A/N: What's up guys? This is a little project that I decided to start for some stress relief for me. This is something of a self insert and I will be working on this as I feel like it. For the first few (I can't give you a specific number) there won't be any of the main crew at all. But don't worry, our awesome characters are coming! I was just going to keep this posted on AO3 only but I decided to post it here too. Enjoy!

One of the first things I became aware of when I started to regain consciousness was that my scrubs were sticking to me uncomfortably in places and others felt dry and crusty. The next thing I became aware of was that I was clearly laying down on top of something very soft and I realized that it was fur! For a delirious moment, I thought that I was on top of an animal of some sort but as I dragged my heavy eyes open, I realized that it was just a skin that was laid over hard and cold earth.

I was not in my apartment that was for sure. Over my head was a tarp, a tent really with sunlight filtering between the stitched panels of fabric. Slowly, I blinked in confusion. I'd never even been camping so I was pretty sure that I would remember the sudden decision to go. Still gripped by lethargy, I looked down to see that I was covered with a thick, scratchy blanket. Normally I would throw it off because the sensation was extremely unpleasant against my skin but I could feel a bitter cold air seeping underneath it to nip at my flesh.

Feeling a deep chill, I tried to huddle further down into the blanket when I gave a strangled cry of pain. I became acutely aware of how it was hard for me to breathe and how the left side of my rib cage hurt terribly. But more than that there was an excruciating series of throbs and stabbing sensations across my abdomen. With a pained groan, I lifted my right hand to my stomach under the blankets. Beneath my clumsy fingers I could feel dried blood and a lot of it.

What was going on? Why was I so injured? Confused, I tried to recall my day. The day had started out normal enough: I had woken up on time with my alarm, ate some breakfast and drove to the hospital for my twelve hour shift. I remembered arriving and getting my assignment for the night. But beyond that…everything was annoyingly blank. Why could I not remember? Tentative hands rose to palpate around my scalp in search for an injury. I flinched when I found a swollen knot, scabbed over with dried blood on the left side of my head.

I also noticed that when I grimaced that there was a sharp pain on the right side of my face near my jaw. When I felt around there, I found another slash, dried over with blood. When my breathing grew particularly labored and ragged from moving my arms around so much, I let my arms flop back down onto the scratchy blanket limply. There was a horrible pressure in the left side of my chest. I furrowed my brows in thought as I tried to catch my breath. That must be a stab wound and I had a pneumothorax. Sluggishly I brought my hand up to my left side and carefully palpated the area, I was rewarded with pain and a popping and crackling sensation in my flesh. Crepitus…definitely a pneumothorax.

My arms grew cold quickly so I struggled back beneath the blanket to take refuge in the trapped heat. Everything seemed to hurt and ache so much, I was beginning to wonder if I had been hit by a car. My weary gaze turned to the flap of the tent that was slightly parted for me to see outside. I was clearly in a forest but it was not a terribly deep one. The trees were fairly spaced apart, leaving plenty of room to wander between their thick trunks. But the earth was damp, I could smell the wet soil and foliage as it wafted into the tent. And I could smell a burning fire, the crackling of flame reaching my ears at last.

A fire? Just where was I? Why was I out in the middle of nowhere? I lived in a city! I wanted to see where I was so I tried to sit up but quickly flopped back down with a pained cry. It felt like I had been run over, I was so sore. I gasped for breath and sat still once more, trying to even out my breathing. That was when the flap of the tent drew back, a woman dressed in strange robes emerged into the line of sight and entered the tent.

"Ah, you're awake. Try not to move, you are still very injured."

I blinked slowly at her. She was pretty but had a haggard look about her. The stranger's skin was pale, naturally so and her cheeks were dusted with freckles, her hair was ginger and pulled back into a small ponytail to keep it out of her face. Her eyes were a steely grey and were rimmed with dark circles that spoke of poor sleep for a long time. Her robes were long but somehow still practical for the weather. They flowed down to her ankles and hugged the rest of her frame tightly. This stranger had a hardened physique but still clung to some womanly curves to fill her out nicely.

"Why are you dressed like that?" I blurted out unceremoniously.

