(2026-04-14) Mogumogu

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Author:	Luridel
Summary:	Silvestre Sullivan arrives in Pandaria, and Cressidha is waiting to show him around. Carrots are measured (in Cressidhas). ~2.6k words.
Rating:	T for Teen

Chain: Cressil

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contains romantic couple

Cressidha stands expectantly by the portal to Stormwind in the Shrine of the Stars. She is dressed in the same purple outfit with gold accents that she wore on her first date with Sil, plus her snowflake pendant.

When Sil steps through into the elaborately ornate portal room of the Shrine of Seven Stars, the first thing that catches his eye are not the columns, the murals, the ceiling… it's Cressidha, standing there waiting for him. He smiles.

Cressidha smiles back with evident warmth as soon as she sees him. "Silvestre, good afternoon."

"Sidha, good afternoon," Sil says, stepping forward and reaching for her hand. "Suddenly, I think I like Pandaria already." Sil is dressed in tidy leathers, also the same as that first day, now over a year ago.

Cressidha takes his hand, guiding him safely a few steps away from the portal to clear the way for other travelers. "That was a quick first impression," she teases.

Sil laughs, and then he does look around the room, holding Cressidha's hand in his. "Wow… this is really something… they put like, clouds all over the golden walls? And this is the place they set aside for us?"

Cressidha turns to look at a full-wall mural. "As their embassy, it makes sense."

Sil nods. "Most of I've seen of the pandaren so far is that little embassy they've got in Stormwind. The balloon, the building the turtles. My nephew loves the turtles."

Cressidha chuckles. "Will you be getting a room here, do you think, or will you be looking for somewhere to camp?"

"Are you staying somewhere closer to the wall — the Serpent's Spine?" Sil asks. "Or is this place pretty close already? I did bring camping gear, just in case. I didn't know if that'd be safe or not."

"I am staying here," Cressidha says. "I can take you to the innkeeper if you'd like to drop anything off?"

"Oh, sure," Sil says with a smile. "I'll get the lay of things soon, I bet, but I haven't yet, of course. I can drop off the camping stuff, at least."

Cressidha nods and sets off down the hall with him. "The building's layout is like a mirror image of itself, you'll get used to it fairly quickly…"

Sil hefts his camping bag — it's the backpack of embersilk-lined leather that Cressidha gave him for Winter Veil a year ago. He follows, looking around the place with obvious wonder. "It's hard to imagine I'll get used to this, but… I guess anything starts to feel normal after a while."

Cressidha gestures at an absolutely enormous statue of a mogu, so tall that it's hard to see the head when you're standing by its feet. "The mogu designed this place, of course. The fact that the pandaren have chosen to keep so much of it as-is rather fascinates me. Retaking the structures their oppressors forced them to build."

"Maybe in a way, they almost felt like their own already," Sil muses, as they continue walking. "Seeing as they built them, and not the mogu."

Cressidha leads Sil across the building and down to check in with Matron Vi Vinh, the innkeeper.

Sil confirms with the Matron that there is still room at the inn, and checks in his luggage to be picked up later for the room.

Cressidha gestures. "We can exit here, or through the central chamber. Let's get you registered with the kite master."

"Kite master?" Sil asks curiously. "Do they travel by… gliders?"

"They do." Cressidha takes him over to the kite master. There are multiple kites on display.

"That's pretty neat," Sil says, admiring the display of red decorated kites. "Are they just natural gliders, or enchanted like your carpet?"

"I believe they're enchanted." Cressidha pats a kite fondly.

"Think you'll get one of your own, before you're done here?" Sil asks, looking to her. His gaze drops to her snowflake pendant for a moment, and he smiles.

Cressidha considers this. "Perhaps, for variety, although they seem a little more difficult to transport when you're not operating one. The carpet, at least, can roll."

"That's true, and you're a master with making those magical bags, that hold more than they look," Sil nods. He looks off the terrace, out into the Vale. "I'll need to bring Nimbus over, I bet. He'll be eager to fly in a new sky."

Cressidha nods and gestures him to the edge of the balcony once he's registered the flight path. "Come see!"

Sil finishes registering his information, and follows Cressidha over to the edge.

"Wow, what a view…" Sil says, and then his gaze catches on two truly massive mogu statues with crossed spears. "They did have a thing with hubris, didn't they?"

"It seems so." Cressidha shakes her head. "It's like that all over the place. Mogu, mogu, mogu."

Under her breath, Cressidha turns it into a sound effect: "…mogumogumogu…"

"And still they were defeated," Sil says, still staring out with open wonder. Then he chuckles at Cressidha's sound effect. "It's cute when you say it like that."

"I probably shouldn't," Cressidha says, clearing her throat. "But it's catchy." She smiles.

