Wendthor cautiously did not choose to ride the public griffon, even though Mayor Solomon was happy to help them with this, and the somewhat balding old human man was indeed trustworthy, but after confirming that MI7 people were involved, who could guarantee that the skies of Stormwind were still safe? If something goes wrong while riding a griffon, it's not like there's nowhere else to escape on the ground, and there's no other end than falling to your death.

They left in a depressed mood in full view of everyone. Not everyone showed a kind face, but not everyone glared angrily. At this time, the news of the victory of the Stone Castle finally reached Lakeside Town, and most of the townspeople were celebrating happily, not paying too much attention to their group.

After leaving Lakeside Town, they followed the bridge across the lake and headed south, along the old avenue towards the triangular junction.

At least, so far, the journey has been fairly pleasant. If it weren't for last night's accident, they would have been in an even better mood than they had ever been before. In the warm south, the sun is warm and warm this season, but it doesn't make you sweat, just the right time to travel. Although it is already winter, the trees in the south are still green, and the leaves of the trees are full of various colors, which makes people feel peaceful and calm.

Approaching towns and roads, they rarely saw robbers or wolves, at most foxes and a few squirrels running in front of them. But when the next day they crossed the big hills and entered the southern hills, things started to get worse. The roads here have become potholes, and it is not known if it is due to rain erosion or man-made.

In the distant mountains, covered with dense forests, in those valleys there was the sound of wild beasts howling from time to time, which Diego judged to be the sound of wolves.

On the distant slopes of the mountains, where the trees are not so luxuriant, some prismatic huge quartzite stands like pillars in the mountains, which seems to add to the savage atmosphere of this place. Behind these rocks, Diego could see the camp of jackals. This made the group can't help but be vigilant.

Because this race is lazy and savage, and there is no talent to speak of. They neither fish nor farm, but live a nomadic and hunting life. But in fact, they prefer to loot as a form of income for nothing.

But no matter how they discriminate against the gnolls, it is undeniable that these creatures are the indigenous race from the Red Ridge Mountains to Alvinson and the Wild West. Long before Arashi's descendants moved south to settle here, the gnolls had lived and multiplied the land for generations.

They hurried cautiously and quickly, trying not to make any noise, but until the evening they were not attacked or plundered, as if the gnolls of the area had changed their temper and turned from evil to good.

At this time, the afterglow of the setting sun was rapidly fading, and the group reined in the reins of their horses and watched the night fall. The distant mountains were overshadowed by the approaching twilight, and the wind began to get cold.

"It seems that we can't continue our journey tonight, and we must keep enough body in case of a possible attack," Wendsol said, looking around, "find a place with a better view and rest for the night."

All three of them were not people who had never camped in the wilderness, and they quickly found a suitable campsite. It was at the top of a hill more than twenty meters high, half a mile away from the main road, and they found a pit overgrown with weeds at the top of the slope, which looked like a small crater, which could only hold three or four tents at most, but for them it was enough.

The three of them stood on the edge of the pit and found it to see the scene of the four fields. It's the perfect place to camp, with the pits sheltered from the wind and the top of the slope being easy to defend and safe to attack.

They lit a campfire at the bottom of the pit and began to prepare dinner, but before they could find traces of ash on the ground—it seemed that they were not the first wave of travelers to camp here. Night is getting dark, and the temperature is getting colder. Suddenly they felt hungry, because they hadn't eaten anything seriously since breakfast. The dry food at noon was cold and hard, almost hard to swallow.

However, they didn't dare to let go of the toss, because then the fire could be seen almost from miles away. That's a good way to tell the gnoll that there are fat sheep here, in addition to yelling. But for Diego, digging a smokeless stove for a picnic is not a difficult task.

So ten minutes later, a steaming pot of broth was freshly baked. With Alterac cheese and hard jerky, it's not that hard to swallow.

After dinner, Wendthor and Masrae began to set up their tents for the night and other things. The pit was not very large, and the Kodomon and the two warhorses fought for more than half of the place. However, they don't need much space, because it is enough to set up a tent, and it is impossible not to arrange for someone to be on duty at night when camping here. Diego set traps around the hillside – not just hunter-specific traps, but also common traps such as triplines and barbed stakes.

At this time, the temperature is getting colder and the sky is getting darker. When they looked out of the pit, they could only see the gray earth disappearing into darkness. Bright stars slowly appeared in the night sky.

"Let's talk for a while, shall we?" After finishing all the chores, Masrae transformed himself into a cheetah form, and squeezed together with Guan Haifa comfortably, "Say whatever you want." ”

He was given the last vigil, but the bear boy was too excited to sleep, so he had to pull Diego and Wendsol to pull the matrice

"Well, I should tell you the ins and outs of this matter, lest you stay in the dark." Wendthor sighed and said. But Diego always felt that he had some meaning to explain the aftermath in it, and vaguely hoped that they would understand the meaning of ghosts.

The heartless Masrae looked at him with interest, looking like a child waiting to hear his grandfather's story.

"As you can see, the kingdom of Stormwind is facing a great crisis. Just last year, after the victory at the Battle of Mount Hyjal, Lady Gianna Proudmore invited King Varian Urion to meet with the Grand Chief of the Tribe, Thrall, in Theramore with the intention of signing a friendship agreement between the Tribes and the Alliance, but the King mysteriously disappeared on his way to the meeting. Windsor straightened out his thoughts and began to speak.

