This follows "A Picnic Lunch and Other Rarities". It's becoming a bit more difficult to write these two in the manner I'm used to. With no templars around...and no threat of being locked in the Tower, the angst has just dissipated! So I have to manufacture a bit of angst it would seem. Wish me luck...here I go.
By the way...this one was written completely on my phone. Man, my thumbs are tired...
Anyhow...thanks for reading and reviewing. It's so appreciated.
(insert standard disclaimer here)
Broken Bones, But Never Alone
As Elirezara's eyes opened slowly, she found it difficult to focus. The light wasn't...natural.
Where am I?
She peered around at her immediate surroundings, allowing all of her senses to provide input into her current location. There was candlelight in the distance, just beyond the...bars? Am I in a cell? Some sort of prison? Suddenly, recent memories flooded her mind - the Wending Wood, the insanity of the Dalish woman Velanna, the darkspawn outside of the silverite mine, and then entering the mine itself. And the creature...the hideous, yet incredibly intelligent creature that took her and her companions hostage mere moments after they entered the cavern. Speaking of her companions, where were they?
"Nate? Oghren...where are you?" she whispered into the dimly lit area. Her whispers echoed, bouncing off corners she couldn't see.
"Elirezara," a hushed voice responded, "is that you?"
"Nathaniel...thank goodness."
The relief in her voice was more than apparent.
"I can see Oghren, but he is still unconscious," he offered. "The Dalish woman is also nearby."
"What about Anders?" she asked, worried.
"I cannot see the mage anywhere," Nathaniel responded grimly.
Elirezara sighed loudly. He must be in here...just, unconscious still. He was fine. He had to be.
She was about to respond to the archer again when the sound of soft footfalls padded closer, apparently heading in her direction. She nervously backed towards the corner of the cell, uncertain of who could be approaching.
"Mage," came a hoarse whisper. "You are with my sister, no?"
Elirezara looked beyond the bars to see a small figure peering in at her. A woman...an elf? But...she did not appear...healthy. she was pale...with an almost grey tone to her skin. A telltale sign of the taint, and spending too much time amongst the darkspawn. Could this ghoulish young woman be...?
"You are Velanna's sister?" Elirezara questioned.
The elf nodded. "I am Seranni." She looked around nervously. "I do not have much time."
"What are you doing here?" the Warden asked, continuing to eye the strange woman suspiciously.
"I wished to speak with my sister, but I cannot wait for her to awaken. I want to...help you."
"Help me? How?"
She reached her slender arm into her pocket, pulling out a small set of keys. She slid the key into the mechanism on the door of the cell, turning it until it clicked. The door swung open easily. Seranni held the keys out for Elirezara to take from her. As the Warden approached, she shrunk into herself, nervous to be too near the woman.
"Why are you doing this?" she asked.
"I...have to," she replied, "for my sister. She cannot end up like me."
"What happened to you?" Elirezara asked her.
"I...the Architect," she replied. "He wants to end this. He wants to set them all free from their chains." Again, she looked around in fear. "I've stayed too long. I must go. Please...help Velanna out of this place."
She nodded and the tainted elf hurried back off into the dim light. Elirezara rushed out of the cell towards other cells. The first she came to held Nathaniel.
"Did I hear correctly?" he inquired, as she unlocked the cell. "That was the elf's sister?"
She nodded and went to the next cell where Oghren was laying unconscious. She attempted to rouse him, but he would not come to. He was alive at least, but they would have to wait for him to awaken. The same was true for Velanna.
They were all stripped of their armour and weapons, but clothed in the attire of common peasants.
"Where did they get all of this clothing from?" she wondered.
"Perhaps the raids on the merchants," Nathaniel suggested.
"Strange," she replied. "This whole thing does not bode well for us."
As he nodded in agreement, he noticed a small shadow near her feet and pointed.
"Is that the mage's cat?"
"Pounce!" she exclaimed. "Where is Anders?"
The cat rubbed against her ankle and yawned. She shrugged, wondering why she thought the creature would lead her to Anders in the first place. She bent down and picked up the cat, and it immediately began to purr.
She followed the wall of bars and eventually came upon the cell that held him.
"Anders!"
She quickly opened the door and knelt down next to him as he lay on the cold floor. She knew she'd not be able to wake him either and so instinctively placed her hand on his back. He started violently, nearly jumping away from her. He did not turn to face her, and so she rushed to his other side to let him know he was safe.
"Anders, it's me," she said softly. "It's Eli. You're safe."
"No," he cried out. "Let me out of here. I don't...I can't stay in here."
His voice was hollow...haunted. his eyes were squeezed shut, trying to force out the demons that were plaguing his mind. All of the memories from the Circle Tower dungeons had returned. Terrifying him. Reverting him to a frightened child. He shied away from Eli's touch, cringing at the contact. Fearful that the next touch would bring a painful slap from a templar...the cut of a whip...the slice of a hidden blade.
