As Victorie walked about the city, she spied the gryphon master. She stopped to admire the proud and mighty gryphon who was perched nearby. "I imagine you'd rather be up there than stuck down here," she said to the gryphon, motioning in the direction of the sky with nod of her head. "I don't blame you. So would I." On impulse, Victorie paid the gryphon master two silver for a flight to Thelsamar, a small dwarven settlement she'd visited briefly in her travels. She recalled an excavation site there, and hoped the dwarves might have need of a courier or errand girl. She reveled in the soaring flight of the gryphon as it swooped and dived over both familiar and unfamiliar sights.

When Victorie arrived, she sought out the excavation site master and spent the evening shuffling scrolls and packages back and forth. Thinking she was onto something, Victorie flew another gryphon back to Westfall to seek out a similar opportunity. As fortune would have it, the quartermaster gave her an errand, which again required the services of a gryphon. At the end of the evening, Victorie had amassed a pocketful of silvers and considerable experience with the magnificent gryphon. She spent some of her hard-earned silvers on another flight back to Stormwind, reasoning it was so she'd have a safe place to sleep, but in honesty it was just to give the gryphon one more chance to fly.

Victorie's racing heart slowed and she retreated to sit again on the old column, lost in thought. "Was I angry at my father, or was it that strange flying creature with him?" she wondered. The more she thought on it, the more she became convinced it was the creature, as odd as that seemed. She wasn't clear if it was jealousy or resentment, or something darker. The little rat zig-zagged back toward her, but she shook her head sadly at it. "No more cheese, little one." It just stared at her, nose twitching. She thought about that strange creature, not entirely sure what it was. "That thing looked a bit like I bat, I suppose, but bats are about your size," she said to the rat, "That creature was much larger than you." She looked off into the distance, watching the birds circle over the arena. "So what was that strange thing?" she asked herself before descending again into quiet contemplation.

Victorie sat down on what looked like a crumbled bit of an old column and sighed. She idly watched a rat nosing about a few yards away. "I'll bet you have a home and family," she whispered softly to the rat. It looked up at her, wiggling its whiskers inquisitively. "Well, I suppose I have a family, but ..." she trailed off, heaving another sigh. Moving slowly, she brushed aside a stray lock of blond hair and reached into her pack to get a piece of cheese, tossing it to the rat. "I left home, you see. I've just been wandering about, trying to figure out what I should be doing with my life. One thing I know I won't be doing is fighting ... why does everyone expect I'd be okay with killing?" She paused to toss another bit of cheese. "Anyway, last night I ran across some farmers in Westfall who needed help -- they were homeless, too. I retrieved oats for their horse, I think her name was Blanchy, and they gave me their old blanket. Nice folk, they were. Why couldn't my parents have been simple farmers?"

The rat inched closer, hoping for more cheese. Victorie ignored the plea, lost in her reverie. "So everything was going great, for once, when this loud motorcycle roared up beside me. It was my father! I got in his sidecar -- what else was I to do? -- and he took off with me down the road. I had to hang on for dear life. He didn't say a single word. I wasn't sure if he was upset or just really concerned. He took me into this dark, dreary place filled with gravestones and strange wolf men. Then we crossed over a huge ravine and it was this crazy jungle." Victorie paused her cascade of words to catch her breath and look around at the tangled, dense jungle pressing in all around her. "He drove me through these dangerous places, and guys were chasing us with spears and ... and ... I think he might have hurt some of them!" Victorie broke down, dropped her head to her hands, and cried. "Was he trying to scare me? Well, it worked! When he finally stopped his stupid motorcycle, I jumped out and ran into this place," she said, gesturing to the ancient arena behind her.

She looked up from her hands, her face wet with tears. "I wonder if he's gone now." She smiled tremulously down at the rat, and threw it her last piece of cheese. "Do you know how I get out of here?" Victorie laughed at herself for asking such a question of a rat, then stood up to peek around the corner. She looked just in time to see her father hop back on his motorcycle. With alarm, she realized he was not alone ... a small dark whelpling was with him. A surge of fury sprang up in her at the sight, and she charged out of her hiding spot without thinking. But her father chose that moment to speed off, and the whelpling followed, flapping its little wings wildly. Victorie slunk back, alarmed and frightened by her reaction. "Why ... why am I so mixed up?" she stammered aloud to no one in particular.