down the scarlet path

Day was dawning in the Tirisfal Glades, up in the northern lands of Lordaeron. To the East, beyond the woods and even beyond the wasted Plaguelands, the sun was making its early morning appearance in the already blue sky. Long ago, before the last invasion, the plague, the undead and the fall of both Lordaeron and Dalaran, such a bright dawn break would augur a peaceful day. Birds would perch on the treetops singing their joyful songs praising the warm morning sun. The local farmers would continue to harvest their crops, for the summer was reaching its end and soon, all trees would have their leaves painted in crimson; the days would become shorter, and the wind would make them be colder and colder.
But that was before all that had befallen on those northern lands. The undead invasion had ravaged everything north of the Alterac Mountains. Farms have been corrupted to spread a deadly plague that ultimately turned the hapless inhabitants of those lands in unliving soldiers that hungered for human flesh and blood. The farmers had been slaughtered one by one, and turned into undead horrors. The birds fled from those cursed lands, seeking refugee somewhere else far away as the forests darkened and its creatures were driven insane. Villages have been pillaged and burned to ashes. Bigger cities, such as Andorhal, Caer Darrow or Stratholme had known no better fate. And even Lordaeron’s capital city, by the tranquil shores of Lordamere Lake, had fallen under the deadly sway of the mad prince Arthas and transformed into an undead bastion of evil.
And since then, the once green and peaceful glades of Tirisfal had turned silent, cold, and dark. Corrupted.
But that had been a long time ago, thought Malian, as his group walked silently in the woods. Yet he couldn’t let his ghosts go away. They refused to go. And they followed him everywhere he went, as a shadow of the dire past he tried to forget every day.
(...)

this is the beginning of a tale i've started to write some time ago, based in the lore of world of warcraft, the massive multiplayer online role-play game that takes over so many hours of my daily life. i've stopped writing it, and i don't know why. someone please remind me to quit the slacking and get back to work.