Coan Bryland ; the ferelden noble (coan) wrote in thedas,
By the time the fighting had picked up pace, the knights were assembled, and when he looked to Talfryn, the captain signaled him to join them. Coan didn't have much real battle experience - he was practiced enough to take on his knights in fierce sparring matches, but that was a completely different experience than fighting for your life. He learned that the hard way already, and was hoping this time he'd be more prepared and certain of himself with swords swinging at him. He was more worried about it this time since he wasn't wearing his proper armor - but with so many of them going to investigate, he hoped the extra armor wouldn't be necessary.
The first and last time he'd seen any kind of display of preternatural abilities was back at the Circle tower, so when he saw the flashes of light, he stared understandably - though inappropriately - in awe. When he finally realized what was going on, he didn't know how he felt about it. The templars had a most unfair advantage, and were being more aggressive than possibly necessary. On the other hand, they didn't know what the exact situation was, and one of the elves was clearly a mage, so they were technically within their rights. The fact that they were elves made the situation even more complicated. While Coan had no real animosity toward elves in general, he still regarded them as second class citizens, but that didn't mean they were to be treated unfairly. As the fight got worse, he saw Alistair jump to action from the corner of his eye.
Rushing down the slope, Alistair bashed the face of his shield into the templar who was ready to attack the mage. While it was obvious that he intended to disarm and disorient the man, the templars reacted as if he meant to harm him. Their location given away, the men in front of him rushed down to defend the Warden-Commander and find out what was going on. As he followed behind, he was hit from the side with a heavy shield.
Almost losing his balance, Coan's hand found a near by tree to orient himself just quick enough to dodge a second blow. There was fighting swirling all around him - Alistair was mixed up with the templar in front of the mage, the other elf had another. Zekry was hardly attacking, matching the templar's strikes with blocks, while Talfryn backed one of them into a tree, pinning him with both his weight and his shield. All this while Coan, with a pair of blades, did his best to defend himself from the heavy strikes falling in front of him. Noa, who had been told to stay put by the horses when her master had dismounted, was standing at the top of the slope, and when she saw him being backed into a corner, came wildly running toward the templar, her teeth sinking into the richness of his robe.
The confusing battle continued - if someone had just happened upon them, it would have been hard to tell who had attacked who in the first place, or why. Obviously the group of templars had no idea who these people were or why they would interrupt their job, so they were technically defending themselves - and while they seemed to be using extreme methods to collect the mage, Coan still wasn't sure why Alistair had interrupted. Then he called for everyone to stop. "That's ENOUGH!"
Catching the sword of the templar in front of him between his own blades, they both froze at the boom of the Warden-Commander's voice. When the templar Alistair had engaged finally saw the emblazoned symbol on his shield, he stepped back in awe, removing his helmet to reveal both his youth, and his wide, wondering eyes. "A Grey Warden." He breathed out in a whisper, looking around at the others who had been fighting with him. "Please. I apologize. I had no idea..."