She raised a red brow at me, "I could ask you the same thing. I have never seen such clothing."

"They're…scrubs." I said slowly in disbelief, "You know…the uniform for hospitals?"

"A…a what now?"

Had this woman never heard of a hospital before? Just what backwater part of the world was I even in? And how the hell did I get here? How did I manage to go from my state's capital city to a country in the middle of nowhere where they had not heard of a hospital before?

"A hospital…You know the very large building where very sick people go?"

"You mean like a clinic? Although I've not heard of a large one."

"No…" I shifted under the blanket, "A clinic is too small. A clinic has only about 10 rooms or so to see patients. The hospital I work at has over 500 beds for patients and they can stay for extended periods of time."

The woman fell quiet. Had she really never heard of such a thing? I found it so difficult to believe that I was in an area so rural and third world that they had not even HEARD of a hospital. But the expression she was giving me was clear she had never heard of such a building that could house that many sick people.

"You truly aren't from here…" she muttered under her breath.

I almost didn't hear her but I did, "What do you mean? Where am I?"

"You are in Ferelden, about a week's journey north of the Hinterlands."

"Where…?"

"Of course that…wouldn't mean anything to you. Before I explain everything, we should start by introductions. I suspect you will be with me for a ways yet. I'm Ellandra."

"Evalyn. Although you can call me Eva or Evie if you really want."

"Nice to meet you, Evalyn. Now…This is going to be…rather hard to absorb. You came through a Rift."

"A what?" I blinked at her bemusedly.

"A Rift." Ellandra repeated patiently, "It's a tear that opens up between our world and the Fade."

"The…Fade? What on earth are you talking about?"

I was beginning to wonder if Ellandra had been using drugs or something. She wasn't making any sense at all. Rifts? Fade? Perhaps it was slang for something? That seemed more plausible. Ellandra shifted so she could kneel down next to me.

"It's…better if I show you. Let me fix up these wounds of yours first. I spent a lot of energy just trying to patch you together so you didn't bleed to death."

How was she going to fix me up enough that I could walk? I could barely even move while laying down so the idea of me being able to get up and walk today was laughable at best. And then an aura of pale green light sprang up around her hands as she drew near to me. My heart froze in my chest and my eyes snapped wide open, curling away from her in surprise and fear.

"Wh-what?! How?! What the hell is that?!"

Ellandra pulled her hands away from me with her own eyes wide in shock, "You've…never seen magic before?"

Magic? Magic? As in something beyond the typical tricks and smoke and mirrors? I couldn't believe what was happening before me. I didn't want to trust her. If she was able to do something like this, what else was she capable of doing? Was this even real? Her hands were GLOWING! I clenched my fists tightly and breathed slowly, forcing myself to take as deep of breaths as I could to settle myself down.

'If she wanted to kill me, she could have long before I woke up.' I told myself, 'And with the condition I am in…even if I fight, I won't be able to win. Might as well take a chance.'

I forced myself to still and tried to level out my breathing, "No…no I haven't just…just do it."

Ellandra studied me for a moment quietly, reading the uncomfortable expression on my face before she stepped forward and hovered her glowing hand over my torso. Warmth threaded into my flesh, muscle and bone and the pain started to ease away. I could feel my wounds knitting together until my injuries were healed over. The pain had nearly vanished and the only thing left behind was a deep soreness. But that was far preferable to what I had been feeling before.

Still not quite processing what just unfolded before me, I patted on my torso, searching for wounds that were no longer there. It was like nothing had ever happened. I was terrified, intrigued and thrilled all in the same breath. Magic. Actual magic, not the illusions that people did but the real thing. The idea was terrifying just from the thought of what it could do and do to me. But at the same time I found myself nearly salivating at the very idea of its potential. Could everyone learn magic here? But then "here" was already looking to be mind blowingly different.

'Ferelden…' I repeated in my head.

It led me down a spiral of thoughts of where I was, how I got here and how I for some odd reason could not seem to remember anything past me arriving for my shift at the hospital. I was prepared to think of it all as a prank until Ellandra used magic right in front of me. The witch reached out and took a hold of my arm and began to help me to my feet. Everything ached terribly and it was so damn cold out of the blanket. In a rush, I leaned down and snatched up the blanket and wrapped it around me before exiting the tent with my savior.

