Hmm, it's been a while now, hasn't it? Well I like to say Happy New Year to everyone out there, and what better to start off the new year than a new WoW fanfic! I've always wondered how a Gnome and Night elf story might be like, but I really couldn't think where to start. Thankfully, fellow WoW user and fanfic writer, Bleechkyuubi-chan (Sorry, is that how you spell your username?), gave me this idea as she seems to find Gnome Death Knights rather cute, trust me to have one in our guild! But I'd like thank her a lot for planting the seed in my head to start of this story. I will try and update it as much as possible, but you'll need to review if you want more. So let's start off this little story then!

Part 1

Come Together

Stormwind was busy as always, even if it was the end of Winter's Veil and the start of a new year. Here and there that cold night, people were going about their own businesses such as busy days at the auction house, small fights outside bars (which was typical at half past eleven at night) and the many races of people around the city talking among each other about a pending war with the Horde. Though a group of three were not thinking about either of this.

A Dwarf warrior was leading the small group on his netherwing drake heading towards their guild master's house in the Dwarven District. Flying behind him was a rather scruffy Gnome Death Knight on his winged Ebon blade steed alongside a rather rough, muddy looking Dwarf hunter on his Turbo-Charged flying machine. The reason they were heading off to where they were going was that they had been given a special assignment from their guild. The only thing was that none of them knew what it was going to be, yes, they did have their doubts about their assignment, but the three friends had always managed to triumph against anything that stood in their way (apart from a certain large dragon!)

The three friends touched down just outside of the house, almost crushing a young gnome rogue under the netherwing drake's large claws. The small group put away their precious flying mounts behind the guild's building, where other mounts of all shapes and sizes where stabled. There the three of them were reunited with their main ground based mounts. The Death Knight's red Turbostrider, the warrior's Nightsaber and the hunter's armoured brown bear. After giving their flying mounts a small goodbye, they turn their attention to the Guild builder, which was their guild master's house.

You would of wonder why the guild hadn't thought of using a hall or something, but they were an up and coming guild so they had to start from somewhere. They quickly brushed off themselves before Kogan knocked on the door.

"You think they'll remember we're coming?" asked the hunter.

"Of course they will, Goilir," replied the Dwarven warrior, Kogan. "They have been expecting us for this day specially."

The Death Knight of the group groaned at Kogan's attitude. Mind you, he didn't mind the warrior's attitude most of the time; it was just that Kogan had been raving on for about week about this, as it would be his first time as a leader of guild assignment.

After a few seconds of waiting, a Paladin human woman opened the door ushering them in.

"Quickly," the female Paladin welcomed them. "The master has been expecting you, he's upstairs." Downstairs had a few members chatting to each other about various things, but gave their small welcomes to the small gang. The three of them quickly brushed themselves off before heading upstairs. After a quick rush up the stairs, the group were now outside their guild master's door. Kogan once again knocked on the door again, it did feel a bit tense waiting outside the room but then they heard a voice for them to come in.

Soon enough after opening the door, they came face-to-face with their guild master, who was sitting the desk, Rilath. Rilath was all you expected from a guild master, noble looking, had impressive armour that was the envy of everyone else but above all had all the patience in the world, no wonder the human warrior was recently chosen as their new guild leader.

Kogan, Jirus and Goilir stood to attention once they were close to Rilath's desk. "Crusader Kogan reporting for duty!" The Dwarf warrior saluted to Rilath.

"At ease men," the human replied to them.

"Excuse sir," Goilir then asked. "But wasn't the others suppose to be here?"

"Of course, hunter," Rilath replied. "Though unfortunately they've been called away to help out on a raid with our sister guild, they do give their good lucks to you three though."

"So then," Jirus began casually crossing his arms. "What's the task you have lined up for us then?"

The warrior guild master brought out from a draw from the desk he was sitting at a large map of Ashenvale with crosses dotted about on the map with a large one near the entrance of Felwood. The two Dwarfs and Gnome looked at the map for a few seconds before looking up at their guild master. "There you have it," Rilath spoke. "Ashenvale."

Kogan looked back at the map before looking back at Rilath. "What seems to be the problem then?" Asked the Dwarven warrior.

"Since the Cataclysm happened," Rilath started. "The Horde has begun a raid into the land defeating many Night Elf forces pushing them back and in the process capturing many of their own defences." The group looked at each other with slight worried looking expressions. "Ashenvale has always been in the caring hands of the Night Elves for thousands of years, it would be a tragic event for them if they were to loose the land to the Horde."

They all remained silent after that. None of them spoke for about ten seconds until Jirus broke the silence. "Where do we come into it then?" The Death Knight asked. Rilath gave them a small smile before continuing what he was saying.

"Well all of us guild leaders in the Alliance have been given instructions from King Varian." The others looked at him impressed by what he had said. "He has asked us to send various members from other guilds to head out and investigate Horde activities in many areas or if necessary engage conflict with them."

