Heh…So, I don't know if anyone was waiting for this chapter or not, but here you go. While I procrastinate on my History of Modern Art homework and Final Project I attempted to finish this all in one night.
Just like she knew she would, Aria barely slept a wink the night before the Grey Wardens knew to prepare for battle. At the break of dawn, when she heard Alistairs voice through the jumble of commands and heavy footsteps to wake her up, the elf was already fully dressed an lying motionlessly on her cot. Her rest was troubled and filled with waking every hour or so from dreams and tiny noises from outside. Before she knew it, Aria spent the last three hours staring up at the ceiling of her leather and fur tent.
Hearing the warrior's request to enter, Aria gave him a soft acceptance and watched from the corner of her eye as he stumbled in wearing full armor. The dull metallic material glinted faintly from the few candles she set around on the small wooden table she had asked another elf to help her bring inside.
Alistiar shuffled around and grabbed the chair he used before when he watched over her. The expression he wore, tight lipped with dark rings under his eyes clued her in on just how much sleep her friend got as well.
Neither spoke for a time as the young woman of the two took the time to slowly rise from the cot to sit with her toes chilling on dead grass.
"Your toes are going to freeze like that…" the man cleared his throat and pointed a gloved hand at her bare feet. Aria looked down at her feet with tired eyes, her lips twitched, but she did nothing more that bend her legs into herself so her feet balanced on the edge of the cot. She wrapped her arms around herself.
Muddled eyes tore from her pale feet to wander onto her arms. They focused on the arm with the winding evidence of the explosion in the Wilds. Aria could feel Alistairs eyes start at her fingers, her wrist, up her arms.
She gulped and turned her head to look at the arm that didn't see as much damage. However, even there, from her wrist to her elbow on the backside of her arm was the rough, hastily healed skin of her new scars.
"I wish I could have warned you." Broke their silence, Aria turned back the the warrior, his brown eyes drowning in guilt.
"I was sent to keep you all from dyeing out right and yet…I manage to get one of you mangled."
Aria let a noise out through her noise and reached out to pat the man on his upper arm.
"I was being careless, I didn't know to look out for traps." She murmured.
"But…you had…really pretty skin."
"Alistiar…Do I have to attack you for sexual harassment?" she quirked a brow, despite the little blush on her cheeks. He blinked, realizing what he had just said his face broke out into a terribly red color.
"Wait-What! I mean—"stuttering, the elf watched him work himself up so erratically for something to explain himself. She smiled.
Unable to stop herself, even in the hints of battle to come, Alistair found a way to ease her mind. And he didn't even realize it. Her hand covered a small giggle as she calmed the man near her. With the air just a tad lighter around them, the mage had Alistair hand her, her boots to leave the tent and prepare with Duncan the plan of what will be entrusted to them.
The day had been filled with praying and tense silence as the soldiers prepared for the battle a head. As the dull gleam of the sun fell behind the horizon the air thickened with the warning of rain.
Lighting flashed illuminating the sallow gleam of Aria's face as she followed Alistair silently to the bridge that lead to the grounds of the Tower of Ishal. The torches of bright red fire did not warm the choking air. It was as if Mother Nature herself knew what was to happen on these lands and saw in unfit to keep tonight's rain and cool winter air at bay.
Winter has come early.
A platoon of armored men and women marched past the elf and her brooding companion to join the frontlines, outside the stone walls of Ostagar. Her lips thinned in dread, she was not envious. A noise came from Alistair and she turned her attention to the towering man. His warm brown eyes followed the platoon as if the search for someone in particular. She let her gloved hand find itself over his bicep, even if it had to be impossible for his body to feel the connection through his armor. Nonetheless, he looked down at her with barely concealed worry and anger. Her own eyes silently conveyed her own worry, and apology. Alistair was searching for one last glimpse of their savior, Duncan.
Duncan had ordered Alistair to join her in the mission to light Ishal's Tower for Tirn Lohgain's men to know when to join the battle. It was a decision Duncan said he made without a second thought. He knew Aria was underprepared for a battle, and he trusted Alistair own skill with the sword to be able to have her back without challenge. Alistair wasn't pleased. He didn't want to leave his mentor and Aria had tried everything she could think of besides bowing her head and apologizing to the human.
