Okay...phew...chapter 5...and since the battle of ostagar bleeds right into the next part I'm already working on Chapter 6. Yaaaaayyyy more freedom to play with original material!
Sorry I'm excited to get to the actually running around part of the story haha.
PLEASE Review!
Enjoy!
Once Aurora stopped shaking and the world stopped spinning around her, she tucked her newly acquired necklace out of sight under the newer, better armor she'd acquired from the quartermaster and changed into before starting off in the direction Duncan had pointed her. What she'd seen was still burned in the front of her mind…but there was nothing she could do about it now. The Joining was over, she was officially a member of the Grey Wardens, and there was nowhere for her to go but forward. She'd passed the point of no return when she'd killed the guards back in Denerim, and she knew it. Right now, she just wanted to survive this great battle everyone was anticipating so she could move on and try to get accustomed to her new life.
The war meeting was surprisingly being held on the other side of the hall, so Aurora didn't have to travel far to hear the argument the King and Loghain were having at the moment.
"Loghain, my decision is final, I will stand by the Grey Wardens in this assault."
"You risk too much, Cailan! The darkspawn horde is too dangerous for you to be playing hero on the front lines," Loghain argued back as Aurora slipped in unnoticed behind the Revered Mother and a mage to stand by Duncan.
"If that's the case, perhaps we should wait for the Orlesian forces to join us after all," Cailan countered bluntly.
"I must repeat my protest to your fool notion that we need the Orlesians to defend ourselves!"
"It is not a fool notion. Our arguments with the Orlesians are a thing of the past…and you will remember who is king."
Aurora's eyebrows rose, and she tried not to make eye contact as the conversation continued to escalate.
"How fortunate Maric did not live to see his son ready to hand Ferelden over to those who enslaved us for a century," Loghain sneered.
"Then our current forces will have to suffice, won't they? Duncan, are your men ready for battle?" Cailan stated, turning to Duncan and cutting off the conversation with Loghain.
"They are, Your Majesty," Duncan said without missing a beat. Cailan turned his attention to Aurora.
"And this is the recruit I met earlier on the road? I understand congratulations are in order."
You don't know the half of it…
Aurora gave a respectful bow of her head. "Thank you, Your Majesty."
"Every Grey Warden is needed now—you should be honored to join their ranks," Cailan stated with a smile. Loghain decided to pick that moment to growl at Cailan again.
"Your fascination with glory and legends will be your undoing, Cailan. We must attend to reality."
Cailan sighed in annoyance, leaning over the map on the table spread out before them. "Fine, speak your strategy. The Grey Wardens and I draw the darkspawn into charging our lines, and then…?"
"You will alert the tower to light the beacon, signaling my men to charge from cover."
"To flank the darkspawn, I remember. This is the Tower of Ishal in the ruins, yes? Who shall light this beacon?"
"I have a few men stationed there. It's not a dangerous task, but it's vital."
"Then we should send our best." Cailan straightened, turning his attention to Aurora. "Send Alistair and the new Grey Warden to make sure it's done."
Aurora blinked in surprise. But she'd thought… "You mean I won't be fighting in the battle?"
"We need the beacon; without it, Loghain's men won't know when to charge," Duncan said, which apparently ended that potential argument before it even started. Aurora sighed, though Cailan looked as blissfully cheerful as ever. Aurora was starting to get the impression he wasn't the sharpest sword on the rack. Idealistic, but not bright.
"You see? Glory for everyone," Cailan said cheerfully. Loghain simply scowled.
"You rely on these Grey Wardens too much—is that really wise?"
"Enough of your conspiracy theories, Loghain. Grey Wardens battle the Blight, no matter where they're from."
Duncan chose that moment to intervene, thankfully—Aurora was growing rather tired of hearing these two bicker, and it took everything in her not to snap at them, even if she liked her head right where it was. "Your Majesty, you should consider the possibility of the archdemon appearing."
"There have been no signs of any dragons in the Wilds," Loghain said simply.
"Isn't that what your men are for, Duncan?" Cailan asked with a pointed look.
"I…" Duncan started before he simply sighed, apparently deciding not to argue. "Yes, Your Majesty."
The mage took that moment to step forward. "Your Majesty, the tower and it's beacon are unnecessary. The Circle of Magi—"
"We will not trust any lives to your spells, mage! Save them for the darkspawn," the Revered Mother said harshly, cutting him off and earning a judgmental look from Aurora. Now she was starting to see the human behavior she was familiar with. It seemed as this battle drew closer people would start to show their true colors. She'd have to be on guard for any soldiers looking for some female company before a battle that could be their last.
