"… And just as the tram started up an incline, that ugly green goblin jumped at me!" Li Li Stormstout curled her fingers near her face in her best, most exaggerated impression of a snarling goblin. She leaned in toward the group of other young pandaren splayed along the hillside, keen for their attention.
One youngster rolled onto her back, snoring loudly. Drool dribbled out of the corner of her mouth, matting the white fur on her cheek. Another lifted his head, the black rings around his eyes briefly appearing over the top of his book before dropping out of sight again. Somebody else yawned conspicuously. All around Li Li, boredom shone in the expression of every pandaren cub near enough to hear her. Even her own brother, Shisai, was determinedly ignoring her, picking stalks of grass and tying them in knots.
"—But I kicked that goblin straight in the chest, so he flew out of the car, right into a wall. And he exploded! Kaboom!"
Someone coughed.
"Okay, his potion exploded," Li Li amended, raising her voice, "but it was really exciting!" "Yeah, we know, Li Li," said a cub absently drawing curlicues along the ground with his finger. "You've told us a bazillion times." "Chen, why don't you tell us a story?" another cub begged. "Hmm?" Chen looked up from where he sat organizing a set of earthenware mugs on a blanket beneath the boughs of a large magnolia tree. Its branches filtered the afternoon light into golden splotches that dappled a large gathering of picnicking pandaren. On this warm, perfect day, nearly everyone had decided to pass the time by climbing to the top slope of Shen-zin Su's mighty shell and basking in the sun's glory. "I want to hear about the time you got into a drinking contest with four dwarves at Aerie Peak!" "Hey, I was talking to all you!" Li Li interjected, clearly annoyed. "When I was in Ironforge, I got to meet King Magni, and—" The cub rolled his eyes. "Li Li, you never shut up about King Magni! We're asking Chen!" Li Li huffed, glaring, and opened her mouth to retort. "Hey, now, Li Li has plenty of good stories of her own," Chen called. "You got one thing wrong, though, little Pandowan." He gave them all a conspiratorial wink. "It wasn't four dwarves. It was five." The other cubs laughed appreciatively, but Li Li scowled. Chen didn't seem to notice, for he continued, "And speaking of drinking, you're completely distracting me from my manners. "I'm really very sorry that the beer isn't better," Chen apologized to a group of adult pandaren as he filled the mugs. "Unfortunately there isn't a diversity of brewing ingredients on the Great Turtle.""I'm sure it's still delicious, Chen," answered one of the Elders, graciously accepting her drink. "It's been wonderful to have our foremost brewmaster back! We've all missed you.""You're too kind," he said, grinning."Chen, come on, tell us a story!" a cub cried."In a minute. Let me finish serving your parents, first. Then I'll get you kids some tea and we can talk stories.""I was almost eaten by an ogre once," Li Li said. "That was pretty scary.""We know, Li Li! Will you be quiet already?" another cub yelled. "Chen's got lots of stories we haven't heard."
"Well, all right, then!" Li Li threw up her arms. "Keep bugging my uncle, I guess." She looked toward Chen expectantly, hoping he would defer to her storytelling, but he had moved off to a different part of the hill, absorbed in a conversation. She changed tactics. "Or, maybe you can tell me some of your stories. You know, about your days spent picking flowers on the hill and flunking calligraphy class? I can't imagine anything more exciting!" Several of the cubs protested angrily and opened their mouths to escalate the bickering. "Hey, cubs!" came Chen's timely interruption. "Who wants tea?" A chorus of "Me, me!" rang at him in response, and Li Li found herself ignored as Chen's offer drew the others' attention away from her. She took the opportunity to abandon the hillside. Once out of sight from the picnickers, she exhaled and looked up at the sky. Puffy white clouds stole lazily across it, periodically blocking the sun and revealing it again to flood the landscape with light. She continued to trudge along, venting her frustration by kicking loose pebbles on the path and following them as they bounced down the slope in front of her. Ever since she had returned from her travels with Strongbo, life had become increasingly dull. Her father, Chon Po, had been alternately relieved and furious to see her again, and the extremes of that particular emotional seesaw had only been exacerbated once Chen had explained the full details of Bo's fate. Li Li's heart weighed heavily in her chest at any thought of Bo. Chen repeatedly assured her that Bo's death was not her fault, and on a purely intellectual level Li Li understood that. But the cruel, quiet voice at the back of her mind never truly let her forget that had she never decided to leave the Great Turtle, Shen-zin Su, Bo would likely still be alive.
