AN: here is the next chapter of Shunned One and I would like to thank my new beta reader, Quiet Wyatt, for beta reading this one and also would like to thank the following people for reviewing last chapter: Rebunanta, fergnerd, DayDreamer9, Heart of the Demons, shocklance, yellow 14, ladygoddess8, Gameblaster12, Kitsune6 and Duncansshadow

Special Note: Also giving Starwin a big time thanks for helping me with a scene for this chapter, which was what held me in doing this update. Took me a while to rework the story Alchemy will be telling the group, but finally got it done. Thanks again Starwin!

Disclaimer: Do not own W.I.T.C.H. or D&D

Now on with the next chapter!

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Arc 2: Return of the Exiled Prince

Chapter 7: The Journey to Ironforge

Two weeks after the Youth Games, Will (with Kor in Dormouse form resting on her shoulder) and Susan were riding up to the Arcane Order's front gate so Will could meet up with Taranee and the others for the small mission the guild offered.

The guild was in the middle of the capital and was a very grand looking structure that was almost castle like in design.

'Wonder if most guilds have buildings like this?' Will pondered, since this was the first time she had actually seen a guild's headquarters.

Will did not have long to really think about such things though, since she quickly noticed

Taranee, Nigel and Alchemy waiting outside on the front steps of the main entrance. For some reason Zerase was not with them yet, but the young half-elf was sure the veteran wizard would arrive soon.

As the two Vandom women dismounted from their horses, Will's friends approached and greeted the half-elf.

"You have no idea how glad I was to hear you joined the group, Will! These two are scary and I needed the protection!" Alchemy joked, as she embraced her redheaded friend, secretly thinking it was true since Nigel and Taranee still did not fully trust her yet.

Said pair gave the Swordsage a mild glare, proving this fact, which made Will worried about this trip. They were a group, thus needed to trust each other for the mission to go smoothly.

Of course, Will knew this was a simple errand for the most part and thus the kind of teamwork she was thinking of was not needed; but since this was also a minor test for Taranee, Will thought the internal conflict might affect how she was judged in the end.

Susan was having the same thoughts as well, but was not as worried as Will; mainly because the older Vandom knew adventuring groups were not always made up of people who got along, but still worked together to achieve their objective.

There was silence for only a few moments, which was ended when the sound of a wagon and horses was heard coming closer.

The four soon to be adventures and the Elvin woman looked to see Zerase coming up in the large wagon, pulled by two powerfully built horses.

As the middle aged wizard got close, Will and Alchemy breathed a sigh of relief, since now Taranee and Nigel had something other than Alchemy to focus on for the moment.

"Good, you're all here and not trying to kill each other. We might have some hope that you'll actually work together and I won't have angry parents asking why I did not bring you all back in one piece!" Zerase joked; getting minor glares from all four 'adventures'.

"We might not trust Alchemy, but I highly doubt we would hurt her for that," Taranee stated, while Nigel grumbled something about how it would cause trouble for Will if they did.

Taranee elbowed the Barbarian for his comment, but Zerase rolled her eyes and signaled the group to get in the wagon, but Will was stopped by her mother.

"Before you go, Will, I have something for Kor," Susan told her daughter, and took what seemed like a simple black leather collar with markings along it, but Will noticed Kor's fur bristle at the sight of the object.

"Kor?" the confused redhead ask her disguised familiar, while Susan got ready to explain the collar's purpose.

"This, Will, is a special collar made for those among the Elves that gain Gold Dragon familiars. It's meant to keep the younger elves from relying on the dragon's power too much. Rather than letting them change back to their normal form from whatever their more subtle form is, it changes them into a preset creature that, while still strong, is nowhere near as unstoppable as their true form," Susan explained to her daughter, while Kor hissed furiously in his dormouse form.

'Well, guess that does explain Kor's reaction to the collar,' Will mentally concluded, know the young Gold Dragon was rather proud of his strength and would not like being limited in his ability to use it when he wanted to.

"The collar can be removed at any time, but you really shouldn't unless it's absolutely necessary, Will. The collar is meant to teach you when to use Kor's true power, after all," Susan continued to explain, which got a nod from Will, but Kor was clearly still against the idea.

"Kor!" Both Vandom women stated firmly, in hopes it would make the rodent/dragon comply, but Kor would not back down. It took Susan reminding Kor who was his mother's partner, which made the young dormouse/dragon shudder and allow the collar to be placed on him.

Will then boarded the wagon and allowed the group to set out on the Arcane Order, not knowing it was going to be more…eventful than many would have liked.

As the four young adventures sat in the wagon, Taranee looked over to Will and asked, "How come you did not ask what Kor would change into with that collar on?"

"Well, since mom gave the collar to me, I'm assuming she chose his preset form so that means…" Will started to say, when everyone figured out why Will did not bother to ask what Kor's new form would be.

