[Orcbane] Chapter 10 - Contest

The Farstriders were brimming with excitement as they watched the two kids take their positions. The energy crackling between him and Sylvanas had them more invested in this contest than in any training exercise in recent memory. Many of them placed bets amongst themselves, with even Lor’themar Theron participating. 

“Two gold coins for Sylvanas winning the first round,” he said.

“I don’t think anyone will bet against you on that,” Halduron replied with a chuckle. 

Sylvanas often bugged Lor’themar whenever he visited the Windrunner Spire to watch her shooting arrows so he knew precisely how accurate she was with the bow. She was better than many full-fledged Farstriders; alas, it took more than being an elite marksman to make a good Farstrider. She was still too young for that.

As for Halduron Brightwing, he was a close friend of the Windrunner family, so he was very familiar with the second daughter of the Ranger General too. 

“Let’s make it more interesting: how many targets do you think Alyndor will hit Bullseye?”

Naruto smiled as he spun a throwing knife in his hand, testing its weight once more. He was not nervous. He, like any other shinobi in Konoha, had been training with kunai from a very frail age, from before they knew how to read and how to write. While he may have never been as accurate as the top of his class, he was not far off. The sensei at the Academy had never scolded him during the Bukijutsu class. 

“By the sun!” the high elves exclaimed, both startled and impressed when Naruto’s knife split the air like a bullet from a dwarven gun. 

There was no wind-up, no big and strenuous movements from Naruto. He had just flicked his wrist. The first knife sliced through the air and embedded itself deep into the wooden target, just outside the bullseye.

A few murmurs passed through the crowd, some nodding in approval.

"Not a bad start."

Naruto didn’t hesitate to throw the second knife. It struck the target in the head, right in the bullseye. Pleased with himself, he smiled and threw the third knife. It didn’t hit the bullseye, but it was extremely close, in the immediate circle next to it. The fourth knife hit the same circle, with the fifth claiming another bullseye. 

Two bullseyes and three headshots. 

“Bravo!” the Farstriders cheered and clapped for his performance.

Lieutenant Halduron also nodded in approval.

“Not bad, Alyndor,” he remarked. “A solid performance.”

Naruto grinned happily at his praise, but he didn’t have long to bask in that feeling because Sylvanas was already stepping up. She threw him a superior look and flipped her long platinum hair over her shoulder as she passed by him. 

“Not bad for a midget.”

Naruto crossed his arms, pretending to stifle a yawn. 

“Yeah, yeah, let’s see what you got, twigs.”

Sylvanas pulled an arrow from her quiver, notching it in the bow with practiced movements before she let it loose. The arrow hit the target dead in the center. 

She pulled a second arrow from the quiver at her back before letting it loose. The arrow flew, striking with pinpoint precision directly into the first, splitting the shaft in half. 

The gathered Farstriders gasped in amazement, and Naruto’s confident expression broke a little. 

“Lucky shot,” he muttered under his breath... only for him to swallow his words when Sylvana’s third arrow split the existing one once again. 

And again. And again. She had hit all five arrows in the bullseye, each arrow splitting the shaft of the previous one. It was a ridiculous feat even for the Farstriders, and they erupted into applause. Some laughed, shaking their heads in amazement. 

“Showoff,” Alleria chuckled. 

As annoying as her bratty teenage sister could be sometimes, she could not deny her skill. It was not long ago that Sylvanas had actually saved her life from the Mauler. 

Much of Alleria’s annoyance melted off at the reminder of that, and she patted Sylvanas on the shoulder. 

“Congratulations,” she said, smiling at her younger sister, who grinned.

Sylvanas turned back to Naruto, smirking victoriously. “Still think your knives can compare?”

“Eh. That was alright, I guess. We’ll see how smug you are after the next round.”

The training grounds were quickly adjusted, the targets now enchanted to move unpredictably. 

Unfortunately for Naruto, it did not go any better for him this time either. The moving targets were more difficult to hit, and he only got one bullseye. That is not to say that his results were bad; he was as good as any other Farstriders. . . Sylvanas was just ridiculously skilled. Even with the moving targets, she still hit the bullseye with her arrows five times, and she made it look easy. 

Turning to Naruto, the girl smirked smugly. “Say it,” she taunted. “Say I’m better.”

“Don’t count your chickens before they hatch. We’ll see after the last round,” he replied grouchily. 

⁂

The second round was a game of hide-and-seek. And for that, they went to the training ground that opened into the forest behind the Enclave.

Dozens of hunters were training with their tamed pets over there, but there was more than enough place for Naruto and Sylvanas to have their little contest too. 

