Chapter 3: The Blights

Sakura wandered the places with blights her students told her about in the northlands.

Many spots were...defiled, something that angered her.

Taking out her equipment, she dedicated herself to study for days, and that was how she was found by Jaina Proudmoore. She had a tent and a workshop.

'Lady Sakura!' Jaina gasped out. Sakura was a sight in many formal events, be it law, and other parties as a respected Archmage. She had even been once at her Coming of Age Ceremony as well as a banquet organized by Antonidas and still as oblivious as ever. Perhaps with her immortality, Sakura was very slow to change, like that of her adoptive tribe. When she was a child, she treated her kindly, like a little sister figure and taught her how to make her first cake during her stay in Dalaran when Jaina was fifteen and learning how to cook.

'Oh! Ishnu-alah thero'shan.' Sakura greeted Jaina who was a known favorite student of Archmagus Antonidas, with a friendly smile, before sighing. 'I wish today really was a good day, young Jaina.' she stated curtly with a grumpy armfold.

'You have a workshop out here...what are you working on?' Jaina asked curiously. Sakura's just scowled.

'This filthy blight that's scarring the lands...it seeps through and spreads death and decay.' she explained. 'My alumnus found many places like these around the northlands. I am studying if there is a way to heal the land as there is no saving these poor dead trees. I had to uproot and burn them.'

'I see...I was on my way to meet Prince Arthas by the King's Road in Alterac. We too, are aiming to investigate what's going on.' said Jaina. 'They found Orcs trying to summon Demons by sacrificing many townsfolk in Strahnbrad.'

Sakura paused and began thinking in deep thought.

Demons and Orcs use Fel Magic. In Northrend during her travels, she encountered this once. It's been a couple millennia she nearly forgot this.

'Now I get it...looks like you'll be using fire a lot soon.' Sakura mused grimly. 'We will be fighting a lot of undead soon enough.'

'Undead?' Jaina inquired.

'Yes. The demons created an undead army called the Scourge under command of the Cult of the Damned. They're hard to kill that I really created destructive spells and created my towers the way they were when I built my city.' Sakura told Jaina wearily. 'To raise an army of undead, they must decay the land to raise a bunch of ghouls and other freaks.' Jaina gulped. 'If you die fighting an undead army, they'll raise you to fight FOR them and turn you against your friends.'

'That...doesn't sound good...' Sakura then sighed.

'It's not. Perhaps, Northrend is overcrowded that these bastards want more space until they overtake Azeroth.' Sakura scowled. 'Not a chance in hell. Let's move out.' with a wave of her staff, Sakura quickly packed up her things and cast a powerful fire spell on the blighted land she was experimenting on, turning it to ashes, before casting holy magic to be double-sure, and even scanned the soil.

They traveled together and Jaina was pretty sure she would miss eating meat on the road...Sakura absolutely refuses to kill deer and birds for food. They also stopped by villages for sustenance by buying rice as well which Sakura turns into onigiri and rice cakes. And during their travels, Sakura doesn't use magic! She fights melee using her staff and she was very skilled, agile and a little TOO fast and just as brutal a fighter. But she runs out of breath.

'Sakura, why aren't you using your spells?'

'I got rusty I could use some exercise!' Sakura gasped out, sweat forming quickly on her skin. 'Goodness knows if my elven teachers find out, they'll tan my hide! I was a warrior first before I took the staff!' welp, there's that, Jaina supposed.

Truthfully, if not for this disturbance, she would go to Sakura's City to study the magic they offer.

Soon, they encountered some annoying ogres nearby the meeting spot.

'And we were almost there too!' Jaina swore as they both fought against fifteen feet tall two-headed ogres.

'Uneducated brutes.' Sakura spat in distaste.

'It'll be horrifying if they ARE educated.' Jaina sweatdropped before giggling as they hear clunky footsteps running towards them. It's Arthas with some elite Footmen.

'Gentlemen, meet Lady Archmage Sakura and Miss Jaina Proudmoore.' Arthas introduced them jovially to his men. 'I never thought Lady Sakura would come with us, Jaina.'