Alistair hasn't said a word to her since their roles had been explained. He charged off after Duncan, leaving her to her own devises before she had to meet with him to head towards the bridge they would need to cross.
It felt…lonely without his silly comments about the different people in camp.
Another flash of lighting illuminated the darkness around the two, there were no torches burning in the open area they walked. She saw his expression finally facing her. They held eachothers eyes before Aria gulped down her recovering nusea.
"Alistair…I…" she shut her mouth just as quickly as she started stuttering to find the right thing to say.
"Thank you for not leaving me alone…" she murmured at last.
The silence was drawn out as they listened to the archers take their stations at the bridge. Someone was shouting orders.
An awkward smile graced Alistairs lips before he looked down below, outside the stone walls the two stood at the top of and raked his eyes across the rising number of Kings men and Warden in their silvery armor and royal blue sashes. At the head of the army, sharp elven eyes pin pointed the golden armor of the King and metallic silver armor with a griffon shield of arms on the shield attached to the back of another.
"That's Duncan, isn't it?" she asked softly. Alistair nodded, eyes tight. She watched his shoulders tense and then relax, his leather bound fingers fiddled with the hilt of his blade. The hand guard was a lovely welded griffon she noticed.
"Duncan is far more skilled than the two of us Alistair, I'm sure he's the strongest Warden out there in the fields. He will come back to us." She murmured as she reached behind her back for her own staff. It didn't have any sort of griffon motif. The griffon, she learned, symbolized the wardens. She brought the magical device to her side and gripped it in a white knuckled grasp.
"I'm sure he will too." Alistair sighed and looked back to her and her shoulders that tried to hid their trembling.
"Look I'm- …I'm sorry I just left you like that, you can't be taking this any better than me."
Aria shook her head.
"It's fine, Alistair…Lets do this."
It was then, the first drops of rain started to fall and it didn't take long for the fat drops to multiply. Mother Nature held no mercy for the soldiers as a hushed silence befell the war grounds. Through the heavy scent of rain and mud Aria picked up another scent.
Down below the robed preistess's of the Chantry walked slowly and with a purpose. A metal container dangled from a chain as they walked through the lines of soldiers. Two more, she could see, paced across the bridge towards them. Their voices had been soft and only a murmur, all sound swallowed by the thick air around them. But as they approached closer a song as sweet as the apple tarts the cooks made a the Circle for holiday's reached her. Their voices like bells as they mixed together in a song she did not know. The scent of burning basil and some spice she couldn't recognize reached her nose from the metal balls the swung on the chain at their sides. Smoke escaped through the carved holes.
She looked to Alistair for clarification.
"They are singing from the Chant of Light. The melody was recorded as the song Andraste sang to her warriors before their first battle."
The priestess's sang an almost ethereal high note as one as they drifted into separate waves of notes.
"It's…breath taking…" Aria murmured as her throat constricted. In a long forgotten memory, Aria could vaguely recall her mother singing her to sleep with a melody of their ancestors. It had a similar ethereal quality to the words in the chant, but about two completely different subjects. Aria couldn't remember the words. But she can recall how it use to bring her to tears just as the war tune was.
"It is." Alistair agreed and pointed to the balls swaying at their robes.
"Those are incense balls; the Chantry women are burning basil for clarity of mind, and good luck and cardamon for concentration, confidence and courage."
Aria was touched, but a fresh wave of nausea and dread washed over her so quickly she reached out quickly for the rail of the bridge before she could double over. A rotting sense in the back of her mind sent off an alarm in her and she swiftly turned to Alistair who looked, not as ill as she, but certainly understood what she felt.
They were here.
Focusing on the pines before the clearing of Ostagar Aria could see the amber glow of torches through the devious shadows. They shifted and bounced. Aria gripped her staff even tighter if she could and forced herself to straighten as she looked on.
The Darkspawn were nothing but a mass of shadows from here, briefly lit up the color of a sickly dark green-brown mass. She didn't have to ask her partner anything else as they both stewed in the knowledge of what was about to happen and what they were charged to do.
The smell of basil and cardamom was long washed away from her senses now and a part of her had to wonder how long it had been since she heard the melodic singing of the priestess's.
