9:30 Guardian ?
"As you can see the Chantry is filled with those that can't fight. Mostly elderly, children, and others that have no fighting ability." Teagan described. I looked around at all the small rooms. They were filled with those that he had described. It tug at my own heart strings watching their faces. I remember seeing the faces of children in war zones of my own world. Dirty faces with minor scratches and absolute no hope left inside of them. A child shouldn't have to experience something like this.
"We are training those that can be trained but we have lost many of our able fighters." Teagan rubbed his face.
"And those that are fighting capable are not enough." Sten mumbled.
"You're right but it is better to talk to Captain Murdock outside. He has been the one leading the soldier's." Tegan explained.
"We'll do our best Teagan, you're not alone." Alistair reassured him with a pat on the shoulder. Teagan nodded and the GWs, Sten, and Zevran went outside. Alfred stayed inside trying to lick anyone that was down. Wynne and Leliana were going room to room to talk to the survivors. It felt weird being inside a closed off Chantry. Usually incense would be smoking, chants would be heard, and there would be a solemn silence. The type of silence that only came from fervent believers but now…there was only the silence of death, grief, and deep despair.
Seeing the people's face, how tired they were, long streaks of tears coating nearly everyone's faces…It hurt to see them all like this. I felt someone run into me and it was a little girl followed by three younger children. They weren't like the adults who spent their time wallowing. It seemed that their eyes were clearer.
"I'm sorry for bumping into you ma'am." The girl said politely.
"It's fine. I'm in the way of your playtime right?" I smiled.
"Not really but I don't like just sitting down and praying. Are you here to defeat the bad men?" She asked.
"Yeah. You guys won't be holed up in the Chantry by tomorrow morning." I said reassuringly. She and the other kids smiled.
"Can you find my papa and mama?" A younger boy tugged at my hand.
"Daryl, the Mother already told you that your parents went to the Maker." The older girl pulled him away. He still looked at me expectantly. I knelt to their level.
"Have all of your parents been taken?" I asked.
"No." The older girl shook her head, still holding onto the hand of the tiny Daryl. "My mom worked at the Castle but I'm sure she's gone. My father is fighting though. He's fighting really hard." She put on a proud face. "Christine's mom is by the Mother but her dad was a guard and we found the little boy after the first night." The boy was behind the other girl Christine, not saying anything. "The Mother thinks he lost his voice due to troma."
"Do you mean trauma?" I asked. She nodded. "And what's your name?"
"Mallory. None of us want to pray but we can't go outside either so we walk around and try to solve the Chantry mysteries." Mallory said. She motioned to come closer and I did. She got really close to my ear. "I made up the mysteries so they can have fun." She pulled away and smiled.
"You're a good girl Mallory. Take care of everyone ok? Me and my friends are definitely going to make the attacks stop tonight." I said. The little boy with no name came up to me and hugged me.
"I know. You're strong, I can tell." Mallory giggled and pulled the boy away before the rest of the kids went off and started to play again.
"You gave those children hope." Leliana said behind me as I got up.
"As much as I could give them." I sighed. "What have you been doing?"
"Talking to everyone who was here and I found someone who I think we could help." Leliana nodded. I got up and followed Leliana. Wynne was right next to the Chantry doors and a young woman was huddled on the floor.
"Here name is Kaitlyn and she said that her brother ran out of the Chantry not too long ago, hoping to fight the undead that have been plaguing them." Wynne described. I looked at Kaitlyn who was still crying silently.
"We need to go look for him?" I asked.
"Yes. He is most likely at their home, next to the general market." Leliana described. We left and Alfred followed behind before quickly rejoining Eren. Alistair, Derek, and Sten were training the men that were on the training field. I saw that Talen and Zevran were at the Blacksmith's door. Talen looked calm and, from the way his mouth was moving, he was taking to the Blacksmith. Zevran looked bored though. Eren must be up at the windmill talking to the Templar.
We walked toward the houses that were held up by stilts in the water. Some houses were already broken apart and floating listlessly. There was a small pier that I saw that had boats and fishing nets. They did say that Redcliffe was a major fishing port. We walked on the small bridges and my weight cracked a few boards.
"Jesus, these attacks haven't done the village any good." I mentioned.
"These people have been living in fear for who knows how long. Imagine if we didn't stay to help them?" Leliana wondered.
"Then Redcliffe would eventually become a ghost town until it got better." I said, as I remembered reading the what-if scenario if you left the village on its own.