'I encountered her on my way here...she was studying the plague in the forests.' Jaina explained. 'We found out its true nature Arthas.' she said grimly. 'As soon as I mentioned to her your reports, she quickly concluded we will be fighting more undead soon.'

'Undead?' Arthas inquired to Sakura.

'A hard enemy to kill...they took over Northrend some millennia back when I explored the world long before I built my city.' said Sakura. She told Arthas and his men what she knew. 'If Orcs are trying to summon Demons under their orders to Azeroth...the Burning Legion will soon return. They failed to take Azeroth once about ten thousand years ago and now they're trying again. This is bad news.'

'That IS bad news, we never had such a thing happen to us in our history!' Arthas shook in trepidation.

'Let's begin with the villages around here and see if they can give us more clues.' Jaina suggested. 'Our sources say the plague originated from these parts.'

'Then let's get going. We musn't lose time.' Arthas then followed the lead of the two mages.

They passed by farming countrysides wherein the people say there was something amiss at the bridge ahead. When they got there, it was wrecked, looked on by a few men.

'Milord, someone has destroyed the bridge from the far side of the river!' a man reported. 'There is another way to cross, but it's not as safe as it used to be!'

'Then let's find out the quick way!' Sakura raised her staff, casting magic on the broken bridge to restore it as if it was never broken before!

'Ohhhh!' the townsfolk marveled in amazement.

'Thank goodness for magic.' said Arthas in relief.

'What spell is that? That wasn't taught in Dalaran.' Jaina marveled, amazed.

'It's a basic of Alchemy, young Jaina. Alchemy isn't just for making magical items and potions, we can do this, too.' Sakura smiled. 'Shall we?' they crossed the bridge, but found some Footmen fighting skeleton warriors.

'Oh no...its just as I dreaded.' Sakura groaned as she caused a rain of fire on the skeletons.

'Those are the Undead you speak of, Lady?' Captain Falric asked her as they looked on to see what their enemy is.

'Yes. Ugly things, aren't they?' Sakura drawled. 'And it'll get worse, so brush up on Fire and Holy Spells. Healing Spells harms them too.'

'Duly noted.' said Arthas crisply as they approached the exhausted Footman Sergeant. 'What happened here?' he asked as Sakura walked around to observe the soil.

'Undead, milord! This whole village has gone mad!' he exclaimed. 'We did our best to defend the villagers, but...'

'We'll get to the bottom of this...Lady?' Arthas questioned as Sakura was by the nearby wheat farm.

'This land is OK. It's not blighted.' said Sakura. 'It seems they wish to infect this part too. Too bad for them the local Footmen are here.'

They had to tell the local Footmen what's going on, and they joined their group to go further into the village.

'Sergeant, why are the windmills and granaries burning?' Sakura asked the Sergeant.

'Dunno milady...it was this one morning when Villagers reported that the grain stored suddenly began to glow green and coming close made them feel funny. So we burned it all and next thing we know, the damned skeletons showed up!'

'They're infecting grain with the plague...are you youngsters thinking what I'm thinking?' Sakura drawled in dread to her companions who doesn't look too happy.

'We hope not but that seems to be the case...' Arthas swore. 'We better hurry!' they ran in quick haste, and encountered many, many skeletons, much to their chagrin. Soon, they came upon a Fountain of Health.

'Wonderful. This Village probably never needed a doctor with this around.' Sakura beamed. 'Let's rest here for a bit, youngsters. We haven't lunch yet and fighting what lies ahead on an empty stomach is a bad idea.'

'I couldn't agree more...we explored for hours and missed breakfast too.' said Jaina wearily.

'Well, we'll rest here for lunch.' Arthas agreed as Sakura took out a ring, and out came a chest which she kicked open, containing rice cakes. They can see that it has a filling through it's translucency upon removing the paper wrappings. The rice cakes and the fountain's waters made a filling meal, healing injuries and fatigue.

