Babel's Magic-Khadgar FanFic

Big Mouth

In the pursuit of the King's wishes, Khadgar had spent a good portion of the initial time at Karazhan picking up some books, clearing the tower of dust here and there, while he disturbed the vacant building. Sitting alone for nearly a year now the magic seemed lost from the inner stone walls of the old arcane hub. Drained of the last remnants of arcane water from the pool located at the very top of it, Khadgar mulled over the last visit he had here with Lothar shortly after the late King Lane's funeral only to clear up and secure the area in case of adventurous looters hearing of Medivh's fall to the fel. He knew it was a band aid at the time but Khadgar didn't think he'd be returning so soon or with someone other than Lothar.

Speaking of which, Khadgar had got a hearty supply of books near their supplies for him to study when the sun went down and noticed that he hadn't seen or heard Fain in more than an hour. An unorthodox method of helping him he thought, Khadgar wasn't too upset he didn't have her company right after the flight over but now that he was winding up some of his work it made the mage wary of where she'd gone to.

"Fain?" Khadgar's first instinct was to holler up the staircase into the lofted areas of the building. Knowing that was the easiest point for her to hear him in any part of the entire steeple, Khadgar's brows furrowed and he gave a little nervous fiddle with his hands before cupping them once more about his mouth and hollering her name again up again into the stairwell. With no reply the second time he knew she wasn't in the building with him.

Sighing the man looked out and saw the sun was hanging low but still gave off enough light this evening that prompted him to try his luck outside for her. Snatching his cloak off the shelf he'd stuffed it on, Khadgar tossed it over his shoulders and adjusted the heavy fabric as he walked out onto the main plateau of the cliff side retreat. Calling out her name again as he rounded the corner of the grand stone way, Khadgar heard the shrill cry of Lothar's gryphon before he saw Fain across the way standing on a shelf of the pillar directly across from him some thirty feet up in the air.

Appalled with thinking that wretched bird put her up there Khadgar gave a start thinking she was in trouble but soon stopped to an amble when her snickering could be heard up in the air.

"What are you doing?!" Khadgar screamed up to her, his face crossed with confusion as Fain continued to cackle above him and Atiesh was circling above in silence without a single wing flap. Without hesitation Khadgar felt his stomach leap into his throat when Fain took one large step off the ledge and began to plummet. Not even enough time to cry out Khadgar shielded his face from the gust of wind as Atiesh landed right in front of him with her wings spread far out in an illustrious manner. Flicking eyes as he tried to refocus and see where Fain had gone, he heard her laughing before he saw her standing on two feet planted firmly on the gryphon's saddle.

"What are you doing?!" He snapped like a vexed parent.

"What-?!" Fain jumped and lost her footing on Atiesh's back. Luckily the gryphon's wing was down and Fain simply took a tumble over her broad wing and landed with a light thump on the stone ground, "Khadgar!" Fain leapt to her feet and tried to brush all the crumbles of dirt off of her pants and tunic, "I was- We were- Atiesh and I were just scouting around and- And just found a little trick!"

His nostrils flared and Khadgar closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, "Did you hurt yourself?"

"What? Oh, no no no not at all," Fain shook her head and Atiesh ruffled her feathers as the gryphon tucked her wings into her sides and turned to walk away, her lion tail flicking against Fain as she wandered off.

"Where did you think that was ok? You could have gotten yourself hurt," Khadgar couldn't help his scolding tone as he felt the gut wrenching terror of seeing her drop subside in his stomach but that didn't disregard the fact he had been working for the past two hours and she was out here fooling around.

"No I wouldn't Atiesh knew exactly where I was, she wasn't going to drop me," Fain spat at him, puffing out her chest slightly not taking the mages irked concern for her.

"It's an animal you can't rely on an animal to listen yet alone read your mind," Khadgar claimed his dark eyes staring down at her as the woman brash emotions were obvious on her face, "Lothar sent you here to help not to fool around like some-"

"Like some what? Some child?" Fain growled, "You think I wanted to be here? You think I wanted to be stuck here with YOU?! I didn't even want any of this to happen! I didn't want them to find out yet alone be taken on Fel'Dan's mission here!"

Eyes widening Fain's color drained from her face and immediately she shook her head and brushed past Khadgar with a sense of urgency, "What?" Khadgar perplexed with what she just spewed out took him back a little, "Apart of what?"

Disconnected from his words Fain marched back into Karazhan's main building not hearing a word he spoke. Khadgar jogged in after her to catch up and tried to pry what she'd just said out of her.

"What mission? This mission here? What about this Fel'Dan, you mean the Shadow Council?" Grabbing a book he urged the written piece in front of her trying to figure out if that's what she meant. He could see the tense line her lips formed as she bit down and turned her head away from him, "Fain please, please tell me what you mean what mission? This mission we have here to collect information on fel and your kind-?" Khadgar didn't catch himself before spilling the subtle request Lothar had made of him and only to him. Feeling himself shrink in his boots the woman's hard eyes were on him like a viper and Khadgar pleaded he hadn't just said that.

"Our kind? Our kind? Like I'm some type of vile creature like Gul'dan and his orcs right?" Fain barked at him, "Like you lump me together with that disgusting Athrikus and those pigs of his? Like I look like a monster to you?!" Khadgar's moth opened but no words left him as he could feel his heart sinking lower and lower the harder Fain starred at him. No sound left him and Fain gnashed her teeth together, her jaw tensing and she turned away advancing right back out the building once they came in.

Coming back to it Khadgar shook his head and called out after her but Fain was around the corner before his feet would move. Flying towards the door Khadgar tried to hustle after her but when he looked out at the plateau he didn't see anything except Atiesh sitting some twenty feet gnawing on a corpse of a fat buck. Searching desperately in the waning light Khadgar couldn't see a trace of her but abruptly heard a flutter of feathers and spotted an owl flapping it's wings and taking off from the stone works.

Inhaling a heavy breath of air, Khadgar uttered a small sigh as he realized how wrong that all went. Reaching up he slid his hand nervously through his mass of dark hair and knew there was no chance of finding her with the dwindling light. Turning back to the darkening innards of the tower, Khadgar begrudgingly knew he needed to set up camp in the spires room and just hope she would cool off and come back. There was little way he could explain her running away to Lothar or to her superiors, Khadgar let out a shaky sigh and resolved himself to setting up by himself along with moving all their belongings up the tower's stairs without help.

Throwing a look over at Atiesh, he knew there was little chance of the gryphon helping him as the bird's glassy eyes stared at him a moment as though judging him and then taking her dinner and turning around so her winged back was to him. Loudly groaning Khadgar rubbed his face and realized how tiring this was becoming.