(2022-05-06) Peril Farrens and the Dancing Stones

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Author:	Aly
Summary:	Peril Farrens encounters a young man and his rocks on a cliff in Stranglethorn.
Rating:	T for Teen

Peril Farrens, writer and owner of the famed Azerothian Interest newspaper, the greatest news in Azeroth and beyond, strolled across the wooden planks leading out of the goblin city of Booty Bay, tipping his hat to the bruisers just outside the cove. Milo Barnes, his lackey and most competent assistant, remained in the city, setting up for their planned expedition into the wilds. There are pirates, he’d been warned. As if pirates were a threat to Peril. After all, Danger was his -first- name.

The humid jungle laid out before him, he drew a compass from his pocket. A new compass, one he’d gotten purely for this trip. He glanced at it. Turned it a few times. Stared at it intensely. Then pocketed it again. Yep. That was a compass. Something every would-be adventurer should have, and Peril had one. Maybe it would activate in a pinch.

As he began his scouting mission, Peril scoffed at the road. What kind of adventurer used roads, after all? He was here to explore, not follow a road. He veered off the road immediately. Nothing interesting there. With the road just out of sight behind jungle ferns and dangling vines, Peril opened his notebook. ‘Something, something, humidity… Not enough to stop me, Peril Farrens, from finding the truth,’ he scratched.

“Good enough.”

Pressing on, he came to a stream. A rather large stream, actually. With a waterfall spewing its soggy spray directly at him. “Picking a fight, are you?” he muttered. “You don’t know who you’re messing with, water. I could have you evaporated with just a—” A flash of orange caught his eye and he stopped talking to himself. There, on a ledge at the top of the waterfall, stood a young lad. ‘Hair so orange I took him for a forest fire. Jungle fire. Whatever. Edit later,’ he scratched.

“Ho there, lad!” Peril called. “Are you too seeking adventure in the Jungle of Strangling Thorns?” Nice. He’d have to add that to the next paper.

The lad peered down at him. Crouched, even, on the stone slab upon which he stood. “The Jungle of what? I thought this was Stranglethorn.”

Peril opened his mouth. Nothing came out. He closed it. Maybe the lad had misheard? He tried again. “That’s what I said.” Finding a rough path, he followed it to the top of the decidedly small waterfall, joining the lad on the slab.

Stones were laid out on the edge. Orderly stones. Someone had put them there, in an order, on purpose. The lad? “What brings you here?”

The lad returned his attention to the stone in his hand. He was holding it out and just…waiting. Waiting for what? It was a stone. Was this some sort of…jungle exercise?
“I don’t think anything brought me here,” the lad said. “Well, ‘sides myself. I brought me here. But I’m not a what. Am I?” His blue eyes searched Peril’s. A serious question.

“Perhaps it was fate, good sir, for I am here on an expedition, investigating all that this jungle has to offer and you,” he gestures theatrically at the lad, “Are interesting. What is it that you are doing?”

A look of…guilt, maybe? Flashed across the lad’s face. “Alright, okay, I know it looks bad, but this was the best place I could find,” he said. “I’m releasing my children into the wilds.”

At first, Peril took a cursory glance around. Children? Where? He looked behind him. Then down the waterfall. Then towards the road. His eyes finally settled on the rocks. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out again. He settled for pointing.

The lad followed his gesture. “Yeah, them. I just don’t think I can be a very good rock pops for them. I can barely keep ‘em fed, y’know? Figured if they ran free, it’d be for the best. But it looks like I’m abandoning them, now. I was hopin’ I wouldn’t…get seen.”

Peril sucked in a breath. Wow, lot to unpack here. Uhhh. “Do they…run, often?” Patient smile.

“No, that’s why I’m freein’ ‘em. So they can. Weren’t you listening?” The lad had a disapproving frown.

“Of course I was—you know what? Never mind. My bad. What uh…what do you feed them?” Peril’s pen hovered over the notebook.

“-You- know. Food. Obviously. Same stuff I eat.”

Obviously. Peril forgot about writing anything down, and looked the lad over instead. He was filthy. His clothes were torn in places, and it didn’t look like he’d had a good meal in a while.

He cleared his throat. “So…you’re giving the rocks all your food.” Peril could not keep the flatness out of his voice.

“Shhh!” the lad turned frantically to the pile of rocks, murmuring soothingly to them. “They don’t like to be called rocks. It hurts their feelings.”

“Uh-huh.” Peril put his notebook away and took a couple of steps back. “And you can speak stone?” Why was he still asking the crazy lad questions? The reporter in him would like to know that too!

The lad knelt down to deposit the rock—Er, stone— in his hand onto the ground with the others. He got up and brushed himself off—it didn’t help, and faced Peril again. “No, can you?”

Peril fingered the brim of his hat. “Well, lad, it sounds like you’re making a lot of assumptions about their feelings. If you can’t understand them, how do you know what they…” There was a strange clacking noise. Had one of those rocks just moved? He squinted at the rock pile. Nothing happened. The lad was making him paranoid. Perilnoid, perhaps? His lips twitched in amusement.

“I can understand ‘em,” the lad said, digging through his travel pack. “Just, I don’t speak stone’s all.”

Another clattering sound. It had moved. It had definitely moved. A rock from the top of the pile had fallen onto the stone slab.

“What…what are you up to now?” Peril’s attention remained focused on the rocks, this time.

“Well, I’ve been standin’ here a while, right? Waitin’ for ‘em to run free? But then I thought, maybe they’d rather fly. So I’m lookin’ for the feathers I grabbed earlier.”

Two clatters. Those rocks had jumped, somehow.

“So you’re…going to stick feathers to…to the rocks.” Peril took a step back. He had a bad feeling about this one.

The lad shrugged, pulling some strange-looking bracers out of his bag and setting them aside. “Yeah. Figured I’d do that, an’ see…”

All at once, the jungle came alive with the sound of moving, jumping stones. They came from the sides, from behind, all of them scrambling eagerly towards the rock pile, to add to it. To grow larger. They snatched the bracers on the way by, and the elemental rumbled to life.

As the earth elemental towered angrily over them, the orange haired lad turned to Peril, a nervous grin on his face. “I messed up, huh?”

Peril, his mouth dry and his knees shaking, stared at the creature. “Yeah. Yeah, lad, I think you did.”

Without further words, the two men turned…and ran.