Finding Familiars

OOC: Just a short story regarding Alorah thinking about the past regarding her first student, Naz'aya Serpentine; who betrayed the Kirin Tor and was expelled. Enjoy!


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Alorah bloated her cheeks as she exhaled, defeated. Leaning back in her cushioned chair – away from the desk that was stacked with towers of paper work – the chair too gave an exhausted creak, but her work was done.
“Jeez. Find me a student that doesn’t double my work and I’ll kiss his feet.”
She muttered to herself casually, but the moment the words left her lips the sudden nostalgia she was met with made her jerk a little, like one does when accidentally burning the edge of their hand on a hot kettle. Thoughts of the past came to mind.

She leant forward again, and parted the towers of tomes and parchments; some escapees rolling off her desk and onto the marble flooring with a gentle ‘tak' sound; the pillars of information about students joining the Kirin Tor was adjacent to her current thought process.
When she had cleared a space on her cluttered desk she could now see her oil lamp and several other trinkets that inhabited the furniture, the most prominent was an old picture frame, standing up with the figure encased inside staring serenely. A fancy photograph created by gnomish technology – showed a man, not a day past twenty five with a strong, broad jaw line and yellowy-blonde hair roughly framing his well groomed face.

The arch mage lowered her eyelids slowly and sullenly, she felt that itchy pain on the tip of her nose that one feels when they’re about to cry, yet nothing happened. Any feelings she had to leak about the death of her fiancé in the Dalaran disaster were well and truly ran dry. With the mental commotion going on, Lemmiwinx the faerie dragon (Alorah’s familiar) stirred from his sleep atop of the four poster bed in Alorah’s quarters – the mental connection the two shared meant no sleep was imminent for the fickle creature, he raised his chameleon like body off the silk sheet and stretched the butterfly wings on his back outward to their full span – when the light connected they sent colours flying about the room like sunlight through a stained glass window.

Alorah cursed herself upon hearing him stir, and her long elven ears turned to the soft beating of wings; before she knew it Lemmiwinx was landing down between her wrists that rested on the desk, bringing his flying disco reflections with him into the dully lit room. He gave a small keen, with double barrel meaning – either along the lines of inquiring if she was fine, or annoyance for waking him with her noisy thoughts; regardless, she tickled his chin in response.

“I’m sorry my pet. I guess with that letter I received from Naz’aya, my mind has been flooded with nostalgia.”

Naz’aya.
The grandfather clock in her study was the only noise.
Tick, tock, tick, tock tick, tock.

She reached for the handle of her desk drawer and pushed aside its contents when it was opened, a second picture frame was face down, its velvet back collecting dust.
She plucked it out from its prison of pencils and paper clips and brought it to stand beside Lemmiwinx, who crawled around to inspect its picture. Another photograph, this time with three people – Alorah, herself with shorter hair, which was the only difference about her despite the photo being taken decades ago. Beaming so widely you could see her gums; the second person towered half a head above Alorah, he was hunched to fit into the photograph, grinning awkwardly under his stubbly short beard, his brunette head was leant inward beside Alorah’s, making somewhat of a triangle in the picture.

And then the last figure, tiny and inside the pyramid with shoulders adorning both hands of her superiors was childhood Naz’aya. Her smile mirrored both Alorah’s and Arenfel’s, wide but at the same time somewhat awkward, as if wary of the camera. She was missing a canine at the time, had braided hair and looked around ten, with several large dark freckles sporting her cheeks on her mocha coloured skin.
Alorah remembered the day the photograph was taken; she draw fat lines through the dust when wiping the faces clean on the glass of the frame then sat it up beside her fiancé, before collapsing chin first into her arms, she closed her eyes but she was staring into the past.

Tick, tock tick, tock tick, tock.


“Aren’t you both EXCITED?!” Alorah threw her arms up in the air, almost taking out her airborne faerie dragon in the process – she faced the less from enthusiastic Arenfel Serpentine and Naz’aya, his step daughter and Alorah’s student, her broad grin died immediately upon seeing their faces. Naz’aya came to her rescue, and offered a hand out, the back of it facing skyward.
Alorah re-lit and slapped her hand on top of her students in the same fashion then kept it there.
Suddenly it was tense.
Arenfel glared at the joined hands with the same glower as if he was witnessing the boiling of live puppies.
“Aren-yo... put. Your hand. In...”
“We’re meant to be professionals damn it, this is a mission not a battle-ball game!”
It was silent apart from the ambience of birds chirping in the surrounding trees.
Kaw, kaw.
The two partners stared each other down, Naz’aya awkwardly glanced back and forth between before interjecting.
“Don’ be ah downah’. We are a team, afta’ all, father.” She chirped and gave Arenfel an infectious and universal daughterly smile that makes all father figures wilt and give in. The man’s azure eyes revealed from under his furrowed brow when his expression softened,
“Fine.”
He sighed in defeat and limply dropped his hand on top of Alorah’s.
“WOOSH!” all three broke the gesture by throwing their hands up, although some more enthusiastically than others.

