Now I must be blunt and plead, as my density hasn't allowed me to quite comprehend where this is going. Niall obviously desires to be more than a friend to Aengeal, and though it took her time, after thirty chapters it would appear that she wants something more as well. Yet here she is again, with her internal monologue telling her otherwise: he will never have a lasting effect on her, she was burned when trusting a human before...the ending, while written beautifully, strongly implies some sort of relationship which would be more. As much as Niall seems intent on pretending he has no emotions, the thought of the two of them staying together in some capacity is obviously what he wanted.

Anyway. Enough rambling. This was a very well-written and enjoyable story, and I imagine that I will ocassionally revisit it for certain scenes and elements. And *that's* the sign of a real good story, one that readers come back to see more than once.

It's been a great read, I hope my reviews weren't annoying and I look forward to continuing with the other stories you have here. There might be a gap, though, as I will take a small break from reading. But after this, I can't wait for the other characters and plots you have.

Alright, I think paragraph that begins with: "I could not look into his face..." might need some attention; I noticed two grammatical errors which are simple, but for some reason FF never lets me highlight text to copy paste it which makes scrolling back and forth difficult. You'll most likely notice as soon as you check.

Oh, you write with so much emotion here. The way the heroine weeps for all of those lost, the way Guivre is mourning her brother. Even Shanker appears less of a jerk and more of a protective older brother who doesn't know how to express himself well.

At the end, though, there was much I didn't catch due to not having played the game during the expansion - I suppose the onus would be on the reader in this case. The look Aengeal shares with Ravencrom at the end, though...is she being honest with how she feels now? The method of writing, where not everything is simply slapping the reader in the face, is very...I don't know the word, gripping perhaps? The story is difficult to stop reading and very engaging.

Alright, first initial thoughts:

"I wondered if everyone else couldn't helping feeling" should be "couldn't help feeling," right?

Second initial thought: Aengeal does come off as a bit solemn and, with the exception of when she's around Stoutmantle, a bit formal. Then she bursts out of her shell of formality with things like "I need to empty my bladder" and "lucky underpants" and I'm in stitches. It's great and makes her all the more down-to earth (Azeroth?), occasionally irreverent and very real.

Now looking at what happens here...Aengeal had seemed rather convinced earlier that she wasn't interested in a relationship with Ravencrom, wanted to tell him as such, was bothered by him looking at/touching her...then the greeting they have here where even her heart feels it, the way she almost *wants* the Light to consume her as she tries to heal him, the way she frets over his armor - it's a huge contrast. Was it never infatuation but legitimate warm feelings which she denied due to her bad past relationship? Is she so focused on feeling the Light because she experienced a sort of religious conversion after the death of her mother? Really, you've created a fascinating, multi-layered character here, it's incredible.

Eeeeeeek! I was squealing with this chapter. I think more than one of my previous dumb questions have now been answered, and I realize that all along it must have been amusing. I'm also giddy because we start to understand a bit more about Aengeal's mentality and where she's coming from.

So Aengeal was from an upper class family, a healer at the Temple of Elune but feeling trapped and in a position without advancement perhaps. To top it all off, perhaps her mother was a bit hard on her (the implication seems to be that her mother was the type that was hard so her daughter would excel) and either her sisters or her fellow priestesses were favored over her; I didn't quite catch which it was.

And so the death of her mother was part of what finally spurred her to leave the lands of her people. Is this what we're seeing - bereaved after having devoted herself to being a good daughter, disrespected after having been passed over for promotion and recognition despite her obvious skill, finally coming to the point where she believes that the lack of recognition equals an actual lack of worth for herself? And to top it all off, after feeling so undervalued and overlooked, she meets a major league a-hole who uses her, probably manipulates her and then dumps her to deal with his financial problems.

I hope I'm thinking into it too much, but my God...that is a tragically heartbreaking backstory in and of itself. To think of it as being the backstory of such a thoughtful, gracious, and kind character who seems to have no evil or cruelty in her despite being poorly treated is painful. You sure do know how to weave an interesting tale - I sure do hope this woman gets some form of respite from her pain eventually.

Shanker comes off as awful - although he is with the group, he's almost like an antagonist here and seems to have multiple personality disorder. I find myself halfway wishing that Ravencrom just stabs him in the end.

Aengeal, however, is an absolutely wonderful person here. She barely knows Tater, yet when she sees the smaller woman suffering she actually invades her personal space to warm and comfort her. She then pulls them into a group hug despite the mage (who was kind of snooty) being there, despite not knowing some of them at all really, and is truly happy to have them there. She seems so caring that one wonders how she could end up in such an awful place as Northrend, but then again part of caring is wanting to heal people and save lives.

