(2025-07-29) Fjord Days

Details

Author:	Alli
Summary:	Dara and Sophiette help out around the Howling Fjord while they wait for information about where Sophiette's father's Legion might have gone. ~1600 words
Rating:	T for Teen

Chain: Light Guide Us

+ Show additional content warnings

Dara and Sophiette meet in the common room at Westguard Keep.

[Sophiette]: I've been talking to the bartender here. He thinks he might know someone with some information about the 1st Legion…but they're away on a mission and won't be back for at least a few days.

[Dara]: A few days? I suppose we've waited years, a few days can be handled.

[Sophiette]: Yeah…a few days at the soonest, he said.

[Dara]: I've been asking around as well — I've found no more information on the 1st Legion, but they could use some help around the camp.

[Sophiette]: We might as well ingratiate ourselves to the locals, then.

[Dara]: There's no harm in offering aid to others. *Dara smiles brightly* My 'shopping list' is meat from the local wildlife and gathering any spare munitions we find around the camp.

Sophiette chuckles. "Just shopping out here in the woods."

Dara giggles.

The two of them head out into the grounds near Westguard keep, casually taking out talbuk and picking up spare cannonballs where they see them.

[Dara]: I suppose with Dalaran leaving, they'll need to make sure they're stable with less frequent provisioning.

[Sophiette]: I hope we get a chance to see it before they go.

[Dara]: Should we head there while we wait for news?

[Sophiette]: A fine idea! It would be a shame to come this far north only to miss the floating city.

[Dara]: I suppose it will be less open to visitors soon, wherever they're planning to go. Otherwise, they would have announced where.

[Sophiette]: I wonder why now.

[Dara]: Well… I suppose the leader of the Kirin Tor died. New leaders sometimes like to make big decisions

Sophiette frowns sadly. "Oh? I didn't realize…"

Dara nods sadly. "That whole mess at Theramore. Leric wrote to me about it."
[Dara]: Oh, he's alive, by the way. Honestly, I didn't even know he was so close to danger until he wrote to me to say he was safe.

Sophiette nods solemnly. "I don't imagine anyone realized Theramore was close to danger."

Dara lowers her head respectfully for a moment, in memory of Theramore.

[Sophiette]: Dara…are you alright being here? With all that's happened…and your brother…I would understand if you wanted to return home for a while.

Dara smiles at Sophiette. "I appreciate it, but I feel like I'm useful here, with you. There… I can't imagine what I could do to help. Leric will go… wherever the army sends him. Devon is as safe as he ever was, in Stormwind."

Sophiette smiles. "As long as you're happy. I don't want you feeling stuck here with me."

[Dara]: Oh, goodness no. *Dara giggles a little* After all the effort we made to get here, I don't intend to leave without you getting the answers you need. We're so close!

[Sophiette]: Well…hopefully we're close. But I did mean I would go back with you, if that's what you need. The answers are here…but they've been here for years. They'll keep. Whatever you need.

[Dara]: I don't think we can wait for a time with no war or other crises. The world just doesn't seem able to stop serving them up. And in any case, at least now there's no battle in the Dragonblight.

Sophiette nods with a little shudder. "I dread to imagine if we'd been there. Not that we couldn't help, but…" She leaves the bit about seeing Deathwing again unspoken.

Dara shivers. "I think there are some things we've faced enough for one lifetime." She reaches up to pat her hair, still growing back out to its usual long length.

[Sophiette]: I don't think I'd fully realized how much it still haunted me until we got news he'd been killed.

Dara reaches over to rest a hand on Sophiette's armored shoulder. "I dream about it sometimes, still. The shadow, and then the flames. It was a relief to hear he was finally gone."

Sophiette pauses in the search for stray cannonballs to pull Dara close, just holding her. "Me too."

Dara rests against her for a moment. "Tell me, when you do. We were there together, we can comfort one another."

[Sophiette]: Oh…well, alright. I just didn't want to worry you.

[Dara]: If I can help, I prefer you to worry me. *Dara smiles* Anyway, the Dragonblight should be considerably less full of dragons now, altogether, from what I've heard.

Sophiette nods with a thoughtful furrow in her brow. "I suppose I'm just accustomed to keeping those things to myself."

They head back in through the perimeter of Westguard Keep.

