Chapter 1: Ruesen

Chapter 1
Ruesen

As if living with being a Worgen was bad enough, Ruesen had to live with yet another mark. Only, this time it wasn't exactly known where the mark had came from. Letting a content sigh out through his mouth, Ruesen lay himself down under the blissful shade under one of the many large trees in hopes it'd cool him off a little bit from the scorching heat of the Southern Barrens of Azeroth. He envied the Night Elf druids, their caster forms didn't have fur for natural skin as such, and technically he could transform into his human self, but it proved harder to do each time with the curse that was upon him. He lifted his hand up, outstretching his massive claws to block out the sun that had managed to seep through the canopy. His blue eyes gazed over the mark that was on the back of his outstretched hand, seeing the strange and unique marking of Vestrial, a slight chuckle left him as he remembered that particular dream he'd had. It had seemed so real, and well, it had been... to an extent.

The dream had taken place at least a year or so ago now, at least a month after the shattering had happened.
A slightly younger Worgen was training in Northrend, fighting back the few wandering scourge that had managed to get out of Ice Crown and into Crystal Song Forest. The Lich King had long been defeated, he'd only been able to listen to many heroes and travellers tales of what had happened when he was still growing up in the safety of Gilneas, when they had nothing to worry about from the outer walls and lived happily with his family and friends. Just as he was ready to leave for the Hyjal to aid the druids in restoring the land, he'd decided to stop and catch up on some rest.

Inside his dream that night, he'd dreamt that he was in a vast field of nothingness, it made him wonder vaguely if it was something similar to the Emerald Dream... only less green and was missing the rumoured fiends that lurked within the Emerald Dream. A distorted voice echoed his name, it sounded distant at first and then gradually got louder. He didn't feel afraid of the voice when given any other time he'd have been scared enough to wake up, and even though this was a dream, he also felt so awake. A gentle hand rested itself upon Ruesen's shoulder, making him turn around to face a dark figure. It was like it had shape, but didn't really determine if the figure was male or female, not even the voice itself distinguished that fact.
"It is you, who has been calling my name?" Ruesen asked, even as a short tempered feral druid, he seemed somewhat calm within this beings presence. The figure nodded, he could barely make it out but he could tell for sure that they had nodded.
"It is I who called. Before you continue your journey, you should venture to Stormwind City. Find those who are like you, join with them." 
"Stormwind? To find others? What do you mean by that?" Ruesen asked, his face contorting into an expression of uncertainty. The figure stayed eerily quiet for a moment or so.
"All will be revealed in due time, young druid." 
"What...? How do I even find others like me? Do you mean druids? Worgen, what? I'm not following." Ruesen muttered, clearly unhappy with this small fact of not being able to follow anything the figure was saying.
"They reside within Stormwind. There are all kinds, including what you have said, when you find them, you'll know. Use the mark and follow your instincts."

Ruesen frowned, none of this was making sense to him at all. He'd resorted to thinking on what just happened that he hadn't noticed the figure fading away as if they hadn't been there before. Ruesen looked around, the dark field he'd been in was slowly breaking off into nothing and from that alone he blinked his eyes, groaning as he woke up. He could have sworn he'd just got to sleep. The sleepy Worgen shifted his body to sit up on the bed, his eyes lifting to the clock on the wall and groaned again. It had barely struck 7am, he'd really slept the night with just that strange dream. Ruesen lifted a heavy arm to cover his eyes and slowly dragged it over his face, pausing when he noticed something on his hand. Frowning, Ruesen brought the hand away and narrowed his eyes as he looked at it closer. There was a strange mark on his hand, it looked almost symbolic. It was then that the voice echoed in his mind. 'Stormwind....others....find them.'  With a sigh he pushed himself off of the bed and got himself ready, he may as well go and see if something was up at the city anyway since he had to be there before going to Hyjal.

About an hour later and Ruesen exited the high rising tower within the Mage Quarter of the city, his hand shielding his eyes from the glaring sun in the sky. He'd wander to the high edge of the flat, spiraling ramp and looked down towards the ground with a wide smirk on his face, he loved being a druid. Without a second thought, the young druid leapt off of the platform and chuckled at the gasp that had come from the stair, someone had obviously not noticed what he was. Within seconds, Ruesen had transformed himself into a bird form, just before he hit the ground. Reciting what the dream had told him to do, he followed his supposed instincts which lead him to one of the Inns at the far side of the city in the Old Town District, Ruesen then shifted into his preferred form of his Worgen cat form...which looked more like a wolfish-cat but, who was he to complain, it looked ferocious and that's all that mattered. 

His short journey into the inn had him passing a couple of others that belonged to various other groups and guilds, some of them were just friends chilling out. Ruesen came to a stop in front of another Worgen, by the attire, he could easily guess that the other was also a druid. Ruesen looked up at the druid's face as the other looked at him, they stayed that way, looking at each other in silence for a moment. 
"I..had a dream. I was to find others like myself...I didn't quite understand it, but following what it said, it's led me to you." Ruesen spoke lowly, for the other to hear him. There was more silence to follow before the other Worgen gave a toothy smile, it was as if they understood what Ruesen had gone through in the dream that brought him here. The older Worgen chuckled and gestured to the seat beside him. 
"Come sit with me for a while, I had answered a similar call not too long ago myself."
"Really? Then... Do you have a-"
"Mark? Yes, we all carry the mark." The older said, smiling toothily again as Ruesen shifted into his Worgen form and sat down with him.
"We? You mean there's a lot of...us?" Ruesen asked. The mere wide smile the other was giving him was all he needed to confirm the answer to his question.

From there, Ruesen came to get to know others that were part of the House after becoming a member of the House himself. He soon learned that, this is what the figure had meant in the dream. Others like him. He'd trained hard from that point on, becoming stronger in mind as well as physically, he soon grew into a great and determined cat for when teams were being dispersed into the Firelands when the time came to deal with the Firelord, it was a tough time but he helped push through it. Later on, he'd become a suitable guardian for when the need to deal with Deathwing had come around, constantly stepping forward to help take the brunt of damage along side the Death Knight.

Now that Deathwing was dead and no longer a threat to Azeroth, there was time to relax and only deal with the Horde when they attacked Alliance lands. One thing that constantly lingered on his mind however was, just... Who and what exactly is Vestrial?