The next few days after I awoke from my experience with The Joining were... Well, silent and lonesome. Sullivan had come by to give me the amulet with the drop of blood me and the others had drunk. The amulet was still around my neck, and I wasn't going to get rid of it anytime soon. I felt it would be dishonorable to just discard it after what had happened.

The Greenskin Brothers and Sullivan had tried to cheer me up multiple times, but I just wanted to focus on my training. I had advanced enough now that my trainer in the ways of the Arcane Warrior, Harold, had seen fit to give me my second weapon, one that symbolized my advancement in the ways of the Arcane Warrior. It was just a simple longsword made out of steel with a Silverite butterfly hilt. He said it would help me channel my magical energies just as well as my staff should it be taken from me, and I was more than happy to take it.

Still, even as I trained I felt lonely and empty, and the nightmares and visions I'd been having nearly every night didn't help. I knew that they could be blocked out with practice, but it was a slow going process. My mind drifted to Quake and Blitz as I practiced my Stonefist spell.

Blitz... She may have been rude and brash, but she didn't deserve to die because of it. And Quake certainly didn't either. Especially not so horribly. I sighed deeply. I know I couldn't really have done anything about it, and I knew there was a huge possibility that neither of them would survive, much less myself. But still... I sighed again.

I stopped my next spell, deciding I might as well head to bed early. I didn't have any chores or anything to do today, and practicing like this was entirely up to me. So, knowing that, I walked towards my tent, walked inside, found my bedroll, and climbed in.

Maybe I'll have a more restful sleep for once and I'll feel better.

I awoke with a start to the sounds of screaming, fire, and fighting. i jumped up from my bed, grabbed my weapons, quickly put on my armored robes, and walked out to a terrifying sight. The Darkspawn were in the camp. They had lit many of the tents on fire, Warden's were all around fighting a losing battle, either managing to fend them off just barely, or getting eaten, killed, or captured in the case of the females. All around me was just pure chaos, people and ponies were getting slaughtered by the dozens. I saw a group of genlocks heading my way, and quickly shot a Stonefist at them, stalling them. I fired several more, but quickly ran out of mana. More took their fallen brethren's places. Too many to fight.

I remembered my training. I had to find who I could, grab them, and get out of here. With that in mind, I mustered enough mana to shoot a final Stonefist at my pursuers to keep them back, and then ran like my life depended on it. I looked for someone, anyone who could stand and fight, or that I could at least save. I saw a number of Wardens in a section of the camp helping the workers, people who were only here to make or provide things like arms and armor or food, escape. I ran over.

"Hey! I'm here to help, what's the situation?" I called to one of them. She turned to me, visage hidden by her steel helm.

"Darkspawn came out of nowhere, started killing everyone. They're everywhere. If you wanna help, then help us get these civilians out of here! There's a tunnel leading to the surface a good five hundred meters to the east side of the camp, direct them there!" she ordered. I nodded.

"Come on people, this way!" I said, waving the civilians over. They were panicking, and beyond scared, and I couldn't blame them, but that just made it all the harder to direct them. Either way, I managed to lead them out towards the eastern tunnels, fighting off Darkspawn when I could. A few Hurlocks were set up on the few watchtowers we set up, downing a number of Wardens and civilians. I pulverized their heads with precision shots of my Stonefist spell.

An Ogre burst through a number of tents, and I was about to try fighting it, only for a number of other Wardens to charge it. I wanted to go and help, but I knew my duty right now was to get these people to safety.

I ran with the civilians, trying to direct them, and in time we reached the tunnels. But I was growing worried. I hadn't seen hide nor hair of Warden-Commander Shining Armor, or Sullivan, or the Greenskin Brothers, or even my trainer, Harold. I wanted to stay and wait to see if they would show up, but I couldn't. I had to get these guys to safety. I looked around quickly. My fears were confirmed. There were no other Wardens helping to organize these civilians.

I was the only one.

I grit my teeth, but once more remembered my training. I had to be strong, if not for myself, then for these people. There would be time to worry later. With that in mind, I helped direct the civilians through the tunnels as best I could.

Thankfully, it didn't diverge or split off at all, so I didn't get turned around. It was nearly a straight shot to the surface. I ran with the civilians for what felt like hours, but we couldn't stop. We had to get as far away from the Darkspawn as possible.

They were all screaming, running for their lives. And I was the only sense of order they had left right now. I ground my teeth together as I ran ahead of them, leading them out.

After another eternity of running and ragged breathing, we finally saw light at the end of the tunnel as the ground sloped upwards. We kept running, not stopping for anything.

More time passed, and I could feel a cold, chilling wind blowing. "We're almost there! Keep going!" I told them all, trying my best to be heard over their frightened chatter.

Finally, we reached the end, and came to a veritable tundra. I looked around, people collapsing or on their knees in the cold ice and snow. I watched as people filed out of the tunnel, and had to suppress my own tears when I saw too many trying to find their friends or family in the crowd.

I wiped at my face with my arms swiftly, getting rid of what tears had escaped. I clenched my fists. I had to be strong. I tried to remember what to do in a situation like this.

"Alright people, this is no time to stand around! We need to take stock of what we have, and ration out the essentials!" I shouted over the din of the frightened and despair ridden chatter. Slowly, they all turned to me.

"What about the others?! What about the people we lost?!" a rugged man shouted back.

"We can't sit here waiting for the Darkspawn to get us, and we can't go back! Doing either of those just means death or worse!" I replied, trying to sound strong. It was hard, and I could feel myself shaking. Whether it was from the cold or not I couldn't tell. The survivors mumbled and muttered amongst themselves. "Look, you can either follow me and live, or go back and die!" I continued. The murmurs rose in volume. It wasn't the best speech, and I seriously doubted that many people would actually follow me, but I also knew I needed to keep as many of them safe as I could, and that meant they needed to stay with me, unless they wanted to die out here in the cold. Slowly, a number of them started to stand back up, the number growing.

"Alright... We'll follow you, Warden!" a scraggly, skinny elf cried. More and more people voiced their own agreements.

"We walk with you, Warden!"

"We trust in you!"

"Don't let us down!"

These words filled me with renewed hope. I mustered enough courage and confidence to speak again. "Good! Now, take stock of what we have, and once we've done that, we ration it, and keep moving! We need to find shelter!"

And so they went about doing so. A number of hours passed, two or three, I couldn't really tell once the snow started to fall. I was getting worried we'd be found by the Darkspawn, but eventually, a tan dwarf with a blonde beard approached me.

"We've got no food, or wood, but a good few folk have cloth we can make into makeshift blankets, and others have some weapons and tools for various things," he relayed. I nodded slowly. We definitely needed a shelter. Maybe there'd be a village nearby that could spare some food, but until then, we needed to get going.

"Right. Tell everyone to pack what they can up, we're heading out again," I told him. He frowned, but slowly nodded.

"Got it," he said, turning around and doing just that. I looked to the distance ahead of us.

This was going to be a long, long trek.

Author's Note

A bit quick for my tastes, but after so many rewrites, most of which went well into eight thousand words, which was too slow for my tastes, I decided to just leave it short. I'm hoping it still portrays the panic and fear I was trying to make. Regardless, thank you all for reading.

-Timeless Celestial