“These are better than lizard kabobs.” Keltyr waved the stick of savory roasted lamb with a smile. More food on a stick? Dorri was starting to think that he just liked the taste of toasted wood, but she took one of the sticks when he handed it to her anyway. “Do you really think you have to provision the boat?”
They had stopped twice now, so that Dorri could have supplies sent to where their waiting yacht should be. “It’s been almost a week. If she had any money left over, Lars’ has spent it by now. And we have to sail back.” She nibbled at the meat on a stick, doing her best to ignore the grease dribbling on her hands.
Keltyr shrugged. “Should have ordered a keg or two from the Pig and Whistle.”
“I’m not getting anything from some place that is infested with spiders.” She ignored Keltyr’s objections as they moved through the crowd of people. She stopped at one of the wine shops and had a few casks sent to the docks. “Light, I hope that she’s there.”
“If she’s not, it’s a long swim back to Orgrimmar.” Dorri grunted in response. “Lars will be there. And she’s probably picked the pocket of every sailor she’s seen.”
No good argument to that statement. They both knew that Lars had spent most of her free time in Orgrimmar picking pockets, when she was not peddling what drugs she could find. They had threatened to leave her locked up the last time she had stolen their thistle to sell on the streets. Two years spent mostly in Orgrimmar had driven all three of them to extremes. This mission into the heart of enemy territory, even with their explicit orders not to kill anyone, felt like a vacation.
The Stormwind docks were just as busy as the city. The mixtures of smells was so familiar to Dorri; they reminded her of Quel’thalas, of good times with her family. There had been precious few of those. Before she could get too comfortable, Keltyr stabbed her with the wooden skewer left over from his lunch.
“On Guard!” He took on an outrageous pirate accent and held the skewer to his nose as if it was a saber. She met his challenge by stuffing the last of her kabob into her mouth and matching him. The two disguised blood elves dueled their way towards the shabby side of the docks, seemingly oblivious to embarrassment.
They went around a corner and Lars dropped from a nearby balcony. “It’s about time. I’ve been waiting for days.”
“Did you find this laboratory?”
“Course I did. At the end of dock. We’re anchored nearby.” They followed Lars down the dock and stood in front a simple wooden door. “So, you two charge in and I’ll sneak up from behind!”
“I’ve got a better idea,” Keltyr knocked on the door and smiled at the man who opened it. “Hello professor.” Dorri leaned against the doorframe and listened to Keltyr talk. She did her best not to look frightening. “We heard you might be able to help us with something. We have an artifact on our ship and you are an expert. Will you do us the honor of examining it for us?”
“You have an art fact to share and I am perfect?” said the man; his voice raised and looking confused, “I’m sorry, young man, but I’ve got the burner on and am very busy right now, if you’ve got something important to talk to me about, please come inside.”
“That was…easier than expected. We’ll just have to speak up inside I guess.” Kel motioned towards the door. “After you.”
“By the way, just call me Doc, or Doc Verne or whatever, just watch out for the cages, the locks are loose, i’m checking to see if any of the animals are smart enough to break out.” Dorri looked nervously from side to side, examining the cages. She kept her arms close to her sides, just in case.
After going past a large horizontal copper cylinder, Verne turned a burner back up and watched with rapt attention while a liquid slowly boils. “Now while I wait for this to explode, what did you want?”
“Explodes? Should we be standing so close?” Dorri took a couple of steps backwards, while Keltyr repeated what he had said earlier about an artifact and their boat.
As Verne removes some wax from his ears, “Yes yes, this will be a controlled explosion, we’re quite safe, even this close. Here shove this in your ears though,” Verne said as he held out some balls of wax towards the visitors. “Once I’ve recorded these results I’ll be glad to take a look at this artifact.”
Lars and Dorri looked dubious, but Keltyr put two small bits of wax in his ears and gleefully discussed the upcoming explosion with their human target. The loud explosion took her by surprise and she let out a yell. The wooden table smoldered, but Doc looked pleased. He and Keltyr had already removed the wax from their ears and were looking over the damaged table and the destroyed lab equipment. Dorri could already tell that there would be plans for a spare room filled with similar stuff. There was no way that she was going to have anything that exploded like that kept in their small room.
“So you said something about an artifact? Why did you leave it on the boat?”
“It’s rather large and difficult to move.” Keltyr said with a charming smile. “We didn’t want to risk damaging it.”
“Right, well no time like the present let me just grab a few things and we can be off,” said Verne as he made the last notes into a journal under the heading … ‘Big Noise Boom.’ He grabed his hat from where the explosion tossed it and headed towards the door.
Behind Doc’s back, Keltyr grinned broadly at the two women following them. “Should be an enlightening trip.” Light, he was going to be gloating all the way home.