'Over protective mother chose the form, so it's probably still dangers enough to cause severe damage to anything that might try to hurt Will,' Everyone concluded and shuddered at what Kor might become when the collar was used.

"Knowing my luck, it's one of the species of Trolls. If there is anything I dislike more than Roy, it's Trolls!" Zerase grumbled under her breath, making the four teens in the back chuckle at her expense.

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It was only a few hours into the trip, yet there was already an uncomfortable silence in the wagon. Even Zerase, who was the type to enjoy some peace and quiet, was finding it unbearable; most likely since she was both used to dealing with the ever talkative Roy and the fact the tension was so thick it could be cut with a knife.

'Taranee is lucky points are not deducted from her 'score' because this kind of thing tends to interfere with missions,' The aging Wizard mentally commented, for once in her life wishing Roy was around. Dealing with situations like these was part of the reason Roy was a part of the adventuring group they shared under normal circumstances.

Zerase tried to think of a way to break the silence before someone cracked, but Will beat her to it.

"Alchemy…I have been meaning to ask, why does your grandfather…dislike my kind so much?" Will asked, not sure if now was the best time to ask about such things, but she was desperate to end the silence with anything and that question was all Will could think of.

Everyone was a bit surprised by this question, but Alchemy jumped at the chance to do something other just sit quietly and suffocate in the tension that the group was trapped in and told Will what she knew of how her grandfather gained his hatred of the Half-Elf race.

"From what I was told, my grandfather originally gained his dislikes for you and your kind, Will, just because of the conflicts him and the old businesses of Trader's Central had with the Elves. He used to make a fortune in the trade of certain rare creatures and plants that were found most often in Elvin lands," Alchemy started to explain, which was not new news to those present in the wagon.

It was common knowledge that at one time, Trader's Central's biggest items of trader was exotic items that had been 'acquired' from the Elves' forest kingdom. The eggs of large flying mounts, plants that had magical properties and so forth; all had high value on the open market and McDohl made sure to have his own hands in the trade of these items as well as the taxes he got from the businesses independent of him.

It was because of this 'trade', Sade, with Susan's help, made the treaty with the Elves to put heavy sanctions and penalties on those who people who took things from the forest without Elvin consent.

If the treaty had not been made, the small scale battles between troops in Trader's Central and the Elvin people would have ignited a full scale war, but those like Irvine McDohl only viewed this treaty as betrayal of their own Queen and targeted the Half-Elf as a form of revenge on both Sade and the Elvin race.

"But what few people know, is that my grandfather has more personal reasons for his hatred of Will's kind," Alchemy continued, making everyone pay even more attention to Alchemy's story.

Zerase actually knew the tale the young McDohl was about to tell, but she wanted to see if any of it might be tainted by the head of the McDohl family or if it was the unbiased version. The ageing Wizard had no doubts about Alchemy's loyalty to Will, but the young Swordsage might have only heard her grandfather's point of view, since not many knew of the full story and those that did, did not speak of it either out of respect of Irvine McDohl's loss or because they were the ones that did not wish to risk the Half-Elves to gain equal sympathy from the masses.

"You see, my grandfather used to have two sons, one being my father and the other being my Uncle Aiden. My Uncle Aiden was a skilled fighter and wizard, who later merged the two arts by taking up the Abjuration Champion prestige class to enhance his defensive spells, while still keeping up his skill with a sword," Alchemy continued, while her audiences (or at least three of them anyway) were on the edge of their seats to hear what happened to Alchemy's uncle and how it was tied to Irvine McDohl's hatred of Will and her kind.

"At the time, the treaty with the Elves was not even though of yet and also at that time, the half elf race was viewed with more suspicion or disgust, rather than hate. My uncle deemed them a security risk, since they might give the Elves information on human lands, thus chose to do everything in his power to keep them away from the Elvin Forest at all costs. This would lead him to…die at the hands of Half-Elves."

Hearing this story made it seem rather clear while Alchemy's grandfather hated half-elves, but the young girl's tale was not done yet, and continued by going onto the details of what actual happened that caused the man's death.

"My uncle was in charge of the Great Wall's troops, so he often encountered the Half-Elves trying to pass through. This is also what would lead to his death; since he used anything he could think of to justify not allowing the Half-Elves from passing through; things like large tolls or finding reason to have them detained for causing 'trouble'. This made the Half-Elves seek revenge and planned an attack on him."

"Roughly a group of twenty Half-Elves waited until he headed home for the evening and ambushed him. Even my uncle, with all his skill and magical power, would be overwhelmed by so many opponents catching him off guard."

