Lost Youth

"Roit, well if it's a party yous want." Replied the lead guard and he let out a loud, shrill whistle. Seconds later two more similarily armed guards came from the building at the end, and two more from the building beside it. All had weapons drawn and looked to be spoiling for a fight as they advanced on the group.

Calliara growled again. What the heck was going on?

Two of her arrows found their way into one of the men's throat, and when the thug was still falling, she shot again.

''Could anyone tell me what the hell is going on and why are we here?'' The Wolf snarled to her friends, not knowing at all anything about dead children or what they found

What was Drake thinking telling Marcus to explain things? He was just berserk just a few moments ago. Has his intelligence actually have time to return? Robert planted his sword in the ground waiting to hear the explanation. It wasn't long until his face had company, company in the form of his right palm, trying to hide his face from the embellishment the Marcus was spewing. Oh and the fact that he revealed where Calliara was. She could have just rained arrows on them, demoralizing them as they did not know where they came from, but now if they have archers, they know to look to the roof tops.

The embellishment only worsened. First seemed like pretty on par assessment of Calliara's skill. The next turned Drake pretty much into a blood thirsty animal. What really got him was the description of 'the boy'. Being called a boy was really irritating him. How many boys fought in a conflict that decided the fate of Ferelden? The level of exaggeration blew through the roof. He may as well called him a darkspawn from his discription.

And what happened when all was said and done? The man took it as a challenge and called out their reinforcements. It was an awful lot of armed guards for a 'private function' that was for sure. "Did we say we wanted a party? I must have missed the memo...But if you insist."

Robert grabbed his sword and ran ahead towards the first set of guards to come out. He dove into a roll just a foot in front of them, knocking them down as he went past. Stopping his roll just past the guards, he turned on the knocked down guards. He looked down at the lead guard, staring at his face. He put on an expression he felt fit Marcus' exaggerated persona of himself and stabbed him in the neck with his sword.

They say the bigger they are, the harder they fall. Well, the other guard wasn't as big as the lead guard, so he managed to recover sooner. He caught Robert off guard, forcing him on the defensive all the while separating him from his sword. He hadn't had much time to switch his dar'misu to his dominate hand yet, so he did all he could to block the attacks. He managed to deflect the guards sword enabling him to grab for bag he had filled with sand to toss in the guards eyes. He retreated to his sword and retrieved it before he recovered.

Marcus sighed in exasperation at the stupidity of these guards. "Clearly you can't take a hint. We're not to be messed with." And then he let the rage take him. It slammed into him so suddenly that it would be a jarring sight for others that mid-sentence he transformed from a wounded warrior to a wounded beast.

And nothing is more deadly than a wounded beast.

Gone was the pain from this injuries. Gone was his ability to reason. It was all replaced with the need to fight, to kill, to survive. All he could see was the red haze blurring his vision. He tackled one guard and impaled the spike at the end of Durbans' counter-weight into the head of one guard and in a single fluid motion, brought the axe around to bear, cleaving the next man in half at the waist. Archers trained arrows on Marcus, and one primed himself to fire...

Marcus couldn't see the ranged threat, he was busy snarling and attacking the next foe, massive, wild swings of his axe whooshing through the air.

Note to self: Remember not to give Marcus the word to spout off whatever amuses him when you are not willing to have an ace up your sleeve revealed.

It was fine that the berserker said what he had about Drake and Robert but to give away Calliara's position was not quite what he had wanted. It was his own fault though. Giving a calming berserker something to play with before fully calmed was not a good idea and he for one should have known that.

He glanced up at Calliara and chirruped for her to start shooting as the other two went to work.

Robert was quick and now in a bit of jeopardy due to the one man getting up so quickly but Marcus was completely alright. First thing was first in this manner. Keep your fellow fighter alive and healthy, or as healthy as possible with all the limbs and innards intact.

Drake moved in at speed, swiped his sword at the man who was after Robert, cutting the tendon in his leg then followed up with a flurry of swords cutting the man down, dead. He jumped to the side just as an axe man cut down at him and just missed the shape changer. He moved backwards, avoiding the wide swings, looking for a debilitating opening.

Two arrows sailed through the air and through the throat of one of the guards at the back.
Robert took down the lead guard in a blitz attack and quickly slowed the second guard who was then felled by Drake.
Marcus quickly dispatched three more guards leaving only one of the original six still standing.

