A Life's Worth

Killing the Dead

"The night is upon us, brethren! Are you prepared to face the horrors of the dark? We will get through this and will be the heroes of our village!" Ban Teagan continued rallying up the militia while Eloriel climbed a tree, far from the pep talk that would only make her feel hopeless.

"I feel as if they are assuring my death," someone sighs beside her. Eloriel didn't need to look to know who it was.

"Trevelyan, what a dreadful surprise. I'm sad you could make it," Eloriel retorted, sticking her tongue out.

"How dear of you," she said, but then looked away. Eloriel knew something had happened, her blotched face was one of the many clues.

"We both know I can't read minds," Eloriel huffed. "So tell me already."

"Pardon me?" Emilee inquired, looking at her with confusion.

"You know what I'm talking about, Lady Yellow."

"Since when? Wow. You made it up just now because of my eyes."

"Yeah, so? Tell me what's wrong already!" Eloriel demanded.

"The reagent, Loghain, he has made me a traitor and ordered I be dead," Emilee sighed. She leaned against the base of the tree and put her legs up. Eloriel heard sobbing from the woman as soon as her head fell on her knees, which were held tight by her small arms. "And I can see my head on the alter!" She sobbed into her dress. "I saw it! He knows!"

"Miss Trevelyan..." Eloriel trailed off, thinking of what to say next. Then, without thinking it, a brilliant idea went off in her mind.

"I do not look ugly when I cry!" the woman snapped, glaring at the elf.

"Good," Eloriel said with a smile. "Now I have your full attention."

"You..." Emilee began to mutter.

"Trevelyan, I officially extend an invitation to-"

"I accept!" the woman squealed, crushing Eloriel's rib cage with a sudden amount of strength. "Oh how wonderful! How joyous! I swear, Eloriel, you won't regret this!" She then jumped off the branch of the tree and ran out of sight.

"That was-" Eloriel started.

"Eloriel!" Morrigan called out from below. "'Tis time to eradicate the dead which walks among us, so that the mutt will shut up."

The Grey Warden rolled her eyes as she dropped from the tree, landing perfectly as a cat would have.

"Very well!" Eloriel agreed, walking over to her group of misfits. "Let's kill us some already dead shems, shall we?"

"If it will help us in our task," Sten unwillingly agreed, taking out his plain iron sword, so large Eloriel could barely reach over it.

The Ban's war cry startled Eloriel who was soon trampled down by the onslaught of Redcliffe knights and militia. By the time she got herself up, the group was already far ahead of her. She could see Morrigan turn into a large spider, scaring the knights half to death and Sten bashing the dead men's heads together, and in one swift move, Leliana had cut off the heads of several corpses.

Eloriel searched all over for her bow she had lost in the crowd of armored feet and clanking legs. Soon after, the Grey Warden found it at the base of a tree, broken and snapped all over that if it were the dead shem's leg Sten was crushing under his metal boot.

Picking the bow up, she cursed to herself in an attempt to act calm and cool as tears streamed down her ivory face.

"Tamlen," she whispered, her body shaking. "I am sorry, so very, very sorry. How many times? How many times will I mess up?" She laid the bow back down, resting it on the side of the tree. "Forgive me for breaking your bow."

Eloriel turned away, roughly wiping away her tears and looked up into the starry sky that right now represented the number of Eloriel's shortcomings.

She forced herself to turn away from the captivating night sky and unto the rotting land even more repulsing with the dead bodies placed at random. Taking two jagged daggers out of their leather holders on her skirt, she rushed to into the red land, ignoring the smell of blood and decomposing flesh.

I guess I have nothing to lose.

Eloriel ran faster than the wind, loping the head of anyone that was decomposing and not wailing like little babies. she hoped that the ban was putting the barrel of oil to good use and that the innkeeper was actually trying to fight as well as the old grumpy dwarf was. She got her dagger caught in the thick skull of a dead shem while another approached her. She held her other hand tight and as the dead man was in range, she swung her arm around and cut his head clean off and swung back to the first man killing him instantly.

"Well isn't this fun?" Eloriel called out with a giggle. "They just keep coming and coming!"

"Fun?" Alistair repeated with a groan. "This is so booooooring!"

"I seem to agree with the Grey Warden this time," Sten said with a grunt. Tamlasan barked excitedly after he ripped out a grey and mushy heart. Morrigan didn't say anything. She couldn't; she was a spider.

"Here comes the spiderwoman," Eloriel spoke as if she was an announcer as she cut down the dead. "Trying to defeat the green troll. Who will kill more? Will the green troll ever get his revenge? Will he reveal his identity? And what about the spiderwoman's?"

"What on earth are you talking about?" Alistair called over the sounds of the groans and grunts of the supposed dead.

"I don't know!" she replied. "It must be the inside voices escaping!" she giggled so hard, she cried.

"Yeah, because that's not creepy," Alsitair said, laughing aloud with her.

The somehow made their way to each other killing along the way. Both smiling and cracking awful jokes, the two fought side by side until the morning came to Redcliffe village.