And then the thunder struck, making Aria jump and the earth shook with charging monsters. Her pointed ears where now filled with the roars of beasts and barks of Mabari. Wide brown eyes watched with baited breath as the moving shadows got closer, the fear she felt made her ears bend back like a felines and she was sure Alistair could see the trembling in her shoulders when the lighting struck. However, he said not a word, too transfixed in his own sick wonder and fear of the encroaching Darkspwn.
And then the Mabari were freed and arrows flew. Aria felt a pull on her shoulder as Alistair pulled her from the hypnotic activity of watching a dog, decorated in war paint gouge a Darkspawns throat out. Briefly, she recalled glancing back at him before she heard King Cailin cry out.
"For Ferelden!" he roared over the rain and guttural cries of the enemy. From their higher vantage point Alistair and she watched the soldiers spill from the gates of Ostagar. They were so many.
Looking up at the raging Darkspawn, many still shrouded by the darkness of the pines. But they were even more.
Searing heat from above a whoosh of hot air made Aria look up in time to see a volley of burning stone and boulders vaulting into the air towards the beastly enemy. Brown eyes followed their path until they crushed an unknown number of opponents.
Alistair pulled at her arm again, this time he shouted.
"Come on, it's time to go!"
Aria pursed her lips and nodded as he let her grip her sore upper arm tighter and started running across the stony, uneven bridge soldiers were still running out off from beneath them. She shook of her companions arm as she ran ahead of him; his armor weighed him down and made her run at an awkward pace. She didn't keep her eyes straight ahead, she scanned the ground for cracks she could trip in, soldiers she could accidentally shove.
In hind sight, she would joke with Alistair about it later that her shifty gaze was probably what had saved them from dying too early into the battle.
The surrounding was suddenly too bright; Aria could see every rain drop as it splashed into growing, slippery puddles. She had to look up as she felt the air warm even as the biting chill of the rain stabbed at her.
The mages screamed in disbelief as a scorching bolder far larger than even Alistair flew towards her and the warrior. Alistair, not noticing the flaming mountain of death zooming towards them, crashed into Aria who, for all intent and purpose, just hit a dead stop.
Stumbling, Aria shrieked for Alistair to stand behind her just as her magic enveloped her. Alistair obeyed surprisingly quickly as she outstretched her arms and sent an almost transparent layer of light white-blue energy around her and her friend. She heard Alistairs gasp of horror at the burning rock and most likely the feeling that must have reached him from the magic running over his body in a protective bubble. And all too quickly were the two of them knocked back by the sheer force of the bolder that collided with the shield she threw up around them.
Alistair hit the stone railing to the bridge, and even through all the noise of battle she was sure see heard a crack from behind them. The crack of course, could have also been her head hitting the front of her companion's armor.
She had to blink away the spots of white light that blinded her vision in dizziness as she forced herself to stay conscious and keep the shield up to protect the two from any other flying boulders.
The two were halfway across the bridge before another flaming pile of nature flew at them again. Alistair held her by the shoulders to steady her slighter form and saved them from taking another tumble as they ran, closely together, to the end of the bridge and to where she had first arrived into Ostagar from. They had a five second reprieve from the unforgiving rain as they ran under the stone archway several stories high and wiped the water that gathered at her forehead and eyelashes away.
Glancing again at the warrior with her she watched him do the same before pointing to a spot somewhere in front of them. When the rain was once again upon them they came too another of the large, burning bonfires that lit up the camp grounds. The fire was the only way Aria was able to spot the two human men who came running down from one of the many ruins, shouting at each other before spotting the elf and human pair.
Both pairs met with each other unconsciously closer by the fire to try and soak up what little heat wasn't washed over by icy Ferelden rain.
There was fear and shock in the expressions of the two soldiers.
"You-You're the Grey Wardens, aren't you! The tower…" One man stuttered, but had to stop to take in a breath. Alistair's eyes locking onto the two men.
"What about the tower, are you Lohgain's men?" he asked, the other man nodded, but gulped as he looked back the way the two had come.
"The towers been taken!" He informed in his own disbelief. Aria took a step back as shock overwhelmed her.
She looked up To Alistair as he pursed his lips in displeasure. The tightness of his eyes was the same as when he looked down at Duncan. It was a look she took as disbelief.
"What are you talking about, man? Taken how?" His usually pleasing tenor when up an octave.
