Gnolls are one of the most common barbaric and low-intelligence creatures in the world of Azeroth. They have a very primitive civilization, probably only at the level of using fire and simple tools.
These humanoid creatures have no concept of right and wrong; all their actions are for survival. So when they are hungry, they will collectively hunt wild animals. If the harvest from hunting is not enough, they will naturally rob human civilians who are weak in resistance. It is winter now, and most wild animals are hibernating. The gnolls' food reserves are almost exhausted, so they can only set their sights on humans.
This is a small tribe of only twenty or so gnolls. They do not have the ability to rob villages, because assembled farmers will fight back with tools such as pitchforks, hoes, and scythes. Not to mention that some sturdy civilians also have weapons such as bows, arrows, knives, and guns prepared at home.
So their target is lone individuals.
And today they have harvested a human child—such prey is tender and lacks resistance, making it the most suitable! Adding some wild vegetables is enough for the gnolls of this small tribe to eat their fill for two meals.
They lit a bonfire and stripped off the human child's clothes. Another gnoll prepared a pointed wooden stick, ready to 'skewer' the child. In the past, they had always grilled food in this way. The other gnolls looked enviously at their companion holding the pointed wooden stick—this was a special honor only for gnoll warriors.
The human child cried loudly. Just as the gnoll warrior was about to strike, the hissing sound of a sharp arrow cutting through the air came from afar. Then, a crossbow bolt shot through its head with great force, knocking it entirely away and pinning it to a pillar of the fur tent.
"Enemies, enemies!" The gnolls immediately shouted in their language.
Then they saw the appearance of the enemies: a human man and four women.
The gnolls, who had originally been worried about being surrounded by a large number of humans, immediately calmed down. The numerical advantage gave them great encouragement. So they picked up their crude weapons and roared as they charged towards them.
"Meat, more fresh meat!"
But the result was too different from what they expected.
After quickly resolving the gnolls, Aiden went over to put clothes on the human child and comfort him. There were four women present, but none of them seemed to want to come up and help.
Aiden glanced at them, seeing that they were all turning their heads away somewhat awkwardly.
Vayne certainly didn't seem like the type of girl to coax a child. The angels—well, these angels were slightly different from those in Christian mythology.
While comforting the sobbing child, he sized him up: the child was about six or seven years old, fair-skinned, with light brown hair. He was very frightened, and his eyes were swollen from crying. Moreover, he had just been stripped of his clothes and left on the cold ground, his lips were blue and purple from the cold, and he was constantly sniffling.
Aiden reached out and released a warm ray of Holy Light, dispelling the chill on his body.
The child immediately stopped crying, and he looked at Aiden in surprise and asked, "Are you a paladin, uncle?"
"I guess so...?" Aiden wasn't sure of his own class: he had learned time magic from Zilean, and had also obtained a mark from Cenarius that allowed him to cast some natural spells. Recently, he had also obtained the divine power of the Quel'Thalas clan from the Holy Transformation ritual.
So, all in all, he was a combination of summoner, mage, non-shapeshifting druid, and paladin.
"Little friend, what's your name? I'll take you home," Aiden said softly.
"My name is Timmy, uncle!" the child replied.
Timmy—?
Aiden looked at the child's innocent blue eyes again in surprise.
Could it be such a coincidence?
"What's your name, uncle?" Timmy asked innocently.
"My name is—Aiden."
"Aiden, Ai-den?" Timmy, disoriented and fearful , struggled to pronounce the words.
"Yes, that's right. Where is your home? We'll take you home!" Aiden reached out and picked up Timmy.
When Vayne heard that they were going to take the child home, she frowned slightly: "But over there—" She was referring to tracking Brox.
"Pamyel and I will go, you and Kayle and Ophiel continue to chase. I can teleport over with a teleport beacon when the time comes!"
The two teams separated, and Aiden and Pamyel took Timmy back to the village. Pamyel asked softly, "Commander, this child?"
"He's a bit special." Aiden told her about Timmy according to his memory:
In the original World of Warcraft. When Prince Arthas went to investigate the plague, he was asked by a mother in a certain village to find her missing son, Timmy. It turned out that Timmy had been snatched away by gnolls. Later, Timmy was rescued, but his village was attacked by orcs, and most of the villagers were captured by the orcs.
At that time, Timmy asked the prince: What about those who were captured by the orcs?
The prince replied: Don't worry, child, I will bring them home.