The fight had taken long enough for four archers to take up positions on the roofs of the two buildings the guards had emerged from, two on each building. One wore a uniform different from the others and was shouting orders, obviously an officer of some sort. Him and two of the other archers were smart enough to find cover to shoot from behind, but one was not. The officer and his partner saw Marcus as the biggest threat and took aim. One arrow bounced off of Marcus' axe while the other had more luck and stuck in his foot. Two more arrows took flight one bouncing harmlessly off Robert's armor and the other plowed a path in the dirt at Drake's feet.

Two men with axes managed to sneak around the backs of the buildings and come in behind the group. One took a swing at Drake and missed. The axe wielder followed him as he backed up, trying to land a blow. He scored a glancing hit on Drake's arm, but Drake's armor took the blow. He'd probably be bruised, but otherwise fine. The second axe wielder went for the off balance Robert.

Calliara rolled her eyes with a low growl. Thanks for telling my position, lethallin. Very much appreciated. What the hell was Drake thinking to let a berseker do the talking?

Four archers. Well, as she was standing on a roof already, she figured that she could go and say hello. One of them was shouting orders, so if she could kill him fast, maybe the rest of the thugs could be disoriented. If only Fenrir wasn't there...

One of the archers was shooting without covering himself. Fool. Even before really thinking about it, Calliara shoot two arrows. And even when she was still placing her bow to her back and started running on the roof, she didn't look at him. She didn't have time.

The 'officer' and the two remaining archers were in the opposite roof. In some way, and even if she didn't know yet what the hell was happening and why they were there, the Wolf was enjoying the hunt.

And she jumped

Fenrir howled in delight while seeing his friends fighting below then, but Calliara was focused in the roof, thinking if it was too far, if maybe she should have jumped closer...

Her feet landed perfectly, without a wrong movement. Good. Just a second after that, she had her swords in her hands and attacked the officer

This has been the first time Robert found himself ever fighting against his fellow man in a violent encounter. That lead guard was his first living, non-darkspawn kill. The man was kind enough to hold his sword as Robert left it, upright in his neck. Made it easier to grab then having to kneel down. Life saving too, apparently. Immediately after grabbing his sword, an arrow shot right into that small piece of metal he calls his armor, bouncing off it. Had he need to go down to grab his weapon, that could have been in his head.

As he stumbled back, contemplating just how close that was to a lethal hit, he only just noticed the opportunistic axeman moving in on his position. He had enough time to position his weapons in a defensive position. He managed to block the attack, but the force behind his swing knocked him back, and since he did not have time to brace himself, he went flying.

His clothes got torn in several places, his little cape suffering the most damage. But he paid no mind to it. He got back to his feet grabbing another handful of sand. He guessed he would probably have enough for one more go before needing to replenish it. He ran at the warrior and tossed the sand in his eyes. However, the man was smart enough to cover his eyes, wasting his chance at disabling him. He quickly swung in retaliation, but Robert rolled under his swing. He moved in and stabbed into the inner elbow of the man's right arm with his dar'misu. He quickly followed up with another stab into the mans chest with his longsword. He pulled them back and let the man fall.

The fighting raged on and Marcus felt an arrow pierce his side, knocking him off his feet. He snarled and left it in so it wouldn't bleed out. The guards were going to lose and they knew it. They were getting desperate. Calliara had already dispatched most of the archers if not all of them, and thus that left only the melee fighters. Durbans could handle melee. He swung his axe around wildly despite his injuries eventually killing off two more guards before collapsing from exhaustion and loss of blood, his wounds.

This was exactly what Drake needed, getting into a laneway with the one axe wielder in the dark. He changed into a golem, grabbed the man by the head and twisted it, flinging the body away then crushed the other one against the side of one of the buildings. Both souls were long gone from this plane even before the shape changer did what he was best at and changed into another animal. This time a panther, dark as night.

He jumped onto the roof and stealthily moved in behind one of the archers to get a swing at the man's head, claws out and dangerously aimed.

Calliara's shots found their mark punching through the throat and chest of the uncovered archer. The officer was caught offguard by Calliara's acrobatics and fast movement and barely had time to drop his bow and grab his short sword before she was on him. He was off balance however and not a great swordsman, and never stood much of a chance.