Panic was starting to set in as her heart beat did not slow, but quicken to something fast than when she was running. The armored men pointed back to where they came, faces grim.
"The darkspawn came in through the lower chambers of the tower! They took us by surprise; most of our men are dead! Maker, they are everywhere!"
Through the broken archway, Aria looked up to the dark, solid form of the Tower of Ishal in the near distance. She bit the inside of her cheek as the twisting taint and nausea in her head indicated that there was indeed, many darkspawn near to them. She didn't know what to do and looked up to Alistair for his decision.
"Our mission doesn't change; we have to light the beacon!" Alistair faced the men with a stern look. Aria gulped down her Grey Warden senses and nodded, it was she who ran in the lead again with Alistair close behind without any other need to communicate.
If she was going down, she might as well act as if she had the courage to do it while taking some monsters down with her.
Maybe it was just the cardamon talking.
She could hear another pair of footsteps from behind them, the soldiers who greeted them was following them.
Around the other side of the archway the group came upon a clearing surrounded by collapsed walls and a cracked statue of a man with sword and shield. The mage's attention shifted quickly away though as Alistair alerted her to approaching darkspawn ahead down the path they must continue on to get to the tower entrance.
The group continued in caution until a sharp whistle of air zipped past Aria in a vaguely short distance. There was a sharp intake of breath from the elf before there was a garble gasp from behind. Turning swiftly a hand was brought to her mouth as she gasped at the sudden death of one of the men with her. She gulped down the feeling of bile rising as she watched blood spurt from the man's punctured throat. There was a thump most grotesque and it reminded her of the treatment Duncan gave the older knight who wanted to run from the Joining. She squeezed brown eyes shut and turned away to summon a ball of blue.
Blue fire that didn't burn engulfed the tangled serpents of her staff head. Eyes scanned for the enemy as Alistair went on ahead to draw then out.
She prayed to her ancestors gods he wouldn't run into a surprise attack.
Another arrow then whizzed past her from above, Aria looked up into the beady eyes of a darkspawn archer. Refusing to the need to gulp once more, Aria steeled herself and waved her staff in a wide arch above her and watched the arcane engery fly towards the enemy. It made a yelping sort of noise as it tried to jump away from the magic, only to be caught in the side as she attacked again. The blue wisps caught flame and torched to monster.
Aria was already running to join Alistair who yelled for assistance before she could even watch the body drop.
The mage's eyes widened as she watched Alistair take on two darkspawn at once. There were human soldiers nearby; however, they had already fallen before the two Grey Wardens arrived. Biting her cheek once more the elf raised her free hand as she ran and a wall of bright red-orange flames from another burning fire came alive at her command.
"Burn me a wall flames…" she whispered her herself as she commanded the fire as she had been taught. Her warrior Warden jumped back in shock as a wall of fire swept across the field between him and his enemies. Darkspawn shrieked, the Warden quickly recovered and struck the monsters down with a powerful swing from his sword.
He turned back as Aria and the other soldier joined his side.
"A little warning would have been nice don't you think?" Alistair raised a brow to his friend. Aria gave a sheepish smile.
"Sorry…I'm not entirely use to the concept 'friendly fire' yet."
"Uh-huh…"
"Mage's don't practice in groups, Templars get scared." She explained.
"Let's just get on with our field trip." Alistair rolled his eyes, but ruffled her elf's short hair. She smile just a little wider and followed on.
The raised platform before the path leading up to the towers entrance was well guarded. The group of three hadn't gotten but around the corner before Alistair pushed Aria out of the direction of an oncoming arrow.
"Bring the archers down, this guy and I will get the foot soldiers." Alistair demanded of the elf who shot her head in understanding. The magic erupted from her staff again as the two men charged forth. She sent a group of arcane bolts flying past the two men and watched them hit the wood of the archers stand. She sent another wave as a volley of arrows were let loose, the mage had to run into cover from a small cluster of stones she believes were once a wall. She ducked and heard an arrow pierce stone and the clash of steel on steel as Alistair's blade connected to another.
