Keo let out a scream as another blast sent her through the air and crashing to the ground. She rolled a good few paces before the adrenaline forced her back to her feet. She'd lost her staff in the chase so now had to rely on just herself which in her opinion was the worse thing to happen. A genlock emissary came through the smoke followed closely by a hurlock alpha which wielded a giant battle axe with ease. The hurlock let out a chuckle which was clearly meant to provoke her into fighting or dishearten her. Keo looked around frantically for a way out, if she continued down this path she'd lead them to the camp which was out of the question. Nothing. Her only option was to fight but with the emissary's magic she had no hopes of fleeing and with the alpha's strength she had no hopes of winning a fight. She had no choice, mustering up what she could she hurled an ice spell at the enemy mage. Her only way out was to get rid of the mage and avoid the alpha at all costs. The alpha let out an angry war cry and charged towards her as the emissary froze on the spot, rolling out the way at the last second she managed to just miss an axe to the leg, stumbling she ran forward towards the emissary sending stone fist its way in hopes of shattering it completely. Keo couldn't help but grin as the genlock burst into frozen shards on impact. "Yes!!" She cheered, momentarily forgetting the real threat that had composed itself behind her. The searing pain in her shoulder brought her back to the fight when an armoured hand gripped onto the wound and tossed her to the ground. Grunting she grasped her shoulder and stared up at the glinting axe as it raised high into the air, just as it started to drop all confidence in survival sunk in her stomach, the mage shut her eyes tightly, bracing for death. Instead of steel hitting flesh the sound of two weapons colliding rung out into the smoky battlefield air. Keo opened her eyes hoping to see Kai coming to her rescue but the figure definitely wasn't familiar. Backing up along the ground she stared in awe at the battle before her.

 

The alpha tried to force the battle axe down but the opposition stood his ground, double swords pushing back. It was a battle of strength. The boy clearly wasn't a warrior by the way he was dressed, he was built for stealth not brute strength. The blonde flashed a cocky grin and suddenly rolled back, the sheer weight of its armour causing the alpha to topple forward onto its stomach. As quick as he had rolled he was suddenly kneeling on the alpha's back, holding it down while he ran one blade across the back of its exposed neck. Wiping the blood from his blade the boy walked over to the injured elf and held out his hand to help her up, smiling.

 

Keo just stared up at the human in shock, mouth gaping. How could he smile like that after facing that thing? Who was he? How did he do that so easily? Thoughts rushed through her mind like arrows but now that the threat of death was gone all she cared about was finding Kai. Batting away the shems hand she forced herself to her feet although due to her near death experience she fell back onto her knees. Her legs were jelly at this point. 

 

"Is that any way to treat the guy who just saved you?" The boy smirked, crossing his arms as he watched the girl, simply waiting until she asked for help. He had an Antivan accent and a distinct tattoo which put him in league with the Crow's. "You're pretty lucky all he wanted to do was kill you, y'know. Usually they drag you off under ground." His patience soon wore thin as the elf blatantly ignored him and shakenly got to her feet, using the boulder beside her as a leaning post. She scrunched her nose up at him and waved him off, attempting to go back towards the hut. "Woah! Where do you think you're going like that?" He scolded as he stepped in her way, hands moving to catch her as she stumbled forward when she ran out of boulder. "My luck." He muttered under his breath. She was clearly hell-bent on going back for some reason but he couldn't allow her to leave this area. 

 

Keo wriggled in his arms to get free, even if she couldn't get far just yet it would subside eventually. "Let go!" She growled at him as she pushed at his arms.

 

Annoyance took over and the rogue went to let her go just to spite her when he heard approaching footsteps, "Get behind me and stay there." He ordered. He must have looked intimidating because with one glance at his face the girl ceased her struggling and did as she was told, he could feel her hands trembling as she held onto him for balance, probably still shaken from almost dying. Unsheathing his swords he narrowed his dark eyes at the black smoke clouds that emitted from the left overs of the fire spell, brows furrowing in concentration. Darkspawn flooded into the clearing like water breaking out of a dam. "Okay.. New plan." Quickly he scooped up the elf and leapt into the air, grabbing onto one of the higher boulders and pulled them both up. Setting her down he flashed her the same cocky grin he gave the alpha. "Stay here, any try to climb up to you, kick 'em in the face. I'll be back." With that he patted her head and launched himself into the mass of darkspawn.

 

"Wait no-!" Keo yelled, hand extending to stop the boy but it was too late. Her hand remained in the air as she was left to watch the rogue tear through the group with ease. It was only now she noticed his armour, it was darker than what the books showed but it was clearly Grey Warden armour. "...So that’s a Grey Warden.." Admittedly she was awestruck, this boy who looked about her age was fighting so easily, appearing and disappearing like a shadow. One thing was for sure, he was too fast for the darkspawn. A hand hitting the top of the boulder snapped her out her daze in time to see a hurlocks face rising as it pulled itself up the rock, jumping back with a squeal she kicked it in the face and watched it fall back into the others attempting to clamber up. "By the dread wolf they're ugly..." She shuddered, having been inches from its face. A close-up of that wasn't ideal. In fact it was horrifying. It looked like its skin was rotting, she couldn't help but feel nauseated.

