A/N: I'M MULTITASKING! Well...sorta. I'm letting RC go for the time being. But I was challenged by Jinx1983 to write my very first AU fic. Being one to never back down from a challenge (within reason), I accepted.

There is a reason this is rated M. Violence. It's the one thing I'm confident in writing. So there will be a lot of it. Don't worry my darling smut monkeys...You'll have your dirty monkey love too.

I was like to thank Jinx1983 for not only coming up with this challenge, but for reading and correcting. I'd also like to thank Randomwittering for editing, Isabella Monroe for helping me come up with a title and reading this over, and alyssacousland.

Thanks to all of you for reading this first AU fic of mine!

XXXxxxXXX

Lothering, Ferelden

November 5th, 2007
9:00 am

The Lothering Chantry bells rang throughout the village as they did before the start of every morning service. The villagers hurried inside the small building, which was already filled to maximum capacity. Even though it was a fire code violation, the Templars let it slide.

Over the past few weeks Chantry attendance had nearly doubled from what it had been in the past. For nearly six months now the national paper; The Ferelden Yowler, had been printing reports of people in nearly every neighboring town and city who had been being attacked and killed by grotesque looking monsters. At first the stories had been widely passed off as merely a scare tactic started by the nobility of Ferelden in order to keep common people in line. The public's opinion began to change when reports of these incidents became more frequent.

While nearly all of Lothering begged the Maker for protection and forgiveness, three young boys peddled as fast as they could out of town. It was too beautiful of a morning to spend in an over crowded room. More than that, it was a desperate attempt to get out of attending the usual boring morning service.

"I'm sure my mum is going to be furious with me." Said Ty, the youngest of the three boys. "She might even kill me."

"Stop being so damn dramatic. I'm sure they'll get over it." Len scoffed as he rolled his eyes. "We'll recite a verse from whatever chant they choose like we always do."

"Hurry it up arseholes!" Colin yelled over his shoulder. As the oldest of the three he took it upon himself to order his two best friends around. They usually ignored his demands yet, it never stopped Colin from trying.

"Where are we going?" Ty yelled. Looking back over his shoulder, Colin's sly grin sent shivers down the other boy's spines.

"The Wilds."

"No." Ty and Len said as one.

"You two don't actually believe what the say on the news do you?" Colin asked. Glancing over his shoulder he saw his two "brave" best friends nod vigorously. Snorting in disgust Colin turned his attention back to the path ahead of them. "Seriously? You two believe big scary monsters are going to eat you?"

"It's on the bloody news!" Len's voice squeaked with excitement.

Growing tired of this conversation, Colin sighed dramatically and shook his head. "Fine. I'll go by myself."

Len and Ty exchanged worried glances, before they groaned in unison. They knew what Colin was doing. Sadly, it always worked.

Colin said not a word as they approached the outskirts of the Wilds. All three boys stopped their bikes, carefully getting off and setting them to the ground.

"Well...now what genius?" Len asked as he and Ty came up beside Colin. Standing up a bit straighter and with a determined twinkle in his eyes.

Colin did not take his eyes off of the over grown swamp land before him as he spoke. "We walk around for a bit, find the witch of the Wilds if she even exists. We'll be home by dinner." Colin said with confidence. Inwardly he was a nervous wreck. He never thought the Wilds would be so...creepy looking. But he had set out a task for himself, being one never to turn his back on a challenge Colin inhaled deeply before taking off down the dirt path before him. Wordlessly and reluctantly Len and Ty followed. Both on their guard and alert to their surroundings.

The scent of the wilds was not half as bad as they expected, or heard from the other kids at school. The unmistakable musky scent of moss hung in the air, as it hung on nearly everything in site. Trees, rocks, the small bodies of water, old dilapidated buildings that had to be as old as the dirt beneath their feet, and, oddly enough, a faint scent of beef. This told them the Witch of the wilds was somewhere near here, and that they were at least heading in the right direction.

They wandered until they reached a large cliff, over looking a crumbled, dome shaped building. All three dropped to the ground, exhausted after what felt like hours of pointless wandering and finding nothing but swamp. Ty dared to look down at his watch and grimaced.

"Holy fuck-a-doodle! We've been out here for three bloody hours." Ty whined.

"And all we have to show for it are the sores on our feet." Len muttered as he cast an accusing side glance at Colin. "I still don't know why we had to leave our bikes behind."

"Because this is a damn swamp you stupid arse."

"Screw you." Len said as he pushed himself off the ground. Lifting his hands over his head as he stretched out every sore muscle in his body.

There was a low rumbling in the distance. All three boys felt it. With his hands still over his head, Len slowly turned his head to his right and glanced over his shoulder. At first he thought what he saw was an illusion due to heat stroke. When he saw the army moving closer he paled and slowly dropped his hands to his sides. His knees buckled beneath him. He fell to the ground; landing on Colin's hand. The older boy yelped in pain.

"Hey! What the hell man!" Colin exclaimed loudly.

"Shut your Maker damned mouth!" Len hissed back. Now both of his friends were look at him as if he had grown a giant zit in the middle of his forehead. He brought up his shaking hand; pointing in the direction of the rumbling sound. Now all three boy's paled, as they watched the seemingly endless army of monsters march towards a Chasind village.

"Good Maker!" Colin breathed. "There is no end to them."

"Oh no. Mother was right. There are monsters." Ty said as he started to sob quietly.

"We have to get out of here and warn the village." Colin's said. His voice shaking. No one argued. All three boys began pushing themselves off the ground when they heard the low and vicious rumbling growl coming from behind them.

