{All non-player characters and the Guild Wars universe belong to NC Soft and Arena Net. I am just representing my own character through the story. Thank you.}

Chapter 5

Signa stepped out of their little tent and into the morning. The camp was silent for it was still quite early. Slowly Signa found a seat near the camp and sighed looking at her feet. Dust rolled about her ankles; it crawled its way into every orifice of her clothing. She could hardly stretch out her toes in her boots without feeling the dust, sand, and rock interlope between her toe nails. The whole land had this feeling of compression. Signa felt there was no longer any space to breathe. The air was always hot, thick, and heavy. It smelled foul no matter where you went and it compelled the body to lie down and never get up. Not only was the air at fault the sky to made Signa feel caged. For two long years not once had Signa ever seen sky or sunlight. The sky was an eternal cauldron. Black smoke and clouds forever roiled about above her but would not go anywhere; the clouds just stayed there and writhed. When the clouds did disperse on rare occasion all Signa could see of the sky was blood red from some strange remains of the searing. Even though the landscape stretched to both sides so far Signa thought this wasteland might never end still it suffocated her. On and on there was only dust, and tar, and ruin. It was a hopelessly scarred land with no variety and no life about it.

Yes, this land suffocated her in every way, shape, or form.

"It is time to go Signa," Q said, putting a hand on her shoulder, "When you are done reminiscing I suggest you gather your equipment and meet us at the northern wall. Zleeda will be leading the expedition since she knows the land the best.

Signa nodded quickly as she was not completely conscious of what he said. He snuck up so quietly he might as well have appeared out of thin air. Even as she nodded he was gone just as swiftly as he appeared. "Now that I think about it this is the first mission we've had all together," Signa thought, "Strange that we should be separated for so long. Maybe now I might get to know them better."

She gathered her wits and returned to the tent to retrieve her staff. Everybody had already left. "How long was I just sitting there?" Signa wondered.

It was a short walk to the northern wall. Signa strolled through the small encampment of Ascalon. The merchants, soldiers, and townspeople were just awakening from their slumber and Signa had the pleasure of walking through the city unobstructed by crowds. Through the armory she went noting that the blacksmith had just started to light the fires for his forge. Soon she was up the steps toward the old palace and past the last of the tents onward toward the northern wall.

When she arrived all her comrades were waiting. Q just turned and walked up the stairs toward Captain Calhaan's watch tower upon her arrival.

"Took you long enough." Grumbled Kalen. Zleeda only gave Signa short little smile before trotting after the others. Sheepishly, Signa followed feeling slightly embarrassed at her tardiness. Q was talking quietly with the captain. The captain was a little man with dusty blonde hair and tanned skin. Signa smiled to herself for she thought that he could be Kalen's mini me. Kalen had the same well-tanned complexion and dusty blonde, cropped hair. If Calhaan were just taller and more muscular he might have passed as Kalen's twin.

Q finished speaking with Calhaan who had a worried expression upon his face. "Calhaan fears there is something amiss beyond the wall," Q started, "However he does not know what it might be."

"That's why we're here? For a hunch?" Kalen questioned, irritation written all over his face.

"It's just that no scouts have returned from the north in a long while. That should be more than enough incentive for an investigation" Calhaan replied.

"Absolutely right," Q said, "And we will go investigate as we were ordered to." Kalen grunted. "Zleeda," Q muttered quietly, gesturing to the frontier in front of them.

"Right, this way then!" Zleeda exclaimed, hurrying down to the other side of the wall. The others quickly followed. Soon they were well out of the Old Ascalonian territory and making their way steadily north. As they walked on devourers consistently rose from their burrows to attack. This was no phenomenon as devourers had become a very common pest. These gigantic, two tailed scorpions had somehow managed to thrive above all other species in these wastes. As they rose from the ground, each time Signa raised her staff in excitement, seeking an opportunity to prove her worth to her fellows; however, as each ugly arachnid rose its ugly pincers from the ground, before Signa could act it was already pierced by an arrow, or a sword. The farther along they got on their journey, the more useless Signa began to felt. Here were three great adventurers, each of them older, wiser, and more tested in battle than she. Surely they thought she was only a child incapable of anything.