—But the prince's promise was not fulfilled. When he arrived at the orc camp, these people had already been slaughtered by the orcs.
This scene deeply struck Arthas. But what was even more heartbreaking was that while pursuing Kel'Thuzad, the mastermind who released the plague, Arthas found a small ghoul in a cage. It would not actively attack people—but its name was Timmy!
This was almost equivalent to stabbing Arthas in the heart. He had made a promise, but failed to protect the safety of his people. This deep sense of frustration plunged the proud Arthas into painful torment.
When Aiden was playing World of Warcraft, he saw Timmy again in the Scarlet area of Stratholme—at this time, he had become a Scourge commander in the Scarlet area, named "Poor Timmy."
According to common sense, Timmy should not have been captured by gnolls several months earlier. But now that Aiden had encountered such a thing, he had an absurd premonition: Could it be that he was going to replace Arthas and become the person condemned by his conscience?
Pamyel asked softly: "Are you saying that Timmy's village may have encountered some changes?"
"I'm afraid so."
More than ten minutes later, Aiden followed Timmy's guidance and found his home—but from afar, he knew that something had happened here. Because the entire village was filled with smoke and fire. Some villagers were running around putting out the fire.
Aiden quickly rushed into the village, grabbed a panicked villager and asked: "What happened?"
The middle-aged villager saw him and the angel Pamyel next to him, and stared in surprise: "You, are you that Valoran Grand Lord Aiden?"
Aiden didn't expect his reputation to have spread here, but he thought it must be because of the angel Pamyel.
"I am."
The villager immediately said angrily: "A group of orcs came to rob our village, and most of the people in the village were captured or killed by those ferocious beasts! They also set fire to our houses, those damned things!"
"Are Timmy's parents still there?" Aiden quickly asked.
The villager looked sad, looking at Timmy in his arms: "His parents were both captured."
Aiden's heart sank. He entrusted Timmy to the villager and asked for the direction the orcs had left in: "I will try my best to rescue them."
"That's really too grateful to you, Lord Grand Lord!"
Timmy looked at Aiden with big eyes before leaving his arms: "Uncle Aiden, will you rescue my parents and those who were captured from the orcs?"
Aiden nodded heavily and said: "I will try my best—at least I will make the orcs pay the price!"
He was a little afraid to face Timmy's pure gaze. At the same time, in his heart, he began to sympathize with the fallen Arthas in the original history—not everyone can easily withstand the inner whipping. Still so many times.
"Pamyel!" He gestured.
The angel Pamyel grabbed his hand and took him into the sky. Now, the sooner they arrived, the sooner they could save those who had been captured.
… …
The sky slowly darkened. Anub'arak contacted more than three hundred of his crypt fiend subordinates. Brox followed him and raided an orc camp. He could tell from the symbols of these orcs that they originally belonged to a branch of the Blackrock clan. Some evil teleportation arrays were built in the camp, and the orc warlocks communicated with the demons in the Twisting Nether through it to gain their support.
These orcs completely succumbed to the power of the demons. According to common sense, they should be natural allies of the Scourge, but the fact is not the case. Not only because the Lich King harbored ulterior motives, but also because there were many races of demons, and not all demons knew the relationship between the Lich King and Kil'jaeden.
So whether it was Anub'arak or Brox, they had no psychological burden at all when they attacked these orcs.
With preparation against unpreparedness, this raid achieved complete results. Brox had more than a hundred converted orc subordinates.
"Let's go to the next orc camp, there are more than three hundred orcs there, it's a very strong force." Anub'arak let out a piercing laugh.
"Lead the way!"
What surprised Brox was that in this camp he not only saw orcs, but also many human prisoners!
"Surprise!"
"Good news."
So their team expanded once again.
When Aiden saw the burning tents in this camp in the sky, he realized that he might already be too late.
He and Pamyel landed on the ground, seeing the mess everywhere, his heart kept sinking.
The camp was full of blood and broken limbs. He picked up a hard arthropod limb and recognized that it was a part of the crypt fiend that had attacked them from behind during the day. And not far away, such corpses were scattered.
"We are one step late." Aiden's voice was a little dry.
Pamyel said softly: "The Scourge's spider monsters attacked this orc camp, and also killed the human prisoners."
"Brox and Anub'arak have been here. And their team has expanded again." Aiden was silent for a while, and said in a deep voice, "Let's go, catch up with Kayle and the others, we should not be too far from the target."
Pamyel took his hand and flew into the sky again.