"Stand next to me," the wizard ordered.

Iridi trusted his judgment, although she also prepared to summon the naaru staff. The raptors paced back and forth, slowlyadjusting to the glow, which the draenei noticed Rhonin had decreased in intensity.

As she studied them more, Iridi noticed that most of them were scarred and, in some cases, freshly injured. Iridi recalled again the battle at Menethil Harbor.

The raptors continued to pace back and forth. Occasionally, one would call out. The throaty growls had different nuances, depending on the raptor who spoke. Iridi held out her hand to summon the staff, wondering if it would help her understand them.

"There're more out there," Rhonin told her, interrupting the thought.

"More? How many?"

"Difficult to say. Enough, would be my personal taste." He peered around. "They've had a tough time of it with Menethil Harbor, from the looks of it. Dwarves are short, but they pack a lot of muscle and fight in their compact bodies. Even speed and good claws and teeth aren't a match." Rhonin straightened. "Hmm. Looks like the chief is approaching."

From the edge of the light emerged a larger, sleeker raptor with more feathers than the rest. Its body was a bright red with golden and blue stripes running across. It walked with all the confidence of a king... or a queen. Iridi could not mark which sex it might be.

The other raptors bent their heads low as they watched their leader progress toward the duo. Several of the reptiles twisted their necks so as to display the more soft, easily torn areas.

"They're marking its dominance over them," the wizard explained.

"Is it male or female?"

"A damned good question."

Iridi waited, but he said nothing more on that subject. What mattered most to both of them was what the lead raptor wanted... and whether the two could escape if the entire pack attacked.

"I have some tricks, so don't worry yourself," Rhonin muttered, as if reading her thoughts. "I'm just curious why a bunch of meat-eating lizards would treat us as if we were something bigger andnastier than they are."

The lead raptor paused at just the other side of the glow's source. It peered first at Iridi, then at the wizard.

At last, it growled at Rhonin.

The priestess would have acted, but Rhonin gently tapped her arm with his fingers.

"Our friend here wants to talk. Let's see if we can figure out what it's saying."

The raptor growled again, this time the tones changing. Iridi listened closely and thought she detected no aggression in the sounds.

"I think it seeks peace with you," she suggested to the wizard.

"I had the same notion. Curious concept, speaking peace with a carnivorous monster. Of course, I've experienced odder things."

To her surprise, he took a step toward the raptor. Rhonin kept his gaze directly on the creature's own. As he adjusted his position, he called back to her. "Always look them straight in the eye. There's always a battle for dominance and if you slip, you lessen yourself in their opinion. That's hard to reverse." He chuckled. "Something I learned during a few years as a diplomat..."

The human and the raptor continued their staring contest for more than a minute... and then the reptile ever so slightly glanced to the side. Rhonin nodded once.

This momentary movement on his part seemed to signal a new point in the confrontation. The raptor dipped its head low, then glanced in a different direction.

Despite the risk of doing so, Rhonin casually glanced the same way.

"It's looking at Grim Batol," he said. "What a surprise."

"Do they want us to go back? Are we supposed to be prisoners to turn over to the blood elf and her?"

“I doubt that." The wizard studied the lead raptor again. "It would be nice if we spoke whatever it was they speak."

Iridi again thought of the staff. "There may be something I can do."

She summoned the naaru's gift. The raptors hissed, but did not otherwise react. Rhonin said nothing as the draenei cautiously pointed the large crystal in the direction of the leader.

"Do you understand what I'm saying?" she asked of the creature.

The raptor growled.

In the priestess's head, a series of images suddenly formed. The raptors on a hunt for food. A sudden uneasiness. Grim Batol's dark outline.

Two fearsome, batlike raptors diving from the sky, clutching the hapless ground folk and taking them up to devour in the air.

Iridi recognized the monsters even despite the different perceptions. She was seeing the twin twilight dragons that she and Krasus had fought, but as the raptors identified them. These images were the best that the staff could translate the reptiles' method of speaking.

"Fascinating!" Rhonin breathed, at the moment sounding much like the dragon mage. It surprised her that he also apparently saw the images, but then the staff continued to reveal new elements to its abilities.

More images. The ground folk—as best a term as the priestess could come up with from the way the raptors described themselves —fled toward the west. The vision of Grim Batol kept returning between the various scenes and the draenei could only assume that the reason had to be the raptors' constant sensing of the evil arising from it, an evil that even they were too afraid to ignore.

There came next the battle at Menethil Harbor. Battles, in truth. The raptors had attacked the dwarves in the past, but never in such numbers as they had now. Many packs had joined together...the reason for that again an image of a dark Grim Batol.

But the battle to take new and safer lands had not gone well. The dwarves were seen well defending their territory, although at first Iridi was hard-pressed to identify them for what they were. The raptors' vision of the dwarves made them resemble the skardyn, which they knew of also.

There were images of the raptors moving back and forth between the mount and the harbor. The creatures did not stop. Firstthey went one direction, then the other, then back again.

And then Rhonin’s face appeared among the scenes, but not quite the same Rhonin. He looked slightly fresher, younger—and he was shown facing a green-skinned giant.

"I'll be damned!" the wizard blurted. "That's me around the time the orcs were kicked out...." He pondered that, finally saying, "Some of the raptors must've been near, possibly this very one since it's older—" He cut off as a new and puzzling image played out.

It was still Rhonin and the orc, but now there was also a raptor —and one that indeed did remind the draenei of the leader— involved in the battle. Yet, it was not seeking the wizard's blood, as one might have expected, but rather the orc's.

And then the orc transformed into a skardyn, which, in turn transformed into one of the bat-winged raptors that were the twilight dragons. No matter which foe faced them, the wizard and the raptor fought it side-by-side.

The lead reptile pulled back slightly. The visions ceased.

"What did that all mean?" the draenei quietly asked, watching as the raptors patiently eyed the wizard.

Rhonin took a long time to answer and when he did, it was to verify the priestess's suspicions. "To be honest, I think...I think that they want our help. I think they want some sort of alliance. If you can believe that...."

Iridi nodded. If the raptors were as intelligent as they seemed, perhaps the idea was not far from the truth. After all, their lands were very near Grim Batol and she already knew that they had become so desperate that they had launched the attacks on Menethil Harbor. Perhaps they somehow sensed Rhonin's power—even seen him materialize with her—and instinctively looked to him as a possible savior.

Whatever the truth, Rhonin looked willing to believe in his version so much that he stepped toward the lead raptor. The huge creature lowered its head again, as if not wanting to do anything that would offend the human.