Mesaraih looked over as a elven woman sat up, apparently taking in her surroundings for the first time. She muttered something about shemlen with disdain in her voice and seemed to go back to sleep. He had ran into some Dalish before and managed to not get himself killed. He had even traded with some once, when he found a set of ancient elven armor in a cave.<br/><br/>"Yeah, bloody shems, right? I hate them too," Mesaraih muttered, not sure whether he wanted her to hear him joking around. It didn't seem like she was in the mood for it. Though he had to agree. Humans were really rough around the edges, though he was sure most people wouldn't agree with that considering Dalish elves were nomadic hunters and city elves were second class citizens. The truth was, though, human personalities were the ones that were rough around the edges. As if they knew absolutely everything. Most were too cocky. Elves seemed to worry about things other than themselves on a more consistent level.<br/><br/>He couldn't really say he differed much from humans, however. He may have had an elven mother, but he had never met her. He looked just like any other human. And he was... well, he was usually pretty cocky as well.<br/><br/>Mesaraih wrapped a hand around a bar of the cage, squeezing it as if he could will it to break between his hands. The metal was rusty, but brute force wasn't going to get him out of it. He could try picking the lock, but he'd need a thin piece of metal, and the abandoned campground didn't have any pieces of metal around that he could even try fashioning into a pick.<br/><br/>Acting on a whim, he jumped into the small space he had above his head and twisted his body sideways, landing as powerful a kick as he could on the upper side of the cage. It moved dangerously to one side, but didn't quite tip over. Mesaraih fell with a hard thud onto the metal floor. He grunted in slight pain.<br/><br/>He tried again, only this time, before the cage began to reposition itself, he pulled on one of the top bars in the direction it had shifted towards.  It tilted more, and Mesaraih thrust his arms out as if throwing the cage over his head. It fell over on its side, rolling a few feet on the uneven ground and ramming itself into the cage of the elven woman who had woken up earlier.<br/><br/>Mesaraih bit his lip. "Sorry! Just trying to... you know, not die here..." he said. He pushed his cage the other way, trying to see if he could get it to roll in any direction he wanted. He could easily move back and forth along the same path he had fallen through, but turning it required him to hop with his cage, which he was barely able to do by mustering all the strength in his body.  He sat back down and panted a bit, wondering just how this was even supposed to help him. He hadn't thought that far ahead yet.<br/><br/>A low, harsh grunt punctuated the air. Mesaraih swirled around to look behind him. A lone genlock was pacing towards the cages. No, it couldn't be alone. It was probably scouting for a nearby band of darkspawn. Those things were never alone. He felt a bit of panic rise up in his throat.<br/><br/>"Alright... let's see if I can take this guy out somehow and not have him report back to his friends..." Mesaraih whispered to himself.<br/><br/>He had to crouch to be able to stand on the now tipped over cage, and he began to crawl forward on all fours, pushing the cage in the direction of the oncoming genlock. The hill turned donwards slightly, and this caused the cage to gain more momentum than Mesaraih had anticipated. It barreled towards the genlock, who tried to jump out of the way. It was too late, and Mesaraih no longer had any control of the cage. The hill turned steeper, and Mesaraih clutched at the darkspawn's leg, pulling it inside the cage as it rolled down, down, down...<br/><br/>A booming of cracked wood and bent metal resonated with a ripping of flesh as the genlock's leg was torn from its body. Mesaraih heard a ringing in his ears, and his vision clouded over somewhat. He let go of the darkspawn's leg in slight disgust and looked at the cage. Its bars had caved in where it impacted the tree. He kicked at the rusted metal, but it still wouldn't budge. Groaning, he looked over at the darkspawn's body. It had a mace still wrapped inside its hand, just out of reach. Mesaraih wrinkled his nose and looked down at the dismembered leg. Holding his breath, he took the boot off its foot, and, using his longer reach with it, hooked the mace onto it and pulled it towards him.<br/><br/>He stared at it for a while, before very suddenly bashing it against the warped metal. It groaned, but remained intact. He tried again, and still nothing. He continued to hammer away at the bent bars. It must have sounded like a forge, because he went on for what seemed to be hours.<br/><br/>He was beginning to feel discouraged when suddenly, the metal split. Mesaraih's eyes widened. He pushed the two broken bars further apart from each other, trying to make a hole big enough to crawl out of. It took a few more minutes of huffing and puffing, but he pulled them apart wide enough to just fit through. The metal scratched at his face and torso as he slid out of the cage, and once he did he fell onto the floor and kissed it, laughing hysterically. He stayed there for a few minutes before turning back to the dismembered darkspawn. He searched its body, finding a bit of coin, a dagger, and a broken pendant. He turned the pendant over. It was shaped roughly like a serpent broken off at the head. It would work wonderfully as a lockpick. He pondered the wisdom of breaking the other prisoners out, remembering his thoughts about selfishness from earlier. He sighed and walked back to the old campground.<br/><br/>First and foremost, he walked to the elven woman's cage. "Sorry again about earlier," he said. "Completely unintentional." He bent down at the lock of her cage and inserted the broken snake pendant into the lock, fidgeting with the mechanism. It was a bit too short to control it as he would have liked, but it seemed doable. They weren't the craftiest of locks. He expected most of the prisoners weren't supposed to remain alive long enough to come to any way of picking their own locks. He wouldn't have either, had luck not been on his side.<br/><br/>The pendant clicked into place on the mechanism, unlocking the door. Just as a stealthed genlock slashed at his torso with a dagger. Mesaraih gave a cry of pain and lurched to the side, feeling blood stemming from the cut. He was not in ideal fighting condition after having had so little to eat and bashing away at a cage for the greater part of the day.<br/><br/>"Shit..." he said, grabbing hold of the pendant as the genlock ran at him again. He ducked underneath its stab attempt, swinging the mace at its feet to bring it down. He then drew the dagger he had taken off the other darkspawn's body and drove it into the back of its exposed neck.<br/><br/>"I don't think it's safe here anymore..." Mesaraih said, steadying himself and clutching his injury. He began to hear more footsteps, and low growls and grunts. The other darkspawn couldn't be far away now.