Rilath then pointed out at the various crosses on the map that the group had noticed earlier. "We believe they have captured most parts of the eastern side of Ashenvale with something big going on near the entrance to Felwood, all you need to do is see what they are up to and try and slow down their movements until the Night Elves gather more forces to combat the Horde. If you do this then each of you will receive five thousand gold each, very sought after reward if you ask me."

The small group then huddled round discussing about the task that had been sent before them, the thought of the large amount of gold they would be their driving force. In many ways, only doing this for the money. They seem to talk for about a minute until they looked back at the guild leader.

"We will take it," Kogan answered. "But I can't understand why Varian would want some guys like us to take this on when he could use a part of the Alliance army to take this on."

Rilath leaned over to them a bit motioning them to come forward a bit. "Well the thing is that Varian wants to save much of the Alliance army as possible in case a war with the Horde is to break out soon." Kogan, Jirus and Goilir muttered to each other about it for a bit. Jirus looked back at the map of Ashenvale and let a small sigh.

"Not sure if the three of us could do this by ourselves," Jirus spoke softly. "It's pretty much a 'not-coming-back' trip if you ask me."

Rilath shook his head slightly at Jirus. "You wouldn't think I would let the three of you get killed now would you?" The gang looked at each other slightly confused at Rilath's words. "Well, what I mean to say is that I have another three fellow members to help you guys out on your little trip."

"Where are they then?" Asked Goilir. Just right after he had said those words, they heard the sound of someone running up the stairs. As the gang turned around to see a Gnome Warlock bursting through the door panting like hell (He must have run all the way to the place.)

"Sorry I'm late, did I-"

"Raer?" Jirus exclaimed.

"Oh, hello Dad!" Raer said brightly to Jirus with that stupid grin on his face. "I see you guys are on the same mission with me and my guys." Before Jirus became a Death Knight, he had twin sons, Raer and Donvan, with a Gnome wife that Jirus often described as the 'scum of the Alliance.' However, it was just that she was a bitch to poor Jirus most of the time; Jirus could of never been happy when they finally divorced, to him, and he has lot of warm memories after that. Apart from Jirus' change to Death Knight, life remained the same most of time.

Rilath sighed unimpressed. "Raer, where is the rest of your party?"

"Oh, they're here too," Raer answered while looking behind him. "They should be up here soon. Hurry up, Brale!"

Stumbling into the room, a clearly drunk human priest, carrying a bottle of ale, collapsed into the room. Not a good first impression to the rest of the group.

"I apologise for your choice of healer," Rilath sighed. "He was last of the healers that can help you out, remember the rest are helping the rest of the guild's healers are helping out on that raid remember."

"Don't worry about this," Raer said helping Brale up on his feet. "He's really good as a healer though."

"'Ello sir!" answered the priest as he managed to get back on his feet. Kogan just shook his head at the strange pair. "Well, I guess he'll have to do, it's better than no healer."

Jirus then looked back at Raer. "Wait, where's the sixth pers-?"

Almost as soon as he said it, in came a female Night elf hunter with a pet wolf companion by her side. The motley gang all looked at her. "H-Hello" the female hunter slightly stuttered at the group. Jirus noted that she seemed quite young and a bit shy compared to the other Night elves he had seen in around Azeroth.

"Guys," Raer introduced. "This is Nedia, our hunter…wait."

The rest of the guys all noticed Goilir glaring at Nedia. With another hunter in the group, no doubt it may cause some rivalry between the two.

"Why do we need another hunter?" Goilir spat out. Rilath, getting off from his desk and walking towards them, tired to make amends between the two hunters.

"Listen," said Rilath calmly. "You may be two hunters, but both of you have different aspects, Nedia, what is yours?"

"Beast mastery, sir."

"Yours, Goilir?"

"Marksmanship"

"Well there you go. Both of you have different aspects but both will be useful for this assignment." While most the group seem to feel comfortable about their guild master's words, yet Goilir seemed to have his doubts."

"Aye that might be true," Goilir replied. "But still, I want to see if she can be up to this task." He turned to look at the other hunter. "Let's have a duel, lass."

"Fine then," Nedia spoke softly. "Meet outside then." With that said, the group went downstairs following the hunters outside to watch the duel. It did seem stranger that both hunters had a wolf for their pet, added a bit more frustration to the dwarf hunter. By this time, the handful of members that were in the house had now all come out to watch the duel take place.

"You sure she'll be ok?" muttered Jirus to Kogan as they with the other members formed a semi-circle around the two hunters. "Of course aye," Kogan nodded. "Remember, anyone who duels Goilir has a good chance anyway." Kogan slightly chuckled at his own words. The crowd of guild members all chatted to each other excitedly, a Worgen and human both made a small bet on the two. Just then,Rilath, carrying a duel flag that had been hanging on the wall, came outside and put the flag up. At this point, the small crowd stopped speaking.

"Alright you two, ready?" Both of the hunters nodded, who were in position to fight. "three, two, one, fight!"

