1. Nilda Meyrick: Goodbye Home

The sun hadn't fully risen yet but I was wide awake, sat upon the steps on the front door and I could smell the remains of summer in the air. The harvest was almost over and the scent lingered in the air especially with the dawn this close and the chill of the night still noticeable.

Never before I had felt this exited and scared at the same time, I had made up my mind but somewhere deep inside I wasn't so certain afterall. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes just to try and clear my mind. In these moments I always let my mind wander to the one and only memory I had left from my mother, a lullaby. It felt soothing to be able to recall her voice even if I was still a small child back then, but it kept her love alive and I clinged to that one thing of her I had left aside from a few old paintings and the stories from father.
Around me the sun began to shine upon the fields and some farmers started to come out of the houses, some of their wives with a child upon their hip, to start a new day. The same routine as the one before, same old.
How it bored me, I found it all so dull and I ached for adventure. To get away from this place and become somebody without just following the path within these boundaries. Explore the world on my own and see things I haven't seen before.
It made no sense, even to me, how I started to think of a future away from Hillsbrad. Learn how to fight and go who knows where.

But it's what I had set my mind on, I could always come back if things would not turn out how I wanted it. Why stay and wonder what could have happened if I can leave and see for myself what I can do? Yes maybe I am just yet another farmgirl but why should I not try? I have heard of the wars that have been raging, the dangers just around the corner. I'm not a coward and I am certain I can learn if I put my mind to it?
And for that I have to leave, today.

Inside I can hear fathers footsteps on the stairs and I slowly rise to walk back inside to get his breakfast that I had made before coming outside. I move over to the table to set down his plate and a mug of coffee when he greets me with a kiss on the back of my head.
“Morning Nilda” he speaks in a voice still hoarse from sleep. I smile at him, albeit a little nervous.
“Good morning paps, sit down I made your breakfast”
He smiles at me with a simple nod and sits down to start eating and I stand a few steps away, just watching him and trying to gather my courage to tell him I'm leaving. Should have known he'd be on to me without a single word, he knows me so well.
“What's on your mind Babe?”
I watch him put his mug back down and look at me with that typicall fatherly expression of worry and it nearly makes me changes my mind. How can I leave him here alone? I've taken care of him for so long ever since I was old enough.
“It's nothing paps, just finish your breakfast and I'll start doing the laundry”
I'm about to turn around and walk back out when I feel his hand on my shoulder, squeezing lightly and the breath of his sigh in the back of my neck.

“Nilda .... something is going on, why don't you just tell me?”
With my eyes staring infront of me, outside the house I take a deep breath before speaking. My words are not much more then whispers, insecurity creeping up inside when I finally tell him about my plans. It sounds even more ridiculous when spoken outloud.
“I want to leave the Fields, go to Stormwind ... search for training ... to learn to fight”
For a few moments the silence feels heavy on me, all I can hear is my own nervous breathing while fathers hand on my shoulder tenses up, holding me more firmly.

He breaks the silence with a deep and heavy sigh, and I just know that he is shaking his head.
“Why would you want that sweetheart, we have everything here. You and me”
My ideas nearly get crushed entirely by his words, I can hear his pain of the thought that I am leaving him behind. But somehow I realize that I do not wish to stay, I really -want- to leave. And he'll not hold me back of my dreams or what I have chosen to do. So I put my hand on his and turn around to face him with a smile and shake my head.

“It's what I want to do paps, I don't want to remain on the farm for my whole life. Never do anything worth mentioning, I want to become someone who makes a difference. Be part of something bigger then just ... this.”

Of course he doesn't understand this, what's wrong with a perfectly happy life on a farm afterall? If it comes to stubbornness paps is even worse then me and no matter how hard I try I can't convince him to let me go.
“You are all I have left Nilda”
Oh how it stings to hear that, I wish my mother was still around. I can see how much he misses her, how much I remind him of her. But it's not up to me to fill that empty place for him.
“I can't put my desires aside for you paps, and I won't”
Tears are filling my eyes when I tell him this because I can see how the words break him and he remains silent. Turning around to stare at the painting on the wall of us three I hear him swallow away his own tears.
It's time for me to go and I know it, otherwise I'd never leave at all. When I run upstairs I look around to see what I have to bring but there is nothing to take but some spare clothings and the few silvers I had saved up.

My whole body is shaking when I come back down and see that father hasn't moved an inch, just frozen in place. Again I feel uncertain when I go say goodbye to him, hugging him tightly and trying my best to fight back the tears that well up in my eyes.
He wraps his arms around me, and for a moment I think he'll try to stop me but he pushes me away and looks at me wide a loving smile. His face stained with tears with his hands firmly on my shoulders.
“Write me, look after yourself .. Stormwind is a big city”
With a short and uncertain nod I smile back at him, somewhat relieved.
“Of course paps, I'll come visit too”
With a last hug we say goodbye and I step out into the sunlight and I swear I could hear him say
“I love you Babe” when I made my way down towards the road. Suddenly very scared of what was awaiting me out there, all alone.

Who would have thought that I'd return only a few weeks later to stay here with the Argent Crusade as one of them, training and setting out for a big campaign. Only a few weeks that would have changed me for good, only the start of a series of events that would make me open my eyes of the cruelty of the world we live in.
Just a few weeks before my home would be entirely destroyed and taken over by the forsaken while I kept going from battle to battle. Reclaiming the Plaguelands, form a new order and eventually settle down in Stromgarde with my new friends. Become a wife and carry two children in my womb.
Who would have thought that just a few months from here I'd not recognise myself anymore and would have become much more then I even could have thought off when I made my decision to step out of that door and down that road.

Love it!

Marvelous! Barely recognize the girl in the story. She's come a long way.