'Alright, we're full and healthy, let's go!' Arthas declared as Jaina burned their wrappings for disposal to enter the village, but they came upon quite the sight.

'...this is bad.' Arthas swore. 'Those crates bear the regional seal of Andorhal, the distribution center for the northern boroughs. If the people get these and eat them and by then the spell seeped beyond detection, there's no telling how many people will soon become undead!'

'We better find the shipments and destroy them. Quickly.' Sakura swore as they destroyed the granary and disinfected the land with their sorcery before moving on, dreading every minute as they continued. And not far from the granary were another skeleton horde.

'This proves that they all want us a part of them.' said Jaina dryly while fighting her fair share of skeletons.

'Like, hell no.' Arthas scoffed.

'Well, the only useful thing they're for is to get us used to them so we can beat them faster.' Sakura grinned as she delighted in violence. They came upon two Priests from Quel'Thalas who also came to investigate, so information sharing began that the most knowledgeable one, was Sakura who encountered this before. So one of the priests left for Quel'Thalas to report home and one stayed to assist them.

They also claimed of a granary at the end of the village...Arthas recruited a Mortar Team whom they found shooting at Skeletons. Handy for destroying a building! Afew more hours later...when they got there, they saw a bunch of cultists!

'It's them! The Cult of the Damned!' Sakura exclaimed as there was a necromancer with a bunch of Acolytes, Skeletons and an Abomination.

'We've been discovered, my brothers.' said the Necromancer as the Acolytes ran off. 'Flee and continue the operation!' then he turned to their group. 'I'm sorry I can't stay and chat,' he drawled mockingly, '-but duty calls.' he then raised his staff, but as soon as he did, Sakura attacked him with a spell, punching a hole through his chest and his head. But the Ghouls and Skeletons came attacking, and behind them was the giant.

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'It looks like its been sewn out of different corpses...' Jaina shook in disgust.

'Let's study it AFTER we kill it, OK?' Arthas snarked at her playfully before it went serious business. Once they were done...

'Destroy that Warehouse! Now!' they all gave it all they got till it was no more than ashes.

'Those creeps will be in Andorhal next no doubt.' said Sakura as they cleansed and purified the soil while burning all else. 'We better move quickly. I wish I can say that but we who are living, need to eat, drink, sleep while those lot can walk without stopping.'

'Let's get to Andorhal or at least, close to it somehow.' said Arthas. 'Then we can rest.'

xxx

Their journey to Andorhal continued for days. And no stopovers whatsoever that they stored up bottles of water from the Fountain of Health so they can keep going. But upon arrival in Andorhal, they saw some Acolytes gathering around a gold mine.

'They're haunting a Gold Mine!' Sakura cried. 'If a Gold Mine is haunted, those creeps can harvest gold willy-nilly through sorcery!'

'And I don't want to know why they want gold. Attack!' Arthas barked as to prevent them from running, the lady mages made short work of them. 'Phew...let's make a base camp here. I'd rather not head out there without backup.'

'I couldn't agree more.' said Jaina darkly.

'We could also use some money from the gold mine we got for our journey.' said Sakura optimistically. 'Can't do anything in the world without coin you know.'

'How sad that sad truth is.' Jaina giggled.

'Money makes the world go round.' Arthas snorted. They could only sardonically agree with that.

After building a base and trained some locals to become capable soldiers that took days, they set off on their quest to explore Andorhal...and came upon a small undead base.

'Now I'm glad we built camp...they're just two hours away from us!' Arthas exclaimed in horror at how close they were to danger had they marched on just by themselves. They had to destroy an undead base with some difficulty.

'Phew...and to think this is just a small base.' Arthas sighed tiredly.

'You haven't seen a stronghold yet, young prince...a horrifying experience I barely survived from.' Sakura told him grimly. 'You think this small base gave you a hard time? You haven't seen anything yet. For now we're lucky that this is just a small base, and a neglected one at that.' she noted there's only one Necropolis, three Spirit Towers, one Graveyard and one Cult Temple. 'Had it been very active...we'd be dead long ago and turned into one of them.'