"Enough!" Loghain snapped. "This plan will suffice. The Grey Wardens will light the beacon."
"Thank you Loghain. I cannot wait for that glorious moment! The Grey Wardens battle beside the King of Ferelden to stem the tide of battle!" Cailan said with excitement in his eyes. Loghain was already walking away.
"Yes Cailan…a glorious moment for us all."
Aurora didn't know why, but something about his tone of voice made her shiver.
"Come, let us tell Alistair of the plan before the battle starts," Duncan told Aurora quietly, waiting for her to fall into step behind him. All around them soldiers moved to and fro, gathering their things and leaving to get into position for the battle. It seemed she wouldn't get much time to prepare.
Alistair was waiting by the large bonfire they'd met Duncan at earlier, and he straightened as they approached. Duncan took up a spot in front of the bonfire, turning to face Aurora and Alistair, who stood side by side with a safe distance between them.
"You heard the plan," Duncan said with a nod. "You and Alistair will go to the Tower of Ishal and ensure the beacon is lit."
"What? I won't be in the battle?" Alistair asked, just as surprised as Aurora had been.
"This is by the king's personal request, Alistair. If the beacon is not lit, Teyrn Loghain's men will not know when to charge," Duncan chided him.
"So he needs two Grey Wardens standing up there holding the torch, just in case, right?" Alistair asked, looking rather disgruntled. Aurora couldn't blame him.
"I agree with Alistair. We should be in the battle," Aurora said with concern furrowing her brow.
"That is not your choice," Duncan said sharply, looking between the two. "If King Cailan wishes Grey Wardens to ensure the beacon is lit, then Grey Wardens will be there. We must to whatever it takes to destroy the darkspawn, exciting or no."
Alistair sighed. "I get it, it get it…Just so you know, if the king ever asks me to put on a dress and dance the Remigold, I'm drawing the line, darkspawn or no."
Aurora actually cracked a smile, barely holding back laughter at the image that flashed through her mind. "I don't know…That could be a great distraction," she said, purposely not looking at him so she could try and keep some sort of illusion of seriousness to her remark.
Alistair looked at her in surprise, especially when he saw her smiling, but he didn't miss a beat on his return remark. "Me shimmying down the darkspawn line?" Alistair laughed softly. "Sure, we could kill them while they roll around laughing."
Duncan sighed like he had a sudden headache, pressing on with the serious conversation in an attempt to salvage it. "The tower is on the other side of the gorge from the king's camp, the way we came when we arrived. You'll need to cross the gorge and head through the gale up to the tower entrance. From the top, you'll overlook the entire valley."
"When do we light the beacon?" Aurora asked, returning to seriousness.
"We will signal you when the time is right—Alistair will know what to look for."
"Can we join the battle afterwards?" Aurora asked hopefully.
"Stay with the teyrn's men and guard the tower. If you are needed, we will send word."
Aurora sighed. "All right…I know what I have to do."
"Then I must join the others. From here, you two are on your own. Remember, you are both Grey Wardens—I expect you to be worthy of that title," Duncan told them seriously.
"Duncan…" Alistair said suddenly, his tone softer than Aurora had heard yet. "May the Maker watch over you."
"May he watch over us all," Duncan replied before he turned and left, leaving Alistair and Aurora alone.
"Let's just get to the tower. It may not be the most glamorous job, but we best not dawdle," Alistair said with a sigh once Duncan had disappeared. "We don't have long before the battle starts."
Aurora nodded, already headed in the direction Duncan had pointed them in. Alistair remained one step behind at her right hand side, as he had been earlier. As they approached the bridge over the gorge, the wind picked up and it began to rain, giving the air an ominous feeling. Aurora didn't mind the water falling on her face and head—she'd always enjoyed the rain. However, right now…it only gave her a foreboding feeling.
