A story from the World of Warcraft. Please note that any characters appearing in this story are crafted from the imagination of the author and are not based on actual characters or player characters from WoW. Any resemblance is merely coincidental.

This parallel story to Chapter 1 (Blue Hued) follows the adventures of a band of Horde as they delve deep into the dark core of Dire Maul, seeking to locate and destroy the defilement that has taken hold within the shattered remains of a once-great elven temple.

In this chapter you get to meet the four members of Horde adventuring party: a tauren druid, a tauren shaman, a troll hunter, and an orc warlock.

Please bear in mind that, although this chapter is listed as "general audience", there is a fair amount of violence; as there is no particular graphic depiction of the "squishy" and visceral aspects of war, I have kept it at an all-inclusive rating. Please keep in mind that ratings for each individual chapter may change depending on content.

As noted, there is a congruent storyline which follows the adventures of an Alliance group as they explore Dire Maul. The two storylines will intersect when the adventuring groups meet... but that's for a later chapter.

As always, please feel free to leave comments or suggestions. Periodically I will offer options for a "choose your own adventure" style of certain story elements where reader input may affect the outcome of the storyline(s).