This time, the elvish girl was the first to be tested. Naruto would wear a blindfold for one minute in order for her to hide. Then, he had five minutes to find her. 

One minute later, Sylvanas said in disbelief:

“This is impossible! One of you must have told him where I was!” 

Although she had hidden herself as well as any other Farstrider would have and had erased all her tracks, Naruto found her right away. He went straight to her hiding place as if he had known all along that she was there. 

“. . .Nobody told him anything,” Halduron said and even brought the blindfold to his eyes, suspecting that Naruto might have been able to see through it. 

The rest of the Farstriders were bewildered too. Normally, one would need to search for tracks and make deductions based on the environment or cast a spell. But Naruto didn’t do any of that. 

“How did you do it?” they asked him.

“How did you find her so quickly?” Alleria also asked curiously. 

“Everyone has a secret or two, don’t they?” Naruto said, grinning, not revealing the fact that Kurama’s Negative Emotions Sensing had revealed Sylvanas’ location all along. 

Now, it was his turn to hide while Sylvanas wore the blindfold. Not only that he tried to leave no traces behind, but upon deciding on a hiding spot, he also Henged himself to look like an ant, much to all the high elves’ wonder. Their initial suspicions that Kael’thas Sunstrider might have exaggerated in regards to Naruto’s abilities were disappearing with every passing minute. 

Taking off her blindfold, Sylvanas left the grassy area where the hunters were training their pets and ran into the forest. Arriving at the edge of the forest, she studied her surroundings with great attention, trying to look for scratched spots of tree bark, broken twigs, and freshly trampled patches of grass. She also focused on her sensitive sense of hearing. 

The elvish girl spent nearly 3 minutes like that, but it was like searching for a needle in a haystack. Left with no choice, Sylvanas walked to a tree, and after closing her eyes, she placed her palm on its trunk and whispered the chant of a spell. 

It was a Nature spell through which the girl spoke with the forest. 

“She truly is talented,” said Halduron in amazement. 

“She’s my baby sister. Of course she is,” Alleria said, nodding proudly. 

Following the directions of the forest, Sylvanas soon found the tree where Naruto was hidden. However, try as she might, the girl couldn’t see him anywhere. She climbed up in the tree and even searched through the shrubs around it, but there was no sign of the blond-haired human boy. 

“Time’s up!” Lor’themar said and clapped his hands once. 

At his signal, Naruto cancelled his Henge, making the girl widen her eyes.

Alleria had half expected Sylvanas to throw a fit again, but the girl only clenched her fists. 

“I lost this one fair and square,” Sylvanas admitted. She couldn’t complain about him using magic because she had cast a spell herself too. 

“But don’t celebrate too early!” she said and pointed a finger at him, super annoyed at his goofy grin. “You haven’t won yet! We are tied now, 1-1! We still have one more round!”

“Yeah, yeah.”

By now, the hunters who had been training with their pets had gathered with the rest of their fellow Farstriders to watch the little contest between the two children too. 

“Before you start, you should wear these,” said Lor’themar and handed Naruto and Sylvanas each a mask that looked like a metallic net so that they would not blind each other with their weapons in the spar. 

Alleria also came with a short wooden sword and a quiver of blunt arrows with a sponge arrowhead. The two children weren’t the first to duel like that; the Farstriders often practiced their combat skills against each other. If they were to use real weapons in a spar, half of them would be crippled or die one year into their service. They had to be cautious. 

Speaking of cautiousness, Halduron also brought a training cuirass for both of them. 

Now, fully equipped in protective gear and wielding harmless weapons, Naruto and Sylvanas stood two meters across from each other, with Alleria at their side. 

“There aren’t any rules. You can pull any trick in the book to win. The battlefield won’t care about fairness. But, with that being said, don’t forget that you are not enemies. You are comrades. The purpose of this spar is not to seriously hurt or maim each other. When I say stop, you stop. If one of you admits defeat, the other should not continue either. Understood?”

“Yes,” the two children replied at once. 

“Good. Now, to simulate an encounter in battle, the two of you will start at a distance of 20 meters from each other.”

Once they assumed their positions, Alleria went to the edge of the training ground.

“On my mark, ready, set- GO!”

In one fluid motion, Sylvanas pulled three arrows from her quiver, notched them in her bow, and fired them before Disengaging, performing a strong backwards leap to put more distance between her and Naruto, who had started charging at her. 

‘Smart girl,’ Alleria thought, pleased with Sylvanas’ actions. 

