Chapter 3

The sounds of metal against metal alerted me to the fact that we were walking right into another darkspawn attack. Only that this time there were others opposing them and not just us.

"Well it looks like someone started the party without us," I said with a smirk, "how inconsiderate of them."

Garrett just shot me a look, one that wasn't kind of course, and I unsheathed my sword. "You afraid you might actually have to do something this time, so as not to appear as a pussy in front of the other humans, or elves, we come across?" With that thought in my head a wicked smile spread across my lips again and I charged into the direction the fight was.

What I saw shocked me. There were to people fighting the darkspawn and were obviously outnumbered. One of them was a woman whose hair seemed to be made of fire. The other was a man dressed from head to toe in the templar's uniform. "Great a fucking templar! The Maker certainly has a wonderful sense of humor! Hmmmmm... That woman looks oddly familiar." Just as I surveyed the battlefield the man's sword arm was shredded by a darkspawn. At his cry the woman pounced on the darkspawn that had hurt him.

"You will not have him!" she cried.

She punched the darkspawn a few times as if to get her point across and then slit his throat with her blade. She then grabbed her fallen comrade's (templar!) shield, ran to him, and helped him up.

"They will not have you!" She said to him.

"Well now would be as good as any time to join in on the fun."

Between us all we managed to dispatch the darkspawn rather easily. Then when we were easing ourselves into our normal standing positions instead of our fighting stance the inevitable occurred.

"Apostates! Stand back!" The templar said.

"Again it fucking figures that we get stuck with a templar when fleeing the darkspawn!" The red haired woman tried to calm the templar down saying that we saved them and that the Maker understands. "That's bullshit! The Maker doesn't understand. If he did then the mages wouldn't be slaves and the people that helped them or lived them wouldn't have to fear dying because of it!

He backed off, obviously defeated in the argument. This brought a smile to my face.

"Well the wrath of the templar's is terrible indeed." I said with a smile.

"More so their wives. But for now we have an accord," He said.

"Well I don't need that accord of yours seeing as I am one of the few non-mages around here." I said with my dazzling smile.

Both Marian and Garrett gave me a hostile look. That's when the red haired interrupted.

"My name is Aveline Vallen. This is my husband Wesley. We can hate each other once were safe," said Aveline.

"I knew you looked familiar!" I said, "You fought at Ostagar didn't you!"

"Yeah. You were the woman with the quick temper and incredible skill, strenght, and speed. You fought at King Cailan's side didn't you?" Aveline said in wonder.

"Yeah, and with the Grey Warden, Duncan was his name I think. Not that it did any good seeing as they all died anyway." With that I looked at my boots. "I'm a deserter, a traitor. I should have died with them and not have fled."

"We all did what we had to..."

"Luna. My name's Luna. And I should have stayed with them. I should have tried harder to save our King's life, but I didn't. I couldn't." My voice trailed off and stared off in the direction we should be heading.

"Well at least she got the part about you having a quick temper right, and she didn't even know you," Garrett said while he tried to smirk.

"Shut up Garrett!" I snapped at the bastard.

I shot him a glare that froze him to the spot. "Yeah that's right. You should be afraid of me. You have no idea how easy it would be for me to kill you." There was an awkward silence for a moment. Then Aveline spoke up.

"For now we'll travel with you. North is cut off, we just barely escaped the main horde," she said.

"But the Wilds are to the south, and that's no way out," exclaimed Marian.

"Well if our options are south or die, then I think we should take our chances with south," I said with a hint of humor. "And seeing as you two mages can't come up with any solid plans, I think I'll lead from now on. Not to mention I've lead men before and I can come with strategies quicker and better than you."

"Oh yes, and how did those strategies and leadership skills help the men you were in charge of at Ostagar?" He said trying to hit a nerve. And he did.

"Those strategies and leadership skills kept them alive long enough to have their hopes crushed when Loghain didn't respond to the signal! It gave them the courage and will to fight even when they had doubts! It made them fight until the very end, even after it was obvious that we would all die due to his betrayal! So shut up you selfish bastard, and show some respect for those that died trying to save yours and rest the people in Thedas' lives!" I screamed at him. It was clear that he hit a nerve and worst of all is that I pretty much screamed at him where that nerve was. But I didn't care. He had no right to say such things, to be so ignorant. "You don't know the first thing of sacrifice brother. You don't know what it was like to stare at the ranks of the darkspawn and tell your men it was going to be alright even though all logic said it wasn't."

Aveline gave me an understanding look, but it wasn't only a look of understanding. It was also pity. "If I wanted your pity I would ask for it! So don't you dare pity me!"

"Let's move," I said with bitterness in the words as I headed south, towards the Korcari Wilds.