Sweat dripped from Cassandra's brow as she swung her greatsword blindly once again. Fatigue was threatening to consume her now. Damn that Maker forsaken Divine, making me sit for hours as his 'ambassador' is making me weak.

She looked to the avvar and scoffed. The woman didn't seem to be slowed at the least bit, despite Cassandra having cut her off from her magic just moments ago. She ducked and dived through the hurlocks like it was a normal Tuesday for her. And that elf… (well if you could call that flailing aimlessly that he was doing fighting) was seemingly more effective than even she was at the moment.

It enraged her. The knowledge that this barbarian and this mad elf were more efficient than a hardened and trained Seeker nearly boiled her blood. Despite her fatigue, she suddenly felt a swell of energy. Fueled by an envious rage, she lifted her weapon just in time to cleave a charging hurlock in half.

The beast fell silent instantly. Its separate halves flopped to the ground with a sickeningly wet sound. Something within the combination of the sound and the sudden waft of the rotten flesh smell sent the Seeker's stomach churning. It was an immediate, violent reaction as she suddenly heaved the contents of her breakfast onto the already filthy street. Faintly, she heard the avvar woman yelling maker-knows-what in her direction.

Wearily, she looked in the direction of her voice…only to see another hurlock charging at her. Panic set her nerves on fire again. She tried to scramble to her feet, but her heavy armor wore her down too much to make anything about her movements quick.

The hurlock reached her before she could properly react. It wrapped It's claws in Cassandra's long hair and yanked her upright. It brought her face-to-face and roared triumphantly. She tried to punch the thing but it simply chuckled darkly at her.

"For the Warrior Goddess!"

Both Cassandra and the Hurlock turned to see that mad elf…was he…falling from the sky? Maker, how?

Myrris let out a shrill scream as he fell ungracefully towards his intended target. He somehow forgot to consider how much gravity would be playing a factor in this spontaneous plan. He was falling—with style he might add—much faster than he had originally intended.

"Mistakes were made!"

Instead of falling directly on the hurlock like he had intended, the unfortunate seeker broke Myrris's fall. As her head collided with the pavement, he worried he actually killed her for a moment. "Ah, shit." He muttered aloud. "I really hope you don't have a Cadash waiting for you somewhere…"

There likely was another quip or two still left to rattle around in his mind when his attention was suddenly returned to the hurlock next to him. It seemed to have recovered from Myrris's failed attack and lunged for him.

Before he had the proper time to try and dodge the attack, the hurlock grabbed him by the throat and lifted him until his feet dangled off the ground. Through choked gasps, Myrris still managed to make sarcastic comments. "What the fuck were you?"

It was then that he had finally managed to notice that this particular hurlock still wore remnants of armor. Blue and gold armor to be exact, with a lion on it. "A fucking chevalier? Oh, fuck me."

The hurlock roared again, but thankfully it didn't last long. Myrris watched as a slender hand gripped the hurlock's face suddenly. In the next moment, another hand shoved a dagger through the top of it's skull. The monster's grip faded instantly. Myrris tumbled back down to the ground, narrowly missing being crushed under the fallen hurlock. He rolled to the side with a girlish yelp. "But I was about to give him a tic-tac!"

Salem did her best not to react to the insane lowlander. She wasn't intent on making any friends and certainly not with him. He hadn't actually said a word to her directly yet but she already was convinced he'd drive her to murder. She instead focused her attention on the female lowlander.

"She's, uh, not dead right? I really, really don't want that on my conscience." The elf asked, actually sounding a little nervous.

"I'd forget your conscience if you wish to survive this. I suggest you run, fast as you can, and never return." Salem replied without looking back to him. She carefully lifted the woman and hefted her over her shoulder. The weight of the woman and the armor was nearly too much for her. But Salem remembered Red Lion still so clearly. She witnessed first hand the dark reality of the darkspawn's machinations. This woman may be an enemy, but she wouldn't wish such a fate even on her.

She trudged slowly to the nearest building. Summoning all of the strength she could at the moment, she threw her shoulder into the door, sending it open so quickly it banged onto the wall it was attached to. The building appeared to be long abandoned. It was nothing more than a dusty, dingy ruin of…a schoolhouse maybe? The old blackboard and the somewhat intact desks were the only real clues. Everything else seemed to have been crumbled over time.

