Flying through the driving icy Northrend wind, Arisia scowled. Yes, she needed the gold that doing this job would bring, and yes, it would be a fairly easy one with so little shot of injury that she’d left her brother sleeping warm in his bed back at the inn– his healing not really needed, she reasoned, so why should both of them be up at the crack of dawn shivering.
She’d gotten a knock early at her door; one of the local fishing trainers, knowing her skills, had passed her name to the healers. A fisherman had been injured hauling in some moonglow cuttlefish, and lost his arm. Before the crew had time to react, a distasteful boat following monsterbelly had nabbed the arm and any hope of reattaching it lay in getting it back within the hour.
It promised a tidy sum of gold, and having a healer owing you was never a bad thing, and so she found herself glaring at the map the captain had drawn, urging her windrider to buck the chill winds and hover near a towering iceberg. She reached for the potion of waterwalking she’d grabbed from her pack and hopped off her mount, shivering but landing atop the ice-rimed water. A few Northrend penguins made their odd noises at the young blood elf hunter, but soon found her silence boring and waddled off. Rissa rolled her eyes, and reached for the fishing pole slung on her back, glad she’d even left her pet home– no one deserved this cold… and to think, it was close to the end of Spring! Back in Silvermoon, they’d have greenery and days that bordered on the over warm without a breeze. Scowling at the thought, she turned and cast, and began fishing in earnest, using all her skills in the hopes to tickle the monsterbelly with the arm to strike.
Cast after cast, and while she pulled some very saleable fish up, including some monsterbelly, onthing like the one she needed. Arisia began to worry– the potion had a short lifespan, and she’d only taken the one, assured that it would be a fast catch. A sound made her spin on a heel, and she snarled, seeing a sharp-toothed monsterbelly harassing something just under the tip of the iceberg. Sliding the pole back into the holster on the back, she withdrew her gun and fired, killing the three fish, and letting whatever they’d been harassing escape. She nodded, put the gun away, and made another cast.
A frighteningly huge and amazingly ugly monsterbelly kited to the surface and hit the lure. It’s eyes glittered silver malice and Rissa swore it HISSED as it struck. She pulled, reeling it in when the ground gave out from under her feet. She struggled, the bitter icy water soaking her clothing, and the waved crashing over her, filling her lungs. The hunter kicked frantically and hit surface, grabbing a lungful of air, turning to see the monsterbelly headed her way– an arm not enough for this bloated behemoth. She grabbed for the floating fishing pole, her gun floating just out of reach, her mount making creeling noises from above, but no help in any fight.
Arisia set her jaw, cold beyond measure, feeling wooden and knowing the water was leeching her strength, but that the monsterbelly was not just going to go away. She pulled the pole towards her when *something* struck it from underneath. It breeched the surface, and flew into the air, and before Rissa could react, the darkness under the water reached her and flowed beneath and she felt herself lifted on something knobby and oval, and blessedly out of the icy ocean water. A huge golden eye blinked at her as the sea turtle turned to nudge her to get on better and the exhausted Hunter complied, feeling the same soft touch her other mounts made as they carried her. She scooped the gun as she passed, and smiled as the turtle paused for her to gather in the now dead bloated monsterbelly.
Dismissing her winged mount for the moment, Arisia let the sea turtle take her in to Unu’Pe where the friendly Tuskarr gathered and made much of her, taking her inside to get dried and warmed. As she dismounted, she paused to gently pat the top of the sea turtle’s head, knowing that had been the creature she’d rescued from those earlier monsterbelly, and had been repaid with a rescue in his turn. She touched his mind lightly and felt him calm, pleased, and patient, unlike most her other mounts. She got the feeling he’d wait, and was proved right half an hour later, insisting her need to return to Dalaran with the monsterbelly for the healers. He did not go off with the other turtle mounts the Tuskarr patrols rode, but waited patiently for her. Rissa grinned and softly uttered the dismissal spell that sent him ahead of her to Dalaran where she soon followed via her heartstone and after leaving the Inn, the softly uttered summons made him reappear, brightly blinking at her and bobbing for her to mount up.
Rissa giggled, and did so, pausing to scritch the top of the soft wrinkled hide of his head, bending to impulsively hug him once before hopping atop his shell. “You feel like a Herbie, you know…”
The turtle made a soft warbling honk and began waddling forward as Rissa leaned that way, the Hunter quickly learning how to guide her new mount. She had the bloated monsterbelly wrapped and ready for the healers, but felt the best reward for the morning’s effort was the new friend she’d brought home.