They came to the end of the bridge, looking out into the valley in time to see mist rolling out from the forest and a terrifyingly large horde of darkspawn emerging from the trees. Even Alistair looked worried at the sight. Aurora, on the other hand, had never seen a battle, and she drew to the edge of the bridge, watching as a volley of fire arrows were released and moved down most of the initial line of darkspawn. The hounds were released next, colliding with the darkspawn forces before the men charged forward with a loud battle cry. From the enemy lines, flaming rocks were catapulted in their direction, and as she stepped back away from the edge of the bridge a large rock smashed into one of the towers—not the tower they were headed towards—and caused the night sky to light up from the explosion it caused, Alistair and Aurora shielding their eyes from the scene. Aurora looked around her in amazement for several moments, not even fazed when someone racing by—there were a lot of people running about now—plowed right into her and she staggered as they just kept running. Alistair steadied her with a hand to her arm, that hand dropping away almost as soon as she was steady.
Shaking her head to try and pull herself out of her daze, Aurora finally started forward across the bridge. "Come on, we have to get to the tower," she said firmly, passing archers and soldiers alike. More flaming rocks were hurled through the sky, a few impacting against the bridge they were on. At one point, one impacted right on the surface of the bridge behind Alistair, sending the man straight to the ground with a loud thud. Aurora skidded to a halt, doubling back and hauling him to his feet with great effort.
Uhg…why do humans have to be so big and heavy? But that had to hurt…
"Come on," Aurora repeated, and to Alistair's credit he kept going like he hadn't just been flung to the ground by a flaming rock. They managed to avoid being knocked back by any more flaming rocks, though several more impacted with the bridge and Aurora saw some men go down in flames, others toppled over the edge of the bridge. She did her best not to think about it, pressing onward until they were stopped outside the Tower of Ishal by a mage and one of Loghain's men.
"You…you're Grey Wardens, aren't you? The tower…it's been taken," the soldier said breathlessly.
"What are you talking about, man, taken how?" Alistair asked sharply.
"The darkspawn came up through the lower chambers. They're everywhere! Most of our men are dead."
"Then we have to get to the beacon and light it ourselves," Alistair said with an air of command Aurora hadn't known he possessed. Well…she was just learning more about him all the time.
"Here," the mage said, stepping forward and casting some sort of spell while they all unsheathed their weapons. Aurora's eyebrows shot skywards in surprise when both of her blades suddenly shimmered with flames, swinging them experimentally.
"I could get used to this," she said smugly before she took the lead into the tower's courtyard with the others. They'd hardly turned the corner when they were met with darkspawn, and Aurora raced forward with Alistair at her side while the mage and the soldier—who was carrying a crossbow—hung back to pick the creatures off from a distance. Fireballs and lightning whisked over her head courtesy of the mage while Aurora charged one of the Hurlocks in the courtyard, tucking and rolling under his swinging blade to come up behind him. As soon as she was on her feet, Aurora spun around and stabbed him with her longsword, then her dagger. The thing kept moving, but for the moment she had him in place.
"Alistair!" she called, and in the next moment Alistair had shoved his longsword through the creature from the front, officially killing it. Aurora kicked the Hurlock forward off of her blades to see Alistair spin and get one of the short little rogues in the head with his shield, then went in the opposite direction since he seemed to have things well in hand. She raced towards the darkspawn archers, killing the first one with a blow through the neck and throwing her dagger into the head of the second. Once she'd retrieved her dagger she hurried to one of the platforms that had been constructed for their archers were another darkspawn archer kept shooting at Alistair from above, putting him at a serious disadvantage. She came around the corner and the creature snarled at her, pulling out a dagger and trying to run her through before she could act, throwing down it's bow. She blocked the dagger with both blades and lashed out with her foot, getting the creature in the leg and making it hunch over. That was all she needed, as she pulled her daggers away and cut its head off execution style. She stood on the edge of the platform, looking down to see Alistair dealing with three darkspawn at once, two Hurlocks and a rogue that was trying to sneak behind him. He was holding his own, but it was still an unwelcome situation.
Grabbing her daggers firmly in hand, she launched herself off of the platform and managed to land on top of the rogue, killing it instantly as she dug her blades in and then yanked them free, turning to see Alistair—now free of the troublesome rogue and the archer—holding both Hurlocks at bay with sword and shield. Deciding to make his job a little easier, Aurora risked injury by sliding under the human's shield, which was pressed against a Hurlock's chest, and shoving her dagger into the creature's gut before it could bring its blade down on Alistair. The creature stumbled back, which allowed Alistair to turn his full attention to the other Hurlock while Aurora dealt with the one she'd just stabbed. Despite its injury, it still lunged at her with a roar, and she knocked its longsword aside before dancing out of the way of its shield as it tried to bash her with it. She quickly moved, trying to get to a more suitable angle against the creature and quickly switching her longsword to the other hand so she could slash the creature across the back. That made it stumble again, so Aurora took the chance to come in close and stab the dagger through the back of the creature's neck.
