Chapter two: Spirits and Demons

Aran sat up with a start. She looked around confused and noticed she had claw marks on her sides- painful ones. 'Ah, yes, demons…ugh, I hate the bloody Fade.' She sighed and lifted herself off the ground.
"H-hello? Are-are you a mage?" a small voice asked from somewhere. Aran yawned and ignored it, knowing not to trust any creature in the Fade.
"Hmm, I wonder if this is anything like a Harrowing…" She pondered aloud as she began wandering straight past the mouse that had called to her.
"Hello?" the mouse called again more desperately. Aran continued to ignore it looking around to check if the area was anything like the one in the Harrowing in the mage origin stories. Not that she could tell, everything looked the same to her in the Fade.

"So you think if you ignore me I'll disappear? Don't be foolish, mage." The voice was no longer a small voice belonging to a mouse, it was a dragged out deep voice belonging to what she assumed was a sloth demon.
"Don't you sloth demons ever get tired of talking so fucking slowly? I mean sure it might be quite cool for a while, but seriously? How annoying is that?" She prodded still not paying the demon any attention. She knew it probably wasn't a very smart idea, but she couldn't help herself. However, her small chuckle was morphed into a cry of pain as she was knocked into a wall-like thing. "Ahhh, oww, ooh." She seethed pushing herself off the ground. The demon looked pleased with itself; well, from what she could tell- which was much.
"I will not play your games, mage. Fight me." She sighed leaning on the wall.
"I would, but I don't know how to use my magic." She raised her hands I na defeated manner, "Sorry, no battle for you." She grinned sheepishly, half hoping it would get bored and leave.
"Then I shall teach you, in return for a battle." She stared blankly at it.
"Uh, what?" she asked after a moment of silence. 'Did the demon, the sloth demon, just tell me it is going to teach me to wield magic in return for a battle? The fuck?' Aran blinked and shrugged, 'Eh what's the worst that could happen?' she face-palmed, 'Other than me dying?'
"Well sure, whatever floats your boat…I guess."

After a while of failed attempts and almost killing herself she managed to get the hang of it, even making up her own techniques; in her head of course, wouldn't want to give the sloth a heads-up, now would she?
"Are you ready?" it asked, and she shrugged.
"As ready as I can be, given the circumstances, although…for all I know Alistair could have already killed me by now."
"Let us begin!" Using mainly cold spells and entropy she managed to weaken the demon's defences and deciding she would finish this as soon as possible she opted for using the move that should work-hypothetically. 'I'm sure no one will mind me using my own version of the Kamehameha©.' Combining cold and lightning with life draining and mana draining she replicated the basic understanding she had of the Dragon Ball™ move: As she'd acquired it from the 'live-action' movie.
"Kame-" The demon looked thoroughly confused, "hame-" he started some spell that required time to cast but never got the chance to actually cast it as she yelled, "ha!" the impact was a lot more explosive than she's expected and she was flung far back into what seemed to be a puddle. 'Of course, I just had to land in the only water within 50 metres of the battle.' She groaned as her body protested, insisting that she needn't move. Dusting herself off she noticed her clothes were completely dry, her hands were wet and she felt like the skin under her clothes was wet but her clothes were dry as a bone.

"Right." She shrugged and walked slowly back to their little 'battlefield' and cheered with joy as the demon was dead. "Awesome, can I go now?" she asked to the air, which seemed to be getting heavier by the second. "Do I have to pass out first? I'll gladly go to sleep." She lied down and came back to her senses as she felt someone move her and a blade just touched her neck, the cold metal making her hiss.
"Haa! Cold, cold!" She shied away from the blade trying to warm up her neck. Alistair jumped back in surprise, moving about a metre and a half away from the girl. The other Wardens laughed, mocking him.
"Careful Alistair, she might scare you to death!" Aran glared at Alistair.
"You butthead, you were going to kill me. I'm offended you didn't believe I could beat whatever had taken hold of me." She said in feigned offense. "Did you know sloth demons like to teach people magic just to fight them? Maybe it was a different demon, pretending to be a sloth demon or even a Fade spirit…meh, whatever. 'Tis dead now either way." She shrugged grinning mischievously at Alistair. He frowned, she was a mage and she was grinning mischievously at him- not a good combination. Ever.
"Yes, well…You should go home like I said." Alistair said gesturing the door. Aran nodded and walked toward it, but turned to sit beside on the other Grey Wardens.
"So, how are you?" she asked dismissing Alistair altogether. One of the Wardens, the furthest from her seemed to hate her already. She noted that she'd have to avoid him.
"Hey! Don't ignore me!" Alistair whined crossing his arms like a child.
"You sure know how to get under his skin." He said grinning, "I'm Elliot." He held his hand out to shake. He was probably the youngest Warden and was definitely the most childlike-beside Alistair.
"Hajimemashite, Elliot-kun. Nice to meet you!" she declared smiling as they shook hands. Alistair soon gave up on getting her to leave and everyone just went about their business, Aran still chatting away with Elliot.