"The only reason my family knew Half-Elves were even behind the attack, was the fact that the battle, despite being a short one, still caused enough noise to bring several town guards to come investigate the commotion and found the surviving attackers fleeing the scene. This obviously caused my grandfather to lash out in grief and begin a witch hunt for those of Will's kind, which was only 'officially ended' when Queen Sade and the Elves signed the treaty," Alchemy told the group, who could now see why the head of the McDohl family waged his 'war' on Will's kind, not that it was justified, but obviously McDohl did not care about what 'Half-Elf lovers' thought of his beliefs.

After a moment of silence to recover from the story Alchemy had just told them, Nigel spoke up.

"I can't agree with the way the Half-Elves chose to deal with your uncle methods, but at the same time it not right that your grandfather uses it to justify an attack on a whole race!" Nigel stated thought there still obviously feeling some degree of sympathy towards the old lord, seeing how he did suffer a great loss.

"You would be surprised by how many people back McDohl's cause because of those things happening; it's what helped fan the flames that would cause the current hatred of Will and her kind. The treaty that was made years later just got the greedy also backing the likes of McDohl in their crusade against all elf kind," Zerase commented, drawing attention to her now rather than to Alchemy.

"So Will had to suffer for years because both the greedy and the vengeful deem her a good source of stress relief?" Taranee demanded, but the older wizard ignored the outburst of anger gave the dark skinned girl a casual come back.

"Just like how you take your anger of Irvine McDohl out on Alchemy?" Was Zerase's reply, which caught Taranee off guard and stumbling over her own words in an attempt to come back from this simple statement.

Even Nigel was unsure of what to say, it was a bit of slap in the face after all. Both he and Taranee were so set against the young girl before them, they had never realized they were as bad as the ones they despised.

Silence once again over took the wagon, but at least it was nowhere near as tense as it was before. Will was taking in this new information about one of her great obstacles in being accepted, while Taranee and Nigel were revaluating their view on Alchemy, thanks to Zerase's eye opening comment.

After a few minutes, Alchemy thought something that would take their minds off what had happened, by taking out a deck of card and asking "Go Adventure anyone?"

000

"Got any rouges?" Will asked Nigel, who simply replied 'Go Adventure' and the redhead pulled a card from the deck.

This had been going on for the last two hours and Zerase was being reminded why she despised the game. If she heard those two words one more time, she would burn the deck of cards and the Swordsage who brought them with her!

'What I would not give for an attack to happen right now. A dragon, some bandits, even a bloody Tarrasque would be better to deal with right now! Anything else is better than hearing 'Go Adventure' over and over again!' Zerase mentally ranted, while the four teens played their game.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on your point of view, Zerase wish was answered by fifteen heavily armed thugs coming out from some bushes by the road.

The thugs were mostly humans, but there were also three Half-Orcs in the group as well, which surprised the aging wizard when she saw them. Half-Orcs rarely lived past birth, given the history of their pure blooded relatives and the fact that the way a human woman would gain such children was through rather...unpleasant means.

'Well, this should prove an interesting fight for the kids, though I better take out the Half-Orcs myself as a precaution,' Zerase commented in her mind, but then noticed Will and the other were hopping out of the wagon and readying their weapons.

"Here I was hoping the trip was going to be a quiet one. I blame you, Will. You attract trouble like flies to honey," Nigel joked, which got him a glare from the redheaded Half-Elf.

"Why does everyone blame the Half-Elf when bad luck strikes?" Will shot back, making Taranee and Alchemy roll their eyes, before focusing on the more pressing matter of the group of thugs before them.

"If you kids are smart, you'll drop your weapons and any other valuables you have, and then get back in the wagon or you might get hurt," one of the human bandits ordered the four teens, but to both Zerase's and the bandit's surprise, the four teens did not show a signal sign of backing down.

'Interesting, would have expected this from Nigel because of his tribe's conditioning, but the girls I would thought would be more nervous right now,' Zerase pondered in her mind, trying to think of what could help Will, Taranee or Alchemy handle a possible life and death battle at so young an age.

Zerase of course did not know of the ruin(rune?) adventure that Will and Taranee had several months back with the other girls and Will also had the incident with Kor and herself fighting the Lizardfolk which made Will learn how to fight to the death.

Alchemy, on the other hand, had less dramatic preparations for such events. Her mother simply took her on several small trips like this one and they ran into things like bandits from time to time.

While Alchemy's mother took care of the bulk of such groups, it still allowed the younger Swordsage to learn that killing was sometimes necessary and how to not freeze up in battle.

"Nigel, you want to take the big mouth or should I do it?" Will asked the barbarian casually, but before Nigel could reply, the first bandit roared in anger and charged the Half-Elf.

To counter, Will block the first thug's sword with her own but could not do anything after that.

Her opponent had struck with such force, the redhead was unable to strike back because was knocked off balance, but that did not stop Nigel from doing it for Will.