Despite being off balance Robert made quick work of the axeman after him. Marcus in his rage quickly dispatched the final swordsman as well as another axeman that had been trying to flank the group before collapsing.

Drake's quick shapeshifting took out the final two guards and he reached the roofs just in time to take out an archer that was taking aim at Calliara. Only one archer remained and he had the sense to drop through a trapdoor in the roof before he could fall like his fellow guards.

Immediatley after the guard's dissapearance a commotion could be heard within the building. Shouts and screams could be heard as well as the clash of weapons. It sounded like a full blown riot was commencing.

Today had started like any other fight day. Khael and the other fighters and their support staff had been bound by the guards and brought into this building in the middle of the night. They all sat with their hands bound behind their backs and chains around their necks attached to the walls waiting for morning.

But then shortly after sunrise things had gotten strange. Sounds of fighting could be heard faintly through the walls. Several of the guards left to investigate and did not return. Several minutes later the archers and the officer in charge of the prisoners left through the roof. The sounds of fighting intensified and then began to quiet. One archer returned through the roof and began to whisper to the few guards remaining.

Khael saw the opportunity he had been waiting two years for and siezed it. When the terrified archer went to run past him Khael tripped him and kicked his short sword to the prisoner next to him. The young man was smart enough to grab the sword with his feet and hold it so Khael could slice through his bonds. The young fire haired dwarf then picked up the sword and stabbed the fallen archer through the back before freeing the two fighters closest to him. Then chaos began to reign in the building. The fighters were still tethered to the walls by their necks but they still managed to fall a second guard and obtain another sword. Soon all eight fighters and one healer had their hands free and were fighting the remaining three guards.

Takara watched chaos explode around her in awe. She had never seen anything like it and she didn't really know what to do. She knew that Khael and some of the others desperately wanted to escape this life but she had long ago given up hope.

She wasn't much of a fighter, but when her hands were free she began playing with a few of the spells she'd been experimenting with in her free time and managed to throw a feeble lightening bolt into the hand of a guard that was attempting to aim a bow at the tethered prisoners. She really was a healer at heart, not a fighter, but above all she was a survivor. If her friends were going to make a bid for freedom she was going to go with them. Khael was the closest thing to family she had ever had and she wasn't about to lose him.

Too easy

Calliara thought that while spitting some blood and looking around. Far too easy. Those thugs where distracted, trying to get them off whatever they were guarding.

And then, there was a fight inside one of the buildings. Curious, the Dalish took a peek through the hole one of the archers made with his body, and lifted an eyebrow. A bunch of people were beating three guards, and they looked desperate and furious at the same time.

There must be a door somewhere. Calliara thought, and looked down to Drake, Robert and Durbans. They were alright so far. She considered her options, petting absently Fenrir's excited ears.

She got up and climbed down the building, looking for the door that was imprisoning the people, and once she had found it, she started picking the lock

Drake changed back into his human form and looked over the side to see the others doing well enough. When he saw Calliara going inside to the racket within the building. He snarled as he used his one sword to freeze a section of the roof then cut into into it with Arcarla, electrocuting the frozen wood into shards then jumped into the building.

He landed on a rafter and watched the fighting that was going on. It looked like the guards would soon be subdued.

Two more guards fell under the prisoners stolen blades. That left only the one that was out of reach. The man was temporarily distracted as Takara's lightning made his arm go numb. Khael could here sound at the door and in the rafters and was afraid reinforcements would soon arrive. He couldn't reach the final guard due to the chain around his neck so he pulled a dagger off one of the dead guards at his feet and threw it at the man, hitting him in the abdomen. One of the other fighters had a similar idea and another dagger hit the man in the leg, then a third in the chest. Finally another lightening blast from Takara hit the man in the head and he dropped like a sack of bricks.

Khael and the others began searching the bodies for the keys to their chains but their search came up empty. The officer had had the keys and he had not returned. In desperation Khael took the short sword and began trying to pry the chain's bolts from the wood of the wall. He did not want to be slaughtered like a chained sheep when more guards arrived.

Although the foes they were fighting against were dead, he still heard sounds of combat. Possibly something was happening in the buildings. He considered checking it out, but Calliara and Drake were already on that. It appeared it was up to him to deal with the crazed berserker...who he didn't see at first.

