "Ursol's wisdom truly shines upon you." The shaman genuinely praised me, his eyes almost shining, and I internally sighed. I appreciated his encement, but it wasn't like my pn to befriend kobolds was any good. But with my body… There weren't many alternatives.

  Well, that was merely the first step too. But it was worth a try. I would appreciate their assistance, and I was willing to go to great lengths to get it. I needed diggers by the thousands for a vital project tying to that root some druids got pissed about even with their Wild God agreement.

  I leasantly surprised it didn't take long for tiny heads with long muzzles, rge bucktooth, and rounded ears tentatively begin to poke out of the shadow, the light of dles shining on their features. And it didn't take long for hundreds of them to shily e out, staring at me with fear, apprehension, and curiosity.

  Then was the dle on my head and the others I took out and pced before me. There was greed and jealousy, but mostly awe... and pride? They were oddly expressive, and their smells didn't show the opposite, but it was strange.

  'Huh, they're kinda cute, b on the ugly but cute.' I remarked. They looked derpy with their small, sy bodies, oversized heads, and rodeures such as long, hairless tails.

  Then, ohat was braver than the rest walked forward–scratch that–ushed forward, but the result was the same.

  I extended a dle, a little stick of wax in my paw, and ha to the kobold who, for her–by smell, I guessed her geentatively grabbed my . For her, it was the size of her entire head, and she could barely hold it.

  But that wasn't an obstacle. She triumphantly squeaked something in a mix of broken Darnasian and Ursih a look of utter glee as she brought the beeswax dle above her head as if showing it to the heavens. Then her legs buckled, and she fell face first, and I couldn't tain the chuckle that left me.

  This was how the alliaween kobolds and furbolgs began. dles were the keys.

  ?????

  Ton Windbow roud tauren of the great Grimtotem, one among the most loyal to his mistress–Magatha the Elder e–handpicked among his siblings after taurs murdered his father and mother. He rose to be one of her closest fidants.

  He was far from the greatest warrior nor the most successful hunter; many sidered him soft outside of jealousy if not for what was after. He had a talent for shamanism, but he was not the stro either. But those traits, while vital, weren't favored by the Grimtotem matriarch. Particurly the first and sed.

  The one she favored sedary only to loyalty was intelligence—ing, cleverness, and the ability to learn, adapt, and improvise. A trait absent in many of the Grimtotem, to Magatha's dismay. Knowing when to and not to do so was better than hitting well.

  A task Helka failed and was disowned for, though it hadn't been a surprise. The Elder e was wise and, with the spirits, had foreseen much.

  This led to Ton's current position, panting and wildly looking around after plunging for the first time into the strange realm known as the Emerald Dream and awakening an aspect of his being fually ged.

  "Hn, the Touch of Nature reached you, excellent. I didn't mess up. It's my first time doing it after all." The rumbling, deep bass voice of his teacher echoed—a terrifying teacher in all aspects.

  But it was his temperament–his willio escate–that the Elder e feared if his wrath was raised. There was little that could horrify a Grimtotem, but the state of the harpies' corpses after his passage teo give an impression. And they weren't enemies of his, merely toys.

  They were all dead, but clearly by how their limbs and various ans were rearranged and fused into twisted chimeras... all under freshly grown idyllic little parcels of life. It gave an impression.

  It was brutal. The furbolg was akin to an unstoppable force of nature passing by and showing how insignifit all was before him. What he did to the foolish ones who challenged him showed this much.

  Yet fear wasn't what must be acted upon. A mace wasn't dangerous; only where it was aimed would be smashed. Ohto of the Greenweald portunity that o be grasped and held on to for as long as they walked upon the Earthmother. And it started with druidism.

  The Touch of Nature blessing was not indepe of the golden-eyed furbolg. Ton's desdants would bear the potential of this gift that had long disappeared from their race, but Ohto could very well shatter this future.

  The power of the living wouldn't be taken, but the be broken.

  The monstrous bear-man had been crystal clear oter. The method of this blessing was a secret–unknown to the tauren; it was taught by Ursol to Ohto, requiring the highest order of druidic affinity and ability–oo be discovered but not for now.

