Title: Beginning's
Author: CrazyAndInsane - You can call me Jeanie
Pairings: Unknown as of yet, mostly friendships and rivalry's and the like. I don't want to throw sex in just yet; maybe in Part two of my Trilogy but the pairings are up in the air as it is of now.
Summary: Frankly Ari Hawke was having a rather bad WEEK as it was; first the Blight happened and she and her family had to flee from their farm in Lothering, then her sister in a bid to save her own magic in a petty move strips Ari of her magic – who had foolish traded it so she wouldn't become a Gray Warden. After that she and her younger brother Carver, her now extremely over-protective, prickly, cranky brother, were left on the shores of Amaranthine and across the sea from Kirkwall and the Free-Marshes.
Then, get this, once she's there her own mother sells her and Carver into slavery for a year in a bid to get the family – namely her and Bethany into the city safely – and this is after Ari arrives in Kirkwall weeks behind them. Now Hawke has to contend with cranky and irritable brothers, a batshit insane best-friend, a brooding hunk with Daddy-issues and one loud little Dwarf who thinks Ari should go back to the kitchen like a good little woman.
Frankly Hawke was wondering where this Andrastate's-given patience was coming from and whether or not it would be rude or blasphemous if she asked for some gold instead – the Deep Roads wasn't going to pay for its self you know!
Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Age, I or II or Awakenings, nor do I own Bioware. I will not be making any money off of this as this is strictly for personal entertainment value only – mine and anyone else who wants to read this for free – and outside of plot lines I've toyed with it all doesn't belong to me.
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9:30 Dragon, 19 Molioris
Lothering, Fereldin, Thedas
Ari was panting harshly as she ripped up her chambers wooden floor-boards in search of the few precious items she had left of her father as the Darkspawn traveled closer and closer to Lothering, she could feel the taint spreading and growing as it crept through the Wilds towards her home and her family farm. She knew that instead of scrambling around and shoving old, ancient, magic books into her bag to take with her she should be throwing in food to eat and that she should be taking advantage of the fact that she could rest for a few hours. But Ari wanted her father's things and she wasn't going to leave them behind for some Darkspawn to touch with their disgusting, foul hands.
Shoving the last of the slim books into her bag Ari climbed back to her feet and looked around the small attic room that had been hers for close to two decades, she couldn't take much with her and whatever she brought had to be valuable indeed as to take up such room in her bag when they needed all the room. She rubbed her fingers together before reaching for her camp-bag, her original one was still somewhere in Ostager and this had been a back-up one in case she lost or couldn't find hers before she and Carver had left under Ser Hudson. It wasn't much, just basic supplies for a one-person camp but it did include flint and water-proof skins to make a fire and a, relativity depending on weather and wind, weather-proof tent to sleep in out of the elements.
Still it was better than nothing.
"Ari," Carver shouted from the first floor. "What in Maker's name are you doing!"
"Hold on!" Ari shouted as she shoved her small bag into her camping back-pack, she adjusted the straps as she shrugged it on as she stepped towards the door. She paused on the open threshold briefly before turning back to her small writing-desk; she gently traced the rune Vroth into the seemingly locked drawer with her magic humming through her body as she stripped her specially made lock that Ari used to keep some of her more personal things hidden from sight. A small snick sounded and she eagerly ripped open the drawer and pulled out the small pouch of gold, as she shoved the pouch in between her skin and breast-armor the coins inside jingled softly.
Stealing was a terrible thing in the Maker's eyes but thieving from Templars...well even He would understand that and they were such foolish men anyway to be getting that pissed in a tavern where they knew Witches attended to. Something Ari didn't really believe since she had been the only mage in Lothering since they moved here when she was but a child of four and mage's could always sense one another – or at least Ari could anyway – and she had never sensed another mage in the past eighteen years.
"Ari!"
"Coming!" Ari shouted down the flight of stairs as she rushed down from her high perch in the windmill. "I'm coming! Don't get your knickers in a twist!"
"Ari Amell!" Leandra shouted back up at her daughter as Bethany, her beautiful Bethany, waited impatiently next to her. "Watch your language young lady!"
"Yes Mother!" Ari rolled her eyes at Carver as she grabbed her cloak from him and swung it over her shoulders, it settled easily over the back-pack she was carrying. She pulled the hood over her long braided hair, the black locks bleeding in with the black of hood threads. "Come along Craver, we need to hurry."