Peaking over her cover, Aria focused on the still alive archers as one aimed for the unnamed soldier. She furrowed her brow and waved a bolt of energy from her staff, it barreled into the enemy before igniting it with magical flames. She left her cover after the last archer let another arrow fly and grabbed hold of the fire that surrounded them. Another wall come to her allies aid and swept across the wooden stand of the last archer and set it ablaze. She was sure it would collapse and left that darkspawn for dead just as another broke through her wall and charged after her. Eyebrows rising in alarm, Aria raised another wall of fire. It ignited her foe, however, by some means of psychotic, animalistic furry, it ignored her fire and raised its weapon at her.
Wide eyed and unable to dodge, Aria lifted her staff to her aid and set up a shield. Almost as soon as her magic guarded her did the force of the physical attack shake her to her knees. The soldier raised its weapon to ready another blow, Aria kept her arcane shield up. The force bent her elbows and brought her to her knees as sweat formed at the back of her neck as she struggled to keep the staff up. The darkspawn made a noise somewhere around a gurgle and a laugh as its blows came quicker. She could hear the ringing of metal upon magic and grit her teeth and cast a fleeting glance to her companions.
Alistair defeated another one, she gasped out as another attack forced her staff end to slam into the ground to steady herself.
"Alistair!" she pleaded and looked up to her opponent. She raised a hand and surrounded this beast of an enemy with cold arcane bolts. Its body burned a fascinating combination of red, white, and purple as it screamed in presently felt agony before being cut down from behind. It bounced off her shield grossly as the elf looked up to see Alistair. She sighed in relief as he quickly helped her to her feet. Without another word the three regrouped and carried on.
The path raised as the land leading up to the Tower of Ishal was on a slight hill. The stone paths were uneven with aged and Aria practically stumbled into the entrance of the stone fortress as she pushed the doors open with a grunt.
The doors grinded the stone at their feet and came to a heavy thud as it closed. Aria and the two men leaned on it and breathed heavily as they took this one chance to catch their breath after the intensity of the battle outside. Aria leaned her head back onto the door and let her eyes fix onto the ceiling. Her eyes prickled with tears, from adrenaline, maybe, from anxiety, most definitely. She let out a strangled sob. This would be the one time she let go, just this one moment of reprieve before they continued onto this crazy, ruined light-the-tower chore.
Warmth flooded her eyes and blurred her vision before Aria squeezed her eyes shut. The unnamed soldier let out a strangled, awkward sound to her left at what she assumed was a reaction to her little break down. Aria's heart felt like it would beat out of her chest, her throat felt constricted and thick with all kinds of emotions she couldn't name all at once. And it felt just a little better to let some of it free and wash away with the tears she had held back since the Joining Ceremony.
To her right a hand found her shoulder and squeezed so gently she barely registered it. Alistair stood to her other side. She wiped away the waterfall from her eyes and it stayed free of tear just long enough for her to wearily register his own tense expression. Pursed lips, trembling hands and frown lines marred his slightly tanned forehead.
"…We can't fall now. They're waiting for the beacon." The young elf woman watched his Adams apple bob as he swallowed what she thought would be a gulp. Aria brought the heel of her hands to her eyes and rubbed once, hard and rough. The tears stopped and what was left was rubbed across her temp to dry.
She looked to her partner, nodded, and then gripped her staff once more.
The fight halfway up the tower was wrought with spawn after spawn of enemies. Somewhere along the way they had lost the last soldier they met up with at the start of this little beacon escapade. Now, probably an hour into the climb Aria leaned against a bloody wall, her staff forgotten at her feet. The exhaustion set in after the third floor of nothing but fighting. The elf's sides pulsed in soreness not only from that one darkspawn who had slammed her into a pile of debre. Her fingers refused to flex beyond the shape they took when gripping her staff and her legs burned from running.
Lifting an arm she flinched into herself at the feeling of sweat coating her everywhere. Maybe it wouldn't be the darkspawn that killed her tonight, but the total amount of energy she exerted from fighting.
Right now was a rare moment where after the two Wardens scored the floor and killed anything that moved and was allotted a short break to catch their breath before moving up to the next floor.
"Makers breath…" came Alistair's exhausted groan from where he collapsed on the ground, his once gleaming armor was stained with blood splatter from numerous kills. The elf considered looking his way to acknowledge she was listening, but decided on a noncommittal grunt instead.
"What are these Darkspawn doing so far ahead of the rest of the horde? There wasn't supposed to be any resistance here!" he sighed heavily before making a motion to wipe his sweat covered brow with the heel of his palm before he saw the state of his bloody gloves, sighed, and tore off a piece from a nearby tapestry.