However, in the next moment, the dozens of Farstriders watching their duel were shocked to witness Naruto casually parrying the arrows with his short wooden sword. Little did they know that parrying and batting away projectiles was one of the first things that shinobi were taught at the Academy. Furthermore, most shinobi could throw kunai faster than the majority of archers could fire their arrows. It was like child’s play for him to block Sylvanas’ blunt arrows.

Although she was inwardly surprised to see the human boy deflect her arrows so easily, Sylvanas did not let it show on her face. It was as though the bratty teen girl from before had turned into a seasoned ranger when the fight started. 

She was still at the summit of her Disengage leap when the elvish girl notched another arrow in her bow and whispered a short incantation. Her arrow started glowing with a blue light, and Naruto’s instincts warned him that he would be in real trouble if he tried to parry that with a wooden sword. 

Alleria, Lor’themar, and Halduron adopted a serious look on their faces and readied themselves to intervene at any moment should things take a dangerous turn. 

But their concern was not needed because Sylvana’s Arcane Shot hit nothing but empty air. . . Naruto’s body seemed to blur and disappear. 

Just as Sylvanas landed on the ground after her big backwards leap, she felt the touch of a wooden blade at her neck. 

“I win,” he said calmly. 

“H-How?” she couldn’t help asking. She had not even seen him move. 

She was not the only one. The adult Farstriders, such as Alleria, were wide-eyed too. Only the two Lieutenants present on the training ground, Lor’themar and Halduron, had caught his movements.

⁂

Later that day, as Naruto and Liadrin flew back to Fairbreeze Village on the back of a Dragonhawk, the boy talked up a storm, telling her all about what he had experienced that day at the Farstrider Enclave. 

He told her about the amazing training grounds, the magic targets that moved alone, the awesome barracks, and how nice everyone had been to him. 

“Except for that twig girl. Seriously, what was her problem? Calling me a midget and picking up a fight for no reason…”

Liadrin giggled softly as she listened to him narrate their three-round contest enthusiastically. 

“-And then, I used a Body Flicker Jutsu, and I reappeared at her back and put the sword at her neck! Haha, you should’ve seen her face!”

Their flight soon came to an end, with the Dragonhawk landing at the stables on the outskirts of the village. 

Fairbreeze was a fairly large settlement, and it was still light outside, so the beautiful white cobblestone streets were filled with children playing and grown-ups sitting on their benches and talking with their friends and neighbours. 

Lady Liadrin took Naruto’s hand in hers. He looked at her questioningly but made no move to pull away. Little did she know how much that little gesture meant to him.

At the age of 13, most boys would have shied away from such displays of affection, but Naruto was not like them. He cherished every single one of these moments when Liadrin showed that she cared for him. The boy’s radiant smile could light up an entire city as he walked hand-in-hand with Liadrin towards their home. 

Once they arrived at home, she went to freshen up and change into a different set of robes before starting the preparations for dinner. Like usual, he hung around her, eager to help her out with whatever chores he could do. 

Evening came, and Naruto and Liadrin sat together on a bench in the garden, talking as they watched the sun going into hiding behind the peaks of the Fairbreeze Mountains. Feeling as though it was the right time to breach the subject, Lady Liadrin said:

“Alyndor, may I ask you something?”

He looked up at her curiously, his Negative Emotions Sensing ability alerting him of the slight anxiety hiding behind her calm smile. Naruto had never been the brightest, especially in social situations, but Kurama’s ability had opened his eyes. 

“Of course. If I can help you with anything, just let me know!”

“No, it’s something that I would like to help you with,” Liadrin said before taking a few seconds to choose her words properly. “I want to ask, how long did humans normally live in your world?”

He was caught off guard by her seemingly random question, but he answered nonetheless:

“I’m not sure. Maybe 70 or 80 years? But that was mostly for civilians. Ninja didn’t live that long normally. They either died in missions or because of injuries.”

Lady Liadrin leaned on the backrest of the bench, looking at the last rays of the setting sun as she spoke:

“I see. It’s not that different from Azeroth.”

“Why do you ask?”

“...I have been thinking lately,” Liadrin replied. “For Quel’dorei, it is not uncommon to live four to five thousand years. I am almost 3000 myself… Meanwhile, humans barely get to the age of 80…”

Despite her old age, she was not entirely sure how to tell him what was on her mind. After all, it was her first time being in this exact situation. 

“That’s just how things are,” said Naruto with a shrug of his shoulders. To him, someone being thousands of years old sounded like something out of a fairy tale. He couldn’t imagine how it would be to live that long. “There’s nothing we can do about it.”

“But there is something that we could do about it,” Liadrin said. 

That made him raise his eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

She turned her body to look at him and took her hand in his.

“Alyndor. Naruto,” she said in a gentle, loving voice. “Would you like to be my child? To be my family?”

