A HUNT WITHIN A DREAM

EXT. FOREST - DAY

(worldport xxxxx)

SYLVANAS WINDRUNNER sprints through the forest, leaping lightly over roots and stones. She is alive and young, wearing hunting clothes in the colors of the Windrunners. She breathes quickly. There is light in her eyes and amusement in her expression. 

She pauses. There is silence, then a rustling of leaves and a flash of light. Her eyes flick toward the sound, then she is off again, moving at otherworldly speed. 

Through the trees, we see what Sylvanas is chasing: a deer buck made of pure light.

As she runs, Sylvanas nocks an arrow to her bow and pulls back the string. The buck clears the treeline and enters a meadow of golden flowers. Sylvanas releases the string and the arrow flies. It pierces through the light-buck. 

The light wobbles and shatters, and in the buck’s place is a little blonde BOY, the picture of golden innocence, standing calmly, holding the arrow in his fist. 

The boy smiles at her.

BOY

Do you remember when we met, Sylvanas Windrunner?

Sylvanas lowers her bow. She regards the boy with curiosity.

SYLVANAS
(regal, but kind - no after-effects)

I do not.

The boy peers at the arrow in his hands, smiling as he remembers out loud. 

BOY

It was before the Second War. You joined my father in a hunt - you, and your sisters, and your brother. The elves were the prettiest people I’d ever seen. You especially. I had my own little bow, but Father would not allow me to join the hunt. I was angry. So I chased after you, and...

SYLVANAS
(as if dreaming)

...you got lost. Then you ran into the chase, right in the path of the buck. Into the path of Terenas’s arrow.

BOY
(smiling, growing darker)

But you leaped from your horse and grabbed his arrow right from the air!

The boy mimics the feat with the arrow he holds.

SYLVANAS
(hatred; undead Sylvanas after-effects begin here)

I wish I had not saved you that day, little Arthas Menethil.

BOY
(shrugging, light)

Intriguing, isn’t it? For all your anger, your machinations. All the revenge you exacted. What you did, in the end, was fulfill my destiny better than I ever could have. After all: I raised a Scourge army, but you mothered a race. Well done, Dark Lady.

The mocking adult words sound strange coming from the boy’s young voice, but he speaks a truth that Sylvanas has never faced. 

The arrow crumbles into mist in the boy’s hand.

Sylvanas’s face transforms into the undeath of present time. Her expression is horrified. The illusion of the meadow disappears. In its place is the Maw. (worldport xxxxx) 

/end