She kicked the now dead Hurlock to the ground, watching for a few seconds as Alistair handled the remaining Hurlock and deciding he had things well in hand. If he needed help, the mage and the soldier were in the perfect position to do so, and she'd seen a few broken crates that could hold useful supplies. So, while Alistair finished up she started some quick looting, lifting a dagger off one of the darkspawn corpses, a few healing poultices from the broken kits, and even managing to find an injury kit—they'd probably need a lot of those.
"Really?" she heard Alistair ask as he turned to see her taking another dagger off of a darkspawn.
"Hey, you never know when you might need another dagger," she said. "Besides, one of these creatures had an injury kit. You can find good stuff if you look."
Alistair sighed in exasperation, but Aurora didn't pay him any more mind as she pushed past him and hurried up to the next part of the courtyard just before the tower entrance. There, they found several more Hurlocks, and Alistair almost got too acquainted to a Hurlock Alpha.
As they rounded the corner the first thing they'd seen had been the Hurlocks, and Alistair and Aurora had gone right into fighting them. Alistair, had immediately found his hands full with three Hurlocks—poor human—but it had been the Hurlock Alpha charging him from the side while he was too busy with the three regular Hurlocks that had made Aurora afraid for a few moments she was about to see the man brutally slaughtered.
"Alistair!" she shouted, swiping through the rogue she'd been fighting since she'd spotted him trying to rush their mage and archer with her longsword before pulling out one of the daggers she'd just lifted from the darkspawn, grabbing its blade, and then flinging it with all of her strength towards the Alpha charging the human with a careful but precise aim. The blade lodged perfectly in the eye slot of the creature's huge helmet, and Alistair quickly backed away from the three Hurlocks as the Alpha fell between them.
Pulling out her own dagger once more, Aurora charged the closest one that was converging around Alistair. When he saw her coming, Alistair slammed his shield against the Hurlock hard enough to send the Hurlock to the ground. "Here!" he shouted as the creature fell before turning to the other two. Aurora didn't hesitate in plunging her longsword into the creature's face before it could get back up. She lashed out with her leg towards the next closest one, sweeping its feet out from under him and giving Alistair the opportunity to shove his longsword through the creature's chest. Aurora stabbed her dagger through it once it fell as well, just to make sure, then watched as Alistair slammed the Hurlock's shield aside and ran it through all the way to his swords hilt before kicking the creature to the ground. It was the last one, as the mage and soldier had already held the rest off while Alistair and Aurora had fought the worst of them.
Alistair looked at her, breathing a little heavier. "Thanks for the save," he said, watching as she rolled the Alpha over so she could pull her dagger free.
"Like I said…You never know when you'll need another dagger," Aurora said, rising to her feet. "Come on, we still have to clear the tower."
As soon as they entered the tower they were met with the haunting sight of soldiers whose bodies littered the floor and were awash in flickering torchlight. Aurora didn't even flinch, not even fazed by the sight of men littering stone floors after Denerim's castle but at least a little disturbed since these men had been fighting on their side.
They entered the main chamber to see barricades set up and even on fire, and on the other side a group of darkspawn stood waiting, bows drawn. Everyone hurried forward to move around the barricades, as there was a path that they could travel to get to them. However, when they came close enough, Aurora flung her arm out, catching mostly Alistair from the movement and staggering slightly as he crashed into her. Thankfully he managed to catch himself and neither of them fell over or was pushed forwards.
"Wait!" she barked, all of them halting and ducking when a few arrows whizzed overhead. She dropped to her knees by the right pillar, carefully undoing the rope and pin from what looked like a fire bomb. Alistair dropped down beside her to avoid getting shot while their mage and soldier companions laid down cover fire so she could work.
"How did you see that?" Alistair asked as the rope fell away and she carefully lifted the fire bomb.
"I was taught very well about several things," she said, eyeing the darkspawn on the other side of the barrier. "Duck."
Alistair obeyed without hesitation this time, and Aurora stood long enough to hurl the bomb towards the Hurlock archers on their right, killing the two instantly as flames engulfed them. The mage cooked a rogue that charged at them from around the corner with lightning before it could get too far, and Alistair rose to his feet, shaking his head.
