Mulgore Monday

Okay so I rode all the way up to Thunder Bluff for Mulgore Monday and... nothing. Empty plateau. Just wind and some tauren kid chasing a dog. I was standing there doing the awkward "am I early or am I lost" thing when this tauren waved me down and yelled that everyone was at Bloodhoof Village instead. Down the elevator. Back the way I came. Cool. Cool cool cool.

Star and Kharrock showed up like ten minutes later and I got to be the one with information for once. "Bloodhoof," I said, very confidently, like I definitely hadn't just wasted a trip. We rode down together and I did my usual move where I hang back and scan the area before committing to some kind of actual social interaction. Star and Kharrock don't have this problem. They just... walk toward people. Wild.

Found the gathering eventually, down by the water. Star and Kharrock immediately started working the crowd like pros while I stood there trying to look purposeful and not like I was waiting for an invitation.

Then this orc cornered me. Scarlet Crusade gear, which I only recognized from books ‘cause that whole thing was before my time. Said his name was Damien, I think? Or maybe Damon. Something with a D.

We fell into mercenary talk. Stuff about the Legion, ugly work, the kind of conversation where you're comparing scars without showing them. Easy. Comfortable. He got it. No explanations needed.

Out of the corner of my eye, Star was waving at me. Her brother had arrived - Alarde. She wanted me to meet him.

I made polite excuses to Damien (Damon?) and crossed over.

And look, I adore Star, but Alarde… I dunno, he just didn’t seem interested in anything I had to say. Left me a bit confused as to why Star even wanted me to meet him. But, it got me thinking, about how almost every shal'dorei I've met lately has looked at me like I don’t really belong there. Or around them. Is that just their culture? Or is it me? I dunno.

Anyway. At some point Star stripped down to basically nothing and hit the water. Kharrock followed, plus this lovely tauren woman with a nice smile. I stayed on the bank because I had no spare clothes and I'd actually bathed this morning and I didn't want to undo the effort.

Kharrock caught my eye from the shallows. "What's wrong, Miko? Water too cold?"

"I have no change of clothes," I said, very reasonably. "And I'm clean. I want to stay clean."

He laughed. I waded in to my ankles just to prove I wasn't completely opposed to the concept of fun, and that's when Star struck. Shoulder check. Clean. Deliberate. I went in shrieking and came up spluttering and flung water at her face and she flung it back and we stood there laughing like idiots.

And this is what I'm trying to hold onto. The rest of it - the awkward arrivals, the weird social calculations, the maybe-dismissive-maybe-not shal’dorei - that all fades. But I'll remember falling backwards into the water, sky spinning overhead, and when I came up spluttering there was Star's grin waiting for me. The cold shock of the water. Laughing until my sides hurt.

Small stupid moments. That’s the good stuff.

V