"Here, this must be their home." Wynne said, opening the door. We all went inside and it was definitely cramped. I couldn't imagine that a family of four lived here once or maybe even more. We looked through the small kitchen and went into the living room that had a large wooden dresser. We all heard a shuffle and a gasp. Leliana and I gave each other a smirk.
"Is there someone there?" I asked.
"Go away! This isn't your home! It's my home!" We heard the muffled shouting from the dresser. "I-I'll kick you out for trespassing!" I had a hard time stifling my chuckles.
"Young man, you come out of that dresser this instant." Wynne crossed her arms, letting her scolding teacher voice out.
"I…I….yes ma'am." The dresser opened and a small boy came out. He had puffy red eyes and his clothes were torn in various places. Bevin shuffled sheepishly. "Did my sister send you?"
"She was very worried for you." Leliana nodded.
"Well I'm not going back! I hate the Chantry! All they do is cry all day and do nothing! I'm not going to stay in there! I…I'll fight those evil things! I'll bring back mother, I'm no coward!" Bevin started to shout and puff out his chest.
"Then why were you hiding in the closet?" I wondered.
"I…I heard you coming and…I ran into the dresser." Bevin kicked the floor lightly. "I guess that wasn't very brave of me."
"So why did you come here instead of going to the Castle to fight the evil things?" I crossed my arms. Bevin coughed nervously.
"I-I can't say." He replied.
"Look, we can go around in circles all day and figure out why you were here little by little, but it's best if you tell us the truth. I'm not sure if you've heard this but me and my friends came here to save your village. We have 4 Grey Wardens, a few mages, a really big Qunari, an elf that's good with some knives, and this Chantry sister that can kick ass. So how about helping us out a little?" I wondered. Wynne shook her head while Leliana giggled at my explanation.
"I guess you can help us. You see, my grandfather used to be a famous dragon hunter and that my father told me that one day I would inherit that sword. I was thinking of using it to fight the bad guys." Bevin explained.
"A dragon hunter sword? That would be beneficial." Leliana hummed.
"I can't just give it to you though." Bevin said.
"Then I'll pay for it, how's that?" I said.
"Yes! Here is the key for the chest. It's in the upstairs bedroom. I hope you kill a lot of those things. I'll go back to the Chantry ok?" Bevin said, going past our group and out the door. I twirled the key around.
"Let's see that chest shall we?" I led them upstairs and saw a long chest propped against the wall. I unlocked it and found an extremely decorated sword. I took it and it felt warm to the touch. The designs on the hilt looked elven and Wynne took it from me.
"Here." She said and touched something underneath the hilt and the sword lit on fire.
"Whoa!" I instinctively backed away.
"A rune on the sword? How rare." Leliana awed.
"It would be best to give this to Alistair or Eren." Wynne said, touching the rune again and making the fire go out.
"You deliver it Wynne, I'm going out to explore the market. I have a gut feeling that there might be something there." I said. Wynne nodded and she left while Leliana followed me into the small store. Most perishables were gone and there were papers strewn all over the floor. It was completely deserted besides a few barrels in the stock room.
"What are you planning?" Leliana wondered.
"Just looking to see if we can use anything else. So far they've taken all the food and whatever weapons or armor that was in there. If these were filled with alcohol then they would have already been taken too. Since they are not there's something else in here so let's see what's in barrel number one, shall we?" I said, taking the cork out. The smell of the oil hit me first and I sealed it quickly.
"Oil, are all of these barrels filled?" Leliana wondered.
"I'm guessing yes. It won't kill the undead but if we make them walk into the fire, it would weaken them and slow them down." I said.
"Gut feeling?" Leliana smirked.
"Gut feeling." I nodded. We went out and I wondered whether or not I should go and try to get the sword for Sten. Unfortunately, I doubt Sten would even believe me if I tried to convince him. It would be best if we headed over to the pass in front of Orzammar and get the information first.
Sten was nothing but practical and logical. Me coming up and saying, 'Here's your sword!' Wouldn't do anything but have him question me at every turn. I mean, the only thing we had going for us was that one dude that told us to go to the mountains. How would I be able to deduce that the guy was here in Redcliffe? We had time and I know that we had to come back here once we got our allies so there was that. I headed over to where Eren was talking to Murdock.
"I found some oil in the store right around the houses. We could use it to weaken the undead." I said.
"Oil? You really think fire is going to work on those things?" Murdock scoffed.
"Every enemy has a weakness. Qunari are weak to the cold because of their humid and hot environment they live in. Certain demons have elemental weaknesses and these things are no exception. They are housed in bodies of the dead. Unless they're skeletons, their bodies are still susceptible to fire and will weaken them and definitely slow them down. The best way to take care of an undead?" I pointed to my head. "Is to destroy their link. Decapitation, crushing, and arrows to the skull will take them out."
