"Wait...wait..."
The pained gasp made Bethany breathe out a sigh of relief, her shoulders slumping as she slowed to a trot, then stumbled to a standstill. Thank the Maker. Breathing heavily, she rested her hands against her knees as she slowly felt the burning in her lungs subside. Back when they had been on the run she had been very young, but also surprisingly tough, but since they had settled down she had spent far more time studying or at needlework and far less time wandering...and now she felt the effects of that.
Looking back she noted that she was not the only one suffering. Leandra looked poorly, the woman shaking as she slowly moved to rest against a boulder, eyes glazed with tiredness. She's getting old. Bethany grimaced. I hate this, she shouldn't have to do all this running, not again...
The one who had called out was Garrett though, the man looking as pale as a ghost as he sat down in the dirt, arms listless to his sides, eyes closing as he took deep breaths through his nose. The cut over his cheek had come open again, making dark blood trickle down over his jaw as dust clung to the heavy armour that by now, under a burning sun, had to be like a furnace to run in. Digging up a waterskin from his pack the man drank deeply, chest heaving with each gulp.
"What..." Carver grunted, the man trying, and failing, to look casual as he leaned against a tree, the teasing smile ruined by his heavy panting. "...slowing down...are you?" Grunting, he unsheathed his greatsword, placing the tip on the ground as he eyed the path they had come from, his tone changing to something terse. "I'll keep watch until you're done."
"We both have to rest...you know that..." Garrett coldly replied, the man anything but cool considering the way he gripped at the collar of his armour and tried to make it a little more open.
The only answer was a weak shrug of Carver's shoulders as the man gazed back towards the horizon.
Bethany had a conflicted opinion of her twin. She loved him as her brother, even though he had teased her mercilessly back when they'd been younger, and even now and again nowadays...and she knew he would defend her or any of the family to the death. Yet...he complained...a lot, and though it technically was nice that he was honest about what he thought annoying...it could get tedious...especially since he was so direct about it. It was strange to feel closer to the sibling that wasn't her twin...but it was the truth. When it came down to it Garrett shared her love of studies and was less hotheaded than his younger brother, a good trait when living in a cramped space with a woman needing to study.
"Maker...look at you." Bethany sighed and moved over to the man in question, crouching down in front of him and raising his head by gripping his chin. The tired brown eyes looking back at her blinked as Garrett stirred. "No, stay down." Putting a hand on her brother's chest to stop him from rising Bethany let it slide up towards his cheek as she closed her eyes, her lips moving in a whisper. "Life...breath...restore."
Bethany was a terrible healer.
Her father had told her to focus on what she had an aptitude for, fire and ice, for not only did it make her better at defending herself, but the greater control over the Fade would keep her from the clutches of demons. Yet healing was such a useful talent in everyday life. When you tried to live an ordinary life the ability to throw fire was more of a burden than a boon...plus if she could heal she would feel less like an abomination in the making...
And Bethany had obeyed, her healing powers were now mostly down to the old use of herbs, bandages and needle and thread. But some ability still lingered within her...and the Fade was drawn to her whisper. The powers of it struggled, hesitant in unaccustomed hands, but coiled around the energy that was all around them, the energy in the grass, wilting but still alive, the insects and birds...it coiled around that energy and drew it to her, towards her curved fingers...
A flicker of green energy in the palm of her hand...and Garrett's wound sealed shut.
Opening her eyes she found him frowning. "You shouldn't tire yourself out." He grabbed the hand over his cheek and pulled it down...only to grasp it with both of his as a flicker of a smile appeared on his lips. "But thank you."
"It's nothing." Bethany rose, trying not to feel the extra tiredness in her limbs. Magic was a strange thing, it wasn't really the mage that did anything...she simply directed energies, or in the case of the evil blood-magic, demons, to do what she wished. Yet despite that, magic was tiring to do, in particular when doing something you were less practiced in, like training an unused muscle it left you aching within minutes. At least I can throw fireballs for hours, though I hope don't have to-
A screech
She whirled about, eyes wide even as Garrett scrambled to his feet and Carver turned around with a raised sword. Before them, Leandra simply stood there, eyes wide as she trembled, unable to turn and face the source of the sound.
They stood at the crest of a hill, a distant mountain framing them, making them look larger than they really were. They were looking down on the small family, milky eyes full of hatred, bodies quivering with the anticipation of killing.
Darkspawn.
Bethany had never seen one in real life, but Garrett had, since he loved to read about various subjects, once described them for her...and they were everything she had feared.
Their pale skin was mottled, their eyes a milky white, as if they had once been men, partly melted and resurrected into a sick parody of what they had once been. Their mouths were filled with sharply pointed fangs, drool dripping from between them as they regarded their prey. Their armour was crudely riveted together pieces of steel made all the more crude by the marks of rust, and if anything their weapons were even more crude, sheets of steel hammered until they formed axes or swords...
Axes and swords stained with blood, the blood of those that hadn't gotten away...
