Harpies, Hooves, and a Fall at Dreadmist Peak
Nanaki grew stronger across the Barrens, found four new places, fell once in the dark at Dreadmist Peak, and ended the day with fresh hunts waiting.
Discovered The Forgotten Pools
The Road
The day began at the Crossroads in morning light. I walked out along the Gold Road and found The Forgotten Pools, where I stopped a while to take in the view, then came back to the Crossroads to rest.
Afternoon found me in Thunder Bluff, where Tal remarked that one sees a wind rider's strength and speed for oneself once mounted. I took the wind rider back to the Crossroads. The record shows me passing through Hunter Rise, the Golden Plains, Stonebull Lake and Galak Camp, then Southern Barrens, Agama'gor and Lushwater Oasis, and back along the Gold Road to the Crossroads.
From there I climbed to Dreadmist Peak and stood a moment to look it over. Later I found The Stagnant Oasis and paused there too. By evening I had wandered into The Dry Hills, harpy country, and stopped once more to take in the view. Three of those four places were new to me. Then I turned back to the Crossroads and rested.
Battles
The morning's fights were with plainstriders, mostly Greater ones, plus a Kolkar Wrangler and a Sunscale Screecher. A screecher shrieked for help in the middle of one fight, and a Fleeting Plainstrider fell in the same stretch of hunting.
The long afternoon was busier: seven Sunscale Screechers, seven Zhevra Runners, five Lost Barrens Kodo, and three each of Burning Blade Acolytes and Bruisers. A scattering of hyenas, huntresses, lashtails, a Kolkar Marauder and an Oasis Snapjaw fell as well.
At Dreadmist Peak a Burning Blade Toxicologist shouted that I had interfered with their plans "for the last time, foolish druid!" Within the minute I was slain by something I never saw, and darkness took me. I woke as a spirit before the Spirit Healer, who said it was not yet my time and that my return would cost something. I paid, and walked back into the Barrens.
In the Dry Hills, harpies fled in fear and others taunted me, calling me easy prey and promising to shred my body and take my head. I answered them with seven savannah prowlers, seven Witchwing Roguefeathers, six Witchwing Harpies, three hyenas, a Witchwing Slayer and another Kolkar Wrangler. All told, I put down sixty-nine foes today.
Deeds
Tonga Runetotem was waiting when I came out of the spirit realm. I turned in The Principal Source, and he grimaced at the water, calling it disgusting, saying no wonder the gazelles were sick. Something was polluting it and wrecking the northern Barrens, he said, yet the water itself would help him make a cure. He then asked for earthroot and kodo horns for a salve, and I took Gathering the Cure from him. Later I returned with what he needed. He judged it enough for ample doses and gave me Curing the Sick: I am to use the salve on ten sickly gazelles in the northern Barrens and then bring his thanks to Dendrite Starblaze in Moonglade. I also finished The Stagnant Oasis for him. The seeds he gave me had been dried and dead, and whatever lies under those oases can make life from nothing. That earned me Altered Beings, eight shells from oasis snapjaws.
Sergra Darkthorn accepted Plainstrider Menace, saying the supply chains would be easier now, and sent me after zhevra hooves. I finished The Zhevra and he asked if I was ready for a real challenge, and handed me Prowlers of the Barrens. When that was done, he told me to lurk in the grass no more and face a champion: Echeyakee, the white king of the savannah cats. I am to blow a horn at his lair northeast of the Crossroads and wait.
Gazrog thanked me for getting rid of the raptors, calling me a druid of worth, then asked me to recover the silver they stole, thought to lie in the Raptor Grounds south of Ratchet. Darsok Swiftdagger looked over my harpy work and said the pieces were nice, real nice. He wants six harpy lieutenant rings from Witchwing Slayers in the Dry Hills, and wants those harpies to die painfully.
Mankrik, a warrior who came to the Crossroads from the south, gave me two tasks of his own. One is to find some sign of his wife, who held off three Bristlebacks alone before they overwhelmed her. The other is sixty Bristleback tusks, to feed a rage that has not eased. Dokimi told me of shipments gone missing across Azeroth, and asked that I return any I find.
Fellowship
Most of the day I walked alone. Late in the afternoon, in the Dry Hills, a windshaper skyborne rogue and a shaman joined my party. Not long after, the rogue spoke to me about sharing a task, and both left within a few minutes. The harpies' taunts came while they were with me, the harpy calling the shaman easy prey too.
At the Crossroads I bowed to a fellow tauren druid who saluted me with respect. Later there was dancing near the inn: one druid danced with the innkeeper, and a tauren warrior danced with me. I overheard talk of Alliance gnomes chased out of Ratchet and a hunter's grim jokes about the tauren holding the ground, and an orc hunter wandered through, wished the company well and left.
Spoils & Craft
A Hunting Bow came to hand in the afternoon, and a Barbaric Loincloth in the evening, both of uncommon make.
At the Crossroads I worked the hides I had skinned. I crafted Light Leather and Cured Light Hide, and later three more Light Leather and two more Cured Light Hide. My skinning grew steadily, and by evening it stood at 115. In the dealings of the day, Durotar Supply and Logistics still held me at neutral, though Pawani, who has leather and hides and a few techniques to share, and Jornah, who is always looking for new contractors, both greeted me.
Growth
Somewhere on the slopes near Dreadmist Peak I felt new strength settle into my limbs. It was a clear, bright moment, and I stopped to take it in. My defense sharpened to 70 around the same time, and my feral combat reached 70 soon after. Skill with two-handed maces began at 25 when I swung one in the evening.