The templars had ripped his childhood out of his reach everytime he tried to escape their reach. Violently and forcibly separating him from the Fade with their cruel wards. Preventing him from seeing Eli - the one being in Thedas who was able to make him forget about the pain and hurt he had gone through.
Yet he rejected her now for fear that he was really back in the Tower, and that the past several years were not real. Had he hallucinated the whole thing? Why was he trapped again?
As he opened his eyes a crack, he recognized that he was not in the Circle's dungeons - they were far colder than this. And not just in temperature, but the whole feel of the place. The atmosphere. And there was nothing preventing him for feeling the mana flow through his body naturally.
He flinched as he felt a hand on his hand. But he steeled himself to open his eyes fully and saw the small fingers upon him. He followed the hand to the arm and saw that it belonged to Eli. Her face was...somber. She appeared concerned...frightened.
"Anders," she whispered.
"Eli? Wh-where are we?" he choked out. His teeth chattered.
"I'm not sure," she replied shakily. "Last I remember, we entered the mine. Do you remember that? And the creature...the talking darkspawn...it imprisoned us here. But I don't know where here is."
She reached for him to help him into a seated position and he leaned into her. He grasped at her shoulders, panic twisting his fingers into her clothing. She could not wrench him away if she tried - though she would never have tried. It was when he was at his most desperate that she needed to be at her best for him.
"I'm so scared, Eli," he admitted. "What if we never get out of here?"
"We will," she said, attempting to comfort him with words. "We will find a way out of here. We will always find a way out...together."
But was she even really sure of that? She had no idea where they were being held. And if the creature they faced when they first entered the mine was powerful enough to put them under in this manner, then what else could it do. It was obviously an intelligent, rational being - and it had the advantage. It knew the lay of this place...it had darkspawn under its control...and it had all of their armour and weapons. They needed to get out of there. She hoped her words to Anders were not merely lip service.
Elirezara glanced back in Nathaniel's direction. He sat on a bench outside of the cells, waiting for both Oghren and Velanna to awaken. Neither showed any signs of stirring yet.
"We have to wait for the others to come to before we can do anything," she said, turning back to face Anders.
He shifted nervously in her arms. "I hope they wake soon," he replied. "I...this place is giving me...I just don't know how long I can stay here."
As Eli peered into his eyes, she saw the absolute terror that Anders was attempting to keep veiled from her. He could do nothing but associate this experience with every single time he was kept in the bowels of the Circle Tower; days...weeks...months...
He closed his eyes. There was never an escape from it. Not until someone let him out. And this would not be like escaping the Circle.
"Anders?"
He looked back up at her.
"Do you remember that time when we got into the storage caverns in the Circle?" she asked.
He nodded.
"You warned me to not try to reach the top shelf. Told me that if I kept reaching like that, the whole damn thing was going to come crashing down on top of me," she reminded him.
"And it did," he said.
She had discovered a very large, very old-looking tome on the top shelf of a bookcase - wobbly due to age and being over its capacity to store the myriad of items it had collected over the years. She managed to get a finger on the tome while standing on tip toes and began to slide the book off of the shelf. As it dragged across the shelf, its weight swayed the entire case towards her, and the items on it began to crash off and down on to her small frame.
She had heard him cry out for her...cry her name, just as the shelf itself toppled, nearly crushing her completely. The wood of the case splintered as it landed upon a nearby crate. It prevented the case from killing Elirezara, but it hadn't stopped it from injuring her seriously. Anders was frantic...rushed to her side.
"Eli! I'm here. I'm going to help you," he'd said.
"I can't...I can't move...Anders," she'd choked out. "I...don't want...to die..."
It was all he could do to prevent himself from crying.
"Just...just hold on, Eli. I'll get you out of there," he promised. He summoned all of his strength, positioned himself against the case that was nearly crushing her, and began to hoist it off of her. It took him some time to maneouvre the heavy shelving off of her. After a concerted effort, he finally managed to slide the case off of Elirezara's small body. She coughed several times, wincing in pain with each movement.
Anders looked over her carefully. One of her ankles lay unnaturally and he worried it was broken. Her arm had also been severely wounded as she had held it out before her when the case fell. Her arm was no match for its weight, and it had snapped at the wrist. Though, no bones were sticking out of broken skin, which allowed for him to breathe a sigh of relief - it could have been worse.
"Don't move, Eli," he warned as she struggled to sit up. "You have at least a couple of broken bones. Here...just relax..." He placed his hands on her chest, trying to determine if she had broken any ribs, but it seemed as though they were still intact. Her breathing was shallow - could something else have broken? Punctured a lung? He let the mana flow through his fingers to her, and she began to breathe more naturally. Perhaps she had just had the wind knocked out of her after all.
There was blood on her forehead...dripping down her pale face. He pulled the sleeve of his robes towards the wound to wipe away at the blood and she looked up at him; a grimace upon her sad face.
"Eli...I'm going to have to get help for you," he advised her.
