A/N:

I'm posting this one at the same time as the last chapter. I haven't written the next one yet, but at this rate it shouldn't take too long. Writing is wonderful procrastination.

Again, feel free to review if you want to.

Chapter 2

Freak awoke to the curious stare of a truly colossal being that was crouched, examining the purple bubble around him.

"Uuh, h-hello?" The child stuttered out, half terrified, half confused. In hearing this, the Titan gained an even more perplexed look on his face.

"You speak the tongue of the serpents, void child?"The Titan responded in the same language. "You truly are a curiosity…"

"The tongue of the what? My tongue is pink!" The child hissed defensively. "And what's a void?"

At this, Aggramar burst out laughing like he hadn't in centuries. He wasn't used to any being speaking to him like that, let alone a child. The first sentence was more usual, but to respond as if he wasn't talking to a titan at least 10 times his size was definitely a point in the child's favour. No matter how corrupted he may be, all lives could be cleansed. Even Azeroth was able to be cleaned up in the end, its Old Gods imprisoned.

"How did you get here child? And could you please drop the shield? I will not harm you," The Titan rumbled.

"I don't know, big person. I remember falling asleep in my cupboard, then waking up and things hurt… I think then I went back to sleep, and when I woke up, you were there. And how do I do that?"

"Just focus on dropping the shield. Picture the bubble pulling back into yourself, and it should disappear."

After the titan said this, the bubble started to slowly and unevenly contract until it was a layer of purple around the boy's skin.

"And now pull it inside you. Bring it back into your pool of energy."

"I can't. If I have more purple in here, I think I'll e-explode!" The boystuttered, worriedly. "Will I have this purple stuff around me forever?"

The titan shrugged, a bewildered look on his face. "It doesn't matter at this point, I don't think. Who knows, the energy may yet help you survive on this world, should you prove resistant to its whispers…"

Freak frowned at this, as cutely only 5-year-old children can frown. He hadn't heard any voices other than the titan's, let alone whispers. But even if they came, nothing could be worse than the place he had just left. Even if he had to survive whatever this endless forest was, the new purple energy was giving a confidence in the future that he'd never had.

'Click'

The child was cut from his musings by a booming click of the titan's fingers. Somehow, he had gotten lost in his thoughts and forgotten about the presence of a 40-foot tall being.

"What is your name void child?"

"F-Freak…"

At this, the titan once more got a bewildered look on his face. He was getting more confused by the minute. What kind of parent names their child 'Freak'? Was this just an intricacy of culture, or had something more unfortunate happened?

"Well I certainly won't be calling you Freak," The Titan responded calmly. "If that is the only name you have, I will name you Gor'nalak. The void serpent, in my own tongue."

The newly named Gor'nalak broke into a smile. While he had never actually liked being called Freak, it was all he had ever known. A new name was something to cling onto. A sense of identity that didn't involve being hated by his relatives. He was actually now quite looking forward to living his life in this forest, away from everyone who had ever hurt him. No matter how lonely it may end up being, darkness was always a comfort.

"Now, child, did you want me to see if I can find what world you came here from?"

"No, that's okay, big person," Gor'nalak smiled happily. "I want to explore the forest and have some fun!"

Though beneath the surface, that comment about worlds made a tinge of worry appear in the child. 'Surely this wasn't another planet… The big guy must just be mistaken! That or it's just a dream. I'm just in one of those forests in another country, like the TV talked about!'

"Okay then… Good luck Gor'nalak. I hope we meet again someday. It has been a pleasure to meet you." The titan hissed as he opened a portal and walked through, the energy closing behind him.

It had been a few hours since the titan left, and Gor'nalak was at the end of his rope. He was hungry, thirsty and tired of walking. The only thing that kept him moving was the fact that whenever he sat down, vines would start to creep up around him. Even the purple shell wasn't repelling them anymore. At first, the plants wouldn't even go near it, but eventually they started to get more and more adventurous. Some moving in up to his neck, while another two would try to trip him over.

As the child wandered, he finally saw a break in the endless forest. Oh, it was still forest, but was nowhere near as thick, and didn't carry the same malicious presence as the stuff he had just been walking through. The trees were much smaller and didn't have anywhere near the number of vines that the previous area had. There were even some exotic looking flowers growing, though they were still sizable enough that they could swallow a little void coated 5-year-old.

On his fist step into the new, safer looking, area, the vegetation seemed to gather together and coalesce into a humanoid figure about the size of him, made up of vines, moss and wood. Gor'nalak stared open-mouthed at this new being, astonished that such a thing could happen, even in this world that seemed to be one big forest.

Remembering his success with talking to the other being in that hissy language, the child ran up to this new plant creature and started hissing,

"Hello! That was awesome! What are you? Do you have any food?" He babbled.

Bewildered, the plant creature responded uncertainly:

"Hello? That wasss awesssome? Whatss are you? Do youss have any food?"