'...scary prospect there...'

'Jaina, let's purify this place and burn the dead trees.' Sakura told Jaina who nodded as they cleansed the place first. 'Alrighty, that gold mine is now ours as well.' she declared. 'I hope while we're going around, we amass enough travel expenses!'

With Andorhal nearby, it was in flames, undead around and about, and...didn't they kill that Wizard?!

'Hello again, children.' he said. 'I am Kel'thuzad and I've come to deliver a warning: leave well enough alone.' said Kel'thuzad. 'Your curiosity will be the death of you.'

After getting what they wanted from the man, Sakura gladly killed him again.

'If he's alive again, he must be a high-ranking agent.' said Jaina gruffly. 'We better hurry for Andorhal and hopefully everyone knows by now.'

xxx

Early next morning, their party arrived at Hearthglen.

'Hearthglen, finally.' Jaina sighed in relief and longing. 'I could use some rest.'

However, there seems to be UNrest in the village, if at the beginning of sunrise, they see villagers training as Riflemen!

'It looks like they're preparing for battle...something's wrong.' Arthas frowned. Sakura conjured an orb showing her images of the past.

'...looks like we'll be a welcome force here young prince...' she frowned. 'The Undead got here too so even the villagers took up arms.' she explained. 'Last night, villages around this area are attacked at random...'

Something in her pockets beeped and glowed, so she took it out. 'Report!'

'Headmistress, the Starfall Towers are active for a night straight, blasting at something outside! We are under attack!' Sakura pinched her nose hard.

'I'll be there!' Sakura looked at Arthas and Jaina. 'It seems today, you'll be on your own. My city is under attack the whole night. My mages don't dare to come out unless ordered by me so I have to go.'

'We'll be alright here, lady.' said Arthas, unhappy that a reliable ally had to go, but for understandable reasons as Sakura left for home using magic.

Upon arrival outside her city gates, she was in the middle of an undead swarm and she killed them all herself by conjuring a powerful wall of fire that burned them all to cinders. Undead army she can handle. A quick-productive base, she needed help with!

She gathered all her mages and led them to battle, to destroy surrounding undead bases that numbered an appalling ten, surrounding the city at all sides, making it for a tough, harrowing battle.

'I spent a couple millennia bringing life to this continent and they take it away...blast those Legion monsters!' Sakura swore as she was on lookout, while her mages rested. A raven landed before her, turning into a travel and weather-beaten old man with a staff. 'Who are you?'

'This land is lost...the shadow has fallen.' he said. 'And everything you try will do nothing to deter it.' the man told her. 'Go, lady mage. To save your people, lead them west, across the sea.' he advised. 'There you must make a final stand with the very tribe who took you in.'

'Kalimdor...are they after the Well of Eternity again?' Sakura pinched her nose. '10000 years ago, some idiot elf queen drunk on her own ego and power fell in love with a titan from the Burning Legion equaling her power...and led these monsters to Azeroth unknown to everyone. I understand that much from reading books and hidden entries in the library made by those who weren't glamoured to love her. After a harrowing battle, the Well of Eternity was lost...its destruction caused a once-whole continent to split apart, separated by sea.' she swore at this. 'However, not like I can make my opinion known...the Kal'dorei and their splintered kin the quel'dorei are under a glamour made to love Azshara, the lost Queen of the Highborne Elves, without question. Half of the current Quel'dorei are at least, right in the heads.'

'That's a rather troubling tale...but it seems long done and over with.' the man mused. 'For now, depart and take your people to safety.'

'What of this continent?' Saura asked him.

'Lost.' said the man flatly. 'It will take great power to take this land back. It'll take decades to do so.' and turning into a raven, he left.

'...might as well do this as early as possible.' Sakura muttered as she led her mages home...and started planning for an exodus. Using magic, she grew a lot of food ready for harvest instantly to store into storehouses, and put all city activity to stop.

