Puffy white clouds above the Forbidden Reach parted like curtains as a winged form dove towards the island. Amelette felt a thrill as she glided through the clear afternoon sky. The nightborne mage had been to the Forbidden Reach a few times before and was already looking forward to exploring the mysterious Zskera Vaults below. The sun was high in the sky by the time the drake set down on the shore of a small island on the western part of the Reach.
Amelette slid off the back of her drake, landing lightly on her feet and dusting herself off before pulling her drake rider's goggles up, holding her bangs and keeping her hair from falling over her eyes. The youthful-looking mage loved the explorer's look it gave her, though she had opted to wear her typical bustier and skirt, both of a rich wine hue, accented with tasteful gold accents.
The deep red of her outfit brought out her violet-blue skin and contrasted beautifully with the light grey of her shimmering arcane tattoos. She knew she was positively stunning and loved to flaunt her physique whenever she could. And while her outfit showed off a lot of skin and an enticing amount of cleavage, it remained incontrovertibly elegant, a testament to the talent of Suramar's fashion designers.
Amelette had worked hard to develop her magical abilities and to keep herself in shape, and she knew it was all worth it with the stares she got in public. Much to her dismay, however, there were few people around to notice her flamboyant arrival and she pouted briefly.
It seemed that the heroes and explorers of the Horde and Alliance had already moved on to the Zaralek Caverns. She scanned the beach down below for a little while before her gaze landed on a ship some ways off, flying the red flag of the Irontide Pirates.
Amelette approached the beach, careful to avoid any obstacles that might ruin her outfit. While the magic woven into her outfit's fabric enhanced its durability somewhat, a sharp rock or a particularly thorny branch could doubtlessly damage it. Her drake stayed behind, watching her patiently. She gave it a reassuring pat before moving on, unrolling a map of the Reach to see where the Zskera Vaults were located.
Great... right next to the damn pirate ship
she thought, briefly comparing her current location to the map. A sigh left her lips as she rolled the scroll up, slipping it into her bag as she began looking for a path down to the vaults that didn't involve her having to interact with the pirates. She doubted they'd let someone from the Dragonscale Expedition just wander into the place when there was probably quite a bit of treasure to plunder from the place, still.
Her silver gaze scanned her surroundings, settling upon an outcropping of rock that would most likely offer her a better vantage point to spy on the pirates.
Focusing her gaze on that outcropping, Amelette closed her eyes for the briefest moment, visualized herself landing atop it. Her tattoos flared, the arcane power within them feeding into her spell, allowing her to blink a fair bit further than would have normally been possible. She reopened her eyes to find herself transported to the exact spot she had wanted. It wasn't such a great distance, but she didn't want to risk ruining her outfit to get there.
Amelette brushed a stray strand of snow-white hair out of her eyes and looked down at the pirate ship with a grin, getting on her elbows and knees to observe them. She wiggled her hips and butt excitedly as she thought of the best way to approach the situation. Of course, she could most likely blast them with her vast arsenal of spells from this distance or blow up the powder kegs in their ship, but she didn't want to simply murder them. They seemed like they were having fun down there, and besides, they hadn't done anything wrong that she knew of. Certainly not anything worthy of her ending their lives, at least.
From her perch, she could see pirates hanging around the ship, clearly relaxing in the early afternoon sun. She considered the best way to infiltrate the nearby vaults unnoticed, wondering if her invisibility spells would last long enough to do so, given the distance that needed to be covered.
She was decent enough at running long distances, but she hadn't the longest legs nor was she the fastest.
She furrowed her brow, thinking of a solution.
What should I-
"Oi!" a gruff voice bellowed from behind her. "I mean - Yarrr! You dere! Surrender yer booty!"
Amel jumped with an "eep!" instinctively blinking backwards to the source of the voice, right next to two massive Kul Tiran men, obviously pirates by their attire.
"What the-" the first one said, just as the second began raising his cutlass to strike at the nightborne mage who had just materialized between then.
