{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 6

The twisted path forged on and on past broken and lifeless land. Eventually it twisted and split into a fork running along either side of a rock formation. Q signed for the party to come to a halt. Signa looked up from her brooding trudge in the back and rubbed some dust from her eyelashes before looking up to see that a great plateau loomed to their right.

"We need to turn left," Zleeda stated after considering the two paths, "The path to the right only wraps around that plateau before rejoining with the left."

Q nodded slowly but continued to glare up at the hill. His keen, chestnut eyes were riveted to the top of the rock. Signa looked in the direction that Q was looking towards and she to squint her eyes. She could barely make out some wisps of smoke floating into the sky. "A camp" she whispered quietly.

"Yes," Q whispered in return, "If we take the left path we'll be spotted. We'll have to take out whatever is in that camp first, but we'll have to do it quietly."

"What do you suggest?" Kalen asked gruffly looking up at the cliff face of the hill. "That rock is not stable enough to climb, there isn't any place higher for you to shoot from, Zleeda and I sure as hell can't just go charging in."

Signa took a drink from her water bag while the others bickered over what the plan of action should be. A drop of that clear aqua fell from her cheek and fell, glistening, to her shoe. Signa frowned and pointed her staff at it asserting some of her power into the weapon. Briefly, a gust of wind flew from it and dried the shoe, but it also blew up the dust surrounding her shoe and she covered her mouth to prevent coughing as a cloud of dust encompassed her and limited her vision. Signa batted the dust away cursing at herself and looked up to see that the rest of the group was just staring at her. Terrified that she had once again screwed up she cringed at their glares, "S..sorry…" she stuttered.

Q grinned and leaned back casually crossing his arms across his chest, "Signa you're a genius."

Signa stared at him quite blankly, "Pardon?"

He gestured toward her, "We could just sneak right up to the hill, climb the path until we were close enough, and you could cause a dust storm. That way Kalen and Zleeda could go in practically unseen and kill off the watchers."

Signa nodded slowly liking the idea. Her expression was alight with pride at her "genius". Forming up close together, the group began slowly making their ascension to the top of the hill. The path was less sturdy than they first thought and it was a struggle to climb up without making too much commotion. The path was nothing but gravel and one had to tread very carefully in order not to slip and create an avalanche of sharp pebbles. Signa nearly laughed as she heard behind her a string of curses be whispered by Kalen. Once she managed to look to see how he was keeping and saw that he had his limbs spread out as far as they would go in order to prevent his greaves and armor from creaking against each other.

Eventually, and not without a few close calls, the party made it close enough to the top to peer over the cliff side and see what resided at the top. Signa, being the tallest, was the one to look. She sighed in relief seeing only two charr huddled around a fire. One was bigger than the other and wore the armor of a captain. After getting a good look she kneeled down and turned to her comrades. "Two of them, one's a captain."

Q nodded and retrieved his bow from his back as well as an arrow. He knocked the arrow above a section of his bowstring where there was a red stripe and nodded to Signa. "Let's do this." Signa nodded and her heart started to rapidly beat as time almost slowed down. She brought her staff to her side and peeked once more before tapping her staff slightly on the ground. Immediately the wind picked up, blowing the fire out. The dust that had settled in the area began to gather around the two charr. The charr grumbled and began to move around trying to tie stuff down until very soon they could see nothing. Q nodded to Kalen and Zleeda who immediately delved into the storm going for the captain, since the captain had the horn for alerting other charr. Q kneeled behind the cover of the cliff face and watched the fighting carefully. By now Zleeda had managed to separate the captain from his horn and Kalen had managed to turn his attention to them alone. Q, paying close attention, saw the other charr raise a club to hit Kalen over the head with. Quickly Q raised his bow. Keeping his bow straight, Q pulled the bowstring to his nose where his anchor point was. He then closed his left eye and took aim. No sound was made be it the twanging of the string or the swoosh of wind of parting winds, and the arrow flew cleanly through the air and into the charr's cerebral cortex.

The charr fell to the ground and the captain followed. Zleeda jumped up and down with a look of great satisfaction her face. Her sword was covered in blood and Kalen only just barely could get out of the way as she swung it about to fling the foul goop off.

"Crazy, sweaty, sword-swinger!" Kalen cursed aloud with a shaking movement of his fist. Zleeda only grinned and sheathed her blade.

"We have to get moving," Q said after looting the captain and passing the horn over to Signa with a grateful smile. The warriors nodded and soon they were slipping and sliding down the hill back onto their path. It wasn't long before another small group of charr stood in their path. This group also had one who looked to be leading the others, but he did not carry any alarm device. Q allowed for Kalen and Zleeda to attack them front on with back up from himself and Signa.

Zleeda casually threw away the charr she had impaled on her sword and flicked her sword to the ground, delighting in the way the charr blood splattered across the dusty terrain. That was art. The charr landed not too far away its eyes closed forever. Blood trickled toward the edge of her boot tainted with dust and pebbles. As it got closer Zleeda pulled her-self out of this observation and stepped away from the body moving forward to peer through the ruined archway the Charr had camped in front of. "This is the way guys!" she shouted back to the rest of the party after noting her surroundings.

Q padded up to stand behind her and took a look. His eyes surveyed the path before them noticing the walls on each side will holes on either wall. "It looks like a trap, but there is no other way at this point. We have to keep going; somehow I think we are closer than we might want."

