Erin picked up Tyrande’s severed head and held it close to her heart. She was still crying, and began to shiver and sob even worse.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,…”

“Well done, Erin. Seems like you have her head for me after all.” Fearoth’s voice escaped the shadows. He had been there all along.

Erin begged to him, “Will you let me die, now?”

“Come here and let me kill you.”

Erin obeyed. She stood up and before she knew it, Fearoth’s claws were buried deep inside her chest. Slowly, but surely, he began tearing her heart out of her thorax. With blood vessels still attached to it, he held it up to Erin’s face, before feasting on it savagely. He paused for a moment only to say a few words.

“I said that I’d kill you repeatedly if you DIDN’T bring me the head. I never did say I would spare you if you did. I never said I would let you die.”

Her eyes widened in shock and horror as she realized that she was in no way approaching death. Fearoth licked his claws clean after gobbling up the whole heart, and produced a shiny crystal from his palm.

“I will have this Ice Orb replace your heart, now. Your mind will be effectively destroyed, and your soul consumed by it. Soon you will serve with no question, like a slobbering zombie. Yes, like Alina.”

Erin fell to her knees and was frozen in despair and desperation. There was nothing she could possibly do, now that she had murdered her own mentor, perhaps the only one who could have saved her.

But from a tall oak branch hidden behind the cover of leaves and Elune’s grace, Tyrande observed the scene carefully. “I hope that illusion lasts on Fearoth long enough,” she thought to herself. She then turned to look at Erin as Fearoth shoved the orb into her chest.

“I will set you free, my child,” whispered Tyrande. “I will.”

==============
THE END
==============