"Yes, Ari," Bethany sneered as her two siblings stepped outside. "Please do watch your language around my delicate ears. I'm not a tavern wrench like you and can handle such coarseness of the simple minded."
"Shut up Beth," Carver snapped as he drew his own cloak on. "You're a spoiled brat is what you are."
Bethany only sniffed before turning away when her Mother cleared her throat for attention between the two twins. Carver always sided with Ari, it didn't matter what it was and it could be something incredibly silly and he still would side with her over Bethany and it was simply not fair - she was his twin! He should be siding with her and making sure she was happy!
"Stop it you two," Leandra hissed as she drew on her own traveling pack similar in size to Bethany's which meant it was bulging in unnecessary ways with things they did not need. "And Ari please stop aggravating your sister."
"Dad should have stopped after you," Ari muttered to Carver as the edged their way out from around Lothering, they did not want to draw attention to themselves for bandits and thieves to attack them. "We didn't need Beth."
"Well if you give birth to one twin you have to give birth to the other one." Carved replied back morbidly. He did not like his twin sister at all. "Are you sure you're still the oldest one?"
"I was there when you were born," Ari smiled with a quick up-turn of lips. "Trust me, I'm the oldest."
Carver sighed unhappily as he stepped around a large burnt tree-trunk and to edge his way into the front of the group of four, he trusted Ari to watch the back of them but that meant he was needed up front and they couldn't talk anymore which was disappointing in a fashion since he didn't want to listen to his Mother harp on him or listen to his twin bitch about Ari being a bitchy-nug. And yeah, Carver could agree with Bethany, Ari could be a bit controlling but he knew that Ari needed that control if she didn't wish to burn the house down around their ears the first time she got irritated with them. He also could understand why Bethany didn't like it when Ari went out on her little "trips" and came back with some silvers for "work" – but Carver wasn't going to tell Bethany and Leandra that Ari was actually stealing from Templar's and killing bandits that wondered the forests around Lothering.
He actually loved his older sister more than his own twin.
But when she showed up at Ostager as a "recruit" he had been pissed since this had been his chance to show that while he wasn't the farmer like his mother or the hunter like his eldest sister - he was a damn good soldier. He had drew Ari off to the side latter that night and was prepared to throw a fit of epic proportions when Ari hissed at him that King Cailan was offering coin for any able-body Fereldin to do battle at Ostager – and they didn't have to stay enlisted after. Carver had only sighed but backed off, the family needed the money but he still worried that Ari would show him up and the fact the whole ruin was swarming with Templar's – it only took one slip here and Ari was hanging or locked away back in a Circle somewhere. And as much as his eldest sister aggravated and amused him by equal measure he still loved her and wanted her safe from everything in the world.
What few memories he had of their father were vague but he could still remember Malcolm Hawke telling him shortly before his death that it was Carver's job to protect his sisters. And Carver was going to do just that – even if it meant taking on one of the Old Ones to make sure they were protected.
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"Please, we need to rest." Bethany panted several hours later. Both Ari and Carver had been setting a punishing pace to get them as far away as possible from Lothering not to mention they were going up and over a mountain of all things and Bethany was sick and tired of it. She really was. "Mother's tired.
Mother in fact did not look or seem all that tired and was obviously able to keep walking but, Ari and Carver knew this by experience, that whatever Bethany wanted she got. They only nodded unhappily at their mother's warning look to abide by Bethany's wishes before they both spread out along the small clearing along the rocky-path they were taking for any Darkspawn. Ari felt that they were safe for the moment, something was slowing them down as they approached Lothering so that meant they still had time and with all the pretty magical-traps she had weaved together along the mad dash away from their home it would hopefully slow them down even further.
"I don't like this," Carver muttered to Ari. "Something doesn't feel right. We should have seen at least a few Darkspawn by now, I haven't seen any tracks either."
"I know," Ari replied back. "I can sense the main bulk of the Horde spawning around Ostager and slowly moving their way to Lothering but there has to be scouting parties of some kind, I can feel those but it is...blank around this area for whatever reason and I can't feel any for miles around. I don't dare try and cast-out any farther without having an Emissary take notice."
"Aren't you two done resting yet?" Bethany demanded as she eyed the two black-haired siblings with suspicion. "In-case you haven't noticed you're slowing us down and I would rather not be a snack for some creature wallowing in the shadows."
"Slowing-slowing us down?" Carver shouted and thrust a finger at Bethany. "We're not the ones that wanted a break!"
"Oh do not turn this back on me!" Bethany crossed her arms over her chest and glared at Carver. "If you two hadn't taken your time in getting back to Lothering from Ostager we could have left sooner!"