Rilath leapt back just in time before he was knocked over by the two wolfs charging into each other. Goilir immediately began firing shots at the Night elf with his musket, though Nedia narrowly avoid them while firing arrows at the Dwarf. The small crowd began cheering them on saying things like 'go on get in there,' or throwing the occasional bit of rotten fruit. Jirus was quite impressed to see how well Nedia was holding up against Goilir, as well as her pet that nearly had the Dwarf's wolf pinned down. The two hunters' axes clashed and very briefly they all saw a small spark flying from one of the axes as they hit each other again, showing how intense the fight was. Suddenly, Goilir knocked off one of Nedia's mail shoulder pads off and gave the Night elf a small gash on her check in the process. The female hunter then came back knocking off the Dwarf's helm with her axe, but failed to give a similar gash like her own to the Dwarf's face that Goilir managed to block. After a few close moments that could of killed one of them, Goilir with one blow from his axe knocked the Night elf huntress to the ground.

The crowd that had been cheering both of them on now were silent. Goilir had won. But the crowd then noticed that Goilir's pet had been beaten, and had several large wounds around its body. Rilath stepped forward, with a small smile on his lips, and looked at the two hunters.

"With the fact that Goilir won against Nedia, but in the process Nedia's wolf won against Goilir's, I call this match a draw."

Everyone else looked at each other surprised. "This duel has shown that you two are equal and ready for the task that lies ahead," Rilath said to them while helping the Night elf up.

"Those who will be going on this trip to Kalimdor will need to know the following." With that said, the chosen six stepped out from the crowd, listening intently to their guild master's words. "You must find an inn to stay for the night. I apologise for not allowing you to stay here for the night as I have business to attend to here. At about nine o'clock in the morning, you shall head off from the harbour here and sail for about three days to Kalimdor; you shall be taking the ship to Teldrassil."

The six members looked at each other with confused expressions of going the long way round. "The reason for going in that direction being that the Horde has upgraded their defences to the east. More importantly that you can't fly to Ashenvale, the Horde have guards on flying mounts patrolling the sky which means you'll have to take your ground-based mounts, we must not let your movement be tracked by them. Do not fail this, understand?"

"Yes, sir," said the chosen six answered.

"Well for your first task," began Rilath. "You'll have to find a room for the night, and knowing that many people are here in Stormwind after Winter's veil and new year could be a problem. But there should be some left. Now get going."

On those words, the group of six quickly rushed to the guild stable behind the building to collect their ground-based mounts. It was now a race for them to see who could find a room for the night.

XxX

Surprisingly, each of them all found a room, but not at the same inn. First Kogan left them after finding an inn in the Dwarven district, then Raer and Brale left when they found a room for themselves, though thankfully for Jirus, had two beds in the room (He would hated to think that his son had gone gay!) Then Goilir left them after finding a room in the Old Town section. That just left Jirus and Nedia. After franticly searching high and low around the city, they found two rooms at an Inn in the Trade District.

Although they we're in different rooms, the inn keeper couldn't help but ask them if they could share the same room and bed with each other. This of course made them blush crossly at the innkeeper, Jirus just asked then quickly afterwards to get the keys for their rooms, which the Innkeeper did, though still finding his own words rather funny.

"What was he on about?" Jirus asked Nedia as they walked upstairs to their rooms.

"Just being smart," Nedia chuckled. "Still, I wouldn't mind if you changed your mind about sharing my room, I wouldn't mind."

Jirus gave a disgusted look, which she just found rather humorous considering that he was, like other Death Knights, hadn't a sense of humour. Jirus tried to change the topic by asking the Night elf huntress where his room might be.

Their rooms were strangely next to each other, mind you, they must have been the last rooms available.

"Hey, Nedia," Jirus said to the huntress, who had just opened the door to her room. "Yes?" She asked, which her pet wolf tilted its head at the Gnome.

"Look about Goilir," Jirus sighed rubbing the back of his head. "About tonight, sorry he had to act like that to you, he's just-"

"I know," Nedia interrupted, giving him a small smile. "He just wasn't expected another hunter on the team, I can understand how he feels." She then knelt down to match the Gnome's height, which Jirus saw up close her flawless looking face. He then felt something in him quite fuzzy. He wasn't sure why, must have been how awkward how this scene must of looked, with her kneeling down, anyone would of thought they might be up to something.

"Hopefully on this mission, we'll all get along better and get to know each other,"smiled the Night elf. Nedia then stood up again and walked into her room. Jirus could only watch her perfect body seeming to sway as she walked. "Good night, Jirus," Nedia smiled at him one more time before leaving him in the corridor. "Erm, night-night then," Jirus said as his words seem to stumble out from his mouth.

Nedia's wolf companion looked back its owner, then to the Jirus. Jirus almost thought for a second that the animal had a thoughtful look in its eyes. "What you looking at?" Jirus snorted at the wolf as it walked into Nedia's room with its owner closing the door.

"That was…rather strange," Jirus thought as he walked into his room closing the door. "She seems ok, I guess."

He couldn't understand how received that fuzzy feeling from Nedia, even when he finally fell asleep on the bed.

"I must be loosing my mind, some Death Knight I turned out to be."