Everything almost seemed normal. The woods were serene and the trees had shifted their colors to the banner of autumn. Although there were some trees still littering the forest with patches of green. The air smelled of wet soil and the sky overhead was overcast. Everything seemed normal except for one thing: there was this large, glowing green spot in the sky almost like a gaping hole. And there was a pillar of that same pale green light stretching down to the earth well over the horizon. I didn't know what it was or how it got there but the sight of it filled my stomach with a sense of dread. In someways, it almost looked pretty but something about it seemed so inherently wrong that I couldn't bring myself to appreciate any kind of aesthetic that it offered.

"What…what is that?" I asked breathlessly, eyes wide.

"We call it the Breach." Ellandra answered me, sagely, "It's a great tear in our sky that leads into the Fade and demons pour from it every day. It is the source of all of the Rifts, smaller tears in the Veil."

Rifts? Fade? Breach? The veil? What was all of this? At first I was convinced that she was on drugs but she was entirely too coherent and this…was a lot of stuff to just come up with. Perhaps I was the one who had been drugged? It could explain why I couldn't remember my shift at the hospital. I had never done drugs before but this all seemed too coherent to be a trip or something.

'Well, if this is some weird drug trip, I guess the only thing I can do at this point is play along.'

"What…is the Fade exactly?"

Ellandra furrowed her brows, "Let's sit you back down in the tent, I think it's best I try to tell you everything."

Xxxxx

Ellandra was truly a blessing for she took me under her wing, despite the fact that she had seen me come through one of the "rifts". Things in this land were always turbulent when it came to magic, mages and demons but with the emergence of the Breach things had escalated to chaotic levels. Hearing her talk about the war made me realize just how fortunate I was that she found me and had the discerning eye to see the "shades" trying to attack me.

In this war, attacking first and asking questions later was a practice of survival.

"So what else can you do with your magic?" I inquired curiously, huddling closer to the fire for warmth.

"Many things. Magic within the Circle Towers has many branches and there are many other lost arts to time. Some of the main ones you see are Spirit, Inferno, Storm and Winter. Although there is also a Creation branch that has precious few practitioners within it's realm. The Creation branch produces the best healers and Thedas is in a dire need for more in these times."

I had yet to see the full atrocities that came with war, but learning that I was in such a torn country frightened me. At home, everything was peaceful. Well, peaceful was not the right word. There had been a lot of civil unrest and great social injustices in the States but I could still step out of my home without seeing people fighting to the death in the streets.

I used to dream of adventure but after being tossed, ass-first into Ferelden I just wanted to go home. Things may not have been perfect by any means but we did not have wars and battles happening right on our doorsteps. Or at least I didn't. I sorely wanted it back. And yet…there was a part of me that was torn here. Hearing their need for healers planted a thought…an idea into my head that could be considered hare-brained and reckless. I may have been a simple Respiratory Therapist but my medical knowledge would probably be far more than any expertise they had here. And if I could learn magic…it made me wonder just what I could do with my own knowledge.

"Can anyone be a mage? Or is it natural born?"

"Magic is born to children. Some consider it a blessing but many, a great many, would call it a curse."

"And…" I wrapped my blanket even tighter around me, "What do you consider it?"

Ellandra gave me a weary smile, "Both."

I fell silent at that answer. She had told me that many civilians were fearful of magic and mages but it just made me wonder even more what that life was like. It must be pretty bad if there many who consider their gift a curse. Despite hearing of this about magic, I couldn't help but feel crestfallen that it was something that one was only born with. I may have wanted to go home but the allure of being able cast spells was too strong for me to ignore entirely.

My mind drifted back to the rifts and a thought crossed me, "Ellandra?"

"Yes?"

"Why…why DID you save me? What if you had been wrong? What if I was a demon? Or what if I was just not a nice person? Why would you put yourself at risk for a stranger and one in my…unique circumstances?"

