Hooff brought the ale to his lips, listening offhandedly to the conversation at a nearby table. The two Tauren were trading war stories back and forth. Some battle Hooff recognized, some he did not. Hooff listened more intently to the battles he didn't recognize. Ever since Hooff retired from the War with Deathwing, he'd lived a quiet life.
He decided to settle in Mulgore. After the guild had disbanded, he decided to retire. Hooff still thought of himself as a Drainei, regardless of what the mirror showed him every morning. Unlike other Drainei who were born too recently to remember before the crash, Hooff remembered the trip vividly. The Exodar held no more solace for him than the broken world he had left. There was pain and sorrow everywhere. A land filled with prairie grass seemed as good a place as any. Hooff quickly gained respect for the naturalistic Tauren. They too got used to have a "Belf" living in Mulgore.
Hooff made himself useful. He helped his neighbors, though they were few and far between. Sometimes he would even help some of the instructors at Thunderbluff, to train new recruits. He didn't do this often. It doesn't pay to get too attached to new soldiers in a time of war, they just don't last long enough. But he did what he could, taught what he could. The recruits needed all the help they could get.
Still, Hooff felt like more time had passed for him. It seemed ages ago that he was helping fight the invasion of Ogrimmar by fire elementals, though the calendar says it was barely a year ago. Barely a year ago when he saved the life of a young warlock. Fitting it seemed, to save the life of a young warlock, when his own life was saved by a warlock when he was young. Hooff thought of his old friends, his old family.
"Do you ever regret coming for me?" Hooff asked to his companion.
"Nope, I wasn't doing anything anyway... " a young Tauren sitting across the table replied. "Besides, who else would cover your back?"
Waash had arrived about a few months after Hooff arrived on this Azeroth. He travelled through the same interdimensional portal, had undergone the same transformation Hooff had. Outwardly a young Tauren, Waash's soul was still that of a Night Elf. Similar to Hooff, Waash had little ties to the old world, other than the "family".
Both of the companions were dressed in the drab, dull clothing of farmers and merchants. No one in the inn would have guessed that These two simple townsfolk had once fought with dragons and demons. That they had traveled to the heart of the maelstrom and done battle with the very elements themselves. Had assisted in the rebirth of Cenarius, and had helped liberate the Stonecore. No, these were simple townsfolk, listening to the tales of "true" adventurers, like those in the table near by.
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