It really might seem weird to say this about somebody a thousand years old, but Aengeal is adorable here. Throughout the entire story she is obviously combat experienced - the singed hair and carrying a severed head thing comes to mind - but she is also sensitive, kind, dedicated but with self-worth issues, a cute denial of what really does seem to be mutual attraction to Ravencrom and now a dainty sort of cleanliness as she not only wipes the spores off of herself but then uses soil to cleanse the spots.

That was just my first reaction when reading this. She's obviously also a skilled healer and very dedicated to saving lives as a career path, but both her prowess and the fact that she's taller than all of the men don't change the fact that she's almost at the Hello Kitty level of precious.

The descriptions of the undead as well as their own suits here - the living skin they're all wearing - was gross, which is a good thing. The characters are grossed out and the reader feels it, too.
Ouch, why is Aengeal getting thrown around so much! Perhaps reading that will be a lol moment for the writer, but she was chased by werewolves, pulled by the hair up a ledge, attacked after demounting from a giant bird-lion hybrid and now she's grabbed by two limbs and tossed into the underbrush. While she has shown a willingness to defend herself and her comrades when threatened, she doesn't seem like the rough-and-tumble type and thinking of the poor healer getting tossed all the time is saddening...which I guess is a good thing in terms of the writing quality. The reader is rooting for her right away and feels hurt when she's hurt.

The little flash of male ego here is interesting - Aengeal doesn't comment on the obvious (if minor) tiff between Ravencrom and Shanker. Is it that she considers it petty and unimportant, or is she oblivious to the brief rivalry that flashes up before Thom intervenes?

Glad once again for having not played the game during this expansion - reading all of this for the first time (I'm assuming these are real, in-game quests) makes it even more exciting. They very well could be menial quests in game but this is such an engaging story the way it's told here.

Alright, a bit more about what had seemed before like a crisis of faith at some point in Aengeal's life is coming to light. So at this point - I'm not longer reading ahead until I've reviewed the most recent chapter I've finished - at this point it seems like...she stopped believing? I need to brush up on what the Light is, exactly, in Warcraft lore. But this is fascinating...one wonders, did Aengeal stop believing in something? Being a skeptic on Azeroth would be difficult considering how involved deities and demigods are with the day-to-day running of the world.

Then again, her thoughts - the specific wording - insinuates that she does believe it was real given how she felt and how Shanker went from hostile to friendly so fast, but perhaps she wishes she had felt more personally inspired after having served as a vessel for some higher power. You've created a real riddle of a character here.

P.S. She's observing Niall again, thinking to herself about his movements, his nature...it seems, at least by this chapter, that she is at least infatuated with him but perhaps a bit disturbed by that, feeling as though she shouldn't be. Her seems smitten with her, so perhaps her previous comment on his attraction only being infatuation with her was projection? It's sort of cute to observe, in a way, at least when they aren't fighting for their lives from undead.

Yuck, living skin? I really need to play through those quests at some point...

...tears for whatever was killed and gave up its skin so she could complete her mission. One gets the feeling that, unless Aengeal is used to crying so much, that this entire foray into Northrend has been very, very difficult on her soul. There's still a lot waiting to be answered, about her relationship with the Light, her decision to leave the religion of her own people, her life among humans...but in a way, that again signals the depth of the character's backstory: there is a long, rich, complicated history there.

It's interesting that she doesn't seem to react to the insinuation by Vedu of Ravencrom being attracted to her, and the fact that he brushes it off so quickly himself. It will be interesting to see if the attraction was fleeting, or if they were ignoring the comment due to the sense of intrusion by a stranger. Probably the latter, maybe a combination of both?

Whoa, what is wrong with this a-hole? The moment they land, the death knights just assault the group of heroes?

I did not play Warcraft during the WotLK expansion and I know absolutely nothing about the quests and stories involved, so perhaps that is part of my confusion, but I thought the death knights were working with both the Alliance and the Horde to get back at Arthas; this isn't just hostility, this comes off as treason.

And then...

...so wait, was he just being a traitorous jerk at first, and then was surprised and thankful that Aengeal's Light cured him somewhat? Or did he suspect from the beginning that the priestess' powers could help him? It seems like they were planning the ambush before the group even landed.

Alright, she blacked out again...it almost seems like Aengeal's troubles with her past, her self-esteem and her career/spiritual path have affected her health. Once again, probably another series of questions that have the author chuckling due to the presence of answers in coming chapters.