"Oh. You just repeated what I just said."

The creature echoed him again uncertainly.

Sighing frustratedly, Gor'nalak gestured to himself and said: "Gor'nalak", the name obviously not a part of the language they had previously been speaking.

At this, the eyes of the plant creature lit up. The intertwined vines that formed his arms gestured to himself, and spoke, "Taanang".

He then pointed to the area where the child had just come from, and hissed out, "Naanu".

The odd pair sat together for a while, experimenting with words, each trying to constantly figure out what the other meant. In the end, they settled on just hissing serpent speech at each other because, with the flowing vine anatomy of Taanang, the sounds were easiest to make. Unfortunately, Gor'nalak still hadn't managed to convey what the need for food actually meant, and how to get it, but at least the weird plant had found him some water. Though he did still get the strangest feeling that the only reason he was alive was because of this skin-tight purple shell surrounding him…

As night fell, Gor'nalak was starting to hyperventilate, tears appearing in his eyes. Two moons had just risen. He had finally come to the realisation that the giant being he spoke to before was right. This definitely wasn't earth anymore. There was no going back.

Seeing the state of his new sort of friend, Taanang cocked his head in questioning and hissed out, "sssomething notsss good?"

Will visible effort, the child pulled himself together and responded, blinking the tears out of his eyes, "yes, something is definitely not good. Though I guess it means that I'll be hanging out here longer, which is okay..."

For a moment, Taanang looked confused, not understanding the language fully, but nodded anyway. Assuming that, if it mattered that much, the child would be trying harder to explain in terms that he could understand, with his current lack of linguistic skill.

A rumble from the stomach of Gor'nalak broke the awkwardness of the moment. His hunger was finally reaching levels where eating would be necessary before any thought could happen. And for him, this point was definitely something of significance, having spent years in the Dursley household. Once again, he attempted to ask Taanang where he could find food, miming rubbing his stomach and hissing, "Where would I find food?"

With this action, combined with previous explanations of the concept of food, Taanang demonstrated, lifting his hand up, then placing it on the ground. After a moment, a visible green energy started flowing into Taanang's body. At this, Gor'nalak's eyes widened and copied his friend's movements. "Nothing is happening. I put my hand on the ground and it's not doing anything! How did you do it, Taanang?!"

"Absssorb the ground into youss. Take my energy."

Shrugging his shoulders, figuring it was worth a try, Gor'nalak pulled with the core of energy inside him. As this happened, the surrounding forest started to decay, some of the light falling from Taanang's eyes. Flowers that were once bright closed, and glowing pods dimmed and fell off.

The skin-tight purple barrier that surrounded Gor'nalak's skin pulsated with the energy that came from the ground, it changing colour as it made contact with the shield.

"Taanang! I did it! I'm not hungry anymore!" Gor'nalak hissed excitedly, for a moment, not noticing the effect his feeding had on his friend.

As the child came down from his high, he saw what happened. Saw that he had hurt the being that had been so kind to him. He had taken away some of the beauty of Taanang's grove, and even hurt the being himself.

In this moment, for the first time since Gor'nalak arrived on this world, he hated himself. Hated that he had hurt another being that clearly didn't deserve it. "No! I'm sorry Taanang! I won't do it again!" Gor'nalak shouted. "I didn't want to hurt you!"

"It'sss okay, Gor'nalak. You had to consssume sssomething. Better you feed off me than have Naanu find you."

"What would happen if Naanu found me?"

"Death."

At that, Gor'nalak's eyes widened. "But can't you protect me?"

"Naanu isss very big. Taanang iss sssmall. Naanu is Evergrowth. Taanang iss just Sporemound."

"Evergrowth? Sporemound? What are they?"

"Evergrowth is many Sssporemounds together. Sporemound just one."

This didn't really clear it up too much for Gor'nalak, but he got the idea. Don't catch Naanu's attention. "How will I feed then? I don't want to keep hurting you!" the child complained, clearly caring about his new friend.

"You must. Sssporemound is energy. Feed needsss energy."

At that, the Sporemound sunk into the ground, dispersing into nature in a reverse process to what happened when Gor'nalak arrived. "Taanang? Where are you?"

"I here. Mussst consserve energy." A vine hissed from the trees.

'Right.' Gor'nalak thought as he laid down on the thick grass. 'That's cool.'

In truth, the child was rather exhausted from his day. After waking up in the middle of nowhere and talking to a giant guy that seemed to have an idea of what was going on, then wandering for who knows how many hours in search of somewhere where the plants weren't trying to kill him, it had been a massive day. Add onto that a while teaching something called a Sporemound a language he hadn't known he knew a day ago, Gor'nalak was in serious need of some rest. Even if the weird eating energy thing had put him back on his feet a bit.

Sighing at the fact that even across worlds, darkness was still the same comfortable place, Gor'nalak drifted off to sleep for the first time on the world that would one day be known as Draenor.