(2022-03-07) Father & Son

Details

Author:	Saaron
Summary:	Sandy goes to the Dark Portal, looking for his biological father.
Rating:	T for Teen

Sandy takes a few deep breaths as he paces up and down on the path to the Dark Portal. He decided to walk there this time, for some reason, and this reason is not that he’s pushing back what he came here to do for as long as possible. Absolutely not.

“Oh no,” he thinks, as his eyes meet with the top of the portal.

“Ooh, no,” he says softly, as he starts seeing the Argent Dawn’s flags floating in the wind.

He takes a few more steps and stops in his tracks.

Maybe he can come back on another day? He doesn’t have to go today. It’s not like it’s urgent. It’s only been 19 years since he last saw his parents, so what’s a little more time going to do now? He’s not even sure that this man is his dad. He just has the same first name, that’s all. This is literally just some man named Therald who’s from the same region as the Therald he’s looking for. He turns on his heels. Back to Stormwind, it is!

On the other hand…

This man is just some man named Therald. Why should Sandy be so nervous about talking to him? Theralds aren’t scary. He never met one before, but that’s not a scary person’s name, like “Kael’thas”, or “Albert”. Plus, he doesn’t know how old that man is. Given that he’s probably older than Sandy since Colson didn’t mention anything about it, and also given the fact that that man there has a dangerous profession, the warlock isn’t so sure this can wait 19 more years. It might be now or never. And now, some demons could take over his own body at any time, this makes it even more of an urgent matter. He needs to talk to that man before anything happens to either of them.

“Come on Sandy, you summon forces from the Legion. You’re not going to be scared of a Therald, now!” he mutters to himself.

He stops in his tracks again but doesn’t turn back to face the Argent Dawn’s camp. He is scared of a Therald right now.

Sandy closes his eyes and thinks for a second, trying to calm himself.

“You know what?” he thinks to himself. “Maybe he’s not even here today. Maybe he’s sick, or maybe he’s on vacation! Or maybe he’s retired!”

The thought reassures him, and he finally turns back and walks towards the camp. Before he knows it, he’s walking up to someone that seems to be taking a short break, puffing his chest, full of confidence and he asks:

“Is Therald here?” And there goes all of the confidence he had as he realizes that this sounds absolutely ridiculous to just ask for someone only using their first name. How many Therald are in the Argent Dawn? Maybe he should have looked into a possible last name before coming here. It’s not too late, he can just leave! He could start dashing out of here and never look back. His body rotates slightly towards the Dark Portal. If he hurries enough, maybe they won’t even recognize his face next time he comes back here.

“Therald? Why you lookin’ for Therald?” says the Argent Dawn guard. He eyes Sandy’s tabard, which he is wearing thanks to Colson’s advice. “Always feels like there’s some Cobalt Company funny business goin’ around…”

Sandy mumbles something that even he doesn’t understand as his shoulders drop. The guard looks at him dubiously.

“Anyway, Therald’s standin’ right over there, at what we’re callin’ the ‘death seat’,” he nods towards the portal, at a man with long dark braids and tan skin, guarding one side of the stairs to the Dark Portal. “I’d say you can’t miss him, but you could. Just don’t go lookin’ too high up, keep the eyes close to the ground and you should be fine.”

Another nearby guard guffaws at the joke. Sandy squints, looking at the man that he may or may not be related to, a frown on his face as he doesn’t understand what the two guards are laughing about. He nods in thanks and walks towards Therald.

As Sandy approaches, the possibly-a-dad stranger stands up straight, staring in the distance as if to avoid looking at him directly but clearly keeping the warlock in his field of vision. Sandy takes one more deep breath, gathering his courage, and says.

“Um, hello?”

Therald quickly glances at him, then at his tabard, then back at his face and then he finally gets back to his position, staring into nothingness.

“Yes?” he answers, his voice low. He clears his throat and adds speaks a little louder. “May I help you with something?”

Sandy opens his mouth to speak but no sound comes out. He just stares at the stranger unblinkingly.

Could he be Sandy’s father? If Sandy’s 5’6, the man is definitely 5’5. If they are related, that could kind of explain why the young man is on the shorter side. Also, that Therald is not as old as Sandy imagined, so he would have had Sandy fairly young if he is indeed the one Sandy’s looking for.

He stares at the man’s face. What does he have in common with Sandy? Not the hair color, not really the skin color either, although, in the stranger’s case, it appears that his skin is somewhat darkened by the sun. With the bushy beard and the long hair strands slightly covering his face, it’s even harder to tell if they have any physical traits in common.

Therald clears his throat again, throwing quick glances at Sandy.

“Are you… all right?”

Sandy shakes his head as if to wake himself up.

“I need to speak with you. It’s… somewhat important.”

Therald’s muscles visibly tense but he stays immobile.

“My shift is almost over. Is it… urgent or can it wait for a few minutes?”

Sandy nods.

“No,” answers Sandy immediately. “I mean no, yes, it can wait! I’ll just be… right… over there.”

He walks a few feet away, closer to the rest of the camp, and just sits down on the ground awkwardly, still very unsure of what he should do. He stares at Therald, who also looks quite uncomfortable as well, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, periodically glancing at Sandy’s incessant staring.

After around ten minutes of awkwardness, with Therald pretending he is not looking at the stranger staring at him for the longest time, another person in armor comes to take the guard duty from him. Sandy gets up, and both walk up to each other, meeting in the middle.

Sandy breathes as evenly as he possibly can in this instant, trying to stay calm.

“So, you… need something?”

“Yes! You are…” Sandy pauses. “I am…” he pauses once more. “I think…?”

Therald frowns as if he’s trying to piece whatever the young man is saying together.

“Do you know a Le…” he interrupts himself once more. “You’re…”

You are I am I think do you know a Leyour is starting to sound less and less like a full sentence to Therald and as he’s about to ask further questions, Sandy finally says:

“You’re… doing a great job here, congratulations! Keep going… buddy!”

Sandy awkwardly pats his (apparently) new buddy on the shoulder, and walks swiftly to the Dark Portal, crossing back into the Outland. The Hellfire Peninsula is definitely a more preferable situation to continuing that awful interaction.

Therald watches him go and disappear into the hell portal, completely bewildered, his mouth wide open as he tries to mumble something.

“What was I thinking?!” Sandy asks himself. “I don’t even know if he’s doing a great job!”

As he gets on the back of a gryphon back to the Honor Hold, he thinks:
“That would have gone way better if I’d just sent Brynia instead…”