***
Li Li returned to the present, away from her guilt, and she realized that she had automatically taken the path toward the Great Library. She gazed at the elegant temple that housed it, and her spirits lifted. The library had always been her place of refuge, where she could go to lose herself in the pages of a book or letter, and doing just that was precisely what she needed right now. She eagerly trotted through the open front doors.
Inside, the comforting, familiar scent of ink and parchment put her at ease. Li Li pulled a thick atlas and a stack of wrinkled, dog-eared letters from the shelves and plopped into an overstuffed chair. Setting the scrolls onto the nearby reading table, she let the book in her lap fall open at random.
The Swamp of Sorrows sprawled across the page, illustrated in elegant green and brown inks. The map was ancient and Li Li knew it practically by heart, having long since copied most of it, and many others, into her personal journal at home. Li Li leaned across the reading table, rifling through the papers she'd left there until she found what she sought.
The letter from Chen detailed his exploration of the land that had formerly been the southern region of the Swamp of Sorrows, now called the Blasted Lands. In recent times, foul magic had seeped through a rift between worlds and withered the lush growth, leaving only barren red earth in its wake. The text explained that the rift had been opened by an immensely powerful mage named Medivh, who had help from orcs on the other world. The letter did not elaborate on the topic beyond that, and the library held no other mention of the Blasted Lands or Medivh. He must have been born long after the point when Li Li's fellows on Shen-zin Su had abandoned their legacy of daring exploration. Li Li wondered what a modern map of the swamp would look like. Chen's letters were several years outdated, and his return had meant that there wouldn't be any more updates from the outside world. Halfheartedly Li Li leafed through the letters again, but their words no longer enticed her. They remained static, the ink slowly fading on the fixed records of what Chen had once seen. Li Li knew that beyond their isolated life on the Wandering Isle, the world was still changing without them.She scowled as she stuffed everything back onto the shelves. It felt as though she'd been starved, then sat in front of a banquet only to have it whisked away from beneath her after the first bite. The world was so much bigger and more beautiful than any words or maps could convey, and she had barely scratched its surface. There was nothing for her here on Shen-zin Su.
***
"Tonight we have a real treat! Spinach and carrot soup with chicken stock, steamed spiced fish, and rice, of course," Chon Po announced cheerfully to Li Li, Shisai, and Chen as he set dinner on the table. "Tell me how the soup is especially; it's a new recipe." "It sounds delicious, Po," Chen said. "Thanks for inviting me over." Chon Po beamed proudly at his dinner creations and took his seat at the table. "Did you all enjoy the day?" he asked. "The weather was beautiful. I wish I could have made it to the picnic." "We know you're busy, Papa," Shisai answered, serving himself a pile of fish. "It was a lot of fun, though!" "It was okay." Li Li shrugged. Shisai rolled his eyes. "You're just mad that no one wanted to hear your stories," he teased. "Chen's are better anyway, aren't they, Uncle Chen?""Err..." Chen stammered, helping himself to some soup. Li Li glared at her brother as she aggressively shoveled rice into her mouth."Uncle Chen told us about the time he nearly killed the great beastmaster Rexxar!" Shisai continued, ignoring both Chen's and Li Li's discomfort."What?" Chon Po's eyebrows arched up almost into his hairline. "That seems like an unnecessarily violent thing to tell children, Chen.""Um, well, that's kind of blowing it out of proportion, Po." Chen scratched the back of his head. "That's the point of the story, actually. What happened is that he drank some of my beer, and it was so strong he accused me of trying to kill him!" He laughed awkwardly. "See? It's, uh, it's funny..."Chon Po remained stony-faced.
"But that's not how it ended!" Shisai insisted. "Didn't you two go on to Theramore to fight Admiral Proudmoore and—" "That's enough!" Chon Po interrupted his son. He turned an angry gaze to his brother. "You have to think about the kind of example you're setting, Chen! Look at what happened to Li Li when all she had to go on were letters!" "Nothing happened to me, Papa," Li Li muttered. "I'm right here, you know. And I can hear you."