Rockbottom is just another way of saying hard-ass!

[Beli Flinthammer]

'lo!

My name is Beli Flinthammer. Go ahead and tease me about me name. Ask me if I have belly lint or if I give belly dances. Or say me cooking gives you belly aches. (Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.) I do not mind because there is a special story behind the name, which few people have heard. It is special to my pap and my mum.

You see, after the second war, my pap – that’s Bael Rockbottom to you – was hired to do construction work in Stormwind so the city could be rebuilt. He brought me mum and my two brothers to a cottage in Elwynn forest, near Redridge. I was still in me mum's belly. So every day while me pap was off swinging his hammer and hauling lumber, me mum tended to the garden at the cottage while me brothers played. Occasionally the wild boars in the forest would trample over the flowers in the garden, looking for food. Me pap built a fence to keep the boars out, especially one large boar in particular. He was known as a bellygrub for his enormous size and appetite. Since he roamed their part of the forest pretty infrequently, the garden was able flourish under mum's touch.

Now if me pap was telling you this story, this is the part where he'd clear his throat for a bit so you don't see the ol' hard-ass getting choked up. He'd tell you that he was working in Stormwind, putting shingles on the roof when my wee brother, Kort, came running, his shirt stained red. Me mum had been in the garden with my three year old brother, Omar. The gate had been adjar when Omar saw the bellygrub roaming nearby. Mum was startled by the sound of snorting when she turned and saw that little Omar was heading towards the overgrown beast. Omar swears he does not remember the incident at all, but mum managed to reach him in time to shield him as the boar charged and sent her sprawling. His tusks had gored her, slicing open the side of her swollen belly. Kort had then grabbed my pap's gun and shot at it, but the boar retreated back into the forest so me brother then ran to Stormwind to get help. The memory of my unconscious mum lying in a red pool still makes my pap stiff to this day.

Because I arrived in the world much too early, me parents did not think I would survive so they did not name me. In the days that followed, mum recovered with the help of the humans in Redridge who had heard the news. They say I constantly strained to breathe and grew sickly. Me pap could not bear to watch me suffer so he spent all his spare time hunting in the forest for the bellygrub. Seven weeks went by before he found the overgrown boar by the river and fought it. Pap says it was one of the longest fights he had in his life. The boar kept dodging pap’s blows and knocking him on his feet while scampering away. It took pap several hours to kill the animal until the boar finally gave in to exhaustion.

After pap hung the carcass in the shed, he came in to the cabin and told me mum about the battle, expressing his surprise at the bellygrub's resilience and hardiness. A worthy opponent, he declared. Just as he said that, he heard me cooing for the first time in his life and came to look at me in the crib. Mum then informed him I was not going anywhere for I shared the same steadfastness.

And twas how I got me name.