Here it is week 3 of my four week chronicle of my return to the World of Warcraft. By now I was expecting my enthusiasm for the game to damper but it's quite the opposite. I'm actually getting more drawn into the game as I accelerate through my 50's and rapidly approach level 60 and adventuring into Outland to battle demons and get *gasp* a flying mount. Very exciting. I've been kept pretty busy with my Night Elf Rogue, bouncing all over both continents of Azeroth to complete long quests that involve a number of stops and battles. I've killed dragons and hydras and entire temples full of crazy monster worshipping trolls, learned new skills and talents and rocketed through the levels.

But all these up and coming events and activities fell on the back burner just the other night, because out of the blue, I fell in love.

I was in the desert of Tanaris again, wondering in stealth among the towering one eyed ogres and quietly pickpocketing them in the hope of finding a locked box about the person, these locked boxes can only be opened by Rogues at a certain level of pickpocketing proficiency and so to level up your skill you need to spend a bit of time sneaking around stealing from humanoid characters. The reason its important to level up this skill is that dungeon monsters occasionally drop lockboxes that can contain amazingly good loot and being the team Rogue, it's kind of your job to be able to open them. I've actually got several of these boxes, that I can't open yet, stored in a bank deposit box for me to crack open when I reach the right level of skill.

Hence Rogues can often be seen (or not seen actually) wandering in and out of big groups and stealing and thieving like crazy to raise this important skill. That's where I met her. She was a Rogue, a Blood Elf which means she works for the Horde, and we literally walked into each other as we both tried to pickpocket the same Ogre. You can only see someone in stealth who's the same level as you if you walk right into them. So she must have seen my ghostly form at the same second I saw hers. Quickly we backed away and we must both have been waiting to see who would move first. Or at least I thought we were until she sapped me from behind and left we stunned. As she stabbed away at my helpless body I couldn't help but notice the green of her eyes, her blonde hair tied back in that no nonsense bun. As soon as Sap wore of I vanished and tried to get around her. I scored a lucky cheap shot and managed to knock a bit of her health of before she blinded me, causing my character to blunder in a circle as she disappeared again. For a few minutes we shadow danced like this trying to gain the upper hand. Eventually I backed away, mostly because she was a lot better than me and eventually I was going to get killed. It's sad that the only way we can be together is by killing each other, like Romeo and Juliet, mostly the killing and stabbing parts as opposed to the love part, but a day later I can't stop thinking about her, although I can't remember her name, Teebagr or something maybe similar. *sigh* Also I'm more than a little afraid of turning into this guy.

Anyway, not long after in 1000 Needles I happened upon a luckless Warlock trying to fight a hyena and stabbed him in the back, he died so quickly it took him a few seconds to resurect his character and in that time I quickly hugged him, earning the "Make love not war" achievement which cheered me up immensely. I hadn't paid much attention to the WoW achievements before now but reviewing the list they mostly reward exploration and experimentation over insane skill achievements which is nice and a good way to learn more about the game and earn some fun badges of braggability along the way.

We're in the final week now and unless the game becomes incredibly dissapointing at level 60 I think I'd better call my WoW addiction sponsor and let him known I've fallen completely of the wagon.