"Is there anything else I should know before we continue?" Alistair asked with an eyebrow cocked.
"I'm also really good at picking locks, decent with a bow, and I've dabbled in herbalism, tracking and finding things, and even poison making, though I don't use that one much. Well…I've been thinking of studying the more explosive side of poison making, like those handy fire bombs," Aurora said thoughtfully.
"Remind me never to get on your bad side," Alistair said bluntly as they moved through the chamber, past the hall, and into the next main chamber. They were instantly jumped by a much smaller collection of darkspawn that they made quick work of, especially with Alistair and Aurora fighting almost back to back to keep each other covered. As if to prove her point, Aurora even stopped to pick the lock on one of the footlockers in the room they were passing through to see if there was anything useful. There was, and she pocketed her find almost immediately after making sure it was something useful, continuing this process several times through the room but doing it fast enough that it didn't slow them down. At the end of the chamber they came to the door to the next floor up, and only had to make it past three archers and a rogue, which wasn't difficult at all. As they came to the top of the stairs, it seemed Alistair just had to voice his concerns, speaking in a low and fast voice from beside Aurora.
"Maker's breath! What are these darkspawn doing ahead of the rest of the horde? There wasn't supposed to be any resistance here!"
Aurora wiped some blood from her face from the previous fight, looking back at him. "You could try telling them they're in the wrong place," she suggested, somehow with all seriousness.
"Right, because clearly this is all just a misunderstanding—we'll laugh about this later!" Alistair responded sarcastically. She rather enjoyed having someone who understood her kind of humor—maybe if they both lived through this she could give him a chance to at least be a partner in sarcasm.
Alistair broke her musings as he continued in a tone that let Aurora know he was being serious once more. "At any rate, we need to hurry! We need to get up to the top of the tower and light the signal fire in time! Teyrn Loghain will be waiting for the signal."
Aurora cast her gaze about the room before her—it was devoid of darkspawn, though there were bodies and fire and broken crates littered about. She sheathed her swords, scrounging around the mess for a few moments. "Give me…a second…" she muttered before she finally found a corpse that had been holding a good longbow, pilfering their quiver of arrows as well and gathering any arrows she could find. Once she had her collection well in hand, she stood up to face her companions. "These ones don't know we're coming—let's try to be swift and stealthy about this," she explained, knocking an arrow in place as she hurried to the two doors that came before a wide open chamber. She hurried over the one on the left, waiting until the others were with her to kick the door open and line up her first shot with the crossbow wielding soldier. It couldn't even be considered a fight—Aurora and the soldier both stuck arrows in the two darkspawn who were within and the mage toasted them with a fireball to make sure they stayed dead. Aurora searched the darkspawn for anything useful, tossing the mage a lyrium potion one of them had before she moved to the door on the right. They did the same thing, and the fight was over just as quickly.
Maybe she'd use a bow and arrow more often…
As they entered the large open chamber, Aurora hung back, spotting two ballistae that could make quick work of the darkspawn in the horde. She grinned, gesturing for crossbow wielding soldier to man one as she took up the other, looking to the mage. "Want to lure them over here?" she asked pointedly, loading up the ballista and waiting patiently. The mage shot a fireball to the space halfway between the rest of the darkspawn and the ballistae, getting the creature's attention so they charged. Instantly, Aurora and the crossbow soldier started firing, the bolts sailing through the air and to the darkspawn enough that only one made it to Alistair, who was waiting in between for any unlikely survivors. After that short slaughter, there was only one archer at the end of the hall, and Aurora took out her bow and arrow long enough to fell the archer.
That left another door, and since they had no idea how many darkspawn were on the other side, Aurora pulled out her blades once more. "All right, let's get this over with," she commented, securing the bow and arrows for another time so that they wouldn't get in the way.
Aurora was glad she switched to the longsword and dagger when they kicked open the door, finding several archers and some rogues on the other side. Alistair slammed his shield into the rogue that charged Aurora, allowing her to move on to her actual targets—the archers. She reached the first one in moments, running him through with both longsword and dagger before the creature could reach its daggers. The second archer had its blades out, but Aurora was quick to descend, overpowering the creature in a matter of seconds. She turned to see the mage zap another archer into death, and Alistair was finishing off the last, so Aurora did a quick loot so that by the time Alistair finished his opponent she was ready to go up the stairs and to the third floor.
