Dragon Age Fanfic pt 2
“Should I have asked her to write a note?” The Grey Warden snarked.
Elissa felt herself smiling for the first time in days. A tiny snort escaped her before she could school her features into an unflappable mask once more. This had not helped the mage's mood one little bit. He clearly did not enjoy being made a mockery of. Especially not in front of a small audience. This must be Duncan's protege Alistair. From what little she and Duncan had spoken of he had talked of him often. Especially of his mildly acerbic wit.
“Tell her I will not be harassed in this manner.” The mage said a tad haughtily.
“Yes I was harassing you by delivering a message.” Alistair was quick to quip back.
Elissa again found her self shaking with effort not to laugh. Something about the way this man seemed to deal with the circumstances around him was refreshing in a way. While everyone else had put on their somber faces and holed themselves up in their tents this man seemed to at least be able to find a bit of humor. Elissa herself had nearly forgotten that there was any humor left to be had in the world.
In any case the mage really didn't like that response. “Your glibness does you no credit.”
“Here I thought we were getting along so well. I was going to name one of my children after you..the grumpy one.”
With that Elissa could no longer hold back the laughter she had been trying so hard to suppress. The mage glared at her for a moment before turning back to Alistair. “Enough! I will speak to the woman if I must!”
Alistair then turned his attention towards his impromptu audience and addressed Elissa personally. “You know one good thing about the Blight is how it brings people together.”
There was a wry sort of smile on his face, and Elissa couldn't help but return it in kind. “I know exactly what you mean.”
“It's like a party we could all stand in a circle and hold hands. That would give the darkspawn something to think about.”
Then as it dawned on him that he did not know Elissa's name he became more serious. “We haven't met have we? I don't suppose you happen to be another mage?”
“We haven't met. You must be Alistair.”
“And that makes you Duncan's new recruit I suppose? Glad to meet you. As the junior member of the order I'll be accompanying you when you prepare for the Joining.”
“Pleased to meet you. My name is Elissa.”
“Right...that was the name,” Alistair said, almost embarrassed that he had forgotten it so quickly, “You know...it just occurred to me that there have never been many women in the Grey Wardens. I wonder why that is?”
Elissa couldn't help but smirk and raise one eyebrow. “You want more women in the Wardens do you?”
“Would that be so terrible? Not that I'm some drooling lecher or anything. Please stop looking at me like that.”
He quickly changed the subject yet again to something he was more comfortable with. “So I'm curious. Have you ever actually encountered the darkspawn before?”
“No I haven't.” Elissa said hoping that this would not make him think less of her somehow.
“When I fought my first one, I wasn't prepared for how monstrous it was. I can't say I'm looking forward to encountering another. Anyhow whenever you're ready let's get back to Duncan. I imagine he's eager to get things started.”
In spite of her desire to get the Joining over with as quickly as possible she was curious to see what the argument she had walked in on was all about. She might not know much about mage's but as a whole there weren't a lot of stories about them being so openly contemptuous or hostile. Especially not to a Grey Warden.
“What was that argument about?”
“With the mage? The Circle is here at the King's request. And the Chantry doesn't like that one bit. They just love letting mage's know how unwelcome they are. Which puts me in a bit of an awkward position. I was once a templar.”
“Hmm I see your point that would be rather awkward.”
“I'm sure the revered mother meant it as an insult-sending me as her messenger-and the mage picked right up on that. I never would have agreed to deliver it, but Duncan says we're all to cooperate and get along.” his lips curved into the wry smirk again, “Apparently they didn't get the same speech.”
Elissa, satisfied with her answer and eager to get things started smiled and said. “I look forward to traveling with you.”
***
Alistair was quite surprised by that comment. Most of the time people seemed annoyed by his presence. Something about his sense of humor and general glib answer for everything just seemed to put them off. Elissa seemed like the sort who appreciated a good joke or two though. For that he was grateful it would be good to have a few more on the Wardens that he could joke with. That is if she was one of the lucky ones to survive.
“You do? Well that's a switch.” He said in response to her previous statement, “If you have any questions ask them, otherwise lead on!”
Elissa said nothing and simply turned around to go back to the main camp. She seemed like the type of person who was very self possessed, especially if the rumors about her were true. It was not every day that you could find someone who was willing to joke around after their entire family had been massacred. That and she wasn't half bad to look at. With her very small and lithe frame and long red hair that she seemed to prefer stay pulled back.
