(2025-12-15) Testing the Waters

Details

Author:	Alli
Summary:	Nesselos arrives to Pandaria, and is excited to meet new watery friends.
Rating:	T for Teen

The elekk trundles with exuberance between the trees of the Jade Forest, as the draenei on its back gawks openly at the countryside like an overexcitable tourist. Nesselos is in Pandaria and he couldn’t be more excited. More than once, he leans too far towards a passing shrine or unfamiliar tree, and the elekk has to swerve to keep him aloft.

He doesn’t slow, though, since he has a clear destination – the lake village of the Pearlfin jinyu. He rides his elekk past rough huts made of some kind of cylindrical wood and plant matter roofs, staring in curiosity. Is this how the jinyu build?

Then he makes a turn past the seemingly-abandoned huts and gasps in amazement. No, the huts are something else. This is the Pearlfin Village, a series of small islands on the surface of a lake, overshadowed by trees with weeping-leaf branches. The buildings are solid and intricately carved stone, with motifs of waves and fish, and little luminescent bubbles mark the path into the village’s central square.

Nesselos considers the path, but instead steps down to the edge of the lake, smiling at the lily pads that dot the surface. He murmurs quietly to the water in kalimag, asking permission. These spirits are at once familiar and not. They answer quickly, and with a surprising vitality and welcome.

Without hesitation, Nesselos walks out onto the surface of the water, relieved that the unrest of the Cataclysm has not seemed to affect the spirits here. He looks down as he walks, staring with avid curiosity at the villagers going about their daily life on the bottom of the lake. He passes a few delightful little rafts as he steps to shore and heads towards the largest building, a place marked by banners of both jinyu and the Alliance. He climbs the path to face the mottled-red goldfish-like jinyu, who holds a watery staff.

“Elder Lusshan?” Nesselos asks hopefully, kneeling before him. “I hope you have received my letter. I am the draenei Nesselos, Alliance shaman of water.”

Lusshan peers at Nesselos’s boxy form, and a few other nearby jinyu do as well. “You do not look very much like the other draenei I have seen.”

“Oh, oh yes! Those were women,” Nesselos says, beaming. “I am a draenei man. You must have met Mishka, of course, and possibly Nanaat, Erixa, and… maybe Kae? Kaerix? Is she here now?”

“She is here often,” Elder Lusshan nods. “Not now, but often. You said you would like to learn of our people, of the ways of the Waterspeakers. I am… tentatively willing. Your people have defended our village from the hozen, and I know what happened at the Serpent’s Heart was not by intent.”

Nesselos looks up at him, his face radiant with happiness. “Thank you for your forgiveness, Elder Lusshan. I understand your caution, but have no fear. I will be a worthy student.”