Did Durbans already begin fighting inside as well? He would have noticed. In his state, he would have broken the wall in to get inside. He looked around and saw him, absolutely covered in blood, laying in a pool of it. He noticed that it seemed to stem from his leg. The arrow in his foot didn't help either. This seems like an ideal example as to not be a berserker. He seemed to be breathing, which was a good thing. Unfortunately, he had seemed to have also left his poultices at home. If he had some elfroot, he could try to whip up something, but time was against him.

He began looting some of the bodies, finding things ranging from silver coins to what appears to be a flask of West Hill Brandy. He couldn't help pocketing both, but finally found someone with a couple of poultices. He ran back over to Durbans and pulled up one of his bloody pant legs. He saw the bite marks from the mabari on the leg. No wonder he was in pain. He carefully applied the poultice, which covered the wound nicely. Considering the amount of blood, and how he planned on switching to something that could actually protect him, he ripped off his sleeve and wrapped it around his leg, over the poultice, to help stop the bleeding.

He went over to the foot and didn't know how to proceed. He might do more harm than good in removing the arrow. He prayed that Jezarine would be awake when they returned, his Marcus' sake. He pulled out some coins and dropped them in Marcus' hand as his dues for what he was going to do. He took out his dar'misu and carefully cut the shoe off of his foot he would probably need a new one after that. He proceeded to pull the arrow out, while quickly applying the poultice to his wound. His ripped some more of his sleeve to secure this as well.

He got back to his feet and wiped his brow, without noticing his hands were covered in blood, a good deal of it belonging to Marcus. He just looked around and decided to wait it out until Drake and Calliara return.

Marcus was in a daze. Having lost a lot of blood from his wounds was taking its toll on him. He thought he could hear the fighting still going on, and footsteps approaching him, but it sounded like it was all so far away. He then felt something being wrapped around his leg. A poultice? His eyes fluttered weakly as he came half-conscious. "Nngh..." Was all he could croak out at the moment. And then the stabbing feeling in his foot made his eyes draw wide. He grit his teeth. An arrow was pulled out of him. With the rude awakening, a poultice was applied to his foot to stem the bleeding and Marcus tried to get his spinning head to still so he could make sense of his surroundings. He was lying against the wall of one of the buildings, covered in blood. His left arm was dangling uselessly at his side and it hurt to move.

In front of him was the young recruit. His name escaped him right now. He muttered a thanks as best he could.

Quiet descended upon the area as the fighting died down. Small scraping sounds could be heard from inside the building where the fighting had occured as the nine prisoners attempted to pry their chains free from the walls. The prisoners consisted of a female human mage and eight young men. There were two dwarves, four elves, and two humans, all heavily scared and marked with the sideways X tattooes seen on the bodies discovered earlier. None of the prisoners appeared to be more than twenty years old. All nine were now wielding some sort of weapon stolen from the dead guards and all except the mage looked very familiar with their use.

The other, larger building that the first guards had appeared from was now completely silent and seemed to be empty. The alleyways between the buildings also appeared to be free of threats, at least for the moment.

Once the lock was opened, Calliara pushed the doors, curious to see what the sudden quiet meant. The prisoners killed the guards? Most likely, imprisoned people could be dangerous if they see a chance to free themselves.

Ah, and that was the case. A group of very, very young and different people, dirty, hungry and desperate, trying to free themselves from the chains.

Before any of them would attack, or try to, Calliara lifted her bare hands.

''I am a Grey Warden. I mean no harm for you. I don't want to harm any of you. If you let me, I can try and free you from those chains. My companions mean no harm for you as well. We're here to help''

The commotion had died down and Calliara came in but Drake still watched for a few moments, "Check the guards down there for keys, Emma fen lath (my wolf love), and I will check outside."

It took moments to go up top and check the one guard. He was surprised to see that this guard was the one with the keys. Drake took them and went through the hole he made, landing in the rafters then jumped down to the ground landing in a crouch in front of Calliara. He looked up at her with a grin then stood up swinging the key ring around on his index finger, "I suppose this is what we are looking for."

The shape changer turned to the youth, "We are going to free you and if you come with us we will bring you to the warden commander so that we can find out what is going on and maybe even help others." He said this as he began unlocking the restraints, "You will have to give your account of what happened and maybe we will find ways to help you get back into a normal life."

