((AN: Another little ditty from World of Warcraft. Galerunner is my 70 hunter on Thorium Brotherhood. Copyright Blizzard blah blah blah don't sue me.))

Serendipity - A Coming of Age Story

A World of Warcraft fanfic

By Kristin Renee Taylor

It was a raining deep in the wilds of Feralas. Normally, this unexpected shower wouldn't faze even the weakest of adventurers. In better circumstances, it might have even been pleasant. However, on this particular day, in this particular place, the rain did more than halt the adventuring of Galerunner Fartotem.

It made her wolf irritable.

Galerunner glanced out the opening of her little cave and let out a soft sigh. For three hours now she had been cooped up in a cave hollowed into the side of the Feralas mountain range, and she was getting bored. And angsty. /Shuh'halo,/ she thought as she stared glumly at the rain, /are meant to run free. Not wedged into a hole./ Aloud, she muttered, "This is all your fault. We could be home now. Or, anywhere, really... safe and dry. Instead of in this cave. Damp." Her tail flicked with distaste. "And I need to get you to a healer."

In the rear of the cave, as far as he could get from the occasional plip-plip of rain that splattered into the cave, a huge black worg let loose a menacing growl.

Galerunner turned her head, clear pale blue eyes gazing at the dark shape from under a wide-brim floppy hat. "All right, no healer. Just let me look at your leg-" The growl took on a sharper edge. Galerunner sighed again and faced forward. She tugged the brim of her hat down lower.

Only a few hours ago, huntress and worg had been traveling together, moving through the jungle at an easy pace. Galerunner's latest infatuation had stemmed from the Lunar Festival and its world-spanning coin collection. Eager to collect all fifty of the mysterious coins, she had immediately set out. A rumor of an Elder hidden in Feralas had been all it took to get her scouring every nook and cranny of the verdant jungle for that now-familiar pillar of light.

That is, until Flint, gamely trotting alongside her, had gotten his leg caught in some trap or other (probably left lying around from some random hunter out reducing the yeti population). The resulting high-pitched yelp had her off her kodo in less than a moment, cutting her fingers as she pried the trap open enough for her injured pet to withdraw his left forepaw. A brief glimpse of dark blood, matted fur, and then, to her total surprise, the wolf was off, running and vanishing into the jungle before she could even call his name.

Naturally, she followed. Despite his injury, Flint moved with startling quickness through the overgrowth. Twice, she nearly lost his trail. The rain, which started only minutes later, only made her search that much more miserable. Finally, panting, huffing, and dripping water, she had crawled into a cave to find Flint curled up over his wounded leg. Since then, whenever she had tried to get close he'd set to snarling so loudly and fiercely that she had no choice to back off.

Three hours later, with no end to the rain in sight and her supply of songs exhausted, she was starting to get worried. What if Flint's leg became infected? What if he got sick? What if he got hungry and realized that she had left her supply of quail in her kodo's saddlebag? She did not want to be around him when that happened...

"Why must you be so stubborn? We have been together a month, surely in that time you would know that I mean you no harm?" Silence from the worg. Galerunner continued. "What must I do to make you trust me?" An agitated rustling sounded behind her as the worg shifted position. A sharp grunt of pain.

Galerunner closed her eyes. Took a deep breath. She turned around, scooting closer to Flint, and ignoring his low warning growl. She softened her tone. "Perhaps... you are afraid, being injured in a strange land with someone that you have not known for a very long time. I do not know how your old masters treated you, but it must not have been well, yes? But, know that I am not like those mean orcs. I do not want you to be scared of me."

Amber-gold eyes fixed on Gale's blue ones, staring at her in that disconcerting way that all wolves shared. But he had stopped growling.

Galerunner met that gaze calmly for a moment, thinking. Then, she tilted her head and smiled warmly. "Would you like to hear a story?"

Fin Part 1