Aria took a deep breath to steady her raging heart before she even bothered to grace him with an answer of her own.
"Weren't you upset that you couldn't join Duncan in the front lines at the start of this?" she asked. Alistair snorted.
"I know, right? We men just can't make up our minds."
Aria couldn't help the extra effort it took just to laugh a little, but it quickly evolved into a breathy wince as she gripped her side and slid to the floor.
"Everything hurts Alistair…" she breathed. She had never fought or killed so many things in her life.
"Come on…we need to hurry, shouldn't be too much farther, Teryn Lohgain will need that signal." He huffed and used his sword to help him to his feet. He walked over to her and waited for her to compose herself, which was really more of a challenge than he made it look. Her heart rate was still erratically high, sweat made her feel hot and stuffy in her tight robes and the bruises she's gained along her body from attacks she couldn't dodge were slowly making it harder and harder to lift her arms to defend herself.
But she straightened up, even though her body wanted to refuse her every command and marched up the next flight of stairs with an equally battered Alistair.
They ran as fast as they could the rest of the way until the two came to a door more ornately carved than the rest of the heavy oaken doors. When they finally burst through with the last bit of energy they could muster what greeted the Wardens was something that twisted Aria's gut and brought tears to her eyes with renewed vigor. A beast, twice the size of her blonde companion crouched in the center of the open air room. It's bumpy purple-brown skin looked rough and hard to the touch, muscles bulged and pulsed with protruding veins. The beast was covered with minimal, hard, spiked armor dripping with the blood of its enemies. Horns poked out of its head, they had to be as thick as her.
There was a sickening crunch and the fresh, choking scent of new blood filled the damp air. A squelch that made the two of them flinch back and then suddenly the sound of something pouring onto the ground. Aria watched, pale faced and sick at the sight of what this beast threw over its shoulder. The bottom half of a soldier.
Aria felt her sweat suddenly coat her body in a layer of cold as fleshy organs streamed behind the dead and broken legs of the disembodied soldier. It did a little flip and gave the two a scandalous peak at bloody bone. It hit the ground she realized was littered with dismembered body parts and swimming on pools of blood. The smell had hit her hard, the sound made tears streak down her face. And the image of dozens of humans dead and dismembered, their bodily organs falling out and heads frozen in wide eyed horror made her loose what was left in her stomach right in front of Alistair. Stomach acid burned her throat as she choked on the combined terror in the past thirty seconds alone.
Alistair was open mouth and gasping for fresh air even as he choked back his own feeling of sickness and prayed to his Maker.
The beast at the center of all this carnage decided to turn to them, its newest meal and gave the Warden's a perfect view of savage, razor sharp teeth. Its flattened, wide mug was messy with blood, some was flaking of. It roared garbled nonsense at them and Alistair pleaded for Aria to stand as the monsters footsteps shook the ground they stood on.
Aria looked up to this otherworldly monster and wiped away vile from her lips with wide, hopeless eyes.
They would have to get through this massive darkspawn before they could even think of lighting the beacon.
Aria looked up at Alistair, his jaw was set in a hard line, he was focused solely on the opponent before them. She looked back and summoned a wall of fire just as the beast began to charge towards them. They leaped out of the way on either side, Aria landed on her side just as the Ork crashed into the wall. The tower rumbled and she scurried to her feet as she made another wall of fire on her side. Alistair charged while the darkspawn savage had its back turned. He roared a mighty cry as she heard metal collide with rough hide.
Backing him up from the cover of fire she attacked with bolt after bolt of arcane magic. The darkspawn did not stay stunned for long and headed for her wall of fire once more. She shrieks and ran as fast as she could as rumbling footsteps crashed towards her. Aria chanced a glance behind her and felt any warmth the fire provide her clammy skin ran out. The beast didn't even look burned as it ran through her fire. The mage gulped. The massive steps ran closer to her and her mind faintly registered Alistair calling her name. She sent a blast of magic from her mind to try and slow her pursuer down, but it didn't work. Her blood ran cold as she felt a massive force throw her back. Her feet left the ground and she screamed as she flew so far away Aria had thought she was thrown straight off the tower when she felt rain hit her exposed face. With a hard thump, Aria felt herself flip until she skidded to a halt somewhere on the balcony of the tower. Her nails dug into the cobblestones as her feet dangled off the edge of the outside balcony. The mage choked as she tried to force air back into her lungs, the force of the attack had sent all the air right out of her.
