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And hey, I wrote a book!  Check it out HERE!

Drawn by the ever-phenomenal Untruthfull!

Merry Crimbus to all who celebrate it! Hope your holiday’s going well, and if not, maybe this’ll perk ya up! I was so over-the-moon happy when Untruthfull kindly made an exception to draw this for me, especially when they don’t do a lot of drawing anymore. I didn’t have a lot to give them to create Reena and Datch, but they did tremendously with what they had, and they aged up Drenan and Lyrah so beautifully! I can’t thank them enough, and I’ve been chomping at the bit to show this piece off since I got it earlier this year! It’s become my background on a lot of my personal things too!

Finally we have a full, happy family! And I think they’re just gorgeous!

(Damn Postybirb, I’ll have to add the previous and next links later, I can’t be assed to do it while I’m not at my PC, and it’ll give me an excuse to update the last hundred or so I’m behind on. XD)

Accompanying story below!

* * * * *

“Hah-ha! Suck it, loser!” she cried between heavy breaths. The black-and-white-furred tauren skipped around the hilltop she’d just bolted up, then spun and threw up the middle of her three fingers down the way she’d come.

Just a few moments later came striding a muscular, milk-chocolate-furred tauren with a long mane and a gnarled staff clutched in one hand. “Tch! If I could’ve shapeshifted I’d have been waiting for you for twenty minutes, Reena,” he shot back, flipping her off and giving her a soft nudge with his shoulder, laughing.

“Whatever helps you sleep at night,” she cocked back, hunching over and planting her hands on her knees in order to catch her breath. She looked up at her older brother as he slung his pack down and took a moment to gaze out across the rebuilt Shattrath. “How the hell… aren’t you tired?”

The young bull grinned smugly. “Be as fast as you want, I’m just in better shape.”

”Oh fuck off,” she spat and hucked her own pack on the ground. “Running in circles around Thunder Bluff is barely a job anyway.”

”At least I have a job,” he threw back at her casually.

The female tauren growled and dropped her one-horned head as if to charge him.

“Reena! Datch! That’s enough, you two,” called another feminine voice. A few moments later, the ivory-horned shaman breached the hilltop, gently holding her husband’s bulky arm as he clambered up alongside her. “Easy, love,” she added, not daring to let go of him until both hooves were on solid rock, then propped her fists on her hips and put on her sternest, motherly look. “This isn’t a competition. We’re supposed to be having some normal, peaceful, family fun.”

”Well I’m having a swell ol’ time,” Datch said with a shrug.

Reena looked like she was about to blow a gasket, until her father touched her shoulder and leaned down to whisper in her ear. Her frown gradually turned back into a smile, and the both of them laughed before she walked over to Datch. “Sooooorryyyyy Bro,” she said and gave him a pat on his arm.

Datch looked at her quizzically. “What?”

The two started to talk and walk further along the hilltop. Their parents, however, exchanged glances.
“What on Draenor do you say to her to… pacify her like that?”

The elder bull chuckled, resuming his leisurely walking pace next to his wife. “I merely reassured her that she is capable of taming beasts, whereas Datch becomes a beast when he shapeshifts.”

”Drenan!” she hissed, prompting him to laugh again. “Pitting our children against each other is better?”

Drenan waved a dismissive hand. “They are both adults and they can handle themselves, Lyrah. They have not taken part in an all-out fist fight in a decade, after all. She was never going to ram him.”

Lyrah sighed deeply, watching Datch and Reena tease and banter more nicely than before, then reached over and grasped Drenan’s hand to squeeze it. “How did you do it? All by yourself?”

”Mmh… I had a daughter I loved and trusted,” he said simply. “I still do. I was never truly alone. She understood. She was capable of great empathy. Datch has realized his own, but Reena has a ways to go. That is all.”

Lyrah smiled, leaning against Drenan’s shoulder. “I think once she gets out into the wide world, she’ll get it. We could just… you know… kick her out-“

”She will travel when she is ready,” Drenan returned gently. “Just as you did.”

”Hmmh… she’s just taking her sweet time, I guess,” Lyrah grumbled.

”The world is not what it was,” Drenan reminded her. “Her friends are different. We live in a world of draenei and orcs, not so many tauren. If you really are concerned, you could take her with you to-“ Lyrah’s immediate glare silenced Drenan soundly. “Sorry, my Love. I mean no harm by mentioning it.”

Her expression softened, and she took a deep breath. “I know. I don’t wanna expose her to the other Grimtotems is all.”

”You fear for her safety?”

”I fear she’ll fit in a little too well,” the shaman admitted dryly.

“She has your spirit in spades. The courage will come soon. But you are worrying too much about such matters, when that is not why we are here, yes?”

Lyrah flinched. “Shit, right!” The shaman smoothed out her beaded top and dropped her pack, which she started rummaging through before pulling out a tripod. “Kids, wait! Just a minute!”

Datch and Reena stopped chattering and turned around, walking back toward their parents. “‘Sup?”

”Your mother wants a picture to commemorate today,” Drenan explained as Lyrah started fiddling with a weathered-looking S.E.L.F.I.E. Camera. “We have not all been on a hike together in several years, and I would like to have a keepsake, too.”

The two younger tauren exchanged… concerned glances, then looked back at their father. Drenan had had his one-hundred-and-sixth birthday not long before Datch had returned home, and while he was still more than capable of doing his duties, the last several years had taken even more of the color from his already-light fur and mane. His left knee was giving him fits, but all things considered he was still pretty spry, and sharper than ever. “It’s, uh, really not that big of a deal, Mom.” Datch remarked with a nervous chuckle.

A single grimace from Lyrah straightened him up, and he had Reena’s arm before she could protest as well.

”At least for Dad, y’know?” Datch whispered to his sister.

Reena instantly looked worried. “You think he’s in bad shape?” She whispered back.

”It’s hard to say. He wouldn’t admit it if he was-“

”I can hear you,” Drenan rumbled, startling both siblings upon realizing he was standing right behind them. Nonetheless, Drenan put on a gentle smile. “I am fine, I promise. But I have not seen my children all together in too long, and it would be nice to have a picture to remember you by when you are off saving others.”

Both Datch and Reena grew bashful, and a moment later Lyrah had the camera ticking away before rushing over to Datch’s side. “C’mon! Get in close and smile like you mean it!”

Drenan sidled up beside Reena, then gently nudged her closer to Datch, both parents sandwiching their children between them. Both Datch and Reena put on smiles… but there was something missing. Drenan leaned over, then just barely audibly said, “… Booger.”

The results speak for themselves.