"No spirit can be pulled through that Rift and not be shifted into a demon. I've seen it far too many times. Plus, you were bleeding and demons don't bleed." The mage folded her arms across her chest, her eyes growing distant, "And I have seen far too many innocents killed in this war. I didn't know who or what you were specifically but I felt that I could not stand by and let you die. I had to see for myself and so far I feel like I made the right choice."

I gave her a grateful smile, "Well thank you. I was very fortunate that you were the one who found me."

She gave me a dry smirk, "Yes, you were."

Xxxxx

The next day Ellandra fixed up the rest of my wounds and we set to walking, carrying our things. This brought up a few challenges for me. One being that I was terribly out of shape and we had to stop frequently but my mage savior was unerringly patient with me. The next was that while my wounds were healed, I still had the unresolved pneumothorax, which made it even HARDER to breathe and keep up. The other challenge was that because of me being out of shape, my scrubs were the only thing I could wear since I was too big for any of Ellandra's spare robes. So that meant I was forced to wrap that blanket around my arms and torso in a very awkward and strange way. I wasn't morbidly obese but I was by no means a skinny Minnie. The last challenge was that I realized very quickly that I had no survival skills at all. I did not know how to make a fire, I did not know how to forage for food, and my sense of direction has always been utter shit. I didn't even know how to pitch a tent.

I didn't know how to hunt either and I found myself sorely wishing I had gone with my father more since he used to hunt for sport. Ellandra was using her own supplies and rations to help me and I had no way to even repay her. No resources and no useful skills really. And I couldn't even keep up with her to make up for it. Three days we trudged through the wilderness with me collapsing to sleep inside the tent whenever we stopped to make camp.

"I'm so sorry…!" I huffed, trying to catch my breath, "I'm just not used to this!"

"Clearly." She said in humor but not unkindly, "Do people not travel where you are from?"

"We do…we just have…devices, large devices that carries us over long distances. This journey we are making now could be made within a few hours, probably."

"Truly?" her eyes sparked in curiousity, "When we set up camp tonight you will have to tell me about your world!"

I laughed weakly, finally starting to catch my breath, "If I don't pass out straight away again!"

Ellandra laughed in good humor and kept walking. It was so cold out but it was at least warmer than the early mornings. It had taken those first three days to get used to being up in the sunlight since I had just come from a night shift job. Normally I operated better at night even when I was on a daytime schedule but I was thankful for every drop of warmth I was able to absorb from the sun.

"Hey, where are we going anyway?" I called up to her, increasing my pace to try and keep up.

"To Redcliffe. It's in the Hinterlands but I suspect we have several more days yet before we reach it."

I gave an exhausted, quiet groan at the thought.

"What's in Redcliffe? Family?"

"A friend…"

The tone she spoke with sounded like there was more than friendship involved but I decided not to push it. It was not my business and she would tell me if she wanted to.

"And after we meet up with your friend, then what?"

Ellandra paused and gave me a pensive glance over her shoulder, "We set out. Get away from all this. With mages and templars both drunk on their new freedom, everyone is getting torn apart and caught in the middle. Neither side will see reason so we must look out for ourselves and keep out of everything."

A frown quirked across my lips. Doing nothing in hard times was something that never sat well with me and hearing that proposal made me uncomfortable. But I kept my mouth shut. I knew nothing about this world, knew even less about how to take care of myself in these conditions and I wasn't about to make the kind woman who had saved me angry. She knew more about all of this than I did so I decided it was better to trust her judgement.

By the time we set up camp that evening I was damn near tears. I was tired, viciously sore from both my old wounds and the physical work we were going through to trek the country side. I was hungry and having to eat way less than I was used to even living a relatively low activity lifestyle. Top that off with the bitter cold that I was not used to, in a foreign land I knew nothing about and a heavy feeling of guilt for being a drain on Ellandra's resources and that left me feeling more than a little overwhelmed. I plopped down by the fire, swallowing the lump in my throat and tried to reign in my distress. I was already proving my inability to keep up in this world, I didn't want to compound that with me being emotionally incapable as well.

"I'm sorry." I told her in a flat tone, the only way I could speak without having a tremor in my voice.

"You have told me this numerous times. Do not worry so much about it."