One of them took a step forward, raising his free hand...and holding up a horn of some animal and bringing it to its lipless mouth...
A resounding call came from the horn, deep and foreboding...and then the creatures hurled themselves down the slope, unable to contain their rage a moment longer.
"Bethany! Fireball!"
She hesitated at her brother's command even as he shouldered himself past her, grabbed mother by the collar and hoisted her back.
They l-look like mutilated people...but people n-none the less...
She stared at them, seeing only hatred and death...and found her soul retreating deeper within her rapidly beating heart.
Garrett looked back at her, eyes flashing. "Now!"
Her body obeyed the command even as her mind looked on in shock. Stretching out her hands she once more called on the currents of the Fade, and this time drawing not a simmer of the illusive energy of life, but the flood that was the warmth of the world around her. The air, her own thumping heart, the blaze deep within the earth...it coalesced into her hands, turning into a glowing ember, a star...
It hurled away from her before it could consume her hands, shooting straight and true towards the centre of the oncoming Darkspawn. The hurlock seeing the orb hurtle straight for it tried to jump down...but was too slow, instead being struck by it square in the face, sending charred pieces of it flying as the fire exploded outwards. The two next to it tumbled to the ground and made the hurlock just behind the struck one drop onto its knees with a horrible cry as it clawed at the ruined remains of its face and chest.
Jumping over one of the stricken comrades, one of the following hurlocks threw itself at Garrett, swinging hard against his outstretched shield...only to stumble forward as he pulled it back, making it hit nothing but air.
A moment later the man's sword was in its throat, spraying dark blood over the ground...only for him to gasp as he was knocked onto his back, the dying creatures return swing having drawn a silvery gash across his armoured abdomen.
Another came at the bowled over man, knocking its dying brethren aside mid-stride... Only for Carver, who had just impaled another impetuous Darkspawn on his blade, to thwirl around, his greatsword cleaving through the air...and then the creature's neck, making the headless creature drop onto its back with a heavy thump.
A flash of movement drew Bethany from the sight though, finding a hurlock running right past the men, straight for mother...
No.
She cried out, no words, simply anger...and the chill from the sky above and the shadows formed frost in her hands...that she threw out.
The Darkspawn slowed, its left leg turning a cold blue by the impact of magic as it hissed with agony, yet it continued towards the woman that just stood there, staring at the horrifying creature...
Then Garrett crashed into it, shield clashing into its side and slamming it into the tree Carver so recently had rested against. With a hiss the creature spun at him, sword swinging at his face...only to hit nothing but air as the man with a growl ducked...and then brought his shield up as he rose, the hard rim breaking the creature's jaw with a loud crack. Coughing blood, the hurlock swung its blade back...only for Garrett to parry it with his sword, holding it fast...and then slamming his shield upwards and against the creature's elbow...that with a snap gave in, making it drop its weapon as the forearm twisted into the wrong angle.
The creature was hatred incarnate though, and despite its broken jaw it lunged forward, ready to sink its teeth into Garret's face...only to bite into the rim of his shield. Garrett hissed at it as he pushed the shield upwards...up until the creature's head was pressing up against the trunk of the tree.
A flash of his blade...and the creature sighed its last breath as its insides spilled forth from its abdomen.
Snarling, Garrett pushed the broken Darkspawn aside...and then rushed to stand in front of Leandra, tossing the shield aside as with a worried gaze he placed a hand on her shoulder. "Mother, are you okay...?"
Bethany didn't even hear her mother's reply, instead she felt her shoulders slump as she stared over the carnage. It's over? The Darkspawn bodies lay strewn over the ground, so few Bethany knew that the fight had barely qualified as a skirmish, yet a cruel testament to what the family had lost, and what they were fighting to preserve. It was all so...fast.
"It's over..." Turning back to her brother, Bethany found the man holding Leandra, the way the woman's shoulders shook telling Bethany their mother was crying. "Hush, hush...it's over..." Garrett was muttering the words, his free hand running down his mother's hair as the other held the bloodied sword away from her.
In the distance there was an echoing call, the call of a horn...
Carver, tossing a now bloodied rag away from his cleaned blade, looked up with a sigh towards the sound, one eyebrow raised. "Sounds to me as if the Darkspawn disagree..."
Garrett pushed his mother aside, the warmth in his voice gone as he eyed the horizon, as if able to see the source of the sound...then he turned about, gaze drifting to the mountain in the distance. "We can lose them over there. You always climbed that when you were younger, Carver, you can guide us."
"I can." Carver responded, sheathing his sword as he eyed the mountain, than the way they came from. "You think we have enough time though?"
"We must have." Garrett growled as he picked up his shield and gestured at the mountain. "Now keep moving, and don't stop, no matter what!"
Immediately picking up the pace into a brisk jog, Bethany felt the exhaustion immediately returning and sighed.
So much for that break...
8
8
8
Thanks to Abydos Jackson for putting up with me.