Khael and the other prisoners froze as the door swung open. Instead of the pointy and painful death he expected a lone white haired elf entered the room and lifted bare hands. Had he heard her right? She was a grey warden? What could the grey wardens possibly want with a bunch of teenage slaves?

The voice from the rafters made Khael jump and he retightened his grip on the sword in his hand. Slowly Khael and the other prisoners lowered their weapons, but they did not put them down.

When the strange man from the roof came down and began talking and unlocking the chains Khael decided that maybe this wasn't a trick after all. Somehow he seemed to have been elected leader of the prisoners, so he guessed he should say something.

"Name's Khael. All of us are slaves used in a fighting arena. We were brought here last night to prepare for a fight this evening. We should get out of here as quickly as we can. More people should be arriving soon to set up for tonights events."

As soon as Khael was free he ran check on Takara and make sure she hadn't been hurt in the fighting. She gave him a brief hug and nodded that she was fine. Next he went over to a large trunk in the corner and began gathering weapons and passing them out to the other prisoners.

Once he had his axe and shortsword out of the chest and strapped on his back he turned back to the rescuers. "I shall be forever thankful to you two for the rescue. You said you have companions? That sounded like a pretty harsh battle out there. Takara here is a healer if any of you are injured."

Takara still couldn't believe what was happening around her. Not only were they not all dead, but they were being rescued by a grey warden? It was like something out of a children's story! Her life had been one disaster after another and she coudln't believe something good was finally happening.

She felt much better once Khael was free. He would protect her no matter what happened. When it came her turn to be freed she gently touched the places on her neck where the collar had rubbed and quickly healed them. Next she ran over to the two injured prisoners and began seeing to their wounds as well.

When Khael volunteered her healing services she stood and went over to him, accepting a spare dagger from him and hiding it in her robe. Takara appeared to be trying to act brave, and yet trying to hide behind the smaller dwarf at the same time. She was alert and aware of the surroundings, yet couldn't bring herself to make eye contact with either of their rescuers.

"You.. you're not going to turn me over to the templars are you miss? Please, I heard they do terrible things to mages that not been trained."

''I wouldn't give anything to the Templars unless my Commander ordered otherwise'' Calliara smiled reassuringly ''And if some Templar tries to protest, I'll personally tell him where he can keep his tongue''

Remembering Drake had been once a Templar, or about to become a Templar, she looked briefly at him, fearing he would feel offended, but she had scars to prove her dislike of Templars. Well that was irony.

Looking again at the teenagers, her eyes softened and the Wolf started acting all motherly again. ''One of our friends is badly injured, if you are not too tired, cub, can you see if you could do something for him?''

Smiling again, she turned to face the rest of the rescued. ''Alright cubs, this is what we're going to do. My friends and I are going to escort you to the Warden's quarters, where you all are going to be fed, bathed, and protected until there's no danger for you. We can talk there so you could tell us what you know about those... kind fellows that I'm dying to meet already, to show them how much I like to see children used to such low tasks''

Using children for arranged fightings. There were few things worse that Calliara could think at the moment. Fenrir's barking distracted her, and she remembered she still had the pup in her bag. She let him out, and showed him to the others. ''Alright, this one says he'll protect you all as well. By the way, you can call me Calliara, or Wolf, as you please. Now, let's go''

"Pleased to meet you miss Wolf." Takara said with a slight bow of her head. "I will go help your injured friend at once."

Takara headed out the door with Khael acting as guard and headed for the fallen elf. She paused briefly as she surveyed the scene of carnage, but then continued on. These men had deserved this death, and much more besides; she would lose no sleep over their passing. Khael grabbed her arm to hold her back as they approached the injured man. He was wary of the armed man standing guard over the fallen one and didn't want Takara to get any closer.

She gently removed his hand and gave him a reassuring smile. Takara could tell from here the man was seriously injured and needed her help right away. Khael put his hand on his axe and stood ready to attack if needed but let her go.

"I... I'm a healer. Miss Wolf said you needed help." Slowly she walked over and knelt beside the wounded figure and set to work healing his wounds. Moments later the work was done. He would be sore for a few days, but otherwise he would be fine. The effort had exhausted her however, and she staggered as she stood up. Khael ran in to catch her before she fell, and walked her over to sit on a nearby step.

"Anyone have any water? She hasn't had anything to eat or drink since yesterday." Khael asked of the others as he settled Takara down.