{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 7

"Sir Master Saberlin is already in the field! There is no need for another party to go out there!" Tydus shouted, looking up at the young prince of Ascalon. Rurik had been pouring over maps and reports for the most part of the past night and all of that day. Sweat and dust lingered under the folds of his armor leathers and the joints of his plate armor creaked from constantly being rubbed together. Rurik himself looked as worn down as what he wore; since he was not wearing a helmet his hair was unkempt and knotted every which way.

By the table in front of him stood his dear friends; Lieutenant Langmar, Captain Greywind, and Captain Arne. "What would you have me do Tydus?" Rurik questioned rather exasperatedly. He stopped his incessant pacing and looked toward his friend; his arms were open in a gesture of botheration.

"Give Armin some more time. His men have been able to hold out so far they just need a push."

"And I am giving him his push!" Rurik retorted, "Signa's team is the best suited for this mission I knew it from the beginning! Sending Saberlin and just one legion of men was a horrendous decision!"

Tydus looked at his superior pleadingly as he replied, "And sending in a team that may not be needed is an unnecessary and unwise decision! This a risk with disastrous consequences sir! What if something should go amiss? What if you lose both teams in the attack? Then we'll be chest deep in this war without our very best assets!"

"Tydus your lack of confidence in Signa's team surprises me! I will debate this no longer I am releasing Signa's team to help in the re-taking of the great northern wall and that is final." Rurik asserted before storming out of the tent with no more than a swish of his red cloak in the direction of his advisors. He walked toward the hero's designated tent. As he passed farmers, merchants, and peasants alike bowed with smiling, trusting faces; it made his heart ache. They could never know that their "impeccable" king was too blind to see that this fight for Ascalon was a losing battle. Rurik pressed onward through dust and toward the tent. He idly fidgeted with the feather that hung about his neck before entering.

Q looked up from where he was sitting. There was a wooden shaft in his right hand and a feathered fletching in the other as he was in the process of making arrows. The rest of the group was sitting across from each other on the other side of the tent. When the prince entered, the whole group got up and kneeled before him. Rurik sighed, "Get up my friends... I have a task for you."

Signa slowly looked at her companions and rose her head to her prince, "What task is this my lord?"

The prince smiled wearily and began a steady pace across the entrance of the tent. "In the effort to retake the northern wall we have lost an entire trebuchet front and currently Master Armin Saberlin and his legion are the only men holding back a charr assault. Things look grim, but from what Saberlin has been reporting one push could be all we need to surge forward into their territory. I need you to be that push."

Kalen nodded stoically. He stood and walked out past Rurik to retrieve his sword and strap it to his belt. "What are we waiting for?" He asked brusquely as the rest of the party stared rather densely after him. The three others, all caught unawares, shuffled and scrambled over each other to get ready. Q grabbed his bow, arrows, and dagger; Signa retrieved her oaken staff; and Zleeda grabbed her oversized sword. Kalen only walked on forward muttering lowly, "Rookies."

"By order of the lord prince you are to let us pass onward" Signa said to the young guard in front of them. The boy could not have been older than Signa, perhaps only 17 even. There was a scruff of a beard on his delicate chin and his eyes were still full of the arrogance of youth. He also smelled.

"I cannot let you through girly it's a war zone on the other side" he said disdainfully, puffing his armored chest out.

Kalen stepped forward, and although Signa was a good head taller than he, his bulk made Signa look like a child. He towered over this kid and looked down with stern, ice-blue eyes. "Let us through brat. Surely the orders of the prince are enough to approve our leave, or do you need more convincement?" There was a dangerous glint in the older man's eyes.

The kid gulped and shook in his little leather boots before standing aside allowing them access through the large wooden gate. "I-I just remembered y-you can pass through right away s- sir."

Kalen only smirked and pushed past the guard, opening the doors with ease, "That is what I thought." The rest of the party sniggered and moved through. Before the gates closed Signa stuck her head back in and stuck her tongue out at the flustered guard.

They walked onward for a while longer and eventually came towards the battle front. A group of soldiers were just about to charge toward the fighting and Signa's group joined in. They ran energetically towards the fighting crying for the honor of Ascalon. There were five charr fighting against a few scattered soldiers in front and Signa could see past the top of their heads to an even larger group further on. Zleeda was the first to get to the fighting and the charr hardly had time to say, "kill" before she was upon them. Her sword gleamed and blood splattered the dusty ground as the charr fell. Zleeda laughed and attacked another charr just as quickly shouting her own personal war cry, "BANZAIII!"

Signa stayed with Q a good distance away while Kalen and Zleeda dispatched the rest of the group. Signa went into the small plaza that held the next group first. She had been practicing her magic and wanted to try out a new spell first thing. She gathered her power deep within her and her staff began to glow red. She looked up after a few seconds of this and then thrust her staff forward. "Lava Font!" she shouted as the ground underneath the charr legion super-heated, swelled, and finally burst into a fountain of magma. Many of the charr instantly died and more ran off with their fur on fire. None survived.

Kalen silently walked past Signa and patted one hand against her shoulder before moving on up the stairs opposite of them, "Good job." Signa smiled.

At the top of the steps they found Armin Saberlin and his men fighting a large charr necromancer. Saberlin was struggling against a particularly large minion of the necromancer. His sword made sparks against the sharp bone of the undead being. While Zleeda, Signa, and Kalen caused a distraction by going for the remainder of the minions, Q snuck behind a boulder to the right of the scene and waited patiently. When the opportunity struck, he let an arrow fly and it gracefully swooped through the air and into the necromancer's throat. The minions all fell limp to the ground as the necro's life's blood spilled and seeped into the dusty sand.

"Hail heroes!" Saberlin shouted, hurrying over to Signa who happened to be the only one not throwing some minion or another's limp body off of someone else.

"Oh, um.. hi?" Signa said unsurely. Normally Q was the one who led these expeditions, but he had been rather quiet as of late and for some reason the rest turned to her for direction next. Was it because she was tall?

"I am so pleased you came, your group is just what we need to win back the wall! We've got the Charr on their heels, there numbers have drawn back and they've left themselves vulnerable! A few days ago we got reports that some of the trebuchet engineers and guards still lived across from the wall! If we can just somehow find the trebuchets and make use of them, we can definitely take back the wall! Oh, and by we I mean you."

"Come again?" Signa asked, she had thought this mission had been about assisting the soldier.

"Your team will be the team that takes on this task, my men are spread out too thin I can't risk another group, if you find my son though, please send him my way. I should never have let the boy go off and attempt this mission."

"So wait we're doing this ourselves?" Signa asked incredulously. Armin began to walk away and whistle a jester's tune. "Hey wait!" Signa called, "We're only-!" Armin disappeared around a large boulder, "Four people…" Signa trailed off.

Zleeda wiped some blood from her cheek and approached Signa from behind, "So, what now?"

Signa sighed and turned around looking at the waiting gate that lie before them, "We march forward and kill furry monsters."

Zleeda grinned, "Sounds like a party."