The Jade Witch
“I’m sorry,” Mori spoke. She held onto Sahtra’s cloak as they walked back towards Halvor and Tolkar. The big death knight had come looking for her; she had made him worry. I don’t think I would have found my way back, the young blood elf told herself, I’m glad he found me. Mori thought of what could have happened if she had wandered alone…if she had run into the Jade Witch. She shivered as she remembered the song the pandaren children sang.
“Sahtra,” Mori asked quietly, “do you know the legend of the Jade Witch?”
“No.”
“They said she turns people into jade if you stay in the forest for a long time.”
“Does she now?”
“Yeah. I think she might be real.”
The death knight was silent as the two walked uphill and turned left at the fork at the road, headed once again to the Valley of the Four Winds. Sahtra cursed as they passed by the location where he had been attacked by the reanimated jade cats. Mori glanced up at him with concern.
“What’s wrong?”
The human didn’t answer. His face twisted into a snarl as he held himself back from lashing out at the remains of the jade. A few paces later, the two travelers came across Halvor and Tolkar.
“I see you have found her,” the tauren spoke to Sahtra. The death knight made no response. “Very well,” continued Tolkar, “let us move on.”
The tauren, vrykul, human, and blood elf moved quietly along the path to the Valley of the Four Winds, searching for clues as to the whereabouts of the missing cartographer. As the travelers entered the Forest Heart, the chirping of the crickets and the flutters of the starlings vanished. A stillness lingered in the air, and it created an unsettling atmosphere.
Mori’s eyes widened in shock as she gripped Sahtra’s cloak tightly and tugged on it. He looked down at her trembling figure and followed her pointed finger to a patch of grass covered with realistic sculptures of children. No, these weren’t just sculptures, the death knight realized, they were children who had been turned into jade. Some were smiling, others horrified, their latest emotions frozen in time.
“O-Over there!” Mori managed to yell out. Halvor and Tolkar turned around and gasped as they, too, observed the petrified children.
The vrykul hurried over to the statues and discovered they were in the backyard of a home. He motioned for the others to follow, and they hurried behind him. As he turned the corner, Tolkar noticed a large petrified pandaren standing near the fence at the entrance of the abode. Horror lined his still face, and his jade hands tightly clenched rolled-up parchment.
“That must be the cartographer!” the shaman exclaimed, “he has been turned into stone!”
The steps behind the travelers creaked as a pandaren woman descended onto the grass and stood several paces away from them. Her green eyes sparkled with malevolence as she smirked at the trespassers.
“Well, well, we have visitors.”
“It’s the Jade Witch!” Mori cried out, “The stories are true! You turned those children into statues!”
The pandaren smiled sincerely at the young blood elf.
“My dear,” she spoke sweetly, “please call me Widow Greenpaw.”
The Widow turned her attention to the adults.
“Do you like my statues? I craft them with special care.” Her green eyes locked onto Sahtra’s blue ones. “A shame my guardians couldn’t keep you away from my lovely garden.”
Sahtra’s glowing blue eyes widened. “YOU created those…those statues?”
Widow Greenpaw chuckled. “My husband and I always wanted kitties. We were going to have a big family, forever preserved in jade!”
“COME HERE, WITCH!” Sahtra roared, his eyes ablaze with blue flame. The Jade Witch was responsible for his humiliation, and she would pay for it.
“Sahtra, be careful!” Mori pleaded, “she’s a mean lady!”
“Stand behind me,” he ordered, and the young blood elf obeyed. He gripped the cursed axe Shin’ka with one hand and slowly pulled it over his shoulder. With an evil grin, he held out his other hand and pulled Widow Greenpaw to him.
“Now, Widow,” Sahtra sneered at her, “I will take your pride from you, just as you took mine.”
The pandaren’s face twisted into an evil grin, her eyes playfully taunting the death knight. She raised her arms up to her sides, green glows emanating from both hands and swirling around her arms.
“STRIKE!”
