A/N: You know, I sat down to write this chapter and thought 'this will be a short one', but it ended up being the longest chapter yet! Sorry for the long wait on this one too. It's my final year of uni so study is higher on the priorities list than fanfiction, even though I wish it was the other way around, haha! Also, fun fact: I'm pretty sure I spelt Oghren's name at leas five different ways in the first draft before I finally looked up the correct spelling and added it to my Word dictionary XD

Anyway, enjoy this chapter! Thanks to everyone who has reviewed, faved, or followed, you guys are great! I didn't get around to replying to last chapters reviews but I promise replies for this one :)

Chapter 10: Crushed Arm

Since visiting Orzammar and finding Oghren, cave exploring had become a thing. It was, however, a thing that Elissa was not so keen on partaking in. Being the intrepid leaded of their rag-tag group came with responsibilities though, and those responsibilities included cave exploring. So here she was in the last place she'd ever choose to be: a dark, cramped, and probably unstable, system of tunnels under the ground.

She'd put Oghren in charge as they made their way through the tunnels, or put him charge as much as one can put someone that appears to be almost permanently intoxicated in charge. The more she thought about it 'in charge' probably wasn't entirely correct. 'Leading' was probably better, but leading in the sense that he was leading them in the right direction, not leading like being in charge leading. Though, maybe it would have been better if he were in charge leading, because Elissa couldn't even remember why they were in the caves. Getting something for someone who was too lazy or too scared to get it themselves most likely. Yes, Elissa thought, that sounds about right. Will teach you for jumping up to be the first person to help everyone.

A stone clattered down from the roof and Elissa barely managed to stop herself from jumping in fright, instead suppressing it to a rather violent flinch. From the corner of her eye she saw Zevran glance her way. He was the only one who was walking by her, with Wynne walking further ahead and just behind Oghren who was on point. When she thought about it she realized he had made a point of either walking by her side or just behind her for most of the time they were in the tunnels.

Elissa finally turned her head to look at him properly. "Is something wrong, Zevran?"

The assassin gave her a critical once over before turning her own question back on her. "I might ask you the same thing. I though Wardens liked underground, fighting the darkspawn in the deep roads." His tone was casual but his eyes gave away the fact that he was still studying her closely. Unable to meet his gaze, Elissa focused once more on Oghren up ahead.

"No. Maybe. I don't know. I don't know nearly as much about being a Grey Warden as I should, but I guess that's what happens when the only mentor for thousands of miles dies at Ostagar." She chewed on her lip for a moment in indecision before finally adding what Zevran had guessed at. "I don't-" She flinched again as another stone clattered down a nearby wall. "-don't like tunnels or caves."

Another quick glance to her side showed Zevran with a very slight smile on his face. "Not an unusual fear," he said, "many people are scared of small, dark spaces."

"Not all small spaces," Elissa amended quickly, "just underground ones."

Zevran was quiet for a moment and Elissa glanced his way nervously, wondering if it was something she said that had provoked the extended silence. Zevran met her glance with raised eyebrows. "Yes?" he asked.

"Oh, nothing." Elissa offered him a small, if strained, smile. "Normally people have questions…"

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Elissa shot him a confused look. "I, uh… not really?"

"Then I won't push."

Silence reigned again for a few moments before Elissa can't help but speak up. "It's not like it stems from any weird childhood trauma or anything. I just think it's unsafe to be underground like this. I mean, what's stopping all this rock from just tumbling down on our heads right now?" She narrowed her eyes when she heard Zevran's quiet chuckles. "Don't laugh! I'm serious. What if-"

"Ancestor's tits!" Oghren exclaimed from a little further ahead.

Elissa couldn't help the amused raising of her eyebrows at the expletive as she and Zevran caught up with the other two of their group. "What now?"

"Unless your fancy Warden powers allow you to walk though walls, that's a problem." Oghren jerked his head towards a build up of rocks right in the middle of their path where it looked like the roof had caved in.

Elissa was suddenly reminded of the fact that cave-ins were a definite possibility and felt her hands begin to become clammy once more. Despite talking about her fear, Zevran had effectively distracted her from the fact she was in the very place that provoked said fear, and she wondered if that had been his intention all along. "Um, maybe we should just go back?"

"What, and find another way around? I doubt it." Oghren laughed loudly. "Even if we did find another path it would probably add hours to our time down here already."

The thought of spending even longer down in the tunnels made Elissa grimace. "Then I guess we can't do anything." She looked to Oghren and waited for his affirmation but it never came. Instead, the dwarf was looking at the stack of rocks and boulders in a way that made Elissa suddenly more nervous. "Oghren…?"

"Better pray to your ancestors, or maker, or whatever it is you believe in Warden, because I might just be able to shift these," Oghren said as he began clambering up the pile of rocks.

Wynne 'hmm'-ed in a manner that suggested she didn't think that was necessarily the best idea, and Elissa had to agree with her. "Um, Oghren," Elissa said, taking a step forward and half-heartedly reaching out as If to stop him, "it's fine, really. And I thought you were a warrior not a miner-"

"Ah-ha!" About half way up the rock pile that was blocking their path, Oghren stopped to prod at a rock about the size of his head with the butt of his axe. "This should do it."

"Wait-!"

It was too late for Elissa's warning however, as Oghren swiftly knocked the rock out of it's place in the pile with a hit from his axe. It rolled down, cracking off other rocks in the pile before coming to rest at Elissa's feet with no incident. Elissa let out a relived sigh.

