The Wardens jumped to their feet and readied their weapons. This alarmed the others, who prepared themselves as well. Shanna glanced to Fergus and motioned him to move backwards a little.
Alastair positioned himself behind his shield. The Commander moved to his left side and held her position about a yard away from him. On the quarter was Fergus, protecting the flank for the lesser armoured people. Zevran crouched low and moved to the other flank.
Then a group of darkspawn charged out of the woods. A genlock was pinned against a tree by one of Lelianna's arrows and finished off by a second one in the head. A hurlock alpha stormed off towards Shanna, who quickly raised her shield to meet his waraxe. Alastair bashed his shield against a genlock and stabbed the creature before he could recover from the blast. An arrow ricocheted off his spaulder. Velanna wasted no time to paralyze the shooter, allowing Zevran to circle around and finish him off.
Alastair was assaulted again, this time by a hurlock. Anders froze the creature, after which another arrow from Lelianna shattered it to pieces. A fireball was hurled out of the woods and barely missed the group. Alastair frowned and glanced in the direction of the wood. He snarled as he spotted the caster and wasted no time to cast a smite in his direction, knocking him off his feet. He sprinted towards the creature to prevent it from casting further, aided by Zevran who moved to the darkspawns back.
In the meantime the Commander was still struggling with the alpha. Fergus had moved in to aid his sister, and both were juggling the creature back and forth, playing with his attention.
The creature feigned an attack on Fergus, but then turned around and struck a blow at the Commander. The sideways swing landed with a sickening crack and sent her flying. The darkspawn stepped in to strike again at the, now laying, warden. When he lifted his axe he got bombarded with frost spells, slowing down the creature sufficient enough to give Alastair the time to charge into the creature with a full bodyslam. The alpha managed to stay on his feet, but had to take a few steps and was stunned. The creature shook his head and tried to lift his axe. However, he was finished off by three angry men who were stabbing his armour and started to find weak spots, aided by more arrows and spells, before he could really strike out.
Fergus turned around and walked over to the Commander, with the intention to help her back on her feet. He crouched when he was near her, and noted that she was lying still. "Oh Maker…" He gasped when he noticed the large gash in her flank due to the impact with the darkspawns axe.
Anders rushed over and kneeled beside her. He quickly but carefully removed her helmet and a gauntlet. The others gathered and shared worried looks as they looked at her pale face. Anders grabbed her wrist. "Thank the Maker, she's still with us." He spoke softly, probably mostly to himself. Quickly he started to untie the belts which held the chest armour together. After removing the armour, he placed his hands on her abdomen and closed his eyes. His hands radiated a blueish glow. "I can stabilize her, but I lack the means here to treat her. We'll need to transport her back to the Keep."
"The farmers!" Fergus exclaimed. "They should have some sort of cart or wagon." Lelianna and Zevran jumped up and ran to their horses. "We'll get one!" Alastair got up and ran after them: "I'll come along to make sure we get one."