We'll Bleed For This Cause

A/N: Sorry for the long wait everyone, it's been a busy first half of the year. Here is chapter 9, finally, and while I don't think it's my best writing I didn't want to keep you waiting any longer.

Secondly, I finally got around to editing the previous chapters, so if for some reason you get a bunch of alerts at once for this fic it's probably me just updating previous chapters XD

And finally, I thought I should let people know I have a tumblr so if you ever want to ask questions or inquire about how the writing for this fic is going feel free to drop me an ask over there. You can find me at .com (note that on tumblr I'm graykestrel with an 'A', while over here and on AO3 I'm greykestrel with an 'E').

Anyway, sorry for the long note and I hope you enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 9: Broken Bone

These days it seemed no matter where they went trouble was either already there or close behind them. They couldn't take one step down a well-traveled road without being accosted by a group of darkspawn, and if it wasn't darkspawn it was bandits, and if it wasn't bandits it was wolves, or something else equally as troubling. This day the whole group was on the move, so of course that meant they were going to run into danger while they were encumbered by packs, and tents, and had a wagon with two civilian dwarves following them.

"Do you think if we stopped traveling on the roads we'd run into less trouble?" Elissa yelled over the sounds of fighting.

There were several yelled "no"s in response.

Elissa let loose another arrow right into the back of a darkspawn attempting to sneak up behind Alistair. "But surely back roads, or even no roads, would be less likely of a target?"

"Not necessarily," Leliana yelled back, "we could run into more."

"Knowing our luck that would be exactly right," Alistair added, finishing off the darkspawn that still has Elissa's arrow sticking out of it's back.

"Just a suggestion." Another arrow was released into another darkspawn, this time tearing straight through it's throat. "Can you blame me for wanting to avoid this every time we decide to travel more than a hundred feet in any one direction?" Elissa glanced around the impromptu battlefield, assessing the odds that they would all make it out of the fight relatively unscathed. Surprisingly they were doing fairly well.

The darkspawn were numerous but her and her companions were slowly whittling down the numbers. Wynne and Morrigan were fighting from next to the caravan, keeping their dwarven companions safe and giving magical support from a distance. Alistair and Sten and charged right into the fray with Leliana darting between them to make opportunistic strikes. Zevran had taken to the outskirts of the main area of fighting, picking off opponents who were injured or strayed to far from their fellows. And then there was Elissa. She had taken the opportunity early in the fight to perch herself on a raised hill off to the side of the fighting, making the most of her archery skills and causing damage from a distance. All in all they made a pretty good team, but if there was one thing Elissa had learnt on their journey it was that their luck never held for long.

Just when it looked like they were nearing the end of their battle a second wave of darkspawn appeared as if from nowhere, effectively surrounding Alistair, Sten, Leliana, and Zevran. Elissa just grit her teeth and aimed another arrow, landing it in the eye of a darkspawn just about to swing a mace into Leliana's side. Leliana turned in time to see the darkspawn drop to the ground and shot Elissa a thankful smile. Elissa let loose another arrow and glanced back to Leliana to return the smile, only to find the other woman staring at something behind her with wide, worried eyes.

Unfortunately Elissa had been on the receiving end of that look numerous times, too many times if you asked Alistair but no one did because it usually started him ranting, and she knew that there was quite probably something big, bad, and terrible standing right behind her. So Elissa did the first thing that came to mind, resisting the urge to yell out to Zevran that she was being a great student, and dropped her bow to the ground. The arrow she kept a hold of, wrapping both hands around the shaft and spinning on her heel. Ideally she would have plunged the arrow in the soft, squishy side of the darkspawn. Only that's not what happened, because the darkspawn standing behind her was a veritable giant and rather than shoving an arrow into some nice important organs, Elissa just ended up ramming it into the darkspawn's hip bone.

"Oh, not good." Elissa looked up to the face of the darkspawn and found she had to crane her neck back to even see it, because standing in front of her was no ordinary darkspawn. The hurlock snarled down at her, seemingly not bothered by the arrow sticking out of its side. Elissa was frozen until the Hurlock made to reach for her, and it was only then that she let go of the arrow.

She went to jump back, only to remember she had been standing on a small hillock, and backwards was going to send her off the small ledge. Not keen to repeat her previous experience of falling backwards down a slope, Elissa quickly darted around the hurlock, ducking under it's arms as she made for the open space behind it. She was about to reach for her daggers, because there was no way her bow was going to be useful in close quarters and even if it was she wasn't about to turn around to go get it, when a heavy kick to her back sent her straight to the ground.

Elissa rolled onto her back, not keen to be lying face down in the dirt for any longer than necessary, and was just in time to see the hurlock's foot stamp down on her leg and hear the resounding crack that came with it. The pain didn't register at all in the beginning, though Elissa knew her leg had broken. Last time she checked loud cracks were definitely a bad thing.

