'Pissed' didn't even begin to describe how furious the elf was right now. For being a fifty year old man, Duncan could run, and Theron didn't like that one bit. He knew it was because of the taint- at least he hoped it was. How shameful to lose a race to an elderly man.

"Theron, do you understand?" Duncan asked

"Three vials of blood and your damn treaties, yes, I understand."

The other three recruits looked at him funny. They were all glad to be there, Duncan to them was a savior or a leader they could look up too. While to Theron, he might as well be The Dread Wolf reborn. "Good. Then get to it." Roland said

Theron scoffed and stomped his way to gate that led to the Wilds. The guard took one look at them, and opened the gate. The three men followed the elf quietly, until Daveth asked ask quiet as he possibly could manage, "Why does he have such a stick up his ass?"

Alistair grinned at the question "He's Dalish, and really doesn't want to be here. The Grey Wardens are kind of evil to him." he whispered back

Theron rolled his eyes, his hearing must have been superior to theirs, otherwise, what passed for a whisper in Ferelden counted as a yell amongst the Dalish. "Stupid fucking humans..." he muttered

Alistair perked up at his voice "Sorry? What did you say?"

"Nothing to you, idiot." Theron replied

Alistair knitted his eyebrows together "What language is that?"

Frustrated, Theron sighed "Elvish."

"Ah, just how many languages do you know?"

Theron turned back to the man, clearly annoyed "Five. Now shut up, we have shit to do."

Alistair smirked, doing his best not be offended. He had to admit though, for an asshole, he was actually kind of funny.

Theron heard the rustling in the bushes long before the men, he glanced over and saw that it was just a pack of wolves. With that, he simply turned back to the path, and kept walking. The Dalish were close with any animal that roamed to wild, and the wolves were no exception. This pact in particular, Theron had spent a lot of time them. Their path often followed quite closely to the Dale's, and most times they would venture into the Dalish camp and sleep by the fire. Theron liked wolves, they were intelligent, compassionate and understanding, but they were also quick and deadly.

A few of the wolves, upon recognizing Theron's familiar sent, had ran to catch up with Dale, as they often did when crossing the country.

That's when he heard Alistair cry out, "Wolves!"

It wasn't until Theron heard the men drawing their swords that he realized they were, in fact, not Dalish, and they were gearing up to attack. Theron whipped around "Wait! They won't-" he began to explain, but Alistair was all ready to slash down on the female alpha wolf. Theron immediately jumped to get between her and the blade. Being a rogue, Theron didn't wear much armor, and what he did wear was just leather. So when Alistair's blade lashed across his back, it cut through his armor with ease- earning the elf a long gash from the top of his right shoulder down to his left hip.

Theron groaned, and held the wolf tighter, she looked up at him and understood that he protected her, and that he had gotten hurt while doing so. The wolf howled, and the rest of the pack formed a circle around them, teeth bared, and poised to attack the three men.

The men looked around at the beasts, they were sure that they were going to try and kill them, but they also knew there was no way Theron would let them hurt the creatures.

Theron looked up at the scene, and hastily let go of the wolf. He staggered toward the three dumbasses he was traveling with, and spread his arms open towards the wolves, in a gesture that said if-you-want-them-you'll-have-to-go-through-me.

The leader of the pack, the one Theron had saved, stared at the elf with obvious confusion. Theron stared right back at her, his eyes pleading. She stood, no longer ready to kill, and backed up, and the rest of her pack followed her lead.

Theron fell to the ground in pain, panting. The alpha female slowly walked towards him, keeping her eye on the three confused men. When she reached the elf, she lick him once on the nose, and he kissed her nose in return. With that, she led her pack back into the thick forest of the Wilds.

"Wha-What the hell is WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!?" Theron yelled, and jerked his head back to look at the three men. "It's like you humans have to kill anything that moves!" he staggered up to his feet, his back stinging with the heat of a thousand flames, and blood soaking into his now torn clothes. "Not every other living thing is threatening, you know!?"

The three men just stared at him, unsure of what to say.

"Out of all the people to get stuck with, I get stranded with these three idiots." Theron grabbed the bridge of his nose. "Fucking asshats. The whole lot of them…"

While the two other men found a sudden interest in their boots, Alistair said "Theron, I am so sorry I cut you-"

Theron waved his hand in dismissal, "I understand that you were trying to protect yourself, but next time make sure there's actually something attacking you first." he said, anger still edging his voice.

Alistair nodded, unable to look at the elf anymore. Theron reached into his belt pouch, and pulled out a bandage roll, handing it to the Warden. Alistair stared at it, "What's this for?" he asked

Theron began striping off the torn armor on his torso, "You caused it, you're going to patch it up."

"Ah, right…"

The gash was bad, and it would need more attention with better supplies. How the elf hadn't passed out from the pain, was something Alistair didn't understand. The warrior was in full swing when the elf jumped in the way, and had no way to stop it, even though he wanted too. The warrior did his best to clean and wrap it, but he was no healer.

"All done?" Theron asked

"Yeah…" Alistair replied "Theron, I'm sorry-"

"I know, you've said that already." the elf interrupted "Let's just go." His back was burning, and aching and he was sure that he wasn't going to be able to lay on it for a long time. He had wanted to lash out at Alistair, wanted to punch him. But that man had a better pout than Merrill- and that was saying something. The elf knew he hadn't meant too, but the didn't do much to calm the anger dancing in his stomach. Theron led, because he didn't trust the humans not to get him lost. He looked up to a tree branch were a crow was sitting- with the most intelligent eyes he had ever seen.

He nearly offered it a knowing smile. That was no bird, it was a witch.