Char: Male x Male (Pairings are Surprise). Female x Male (Pairings are surprise)
ch sum: He works in mysterious ways. Dorian and Bull enter the picture.
Children of The Veil
Falon'Din Knows When
Thick and thin branches, scratching thorns – all of it smacked him in the face as he ran through the brush. He held a hand tightly to his bleeding side while his other grasped tightly to the elven mage. He'd lost the leather strap in his hair at one point, leaving the longer part of his hair fluttering behind him. He slid to a stop suddenly, causing Sara to fall into him. "S-Saeya?" her voice was choked. "Do-Do you think they-they killed him?" she was crying. He didn't need this right now. He was in full blown panic mode. "Saeya why did we-"
"This is a dead end…" He said shakily. She pulled her wrist from Saeya and looked around his taller frame. Ahead of them was a cliff, on either side of them were mountains. They weren't close but he could see them through the tops of the trees. There was only one way back and that was the way they came and….the human army.
Sara stepped away from Saeya and looked around. Saeya ignored her for the most part as he leaned heavily against a tree. His breathing was labored, his face paler than normal. He looked down when he felt a hand lay over his own. Warmth suddenly spread out from his wound to spread across his entire body.
He jerked back away from the hand, staring at Sara.
"Don't." He grit his teeth against the sudden dizziness and nausea that had come with the sudden jerky movement.
"But you're bleeding!" Sara cried. "You-"
"You have to save your magic," He growled back.
"Y-You're going to die!" The tears were back.
"No." Saeya growled. He pulled his hand away from his wound. It still throbbed with pain but it wasn't bleeding anymore. "You stopped the bleeding."
"S-Saeya…" The two stared at each other for a while before Sara's eyes slipped closed. She leaned forward and Saeya watched as she all but collapsed against him. "Noah…"
"He'll be fine." Saeya growled. He pushed Sara up, gripped her shoulders, and glared down at her. "This is Noah we're talking about. He's stubborn and he'd never let shemlens kill him!"
"B-But…there were so many of them…" the tears were raining down her face. "W-What if-if-if…if…he…he…"
"Sara, calm down!" Saeya roughly shook the shorter elf. "He's okay, I'm sure of it." He nodded firmly. Sara wiped her face with a sniffle. She didn't look at all convinced but at least she had calmed down a bit. Sara suddenly sighed. "What is it?"
"At the off chance we'll get split up…" Sara said, pulling away from Saeya then turning her back to him. "She saw this happening…but then she said…" She turned suddenly, her eyes lit up with hope. "But….she said we use Haven to meet up! That means-!"
"Yeah…take her word and not mines – I only said the exact same thing but with actual direct words," Saeya rolled his eyes.
"He's okay!" Sara giggled.
"Sh." Saeya frowned. "We're not out of danger yet. The shems…we have to make it out of here but…" He turned towards the cliff. "We'll have to go back the way we came…"
"Not necessarily…" She mumbled. Saeya turned to look at her with a frown. "This area is familiar. I saw it when we camped for the night. There is a path that we can take that will get us down the cliff." Sara turned and pointed. "Two, actually. But one of them is dangerous. That way is the safest route but longest." Saeya pointed over his shoulder.
"What is this way?"
"A waterfall." She turned and looked up at Saeya. "That would be the quickest route but it also would be more dangerous." She was looking up at him expectantly. Was…was she waiting for him to choose which way to go?
He furrowed his brow. They always left the decision making to Noah. He was the oldest and wisest of the three. And until this incident, all his decisions had kept them safe with minimum crossings with shems. "What way would you go?"
"Me? I would go the longest route. It is because it is going the opposite way of the only large source of water. This means we'll less likely run into any danger but it also less chance of running into larger animals…." She said the last with such hesitance, he was sure she didn't want to say it at all. She knew if Noah was here, he probably wouldn't choose a path that had less animals they could hunt for food.
She hated when they had to kill – even if it meant it was for food. He knew if it was up to her, they'd only eat plants and fruit.
"Okay, we can go that way then." Saeya said with a nod. "I'm sure the other way is filled with shems….I think that might be where the shem camp is too…"
…
..
.
They'd been traveling in the direction Sara said the path was in for a little while. Sara led them while Saeya trailed behind her. She kept glancing back. Their pace had been steadily decreasing. She'd been trying to heal Saeya for most of their walk but the older elf kept snapping at her to stop. He never liked when she tried to heal him –even before all this. That was why she always tried to find an extra abundance of healing herbs.