Kalen stomped up behind them followed by Signa. Signa had gained a certain respect for the aging warrior. He fought with enough vigor to serve as two, no three men and had none of the arrogance. His armor was spattered with Charr blood and when one of the mangy beasts had pinned him down he had gutted it with his sword without even blinking. It made Signa wonder about his past, how he had become what he was.

Q turned to the two of them with a serious expression, "We are becoming very close to our target location my friends. I must remind us all now that this is not an invasion, a raid, or an attack of any sort. We are here only to gather information." Kalen grumbled something about how in his land the mission would have been left to a spy or a "shadow walker" not a bunch of soldiers, but eventually everyone put in their word of agreement.

They began walking down the narrow path silently, each person holding their breath without even knowing it. Nothing stirred as they walked on, peering through holes in the walls and always watching above. Finally they came to a large gap in the wall to their left, and they saw before them a small bridge leading onward back towards the south from where they came from. Q motioned for them to stop a bit behind the hole to avoid being seen. Slowly he inched his head over and a gasp left his lips.

"Charr, a whole army of them!" he whispered through clenched teeth as he turned to his companions, "They're gathering to push on towards Ascalon City! We have to warn Captain Calhaan and fast! If we don't hurry then the wall will be completely crushed and the city won't stand a chance!"

The rest nodded and as they gathered to run towards the south a horn sounded deafeningly loud. It was the charr general, he had spotted them. A legion small enough to spare, yet big enough to overpower the four adventurers, broke off from the main group and began sprinting towards their viewpoint. Kalen noticed them run up a ramp and head their way. "No time to fight!" he shouted as he gathered his stunned companions, "Just run!"

Soon enough the rest of the party gathered themselves and began to dash across the bridge and towards the south. The charr were not far behind them and they were just as fast. Q took the lead as he was the most nimble and speedy of the group. He was closely followed by Zleeda and then Signa. Kalen took the rear as his armor weighed him down considerably. As they kept running Q continually shot at devourer dens in hopes of slowing their chasers down.

They ran for a very long time and Signa began to lose her sense of direction, sight, even of hearing. All she could hear was the blood pumping through her body. A steady drumming that powered her on. She tried to see what was around her but the dust blurred her vision, she looked left and she looked right but the whole world was blurred and as she looked left and right she could no longer find her comrades. Suddenly she was very frightened, had she fallen behind? Had she taken a wrong turn? Whatever the case she thought it best if she stopped right there. She turned about frantically trying to find her friends. To the south of her she could see the great northern wall looming against the sky. "How did I get this far?" she wondered to herself absent-mindedly. She turned around to face the north and saw specks hurriedly growing bigger. That was when she saw the flash of Kalen's armor. "Signa!" she heard them shout as they got closer. She really had overpassed them, she had no idea how she had gotten such energy, but that hardly mattered to her right now. It seemed that they had outrun the small legion of charr that had chased after them, but she could see a much, much larger mass following suit from a second pathway. Signa could only think that the wall was doomed.

She was snapped back to attention by an arrow thudding by her foot and Q shouting at her once more from a shorter distance away. "SIGNA! TELL CALHAAN TO RETREAT!" Signa nodded in understanding and began to run on towards the wall. She felt as swift as the wind as she ran and wondered at her heightened senses, but as she ran on she felt the new found strength be drained from her and by the time she had approached the wall all she could do was jog. "FULL RETREAT! FULL RETREAT" she shouted up to the Captain. Calhaan nodded to Signa and pulled out his signal horn. He blasted it thrice and called for the retreat. Soldiers shouted and sprinted through the mighty gates as the rest of Signa's party dashed up the stairs. Signa looked over the precipice of the wall at the sea of fur, claw, tail, and fangs that was getting ever closer. Rage filled her heart and she found herself slowly moving down the steps. An armored hand caught her by the collar and yanked her through the black gates just as they closed.

Signa looked around confused and pulled ferociously at the hand that held her. She felt herself being dropped and she launched herself to her feet her eyes blazing. Before she could spout a word she found a very angry Kalen getting right in her face. "YOU IMBECILE!" he shouted, red faced and sweat caked, "DO YOU HAVE A DEATH WISH?!" Signa opened her mouth once more in anger and then stopped herself as the past events came back to her. She had just tried to fight an army of charr alone. She looked up her face red with embarrassment. Kalen only snorted and shook his head. "This world is not one of your story books kid; not one of your tall bonfire tales! This is the real world! A world of blood, steel, and death and it's not a world for the lone soldier or the single crusader! You'd best learn that before you lose all your friends in a hopeless cause!" Kalen looked at her seriously at this. His ice blue eyes pierced into her soul with the sense of one who knows. When she began to understand he only turned away sheathing his bloodied sword. He trudged on after the others without a word leaving Signa to stand and watch the procession of soldiers and wall guards alike make their way back to Ascalon. There had been very few casualties thanks to the hard work of the Captain and the attentiveness of his soldiers and they would all live to fight again if needed in defense of the main city. Signa thought that she had to remember too that she was not alone and she had friends and allies to fight beside her. "Not a world for the lone soldier huh?" she wondered to herself, repeating Kalen's wise advice slowly as if to drink in every syllable. With a final nod she left behind the black towers of the wall and ran to rejoin with her fellows.

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