"Huh," Oghren said as he clambered back down. "I could have sworn that have done it." No sooner had he finished his sentence that one of the rocks just above the one Oghren removed slipped from its place, clattering down the pile and to the ground. This stone was followed by another, and then another, and then before the group had time to realize what was about to happen, the entire pile of rocks collapsed and brought down even more of the tunnel roof with it.

In the chaos that was the roof collapsing around them, the small ball of magic Wynne had summoned up for them as a light disappeared. Elissa found herself in the dark trying to avoid getting hit on the head by one of the falling rocks as she stumbled back in what she thought was the direction they had come. She suffered no more than a few glancing blows for a moment but her luck didn't hold for long. Unable to see, she stepped on a small, round, rock and felt her footing fly out from under her, sending her falling backwards to the ground in way that might have been comical if she wasn't in immanent danger of injury.

The moment Elissa hit the ground she attempted to curl into a ball to protect herself from the rocks still falling. Then, almost a fast as it started, the rumble of the roof collapsing stopped, replaced by the sound of just a few small stones still rolling about. Tentatively, Elissa began to uncurl from the ball she was in. She breathed in, intending to call out for the others but instead found herself inhaling a heap of dirt and dust which just left her coughing and spluttering instead.

In the end it was Oghren who got the first words out. "Woo-boy. That was not what I expected."

"Are you trying to kill us all you stupid dwarf?" Elissa heard Zevran say from somewhere off to her right.

"Wynne," Elissa finally managed to get out, "can we have some light?"

"One moment," came Wynne's weary voice, before a moment later a ball of magic light shimmered into existence above them.

The first thing Elissa noticed was that if they thought they couldn't get past the original cave in there was even less hope of doing so now. The second was that with the amount of rock that had fallen she was surprised all of them were still alive. The third was that they may have all been alive but they were certainly not uninjured.

Oghren appeared to be fine, aside from being covered in so much dirt and dust Elissa guessed it would take him at least a week to get it all out of his beard. Zevran had a few small cuts, but most noticeable was the sizable dent in the armor over his right shoulder. He appeared to be moving his right arm without too much difficulty though, so Elissa surmised it was probably just badly bruised at worse. Wynne seemed to have caught a rock to the head if the slight trickle of blood was any indication, but even she was slowly getting to her feet. Elissa was about to do the same when she finally realized that she couldn't quite move her left arm.

Trying not to panic, Elissa glanced down at her arm and found that she couldn't actually see it because it was covered by a couple of large rocks. Tentatively she wiggled her fingers and found that, despite being stuck, it was in perfect working order. Still, Elissa wasn't all too keen on being pinned to the ground by her arm and began wriggling it around in an attempt to loosen up a bit of space so she could pull it out from under the rocks. Zevran was the first to notice her plight and crouched down beside her.

"I would suggest you wait a moment and let us help you," he said as he tried to get a better look at just how stuck her arm was.

Elissa ignored his warning and continued to twist and tug her arm, feeling her heart rate slowly starting to increase the longer she was pinned. "No, it's fine, I've got this."

"The elf has a point there, Warden. Might want to be caref-"

"I said I've got it!" Elissa said sharply, cutting Oghren off. "I can feel it moving now…" She rolled slightly and placed her right hand on one of the larger rocks pinning her before giving her arm another strong tug. However, instead of her arm slipping out from under the stones, the precarious positions the rocks were in, that had allowed her arm to remain trapped but uninjured, shifted. The largest of the rocks slipped down and landed heavily on her arm with a crunch, leaving Elissa to suck in a pained breath.

Zevran and Oghren jumped into action quickly, between the two of them managing to start lifting the rocks off her arm. Wynne took up the space Zevran had been occupying when she knelt down by Elissa's side. "And to think your leg had finally healed," the older woman said.

"Sorry," Elissa said, wincing as Zevran and Oghren finally removed the rock that had fallen down onto her arm.

"Don't apologize to me," Wynne said as she began an inspection on Elissa's arm, thankfully without touching it. "You're the one who keeps getting herself into these situations."

"I don't mean to. This isn't exactly enjoyable," Elissa replied.

"Wiggle your fingers please," Wynne said. Elissa complied, and while the pain wasn't terrible it was definitely there. Wynne then began her poking and prodding, which was quite painful, before giving her prognosis. "Well, it's not as bad as what you did to your leg, but I doubt you'll be using it for a while."

"So it's not broken?"

"At most I'd think it's fractured, but I'll be able to get a better idea once we're back at camp. You'll be fine until we get back, just make sure you don't move it too much. In fact," Wynne quickly helped Elissa to sit up and gently moved her arm so it rested diagonally across her chest, "if you hold it like this you'll be in the least amount of pain and are less likely to worsen it."

Carefully Wynne got back to her feet, relying on her staff for support a little too much in Elissa's opinion. She just hoped that Wynne hadn't been hit in the head too hard, but there wasn't much they could do about it now. When they got back to camp though, Elissa was going to insist Wynne look after herself before helping anyone else. She could probably enlist Alistair and Leliana's help with that too, they both liked and cared about Wynne. Still, they needed to actually get back to camp before that could happen.

Elissa spent a few moments trying to get up off the ground with the use of just one arm but eventually Zevran took pity on her, placing his hands under her armpits and hoisting her back to her feet with ease. "Thanks," she said, as they began following Oghren and Wynne back towards the entrance of tunnel system. "And by the way, that is why I don't like small underground spaces."

Zevran laughed quietly. "After today? I think I might just agree with you."