An Old Friend

I am a rogue.
I walk the the long road alone. The friends I make, I make to use, abuse and lose, for my own means and ends. I have fought beside kings and gods. I have killed kings and gods. And still I walk alone.

This didn't have to be my life. Once, when I was younger, when everything was fresh and new, a small helpless thing fell into my hands. And I raised her with the joy, the innocence lost while watching my home city wrecked by the deranged Aspect, lost while watching close friends and companions killed and carried away, lost by the never ending threat of horrible abominations spawned across my nation, lost by the blood staining my leather that I spilled again and again restored to me.

I'm a rogue, I should have let him kill that stupid gnome, but that tiny little thing with her big cyan eyes, had awaken something in me. A lost nobility that I didn't know I had in the first place, and I did the right thing.

I tried my best, slipping into her mind as she was held prisoner, I tried to free my little one. I tried so hard. We were caught again and again, and finally, just when I thought we were free, I thought she was free, she was snatched from me once more. My spirit wrenched form her mind, my little raptor, the tiny thing I had raised from an egg, that I had hunted for, fed, the tiny thing I had loved.. LOVED for once in my life, the little thing I had loved taken from me forever.

They say rogues don't cry, but I did, I cried in the night, my heart broken, shattered. And I was alone. So alone. Why then should I care? I'm a rogue, I look out for me. This is what happens when you let something too close to you. I am a creature of the night, I walk alone.

But I never forgot her, though for sure she would have forgotten me. She was so small, such a tiny thing. You don't break a rogue's heart without getting a dagger in yours. So I plotted, I planned, I schemed. I grew ever stronger, ever colder, ever more alone. Then the time came.

I'm a rogue, I use people for my own needs. A Mage, a Paladin, a Hunter and a Druid were my pawns this time. We took Zul'Garub bit by bit, fighting our way through the infested jungle. I may have lost my 'aka, but Mandokir would lose his life, the life he gained by my hands. Long I waited for this moment.

The battle was brutal, the mage went down, then the hunter. The paladin was barely hanging on with the help of the druid, when finally, a flurry of killing spree. The rage I had nurtured for month after month, spilled out of me in that last burst of flying sword and dagger, and Mandokir went down, dead at my feet. And I felt nothing, nothing but grim satisfaction, as I watched the blood puddle around his lifeless body. This is what happens when you made an enemy of a rogue.

Then, my heart skipped a beat, and my gasping breath caught in my chest as I looked across the pen at a pair of wide cyan eyes staring at me intently. Was it... I started toward those familiar eyes, stumbling over the corpse of the one I had hated for long... Could it be... After all this time?

On unsteady legs I went to her, falling to my knees, unsteady hands shaking, fingers that had picked a thousand locks, picked a million pockets fumbled at the collar holding her. And she was free. My tiny little hatchling, not so tiny anymore was free, but she didn't run, she didn't take that freedom as I expected... Instead she bumped me with her snout, and gave that little trilling sound that filled my heart so many times. She knew me, she remembered me, and she had never lost faith in me. The ice that filled the empty space in my soul born in the loss of this little raptor melted, and spilled from my eyes in a torrent of of hot tears, tracing paths through the dust and blood on my face.

They say rogues don't cry, but I did, my arms around her poor scarred neck, I held her close and cried, my broken heart healing with each tear that fell. I had my baby back.

I'm a rogue, but never more do I walk alone. Wheresoever I may go, my 'aka is there will me, her wide cyan eyes filled with love and trust, and her sweet trill a song in my heart.

How to obtain the Lashtail Hatchling companion as Horde

To see the Lashtail Hatchling inside the Zul'Gurub instance after killing Bloodlord Mandokir you must first complete a series of small quest lines in Northern Stranglethorn.

*SPOILERS* Start at step 7 for Horde - You can stop right before those steps if you want to see the main meat of the story unfold yourself.

1. 
   
2. As a member of the Horde this entire ordeal starts with The Defense of Grom'gol: Raptor Risk given by Commander Aggro'gosh in Grom'gol.
3. 
   
   
4. After completing that quest, you will automatically receive the quest A Lashtail Hatchling and the Lashtail Raptor Egg Fragment.
   Return with the hatchling to Far Seer Mok'thardin in Grom'gol (If your bags were full check your Mail for the Egg Fragment).
5. 
   
   
6. Next he will send you on a quest called I Think She's Hungry to feed the baby raptor murloc meat. Make sure your raptor is summoned so she can take bites out of the corpses as you kill them.
7. 
   
