Waking in a gasp, a young elf found herself lying on a branch of a old oak tree. Looking around, she had no idea what had woken her. The forest was quiet as she had taken time away from her clan. Many of the men were trying to win hearts of the young ladies and it was just annoying her.

Their clan leader told her to calm herself in the forest and she nearly ran. Not like she wasn't interested, but something just felt wrong to her. Coming back to the present, she could hear some of the young men and hid herself amongst the branches and leaves. Four of her clansmen were walking through, probably to find her.

"I have no idea what her problem is." She heard one of them say. Aranien, it had to be as he was the only one that had that attitude towards her.

"Try not to dwell on it, she will come around if she doesn't find interest in me first." Faeron added with a laugh, but was shoved by Aranien.

"Desilinaris will be mine. She is one of the finest hunters and trackers we have. She will improve my life considerably." Aranien argued.

Sili had never liked Aranien. He was just a year older, but acted like a child every time something didn't go his way. He would also scare game away from other hunters so that he was the only one that brought anything back. The Keeper kept scolding him, saying that not everything was a competition.

It was worse that he had come from the cities. Many city elves are timid or over confident, but soon settle in the ways of the clans that adopt them. Not Aranien... He always tried to be better than the 'Dalish elves'. Sili about gagged hearing him.

"Knock it off, Aranien." Iauron growled as Revdur began to walk ahead, "Keeper Istimaethorial needs us to find her so that we can go. The shemlan lord here wanted us to move before his little party."

"At least he is being respectful, for now." Revdur added, looking up into the trees. He spotted Sili and made a quick motion for her to return soon. Sili nodded and watched as Revdur made some excuse as to why they should head back.

"Revdur right as she has probably already made it back." Iauron added.

The four of them started to head back towards their camp with Revdur staying in the back. He glanced once more to where Sili was hiding and nodded. A silent acknowledgement that he would let their Keeper know. She waited until they were out of sight before she climbed down the tree.

Stretching her cramped muscles, Sili then heard a faint howl from a wolf then a child's scream. Her blood ran cold as she raced towards the sounds, opposite of her clan which meant it was the humans. She was never sure how she felt about them, but children were different. They were innocent until they could defend themselves and speak their thoughts.

Finding a gulley, Sili waited anxiously for another noise. Another howl towards the north told her where to go and jumped into the gulley which was only a few meters deep. There were tons of debris, mostly fallen trees, that she had to climb around. She just prayed to any Creators that she didn't find what she thought she would.

Thankfully her prayers were answered as she came upon a young boy and a grey wolf chasing him. The young human, though looking not older than five or six, was wise enough to use the fallen debris and maze himself through it. Making it harder for the wolf to get a good lunge. Sili used the debris and swung herself towards the wolf, kicking hard in the muzzle. It yelped as it crashed into branches before lying stunned on the dirt.

The boy looked from the wolf to her before noticing her hand. She was trying to reach him, but not outright grabbing him. He seemed skeptical for only a moment before grabbing onto her arm. Sili pulled the boy out of his spot and onto her back, trying her best to get him to safety.

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the wolf regaining himself and aiming for her. She needed to get the boy to higher ground and found some rocks that allowed her to nearly toss him above the ridge. With a quick nod, the boy ran into the trees, but she could see him making his way back to where he had been chased from.

Now she needed to get to safety, but still needed to get the wolf to follow her. Jumping into the middle of the gully, Sili raced through the debris, hearing the wolf growl behind her. She needed to either lose it completely or kill it and the latter seemed the only option left to her. Looking around, she found the perfect branch and used her momentum to swing herself behind the wolf.

Brandishing her daggers, Sili was about to jump at the wolf when she heard a weird scream coming from the forest. Before she knew it, Sili was slammed down hard, her head cracking against a stump. Darkness crept into her eyesight, but she still saw who had hit her... Aranien.

He was screaming and howling at the wolf in a demented way before trying to attack it. By the Creators he was a horrible hunter, looking more rabid and wild than the wolf. In his self-absorbed world, he missed the signs the wolf was about to attack and was bitten in the calf and flung by the wolf.

Sili almost laughed if she wasn't slipping in and out of focus. She could hear others coming, probably the other boys that had been with Aranien earlier, but there were others behind her as well. She guessed the boy had been able to return to his family and explain what had gone on.

Reaching behind her, she felt liquid and pulled her hand back to see blood. She was going to rip Aranien's arm off for such recklessness. In a feat of adrenaline; Sili stood, aimed for the wolf, and attacked. She was able to sink her daggers into the back of the neck of the wolf, killing it instantly. Sili then swung and sliced at Aranien, cutting his arm.

"You ever do that again, I will personally take you back to an alienage." Sili threatened.

