"Thank you."
The female elf accepted Arthas' warm milk from his hands and quietly thanked him. Her hands trembled slightly as she held the milk cup, her bandaged hand shaking.
"I am Lyana Morningrain, an apprentice druid." Lyana's eyes revealed a hint of sorrow. "Before our village was attacked, my teacher and I were treating injured sentinels."
"But they suddenly appeared, unleashing their wild and evil fury, easily breaking through the sentinels' defenses. We didn't even have time to react..."
A trace of fear permeated Lyana's voice. She was very young for an elf and had not experienced the bloody wars of the ancient Night Elves.
Therefore, she appeared very fragile and helpless in the face of such a sudden disaster.
Lyana put down the milk cup and clutched the corner of her clothes tightly with her slender hands. Recalling the scene at the time was too cruel for an elven girl with no war experience.
"My teacher protected me and the wounded with druid magic, then went to stop those terrifying monsters, but he..."
At this point, tears welled up in Lyana's eyes. She quickly wiped them away with her hand, but her voice trembled, and she could no longer speak.
Jaina gently patted the apprentice druid's back and looked at Arthas, her eyes filled with sympathy and pity. "Arthas, she's too sad to control her emotions."
After leaving Lyana alone to rest in the room, Arthas and Jaina withdrew. Jaina sighed, "According to the scout, everyone alive in the village is probably here."
"His teacher protected her with a sleep spell, which means he already guessed the outcome before he left," Arthas leaned against the wall. "It seems the orcs attacked the elves."
"Orcs? But... according to our scout's previous reports, the orcs shouldn't be a match for the elves at all." Jaina was puzzled by this.
Arthas simply asked, "When was the last time we received intelligence about a conflict between the elves and the orcs?"
"About a week ago, when the conflict between the elves and the orcs intensified and both sides sent out more scouts, Varian and I had our people withdraw, only observing from a distance."
Jaina's approach was understandable; they didn't want to get involved in trouble at this time. Moreover, both the Tauren's statements and the Alliance scouts' reports indicated that as long as no actions threatened elven territory, the Night Elves in Ashenvale would not actively attack travelers there.
"Then something must have happened within this past week. When you saw the elves' injuries and the village's fate, did anything come to mind?" Arthas asked.
"Come to mind? It's clearly the orcs' style. Other than that, nothing."
Jaina had read many records of the First and Second Orcish Warss and had some understanding of the orcs' methods, but when Arthas asked her to think of something else, she really couldn't find anything.
Arthas offered a hint, "When the Warsong Clan plundered in Tirisfal Glades, they could only bully local militiamen. When they encountered the regular First Legion, they could only run. How are they suddenly so fierce now, even daring to counterattack the elves' territory?"
This made Jaina's expression become confused. She also sensed that something was off, but she couldn't quite pinpoint it. She murmured, "Orcs... fury..."
Several keywords connected in her mind, and her beautiful eyes lit up. She finally thought of the issue Arthas was concerned about: "You mean, the red orcs before they were captured?!"
The orcs' green skin was not innate, especially in the early stages of the First War. Most orcs had blood-red skin, exuding a wild and evil aura, feeling almost no pain, and their strength was several times greater than that of the orcs captured later.
Initially, humans thought red was the orcs' normal skin color, but the gradual appearance of green orcs made human mages notice the problem. Their experiments on orcs concluded that the orcs' red skin was not natural but a result of a furious state caused by some magical stimulation.
Later, more and more orcs turned green and experienced prolonged weakness and low morale, which made this theory more widely accepted.
The elf's description did not match the records of the orcs after the Second War; instead, it was more like the "berserk orcs" from the early First War.
Grommash was not a leader who possessed only bravery without intellect; otherwise, he would have been captured by the First Legion long ago.
This Orc was actually quite cunning. Perhaps he wasn't capable enough to lead an entire Horde like Ogrim, but as a tribal chieftain, his abilities were absolutely outstanding.
Recklessly charging into the elves' heartland seemed like a reasonable action for the orcs, but Jaina, who had studied orcs for many years under her teacher Antonidas, knew that orcs were far more cunning than most humans imagined. Their intelligence and strategy were not inferior to humans.
Therefore, the reason that could make the orcs of the Warsong Clan riot was very likely the same reason that caused the orcs to be berserk and bloodthirsty in the First War.
Having understood this, Jaina couldn't help but worry again. If it was truly like this... then it meant that some unknown entity had already descended upon Azeroth.
"I'm afraid the truth is much like what we're thinking." Arthas's gaze was somewhat unfocused, as if his attention wasn't entirely on the current topic.
Just as the two were discussing what might have happened in Ashenvale, a gasp suddenly came from Lyana's room.
Arthas didn't even think, pushing the door open directly, while in his hand, a warhammer made of Holy Light had instantly materialized, pure light occasionally arcing out of the warhammer like electricity.
And a faint blue halo flickered in Jaina's eyes, clearly indicating that her magic was already poised, ready to unleash an overwhelming magical attack at any moment.
However, the assassins, traitors, and spies they had anticipated did not appear. It was just Lyana sitting on the ground, and the milk on the table had been spilled.
"What happened?" Arthas walked over and helped Lyana up.
Lyana looked extremely flustered, like a child who had lost the protection of her parents and was at a loss. "I... I suddenly felt my connection to the forest was cut off... I... I can't sense the call of nature anymore..."
The moment the elf finished speaking, Arthas's soul perception felt a disturbance. Without thinking, he broke through the barrier of reality and entered his soul vision.
At this moment, he felt it; even the forests of Dustwallow Marsh emitted a faint sense of sorrow, as if the entire forest was mourning something.
The balance of nature, in this instant, had temporarily fallen into chaos! It was no wonder Lyana couldn't sense the power of nature. Arthas almost instantly understood the true source of the problem!