But I was worrying about it. One of the biggest rules in my household was: don't be a burden or an inconvenience. And this arrangement left me being exactly that in my perspective. I clenched my jaw and tried to reign in my emotions but was struggling beneath it all. Ellandra seemed to sense my distress and instead of asking me about what was wrong she shifted the topic entirely.

"Tell me about your world." She told me, her eyes twinkling in the light of the fire.

I could see her curiosity there but there was also a knowing look within her gaze. Maybe she was really good at reading people or maybe I was just garbage at hiding my emotions in this state of mind. It could have been a bit of both. But her words left me thinking of home, summoning up a stab of homesickness within me. But telling the story of what my world was like seemed to be as close as I could get to going home at this point.

"You know…Everything is so vastly different I'm not even sure where to start…" I laughed sheepishly.

"Tell me about those…things you told me about today. The ones that can help you go places?"

I spent the evening entertaining Ellandra with details of cars, what they could do and how they looked. When the fire had grown faint, I dipped a twig into the ashes and attempted to sketch a picture of one on a fallen leaf. She was nothing short of spellbound with all I had to tell her. It was interesting to see someone so enraptured by something so common to me. But I knew that there were going to be many things of her own world that would hold my attention just as much.

"Truly, your world sounds magnificent."

Not days ago I would have disagreed with her but now to be telling stories of it made me inclined to agree. But it was simply the difficult situation that I had been thrust into that made my home seem so wonderful.

"Well, we are not without our own problems, don't get me wrong. We have a lot of advanced technology in comparison to here and they have done great things but they also can be misused."

"It is the same with magic, unfortunately." Ellandra nodded wisely.

"So tell me about this friend of yours we are going to meet up with."

I noticed the warm smile that crossed her lips at the mention, "Matrin. He is a templar that I have been close to for some time."

"A templar? Aren't those…the mage hunters you've told me about?"

"Simply put, yes. Those are the templars."

"But…aren't mages and templars enemies?"

Ellandra shook her head, "It is not so black and white. At a large, there is a rift between the groups and both sides have done foul things to warrant the suspicion of the other. But Matrin…he is the embodiment of what a templar SHOULD be. He is a good man."

"Why is he not with you?" I asked curiously.

"He had a task to complete on his own and he insisted that I go ahead without him."

The question burned within me what he planned to do but Ellandra had pointedly avoided saying as much so I wasn't going to push. Some people may withhold information to see who cares enough to push forward but I was always a type that respected information that was guarded. We all have things that we don't wish to share with others and that is information that must be earned with trust. A sudden wave of exhaustion crashed over me and I could not stifle my yawn.

"Come. It's been a long day, let's get some rest." Ellandra extinguished the fire with the wave of her hand and we both crawled into the tent.

Darkness pressed in on all sides of me. This world was so different and I felt a lifetime away from home. I tried to tell myself how I could have died but that only made my discomfort worse. I bit my lip as I felt the tears roll from my eyes in the darkness of that tent, the warmth of Ellandra behind me. What was going to happen to me? Could I even survive here? Would Ellandra keep me around? Would she grow tired of my inability to keep up? Silent tears rolled down my face as I feared and fretted over what could come.

"Evelyn?"

I felt myself freeze, fearful that she had heard me crying, "Yes?"

My voice came out as a weak croak and there was no way she didn't know I had been silently weeping.

"I will protect you. I promise."

I went to sleep that night a little bit more relaxed but I still had the tiny nagging thought in my mind that eventually…Ellandra would get tired of pulling my weight.

Xxxx

When I woke the next morning, I felt better emotionally but physically I felt a horrendous aching in my lower belly. There were many things that I had failed to consider coming to this world. This time it was the water. All of my life I had access to clean and filtered water but that did not exist here. While the water that we had gathered this time around had been clear, that still didn't change the fact that bacteria can grow within it. Our traveling was forced to slow even further as I was wracked with intense waves of diarrhea. For the entire day we did not move camp because I was in no shape to travel. Fortunately it ended quickly and by noon the next day but there was still a dull ache that lingered for another day.