"I was trying to save you, but you're welcome." Aranien shot back.

"Looked to me that she had it under control." Revdur stated, "We don't need another wolf pelt, so what do we do?"

"Excuse me, but may I have it?" One of the human's with the boy asked, "That wolf has been attacking some farms that last few weeks. The villagers would be happy to see it gone."

"What would you do with it?" Iauron asked, forcing himself not to add shem or shemlan to anything he said.

"Probably skin it and cook the meat for some of the mabari hounds." The man replied, "Is she alright? There is blood on her neck..."

The Dalish men turned to see their fellow elf paling and swaying on her feet, but her eyes were filled with rage towards Aranien. When something tugged on her arm lightly, all the rage left her upon seeing the young human boy. He was smiling and reached his arms up, intending on a hug. Sili wouldn't deny him, but the blood on her... She lowered herself and allowed the boy to hug her around her waist before he bounding back to the other humans.

"Though part of this is his fault, running off, but I thank you young lady for saving my boy." The eldest of the men smiled, "I am the teryn of this land and I have spoken to your Keeper before. Tell her that your clan is welcomed to stay as long as you need."

"Thank you sir." Sili bowed and, with help from Revdur, climbed out of the gully, heading back to their clan, but she made it known that Aranien was NOT to be around her. Shoving him to the front with Iauron.

Aranien was furious that she would act so callus around him. He saved her from that wolf and she would pay for this. Turning sharply and brandishing his daggers at the same time, Aranien dove at Sili, but she was the better hunter and watched him. Even in her muted state of awareness, the once city elf was still too jiggery and moved with big motions, making it easier to predict him.

Sili dodged the attack, kicking Aranien in the ribs away from her and Revdur. Grabbing her own daggers, she knew she wouldn't last long, this needed to end quickly. Aranien regained himself and launched himself at her again. With a quick look to the others, who nodded in understanding, Sili allowed Aranien to tackle her. As they fell, she drove her daggers into his back, but had the wind knocked out of her. She could barely hear or feel anyone around her as she slowly lost consciousness.

Unlink any Dalish, you harbor no immediate fear or anger towards humans. A voice whispered in the dark.

When Sili came too, she had no idea where she was, besides on the ground in an abandoned mine shaft. Her whole body ached, but her head just seemed to be the worse. Sili slowly opened her eyes and looked around, there was some haze of the falling dust mixed with snow, but mostly it was dark. Deciding that she needed to move, Sili slowly began to sit up before standing and letting her body adjust to the rapidly dropping cold.

As she stood, she shivered violently, but pushed through it as she began to make her way through the tunnel. Sili could feel parts of her body protest and knew she must have broken a few bones. Sili was no mage and didn't have any healing droughts, so she prayed to the Creators to see her through this.

As she rounded a corner, she could see daylight on the far end of the tunnel and smiled to herself. There! She screamed in her head, but that feeling was squashed when the mark sparked to life. A few demons appeared, but what appeared to be a cone of the breach, covered the demons and they were gone within an instant.

Sili dropped to her knees in pain after the cone collapsed upon itself. Tears stung at her eyes, but she pushed herself up and made her way out of the tunnel and into the blizzard that was forming on the Frostback. Sili groaned and shivered again, but the snow was only over her ankles...

As Sili trudged up the mountain side, the snow grew deeper and the blizzard was becoming more violent. She had to really pick up her feet as the snow covered up to her calves now. A dark spot tainted the white snow in her vision and Sili came upon a long dead fire of a campsite.

"I must be on the right trail..." Sili whispered, regaining some strength as she went higher.

Hours passed, but the night was just settling in. Wolves and other animals howled around her, but that didn't bother her. Sili tried not to think of her fading strength or the protest her body was screaming at her. The snow was deeper, up to her knees and made it very difficult to walk. Thankfully this high up, the blizzard had stopped and she could see for miles. Though she saw nothing, but mountain range.

Sili passed by another makeshift camp, "It's still warm." She stated quietly, lowering her hands to the dying embers, "They can't be far now."

She had to keep going now, the others were close, she could feel it. Sili nearly cried as her body was shutting down. Sili pushed herself over the next crest to see a small pathway in the middle of the mountain... and could see the firelight of a camp.

Sili fell to her knees, exhaustion finally winning, but not before she saw the faces of Cullen, Cassandra, and Dorian, "There... There she is!" She heard Cullen say, "Thank the Maker!" Cassandra added as Cullen reached her.

As she fell unconscious, Cullen lifted her up and she swore he was hugging her as they made their way back to the camp.

You told us that you had just been tired, but some mages thought it took longer to heal your body. The same voice in the darkness stated, sounding sad.