Still, Elissa didn't have time to spare as the hurlock finally drew its sword. She reached awkwardly for her dagger as the hurlock looked down at her with a grotesque grin on it's face. She didn't have time to even think about how she was going to attack from the ground when an arrow thwacked into the darkspawn's back, followed closely by a magical blast of energy. The hurlock turned, distracted, which gave Sten the chance to charge into its side, sending both of them to the ground a little ways from Elissa.

Elissa had other things on her mind though, as when the hurlock's foot had left her leg the pain had finally kicked in. Gritting her teeth against the ache she glanced across to where Sten was now fighting, watching with satisfaction as he promptly beheaded the darkspawn.

"Elissa!" Leliana exclaimed as she dropped down next her.

"Don't tell me how bad it is," Elissa said. So far she had yet to look down at her leg, worried at the damage the hurlock might have achieved.

"Oh, no, it's not that bad. Here." Leliana shuffled around behind her to help Elissa sit up carefully. Elissa was hesitant but Leliana managed to get her sitting upright without any undue stress on her leg, and once sitting Elissa saw that it really didn't look quite as bad as she thought it would.

The skin was already a mottled purple with a smattering of blood but there was no bone sticking though skin like she had feared. Still, she slapped away Leliana's hands when the other woman made to touch the bruised and bloody skin. "No, no, it's broken, no need to touch."

"How do you know it's broken?" Leliana asked, still scrutinizing the wound but not making to touch it again.

"I, uh, heard it. Heard it snap." For some reason saying it out loud made her feel queasy. Then again, that might have just been the pain starting to get to her. Elissa took a deep breath through her nose before exhaling through her mouth. "This is probably going to hinder us a bit to a lot."

"Not if I have any say in it," Wynne chimed in, having finally made her way up the incline. Alistair walked alongside her as the elder mage of their group made her way to where Elissa sat.

Alistair frowned once he was close enough to see her leg. "You're lucky it was your leg that got stepped on and not your head."

The joke didn't go down too well, with the blood draining from Elissa's face at the thought of her skull making the same cracking sound as her leg. Wynne was quick to scold him, leaving the grey warden looking suitably chastised. "Sorry, my mouth seems to get the better of me in situations like this."

"I'll say," Elissa added, though weakly.

"Joking already," Alistair said, offering her a fond smile. "See, she'll be fine."

"Not anytime soon," Wynne said, having finished her own inspection of Elissa's leg. "This is going to take a bit more time and skill than what is needed to fix a bump on the head."

"How much time?" Elissa asked.

Wynne just pursed her lips and shook her head.

"I do hope you're not planning on dawdling here," Morrigan called out from where she leant against the caravan, arms crossed over her chest and looking disinterestedly in their direction.

"She's right." Elissa sighed. "We don't know if there are any are any more da-AHH-kspawn around." She glowered at Wynne who lifted her hand from where she had been feeling along Elissa's leg.

"Well, you've well and truly done yourself in this time," Wynne said, "and no amount of stubbornness is going to allow you to walk on this until I've seen to it."

"If I may," Bodahn said, surprising everyone, as no one had seen him approach. "We're light on goods right now, I'm sure my boy and I could move some things around so we can keep moving and work on your healing at the same time." He turned to Wynne then. "The may not be much room for you to work though."

"No, it will be fine. Won't it Wynne?" Elissa turned hopeful eyes onto Wynne. The older woman frowned in way that suggested no, it wouldn't be fine, but she'd make do regardless. "Alright, perfect! Umm…" Elissa glanced around at the people with her on the hillock. "How am I going to get to the caravan?"

Alistair sighed. "Looks like I'll need to carry you. Again."

"Sorry," Elissa said with a sheepish smile.

"I'll start clearing things in the caravan," Bodahn said, hurrying down the hill ahead of them.

He needn't have moved so fast though, as it took Alistair, Wynne and Leliana a good few minutes to figure out the best way to move Elissa without moving her leg. By that point even the slightest jostle had pain racing up her leg, making her feel sick to her stomach. In the end they had Alistair scoop her up with one arm behind her back and the other under her thighs while Leliana held her broken leg out as straight as possible.

They took their time getting to the caravan but even then it ended with a white faced Elissa, silent tears running down her cheeks. Getting into the caravan was another feat in itself but again they managed it. Wynne climbed into the caravan after Elissa, eager to get started on the healing work, and shooed the others away. And then, just like that, they were on the move again.

It wasn't until later when most the pain had subsided, the tears had stopped, and she could think clearly again, did Elissa realized they didn't even make it to lunch before they had been attacked. That and her being stuck in the back of the caravan meant that Alistair had probably been left in charge, and Maker knew that was probably a disaster waiting to happen.

As if on cue she heard the loud voices on Morrigan and Alistair getting into another useless argument, followed by the grumbling of everyone around them. Elissa couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of it all, even if it did lead Wynne to check her for a fever while muttering something about 'hysteria' under her breath.