That was a low blow.
"That is-I cannot-" Ari sputtered as her magic snapped silently around her in reaction to her rage. "We ran non-stop since the battle to get home; we didn't even rest once we were there to warn everybody and moving with you and Mother! How dare you-"
"Stop it, all of you!" Leandra snapped at her three children. "We cannot have this, not now."
"Of course Mother," Bethany said as Carver and Ari nodded in agreement. "Whatever you say."
"Good. We need to get moving," Leandra said. "I think we should head to Kirkwall."
"What?" Bethany gapped at her mother. "You cannot be serious Mother. Do you know how far away Kirkwall is?"
"Mother, Kirkwall is at least a two months journey on foot to Amaranthine and then a fortnight by ship to the Free-Marshes! We simply couldn't make it on our own even if we didn't have the Blight crawling and snapping at us!"
Ari stayed out of the argument that was starting between the three members of her family as she watched for Darkspawn, it wasn't much to have her magic cast-out around the make-shift rest-site like a drag net ready to catch prey – and an early warning system for Ari in-case of Darkspawn. There was…something at the edge of her magic, teasing it. It, whatever it was, wasn't a Darkspawn or any other kind of magical creature but it was old and powerful and so full of magic it made Ari's teeth ache from the force of it. It also unnerved her enough that she wanted to get a move on and away from such dangerous magic and she cut into the shouting match.
"Enough! In-case all of you have forgotten we have Darkspawn crawling up our arse's and I do not want them to catch me while my trousers are down so-to-speak." Ari snapped and all three fell quiet. "We can't stay here and I want to keep us all alive so we need to move and keep moving – understand?"
"Of course Ari," Leandra nodded. "And once we are safe from the Blight, Denerium would do us well; we can take stock and head towards Kirkwall after that. I'm sure Gamlen would have no problem at all sending us some silvers for the trip home."
Home.
Carver hated that word since his father died. Ever since then their mother went on about Kirkwall and the famed Amell's, how wealthy they were and how many titles they had, it sickened him sometimes when he thought about the early days after their father died how their mother would either re-treat into her bedroom or start lecturing all three siblings about the famous Amell family history. If it hadn't been Ari showing him how to take care of the fields or how to skin a rabbit for dinner they would all have starved that winter, it didn't help that Bethany refused to help and spent most of her time with Leandra dreaming of Kirkwall or locked in her room playing Lady Bethany.
Home wasn't Kirkwall or the Free-Marshes, or the Amell Estates. Home was freshly turned dirt and simmering stews and magical-sparks as his sisters practiced in the barn behind their home. Home was heading to the Tavern and watching as Ari snatched purses of sloshed Templar's after luring them in with doctored wine, home was cleaning up after Bethany's hopeless romances that always seemed to change from day-to-day. Home was shining suns and clear night-skies, balmy breezes and icy-cold showers that bathed the earth; it was baking bread and gleaming swords in front of a fire.
Kirkwall didn't have those things and it never would, no matter what his mother and Bethany thought or hoped to find there.
"And then do what?" Bethany sneered. "Lothering is gone as well as any valuables we might have used for trade, I do not trust this uncle of ours – in all the years you have talked of him and his letters has he ever sent coin when the drought occurred several years ago to help the family get through – we might as well as set up shop here and deal with the Blight ourselves."
"Whether or not we go to Kirkwall doesn't matter." Ari interrupted the seemingly building argument that didn't seem to stop. "We need to move and move now."
With not much else to be said the small group of four gathered up their small back-packs and cloaks and set out once again, this time though Ari and Carver both kept an eye on their surrounds. Both could feel a powerful set of eyes watching them and assumed it was Darkspawn, which they would not have been far off in any-case but while Ari only sensed something Carver felt someone so eerily similar to his older sister but they were…off somehow, darker and dirtier if Carver could call it that. Whatever it was Carver wanted no part of it and vowed to stay away as much as possible if it should decide to follow him and he led it back to his both magically inclined sisters.
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TBC
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AN: Okay, I noticed some mistakes I made in grammer and spelling so I fixed that up. I also noticed that I hadn't put in a disclaimer and did so, as well as the full summary. I will most likely not up-date this again until after the New Year, RL is going to keep me busy for the rest of the month so I though my readers deserved a warning about expecting an up-date. But after that everything should even out just right and move on a more regular pace for both this story and a few others I have been working on during this past Fall term.