"I-I'm ok!" She shouted to Alistair's frantic shouts. Scrabbling back to her feet and coughed once roughly and watched in surprise as the wet stone splattered with the blood she spat out before the rain water washed it away. She blinked back painful tears and swallowed the left over metallic taste of blood to run back into the fray of battle.
Alistair leaped up to the Ork's back just she joined him and dug his blade all the way to the hilt of the blade into the creatures back. There was a most blood curdling roar that she bit the inside of her cheek to suppress a sob before summoning flames t surround it. She forced it to burn brighter, hotter, than just the usual fire and she smelt the fierce stench of burning flesh at last as Alistair jumped free from the beast, leaving his sword and watching the flames surround it. The Ork wreathed in pain as the flames, burning a white hot blue, brought the beast to its knees before falling to its death.
Both Wardens took the time to stand and watch the monster burn. With their breaths heavy and a sour victory hanging in the air Aria stood with most of her weight on one leg. Her scared arm held a very pained side. She might have broken something from that orks attack on her. Brown eyes looked away from the burning body, satisfied that it was dead, but not nearly as happy as she probably should have been. Scoring the room she saw a pile of dry wood positioned under what she supposed was a chimney.
"Is that where we light the beacon?" she tilted her head to the wood and Alistair followed. His lips pursed and he nodded. Aria limped up to the wood and heaved a heavy sigh. With this, the soldiers on in the battle below should get some reprieve from their dwindling numbers. Duncan would get the assistance he needed and she could get Alistair to go and join his mentor and watch his back like he wanted to.
The fire sprouted from her raised hand without a thought and she watched the fire burst to life and climb up into the chimney.
She and Alistair made their way to the balcony to watch their signal be received and their forced get the help they so sorely needed. From above they heard the roar of fire that wouldn't go out so easily. Alistair breathed a sigh of relief as he set his hands on the railing.
"We did it."
"We did." She sighed with a tired smiled. With shoulders relaxed, she watched the roaring warriors below them, many had fallen, but a cheer rose in the distance as the beacon was noticed.
"That's right; go kick some darkspawn ass Duncan." Alistair chuckled, and then winced in some form of pain. The two watched in silence as they waited for the shadow or reinforcements to arrive below. But after two minutes of no sign of extra men on the battle ravaged camp grounds a sinking feeling started to overwhelm the elf.
Brown eyes watched closely for anything, anything to indicate Teryn Lohgain's men coming to the King and Grey Wardens aid. The hand at her side clenched into a fist as she turned to Alistair stiffly.
"W-What's going on? Have they arrived yet? I can't tell!" The panic rose in her high voice and the blonde man tensed at a suddenly dreadful realization.
"No…Oh Maker no…" he gasped as he looked down at the dwindling numbers of Ostagar's troops. The angry red of growing flames drowns out the dark dots of moving fighters. Aria pleaded for so softly for Alistair to explain to her. Why weren't they coming?
The doors to the top floor of the tower were blown open, but Aria didn't seem to hear as she and Alistair looked at each other with equal parts dread and disbelief. And then, through the sound of rain against stone was the whistle of an arrow. Aria felt fire burn into her scared shoulder and the expressions that ran across Alistair's face before a club hit him from behind.
The beacon failed.
I think this was the most intense thing I've ever written. I'm quite proud of the fight scenes since I'm not use to writing them. I'm so happy to finally make it to chapter 10 too! I think this is the farthest I've ever gotten in a story, as long as I follow a set story I think I can make it to the end! I hope so at least. I want to finally finish something you know?
So my finals are being worked on, I'm making a textbook page for the contemporary artist Takashi Murakami, love his stuff now. Its right up my ally. Work is also picking up now that the weather is warming up and we just had a health inspector in. My male boss hass accused me and my other coworker of not knowing anything even though neither of them deemed it important enough to formally train me in food business shit like preparation, and care. Not my fault. I can only give the health inspector so much information when both suck at keeping their employees properly informed.
So. R & R, right?