Cries of the Primal Gods

For weeks Shalkis' sleep had been restless. She had always heard echoes of distant battles and the screams of the dead and dying in her mind, but this was different. Just a single whisper:

"Find me."

For a long time Shalkis just ignored the whisper, but when she started hearing it even while awake, she could not ignore it any longer. The whispers were louder in the Eastern Kingdoms than in Kalimdor, so she suspected that Hakkar was playin' with her mind. But the whispers did not become louder near the temple of Atai'Hakkar, nor did they seem to come from Zul'Gurub.

One day, Shalkis was on her way to collect minerals in the Searing Gorge, when she heard the whisper again. This time it was much louder.

"Yesss, Closer. Find me and releasse me, before sshe notices my pressence. We have many thingss to disscusss."

Shalkis searched the Cauldron throughly, but found only dwarves and lizards. This was something different.

The whispers quieted down for a few days. But Shalkis could not take her mind off the whispers. What did the whisperer want to discuss? A few days later she had joined an expedition to Blackrock Spire. Then the voice returned.

"You are closse. Yess, very closse now. Hurry! Mother is suspicious!"

"Out of my head! Just tell me wat ya want!"

The orc, the tauren and the two Forsaken looked at her with puzzled expressions.

"Um, nevermind. Mage stuff. Ya wouldn't understand anyway."

They shrugged and moved on, towards the corridor lined with spider webs.

"Hurry! Sshe iss coming! Pick me up, quickly!"

Shalkis looked around, and saw a single egg among the webs, a bit separated from others. She heard skittering sounds from above her.

"Mother doessn't like visitorss! Pick me up, now!"

Without giving it extra thought, Shalkis quickly picked up the lone egg and put it into her backpack. Not a moment later a huge spider jumped down from the upper level and started to run towards her.

"Mother Smolderweb! She's after the mage! Kill it!"

The battle was fierce. Although Shalkis did everything she could, the huge spider never turned her many eyes away from Shalkis. Many of the other eggs hatched, and the little spiders immediately jumped towards Shalkis. Her ice effortlessly tore through the spider webs, but more and more spiders seemed to join in every second. Her companions hacked away at the spiders as fast as they could while Shalkis tried to keep them frozen and brittle.

After what seemed like an eternity, the battle was over. With more than fifty spider carcasses around her, she was still standing. The Forsaken priest had fallen, but that was nothing that gobling engineering couldn't fix.

"Good. Now keep me ssafe until I am ready to hatch."

"Did I come all the way here to rescue a spider?"

"Yess, but not any sspider.. You can call me Slayrith. Unlike my "brotherss", I sserve Queen Sshadra. Ssshe needs help."

"Shadra? The monster spider in Hinterlands?"

"That iss only an avatar, a puppet of Hakkar. Queen Sshadra is trapped. I want to releasse her."

"Why should I help you?"

"Becausse Dambalah's powerss alone are not enough to defeat Hakkar. Becausse the Primalss are sstrongest together. Becausse she will not forget thossse who help her. And becausse I know many thingsss. Sssecretss. Forgotten truthss. Thingsss that you also value. You are very much like usss. A collector of knowledge."