 

The grey warden jumped towards a hurlock and hooked his legs around its neck, using the momentum of the jump he spun himself around it and slammed it into the ground before quickly flipping back out the way to avoid a genlock's sword. Suddenly something struck his back which sent him forwards, rolling onto his back he lifted his sword and blocked the incoming blade, using his foot to keep the hurlock at a distance. ".." He was getting overwhelmed which pissed him right off. Booting the hurlock in the crotch he attempted to escape the group encircling him. 

 

"Hey Antivan! Duck!" A voice came from a tree. Scoffing the blonde grabbed the closest darkspawn and used it as a shield before it rained arrows down on the group. 

 

Shoving the dead beast off him the Antivan got to his feet and smirked in the direction the voice came. "Gee thanks, now I'm covered in dead spawn!" 

 

Another human appeared as he dropped out the tree, shooting his arrows at multiple darkspawn. "That's 850 for me." The brunette joked as he reached the others side. 

 

"Pfft, that all? Youngjae you're getting slow." The blonde teased, shoving at his friends arm. "Not bad for an Orleisian though."

 

"Slow? I'll remember that next time you're about to get a face full of spawn axe." Youngjae retorted with a smile.

 

Keo tilted her head at the exchange, another Grey Warden, she knew they were good but chatting idly while being surrounded was a bit stupid. She was getting tired of kicking darkspawn in the face, by now the shock had worn off and the worry for Kai continued to grow by the second. "Stay here my ." Standing, her hands started to glow and she froze the darkspawn trying to get to her until it created a slope down. Using the ice slope she slid down and carved a path towards the wardens with fire blast, eradicating the remaining darkspawn. "Hey, thanks for the help and all but I'm going to find my brother." She stated before grabbing a lyrium potion from her belt and downing it. Her shoulder was still agonizingly painful but with refreshed mana she could probably make it. 

 

Youngjae looked to his shocked looking friend and raised an eyebrow, "Who's the elf, Daehyun?" 

 

Daehyun stared at the elf for a moment before grabbing onto the back of her armour to stop her stomping away. "Hold up, you're a mage? Why are you dressed like a- You have armour though.. Andrastate's flaming , you could have helped this whole time!" By now he was glaring at her.

 

Keo pursed her lips as she got dragged into the conversation. "You told me to stay up there so I did, now though I need to see if my brothers okay so let go or I'll turn you into a toad!" She yelled. "One more thing... You were being surrounded by darkspawn while you tried to out man each other." 

 

Daehyun spun her around to face him and prodded at the blood soaked fabric at her shoulder. "I thought you were a civilian who got attacked! Look at that wound as well, you'd be stupid to go running off with that! I'm also a Grey Warden I can handle myself." He sneered yet still having a firm grip on the plating to hold her in place..

 

The elf winced and slapped his hand away, hazel eyes narrowing into a glare to match his."Stupid?..You're the stupid one! Standing around idly while those monsters are everywhere. For creators sake let go or it's frog time!" She threatened since all attempts to get him to let go failed.

 

A scoff came from him as he stepped closer, daring her to make a move. "Try it, little elf."

 

Keo balled her hands into fists as she kept her gaze on his, her hands starting to spark with magic. "Don't test me, Shem."

 

The Orleisian pushed Daehyun to one side and rolled his eyes, "Really? Starting fights with mages again?" Turning his gaze back to the little elf Youngjae flashed an apologetic smile and gave a small bow. "Sorry that was rude of him. I'm Youngjae and he's Daehyun. We're both of the Grey Wardens. What he should have said is do you want help looking for your brother? You can probably handle yourself but with all these darkspawn about it'll be safer sticking with us until we assess what’s going on."

 

Keo's anger fizzled instantly as she couldn't help but smile back at this guy, he had a bit of a baby face and was weirdly good looking. The both of them didn't seem like fighters, with their looks they looked more noble. "Uh.. Keo and.. It's alright..I guess..Wait. Youngjae, right?" She paused, his nod confirming she got it right. "Kay.. Well here's the thing.. This is my fault and I may have gotten the one person I care about killed so although I'd love to stand here while you evaluate the situation, until Kai's by my side again I really couldn't care less about who you guys are..If he's dead I don't know what I'd.. I can't just.. Look I need to find him." 

 

Youngjae was about to object when he noticed the tears forming in her eyes, this stopped him dead. He didn't know how to handle girls when they cried, let alone an elf that looked like a kicked puppy.

 

Daehyun shoved Youngjae out the way and went to rant at the girl about how she shouldn't talk to people like that when he spotted the eyes. "Uh...." Elves and their eyes. He hated it when girls cried but when elves cried it was like someone shot an arrow into his heart then took a hammer to it. "Listen. we'll find your brother, alright? Just don't.. Leak." He sighed, afraid to touch her in case it set off the water works.

 

Keo used her sleeve to wipe her eyes and turned to leave when the world started to spin, she reached back and grasped onto one of the Grey Warden's to compose herself when her feet suddenly weren't touching the grass. Daehyun had noticed the swaying in the walk and was quick to scoop her up again. He looked to Youngjae who shared the same concerned look, her shoulders wound had caught up to her. The last thing she saw before she passed out was Daehyun muttering something to Youngjae.