Thanks to everyone who wrote me comments and to those who read the story. Please please review, I love constructive criticism. And as always I own nothing but my own characters' personalities.

Leric POV

Duncan grabbed the girl's middle and slumped her over his shoulder, giving the dieing noble an apologetic look. Leric thought it foolish how Duncan had insisted on remaining in the building while it was being overrun. You humans are so trechorus, even with your own kind, thought Leric with a smirk.

Previously that night he had awoken to the sound of a woman's screams and the sounds of pounding feet. After his beloved bow was in his hands, He had looked out the door saw what was happening and shut it immediately. He could do nothing to save the struggling woman, he had bee gravely outnumbered. With attacking the men having priorities elsewhere, Leric had made his escape out of his room's,window. It did not take long to find and alert Duncan of the massacre that was occurring.

Bang, Bang, the sounds of warriors pummeling the gate caused Duncan to turn and look back and Leric to snap out of his thoughts and as he did so he tightened his fist on his bow. What a stupid way to die, he thought, trying to save a worthless spoiled shem girl. He turned his head and regarded the woman in Duncan's arms. He felt like spiting at the privilege noble who didn't even have a clue about the Dalish about the people her kind had so ruthlessly taken arms to once.

"Please take her, go" Leric watched as the old human, Bryce, struggled to stay alive, with his wife by his side. He was moved by the inhumanity of it all, but a part of him felt glee at their tragedy. It was just a taste of what the shems had done to the elves.

With a forlorn look, Duncan turned towards the servants passageway and motioned for Leric to follow. The woman's head bobbed up and down as Duncan ran through the narrow hall; she was completely unconscious. Leric thought he would have to ask Duncan how he had knocked her out so quickly one of these days.

They trekked for a good eight hours before Duncan raised his hand, signalling for Leric to stop. Over the course of their traveling the men had switched taken turns carrying the woman, and he was pleased that he could finally let go of the woman. It made him uncomfortable being in such an intimate position with a shem no less.

"We should be safe here, they will not pursue us outside of their boundaries." Said Duncan has he started to make camp. With a thud the girl landed on the ground next to a pile of blankets Duncan had set up. Her flowing red hair covered her gore covered face as she lay at Leric's feet unconscious. What does Duncan see in such a weak shem, thought Leric as he walked away from the girl with a disgusted expression on his face.

"You could have put her down gentler, I think she has a cracked rib" Duncan was walking over to him and looking at the Cousland, his face a mask of concern.

Leric thumped his bow into the dirt and leaning on it, "Why did we even take her? She seems utterly useless." His bored tone was slowly creeping into one of anger.

"If she were utterly useless she would be dead already, do you think Howe's men just let her walk through the castle, look at her shoulder." Leric followed Duncan's finger as he pointed to the shaft that stuck out of her shoulder on an odd angle.

"She fought with that wound, and I have seen many skilled warriors give up because of such an ingury, but she did not." his tone clearly stated that the conversation was finished. In one hand he held a poultice and in the other, a damp rag. Leric watched as he stooped down and started to wipe the blood from her face and then propped her up and began to undress her upper body. He watched as the man's fingers untied the leather laces to expose pristine white flesh of her neck and then her shoulder and down to her….

"Are you enjoying the show?" Dark eyes flashed with a spark as Duncan regarded Leric. "If you will not aide me then divert your eyes, show some respect." The man's tone was sharp and angered as he glanced up at him again. He didn't know why he had even been staring at the women, her form just seemed to have captured him. With a tilt of the head, Leric turned around and folded his arms as he slowly walked to his tent. I am too far from home, that's what it is, he told himself that over and over as he lay down to sleep.

He was awoken by a rough arm shake and a shove. Clearly it was his turn to take the watch, so with exasperatingly slow movements; Leric stretched and made his way out of the thin tent fabric. The cool night air brushed his braided strands across his face as they tickled him into becoming alert.

"It is your turn for watch; I sense no darkspawn about so you will be fine." as Duncan started to walk to his tent, Leric asked, "Is she still unconscious, the she- I mean the human?"

A frown creased the man's brow, he seemed to be deep in thought, "Yes.. she is still not with us. It is strange, but alas I am no healer so I do not know if it is her grief or her injuries that keep her in the dark place where she resides.

How eloquent, thought Leric as he listened to Duncan, who knew he was a poet. He struggled to keep his face even and not remark on the older man's choice of words, but he remembered the scathing glace he had gotten earlier that evening, so he remained silent. As for the woman, if she wanted to survive she would have to be able to handle death, especially for those she cared about.

Coldness nipped at his fingers and Leric decided to sit closer to the fire, and of course he ended up closer to the woman. She is more like a child, he thought as he regarded her sleeping form. Eyelids fluttered as she laid stock still on the ground. Her once bloodied face was again pristinely pale with dark purple circles forming under her eyes.