Slowly, in unison, the three boys turned around. There before them stood a tall towering monster with the biggest ax the boys had ever seen. That in itself was enough to send all three boys into a fit of screams. It's hideous face looked as if it had been shoved in to a deep fryer. It's emotionless eyes and huge grin was enough to scare even the bravest of men.

"Darkspawn!" All three boys screamed as they turned to run. But the Hurlock was faster. With one mighty swoop, he swung his ax across all three boy's necks. The Hurlock roared proudly as the boy's headless bodies slumped to the ground.

It was hardly a beginning to the terror the Darkspawn would unleash, but it was the start of a terrible downwards spiral for Lothering and all of it's residents.

xxxXxxx

Denerim back alley

November 28th 2007

1:30 PM

Teyrn Loghain Mac Tir tore his eyes away from the entrance of the alley way in order to checked his watch again."He's late." He whispered heatedly to himself. He began to pace nervously. Maybe this was a set-up? Perhaps the King knew of his plans. Many unappealing thoughts ran through the Teyrn's mind.

Just then a figure appeared at the end of the alleyway, quickly walking towards him. Loghain knew by the walk it was Arl Rendon Howe. The two men had know of each other before now, but had not bothered with each other beyond pleasantries. Having met and spoke at great length during one of the many tedious Landsmeets, Loghain found they had more in common than he ever could have imagined. Surprisingly really, since he always assumed Howe was a bloody coward. Apparently looks really can be deceiving.

The men shook hands. "I must apologize for my late arrival. " Rendon said, but did not elaborate. Instead he reached into his inner breast pocket; pulling out a stack of letters. "I was able to intercept his King's correspon..." He trailed as Loghain violently snatched the letters from his hands. He looked over them carefully. "Is it as you suspected?"

Looking up from the letters, he nodded at the Arl. "He's asked Orlais for their assistance." He scoffed. "Damned fool actually believes the Grey Warden brigade's claims that a blight is upon us." There was no humor behind his chuckling only bitter animosity.

Flipping through the letters Loghain came across a letter he had been fully expecting, but still filled him with a rage stronger than anything he'd felt before. The love letter was in Cailan's hand. The fool proclaimed his undying love for Celene and her only. He knew Cailan did not truly love his daughter Anora, nor did she truly love him, but he had assumed there was a mutual respect involved. Anora would never begin an affair. Much less an affair with an enemy of Ferelden. His blood boiled not only as a father, but as a son of Ferelden. He wanted to take a knife and carve out the King's heart.

"Are you alright?" Arl Howe's voice broke through the haze of anger which clouded Loghain's mind. The Teyrn nodded shortly. His path was now clear, he needed to save Ferelden not only from the small Darkspawn threat, but from it's King, from itself.

A sudden thought occurred to the Teyrn. "This Darkspawn business might help us more than it does hurt us." Loghain said thoughtfully.

"I wasn't aware Darkspawn were helpful to anyone other than themselves." Howe said.

"Think about it for a moment." Loghain said as he paced the length of the narrowed alleyway. He was excited. Finally a plan was forming. "If the King, the nobles and their armies are preoccupied with this so called blight, would that not be a perfect distraction. You and I could make make the people aware of the real danger. Doubts would arise, a king's rule in doubt."

Howe's left brow shot up. What a curious plan. He liked the way this man thought. "But surely some of the nobles will have a problem with this plan."

Now it was Loghain's turn to give the Arl a look of pure curiosity. "Would you by chance be holding out hope that Bryce Cousland will stand against us?"

The mere mention of that bastard sent the Arl's lip into a twitching snarl. Just because he was popular amongst all of the Highlands. He saw Rendon as a pet to order about when he so pleased. He was done taking orders from that holier than thou man! "I know he will." A pleased smile spread across the Arl's lips.

"We kill anyone and everyone who comes between us and our plan." The two men shook on their resolve. "We need not rush the planning stage. I believe we have time before we are forced to act."

"Like snakes hiding in the grass?" Rendon offered with a grin. Loghain merely nodded.

"Yes. Exactly."

"What will you do about the letters?" Rendon asked fully expecting no response. He was surprised when Loghain smirked.

"Celene's handwriting is sloppy and will be easy to duplicate. I'll simply inform him that the Orlesian Wardens have far too many problems of their own to attend to, and will not be able to help him at this time."
Rendon joined Loghain in his devious smirk. "I never believed a straight arrow like you would be capable of such..."

"Finish that sentence and I'll cut out your tongue." Loghain spat. Rendon automatically recoiled as if he had just been backhanded by the man.

"Sorry." He stated impishly.

"I'm doing this because I know what is best for Ferelden and it's people. The King has lost his way. This needs to be handled before past mistakes repeat themselves again."

"Truly you are a hero to Ferelden and it's people." Rendon inwardly cringed."Good Maker! If I'm not kissing one arse, it's another!"

Thankfully his statement went completely unnoticed by Loghain.

"We should set at least a week aside every month to meet."

"Of course. Since no one knows of this alley we will meet here for the time being." Rendon said. Proud to have shown some sign of dominance.

Loghain nodded in agreement. "Tomorrow then?"

Rendon nodded. "Tomorrow." He took Loghain's hand, shaking it proudly.

"To the glory of Ferelden" Loghain said proudly.

Rendon nodded. "May we protect and serve her well."

The two parted ways. Each smiling broadly as each man believed they were doing what was best for Ferelden and it's people. How very wrong they were.