Sil smiles back. "Mogumogu."

Cressidha grins at him. "Mogumogu."

"Mogumogumogu," Sil says, and laughs. "I can't even see the big wall from here, I don't think."

"Ah, no, not quite. The mountains are in the way." Cressidha points to the west.

"This place is huge…" Sil says. "A whole continent disappeared into mist. Reappeared, now."

Cressidha nods. "They grow truly massive vegetables in the valley to the south. Larger than I am. Do you want to see?"

"Larger than you?" Sil looks Cressidha up and down. "I'm trying to imagine a you-sized tomato. I would like to see that."

"Yes, much larger." Cressidha pulls her flying carpet out of her bag with enthusiasm and shakes it out to where it floats in the air, level.

"It'll hold us both here, yeah?" Sil says, waiting for confirmation before he tries to climb aboard.

Cressidha nods. "It can't fly as quickly with the weight of two, but that should be fine."

"We're not in a race," Sil says, eyeing a cloud serpent rider nearby. "Not today, anyway. Slower is better, for conversation."

Cressidha settles carefully next to him, holding the edge of the carpet with one hand and reaching for his hand with the other.

Sil takes her hand in his, and trusts her guidance of the carpet. "I'm glad they're happier for us to be here now. I've been curious for a while."

The carpet takes off, gliding over golden trees and lakes as it turns towards the mountains.

Cressidha deliberately steers it up and over one of the tallest mountain peaks. The farmlands are visible on the other side, across the water: plots of land, tiny vegetables…

They're too high up to see individual people.

Sil watches the land rush by beneath them, with no sign of fear at the height. He spots the farmlands, and peers down. "That doesn't look so big… wait, how far away is that?"

Cressidha laughs in delight. "Just watch," she says, steering the carpet down.

Sil's eyes widen as the carpet draws closer, and the full scale of the massive vegetables starts to become clear. "Whoa. I think some of those carrots are taller than both of us put together."

A flock of cliff kites circles below, tiny and then much larger. Their wingspan is about two and a half Cressidhas.

"Even the birds are huge," Sil says. "I'd thought they were like little seagulls, from above."

They draw closer to the farmlands. There's a little rowboat out on the lake, comparable in size to one of the giant turnips.

As they get even closer, Sil spots a pandaren farmer weeding a turnip field. He's small enough that he couldn't wrap his arms around the nearest turnip.

"They look tiny," Sil says. "This really messes with your perspective, doesn't it?"

"Hopefully nobody will mind if we land here," Cressidha says, and takes them down near the carrot patch.

Several mushan graze happily nearby. Sil reaches for his daggers at first sight of the spined, dinosaur-like creatures, but he relaxes as they show no sign of hostility.

Cressidha steps off her carpet and walks through the soil a couple feet to stand next to a carrot. The vast majority of the carrot is under the soil. The exposed portion is about two to three Cressidhas tall all on its own.

"I thought taller than me and you together, from the sky," Sil says. "I can see now I was still pretty far off. That might be like two Cobalt squads high, if you pulled it out."

Cressidha holds a hand up to the top of her head, then backs off to compare it and the carrot. "Indeed. Remarkable, aren't they?"

"Yeah," Sil says, gazing at the carrot. "I bet they make some delicious vegetable dishes."

"They do," Cressidha says. She quickly steps back as a pandaren with a shovel approaches. "Pardon us, we'll get out of your way."

Sil gives a friendly wave. "Hope your crops flourish!"

Cressidha climbs back onto her carpet.

Sil settles next to her, again reaching for her hand.

The pandaren waves back to Sil, with a friendly smile. "Hope you enjoy 'em when they're on your table!"

"In much smaller portions, I imagine," Cressidha says.

Sil chuckles. "I'm sure I will!"

Cressidha steers the carpet around the farmlands to admire the various giant crops.

"Jenzelle should see these," Cressidha says offhandedly as they fly over the pumpkins.

Sil gasps at the surprising size of the pumpkins, and nods vigorously. "Maybe the next Paws for Pumpkins should be out here, if travel gets easier."

Sil looks this way and that, catching sight of massive watermelons and cabbages.

A couple of the fields are being pestered by virmen. Cressidha points down at them and says, "Local pests."

"They look a little like huge rabbits," Sil says looking down at them. "Less cuddly, I'd guess."

"They're apparently quite vicious," Cressidha says.

"Good to know," Sil says. "One creature not to judge by appearances."

The carpet takes them over Halfhill and towards what Cressidha excitedly describes as, "Their silk fields, Silvestre, look."

It's more of a mulberry bush field, really.

"Silk, really?" Sil moves to get a better look, possibly disturbing the balance of the carpet just a little. "I've seen the silk, is this where they make it?"

