Vala slipped off her albino drake, sincerely thanked the young dragon for the ride, then stretched and rolled her shoulders, working out the stiffness from flying in the cold. The drake dipped her head in acknowledgement of the thanks and then flew off. Vala watched her, always enjoying seeing dragons in flight, almost as much as she enjoyed riding on one. She shook her head slightly, still in awe of them, the dragons, and still amazed that Thirigosa had consented to provide her with rides when she needed.
Something poked her in the neck as she continued to stretch. She reached into her hood to pull out the offending object. A leaf? She studied the silvery leaf a moment, then smiled. She’d probably picked that up on one of Thiri’s dives through the branches of one of those bright shimmering trees of Crystalsong Forest. Vala often wondered, particularly after antics like that, whether the drake was really nearly an adult, as she claimed. In many ways she seemed even younger than herself. Well, relatively speaking.
After the drake disappeared into the distance, Vala turned and surveyed Krasus’ Landing. For a while now, she’d been unable to shake the feeling that she was being watched. But she had yet to spot anyone paying particular attention to her. She had become aware of it shortly after she’d learned that some cultists had apparently targeted a former member of Veritas. Her investigations into the activities of the Cult of the Damned at Deathspeaker’s Watch had yielded little that was useful, although she was now fairly certain that they were connected to that man she’d seen a few weeks ago checking the Veritas guild roster. And she was also pretty certain that the cultists were getting desperate, fearing the loss of their power with the increasingly successful assaults on Icecrown Citadel. Desperate fanatics could do anything, could lash out anywhere. Uneasy with her thoughts, she headed further into Dalaran proper, absently greeting a couple of the Kirin Tor as she passed them.
She had no particular destination in mind and so slowly walked the streets, content to observe, and hoping she might eventually gain some insight or sudden inspiration into what was going on. The only thing that occurred to her was that perhaps she was just being paranoid. As she strolled, she casually tossed her Worn Troll Dice a couple of times, both times rolling a five and a three. She wondered if that meant something. Maybe she should ask a fortune-telling friend of hers; she might know if rolling the same numbers on dice had any significance. She shook her head at herself. Now she was probably just being silly.
Passing the entrance to A Hero’s Welcome, Vala paused to sniff appreciatively. It smelled like Miss Lee was cooking up something delicious inside. Vala’s stomach rumbled, reminding her that her last meal had been far too long ago. With a last look around the bustling streets, she entered the inn, eagerly anticipating a hot meal and apparently oblivious to the eyes that followed her every move.