While the backwards blink had entirely been accidental, Amelette seized the opportunity and placed a hand on either pirates' shoulders, tapping into the magic reserves that remained within her tattoos. With a crackle of arcane power, both men fell asleep, falling harmlessly to the ground.
She eyed them for a moment. Of course, her invisibility spell wouldn't last long enough to sneak past the other pirates and enter the vaults... but perhaps it didn't have to. She grinned impishly to herself before bending down and removing the smallest man's outfit. His buccaneer's clothing would doubtlessly be too large for the smaller nightborne, but it would have to do.
Amelette shivered with excitement as she stripped out of her mage's robes, folding them neatly and placing them in a bag. She would miss the protective charms of the garments, but it was necessary to maintain her disguise. Amelette quickly shimmied into the outfit, adjusting it around her curvy figure. She felt incredibly exposed in just the breeches and vest, but it would have to do for the time being.
The sleep spell wouldn't last long enough for her to properly accessorize, much to her chagrin.
Alright, here we go.
Amelette shifted her hips from side to side experimentally, testing out the fit of the outfit. The leather felt strange against her soft skin and even the belt itself was a little too large as it sat upon her hips. It was miracle those pants even held up at all. With a smile on her face, the nightborne mage began the slow walk towards the vaults, taking the same path through the trees that the two now-sleeping pirates had most likely taken when they had come upon her.
She passed several pirates along the way, humans mostly, though there appeared to be a decent amount of non-human folk as well among them. They laughed and talked about various things with nary a care in the world, their jests and boasts loud enough to cover Amelette's soft steps through the sand, and she couldn't help her eyes widening when she heard one of the pirates describe how she'd bedded three tauren simultaneously during one particularly adventurous night in Ratchet.
The mage's ears turned red with arousal as she imagined the scene, though those thoughts were quickly dispelled when she came upon the Zskera Vaults themselves.
None of the pirates were currently guarding the doors. Perhaps they'd tried getting in and hadn't succeeded? The ship wasn't far from the vault doors, though. Fifty feet, give or take.
She nodded to the pirates sitting around their campfire, trying to appear as though she belonged.
"Ay, where's Barry and Gary?" one of them shouted towards Amel before biting into a great piece of succulent-looking meat.
Without much surprise, their hungry eyes wandered over Amelette's abundant curves, her considerable chest barely filling out the enormous pirate's tunic she'd pilfered off Barry or Gary.
"Haven't seen them since yesterday, I think," the nightborne answered with a shrug.
One of them, a female dwarf, nodded and bit into her meal, "Aye, they got stuck inside the vaults, I reckon. Feckin' spiders everywhere in there."
"I... uh... I should go look fer them," Amelette said, trying - and failing - to come up with a convincing pirate accent, her eyes briefly looking over the entrance to the vaults, the incredibly tall doors slightly ajar already, most likely from previous exploration attempts.
"Right," the dwarf said around a mouthful of food, "Try not tae get yerself killed. Hate t'have another death on my conscience."
Amelette nodded and walked away from the group, towards the doors. She didn't dare say another word, to avoid blowing her cover.
"Hey, I don't think I've seen you around here before," shouted a voice from behind her. "Don't recall any night elves being part of this particular crew..." he added, obviously not knowing the difference between a Shaldorei and Kaldorei.
Uncultured,
Amelette remarked inwardly as she continued walking up the wide steps to the double doors, not even looking back to see who was talking to her.
"Stop!" the man behind her continued and she could hear his footsteps getting closer.
Amel pretended not to hear.
"HEY! We got an intruder!" a new voice shouted.
This time, she did recognize the voice. Either Barry or Gary had woken up from her sleep spell and had come running down to the beach to warn his friends.
She stepped into the vaults and spun about, quickly spotting a nearby chain that allowed her to close the massive stone doors behind her. She wasted no time in doing so, surprised at the ease with which she could pull on the heavy-looking links. For such an ancient mechanism, it still worked splendidly.