Dara looks at Sophiette sadly. "But if we're to be partners, you don't have to." She pauses by the stack of cannonballs, to add the ones she collected along the way.

Sophiette stacks up cannonballs alongside Dara. "I hear you. I promise, I'm not trying to hide anything from you. I'm just not very used to burdening anyone else with my problems."

[Dara]: I want us to be able to talk about how we feel, even when it isn't happy, *Dara says seriously, and then adds, * But also, let's get this talbuk meat to the kitchen before it spoils.

[Sophiette]: I understand. I'll do my best.

Dara smiles. "That's all either of us can do, I think. And I will try to share my own feelings and thoughts, of course. Though… maybe I overdo that a little sometimes."

Sophiette smiles and shakes her head. "Not even a little bit. I love any chance to know your heart better."

The chef accepts the meat gladly, and then gives them a few packs to take to Fort Wildervar to the north, at the foot of the mountains.

Dara looks up at the sky as they take to the air on their gryphons. "Right now I think the way the lights are shifting is beautiful. I've never seen the like in the south."

Sophiette looks up, her lips parting as if it's the first time she's really looked. "Awww…Hugo told me about this! It's fantastic!"

[Dara]: The 'northern lights', isn't it?

Sophiette nods. "That's what he called it."

[Dara]: He's so clever, Hugo. A regular little factbook.

Sophiette grins. "Isn't he just? Most adults don't love reading as much as he does. I love his curiosity about the world."

[Dara]: I hope he never loses it! I suppose my curiosity pointed in other directions.I know so much about the nobility of Stormwind, but very little about dragon facts or celestial lights.

Dara lands at Fort Wildervar, and the two of them head to the inn to deliver supplies. "I've been told they need help up here as well — mostly just checking their regular traps and collecting feathers for warm-weather gear."

Sophiette nods. "That sounds simple enough."

[Dara]: It must be very cold here in winter, seeing how it feels now when we're nearly August.

Sophiette nods with an exaggerated shiver. "Hopefully we can finish our quest here before winter sets in."

[Dara]: I hope so. If not, we may be collecting hippogryph feathers to stuff in our own jackets.

Sophiette chuckles and nods.

[Dara]: In any case, we've still months yet.

[Sophiette]: I hope so. Doesn't it get cold earlier here?

[Dara]: I'd bet so, but still – some time left. Cobalt Company came up here in January. Can you even imagine?

[Sophiette]: Mercy. Their armor must have frozen solid!

[Dara]: I hope the next major Cobalt mission, at least after our personal mission is complete, is to go somewhere exciting. Not with dragons, and not so cold. Maybe we could go, too!

Sophiette smiles. "It might be nice to spend more time around others of Cobalt Company. They're good people. We've just been so wrapped up in Argent work."

Dara nods. "Which is worthwhile, for sure… but I do wonder sometimes how Estel and Wisteria are doing. Or that dwarf who gave you advice on fighting. Lireen? And Shine — I heard he's on squad now."

[Sophiette]: Is he? Good for him. He's certainly got the mettle for it.

Dara nods. "He was a terror against those orcs. Seems like just yesterday."

[Sophiette]: I wouldn't mind seeing him again. That's a man who understands duty.

Dara nods seriously. "Indeed. And who never balked at the work to be done, even when Troteman's plans seemed… a little unique."
[Dara]: And then of course, there's the whole team up in the Eastern Plaguelands. Mercy, and then others who helped reclaim land for the Argent Crusade. I hope she's found some peace in the time since.

Sophiette nods with a more serious expression. "I never imagined I'd be so concerned about a death knight."

[Dara]: Goodness, yes, I thought they were all dreadful monsters. And they are quite frightening, but… I suppose they're also just people, deep down. Did I tell you those two we met at Light's Hope actually moved into Redridge like I offered? Patrolling the border and such.

Sophiette's eyes widen. "Did they? And…that's gone well…? I hope?"

[Dara]: Surprisingly so. They were very courteous neighbors, though admittedly I haven't seen much of either of them. *Dara deposits her feathers and meat as they come back into the Fort.* As for now… should we head to Dalaran? I think they offer gryphon rides there from Valgarde.

Sophiette grins. "We'd better go fetch Hugo. He'll kill me if we go to Dalaran without him."

Dara claps her hands. "Let's go! We've done our good deeds for the day, and it's time for fun!"