Until Alistair and the other Wardens picked up their equipment.
"The darkspawn are moving!" The Warden that didn't like Aran much bellowed.
"You should stay here, Aran." Elliot said smiling kindly at her. She stood and shook her head.
"No, I will help as much as I can. I'll not sit idle while you're only over there potentially dying." She stated. Elliot grinned.
"Alright but stay behind me, wouldn't want you to get hurt." She punched him playfully as he gathered his arms and armour.
"Elliot, don't do anything rash. You've still a long time of being a Grey Warden ahead of you." One of the other older Wardens said patting Elliot on the head.
"Yeah, Elli-kun: no unnecessary heroics." Aran teased ruffling his hair.
"Get off." He said ducking away from her hand. He was taller than her so he made it easier for her to reach him as he did so but got away as "the Grumpy Warden"-as Aran had dubbed him- declared they move instantly. They rushed outside to hold off the oncoming swarm of darkspawn. Elliot used an axe and a dagger and was hacking away at the creatures, while most of the others used great swords or long swords and shields, one of them was an archer and he and Aran kept a good distance between themselves and the darkspawn. Aran used all the spells she knew and soon found she had exhausted her mana. But luckily she'd cast Death Syphon and was regaining it every time a darkspawn died. She noticed an ogre charging through the crowd toward them and Elliot was in the way, showing no signs that he was going to move.
"Elliot!" the archer shouted, and Aran cast as powerful a Winter's Grasp as she could, freezing the ogre in its tracks. Her body was not used to the kind of exertion as she'd put herself through and proceeded passed out crumpling to the floor.

The archer almost stopped firing when she slumped to the ground but knew it would only end in their demise if darkspawn got any closer to them. After fending off copious amounts of darkspawn, the monsters finally retreated and the Wardens could tend to their wounded.
"Joshua has left us to join the Maker." 'The Grumpy Warden'- otherwise known as John- said solemnly as the kind older Warden had died in the battle. Elliot had gained a few new cuts, bruises and soon-to-be scars but was fine physically; though he was upset though and would grieve for a while. His distress only increased tenfold as he saw the archer Warden-Geoff- carrying Aran's limp body. Geoff smiled encouragingly at the horrified look on Elliot's face to tell him she was fine.
"She just overexerted herself saving you from that ogre. She's pretty good for a mage new to her powers." Relief washed over Elliot like the sea on a beach.
"Don't scare me like that, Geoff." He scolded glaring pathetically.
"Could you take her for me? She's way heavier than she looks." Geoff said, grunting as he tried to stop himself from dropping her.
"She can't be that heavy, surely." He soon changed his mind and was tempted to get one of the older Wardens to carry her, but thought better of it. 'I don't think she'd appreciate that, and besides she looks so peaceful the way she is. I'd feel bad if she got disturbed.' He thought to himself as the Wardens made their way back to their outpost.

"Dragons and cheesecake…Master Chief…plasma…" Aran was mumbling in her sleep and Alistair and Elliot exchanged looks. She'd been asleep for a while now and her mumbling had caused them to think she was being plagued by a demon. Now the two were thoroughly confused and slightly perturbed by the strange jumble of words leaving her mouth.
"Maybe we should wake her up." Alistair suggested quietly. Elliot opened his mouth to agree when the girl whimpered and both men leaned over her to make sure she was okay. But suddenly Aran jerked in an upright position. Alistair and Elliot jumped back in surprise.
"By the Maker, Aran, you scared us out of our wits!" Elliot half yelled: however, the girl was paying him no heed. "…Aran?" She looked like she was awake- her eyes open and her body sitting up- so Elliot didn't understand why she wasn't responding.
"Maybe she's been possessed." Alistair said reaching for his sword. But Aran abruptly turned to him making him stop dead still. He even held his breath for fear of bursting into flames. Moments ticked by as she just stared blankly at him until she fell back into the pillow fast asleep. Alistair let out his breath and Elliot sighed in relief. Both agreed that it would be best if they waited for her to recover alone. And never to tell anyone how scared they were when the young girl sat up. 'Maybe it was a Fade spirit?' Elliot thought, 'Eh, spirits, demons…Might as well be the same thing to me but regardless of what that was, it was frightening.' The boy shivered and pushed the thoughts away; he needn't trouble himself with spirits and demons- he was no mage.