   
8. Now take the hatchling to the Bal'lal Ruins @ 33.7, 37.2 where you will find a pile of skulls on the ground, Your hatchling will run up to the pile and grab a skull from it. Now he will give you the quest Favored Skull which needs you to return to Nimboya in Grom'gol.
9. 
   
   
10. The cauldron near Nimboya will now offer the quest A Nose for This Sort of Thing.
11. 
    
    
12. Next you get the quest Who's a Big Troll? then Skullsplitter Mojo
13. 
    
    
14. After completing the above quest line, Bloodlord Mandokir will spawn and offer a "quest" of the same name. He really just wants to steal the raptor from you because it's special. Do not chase him when he runs off. There is more to do, you must now embark on a chain to try and save your new raptor friend from her fate.
    
15. 
    
16. Nimboya will now give you a quest to speak to Priestess Hu'rala.
17. 
    
    
18. She will lead you on a chain to try and save your new raptor hatchling friend from her terrible fate of becoming the Bloodlord's new raptor slave. This is all your fault! But maybe you can do something about it...
    1) Mind Vision, 2) See Raptor, 3) Mind Control, 4) Be Raptor, 5) Surkhan
19. 
    
    
20. After that really cool and fun quest chain from the Priestess you are ready to enter the 85 Heroic Dungeon of Zul'Gurub and face the Bloodlord Mandokir. It's time to undo the mistake you made by bringing him back to life, and you must save your new friend from a world of torture and evil. Once the Bloodlord falls at your hands, you will see An Old Friend.
21. 
    

How to obtain the Lashtail Hatchling companion as Alliance (Credit to user: Madwolf)

*SPOILERS* Start at step 8 for Alliance - You can stop right before those steps if you want to see the main meat of the story unfold yourself.

1. 
   
2. For Alliance this chain starts with the quest Bad Medicine given by Brother Nimetz at the Rebel Camp.
3. 
   
   
4. Upon completion of Bad Medicine you will automatically obtain the quest Just Hatched and the Lashtail Raptor Egg Fragment. Return to Corporal Sethman at the Rebel Camp with the new hatchling.
5. 
   
   
6. He will then send you on the quest I Think She's Hungry to feed the baby raptor some basilisk meat. Make sure you have the hatchling summoned while killing basilisks so she may take bites from the corpses as you kill them.
7. 
   
   
8. Next you must do The Fate of Kurzen given by Lieutenant Doren in the Rebel Camp. Continue on his chain and do Spared from Madness next.
9. 
   
   At this point you must log out and in to spawn an NPC that will be required in the next step.
   
   
10. Now take the hatchling to the Bal'lal Ruins @ 33.7, 37.2 where you will find a pile of skulls on the ground. Your hatchling will run up to the pile and grab a skull from it. Now he will give you the quest Favored Skull. Return to Osborn Obnoticus at the Rebel Camp (This is the NPC that you must have logged out then back in to see according to some Alliance players).
11. 
    
    
12. Osborn will then give you A Nose for This Sort of Thing to start trying to figure out who that skull belonged to.
13. 
    
    
14. After that do the next quest in the chain, A Physical Specimen.
15. 
    
    
16. After completing the above quest line, Bloodlord Mandokir will spawn and offer a "quest" of the same name. He really just wants to steal the raptor from you because it's special. Do not chase him when he runs off. There is more to do, you must now embark on a chain to try and save your new raptor friend from her fate.
17. 
    
    
18. Osborn will give you a quest to go talk to Priestess Thaalia at Fort Livingston.
19. 
    
    
20. She will lead you on a chain to try and save your new raptor hatchling friend from her terrible fate of becoming the Bloodlord's new raptor slave. This is all your fault! But maybe you can do something about it...
    1) Mind Vision, 2) See Raptor, 3) Mind Control, 4) Be Raptor, 5) Ghaliri
21. 
    
    
22. After that really cool and fun quest chain from the Priestess you are ready to enter the 85 Heroic Dungeon of Zul'Gurub and face the Bloodlord Mandokir. It's time to undo the mistake you made by bringing him back to life, and you must save your new friend from a world of torture and evil. Once the Bloodlord falls at your hands, you will see An Old Friend.
23. 
    

OH MAH GOD? Can it really be, after she were rudely taken away from me, does she finally return me? My little baby raptor from stranglethorn *Sob* Come to pappa!