"Indeed," Cressidha says. "They keep the silkworms here and process the silk themselves as well."

"Is this what you're using for tailoring, these days?" Sil asks.

"Some," Cressidha says with a sigh. "It's too valuable to waste on silly projects. I've been mostly working with what they call 'windwool'. I believe that just means it's wool from this region. The Valley of the Winds."

"That makes sense, a place name for a common fabric," Sil says. "And yeah, what little they sent to Stormwind is really expensive. You wouldn't know, maybe, looking at the operation here. But I guess silk-making is really a lot of careful work."

"I believe they offer tours, if you would like one," Cressidha says. "Although we should schedule that in advance."

"Yeah, that could be fun," Sil says, smiling at her. "Have you done one yet?"

"Ah, not precisely," Cressidha says. "I showed up one day and asked, and they said they could give me a tour but perhaps not during such a busy part of their workday…"

The carpet glides away from the Silken Fields and turns west.

"I can see if I can schedule us one?" Sil suggests. "I know you'll be busy at the Wall, so I could handle the organizing stuff."

Cressidha smiles faintly. "That's thoughtful of you to offer. Yes, I would appreciate that."

As they fly towards Stoneplow, the wall finally comes into view… and so does evidence of the Sha.

Sil stares at the roiling black and white energy with a kind of horrified fascination. "That's it, isn't it? It makes me feel… uneasy."

"That is the residue the Sha leave behind, yes." Cressidha's shoulders get tenser as they pass by. "It's disturbing, isn't it?"

Sil nods. "Like the hairs are standing up on the back of my neck. Like there's someone… something… watching."

Cressidha steers the carpet to fly towards the wall, but she keeps it low, below the edge.

Sil shakes off the feeling a little as the sha residue falls behind them, and he looks at the wall more carefully. "This is a really amazing structure… and it just keeps going north? I guess it was built against the mantid, in the first place?"

"Indeed." As they approach the border of the Dread Wastes, the clouds almost form a shape in the sky above them, as if tendrils of darkness peek out from behind the mists.

Sil looks up at the sky, and blinks, and then rubs his eyes. "Something looks… off with the stars. Are those clouds?"

Cressidha looks up and shivers. "More Sha influence, I believe."

Sil shivers too, as if it's catching. "This'll be hard to get used to. And you'll be defending just here?"

"A little further north, closer to the gate," Cressidha says. She tears her gaze away from the sky, looks at Sil, and whispers, "Mogumogu."

"Mogumogu," Sil whispers back, and his tension breaks with a little smile.

Cressidha smiles faintly back and squeezes his hand.

The carpet remains on the safe side of the wall, but as they continue along the wall and approach the gates, mantid are visible in the sky even from here.

Sil draws in a breath, and looks at Cressidha for a long moment before he finally notices the mantid buzzing by in the sky.

"That's going to complicate a wall defense," Sil observes. "But I guess they have air fighters, too."

Cressidha steers the carpet quickly down to ground level. "Indeed."

"I'll help where I can here, but I know my skills aren't great for long-range defense," Sil smiles apologetically. "I bet I can help with the mogu nearby sometimes." He pauses. "Mogumogu."

Back within the Vale, the sky above them looks normal - occasional wispy clouds, no particular formation. Stars. Mantid.

Sil seems a little heartened, here where he can't see the Dread Wastes and the Off Sky.

"That will certainly be appreciated," Cressidha says, smiling faintly at him. "Mogumogu."

Sil grins back, gently squeezing her hand. "I might spend some time in the north — I'd like to see if I can find any sign of what's happening with the Zandalari."

"Of course," Cressidha says. "I'm not on an official shift here, so I have some freedom to travel around."

"If it looks like I'll have any leads, then, maybe we can go together," Sil says with a warm smile.

She begins to steer the carpet back towards the Shrine, staying lower to the ground this time. They pass over a Shado-Pan garrison.

"I would like that," Cressidha says. "Please keep me informed."

Sil looks down curiously at the training pandaren as they pass. "I definitely will. And I'm not really on a set schedule myself, so let me know if there's anything you need at the wall, anything a stealthy knife-thrower might offer."

"They try to land rather often," Cressidha says. "Our resources such as arrows and ballista bolts are limited, but their explosives are limited as well."

Sil nods seriously. "If they land on the wall, I could help fight them off. I could defend you, and the people with the bows and ballistas. I'm also a decent shot with a bow myself, though I haven't done much with it for a while."

"I would find it comforting to have you nearby, Silvestre," Cressidha says very sincerely. "I often do."

"Then I'll aim to be nearby as much as possible," Sil says, and he's looking at her, as the wondrous landscape passes by beneath them.

Cressidha smiles faintly, but warmly. She lands the carpet on the balcony in much the same place as they left from.