"Hey! Watch where you're goin'!" A large Tauren bull exclaimed as the Troll Huntress accidentally bumped into him, "Eep! Sorry!" She cried as she scuttled away from the angry bull, only to run straight into yet another Tauren, "Ack! The hell? Oh, Sand!!" She heard the Tauren gasp and she looked up to find herself face to face with a deep brown furred female Tauren, "Cau! Gosh, am I happy to see you!" Cau tilted her head "Why? Whats up?" The Troll, Huntress Zhou'Mai Sandfur, looked down at the ground, "Oh, you know, the usual. Been feelin' sad 'bout Duma and Ban-Ban again.." Sandfur sighed. "Is that all? C'mon Sand, you haven't seen them in over a year, its time to move on. I mean, look at the pets you have now! You have one of Har'Koa's kittens! And a ghost hydra! Tell me how many Hunters have those? Hardly any. And how many have cats and wolves? EVERYONE." Cau's ears twitched as she spoke. "I know that... But, those two had something special about them, you know?" She sighed again, "Well, I suppose this isn't helpin' any. I'm gonna head off to the Barrens, kay?" Cau grinned, "Haha, its always the Barrens with you, huh? Well, enjoy your trip to the worst place ever! Don't forget to get me a quilboar head!" Sandfur glared back at her friend, "Haha, very funny." And with that, she turned around and walked away, trying to avoid bumping into more people in the crouded valleys of Orgimmar.
"Come on, Fang, lets go." Sandfur said as she quickly mounted her black war wolf, who snarled happily, immediately taking off at a rythmic lope. They were out of the city now, and were traveling along beside the Southfury River, which seperated Durotar and the Barrens. Fang loped along, carrying his rider over the savanna with both speed and grace; akin to that of the young feline companion Sandfur had found years ago in this place, Duma the cheetah. She missed him dearly, after foolishly releasing him over a year ago. In fact, she couldn't even remember why she had done such a thing. The same could be said for her releasing her Felpaw Wolf, Bankotsu a few weeks before she had done so to Duma. The two of them had been her best friends, they had stayed with her when she had felt uttely devastated when one of her best friends had disappeared. But now the two best pets she had ever known were gone. Never to be seen again. Or at least, thats what she thought.
The sun was going down by the time Crossroards had started to come into view, but it wasn't the large Horde town in the middle of the Barrens that caught her interest. For she had noticed a small lithe figure among the large bulky lions that crouded around one of the trees. She had seen this shape before, in this exact spot. She reined in her wolf, dismounted and began to slowly creep towards the tree, trying not to draw the attention of the surrounding lions. Finally, she reached an area where she could see to the center of the pride; and tucked away in the sea of tawny cats was a small spotted feline who lay in a patch of green grass.
Sandfur knew who it was right away; the way he lay on the ground, the way his tail and ears twitched, the gleam in his eyes. There was no mistaking it; it was Duma!
Suddenly unaware of her surroundings, she lept up from her hiding spot and raced to the cheetah, ignoring the lions who chased her. "Duma!!" She called, causing the cat to raise his head in confusion. "Whaa? S-sandfur?! SANDFUR!!!" Duma jumped to his paws and launched himself at her, bowling her over and started to lick her face happily. "Duma! I thought I'd never see you again..." Duma's ears twitched "Really? Well, I always believed we'd meet again! I've always known you'd come back here to find me."
A loud snarl broke up their reunion as the lions crouded around them, hissing and roaring their anger at the intruder. Duma looked up, "Great, looks like we already have trouble! Oh well!" He jumped off of Sandfur and attacked the closest lion, raking it with his claws, causing it to race away, a large gash on its side, not wanting to get even more injured. A tremendous roar shook the ground as a giant pitch black lion stalked through the pride towards Duma. It was Humar the Pridelord. "Well what do you know, looks like we've caused enough trouble to get the attention of the Pridelord!" He twitched his tail, and watched calmly as the dark cat glared at him before leaping at him.
"Duma!!" Sandfur cried as the two felines lept at each other. Humar tried to rake his claws down Duma's flank but the lithe cat dodged with ease and quickly countered the attack by slashing at the black lion's muzzle. The Pridelord roared in defiance, again trying to rake Duma, and this time, his attacked landed, scoring large slashes across the sleek yellow pelt. Duma let out a pained screech, collasping onto the ground. Humar stood over him, ready to strike again, but before he could, an arrow lodged itself into his shoulder with a 'thok!'.
The black lion shrunk back from the pain, growling as he tried desperately to dislodge the sharp arrowhead that had peirced his flesh. The lions around the area cowered in fear before scurrying off as their Pridelord collasped from the pain. "DUMA!!!" Sandfur dropped her bow and arrow and ran to Duma's side, "Are you hurt?" Duma shook his head, trying to clear his vision. "Y-yeah, I'm fine" He shakily sat up and started figorously licking the slashes on his pelt.
"Oh Duma.. I'm so glad I found you again." Sandfur hugged the spotted feline, "Heh, I'm glad you found me too." Duma replied. Sandfur looked up at the sky, which had grown dark and had started sparkling with millions of glittering stars, "Well, its pretty late.. Wanna head back to the Crossroads?" Duma nodded, "Sure! Jeez, I haven't been there in forever..." "Heh, me neither..." Sandfur stood up and whistled for her wolf, Fang, who had been sleeping on the path the whole time, but woke up instantly and loped over to his master. "Hey Fang? Think you could carry Duma for me?" The big wolf leaned down and licked Duma, happy to see his old friend, and looked back up at Sandfur and barked loudly. Sandfur lifted Duma up onto Fang's back and grabbed the wolf's reins, leading him towards town.
"Hey Sand?" Duma's mew rang out in the night's silence, "Yeah?" Sandfur turned and looked at him. "Promise me we'll never be apart again, okay?" He looked up at her, eyes bright with both happiness and sorrow, "Of course Duma.. We'll never ever be apart, I promise you." Hugging him, she burried her face in his fur, trying to hide the tears that streamed down her cheecks. "Aaw, don't cry.. 'Kay? I don't want to see you cry over me." Duma licked Sandfur's shoulder, "D-duma... Alright, I won't cry anymore... " Looking up at the sky again, she added, "Together forever, the two of us. We'll be together forever."