Oh, Angeal's behavior at this point was almost...cute. It's strange to refer to such an ancient being that way - about as strange as Gryan calling her a little leaf, though - but her interaction both with Steelbeard and even with Niall was so jovial.

Now, Ravencrom frowns after handing Aengeal her clean gown here, but I can't quite decipher why - whether it was the mage's attitude, the suddenness with which footsteps approached their group. But now I'm wondering, was that left unexplained in order to demonstrate to the reader that our narrator - Aengeal - also didn't know the exact reason? Or is the answer staring me in the face right there in the text? I'd like to think of it as the former, which makes the narration even more fascinating.

Now here it is again, this story and the animals. Just as the details of the saddles, the reins, the anatomy and behavior of the horses were so vivid, so too is the description of the gryphon as Aengeal hops on and examines how she will keep herself steady. Perhaps because riding mounts in the game is so mundane, and because most people don't have experience doing so in real life, it's something taken for granted in fan literature but the description here is so vivid that I can close my eyes and be riding those giant lion birds.

And Aengeal becomes even more multi-dimensional here, what with her almost giddy joy at the air whooshing by as she rides across mountaintops and forests; it's much like roller coasters in real life, except she's on a real, live animal and is traveling somewhere.

And I don't know if you intended this...but the image of her and Ravencrom at the end is so quirky one can't help but smile. She is hit by a disgusting smell before she even lands, can't dismount and pukes, needing help to breathe into a towel as she tries to resist being helped. It's unfortunate but for some reason, almost cute in the way it's described here.

Wow, this Velus guy sucks. Very rude. Oh, "copper red hair..." shouldn't that be "copper-red hair"? With a hyphen? That isn't rhetorical, I'm honestly not sure.

It's amazing how so much can be made from a simple wait for some flying mounts to arrive. That literally could have been only two lines in another story, yet here it actually becomes not only entertaining but also the introduction and development of several new characters; we already know a bit of the mage through his bad attitude and the death knight via how she is described by others.

Aengeal herself shows an interesting side here as well, the way she enjoys the mountain breeze, the way she takes notice of the beautiful details in the natural world, the way she hums to herself. It's a great scene considering she had been surrounded by so much negativity for much of the story; she comes off as quite upbeat here and in the next chapter.

Oh...is that dead man she dreams of Arugal? I sense more foreshadowing here...

But why doesn't she seem to realize where she is when she first wakes up? Was it just that the nightmare was very strong?

There are more hints here and there that, despite Aengeal disliking many things about Ravencrom, there is a part of her that really seems to care about him despite her denial. Not her normal caring either, as she already appears to be a truly kind person. It's almost like, despite having known him for a while, she is growing attached to him during this assignment.

Now, when you write "After the Second War..." which war do you mean? In official lore, night elves weren't in contact with the outside world until after the Third War. Was that a typo? Or did Aengeal leave Kalimdor earlier than other elves? Her "thank the Light" comment definitely insinuates that she is not typical for her kind, as the other night elf seems perturbed. We've also seen that she left the Temple of Elune. So many questions!

Almost caught up to where I left off...

It's noticeable that while Aengeal kills one of the wolf men without hesitation, she winces when Ravencrom and Thom do away with what appears to be a normal guard. Perhaps the curse of the wolf people dehumanizes them in a way, while her aversion to violence shows up with normal, non-cursed sentients?

Now there is one thing I don't quite understand from the dialogue. At the big risk with attacking Arugal, Aengeal threatens to report Ravencrom for endangerment, but the only prompt is "I said." Based solely on the context, I still have difficulty knowing if she's serious or not. She works well with the lieutenant, despite his unwanted advances. Then again, he *is* endangering their lives. Did she mean it? Or was it an exaggerated warning?

Alright, now there are more questions the author may find silly and which will eventually be answered. Why does Aengeal avoid submitting to the Light's power totally? Is it due to her passing out when she was "consumed" previously? Or due to similarities to arcane magic, which all night elves dislike?

Her reaction to Ravencrom's near death experience is curious as well. That Aengeal wept isn't surprising; she is obviously a very empathetic, kind, sincere person who is affected by the emotional distress of others. But repeating his name again like she once did, and her thoughts about his features such as his hair wrapped around her fingers, the way she cradled his head and ear - those would normally be seen as a form of affection greater than what mere friends would show. However, just before they went to the tower, she seemed determine to express her lack of romantic interest in him. Is this an issue of an unrealiable narrator - one who isn't quite aware of, or perhaps is in denial of, her own feelings?

You do one heck of a good job at sparking questions that are eventually answered at a later time. Very good chapter!