Harvey looked down at his notepad. The notes were in chaos; he had rarely seen so many words that seemed to describe so little.
His editor, Ditor, dropped a tip that there might be something brewing in Thunder Bluff, and to pay special attention to the meeting of the Ani Ayastigi. With the exception of a few attacks by Alliance rabble, the only thing brewing in Thunder Bluff had been large couldrons of vegetables.
Now the meeting was over, and Harvey had managed to jot down everything that sounded even remotely intriguing. One of the elders told a story of a recent incursion into Alterac Valley, adding enough theatrics to impress even Harvey, who once took the stage himself... in a past life, at least. There were a few awards and promotions, but... his eyes slipped over a note scribbled sideways on his notepad.
Infected sore.
Harvey snapped his quill, letting the remains slip through his ashen fingers and clatter softly onto the rocky ground.
The Ani were an outspoken lot. There had been a few rumbles and dissensions throughout the entire meeting, yet the atmosphere always remained professional. But there was something deeper there. An old wound, deeper than anything that happened at the meeting, deeper than the Ani Ayastigi itself. It was a wound as deep as the Horde.
The promotion of one of their members, a forsaken, to elder status had reopened that very same wound. During that period of the meeting Harvey could see the puss of a thousand similar instances resurfacing, no matter how hard the Horde leadership tryied to stitch it closed.
The pieces of the puzzle from his notes began to form into a cohesive picture. Now he had to just figure out what the picture really meant.
Determination spread across Harvey's face, illuminated by this recent discovery. On his way out of town, he passed a stall set up near the Flight Tower in the center of Thunder Bluff. There was a looking glass for sale, leaning against a wooden statue of some form of bird Harvey could not identify. Harvey took a second glance into the mirror, scowling.
Finally, his glowing eyes turned toward the young tauren manning the stall. "Excuse me, do you have any hats?"
((see the extended story at http://www.guildportal.com/Guild.aspx?GuildID=20862&TabID=189474))
Ani Ayastigi: An Old Symbol for the New Horde
THUNDER BLUFF - The look of the Horde is changing, and nowhere was that more apparent than in Thunder Bluff this past weekend. Ani Ayastigi, a society dedicated to the protection of the Horde, met to discuss typical organizational matters around the blazing meeting fire located within distance of Cairne Bloodhoof's very own ceremonial tent. But this evening held a special surprise with the promotion of a young forsaken into the ranks of the Ani Ayastigi leadership. The forsaken introduced as Anima approached the campfire and accepted the mantle of leadership confidently.
It was Cairne himself, leader of the Thunder Bluff tauren and charismatic Horde hero, who suggested to the current leader of the Ani Ayastigi, Sabine Brokenhorn, to break down the last cultural barriers and allow forsaken to join the ranks of Ani Ayastigi. Miss Brokenhorn was noticeably absent from the ceremony.
This is not the first time a forsaken was introduced into the leadership of the Ani Ayastigi. In fact, it was the third such promotion. Eppen Ashenthorn and Rayvn (no surname given) are both forsaken officers within the Ani Ayastigi. They performed the ceremony in Miss Brokenhorn's absence, though her brother Kajika was in attendance and assisted in the procedures.
Of additional note, several members of the Ani Ayastigi were not pleased with the decision to induct an additional forsaken into the leadership ranks. Talking to a few of those members indicate that Sabine Bloodhoof also had reservations about the nomination. Coupled with her absence at the ceremony, those disgruntled members indicated foul play. Several spoke of sending out search parties to find her, and were vocal in their opinions that the timing of Miss Bloodhoof's disappearance and the promotion of the forsaken were no simple coincidence.
No official comment about the missing leader has been issued, though information has surfaced that an investigation may already be underway. An anonymous Brave was quoted, "Something's up, we just don't know what."
Posted by Harvey at 03:32 PM 26 July 2005