There was chaos in Ferelden. There was death and chaos and loss and fear: fear that was shown in the eyes of every villager of Lothering as they fled their homes. Some were lucky enough and smart enough to have left earlier, to see the war in Ostagar as a dark sign. But the Hawke family wasn't one of these. And it wasn't as if they didn't believe the rumors of a Blight, but they simply believed they could out fight it. And why not? They were a strong family, a fierce family that held their love for one another above anything else. But in the end…the chaos was more than any of them had expected.
A blonde woman pushed through the crowd of fleeing people, seeming to run in the wrong direction as she approached the line of soldiers on the bridge. "Carver!" The woman called, reaching out and grabbing the bicep of a young man. He wasn't more than eighteen, and with his baby face and dark cropped hair he hardly looked it. And when he turned his eyes showed nothing more than anger as he pulled away from the woman's grasp.
"What are you doing here, sister?" He asked, switching his blue-eyed gaze between her and the road in front of him. In the distance they could see the specks of the approaching horde as the weak army tried to prepare for their strike.
"You need to come with me. We have to escape before it's too late," she explained, her grey eyes pleading to him.
"I can't do that, Lisa. My place is here. You go back and get Bethany and mother to safety. I must protect Lothering."
"There's nothing to protect!" She snapped, yanking at his shoulder to force him to turn around. "Don't you see? Lothering is lost. What you're doing is suicide. I can't go back without you." Lisa's younger brother stared at her before looking over at his shoulder one more time and then at the faces of the soldiers. They all saw it too. There was no battle here, simply death.
"Men! Get to your families, flee with them," Lisa explained before taking Carver's hand and yanking him away from the bridge and through the destroyed city. Looters had tried to take advantage of the chaos at one point, but even they realized that staying for a few extra silvers wasn't worth their life.
The pair showed up at the front of their small home, Bethany was shoving a few more things into packs as the sibling's mother and father argued with one another. "You can't stay here, Malcolm!" The grey-haired woman pleaded as Lisa stepped past Bethany, giving her a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder before Bethany embraced her twin brother.
"You're staying?" Lisa asked in disbelief as she looked upon her father. When she was younger the man looked like he was as tall as a mountain. But as the years had passed he had slowly fallen more and more into his old age. His blonde hair was speckled with strands of grey and his grey eyes were tired. He tried to give Lisa a reassuring smile, but she wouldn't take it. "You can't stay here, you must come with us."
"The horde is too far along. I will stay and delay them as much as I can," there was a screech in the background that alerted them that time was almost up.
"No!" Lisa's mother shouted, "You will not risk your life for us!"
"Leandra," the man spoke softly, brushing at the tears that had dripped down her face. "I risked my life for you the day we ran away together. Let me die knowing that I saved the family that I gave everything up for," he breathed before giving her a tender kiss on the forehead and guiding her towards the door. Malcolm turned back to Lisa, the eldest child's eyes glazed over in tears. The man smiled, taking her hand and giving it three gentle squeezes. "Carver will take this the hardest…you must be patient with him. Bethany…please keep her safe. And Leandra," he looked over Lisa's shoulder to see the woman hugging herself as she looked out at the horizon. He pulled back and slipped a gold ring into her hand. It was his wedding ring, the cool feeling of metal made a knot form in Lisa's stomach. "Bring the joy back to her eyes for me," he finished as Lisa gave a small sob, looking down as the man pulled her into his arms.
For a moment she felt like she was ten again and had come home after breaking her arm when she fell into the pond in the woods. Her mother had scolded her, told her she shouldn't be venturing so far, that it could endanger all of them. But her father had just pulled her into his arms, carefully mending her broken bones and holding her till her cries ceased. "You must be strong," he had said, "one day people will look to you for strength. They won't find any in your tears."
"You must be strong," he whispered into Lisa's ear as the woman looked up at the ceiling to try and blink away the tears. "But when you have brought everyone to safety…remember what it was like to be weak. One does not grow from ignoring the pain. Be what is best…not that which is most base," he breathed as Lisa slowly nodded before kissing him gently on the cheek. "I love you, all of you."
And then they ran, the three siblings trying to hide their tears for their mother's sake. Lisa instructed Carver to lead them through the cliffs outside of Lothering while she had Bethany keep and eye on her mother. Arrow after arrow she flung from her bow, watching as Darkspawn fell and then another appeared in its place. They never seemed to end and any break they gained were for only seconds before their fearsome roars started to sound behind them.