Laisa whimpered as Ramia pulled the young girl into warmer clothes, urging her to climb back into the sling across her shoulder. Still tired and half asleep, not yet wanting to leave the warmth and comfort of the bedroll. The sky was at the beginnings of dawn and the farmer and his family would no doubt still be fast asleep. Precisely the best time for them to leave and continue onwards to meet up with Athras.
Despite wishing to be above petty thievery, Ramia did not want to risk her sister's hunger and took a few scraps from the pantry. Nothing that would go noticed.
There was two paths they could have taken. They took a left, and continued down a dirt road. If the sign was anything to be believed they would be able to make it into town before nightfall. So long as they had no delays. When the morning sun finally began to peek through the clouds, Laisa gave squeaking yawn, trying to rummage through Ramia's knapsack. Food on the mind.
"Do you want to walk?" Laisa hummed a yes, climbing out of the sling and eagerly accepting the apple Ramia offered her. Munching noisily and walking with a skip to her step. "Don't go too far ahead Laisa…" she started walking backwards to slow her step, humming a low tune to herself.
"Where are we going?"
"This way." Laisa laughs and nudges at Ramia, demanding a proper answer. Ramia returns her amusement inhaling a large gulp of air through her nose and noisily exhaling. The air felt good, and they had managed to cover a lot of ground without incident. "There's a town at the end of this road. With markets and homes…"
"And taverns?"
"Just one. That's why we're going there. We're meeting with an old friend of mother's. Athras, he was one of the elves who'd stayed behind when everyone went their separate ways after the Qunari threat. He's going to help us meet up with mother. He knows the forests to the north better than I. We'll need his help."
"Can I have another apple?"
"Are you even listening?" Ramia stopped walking.
"Yes!" Raising an eyebrow and arms crossed across her chest, she grinned from ear to ear at Laisa.
"Alright, what did I just say?" Laisa folded her arms behind her back and giggled nervously. Before she could answer Ramia's attention was drawn further up the road, they were silhouettes but she could make out at least five men. Armoured and armed. "Laisa get behind me." Laisa obeyed immediately, her unsettlement with the incoming strangers further enforcing Ramia's suspicions of who they were.
They wasted no time, and Ramia just barely dispelled a paralysing spell, shuffling backwards at the sheer force of the blast. The tie keeping her hair contained began to loosen, Ramia screams at Laisa to stand further back and places a ward around her before ripping out the hair tie in frustration. Summing force magic to lift large chunks off the earth around her and sending them flying against her opponents.
Solas' men were good though and she only manages to knock one of them down, with a flick of her wrist she sends the boulder atop the fallen man to crush him further into the ground. "One down." It's too late when she notices one of them approach below her in the corner of her eye and send a blade at her. She doges last minute but doesn't manage to escape unscathed, blood trickles down her thigh in a freshly open wound. Ramia curses through her teeth, sending a force blast at him before he can come in for a finish blow. With a swipe of her staff she sends the other sentinels falling to the ground, then slams her staff down to send tendrils of electricity through their bodies. Their bodies twitch and convulse, as the last vestiges of their lives passes through them.
Ramia wipes the sweat from her brow with the back of her hand, breath heavy and hissing at the pain travelling down her leg. Limping towards Laisa, she releases the ward placed around her.
"Ramia!"
The blunt end of a dagger collides against Ramia's skulls and sends her reeling. Her vision still blurry as she weakly tries to conjure something, anything to defend against the dagger making straight for her head.
Suddenly there's ice, but not her own. The sentinel is motionless and frozen, Ramia turns and sees Laisa's hands glowing, her eyes staring straight at the block of ice.
"Laisa!"
"He was going to hurt you."
Laisa walks up to Ramia, the dangerous and stony look to her gaze replace with worry at the blood seeping into Ramia's clothes.
"By the gods Laisa you're six! How could you possibly do that?!" It wasn't so much the ability to perform magic in itself. This was Solas' child and neither she nor Moro would deny magic would run strongly in her. The precision with which she performed it however was what shocked and unnerved her.
Laisa ran over to Ramia's bag which had dropped during the battle, rummaging and pulling out a clear green bottle, holding it up for Ramia to inspect. "That's the one, bring it over." Ramia hissed as she rubbed the green jelly substance into her wound, then used some bandages to wrap around it.
"I'm sorry…" Ramia ruffled Laisa's hair, putting weight on her staff to rise to her feet.
"You saved my life, don't be sorry for that." Taking hold of her sister's hand, they continued their walk up the path.
"Let's try not doing any of that in town though."