Fugitives //Baldur's Gate 3//

1

"Get up!" His voice was demanding, yet full of worry. She could feel her body being shaken as she fought to open her eyes. She could hear yelling in the distance. Yelling and... fighting? What had happened? How did she get here? When Yasmine finally found the strength to open her eyes she found chaos. The memories of what had happened began flooding back to her. They had been traveling through a burnt down village when they were ambushed by goblins. Yasmine had taken a blow to the head, knocking her unconscious.

"Leave her! She's dead!" A woman responded. Yasmine recognized Lae'zel's voice calling out. Having not seen her open her eyes. The man kneeling over Yasmine snapped his head towards Lae'zel and sneered. He grabbed Yasmine's hand, helping her to her feet.

"Damn her." He responded. "You won't die on me. Where's your crossbow?" He asked. Yasmine searched around, picking her weapon up. "Good girl." He smiled.

"Astarion!" The man turned his head at the sound of his name being cried out. He yanked the crossbow from Yasmine's hands, aiming it towards a man who had his friend, Shadowheart, pinned down. The arrow pierced the man's heart, making him fall over dead. Astarion handed the crossbow back to Yasmine.

"Stay by my side. You're not well." Astarion said to Yasmine, who nodded in response. He turned to a burning building, assessing their situation. "We'll cut through there." He pointed at the building. "Find ourselves a higher vantage point." Yasmine's ears were ringing, her head spinning. Astarion's words sounded as if they were far off. Yet she nodded, beginning to follow her friend through the burning building. Yasmine coughed as she fought to keep from inhaling the smoke. Astarion seemed to not be having much issue with the smoke as he focused on the path ahead. As they approached the stairs, the building began to shake. Debris fell from the ceiling. Astarion grabbed Yasmine and pushed her out of the way of falling debris. They ran as the house crumbled before them. With one final shove Yasmine was back outside, coughing and hacking. Her vision went dark once more.

*****

Something cold was pressed against her lips. A container of water. Yasmine opened her mouth, allowing the water to flow, clearing her dry throat. She opened her eyes to find Astarion kneeling before her with the container in his hands. He sighed in relief, dropping his head. Yasmine searched around, noticing the smoldering buildings. Her eyes scanned the village, listening for the chatter of her fellow companions. Yet all she heard was the crackling of fire.

"Where..." she began, unable to fully finish her sentence. Astarion shook his head, furrowing his eyebrows in frustration. He began rummaging through his bag, half laughing to himself.

"Split up. Too many goblins. Lae'zel decided she was in charge and told everyone to run. You obviously couldn't." He answered.

"You stayed?" Yasmine asked.

"Obviously." Astarion laughed. "You were far too hurt." He pursed his lips, standing and pacing back and forth. Yasmine pushed herself up onto her elbows. He acted as if he wanted to say something. Yasmine could see the thought forming, the words attempting to escape his mouth, yet he didn't speak. He simply paced, staring up at the night sky.

Yasmine had many questions that she wanted to ask him. How exactly did he keep the both of them safe? Is he angry with the rest for splitting up with them? Are they on their own now? She couldn't bring herself to ask any of these questions despite them being right on the tip of her tongue. Instead she sat up and took another drink of water. Was she surprised? Not really. Tensions had been high in the group. She could see Lae'zel doing it, but Shadowheart? Gale? No they wouldn't just leave them behind. Not unless they thought the two of them were dead.

"No, that's not right. They wouldn't have left us. Not like this." She attempted to reason. Mostly with herself. She could feel the anger rising in her chest. Bubbling like boiling water. But it was unfortunately true. Her companions were nowhere to be seen. "Why?" She asked defeatedly to which Astarion sighed.