"This one seems to know a lot." Murdock said.
"She's not my bodyguard for nothing. If that's the case, I'll talk with Ser Perth to see if he can arrange a trap at the main trail. We can also set the oil on fire on barricades surrounding the Chantry." Eren talked to Murdock.
"You really think this is going to work?" Murdock wondered.
"It WILL work. Trust me, no one is going to fall tonight." I said with confidence.
"Heh, you almost make me believe that miss. Fine, we'll set up the barricades." Murdock nodded. Talen came and walked up to us.
"Owen is already working on armor sets and weapons. If you want something fixed, then go ahead and take it to him." Talen said.
"Understood." Murdock nodded. Alistair came down from the trail and did a quick salute.
"Just in case anyone is wondering, Ser Perth and the others have taken symbols from the Chantry and morale seems to be going up." Alistair did a thumbs up. Derek came stumbling with an elf in tow that kept his head down.
"I found this one up in the tavern. Seemed to be a spy for Loghain and had orders to watch the village. Someone was found poisoning the Arl." Derek spat angrily on the ground.
"I knew something about that illness was off." Murdock growled.
"Luckily I convinced him to stay and fight for us." Derek laughed darkly. I can only imagine what convincing he did to this poor guy. "Also your men have free drinks up in the Tavern. As long as they are a little loose in the battle, it should calm down the nerves." Derek explained.
"Well at least if they're not falling over drunk." Murdock chuckled. "For now, let's fortify our defenses and the Chantry."
"Girly come with me. We need to give these men the meaning of 'getting ahead.' Get it?" Derek guffawed while I shook my head. We gathered all the men around, including the ones that were in the tavern. Derek and I went through step by step on how to kill undead. I participated as being the fake undead of course while Derek showed them all the steps to kill them.
All the men took up weapons that were familiar and comfortable with. Derek showed a good way to use a double handed blade to decapitate someone. Sten came by and also showed them how to incapacitate them and then cut off their head. I showed those that had their daggers that it's best to crush better to stab. Do anything you can do to get them on the ground or stunned so they can easily decapitate or crush their heads.
Alistair and Eren came with several tricks with their shields and swords. They recommended to use shield walls in the openings of the barricades to not overwhelm anyone that was fighting. We kept on training them and getting them suited up for the next attack. Owen was really good at getting everything prepped.
The sun started to set and we were resting at an empty home. It was hard to get some shut eye but I at least managed a nap. We were going to be fighting almost all night long and I knew that Teagan would also want to storm the castle early in the morning too.
"Are you scared?" Zevran asked as I waited at the Chantry barricades. Our team was separated between both points. Eren, Talen, Sten, Alfred, and Leliana were up the hill while Alistair, Derek, Wynne, Zevran, and I were down near the Chantry.
"Not really." I shrugged. "Undead are undead. They're not that tough but I'm just worried about their numbers. If we got rushed, then we might have a problem." I mentioned.
"Perhaps but with what we experienced at Soldier's Peak, I don't think these will give us any trouble." Zevran said.
"You can say that again." I chuckled. The small militia was ever watchful of the homes on the shore. I watched the torches illuminate our battlegrounds but there was something scary in watching the darkness. A horn resounded from beyond the trail which meant that they had the undead attack them there first. Everyone got into position. Derek, Alistair, Zevran, and I were at the four choke points of the barricades and Wynne lit them on fire. She and Leliana were at the back with a few others in front of the Chantry. I saw Alistair light up his sword and he chuckled in glee.
The wait for them to come out of the shadows was scarier than having them here. It was silent and the only thing I could hear was the fire before I saw small lights coming from the homes. Those lights were from their eye sockets that had no eyeballs. They came slow like real zombies. Moaning and groaning with various forms of clothing. Some just had linens on but others had armor and weapons.
"Here they come! Get ready!" Derek shouted and that caused them to roar and screech. They started to run. First came the archers that lit their arrows and shot at them. A few went down with some head shots but most rushed through. And so the battle starts.
Beta'd by FearaNightmare and Syutaku!
Hi guys! I was going to upload this yesterday but the Xmas and NYE deserts punched our kitchen in the face. We were swamped that 12 hour workdays have been approved. To say that I'm tired is an understatement but I did get this ready for you guys so Merry Christmas! The next chapter won't be up until New Year's Eve since my work has drained me yet again. After all, people really want their deserts!
Thank you BlueRubyBeat and lojenz for following! Thank you Chimera Spyke and BlueRubyBeat for reviewing! Please Review!