A bolt of lightning came crashing down on the death knight. He lost his grip on the Witch long enough for her to move out of his grasp and take a defensive stance near the steps of her own abode. The shaman placed his flametongue totem within range of the pandaren and shot out scorching rays of fire. Widow Greenpaw raised her arms in front of her as a barrier of jade shimmered into existence. She held it in place, blocking the attacks from Tolkar and the totem. Halvor’s sharp longsword struck at the barrier as cracks emerged and grew wider with each strike.
The Witch released her barrier and ran up to the party. She launched herself into the air with her right foot out and swung her entire body upside-down for two revolutions. A streak of bright green appeared in the path her foot had traveled, and she landed firmly on the ground, releasing a tremor that knocked the party off-balance.
Tolkar stood back up and placed a stoneskin totem down, preparing for the next attack. The Widow leaned forward on her left foot and stood facing her body to the right. With refined precision and speed, she stuck out her right leg and pivoted twice around, directing twin blackout kicks at the death knight. Sahtra neatly blocked the attacks and began charging the cursed axe with frost and shadow energy. His blue eyes glowed brightly as he lifted the weapon and concentrated on the Jade Witch.
“OBLITERATE!”
With a fierce cry, the death knight lunged the axe into the left shoulder of the Widow, its blade cutting deep into her muscle. Sahtra quickly pulled out the axe and struck again at the padaren’s right thigh, carving deeply into her upper leg. Blood oozed out of her wounds as he repeated the attacks on her limbs and torso, the blows severe enough to maim but not kill. He grinned as he watched her cry out in pain and cough up blood.
I bask in your sweet suffering, Witch.
Sahtra focused dark energy into his axe for one final blow and struck the pandaren cleanly on the neck. Widow Greenpaw, the Jade Witch, collapsed onto the grass, bathed in her own blood. The death knight stared at her corpse, the glow of his blue eyes softening. Axe in hand, he turned around and marched past his horrified companions, paying no attention to their cries of disgust at the carnage. The woman had finally paid for the humiliation she had inflicted upon him.
Anguished whispers broke the tense silence.
“Oh…Oh my…what happened to me? Who are you?”
Tolkar and the others turned around to face the cartographer, who was still clutching his maps. The shaman bowed to the pandaren.
“We come to you in peace,” the words were carefully strung together to reassure the frightened man. “You had been petrified by the Jade Witch, and we have freed you from her spell.”
“The Jade Witch…I thought she was legend…but of course!”
The pandaren hummed to himself as he strolled down the path towards the Valley of the Four Winds. He paused to observe several stone panthers lining the side of the road. I don’t remember these statues being here, he told himself, I must make a note of them. They appear to be made of jade. Interesting. Oh, and a small house! I cannot understand why this has not been marked on my predecessor’s map, surely someone has seen it before? Well, I shall make a note of it too. Now I wonder what lies on ahead--
“Oh, hello dear…”
The cartographer turned around and found himself face to face with an elderly pandaren woman. Her black hair was tied back into two pigtails, and her green eyes matched her robe and the…terrifying glow emanating from her hands.
“Who are you? What are you doing?” The pandaren took several steps back and ran into the fence.
The woman’s eyes sparkled as she curved her lips into an evil smile.
“Won’t you join my family?” she asked.
The pandaren froze in horror and his vision went black.
“What has become of the Jade Witch?” the cartographer demanded. “If I have been freed from her curse then that must mean—”
The pandaren man hunched over, nearly vomiting from the sight and stench of the corpse of Widow Greenpaw. Halvor rushed over to the cartographer’s side, but he held up a big paw and stood himself back up.
“Thank you, friend,” the pandaren spoke, “I merely lost control of myself momentarily upon seeing the horrible fate that befell the Jade Witch. I have regained my strength.”
“We have been asked to find you and escort you back to the Temple of the Jade Serpent,” spoke Tolkar. “It has been two days since you were expected back there.”
The pandaren bowed to the tauren. “I humbly express my gratitude.” He gestured at the others, “and to you all as well. Let us proceed back to the Temple.”