There was walking for a while, along a dusty road. It was a warm day but it was cool under the canopy of trees, which Elwynn forest happened to be rich with and Azora tower was the destination.
“I’m hungry.” Peeped a high voice from behind Alorah on the saddle, the only thing to symbolise it was the miniature arms that wrapped around her waist.
“Hungry for what?”
“Eggs. I want a fried egg, or a boiled egg- or, or! Scrambled egg?”
The horse the two were on whickered as its reigns were jerked to a halt, Arenfel’s horse paused aside Alorah’s.
“Then eggs you shall have my glorious student! We have time, right Aren-yo? Marriage is the only thing I intend on doing late!” chimed Alorah, turning to her partner.
“Better not tell Khazard that." He chuckled, "Yeah, we’re early on schedule and there’s a farm before Azora tower that’s merely metres from here. I’ll get a fire going, and I’ll meet you back here.” He trotted off the road and dismounted on a nice patch of grass, wobbly bean-shaped pieces of sunlight littering it through the trees.


Upon arriving at the farm, Naz’aya achieved both boredom and a sore neck from looking up and listening to Alorah barter for a less-than-the-market sale price for some chicken eggs with the farmer, and decided to wander.
Making her way over to the poultry and game huts near the farmhouse while the adults argued in the distance, she poked at the chicken wire and tried to urge a rabbit from the corner of the hutch.
“Alright, Naz-yo. Pick some bigg’uns! We want the best for the price I’m paying for them, kora.”
Alorah seemed to spit the last segment of her sentence.
“’kay.”
Naz’aya pulled open the roof flap on the chicken coop, met with a few surprised clucks when daylight flooded into the coop – the chickens were all nested, however some were retreating for the exit upon being disturbed, and Naz’aya caught sight of a spectacularly fat egg amidst plenty more smaller ones.


“Hey...”
“What’s the matter Naz-yo?”
“I was jas’ wond’rin... when can I get a pet like Lemmiwinx, like you do?”
Alorah glanced up to Lemmiwinx, perched on her shoulder – she smiled then looked ahead again.
“Do you believe in fate, Naz’aya?”
“Sometimes I do, sometimes I don'. I don’ like d’idea of not bein’ in control ‘av m’own life. Y’know?”
“Yeah, I know. But sometimes, I feel it was fate that I happened to stumble upon Lemmiwinx, since he’s very complimentary to my chosen magic schools. Almost like he chose me, you could say! But don’t worry about it, unless your familiar chooses you – you don’t have to think about such a thing at this stage, even if you are advanced for your age.”

Naz’aya glanced down to the eggs that gently clacked together in the basket every time the saddle she was on moved with clopping footsteps, then affectionately buried her face into Alorah’s back.
“Okay.”
Alorah glanced back from the corner of her eye, smiling a little.
This kid...

Arenfel had prepared the fire flawlessly, and was conjuring a pot when the two returned. After tying the horses up Naz’aya suddenly let free a shrill scream, staring into the basket.
“What’s wrong?!” the two bolted up to her side to see what she was fixated on, staring in horror.
“One of d’eggs are hatching, it’s a dragon! It’s a dragon, run away!”
Arenfel burst into laughter firstly, and then followed by Alorah.
The youngster jerks her attention back and forth between her teachers’ cackles,
“Wha’? Are ya makin’ fun of me? What’s funny?!”
“That’s a snake egg, Naz’aya. Sometimes snakes lay their eggs among bird eggs so their young have something to eat when they hatch; it’s common with bigger breeds of snakes.”

The three watched in awe, tilting their heads to see the cracked flaps of the egg shell break open steadily here and there, a mass coil of miniature writhing ivory scales between the breakages. Two little snake snouts popped out of the same crack, gazing with black beady eyes, and the occasional tongue shooting in and out, tasting the air. Naz’aya gasped in surprise.
“Eeeeeeww! Two heads!”
“It looks like its twins!”
“You’re very lucky finding this Naz’aya.”
Both Alorah and Naz’aya looked to Arenfel, inquiring. He had a vast knowledge of snakes.
“The colour of the snakes, and twins too, a rare find indeed.” Arenfel rubbed his bristly beard in thought,
“Besides, they are just like my own first familiar.”

The child beamed happily, that gap of the missing tooth coming into view. The babies writhed out of their large shell and began wolfing a chicken egg each, and Alorah briefly groaned in horror.
“Looks like you’ve found your familiar after all, Naz-yo. And two of them! You really are a Serpentine family member, eh?” chimed Alorah.
Arenfel gave a broad smile.


Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock...
The clock chimed twelve.

For those who don't know the characters, defining the race within the story may be helpful. That would be my only criticism, it has been an interesting read.

Oh! That was careless of me. Alorah is a high elf and Arenfel/Naz'aya are humans. And thanks

I rather enjoyed that. I'd definitely say keep up the writing! Also, nothing wrong with the Naruto OST

I really enjoyed that. Alorah and Arenfel are both great characters. Looking forward to the next one!

Great little story, you write very well.

Thanks everyone! I'll be writing more for sure.