“Wha-” he couldn’t continue speaking. 

“A human’s life is too fleeting,” she continued, caressing the back of his palm with her thumb. “The Light had brought you into my life for a reason. And I don’t want to let you go. I don’t want to part with you that soon. I don’t want to lose you after a mere five decades. I want us to be together forever.”

Naruto forced himself to swallow the node that had appeared in his neck. 

“Are you sure you want me?” he asked in a trembling voice. 

The elven woman almost teared up at his reaction because she knew from Kurama, the “Wild God” inhabiting his body, that nobody had ever shown the boy any love. 

“Yes, I do,” Liadrin said, smiling at him. 

“Truly?” he asked as though he was afraid she was pulling a prank on him. 

Liadrin took him in her arms, unable to rein in her emotions. 

“Yes, truly,” she confirmed, embracing him tightly and caressing the back of his head tenderly. 

“Can I call you Mom?”

“Yes, Alyndor. Yes, you can. Nothing will make me happier.”

Naruto did not let go of her for a long time. With his face buried in the crook of her neck and his arms wrapped around her, he hugged her as if she were his lifeline. 

He did not cry, but how could Liadrin not understand what he was feeling at that moment? She pulled him closer to her and sat him in her lap. If it had been another boy his age, they might have protested, saying that they were too old for that sort of thing, but Naruto allowed her to mother him as much as she wanted.

⁂

Although he had been enrolled in the Farstriders’ military, Naruto did not go to the Farstrider Enclave right away. 

First of all, the matter of being adopted was not that simple; while the legal documentation was easy to solve thanks to Prince Kael’thas’ influence, binding Naruto’s life to the Sunwell was an entirely different thing altogether. 

All the high elves went through an arcane ritual in the first month after just being born. A Priest would be present to bless the children that were about to undergo the ritual, and a Magister would oversee the magic circles and the application of runes so that everything went flawlessly. 

But Naruto was already 13, and he was a human at that. He was not as pure as a newborn baby. Furthermore, though it was not a known fact among the high elves that his body housed a tailed beast, a "Wild God," Kael’thas did know.

The Prince could not agree to Liadrin’s request on the spot because he had to consider whether Kyuubi would negatively influence the Sunwell or not. He did want to make Naruto one of them, but he needed to consult the Convocation of Silvermoon first. He needed their advice and opinion on the matter. 

As previously stated, King Anasterian Sunstrider, Prince Kael’thas Sunstrider, and the Ranger General, Lireesa Windrunner, were the three most important people in Quel’Thalas. After them, it was the Convocation of Silvermoon: it was a governing body consisting of the seven Great Magisters of Quel’Thalas, the wisest, most decorated, and strongest mages of the high elves. Belo’vir, the best friend of High Priest Vandellor (Liadrin’s adoptive father), was a member of the Convocation too. 

In the end, as much as Naruto had helped the Quel’dorei in the most recent war against the trolls, Prince Kael’thas could not put him above the well-being of his entire nation. The Sunwell was too important. It was the lifeblood of the high elves. It was the cradle of their civilization, the reason for their longevity, the source of their arcane gifts, and the foundation of their magical kingdom’s prosperity. 

With that being said, other than the matter of having his life bound to the Sunwell, Naruto had a personal wish, something that he wanted to accomplish before leaving for the Farstrider Enclave: he needed to learn a method to either resist or counter curses. 

The curse of the Blood God, Hakkar, had left him with a deep trauma, to the point where he was haunted by the pain in his dreams. 

And that’s how, a few days after their visit to the Farstrider Enclave, Naruto and Liadrin found themselves in the Dawnstar Village, the place where Naruto and Kael’thas had fought against the forest trolls. 

“Whoa,” he let out a sound of amazement. “You wouldn’t think there was a huge battle here a week or two ago.”

It was as he said. The devastation left in the wake of the war, especially after the massive tornado of fire that Prince Kael’thas had conjured, had all disappeared. The land was levelled, the burnt trees had been regrown somehow, and even the ruined village was almost done rebuilding. 

Unlike the village, which had been almost razed off the surface of the earth, Dar’khan Drathir’s mage tower stood tall and proud, untouched by the war. 

“Maybe he’s not home? The gates are locked,” said Naruto. 

“No, I think he's most likely at home. Mages are a secretive bunch, and they don’t take well to uninvited guests. Let me ring the doorbell a few times,” she said. 

She rang the doorbell a few times, but they didn’t receive an answer. Left with no choice, and before his adoptive mother could stop him, he jumped over the tall fence. 

“Alyndor! That is terribly inappropriate!”