He wasn't looking too good right now.
They'd barely gotten anywhere because he had to stop – well Sara said she wanted to catch her breath but that was only because she knew the older elf needed slight breaks but would never admit it.
She would never understand men. She sighed, rolling her eyes. Noah was the same way. He would only stop if he noticed Sara or Saeya was exhausted or if Sara spoke up. Sara always initiated their camps or rests because the older elves were stubborn. "Let's stop for a bit." Sara said. Saeya looked like he was going to keel over any minute.
"No." Sara, alarmed, looked over her shoulder at the older. He was glaring at her.
"But-"
"You're not tired. We keep walking." His glare intensified.
"I am!" Sara stopped walking, turning on him.
"You are not! We just stopped a moment ago! You only use that as an excuse to waste more of your magic on me!"
"It is not wasting magic! I'm not wasting it when it's to heal you!" Sara was glaring back again.
"You are!"
"Stop being so stubborn and let me heal you!" Sara stomped over to Saeya. The taller elf took a step back. Sara grabbed his arm, already allowing the curative magic to flow through her and through her fingers. Saeya tried to wrench his arm from her – and couldn't. That was proof enough he needed this more than he let on.
"Sara, stop!" Saeya snapped, still trying to wrench his arm away from her.
"Shut up and let me heal you, you stubborn fool!"
"Sara, stop!" His words were coming out more harsh and forceful but Sara ignored them in favor of healing him. "I said stop!" at his words, Sara felt a sudden painful spark in her hand that traveled throughout her entire body. She gasped and let go of him, stepping back. The two stared at each other. Sara in shock and Saeya in anger. His anger slowly dissipated into guilt. "S-Sorry…just…Please don't waste your magic on me…"
"…Okay…"
"Sorry…" Saeya apologized again as Sara backed away from him. She smiled sadly.
"It's okay…Just…when you get tired…please say so. You're still hurt and it'll only get worse if you push yourself…"
Sara and Saeya whipped their heads to the left to see 7 of the warriors from before. "Found them." One of them snickered. They were armored from head to toe. Saeya reached for his daggers but cursed. He'd drop them. He would have to rely on his throwing knives…and he didn't have that many left….and it didn't look like he would be able to get through their armor with the thin blades.
"Sara, what I'm about to suggest is going to sound crazy…" Saeya mumbled. Sara turned to him in alarm. "We're going to have to split up…"
"B-But!"
"I'll meet you at the bottom of the waterfall."
"ARE YOU INSANE?" She shouted. "YOU'LL DIE IF-"
"We have no other choice!" Saeya watched as the human warriors got into battle stances.
"Yeah we do! How about not splitting up?"
When one of the warriors began to charge, Saeya pushed Sara to the right "Run! If I don't make it down there by the time the sun sets, we'll meet up at the rendezvous place!" He flicked his hand forward with a painful gasp, lightning streaking from his palm. Sara's eyes widened. The warrior had jumped back in time from being struck but he had growled.
"Looks like we found the damn mage of the group!"
"Saeya-"
"Go!" another painful growl and another streak of lightning. This time the lightning struck one of the men, instantly grounding him. Sara turned and ran while Saeya ran the opposite direction.
"Split!" one of the warriors yelled. Saeya looked over his shoulder slightly and sighed in relief. 5 of them were chasing him. He knew Sara could handle the other 2 on her own.
…
..
.
He looked behind him again, instantly regretting not paying more heed to his surroundings. He tripped, tumbling a few times before stopping on his back. He stared up at the trees in a daze. He was exhausted, scared, and hungry. All he wanted to do was sleep but he knew that was impossible. He pulled his tired body up from the ground. He still felt the remnants of storm magic flowing throughout his body and it hurt. It was distracting and it hurt because it brought back memories he'd rather forget.
He'd managed to knock 2 of the warriors off their feet but that was all. His magic was nowhere near as strong as Sara's. He hoped they hadn't realized that mid chase and decide to go after Sara instead.
"Well isn't that nice, you made this all the more easier." Saeya's eyes snapped open – when did he close them? And when had he laid back down on the ground?
He stared up at one of the iron clad warriors. "If you're cooperative, I promise I'll let the other little elf go. I'm pretty sure she was the one doing all the fancy magic." Saeya froze. They knew. "So what do you say?"
"You will let her go…?" Saeya was having trouble focusing. His vision was swimming. His mind was hazy.
"Of course. You have my word as a warrior."