As we grew closer to this Redcliffe that she spoke of, the more afraid I became. We would be meeting the templar Matrin there and I was worried about what would happen. If we all traveled together, there would be no way to hide from him that I was not from this world and I felt certain that Ellandra would tell him. Would he think me a demon? Would he try to kill me? Urge her to leave me behind? Between the man she clearly holds affections for and a strange woman who fell out of a rift not even a week ago, Ellandra was sure to side with Matrin if it came down to it.

"I still don't understand." I said to her as I helped set up camp, "Why do you help me? You are risking yourself to protect and help me. I'm a stranger there has to be some reason."

"I will admit there is a bit of something personal." She informed me, stoking the fire before her, "You remind me of a dear friend I had in the Circle. In fact…when you first fell out of the Rift I thought for one moment you were her." Ellandra came to help me finish pitching the tent, a sad and distant look in her eyes, "But I knew that was impossible. I watched her die after a fresh wave of chaos erupted from the destruction of the Conlave. Matrin and I only barely escaped."

"Shit…I'm…I'm so sorry. That's horrible."

"There's nothing to be done now. It's happened and nothing can take it back. Perhaps it's selfish but you remind me of her in a few ways, even past your dark hair."

I shook my head, "No, it's ok. Besides, if it weren't for you…I'd be dead. So thank you."

We sat down on the ground in front of the crackling fire and shared a ration of cured meat, although I couldn't tell what kind it was. It was salty and hard to chew but it took the edge off the hunger and taste meant little in the wake of this environment. I decided that I should broach the topic of Matrin, if I didn't I would remain anxious over it for a long time.

"Ellandra…may I speak to you about…Matrin?"

"Of course, what's on your mind?"

"Will…Matrin be ok with me? I mean with the fact that I came through a Rift? With my incredible lack of knowledge there's no way that we'd be able to hide that there's something off about me. What if he thinks I'm a demon?"

"Matrin is a good sort and he will listen to reason. He'll listen to me. I told you I would look out for you and I will, Evelyn."

I took a steady breath, "Ok. Thank you."

A shudder rolled through me and I wrapped myself tighter in the blanket and scooted a little closer to the fire. It was so damned cold here and Ellandra told me that it was only autumn. I dreaded what their winter would look like. I had always been more of a cold weather person but this was colder than what I was used to getting and to not have a proper jacket through it all… I wanted to cocoon in a bunch of blankets and never move.

"Would you tell me more about your world?"

I smiled at her question, "Of course. Hmmm, let me think of something to tell you. Oh! I know!"

I produced my cell phone from my pocket. During one of the mornings I had risen from sleep I had attempted to see if I could call anyone. Text. Something. But there was no way for me to contact anyone so while there was still battery life on my phone there was very little I could actually use. I passed my cell phone to Ellandra so she could study it. Curiosity burst across her face, as vivid as a solar flare and she took the phone from me. A smile quirked on my lips when she jumped in surprise as the time came to life in digital numbers on my phone's dark screen.

"Wh…what is it? Is it alive? I feel energy in it!"

I raised a brow in surprise, "The energy? Really? Well in my world we could…harness lightning. So I guess it would make sense that you can feel something, being a mage and all. But it's not alive. That's what we call a cell phone. It's a device that we use to…contact people."

"But I don't understand…how?"

"I couldn't really give you the details because I don't fully understand how it works but…" I reached over and pushed the power button on the side and swiped in the pattern to unlock my phone, "You can tap this little square here and put in a series of numbers of the person you want to reach. You save them in this phone so you can recall it at anytime without having to memorize very person you interact with. When you contact the other person through a call, you can actually hear their voice."

Ellandra was spellbound and I spent a good bit of time showing her the workings of a cell phone, despite the fact that I couldn't call or message anyone here. But I accessed my old text messages and showed her how it worked in a nutshell. My mage savior was like a starving man at a feast: overwhelmed by all of the sheer options and full to bursting but still ravenous for a taste of more. As we talked into the night, I tried to push down the feelings of homesickness and the longing for my friends and the warm comfort of my cat. I tried even harder to ignore the ominous pulsing from the Breach as it crept gradually along the edges of the sky.

And for some reason, the haze of acid green that roiled off of that hole elicted this deep rooted feeling of fear within me but also something of a twinge of relief. I wasn't sure what that meant but I was sure that it wasn't anything good.