Salem lugged the unconscious woman to the largest desk in the far corner. She set the woman down to the floor as gently as possible. For a moment, the woman stirred but quickly stilled again. Behind her, a pair of footsteps caught her attention. Salem's head whipped around, frost coated her hand once more. But upon recognizing the insane elf she relaxed again. She noticed immediately that he carried her own cloak and the woman's greatsword.

"Hey, hey, hey, now! I'm not ready to die yet!"

Salem rolled her eyes at him. "I told you to run."

The elf scoffed, motioning to the items in his hands. "Uh, I believe the words you're looking for are: Thanks, Myrris! I'm oh so grateful for your oh so gracious help!"

She turned her back to him and began flipping the desks on their sides. "Help? Do you lowlanders often help one another by running like a bitch?"

"I say, my good madam! I merely advanced in the opposite direction in order to enact an intelligent stratagem the would result in my immediate survival."

Salem grunted as she slid the desks together, forming a make shift wall around the unconscious woman. "Your fancy talk doesn't change that you ran. Like a bitch." She barely glanced in his direction as she snatched the sword and the cloak from his hands.

"But did we die? Or get blighted?"

Salem simply shot him an icy glare.

Myrris seemed to realize the error of his statement quickly; those were definitely warden eyes. He squinted as he leaned a little closer, making bizarre gestures with his hands. "Except in your case…"

I may have to kill this one. She decided to ignore him and whatever ramblings he continued to mutter to himself. The madman was clearly seeking attention or approval or some other nonsense she would not deign to give him for even a second. She took her cloak and folded it under the woman's head and placed the greatsword in the woman's hand.

"Lady watch over you, Lowlander."

Salem lumbered back over the makeshift wall and walked calmly out the door again.

"Time out!"

She registered the elf's odd protest, but absently hoped that he'd find something else that strikes his fancy and run off. She had no such luck. She unfortunately was unfamiliar with this lowlander city, making her have to stop and examine her surroundings. Which gave the elf more than enough time to catch up to her.

The elf popped up from behind her, quickly jumping into her view. "I don't know you."

"You're not wrong."

"That means you're the perfect one to answer my questions!"

"You are wrong."

She resigned herself to following this odd, paved path until she found more darkspawn to kill. This madman was making it nearly impossible for her to think clearly. Especially considering that he kept throwing bizarre questions at her.

"Where are we?"

"Some lowlander village? The name escapes me—it doesn't matter."

"Lowlander…lowlander…" He pressed his fingers dramatically to his temples. "Processing…oh! That means you're an avvar!"

Salem scoffed. "Would that get you to shut up?"

Myrris smirked. "No, not really. I only have one off switch in my prostate. And nobody touches my bum-bum."

She stopped in her tracks, slowly turning to him. "I'm going to give you until the count of three to get away from me or Korth help me, I will send you to the Lady."

"But I don't wanna die yet…"

"One."

"Fine, be that way!"

Somehow mercifully, the elf began walking away from her. Salem breathed a sigh of relief. She was finally free to set her focus to the task at hand…something seemed to be whispering darkly in the back of her mind…some kind of looming threat…a darkspawn, surely, but—

"So, what hold are you from?!" The elf yelled to her from about 10 yards behind her.

Whatever the threat was would have to wait for a moment. The elf had finally hit the nerve. She whipped around on her heel, already conjuring an icy lance to shoot directly into his heart. But before the spell was ready a realization dawned over her. Suddenly the looming threat became clear in her mind. She knew exactly what it was and more than that, she knew where it was.

Myrris groaned as he watched her sprint down the street away from him. "Aw, come on—wait, why are you running!" She ran for maybe a block or two at a pace that was easily too fast for him, before darting down an alleyway. "Hey! Wardens aren't supposed to run from their problems!"

Several moments passed before he was finally able to catch up to where he had last seen her. By now his lungs were nearly burning, he leaned on his knees has he heaved for breath. Suddenly he felt the ground being to rumble. "Ah shit."

He stayed completely still as he tried to figure out what the actual fuck that was and where it was coming from. He soon got his answer. Salem was thrown violently in front of him. She rolled several times as she skidded across the pavement. She got back up quickly though, much to his surprise. A frosty wind formed around her as she let out a battle cry. "Manavaeris Haakon!"

Her cry was met with a deafening roar that could only have come from an ogre. Chancing a glance around the corner, he confirmed his suspicions. "Hey!" He screamed after the avvar as she charged at the ogre once more, "Wardens aren't supposed to be suicidal!"