In which Miss Harrington babysits Emilia and goes to Darnassus

**Camilla** Tue Apr 30, 2013 10:12 pm

Paws shut the door to the storage room that was Cásey and Emilia’s humble home. For a moment she stood quietly outside the door, leaned up against it. She was tired, so incredibly tired. Healing Cásey’s infected bite, and before that fighting the Worgen off him on top of a long day, was a little more than Paws remembered having signed up for when she joined the Undermarket. “Get rich, with very little work!” was the Boss’ words, or something like that. Paws frowned. Quite an understatement! Here she was, smeared in someone else’s blood, fatigued and still not even remotely rich and to top it off, Paws was caring. Caring about people’s wellbeing, caring about her organization, heck she was even caring about some guy and his kid. Pushing all these thoughts out of her head, Paws gathered the strength to shape shift to her human form before heading down to talk to Stone, the shopkeeper.

With obvious relief the shopkeeper handed the sleeping toddler over to Annely. She smiled at him and placed a handful of silver coins on the desk in front of him, before turning on the spot and carrying Emilia out into the night. Stormwind had grown a little quieter since she carried Cásey back to Old Town, however, Annely took the long way around, not daring go near the alleys around the Pig. She couldn’t risk someone picking her for an easy target, not when she had Emilia with her. The toddler was sound asleep on her arm, but the weight of the sleeping child felt even heavier than Cásey’s unconscious body had just a few hours before, but this was no time to whine. Annely was almost at her destination.
The front room of the Gilded Rose was quiet, and the landlord was snoozing in a chair behind the counter. Annely rang the bell, and the elderly man jumped in surprise and blinked a few times at the woman with the child, before coming to his senses and answering Annely’s request for a room for the night. Gently lying the still sleeping Emilia down on the crisp white linen of the bed in the room, Annely found she was barely able to stand up anymore. Sitting herself down on the bed, she removed the thick leather gloves, the high collar that kept her delicate neck safe and her dreadful scar hidden, her worn boots and the heavy shoulderpads. Annely decided to stay in the leggings and tunic, just in case someone decided to show up and she’d have to fight. She leaned herself back on the bed next to Emilia and was asleep before her head hit the pillow.

Annely slept past the tolling of the bells that called the good Light-fearing people of Stormwind to the Cathedral on a Sunday morning. She slept past the bells at noon, and practically didn’t stir until Emilia woke her up. The child was hungry, wet and in an unfamiliar place and Annely didn’t really have the solution to any of those problems at hand. As she considered her options and tried to soothe the unhappy child, a knock on the door brought her back to reality. Annely tore the door open and outside was the landlady. “Sweetheart, your girl’s been making a racket for an hour now. Should we call for a doctor?” The old lady looked concerned. “No, she’s just.. “ Annely sighed.
“She ain’t your’s is she?” the landlady smiled. “No, it’s my friend’s.. He’s.. Injured.”

Resolutely the old lady took Emilia off her arm, and the child seemed calm down a little almost instantly. “Dear, don’t hold her like she’s a parcel..” the old lady smiled. “There, there.. Let me change her and make sure she gets something to eat.” The old lady eyed Annely “I’ll bet my inn you’ve never cooked porridge in your life..” Annely sighed. “I’ll cook you some breakfast too. Have a bath, dear. I’ll take care of the little one.” Before Annely could protest to letting the old woman walk off with Cásey’s precious child, the old lady was down the stairs towards the kitchen.

Two hours later, Annely and Emilia was outside the Gilded Rose again, this time in the late afternoon sunshine. Both were clean, happy and well fed. The landlady had even offered an old but clean “new” dress for Emilia and tied the child’s long brown locks back with a small blue ribbon. During breakfast the landlady had to great length lectured Annely about the needs and abilities of a two year old, and thus Emilia was currently standing on her own feet, firmly holding Annely’s hand.

Annely looked down at the huge blue eyes that was looking up at her. “You ready to go home to daddy, so Paws can go to Darnassus and get him some antidote for the worgen-bite?” The two year old looked up at her, nodded firmly and ventured an approving “Da!”. Annely nodded. “Yeah, we’re going home to daddy.”
Walking from the Gilded Rose to Honest Blades in Old Town took a lot longer with Emilia in tow. There were cats that needed petting, questions about ‘woo-woo’s, and it was essential to have a break on the bridge between Old Town and Trade to look down at the water and spot glittery fish and small boats going under the bridge. Annely held the child around her tiny waits and let her look over the side of the stone bridge. The child’s energy and enthusiasm was contagious, and with a solid meal in her stomach and a solid night’s sleep behind her, Annely felt energetic and optimistic. She scooped Emilia up and placed her on her shoulders, much to the child’s delight. Apparently the world from this height was even more of a wonder than the world from street level.

When they reached Honest Blades, Annely felt a little sad at the prospect of giving Cásey his daughter back. Emilia was a sweet, well-tempered and easy child. She lifted Emilia off her shoulders, held her safely and still comfortably as the landlady had shown her, and carried her up the dusty stairs to the storage room. When she knocked on the door, Annely was relieved to hear Cásey answer her immediately. She stepped inside, placed Emilia gently on her own feet again, and watched the child pad across the floor to embrace Cásey.

Cásey looked somewhat better, sitting up against the wall. The bandage around the wound looked clean and he seemed to have slept and had something to eat. Annely dropped off a bag of leftover food from the breakfast and refused all Cásey’s kind offers to pay her for her help. As she was about to leave, Emilia insisted on being hugged and Annely could barely make herself leave. Back out on the street of Old Town, Annely told herself to get it together. She felt good, she had energy and she had something important to do. Annely muttered the calling of the Stormcrow and in the blink of an eye the young woman had transformed into a huge, black crow. She spread her wings, and let the wind take her high above the dirty streets of Old Town. The lazy afternoon sun hang low above the harbor as she swooped down and placed herself on the mast of a ship headed to Darnassus.