Panic crossed her face. "Anders, please don't go," she pleaded.
"Okay, Eli," he replied. "Let me see what I can do for you."
He scooted down to where her feet were and carefully put his hands on the ankle that appeared broken. He knew enough about the human body and how it felt when it was whole and healthy. Elves weren't that different. She winced when he touched her ankle, but it didn't feel broken. Everything felt whole, merely sprained. He gingerly moved the foot around to ensure it wasn't injured further and sent healing magic into her body to dull the pain.
"I'm going to need to get someone, or we have to try to get you up. I don't think I can heal your wrist right now. I mean, I don't want to do it wrong," he said to her.
She nodded, gritting her teeth. He moved back up to her side and placed his arms under her shoulders.
"Anything doesn't feel right, Eli, and you tell me immediately, okay? I don't want to make this worse," he said.
"Mm hmm," she responded. He felt her take as deep a breath as she could muster and lifted her into a seated position.
When she was sitting without his help, he hurried to back in front of her again. "How's that?" he asked.
"'M'okay," she replied. "I...I don't know if...I can...stand."
"Your ankle is pretty beat up and bruised, but it's not broken," he explained. "Let me find something for you to sit on. We'll take this one step at a time."
He spotted a small crate further into the cavern and hurried to retrieve it. He dragged it close to where Eli sat and then came down on a knee in front of her.
"Ready?"
She nodded.
He scooped one arm under her knees, and the other reached around her back under one of her arms. Careful to avoid contact with the clearly broken wrist, he lifted her off of the ground and carried her to the crate. He lowered her gently down on to it.
"Thank you," she whispered into his ear as he put her down.
He smiled at her weakly. "Of course, Eli," he replied. "I'll always be here for you. Now let's get you on your feet. Think you can do it?"
"I guess we'll see," she said.
He adjusted himself so that he was on the side of her injured foot. As luck would have it, it was the opposite side of her broken wrist. He slipped himself under her arm and wrapped his arm around her waist.
"Ready? On three...one...two...three."
Anders hoisted her up on to her good foot and she immediately groaned in pain.
"You okay? I mean, can you walk if I help you?" he asked.
"I think so. But where am I going to go?" she asked.
"To see the healers," he said. "This is beyond my skill."
"No," she protested. "I can't go there. We weren't supposed to be in the caverns."
"I can't just leave you without healing, Eli," he insisted.
"But you'll get in trouble, Anders," she said. "I can't let you get in trouble for me. I...they...they'll hurt you." Her eyes began to fill with tears at the thought.
"It's okay. You need help," he replied.
"No. I won't let you get hurt for me. The last time...oh Anders...I can't bear to think about what they did last time. Please. Don't."
He sighed. She was right. They'd beat him for days for sneaking into such a restricted place. And what would they do to her? He stood motionless for a few moments.
"I've got an idea," he said suddenly. "Let's get out of here."
They hobbled to the end of the caverns - she waited while he checked the exit. When the way was clear, he returned to help her walk. They continued on, and when they finally reached the healers, he concocted a grand story about how some of the nasty apprentices had chased her through the halls. She escaped them, but tripped on her robes and fell down a stairwell, breaking her wrist and spraining her ankle badly. Oh, and she must have hit her head on the way down too.
Elirezara smiled knowingly at Anders when he finished telling the tale.
"Is this true?" the mage in charge of looking after the girl's wounds asked.
Elirezara nodded. "It's so embarassing that I tripped like this."
'You'd better be more careful from now on," the woman scolded.
As both Anders and Elirezara thought back to the events, they started to smile at each other.
"You never left me Anders. Not once," she said.
"Of course not," he replied. "I made a promise to you that I would do everything I could to protect you."
"You might not have been able to save me from myself back then," she weakly joked, "but you did everything you could to help me heal. And you stayed." She took his hand. "Just as I won't ever leave you behind."
He looked at her, hopeful.
"We're going to make it out of here, Anders," she said. "I promise you."
He grabbed her and pulled her towards him, holding her tightly. "I love you, Eli."
"I love you too Anders." She gladly returned his embrace.
"Oh, would you two please stop," bellowed a voice from the direction of the cell door. "It's enough to make a maggot vomit."
"Good to know you're awake, Oghren," she said before letting go of Anders.
"Yeah. Well, enough small talk. Get me out of these sodding clothes!" he growled.
"Agreed," Nathaniel cut in. "Let's get out of here. We have an unknown foe ahead of us. We'd best prepare as well as we can without our weapons. Perhaps we can find something along the way?"
"We'll make it out," Elirezara said confidently. "We've never met a foe yet we couldn't defeat. Weapons or not."
The others nodded at her. "Lead on, Commander," Nathaniel said.
"Let's go smash some darkspawn," growled Oghren.
Elirezara pulled Anders up to walk with her, and the others followed close behind; Pounce flitted between their steps. The challenges ahead could prove dangerous, but they were Wardens after all. They would face them head on. Together.