Warcraft (Illidan/Kael'thas)

[the--ivorytower.livejournal.com]

Title: Child of Forests, Son of Nature
Author: Kelriia Frettlar (the__ivorytower)
Prompt: springkink
June 15th - Warcraft; Illidan/Kael, homesickness, missing the woods
Warnings: Sappy, perhaps a little depressing. Homesickness. Relatively, very fluffy.
Pairings: Illidan/Kael
Summary: There were no trees in Outland like the ones in Azeroth


There were no trees in Hellfire. There were enormous briars, there were crisped structures, but there were absolutely no trees. Shadowmoon Valley some trees, the teroconifers that the Arakkoa brought with them from Terokkar, but those trees were odd, and hardly like trees at all, and more like particularly tall, spiked bushes. Zangarmarsh had no trees. Their forests were made of giant mushrooms, and fed the native bog giant population. Nagrand had a few trees, but they were the low-growing, sprawling things of open plains. None of these trees were even remotely like the ones from home, and Kael found it unsettling, even though simply closing his eyes would remind him that the forests of home were no longer as they once were either.

"It's strange for me, Master Illidan, that there are so few trees in Outland," Kael ventured. He'd been watching the demon hunter twitch, ever so slightly, as he walked along the barren, dusty-red ground in Hellfire. "Silvermoon was surrounded by trees."

Illidan made a sound: noncommittal and brief.

"My understanding of the Kaldorei is that they too revere trees. Do you find this absence equally strange?"

Silence. Kael feared he had said a little too much. He quietly inhaled, and began to count as he exhaled, after which he would apologize for his presumption. One... two...

"Speak to me of Silvermoon," Illidan said, finally. "How was it constructed?"

Kael had to think quickly. As much as he'd loved his home, buildings and cities had not been his point of study. "The main part of the city was made of stone and wood. We made buildings, though Silvermoon was made in a widened clearing. Many of the outlying buildings, particularly for the Rangers, were built nearly into the trees, and the lodges were very... rustic."

"Zin-Azshari was not unlike that," Illidan said, after waiting a moment to make sure Kael was finished. "Our primary buildings, like the temples, were made of white stone. Marble. Other buildings were like your lodges, if 'rustic' describes a place that is both simple and functional. There were other buildings that were made of trees, but not naturally." Large hands tipped by talons closed slightly, as if trying to grasp something and failing. Kael reached out, taking a hold of his hands to shift his grip a little. Tenseness flared in Illidan, then disappeared. "We used the magic of the Well to warp trees into homes. They were inundated with magic and changed beyond all recognition. It was for our own need."

Kael didn't quite know what to say to that, not to someone who had been twisted and changed by fel magic. It was difficult for him to believe that Illidan had been anything but what he was now, though he knew that he had once not looked so different from his twin. He had been present for the conversations between Malfurion and Illidan, and while he greatly sympathized with Illidan, he could not help but feel for Malfurion as well. The Quel'dorei had always balanced their love of magic with a love of nature, and made them both work together, while Illidan and Malfurion had been on the opposite sides of the same coin, each too stubborn to admit that they were wrong.

"Kael'thas." Illidan's rough voice broke into his thoughts, and he looked up, green eyes bright with magic meeting masked, ruined ones. "Do you miss your trees?"

"I do," Kael replied softly, letting his gaze wander over the ruined, desolate landscape. "Do you?"

There was another lengthy pause, and Kael immediately realize how foolish his question was. Illidan had been exiled, and even before that, had not seen his home in over ten thousand years, surely--

Finally, Illidan swallowed heavily, though his voice was uncharacteristically quiet. He'd spent ten thousand years in the dark, away from magic, from moonlight, and from trees."Yes. Every day."

End

Comments

[emerald-embers.livejournal.com]

Aww, man. My heart breaks for both of them - and on this particular, rare occasion, a little more for Illidan than for Kael. Certainly Illidan deserved punishment for what earned his stay in prison, but in real terms, in thinking of what he's missed... man.

Thank you so much hon :). It's awesome, and heartbreaking in a gentle, not over the top way, and it's just lovely. Thank you!

[the--ivorytower.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much, I'm glad you enjoyed it.