He had to stop himself from listing off any more attributes. This was not why he was here, not to mention that going any further wandered dangerously into some decidedly ungentlemanly territory. Ir would do him no good to start making friends with this woman now only to have her die during the Joining ritual. Or even before that. He shuddered to think of what might happen out in the Korcari Wilds. He should be able to sense any darkspawn coming, but all three of there recruits were rather green.
He was rather nervous about leading this group in the first place. Alistair hated the thought that somehow he would fail. Failure in the Grey Wardens usually resulted in death, and when you were leading an entire group of Wardens failure usually resulted in the deaths of many thousands. And that's if you were lucky and there weren't any near by cities. No he rather liked to follow orders instead. It also didn't help that no one ever really took him too seriously in the first place.
Granted that was due in so small part to the joking barrier he had set up. However the fact remained that Alistair simply did not command respect when he walked into a room. Not like most of the other Grey Wardens at least. Duncan especially could draw every eye and hush even the boisterous of crowds. Alistair had seen him do it a time or two in camp it was a very eery and awe inspiring thing to behold.
Alistair wouldn't have even have volunteered for the job had it not been for the Blight. All of the more experienced Wardens were needed to prepare for the battle. Even then it was Duncan personally asking that made Alistair consider the task an honor and not a burden. Truth be told he would walk through fire for that man. The way that Alistair saw it Duncan had rescued him from a very bad situation in the Chantry.
Elissa apparently walked a very brisk pace because it didn't seem to take her very long at all to walk all the way across camp to where Duncan and the other two recruits were standing waiting. Again she seemed quite poised and unafraid for one who was about to face darkspawn for the first time. Once they had both fallen into line Duncan began to explain to Daveth, Ser Jory, and Elissa what they would be expected to do out in the wilds. Namely that they needed to collect three vials of darkspawn blood that would be used in the Joining ritual itself.
Duncan then addressed Alistair directly. This came as somewhat of a shock since normally as he understood it his job was just to sense the darkspawn near by and act as a sort of tour guide. That was bad enough considering that the Korcari Wilds were rampant with darkspawn that would love to chomp down on some unwary trespassers. Apparently though here in Ostagar there used to exist an outpost for the Grey Wardens. The ruins of which might still hold some important documents that would greatly aid the efforts against the Blight.
It would be his job with the recruits in tow to retrieve these documents and bring them back to Duncan. Yup this mission was going to be fun alright. Perhaps they'd all get lucky and nothing too bad would happen, however Alistair very much had his doubts about that. This mission seemed to have doomed written all over it. Which did nothing to calm him down. Both Daveth and Elissa looked completely prepared for the task ahead. Ser Jory seemed twitchy and nervous about going out into the wilds. Elissa spoke up and seemed to calm the man down somewhat.
***
Elissa didn't want to say anything, but the thought of going into the Wilds thrilled her somewhat. After the tragedy that had befallen her family it might do some good to go out and “vent [her] frusterations at the darkspawn” like the King had suggested. Her companions seemed competent enough to hold their own in a fight, and Alistair was a Grey Warden, someone who could reportedly feel when the darkspawn were about. All in all they should be pretty safe even if the mission was somewhat more extended than normal. Something told her that joining the Grey Wardens might actually be one of the best decisions she could have made in light of what had happened to her. All she could do after all was wait and hope that her brother made it through the next days battle.
Then Fergus would join with the king's army and make Arl Howe pay and Elissa would be able to be a Warden and have all of the adventures that she had dreamed of having as a little girl. She dared to hope that all of these things could come true. Elissa would always mourn the loss of her parents of course, but knowing that Howe would soon get his was all the solace she needed really. In a way she would have to thank Alistair later for getting her to laugh a little bit again.
It had broken up a little bit of the frost that had started to form around her heart. If Alistair, a Grey Warden who had seen battles and atrocities untold could joke about things then she could surely muster up some positivity. She was the first one to follow Alistair into the wilds, the other two sort of hanging back unsure of themselves. Ser Jory it seemed had a family that he had left behind to join the Grey Wardens. That brought Elissa up short to be honest since it seemed more than a little bit rash to risk ones life if they had a loving family dependent on them at home.