He sat next to the limp body and regarded the orange flames as they danced into the night air, free and jovial. He sighed and shifted his weight so that he was leaning back on one elbow with his back away from the light. He could tell by the quiet noises of the forest that all was well and going smoothly. Nothing was there to frighten away the wild life.

Every once in a while he would look over at the woman to make sure she was breathing. He watched as her bandaged torso rose in short bursts and fell rapidly. Her breathing was laboured, but still continuing. After about 4 hours of doing absolutely nothing Leric noticed that the fire was dying out and he rose to put a twig into it. As he started to get up, a hand darted out and grabbed his wrist pulling with fierce strength that caught him by surprise causing him to fall on his back. The woman was lying there with her eyes clamped shut and her mouth mumbling. Words were rushing out of her mouth at such a speed that he could not understand them. She turned and thrashed, kicking out at air as she gripped him harder. He was bewildered, he did not know what to do, should he slap the woman or fetch Duncan? However as soon as the episode started, it finished, she became still and calm again. Leric hopped up and stepped away from her to the other side of the fire, away from the blasted woman.

Fayne Pov

Fayne didn't know were she was.

Dark sky with many stars was the first thing she saw when she opened her eyes. It shocked her because the last thing she remembered was seeing her father in her mother's arms slowly bleeding to death. With that thought tears started to sting her eyes as she lay motionless with her back on the ground. She was dimly aware that she had no top on and that bandages covered her upper torso, but she didn't care.

A whooshing sound to her right caused her to stir and slowly raise her head. Across from a blazing fire sat the elf who had been in her bedroom the previous night. Or has it been this night? She asked herself. Her mind struggled with memory and the events of Howe's treachery was blurred and jagged, like the foreseeing dreams that often plagued her. Fayne took a deep breath and again looked at the person across the fire from her. His sharp features were once again softened by a state of peaceful slumber.

As she tried to lift herself off of the ground a sharp pain lanced through the side of her ribs and shot all up her spine. Fayne arched her back and hissed through her front teeth as the pain rose to unbearable levels. She could barely breathe, what was happening to her? It felt like an eternity until the stabbing pain receded into the background, leaving her breathless and hunched on the ground.

Thick clouds of mist rose from her mouth as she let out puffs of air while she tried in vain to control the shudders that racked her body. The still silence of the forest seemed to shatter as her breathing came out irregularly, and she felt like the noise should have awoken the whole place. But as Fayne knelt in the dirt with her hands in front of her on the ground, she looked around and saw that nothing else seemed awake. The cool blackness that was fended away by the dying fire was quiet and peaceful.

Fatigue quickly replaced pain and Fayne found it hard to even push herself back into a sitting position. She could feel her eye lids being pulled down by some invisible force and she fought it. She would fight it like she fought Howe and the disgusting pigs that served him.

"You should sleep." A bored voice said from above her, and as Fayne tilted her head up she could see the dark face of the elf looking back at her. Apparently she had awoken something after all.

The man made no move towards her, gave no helping hand, but rather watched her hunched body on the ground. She realized how she was at a disadvantage, kneeling in the dirt with her wobbly arms barely holding her up. If the Dalish man so chose, he could have ended her right then, she was in the perfect position to be beheaded; she was level with his knees.

With resolve harder than silverite, Fayne pushed up from the ground into a standing position. It was a slow and painful process and for her and it felt like it took a hundred years, but by the end of it she was standing straight as an arrow and was eye to eye with the Leric. Pain like hot needles poked her form, but all she let show of it was a small frown, which she covered with a haughty look.

"Where are we! Where are my parents?" a heated tone crept into her voice as she whispered the question at the elf.

"Dead." He shrugged as he looked at her, his eyes darting to different places on a her body like a wolf would do when sizing up a wounded animal.

"What do you mean dead, we are dead?"

He never changed his posture but his eyes snapped to her face and a calm smile replaced his tight lipped expression, "No we are not dead, simply you are in a camp with Duncan and I." A strange kindness seeped into his voice then, "Your parents are the dead ones, do you understand?"

With a surge of fury Fayne recognized that kind tone for what it truly was. It was the sort of kindness given to a dog or a favoured pet. A condescending mind set that denoted the individual spoken to as less than the other. And his words dripped with it.

As if reading Fayne's mind, Leric's accommodating smile turned harsh and bared all teeth, "We are leaving at first light tomorrow, if you wish to live you will follow us. Go to sleep."

As Fayne watched him return to the other side of the fire she thought of all the things she wanted to do to that elf. Hatred seethed in her and cradled her into a fitful sleep.