  He was armingly aware of many things, and Magatha waron of this mud more. Predictably, she was corre all ats.

  She quickly dised this aspect after the first tad found that this furbolg was not average. And pared to the furbolgs Ton had met since arriving at Greenpaw Vilge, he could only bow to her perception, not that doubt was ever held at her words. It only reinforced his faith in her.

  It was why there was no plot beyond seeding and growing amicable ties with the Greenweald and learning of them: their culture, strengths, weaknesses, knowledge, world, and foes. But notably their allies, the night elves.

  It was one of his roles in this diplomatic mission personally given to him by the Elder e at the seeeting with Ohto of the Greenweald nearly a year after the first. It was one distinct from any he had in the past, with tauren and rare quilboar tribes open to peaceful iion.

  "How do you feel? Draw on your mana. I se, but I want to see it. It should be easy. You are, well, was a shaman from tauren's view. You still be one, but there would need signifit re-training." Ohto trailed off, and the tauren bli the spurge of words.

  Ton wasn't shocked by what was said. He khe risk befoing here. He uood the price to pay by following his mistress' will to be the de facto test subject selected to be a druid.

  He did as asked. He closed his eyes, putting himself in a meditative position, and looked inward. The ge he had been intimately aware of until now became even more so. His mana had ged, but that was seldom the only difference.

  "I ot hear the air's whispers… It is muffled." He let out with a distent froearing on his face. It was his element he was the most attuo; however, it wasn't a loss. The e to the elements remained, it was just distant now.

  But there was something else, something greater thaon focused oree they were in and reopened his eyes, "But… I sehe tree's roots digging in the Earthmother's rich soil… its branches moving in the winds and its leaves bathing in the pale light of Mu'sha."

  Otho waved one of his massive bck-furred paws with those long and supremely sharp metal cws, an act for the tauren to tihe gesture of his teacher all the while sending spikes of instinctual fear in him, but he squashed everything down.

  The Grimtotem tauren flinched regardless as he did as demanded.

  The moment, he stared at the green light appearing from his palm in fasation, as was Ohto, sharp eyes beyond his age critically scrutinizing the dull emerald energy. It reminded him of his Lady, the sharpness and focus to uand.

  There was no doubt, even not being of the great tauren, why Magatha would grant him the honor to stand equal to her.

  "Iing… I suppose differences in species would lead to that… not impure but less clear? To explore ter." The bear-man mumbled before refog on his student.

  "You may rest. I will call you as usual, oh and Ton, gratutions. You are the first 'druid' tauren in millennia to walk on Kalimdor." Ohto said as if it was something hy but minor in importahen he walked away, leaving behind the first tauren able to wield Nature magi twenty geions lost in his thought.

  The_Bip_Boop2003

  Thanks, EmilBigErk, Mike Stewart, BzeSavage, Jeff Fischer, Hope Bain, Vex, Jackietron201, 124f5, Joshua Crowell, Crach Grey, Michael Carter, Croc, Kunta, Nezih Süzer, Zekitz, Dyn S, PeerlessCaster, Devon Emmons, Furry Bear, Jarvis Schellinger, Lucky 13, Echo54g, Anima506, jacob griffin, Mitch, Velzon, Cameron Youngman, TheFuzzySamurai, Grey Heart, Marc Smith, James Wood, Proxy, Kurgarraz, shadowSeth, Gal Anonim, PIEGURU8, léroy jenkins, Tobias, Jose Matos, Alex pritchard, Falk Hüser, SirSp, Sam Mbya, Alexander Amann, Name, Man Robertson, Aaron Taylor, Mika Willems, phil, Brian Beard, JchuckS, Wold Layman, Gee Dean, Nateica Burlock, Wildvoid, andre, Eioe, Scarletmenace, Pilot Pirx, er Ja, Thomas Dey, Asura, Gronnr, Lucas Gossett, ton Jenkins, Desote, Tristan Nadeau, Mest450, Ang, Sabypyz, charlie wagner, SwiftFate, Hedgeboar, JJ JJ, Linus Bengtssone, Mason for the support it's greatly appreciated.

  [colpse]