Tasha sifted through a disorganized jumble of old (and incomplete) notes on the fauna of Kalimdor. She sighed heavily and massaged her temples with her knuckles. She looked through small window.
Dawn. She blew out the candle near her, tilted her head slightly towards the roof, and closed her eyes. All of her muscles were tense. She breathed slowly, relaxing.
After a few moments, her awareness returned to the pile of deteriorating paper in front of her, and then her hands. A dusty residue from the paper had coated her fingertips. She gathered the mess of documents together and took them to the terrace.
The Sentinels were still on eternal vigil, but the city was quiet - there was always a lull at this time of day. Merchants would begin their daytime operations, catering largely to foreigners, soon.
It was much easier to see the scribbles outside, in the pale gold light of dawn. It was not as favorable as pure moonlight, though, but it was too cloudy to read outside last night.
The young kaldorei huntress continued her search. Finally, at around noon, she found it: a page of details on the creature known to most as a 'tallstrider'. Her later father had no kind things to say about the thing, calling it both a 'tall chicken' and a 'graceless crane'. Now, she needed to hunt it.
A small flock was supposedly still living in the Barrens - Tasha's information was not from her father's notes, which oddly did not include habitat. The huntress made her way to central Kalimdor, detouring through Alliance camps and avoiding scouting Horde. She quickly found the oasis that the creatures supposedly live in, and the beasts themselves were easy to spot once she was nearby.
Much to Tasha's surprise, the 'tall chickens' were fascinating, beautiful creatures. After spending some time watching them, she resolved to abandon her current gig - the payment was a pittance anyways - and tame one of the creatures instead.
Note: they don't stay sparkly when tamed :c
Tasha was immediately impressed by how energetic the tallstrider was. The creature seemed almost jittery, or nervous. She decided to have it fight by her side for a while. She named the bird Ethel, after a rather anxious human she knew.
Here are some screenshots in Siege of Orgrimmar and Throne of Thunder:
I personally love the tallstrider animations, although they do seem like a mixture of sass and anxiety (which, I guess, isn't a bad thing). They look pretty fierce when they fight, and not silly at all. The purple tallstrider is one of my troll's favorite pets (tamed back when my troll was still a night elf, actually).
Here are some more screenshots of Ethel:
Despite the moderate training, the creature did not seem to calm down, although Tasha noted (and thoroughly enjoyed) its admirable amount of sass. Regardless, the huntress deemed Ethel unsuitable for the ever-gloomy campaign she was to participate in on the Broken Shore, and returned it to its oasis. Hopefully Ethel could avoid predators in the future, although its bright colours make stealth a bit... difficult.
Overall, tallstriders are really fun pets, but it feels weird having one on a night elf hunter again. This is definitely a pet I'd recommend though, as they are available at a low level, and, as just mentioned, really fun with their jittery, sassy animations. My favorite is the purple one, which is the starting pet for tauren hunters.
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