"Okay…" Saeya agreed faintly. His eyes had closed again. He felt himself being picked up – surprisingly not as roughly as he had expected.
"That's a good little elf. Why aren't all of your kind so reasonable?"
Reasonable…If Saeya wasn't so exhausted, he would have snorted outloud. He knew what he was doing was less than reasonable and more foolish then anything…but if there was a chance he could keep Sara out of harm's way, he would take it.
Why did that sound like something Noah would say? That was the last thought that went through his mind before he lost consciousness.
…
..
.
"Frost months are coming in…"
"…He liked the cold…." A sigh.
Iron Bull frowned, looking behind him slightly. Leave it to Dorian to kill the mood at every turn. They'd managed to escape the fortress about 2 days ago. Bull had told them it was because of an elf. He was surprised when he found that Dorian hadn't been made tranquil. He wondered if there were any Templars in the ranks of their captors.
He doubted it.
They'd established a temporary camp some ways ago. It wasn't as big as skyhold had been – hell it wasn't even the size of Haven. It was about the same size as their Hinterland camp, but slightly smaller. It was only what remained of the Inquisition – a couple dozen soldiers.
Their inner circle had been completely torn asunder with the death of the inquisitor. To this day, no one still didn't know how he even died. They just knew that with his death, everything went straight to hell. The humans got out of control, springing rumor after rumor until it came to a point where they blamed the inquisitor himself for ripping a hole in the sky and claiming the Inquisition was just a front to clean up the mess with little blame.
It was a ridiculous notion but the humans would rather believe an elf caused all the mayhem then to believe an elf saved their ungrateful asses.
Iron Bull stopped in his tracks suddenly, causing Dorian to run into him. "What?" Dorian peeked around the giant man's body. When he saw what caused the Bull to stop, his eyes brow roses.
There were bodies and blood everywhere in the area ahead of them. "I want to meet the person or persons who did this. I want to thank them." Dorian mumbled as he realized the symbol on the dead warriors was also the symbol that had held them captive. The symbol depicted an eye with an x over it.
A sudden jerky movement in the corner of his eye caught Dorian's attention. He moved around Iron Bull and pointed. He felt his fire magick push forward. "I think one of them is still alive. Joy." Dorian walked forward with Bull trailing behind him. They stopped and Dorian frowned.
"An elf….I bet he did this…fought to his last breath." Bull looked down at the skewered elf. "Still fighting by the looks of it…"
"He obviously doesn't want to die right now," Dorian mumbled absently as he saw another shudder run through the otherwise still body. He kneeled down and allowed his hand to hover over the sword. He looked over his shoulder at Bull. "You think he'll survive? Does he want to survive…"
"I'm not Cole. I have no idea." Bull shrugged. Dorian brought his full attention to the dark haired elf.
"This is going to hurt a lot…" Dorian mumbled. He raised an eyebrow as he witnessed the elf's body tense. Was he preparing himself for the pain Dorian just warned him about? Dorian gripped the sword and pulled it from the elf body. The elf's body jerked again and Dorian quickly brought his hand back over him to infuse him with curative magick. "I'm not very adapt in healing magic. The most I can do is seal the wound…" As he spoke, a shudder went through the elf's body again but he went completely still.
"Is he dead?" Bull asked after not witnessing any more movement from the elf. Dorian leaned his head over the elf's face. He held the position for a while before moving back.
"He is alive….barely…" Dorian stood and brushed himself off. "He'll likely die in the next few days if he isn't healed by a more proficient healer." Bull frowned.
"We should get him back to camp with us then. If he did all this single handedly," Bull waved his hand around at the many dead warriors. "He'll be a great asset to our numbers."
"Or lack thereof…" Dorian sighed. "He'll be useful…if….he is healed back to normal strength – whatever normal is for him. This puddle of blood is his and his only…He's lost a lot of blood," Dorian turned to look at Bull. "Few people survive that let alone recover to full health afterwards." Bull walked closer to the elf and picked him up carefully.
"…Aey…Ara…." The elf whispered it so quietly, if Bull hadn't seen his mouth move, he would have said it was just the wind.
"Pretty sure his desire for revenge would speed his recovery along if nothing else would…." Bull grumbled. He glanced at Dorian who shrugged.
"We should hurry. Time is not on his side – it is a male right?" Dorian tilted his head slightly. Sometimes he could never tell with elves. It was like they didn't even have genders. Bull shrugged, starting to walk in the direction they had previously been walking in. Dorian fell into step beside the giant, glancing at the elf cradled in his arms from time to time.