"What's going on?" Masrae shouted in shock, the bad news had not yet reached Darnassus on the other side of the Endless Sea, and few Night Elves knew about it. Diego knew what was going on, but he couldn't tell, in fact, he was cooperating with the same shocked expression.

Stormwind was in turmoil, but with the support of Duke Berval and Bishop Benedictas, the King's eight-year-old son, Anduin Ureon, succeeded to the throne, but he was too young to handle the affairs of the kingdom and had to be replaced by Duke Berval Vertagen, a paladin of great prestige in the Alliance. At the time we all thought that the king's disappearance was only temporary, and that he could return at any time.

But a long time has passed, and we haven't heard anything about him. Without the king's restraint, the nobles who did not want to make progress began to indulge in pleasures, and no one cared about government affairs. This made the Duke of Fortagen, who lacked helpers, helpless in government affairs, and to be honest, he was a good hand at marching and fighting, but he could only be regarded as a stupid rookie when it came to governing the country. Wendsol said sarcastically, but he didn't forget to laugh at himself, "But I'm not much better than him, in fact, most of us who are big soldiers don't know anything about politics." ”

"And then?" Masrae wasted no time in interjecting that he was a very qualified listener, and that the question could not have come at a better time.

"Later? Then the woman appeared - the Countess Catlana Presto. She solved the troubles that plagued Bolval cleanly, and for this won his appreciation and trust, and even handed over the right to handle government affairs to her. Windsor pulled a flask out of his duffel bag and took a big sip. He let out a long sigh, then handed the bottle to Masrae, whose saliva was dripping.

"Wouldn't that be nice?" Masrae asked as he wiped the saliva from the corner of his mouth. To be honest, Diego guessed that his attention at the moment was completely attracted by the wine in the bottle, and this sentence was only subconsciously asked.

"yes, that's what we thought at the time, but it turned out that we were all wrong, very wrong. Because a few months later, we found that the entire territory of Stormwind was in chaos. The Brotherhood of Defia in the Wild West is rioting, the dead are resurrected in the Twilight Forest, and the Orcs of the Red Ridge Mountain are invading. Although no one had associated these things with the woman, I had discovered that some of the orders to draw troops from these places had been given by the woman herself, and that Berval was not even aware of it. ”

Diego felt that his interest was also hooked, and to be honest, it was much more interesting for the person to tell about his own experience than in words.

"And then?" He asked curiously.

"I tried to reveal the truth to Bertall, but I found that Bolval, a fool, couldn't listen to me at all, and he thought I was worrying about it, and he even refused to investigate the origin of Catlana Presto unless I had proof."

"What evidence?" Masrae asked, finishing the last drop of the bottle.

"I don't know, I don't know at all who that woman is, where she came from, why she did it, until I heard about dragons on the Burning Plains, and it reminded me of something from the past." He raised his head and looked up at the starry sky, his eyes full of nostalgia and pride, "At that time, I was a big soldier under Sir Lothar, and I participated in a raid on the Tower of Medivan, as you should know, many people already know about those things. ”

"Yes, I know, and even the entire Coalition knows, that you followed Ser Lothar and Khadgar** in raiding Karazhan and killing the fallen Guardian Medivan." Masrae almost trembled with excitement, after all, he was looking at a hero who had come out of a legend, and this legend was telling them about that history, that history that he had personally experienced.

"But no one knew that in that battle, I saw my future in the illusion in the tower - I was destined to die at the hands of the black dragon, so when I heard that dragons were infested in the Burning Plains, I knew that my fate had come. I set out for there, even though Katrana Presto forbade me to take a single soldier with me. And at that time, Berval Vortagan didn't say a word, and I thought, he probably thought I was crazy. ”

"But I know I'm not crazy, and as I guessed, I got some information on the Burning Plains, but then I was caught by the Black Iron Dwarves, and you know what happened next." He took out two stone tablets from the bag he had set aside, and stroked the dragon words on them. He looked very calm, but Diego felt the anger in his eyes almost as substance, "These dragon scripts record the woman's real name, Onexia, and can force her to show her true identity. She is a black dragon. ”

It was as if a thunderbolt pierced the sky, and after hearing these words, there was a dead silence in the camp. It's so unbelievable that even the most imaginative could not have imagined that it was now a black dragon that was actually in control of the human realm. For humanity, this is nothing short of a catastrophe. In fact, if Diego hadn't known about this fact, he would have been scared.

Everyone lost interest in talking, and they sat in silence, listening to the wind make its way through the rocks and treetops, and make a harsh, mournful sound in the night.

"Something isn't quite right, the weeds are sending me a signal of danger." Masrae said suddenly, pricking up his ears and listening carefully to the movement in the wind.

Diego poked his head out and saw a flame erupting from the place where he had set the trap before nightfall, and the faint smell of burnt fur came from the air.

He jumped.

"It's not the howling of the wind!" He shouted, "This is the howl of a wild wolf!" The wolves have come to the foot of the slope! ”

Masrae and Windthor also got up and looked down the hill from the edge of the pit. They saw many ill-intentioned eyes shining down the hillside, and some had even climbed halfway up the mountain. Their green eyes looked at the people on the hill as if they were looking at their delicious prey. Then, with a heart-rending howl, they summoned all the wolves to attack.

The wolves grinned and pounced on the mountain. At that moment, there was a thunderous gunshot, and Diego opened fire. After a terrible wail, the wolf who rushed to the front fell to the ground; A huge wound appeared in its chest.