July 6

Dear Journal,

I have never thought of myself as short, but after my first day in Stormwind, I can't help but feel that way!  Everywhere I turn, people tower over me!  It is a human city, but there are also Night Elves, the wolf people, and even some of those strange people who walk on hooves and look like Eredar.  And to all of them, I look like nothing more than a child.  They don't even see me, sometimes.  I've been nearly run over more than once, and had to correct their behavior with my shoulder.

My only comfort is that there is a Dwarven area where my people tend to go about their business.  That is nearly like home.  It smells of metal and flame, and you can always find an ale waiting for you.

The strangest thing I've met with so far is how nobody seems to believe that I am a Soldier of the Light.  I got a letter summoning me to Stormwind's great cathedral, to meet with one Lord Grayson Shadowbreaker.  When I presented him with the letter he sent, he looked at it and back to me a few times before shaking his head with a sigh.  "I apologize," he said in a commanding voice, "I was expecting you to be different."

"Oh aye, ye thought I'd be a man, did ye?" I asked.  He didn't answer, but the way he blushed told me I was right.

I'm used to that.  Ever since the Light called me, I've been told many times just how strange it all is that I should be called to it.  First, being a Dwarf.  We're rare enough.  And second, because I am a woman.  We are even more rare.  When we do decide we want to fight, many of our women choose other ways of doing it...they end up priesting, or talking with the elements or somesuch.

But, Beritt Blackoak?  Ah, no! Magnus' rockheaded girl insists on being like her da, and weilding the Light.  She's bound up her hair, strapped her hammer to her back, and she's hungry to crush the skulls of evildoers!

After Lord Shadowbreaker got over his shock, he himself took me to the grounds where these human paladins practice their craft.  As we walked, he told me that he summoned me because he had heard many good things about me, but he wanted to judge me himself.  Well!  He is a high-ranking paladin! Judging must be as natural as breathing to him.  Anyway, he commanded me to attack one of their dummies, to show what I'd learned so far, but he made no comment, and only nodded and hummed a bit.  I suppose I must have done well, for the next place we visited was the stables.  Once inside, he took me to a stall, and had me look within.

Yes, I needed a block to see over the wall.  What of it?!

Inside that stall was the prettiest creature I've ever seen: a heavy, muscular horse that was as white as snow, except for her braided mane and flowing tail, which were the same grey as a stormcloud.  Her feet are as big as dinnerplates, and covered in thick hair, and her chin was shaggy, giving her a beard, of sorts.  She pulled her head up from her feed bucket and nickered at us, and snorted at my fingers.  Lord Shadowbreak says she doesn't have a name, and doesn't have a rider, but that she's mine if I want her.

Well.  Of course I do!  I was worried that a mare might be weaker than a stallion, but he told me the opposite is true.  Stallions are aggressive and fierce, but mares are steadily brave, focused, and more intelligent.  Then, that man smiled at me and said that they remind him of someone he just met.

So!  I have a lovely mare to name!  What shall I call her?

Snowdrop

Chilblains No

Princess Oh, fel no

Silver Star

Whisper

Porcelain Too fragile

Diamond

I am drawing a blank.  I used to be so good at naming things!  Mayhaps I should ride her a bit, see if she tells me what she wants to be called...