Darnassus had always been a fascinating place. After all these years, Lilly still found new, hidden places whenever she visited the elves - little shops with delicate elfish craftsmanship, inns with sweet wine and fruits which grew nowhere but on the huge tree Teldrassil. Like most gnomes, she took a great fancy to elves and everything related to them; but since her best friend Kelsey was living together with an elfish male, she was even crazier about them.
Several weeks ago, Lilly had dumped her partner and left their shared apartment after seemingly endless arguments about his engineering-experiments in their rooms. Since it was close to impossible to get a free domicile at Ironforge, Kelsey and her elf, Jareth, had suggested staying with them at their small house on the borders of Darnassus in the meantime. This temporary solution gave Lilly lots of insights into how well such an unusual couple could match. Although the two of them were quite reserved in her presence, it took not much to imagine why Kelsey was looking a little battered in the mornings. Living together with a loving couple obviously didn't help getting over her breakup.
As days went by, Kelsey and Jareth were going out almost every evening - probably to spare her as Lilly assumed. However, after these trips Kelsey looked even worse than before. Lilly's casual questions where they were going were answered only hesitantly with "Cultural Exchange Club". She thought it was a rather flimsy excuse; but when she finally followed them one night, they really disappeared inside an underground cavern behind a huge, hollow tree near the Cenarion Enclave. She approached the place curiously, and sure enough: On a small sign next to the entrance there stood in tiny, cursive letters "Elvish-Gnomish Cultural Exchange Club - only for members". Two sentinels stood guard, smiling kindly as Lilly came nearer.
"Oh, hello, little gnome! You're new to the club, right? Do you have an invitation?"
Lilly was thinking hard. Of course, she could just ask her hosts for taking her with them the next day. But no - she HAD to know at once what was happening down there. Showing her most convincing smile, she answered with a firm voice,
"No written one, sorry. But Kelsey and Jareth asked me to join them today. Would you please let me in? They are probably waiting already."
The two sentinals glanced at each other, shrugged and stepped aside.
"Hm, if you say so. We suppose they told you about the rules? No provocation unless you really mean it. Especially new guests are expected to ... but you probably know that already. Have fun!"
The narrow spiral path downwards was only dimly lit by small torches on the walls. Going down, she really pondered on going back. From what she knew about the elfish culture so far - and also considering the sentinels' brief remarks - there was no doubt that she would get into a rather unreserved situation wherever the path would lead her. But gnomish curiosity prevailed over reason (a usual problem with her people); and so eventually she stood at the entrance to a huge room.
Candles illuminated the huge walls only poorly. There were cushions lying everywhere on the floor but no furniture besides a low stone platform in the middle of the room. A crackling fire inside a huge fireside, embedded into the wall on her right, threw flickering shadows on the walls. Small doors led to further rooms. Lilly took a quick look around and tried to identify the other guests. She could not find Kelsey or Jareth; but she could see six other elves, men and women. Furthermore, there were two other female gnomes she didn't know, occupied with talking to elves. Nobody took note of her so far. Lilly plucked up courage, took a deep breath and stepped inside. Only now she realized that everybody else was dressed only scarcely. Some of the elves noticed her, looked at her and smiled kindly. One particular elfish male, who wore nothing but a loincloth around his waist, beckoned to her excitedly.
"Ok, keep calm, Lilly. They probably won't savage you,"
Lilly murmured to herself and rushed away from him quickly, directly toward the cozy fireplace. The bright light blinded her on her last few steps, and so she couldn't see the obstacle lying in her way. She tripped over something soft and heavy and fell over flat onto the ground in front of the fire. A protesting, deep growl in a guttural fashion told her that she had stepped onto a huge animal. She sat up in a hurry next to the fire. With the light from behind, she saw a huge feral-druid in his feline shape with a stern look of reproach drawing nearer on velvety paws. His eyes shined in the typically elfish yellow glow of the saber-tooth panthers, which the druids clearly favored. If there still remained any doubt, the markings in his fur gave prove that he was in fact not a real animal, but a shape-shifted elf. Only centimeters away, he stopped and examined her curiously.
"Please excuse me, Mr. Druid, that I didn't pay better attention. I hope I didn't hurt you?"
she whispered silently. In the background the other gnomes were giggling. Obviously everybody in the room had witnessed her mishap. The huge feline paused for a moment, then sniffed at her robe, purred satisfied and lay down directly in front of her feet with his head placed comfortably on the fluffy forepaws. In fact, druids couldn't talk in their feral shape, but Lilly was more than relieved about his peaceable reaction and that she didn't make the acquaintance of his presumably sharp claws. And so she sat down next to him. Like most gnomes, she was fascinated by the druid's ability to shape-shift and took the welcome opportunity examining one of them from close distance. Furthermore, the huge animal formed some kind of bulwark between her and the naked guests which granted her a quite welcome feeling of security.
Once again, she looked around. By now her eyes had adapted to the scarcely light well enough so that she could see quite easily. The other gnomes had turned back toward their conversational partners; the remaining elves were occupied with each other as well although Lilly was pretty sure that they glanced at her from time to time. Lilly winced at the sight of a naked elfish couple in a passionate embrace lying in the middle of the room on some of the soft red pillows. Bashfully she looked down and right into the luminous eyes of the feral druid in front of her. With his fangs exposed and a soft meowing he began rubbing his head on her robe and only stopped when Lilly complied with his request and scratched the soft fur behind his fluffy feline ears. She couldn't deny herself a perky grin and whispered,
"You are like a real cat, hm? Do you like that, yes? I've never petted an elf before."
Lilly was not sure if he could understand her in the first place. But he surely relished the scratching as the huge panther answered her with a deep and sustained purring. His fur was lovely soft and warm; and unknowingly she cuddled up to him and even purred a little bit by herself, fondling his fur tenderly with both hands. His purring got louder and almost became a pleasurable, dark growling when Lilly heard a door thunk shut, followed by Kelsey's short scream and the sound of her steps, rushing toward her. With a shaking voice, Kelsey squeaked,
"Lilly, why are you here? And what are you doing with this druid? Are you insane?"
Not only Lilly's lap cat had immediately risen to hiss at the unwelcome disrupter. Two female elves joined them, and Kelsey was dragged away kindly but without allowing any protest. One of them hushed,
"Please don't interfere. Our two sweethearts get along so well!"