However Elissa wasn't on this mission to judge. Just because she didn't have anything more to lose didn't mean that that was the case for all those recruited into the Wardens. She just hoped that Ser Jory would be able to see his way clearly through this task. In spite of all of her moroseness she had no wish to die. Not this day and certainly not here of all places. She was no good to anyone as a corpse. Daveth seemed a little bit more battle ready. From the brief bit of conversation she had heard before Duncan had began the instructions it seemed as if he had been almost put to death before Duncan had intervened.
The Wilds seemed quite as they picked their way through the forest. One could almost mistake it for a normal forest in fact. Except for the fact that something about this place just felt wrong. Not that she could sense the darkspawn that were inevitably near by, she was no Grey Warden yet. However it was the silence itself that seemed to be a harbinger for ill things. As long as Elissa had lived she had never experienced the open country to be so deathly silent. There were always birds about chirping or crickets in the night time. This place just felt like it was stalking you. Silently marking you out as it's next victim.
Ser Jory expressed the tension that they all had been feeling. Alistair tried his best to clam the party down stating that he could sense the taint of the darkspawn. Just before he got the part where he assured them that there were none in the area he abruptly stopped and drew his weapons. Apparently there were darkspawn in their midst, or at least rapidly approaching their area. Elissa drew her swords and readied herself for the inevitable onslaught. Alistair had been right no description would have ever done these monsters justice. Nothing in the world could have ever prepared her enough to stare down ones bestial maw as it charged head long towards her bent only on her destruction.
Elissa had no time to think. If she stopped to plan she and possibly the other recruits would be dead. She would have to hope that her training with her father's knights were enough to see her through to her task. Her blades thrust deep into the closest one it fell quickly and another came into her view. She dispatched that one just as quickly. Her swords gaining more assurance with each of the darkspawn she slew. Some where near her she could hear her other party members making quick work of their own enemies.
From the sound of it Alistair was the closest to her, not that she could lift her head up to and look around. He just seemed to have a very distinctive and very loud battle cry. After what felt like an eternity, but in all realty might have only been about twenty minutes or so, it seemed that they had finally slew their last of this horde. Elissa dropped to one knee panting, no one had explained the sheer exhaustion of fighting wave after wave of darkspawn either. With shaking hands she pulled out her vial and filled it with as much darkspawn blood as she could. She could her Daveth and Jory panting as well.
“AND...we're alive.” Alistair said the relief evident in his voice.
Elissa would have chuckled if she hadn't felt utter shock at that fact as well. Alistair waited for the rest of the group to get back to their feet, it seemed that whatever made the Grey Wardens able to sense the taint also aided their stamina. Or maybe it was just that he had a hell of a lot more experience with fighting off the darkspawn than she did. That was always a possibility as well. Whatever the case their fearless leader charged on words into the Wild to find the ruins that would hopefully contain the ancient treaties.
The ruins were several miles from where they had first encountered the darkspawn. They had had to fight off one more mini-hoard of darkspawn as well as a few wolf packs that had been in the area. Each time it seemed as if it got just a little bit easier to react to the danger and dispatch their foes. Though she could feel her arms starting to burn with the effort and her feet had slowed considerably. Elissa feared that they might not even make it out of the Wilds at the rate they were going. They would all drop dead of exhaustion first. However hope returned when Elissa saw the broken crags of what was probably once a very majestic looking tower.
Quickly the party fanned out and searched the ruins for any sign of where the treaties might be hidden. Elissa was the first to spot what looked like a worn and broken chest laying almost hidden in the grass at what would have been the base of the tower. She was about to cry out with joy at her find and alert the others to take a look when she came closer and noticed that the treaties-if indeed they had ever been there-were long since gone. That was when she heard the foot steps coming from behind and maybe just a little bit above her.
“Well, well what have we here?” An oddly lyrical voice purred.
Elissa turned around to find that there was a rather darkly gorgeous woman staring down at them with utter reproach with maybe just a hint of fascination. Her clothing also marked her as different as well. The top left absolutely nothing to the imagination and her skirt looked rather like it was made of belts with bits of cloth sewn between them.
“Are you a vulture I wonder?” She asked slowly descending obviously unafraid of the several armed persons standing before her, “A scavenger poking amidst a corpse whose bones were long since cleaned?”
She was facing them now, somehow that made her all the more frightening. “Or merely an intruder, come into these darkspawn-filled Wilds of mine in search of easy prey?”