Mori decided she had taken enough time to recover from Sahtra’s brutal attack on the Jade Witch and remembered the many petrified pandaren cubs in the garden. She ran out to the backyard and breathed a sigh of relief as she found the children running through the grass and hugging each other. She overheard two of them speaking.
“I told you this was a bad idea!”
“But he double hozen dared me to! I can’t say no a dare!”
The young blood elf giggled.
“WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?”
A loud roar echoed throughout the garden, and the pandaren children fled. Mori turned around and saw an orc bearing the red spiked armor and emblem of the Horde. He carried a small axe in each hand, and carefully surveyed the area around him. The orc squinted at another member of his race clad in golden and light blue armor approaching the garden.
“Oh! Oh there you all are! Light damn this forest, I always get lost.”
Vel’rosh carefully tiptoed over plants and pieces of jade on the ground and made his way over to the orc.
“Lok’tar, my brother. It is good to see you safe and sound. I am glad I heard your voice, I had been searching for my traveling companions.”
The orcish soldier eyed Vel’rosh and nodded with a grunt. Mori saw the two standing next to each other and laughed at their contrasting appearances. One, with brown skin and red armor, the other with green skin and light blue armor. Only their bodily shape appeared to be vaguely similar.
“Hah!” Mori exclaimed, “You’re both ugly, too!”
The soldier immediately turned his head to the young blood elf. “What was that you said?” he yelled at her angrily.
Mori kept quiet but broke out into an unapologetic grin.
“Watch what you say, elf weakling. I eat children like you for breakfast!”
“Oh, you wouldn’t want to do that! He’ll kill you!”
Vel’rosh looked to where the young blood elf was pointing and uttered a prayer as soon as he saw the death knight approaching them. His posture was rigid, and his blue eyes glowed as he marched across the grass. Sahtra stopped next to Mori and looked down at her. She was grinning but obviously frightened.
“Did this orc threaten you, little one?”
Mori looked up at the death knight and answered, “He said he eats children like me all the time!” She was relieved to see him.
“He did?”
“Yes!” Mori flexed her arms and spoke proudly. “I said if he tried to eat me, you would kill him!”
Sahtra slowly turned his head towards the orcish soldier and locked his glowing blue eyes with the orc’s dull brown ones. “Very well, then…” he began, and held his axe out in front of him. Vel’rosh raised his sword, preparing to conjure his Shield of Vengeance should the human get any closer.
“I said if! He hasn’t eaten me yet!”
The death knight scowled and lowered his axe to his side.
“An orc is an orc. I’ll end his life some other day.”
Mori looked worriedly at Sahtra. “Do you want to kill all the orcs?” she asked him.
Without looking at the child, the human answered, “Yes.”
“What have they done to you?”
The death knight turned to Mori and frowned, his blue eyes glowing fiercely.
“They are a blight upon Azeroth,” Sahtra answered. “They ravaged the humans for resources when they failed to survive in their own homeland. Many brave warriors lost their lives standing up to their invasion.”
Mori looked at the ground, unable to bear the frightening stare of the angered death knight.
“They hurt your people,” she said quietly.
“Their weak wills and false sense of honor is pathetic,” Sahtra continued, shifting his gaze to the paladin. “They were easily manipulated by outside sources and an illusion of camaraderie.”
“Our world was dying, human fool!” Vel’rosh protested. “We had no choice!”
“And still you do not accept responsibility for your own actions! You chose to flee the planet you destroyed, like the cowards that you are!” A cloud of ice had formed around the death knight, and Mori had to step away from him to avoid catching its harsh chill on her bare skin.
“ENOUGH!” roared Halvor, stepping into the backyard, “NO MORE FIGHT! We have job to do.”
“By the Light, I can no longer put up with this man,” declared Vel’rosh. “I will fulfill my mission elsewhere. Come, my brother,” he motioned to the orcish soldier, “let us leave this place.”
Sahtra watched with a grin as the two orcs left the Forest Heart, paying no attention to the angry look Halvor shot him. He chuckled and afterwards remained silent as he and Mori followed the others back towards the temple of the Jade Serpent.