A Story for the Sproutling

This story was inspired by Big Bear Butt's writing challenge. Check his post for all the other offerings!

~o~

The calf gurgled and cooed as Leesah wiped the remnants of the juicy berries from around his mouth. She picked him up as she stood, kissed him on the top of his furry head and put him down on the packed earth floor of the house, smiling as he ran outside.

She walked over to the door and leaned against the wooden frame, shielding her eyes from the low sun casting its light across the Mulgore plain. A few children of the village were running around after a dog, trying to pull its tail.

Not for the first time, Leesah wished that her mate Melof could have been here to see how much their son had grown. It was already his first birthday and he was getting so tall - he would surely grow into a strong bull like his father had been. Leesah felt grief building up in her throat again. She glanced at one wall of the house where Melof's polearm hung, several charms hanging from the slender shaft, light winking on the keen blade.

She hadn't been up to Thunder Bluff in a while, but she had heard the rumours - Deathwing lay slain, the Twilight Cult scattered. She swallowed back tears and stood straighter, comforted that her mate's death at the assault on the Bastion had not been in vain, and had been avenged.

There was no use in dwelling on the past, though. Soon, she would have to leave the peace of Bloodhoof Village and rejoin her fellow Druids abroad. She could feel the urge to travel in her bones, the nature magic stirring, ready to heal and nurture the regenerating forests of Hyjal. She would have to leave her calf behind for a little while, but he would be in safe hands with the elders of the village.

As the sun dipped below the line of mountains to the west, one of the Elder bulls came around lighting the torches of the village. She nodded a greeting to him as she walked out across the grass. She called, "Come, little one!"

The calf ran over to her, reaching upwards and saying, "Num num num?"

Leesah laughed as she swung him up over her head and down again. "No, silly, you already had num nums. It's time for a bath and sleepy time." She carried him back inside their home and out to the hidden alcove that served as a bathroom.

Outside, stars began to appear in the evening sky and cast their silver light over the plains.

~o~

Yes, it's my Sproutling's first birthday today. It seems like such a long time ago that he was born, but at the same time it feels like just the other day! He's not quite at the running stage, but Tauren calves learn to walk a lot faster than human ones. He does ask me for num nums quite a lot, though.

Like Leesah, I've gone back to work and left Sproutling with the "elders". He's surrounded by an adoring fan club every day so I don't feel too bad about leaving him.

Don't worry, Mr Ang is still here... but he stopped playing Wow just before Sproutling was born so it fit well with the story for his Tauren to have died. I'm sure he won't mind me taking the liberty :)

Guardian of Cenarius

I'm a believer of things being in their rightful place. Tonight I'm happy, because one of my Druids finally has the Guardian of Cenarius title - achieved for being exalted with Cenarion Circle and Cenarion Expedition.

I expected that the real grind would be in the Cenarion Circle in Silithus, but in fact it was the other way around. Allow me to share my path towards the achievement.

Cenarion Circle

The first thing I made sure of was that I had done all the quests that can give reputation. There are quests with CC rep in a lot more zones than just Silithus - a full list can be found on Wowhead:

• Western Plaguelands
• Southern Barrens
• Un'Goro Crater
• Desolace
• Silithus

After the quests were done I was already into revered. The rest of the way to exalted can be finished in a few different ways:

• Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj (AQ20) raid - I soloed this once as a Moonkin and had no trouble up to the final boss, and gathered quite a lot of reputation for doing it. The final boss is a bit trickier on your own, and I ended up running out of time due to server maintanance!
• Hand in [Encrypted Twilight Texts]. These drop from Twilight Cultists and can be handed in in batches of 10 to an NPC in Cenarion Hold.
• Kill Twilight Cultists. These guys have several encampments around Silithus and respawn quite quickly. They also give 10 reputation per kill, so if Encrypted Texts aren't dropping at least you're still gaining rep.
• Wowhead also says that the PvP objective in Silithus, turning in Silithyst around the zone and turning it in to your faction NPC also gives reputation. Carrying Silithyst gives you a movement penalty when mounted up, so I doubt this is a very efficient method of collecting rep.

In all, the revered - exalted grind only took me a few hours.

Cenarion Expedition

Important Note: The quest to hand in Unidentified Plant Parts is only available until honoured. If you get any [Uncatalogued Species], wait until after you are honoured to turn them in to maximise your gains after honoured. I didn't realise this until after it was too late - all my Plant Parts were then useless and I added a large chunk of grind to the end of my journey. RTFM, Ang.

1. Hand in your Unidentified Plant Parts, then your Uncataloged Species. You can either buy the plant parts from the AH, or kill mobs in Zangarmarsh or Steamvaults, Slave Pens and Underbog to get them.
2. Once you get to Honoured, make sure you do all the available quests for CE rep.  The Cenarion Expedition is based in Zangarmarsh, but there are also quests giving reputation in Hellfire Peninsula, Terrokar Forest and Blades Edge Mountains in Outlands, and also the quests from D.E.H.T.A. in Borean Tundra, Northrend.
3. Run Steamvaults, Slave Pens and Underbog. Do the quests inside the instances too - some of them give CE reputation.

Sadly, it is no longer possible to get the [Orders from Lady Vashj] quest item required to turn in Coilfang Armaments. Wowhead says it was removed due to an oversight in patch 4.3 - why they haven't fixed it again I have no idea. I guess the 65 Armaments I collected from my Steamvaults runs will have to be sold on, or passed to another toon in the hope it might be fixed one day!

In all, it took a few extra days to get to exalted with Cenarion Expedition. I ran a combination of heroic Coilfang instances about 7 or 8 times and got a few nice transmog pieces out of it as well.

So what are you waiting for? Make your Druid a Guardian of Cenarius today!

Travel Snaps: Desolace and Un'goro

I've been back in Azeroth lately - gradually making progress on my Loremaster project. I thought I'd share a few snaps that Aoifen has collected on her travels.

Shadowprey Village