The next floor was initially empty just like the previous, though Aurora still crept cautiously close to the room on the other side of the main chamber.
"Loghain better be ready to charge as soon as we light the signal—the king is depending on us!" Alistair said passionately under his breath from off to Aurora's right. Nothing else was said after that, because Aurora spotted six darkspawn in the next room—three archers and three rogues. Her and Alistair stopped the three rogues from getting to the soldier and mage, who fired at the three archers around Alistair and Aurora's quick fight with the rogues. It became a pattern of sorts for Alistair to knock the rogues to the ground with his shield so Aurora could run them through, or for Aurora to catch their blades and knock them back towards Alistair who ran them through from behind.
Quick work.
By the time the soldier and mage had finished zapping, burning, and pumping arrows into the archers Aurora and Alistair had already finished with the rogues and moved out of their two companion's way. Once the way was clear, Aurora did her quick looting and joined the others in waiting by the door to the next room. Alistair was the one to kick it open this time, and it was a good thing too because there was quite the flood of darkspawn followed by the loud baying of mabari hounds inside. Aurora rushed in to join him, and as Alistair threw a rogue off of him and instantly turned to face a Hurlock, he shouted to her.
"The lever, over there—it will release the hounds!"
He didn't need to tell her what he had in mind. She rolled under the blade of the Hurlock she'd been facing, rushing just beyond him while under fire of the archers in the room to reach the leaver, which she pulled back with one mighty heave. Instantly, the four dogs leapt eagerly into the fight, and Aurora charged one of the larger looking rogues with one of the hounds at her side. The creature blocked her, but with its hands full with Aurora's flaming blades it couldn't stop the large mabari from crashing into it and knocking it to the ground before ripping its throat out. Aurora had already left the dog to its kill, moving on to an archer off to her right and killing the beast with one of her daggers. She glanced at the rest of the room to see a Hurlock had killed one of the four dogs, but other than that everyone was fine. She retrieved her dagger, did her looting, and continued on to the hall without a word, and the other three didn't need a signal by now to follow her.
Aurora made sure they cleared every room in the hall lest some of the darkspawn creep up on them from behind, which wasn't that hard to do when there were only eight darkspawn and they had the addition of the three hounds helping them. They made quick work of the creatures, Aurora did her quick looting as the others finished their fights, and Aurora and Alistair were finding a rhythm that worked with the two of them while fighting the darkspawn—it still had its chinks, and they'd almost taken off a limb or two from one another by now, but they were doing quite well for having only fought during this particular battle and during their trip through the Wilds.
There were only two Hurlocks and two archers on the other side of the door at the end of the hall, and each of them picked a target and quickly finished the battle. Once the last darkspawn fell, Alistair hurried to the stairs.
"Come on, that's the top," he urged, and he and Aurora led the way up the stairs and through the door to where the beacon should have been. They ran into the room at full speed with Alistair in the lead since they'd spent most of their time fighting to the top of the tower, though stuttered to a halt when a deafening roar sounded. They looked in horror to find their way to the beacon blocked by a giant purplish ogre chewing on the soldiers that had been guarding the beacon. Before any of them could even swear, the ogre turned to face them and roared again, saliva and blood spraying the air close to it.
Aurora glanced at Alistair as they all quickly pulled out their weapons. "Don't let me get squished," she joked weakly, though she was half serious—that thing was huge and brawny, especially compared to her. If it tried, it could definitely pick up all of them and snap all their backs at once.
Alistair didn't have time to retort as the ogre charged them, their mage and soldier companions rushing to the backs of the room to attack from a distance and leaving Alistair and Aurora to handle the ogre one on one. Immediately the ogre was being peppered with fireballs and arrows, though the massive creature only treated the arrows as an annoyance and so far the fireballs weren't coming frequently enough to really faze the creature.
Alistair raised his shield to block a heavy blow from the creature's hand, and Aurora darted so she could leap forward and dig her blades into the creature's thigh before kicking away, not wanting to deal with its ire. She didn't move away fast enough, however, and it swiped at her before she landed on the ground, sending her flying across the room where she hit the wall and landed with a cry of pain. Slowly, she pushed herself up to her elbows, feeling her side—which was burning in agony, to feel a rip in the flesh and come away with too much blood.
