"Don't worry, it's cute, I promise," Robin assures with a knowing smile. "You see, when Peter left Westfall he wrote to us all the time about all the strange things he saw on the way to the Dark Portal and past it, into Outland. Back then I thought it was so wild, leaving home and going straight to another world." She chuckles and shrugs one shoulder. "Now that I'm living it I realize life is pretty much always business as usual all the time, no matter what. ...Except in those rare moments where you're running for your life."
She waves away that brief aside and continues telling the story. "Anyway. When he got to Outland he met the people who lived there, right? Folks who called themselves Draenei, which he told us meant 'exiles.' They'd spent thousands of years battling the Burning Legion, and by the time the Alliance got to Outland there were hardly any of them left."
Matt leans forward and quietly, politely interrupts to add his own details. "There used to be more of them until the orcs killed them. Peter told us that when you step through the Dark Portal you walk down a thousand-stair flight of steps, and when your feet finally hit the ground it crunches under your boots, because it's all just... bones. There's a road that stretches through the desert for miles and it's all made up of the skeletons of Draenei sacrificed by the warlock Gul'Dan to power the Dark Portal."
Robin continues, "The orcs call it the 'Path of Glory.' Isn't that grotesque?" Estella next to her shakes her head. "Barbaric. Evil," she mutters. Robin nods, then continues with her story. "Anyway, when he finally met living Draenei and stayed in their village with the rest of his unit he realized right away that he loved everything about them. Their language, their culture, their technology. They didn't have much left after it all, but he said what they did have was more advanced than anything he'd ever seen. They had all sorts of futuristic inventions powered by magical crystals. In the swamps of Zangarmarsh they built cities inside of the mushrooms that grow up as tall as the Stormwind Cathedral. They even had space ships once! That's how they traveled the stars fighting the Legion."
Lawrence clears his throat and sets his hands on the table. "You're missing the point," he says gruffly. "You're telling all these pointless story details. The point is that they look like goats."
Anna reaches across and cuffs him on the back of the head, but he doesn't retaliate. He said what he wanted to say and no punishment can erase the facts.
"They don't look like goats," Anna explains delicately. "They just... Have goat legs. And horns on their heads. And tails. But not goat tails? He said they look like lizard tails, sort of? And their skin is smooth, like a human's, but they're sky blue or pitch black or perfectly white. Their eyes glow white because they're all full of the Light. And he said all the women were gorgeous, just like magical people from another world are supposed to be. And there was this one that he met, a woman named Farina – who sounded very nice and shouldn't be called a goat!" Lawrence gets a side-eye here.
"Peter and his unit stayed in Farina's village for a year to help the Alliance gain ground in Outland. They became really close. He wrote to us all the time to tell us about life there in the village with the Draenei and Farina. We learned everything about her." She laughs as some of the others at the table nod their heads almost mockingly. Evidently they heard a lot about this woman.
"I sort of wish we could have met her," Heather admits, which gets more genuine nods. "She loved plants and taught my brother all sorts of strange things you can do to make them grow differently. They used to go animal-watching in the forests, which he said he liked because it was nothing but quietness. If it weren't that they were on a different world I'd have thought it would get boring after a while, all the stuff she liked, but he never made it sound that way. I could tell he was happy there. Really at peace. Even though we weren't there with him, it felt like we knew him more through that year of letters than we ever did growing up with him."
Matt and Michael most of all seem to agree with that sentiment, but every adult at the table nods quietly along with them.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2017-04-11 03:46 pm (UTC)She waves away that brief aside and continues telling the story. "Anyway. When he got to Outland he met the people who lived there, right? Folks who called themselves Draenei, which he told us meant 'exiles.' They'd spent thousands of years battling the Burning Legion, and by the time the Alliance got to Outland there were hardly any of them left."
Matt leans forward and quietly, politely interrupts to add his own details. "There used to be more of them until the orcs killed them. Peter told us that when you step through the Dark Portal you walk down a thousand-stair flight of steps, and when your feet finally hit the ground it crunches under your boots, because it's all just... bones. There's a road that stretches through the desert for miles and it's all made up of the skeletons of Draenei sacrificed by the warlock Gul'Dan to power the Dark Portal."
Robin continues, "The orcs call it the 'Path of Glory.' Isn't that grotesque?" Estella next to her shakes her head. "Barbaric. Evil," she mutters. Robin nods, then continues with her story. "Anyway, when he finally met living Draenei and stayed in their village with the rest of his unit he realized right away that he loved everything about them. Their language, their culture, their technology. They didn't have much left after it all, but he said what they did have was more advanced than anything he'd ever seen. They had all sorts of futuristic inventions powered by magical crystals. In the swamps of Zangarmarsh they built cities inside of the mushrooms that grow up as tall as the Stormwind Cathedral. They even had space ships once! That's how they traveled the stars fighting the Legion."
Lawrence clears his throat and sets his hands on the table. "You're missing the point," he says gruffly. "You're telling all these pointless story details. The point is that they look like goats."
Anna reaches across and cuffs him on the back of the head, but he doesn't retaliate. He said what he wanted to say and no punishment can erase the facts.
"They don't look like goats," Anna explains delicately. "They just... Have goat legs. And horns on their heads. And tails. But not goat tails? He said they look like lizard tails, sort of? And their skin is smooth, like a human's, but they're sky blue or pitch black or perfectly white. Their eyes glow white because they're all full of the Light. And he said all the women were gorgeous, just like magical people from another world are supposed to be. And there was this one that he met, a woman named Farina – who sounded very nice and shouldn't be called a goat!" Lawrence gets a side-eye here.
"Peter and his unit stayed in Farina's village for a year to help the Alliance gain ground in Outland. They became really close. He wrote to us all the time to tell us about life there in the village with the Draenei and Farina. We learned everything about her." She laughs as some of the others at the table nod their heads almost mockingly. Evidently they heard a lot about this woman.
"I sort of wish we could have met her," Heather admits, which gets more genuine nods. "She loved plants and taught my brother all sorts of strange things you can do to make them grow differently. They used to go animal-watching in the forests, which he said he liked because it was nothing but quietness. If it weren't that they were on a different world I'd have thought it would get boring after a while, all the stuff she liked, but he never made it sound that way. I could tell he was happy there. Really at peace. Even though we weren't there with him, it felt like we knew him more through that year of letters than we ever did growing up with him."
Matt and Michael most of all seem to agree with that sentiment, but every adult at the table nods quietly along with them.