The Khadgar Christmas Special

Preview

— K H A D G A R —

Ow! Fickle as a pickle, that was not quite right.

Khadgar winced. His bones ached, an aging habit that he became accustomed to. The teleportation spell he casted had not gone correctly, evident in the leagues of darkness that surrounded him. A putrid odor wafted in the air, something foul, something familiar—

"You're not dead." a guttural voice echoed off unseen walls.

Khadgar swallowed. It wasn't a voice he recognized. A death knight, it seemed. When he turned, he spotted a pair of cobalt lights hovering in the air, piercing him.

"Forgive me, I have lost my way. My incantation went horribly wrong," Khadgar's mind drifted to the night before, when he had made the horrible mistake of inviting his colleague Jaina out for drinks. She was a hostile drunk, he found, and tampered with his staff when she mistook it for one of her exes (Khadgar failed to see the resemblance).

"An odd sight indeed. And that sound. Your heart." The voice paused. "Hearts do not beat here."

A gentle hum filled the air as a small orb of light formed in the stranger's palm. Malfurion Stormrage held the moonlight in an iron-clad paw. Frost prickled across his robes, protruding from his antlers. A ghastly bug perched atop his shoulder and twitched in my presence.

A white beard billowed from his hood as he bowed his head. "I used to lead my people, full of life and fear of arson. And now...now, I have bugs."

The critter twiddled its long antennae in agreement. Khadgar shook his head. Is this an illusion? What enemy would conjure something so peculiar?

"This cannot be! Your kingdom still stands, you were just there—"

Malfurion's glowing eyes revealed no trace from their last conversation. He uttered, "No other kingdom stands. Only the reign of the Lich King."

Khadgar shuddered, his bones cracking in protest. His eyes adjusted to the dim and surveyed the room. Skulls littered the obsidian ground. Runes were written across every inch of the walls, glittering in the light like snowflakes.

I am in the halls of the former Lich King—that must mean Northrend. Oh, no one must know how deeply I butchered this spell...

But how ? What could explain Malfurion's unsavory form (and the unnerving hugeness of the bug)? Khadgar knew the Bronze Dragonflight admitted the help of adventurers to seal the fate of Azeroth, yet his magics did not hold such a sway on time...

"This isn't right." He turned in a small circle. Footing was tricky on the black metal—or was it ice? Or both? "Perhaps..."

Khadgar froze. He had heard of it once. The rarest mistake to be made in a teleportation spell. "Am I in another dimension?"