Sakura gave a grim history lesson that can be heard all over the city, before telling that the Burning Legion had returned to Azeroth to try to claim its life again as they had tried 10000 years back.

'...that is why for the next few days, we will stock up on gold, food, water, clothing and medicine before fleeing to Kalimdor! Students from the Alliance, decide what you wish to do. You have three days. I have sent messengers to the Alliance regarding this matter. This city will close and flee to Kalimdor for safety. We are surrounded by all sides already and there's no telling what awaits us beyond the lands we cleansed. Ten undead bases, we have no idea if there are more near this city so travel outside is unsafe on foot. If you wish to go home to your families, I shall teleport you home to safety. Classes are dismissed. For good.'

Needless to say, the city is in an uproar.

xxx

'Headmistress, is this certain?' in her office, the sons and daughters of royals and nobles who showed interest in magic have assembled.

Their Headmistress looked grim and troubled.

'I'm afraid so...in all the years I've lived here, I made this land beautiful with life. Living in the forest was made easy by me as there's plenty of food for travelers and the wildlife who feed on grass and fruit. The water crystal clean and pure for drink. But now, that very life I cultivated for millennia for Elune will soon be lost.' said Sakura sadly. 'You must flee with your people to the west. And we must gather power to take back this land in decades to come. For this reason, I will not remove the Immortality Spell on you. You must live to lead, until things are back to normal, hopefully. It'll take long, hard years but we cannot stay in Kalimdor for long either. That is a country by itself. We will seek asylum from its people, the Night Elves...and we'll have to live on an island until we can go back to Lordaeron. And I know a place we can go to but the question is...where will your countries go? And how long can we stay?'

That was their problem, not hers.

The nobles understandably, went home, so Sakura can focus on evacuation, and paid for a lot of ships in the nearby shipyard she promised protection and business with.

It was good she has a family registry, updated every few births in families as papers containing obsolete information are always burned. And with babies around, production of diapers is important, too, as well as ahem, female necessities for THAT time.

She could plan the number of ships they need and how it should be made per family, as well as magical bathing and toilet facilities, and a canteen for everyone's scheduled dining at breakfast, lunch and dinner. Then beyond civilian access, is a massive storehouse of sustenance and medicine to last a month, and the machinery managed by goblin engineers to keep it working and running. She paid the goblins A LOT in money and sustenance for their two way trip home to their home shipyard, so she had to keep growing crops and producing food en-masse with her people. That, and save up seeds. Again.

Her unnamed city that she finally named Moongrove City has a lot of people. Population now? 200.000.

Plenty of food and money naturally means huge families. Unlike most peasantry who have four family members at most, the families in her city are huge...as far as TEN per household. To the point that eventually, they became their own country that she's able to raise a human military trained for battle, stronger than any military in Azeroth as she knows how magi warriors fight from Earth. Sure she learned Night Elven Martial Arts, but she hardened and improved herself with Earth Knowledge, and passed it on into her military academy and mage academies. They are a brutal force by their own right.

She also holds festivals to keep up morale. Sports Festival, Cultural Festival, Tournaments, and other Competitions. Rewards are real of course. She also has recreational areas built. She learns from other cultures by observation, thanks!

She then set loose her puppet army, branded with the mark of Moongrove City, programmed to attack all undead. To weed out the forces enough and keep roaming as long as the Moonwells and Fountain of Manas existed for refueling until their return home. As much as she wanted to welcome the quel'dorei, letting them have shelter in her city...what if she gave an inch, they took a mile and take HER city from her? She's generous, not stupid.

'Alright, took us a month to pack up and preserve food we need for this journey.' said Sakura as she got reports from her peasants. She then magically amplified her voice. 'Everyone! Tomorrow morning, we will set sail two hours after sunrise! All magicians will help you pack your homes using spells. Pack only what is important in bags for your use in living in a ship for a month as we prioritized sustenance for this journey in the vast spaces of our transport ships.'

Sakura took care of the schools and the castle that was both, her home and administrative offices.

Moongrove set sail...for Kalimdor hence.

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