The teenage Barbarian swung one end of his double-axe and hacked off the man's hand with the brutal blow.

As the first thug screamed in pain, the other fourteen men charged forward, thinking they could easily rush the small group of teenagers and a single middle aged woman.

What the group of highway bandits did not expect was Taranee forming a fireball in her hands and aiming it land just behind the group.

Since a fireball spell had a wide blast radius, the explosion got five of the attackers, while the remaining bandits where thrown into a mixed state of fear and confusion at such a show of power from a single thirteen year old girl.

Taking advantage of their attackers' confusion, Alchemy and Nigel charged forward.

Alchemy leapt into the air with both feet aimed at the nearest bandit's chest, hit with such force the man fell over and was unable to defend himself as Alchemy brought one her two short swords down towards his throat.

Her second weapon was used to take out another man that was right behind her first target, the bandit did not have time to block the thrust that sunk the sword's blade into his stomach.

As Alchemy's second opponent fell to his knees and clutched his gut in an attempt to stop the blood from coming out, Nigel was also busy taking out the enemy.

The young Barbarian had entered his raging state and was swinging his Orc-Double Axe wildly at the enemy. The deadly flurry of axe strikes took out two more of the thugs, bringing the number down to five who could still fight.

Unfortunately three of those remaining opponent were the three Half-Orcs, all three of which were heading straight for Will and Taranee, while the two humans that were left attacked Nigel and Alchemy.

Zerase was getting ready to step in, since she was unsure if Will or Taranee had the power to beat three charging warriors who had strength matching that of regular Orcs, but stopped when she saw Kor leap in front of Will and hissed at his partner's enemies.

At first the Half-Orcs barely noticed the disguised dragon, but that changed as the collar around Kor's neck glowed and he slowly began to change shape.

Kor's dormouse form got larger and his front legs became claw like hands, while his hind legs became thicker so to support a bipedal form. Kor's head/face took on a more menacing form, taking one glowing red eyes and sharper fangs; completing the were-like form the collar had given him to replace his true form.

The only odd thing one might note of this form was the dark blue tunic that Kor now wore, since most transformations rarely provide clothing. Why Susan Vandom would add such a feature, no one knew, but at the moment Will and Taranee were just glad for the extra help.

The first thing the dragon/weremouse did, was grab one of the Half-Orcs by the throat and choked slammed his victim into the ground.

The second and third Half-Orcs raised their weapons to attack the familiar, but Taranee took out one with a lightning bolt spell and Will thrust her sword at the last one's chest, scoring a direct hit on the heart of her enemy.

Nigel and Alchemy finishing their final opponents as well, which left only two the original group still alive, the first being the human who had his hand cut off by Nigel and the second being the Half-Orc that Kor had choke slammed.

Zerase had to say she was impressed by how quickly the fight was ended. The fact not one of the four teenagers even got a scratch on them on them was equally impressive.

'They have been trained well, especially Will. Months ago, she would have just been a target for people like this and now she can defend herself so effectively,' Zerase mused to herself, as she got down from her seat at the front of the wagon.

"Good work kids, I thought you might have been in trouble with those Half-Orcs around, but it seems they were not as big an issue thanks to Kor and the fact you are even stronger than I expected," The aging Wizard told the four teens, who were now looking a little tired now that the adrenaline rush from the battle was wearing off.

"So…what do we…do with…the last two…" Nigel asked the veteran wizard, as he tried to catch his breath from using his rage.

It was times like these that the young warrior envied the Barbarians of legend, who were said to not become tired and weak after using their rage in battle. Sadly this feat was only achieved by the most powerful and devoted followers of the Barbarian class, most of such people died in battle because of the very power they sought to master, since either they got careless in battle or the rage wore off in the middle of the fight and got killed without the extra strength at that key moment.

Zerase was silent for a moment, as she thought over Nigel's question. She knew that one crippled human and a mildly injured Half-Orc were of little threat to most people; she technically could just let them go.

At the same time, Zerase knew they could not take the two bandits with them. There was too much risk of them getting free at the wrong moment and becoming a threat to group again.

"We will stop the bleeding of the fool here and then tie them both up for the highway patrol to find. Even if they do get free before being found, they won't be much of a threat on their own," Zerase ordered the teenagers, who obeyed and bandaged the stump of the human bandit's arm and then bond them both tightly with the rope they had in the wagon.

Once their two still living attackers were left for the patrols to find, the group continued their journey to Ironforge, thinking the trip would be smooth sailing from now on. They would soon find out they were wrong.

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AN: There you go guys, now just got to figure out how to start the really good stuff that is to come next chapter. Been waiting a good while to write the next part of this arc, because we start to really see some fights and bring in some very familiar faces in new role (some might be expected, while other might catch you by surprise)