Aurora looked up in time to see their mage companion get the ogre in the face with a fireball as it picked up Alistair, causing the creature to drop the man and turn to the mage with a furious roar. It lowered its head and charged with all its massive weight at the small mage, and effortlessly impaled the poor human on its massive horn. Aurora shoved herself to her feet, weaving slightly, before she raced forwards and picked up her fallen blades that were no longer flaming. The ogre was taking a moment to pull the mage's body off of its horn as it turned to face the remaining three, and Aurora took her opportunity to wound the same leg some more, shoving her longsword into the creature's thigh and pulling down with all of her strength to do some damage. It kicked her off, and she hit the ground hard, which only put her in more pain, but she ignored that pain and pulled out one of her many pilfered daggers, throwing racing forward and this time digging her blades into the hand that tried to sweep her aside. The beast reared back, taking her daggers with it as they were still in its hand. From behind her, she heard quick and heavy footfalls, followed by a voice shouting two words.
"Aurora, move!"
Aurora dipped away, looking up in time to see Alistair kick off the ground in a jump and plunge his sword into the ogre's chest. The ogre fell backwards to the ground with a deafening roar, Alistair holding on the entire time. Alistair ripped out his sword once he was on the ground as the ogre flailed, grasping the sword in both hands before plunging his sword downwards into the ogre's skull. The thing died as Alistair twisted his blade, just to be sure, and then kicked off of the massive creature's body.
Aurora allowed herself to sink to the ground once the immediate danger was gone, a hand pressed to her main bleeding wound—she was rather sure she had more and just wasn't aware of it.
"The beacon is over there—we've surely missed the signal. Light it before it's too late," he commanded the soldier as he hurried over to Aurora's side. "How bad is it?" he asked, noting how she was favoring her side. No doubt he'd seen that entire swipe and knew she had to be hurt no matter what she said.
"Well…I wasn't squished," she said weakly as she shrugged off her pack. "I've got plenty of supplies in my pack…use some of those," she told him as she took her hand away from her wound, pulling out her canteen of water to pour the clear and soothing liquid over the wound to decently heal it. Alistair grimaced at the sight of the wound, but carefully set about treating it with as little contact to Aurora as possible. She pulled out a healing poultice to help, downing the concoction and handing Alistair some elfroot to use on her wound before she went back to waiting. The soldier had already lit the beacon, and now the entire room was awash in the intense firelight. Eventually, Alistair finished bandaging her, packing away the supplies and giving her an odd look after glimpsing its contents.
"Don't tell me you've found all of this here at Ostagar—what is some of this even used for?" Alistair asked incredulously.
"I've found all of it around—Denerim, the Wilds, the camp, this tower…you'd be surprised what you can find if you look, and you never know when something will come in handy—or what will fetch a fine price if you trade it," Aurora commented, allowing him to help her to her feet. "Now…we still have to guard this thing. I'll look around for anything we can use around here…see if I can make any traps…I already have a grease trap that just needs set up," Aurora murmured, sheathing her blades and limping over to search one of the crates. She came up with an interesting looking tribal necklace and a lyrium potion—though the latter wasn't going to do them much good anymore with their mage killed by the ogre.
Once she was sure she'd found all that was useful at the top of this tower, she made her way to the door, carefully setting up her grease trap and ordering their soldier friend to be ready to set the grease on fire should darkspawn come through the door. She left the door then, resting against a pillar at Alistair's insistence as she searched through her pack for the stuff to make some other sort of trap to help protect them from any more darkspawn invading the tower.
Alistair stood by the balcony that overlooked the valley, looking out nervously down at the battle below. "It doesn't look good down there…and I don't see Loghain's men—they should have flanked the darkspawn by now!" Alistair approached Aurora, who got to her feet to come see what he was talking about. "You don't think something happened to Loghain and his men, did you? Do you think the darkspawn somehow got behind their lines as well?"
"I don't know," Aurora murmured.
The door behind them suddenly burst open, and both of them spun around to see darkspawn suddenly flooding the tower room. Their soldier companion was shot before he could even fire at the grease trap, though it did slow a couple of the darkspawn down, and as Aurora was reaching for her weapons she saw Alistair throw himself to the left to avoid a giant chunk of rubble a Hurlock had thrown at him.
"Alistair!" she shouted, though no other words left her lips as one, two…three arrows suddenly lodged themselves into different places in her body and Aurora fell to the ground, hardly registering the impact as the noise of the world around her dulled to a high-pitched ring, and everything quickly faded to black.