“Don’t worry, I won’t touch anything. I promise. I’ll only peek through the window,” he said and started walking on the wall as if he were on the ground. 

⁂

“After all I did, that’s all I get in exchange? Some money and a fucking token?” Dar’khan screamed and suddenly threw everything off his desk violently. 

The high elf Magister was furious. He was shouting obscenities as he was trashing his study room. 

“I don’t need their fucking money!”

“I don’t need their treasury artefacts!”

“That’s not what I risked my damn life for, goddamn it!”

He went at it for nearly five minutes before he finally got his anger under control. By the time he was done lashing out, he was breathing harshly, his chest heaving from exertion. But the more he thought about it, the more his anger returned.

“I deserve more!”

He had been in the service of Quel’Thalas for nearly 3000 years. He was a veteran of the Troll Wars from 2800 years ago. And he had shaped and protected the Dawnstar Village ever since. 

“But those old geezers would never allow anyone else to get close to the Sunwell.”

“They’re hogging all its power for themselves.”

“They’re the only ones who get to study the Sunwell’s mysteries, while I’m here, left with crumbs. Fucking bigots!”

In his rage, he kicked a globe depicting the world of Azeroth, making it explode with a bang and sending a shockwave that shattered all the glass objects in the room, including the window. 

“Ow, shit!” came the annoyingly familiar voice of a boy from the outside of the tower.

“YOU AGAIN?” Dar’khan shouted when he realised that the human boy had been peeking through the window at him. 

Before Naruto could make a run for it, the Magister Blinked to the window and grabbed him by the collar of his red silk shirt and pulled him roughly inside the room. 

“What are you trespassing in my tower for, boy?” the mage thundered. 

“Ha…haha…” Naruto laughed awkwardly, trying to dispel his animosity. 

“I expect something more than your idiotic laughter for an answer. Do not test my patience. Not today.”

“Sorry, sorry. We were ringing the doorbell at the gates, but nobody was replying so-”

“-So your first intention was to trespass and spy on me through my window,” Dar’khan continued his words. “Did it ever occur to you that maybe if someone does not answer, they do not want to be disturbed?”

When he didn’t have an answer, Dar’khan blew out a long sigh and ran a hand through his very long blonde hair. 

“So, what was so important that it could not wait for another day? Why have you come to disturb my peace?”

Naruto glanced at the destroyed room. 

“Not. One. Word,” Dar’khan said, glaring at him. He understood right away what the boy was likely going to comment on. 

The boy barely held in a snicker and busied himself with untying a pouch of gold from his waist. 

“I wanted to pay for the magic sword I nicked from you when the trolls attacked. Mom—Lady Liadrin,” he corrected himself when Dar’khan raised an eyebrow, “said it is only fair and proper to pay our debts.”

The Magister crossed his arms to his chest. 

“It appears that you are not entirely beyond salvation. You do have some common sense. But you can keep your money, little boy. It was for the sake of Quel’thalas. And the king had already reimbursed me for all the material loss I had sustained in the battle.”

“Oh... I see.”

“If that is all you wished to tell me, you are free to go,” Dar’khan dismissed him. 

“Actually, I came for one more reason,” Naruto said, rubbing the back of his head. “But maybe we should talk to Lady Liadrin too? She’s outside, in front of the gates.”

Dar’khan let out a long, suffering groan. A visit from Lady Liadrin of all people was the last thing he wanted at that moment, especially after the outburst he had just had. 

“. . . Alright. Let us go downstairs,” said the mage. “Follow me closely and do not touch anything. Do you understand?”

“Yes, sir!” Naruto said, giving him a military salute with his hand at his temple. 

He tried not to make it obvious that he was staring, but the interior of an elven mage tower was just too interesting and abstract for him to rein in his curiosity. There were so many things he had never seen before, and so many mysterious artefacts and amazing objects whose use he did not know. He also saw various maps of the world, magical gems, weapons, robes, armour sets, and other sophisticated tools.

“It was an experiment that blew up in my face upstairs, do you understand?” Dar’khan said when they were halfway through the tower. 

Luckily for him, Naruto was quick on the uptake.

“I didn’t expect that gem to explode like that,” he said. “What spell did you cast on it?”

“You cheeky little brat,” Dar’khan said, the corners of his lips twitching in amusement. 

“Hehe,” Naruto grinned. 

Liadrin let out a relieved sigh when the entrance door of the tower opened, and she saw Naruto stepping out of the building together with Dar'khan. She would trust the Magister with her own life because they had been friends for thousands of years, but she also knew that the mage had quite a temper. Fortunately, it seemed like her boy was unharmed.