"Pay attention Signa that one almost got you!" Kalen shouted as he blocked the sting of a devourer with his sword and then stabbed it through its tiny brain.

Signa jumped, indeed that was close. The sting of a devourer was not life threatening but it could put one out of commission for a while. Signa thought maybe she was only luggage the way she was performing right now.

Several Devourers later they entered Charr country. They were in the northlands now; Signa had never been this far north. She had grown up in Regent Valley, a wooded area a day's walk south of Ascalon. Somehow it was even more suffocating here. The dust was thicker and rocky terrain kept her constantly in some depression surrounded by cliffs. No devourers had popped up for a while so they had been able to make quicker ground.

"Shh, take cover" Q suddenly said quite urgently, pointing to a particularly large boulder. Everyone did as he asked. As she crouched Signa accidentally kicked a small piece of armor and without really thinking she shoved it into her pack. Q slowly peered around the rock and saw in a small, tar filled valley a battle occurring. "It seems a small dispute has gone on between a group of grawl and gargoyles" he reported, "They are destroying each other though. Let's wait here until they reduce their numbers more. We have not even walked very far, it troubles me that even these lesser monsters are so close to the borders."

Signa looked up and sighed getting prepared to settle down and wait until she spotted something moving from behind a boulder on a cliff above them. Signa squinted her eyes looking towards the figure. A gargoyle revealed itself, it's thin, unsightly, stone body revealed itself from its surroundings and Signa made eye contact with it or at least she thought she did. Like the rest of its body its eyes were just stone. They were circles of granite with no pupil or iris. Slowly it seemed to turn towards Q, whose gaze was intently on the battle ahead. It raised one stony claw towards his head and a dark magic circled about its talons. Signa acted quickly. She raised her staff in front of her and a bolt of lightning flew from it, splitting the gargoyle into two. The hit made a deafening cracking sound, like a sonic boom.

Kalen cursed, "Aye girl what did you do that for!"

"They heard us," Q spat quickly drawing his bow, "Oh we're in trouble now. Just Q said, the remaining monsters below, two grawl, one normal gargoyle, and one larger gargoyle had noticed the sound and forgotten their quarrel. "Drat they know we're here but they do not know where we hide. We have to be the first to attack now. My arrows will have no effect on those gargoyles. I will start our attack by shooting down the two grawl. Kalen and Zleeda will follow up on the gargoyles. Signa you'd better stay here," Signa ordered glaring at her, "You make FAR too much noise. I fear another disaster like that and the whole of the charr armies will be upon us."

"Q that isn't fair I saw what happened, she—"

"We can debate later Zleeda" Q interrupted, "Now, attack!" he shouted drawing two arrows and shooting the two grawl down with one shot. Kalen raised his sword and ran down into the tar pit towards the gargoyles. Zleeda looked at Signa apologetically and rushed after Kalen into battle.

Luckily, their frontal attack was enough. The gargoyles fell easily from Kalen and Zleeda's combined strength. Q approached as soon as they were down, Signa meekly following. "Well done," he stated shortly as he kneeled by the dead body of the larger gargoyle.

Signa, ashamed of her folly avoided her companions. She wandered around some remains of some pillars and stumbled upon another piece of armor. "Peculiar," she thought to herself, "These greaves match the breastplate I found earlier. Perhaps they are valuable?" She shoved the greaves into her pack as well.

She rejoined her team quietly. Q had finished investigating the matter. He could not draw any information from the encounter. As soon as everyone was ready they moved on. There was not much farther to go. Who knew what awaited them in the northlands.

{Thanks for reading my story and stay tuned for more on the adventures of Signa!}