This is a Dragon Age fanfic, part one of three, that follows the childhood of Eilonwy Cousland. It's AU.
Chapter One
I could hear the grass crunching under the wheels of the wagon as we traveled towards the southwest. We were heading to Redcliffe to celebrate First Day with the Arl of Redcliffe and his wife. I felt the excitement bubble inside me; this was my very first trip outside of the castle. Father had said the Arl was a kind man and that his new wife was Orlesian. I didn't know much about Orlais at the time, except that the people there once wanted to rule Ferelden. I dreamt of one day joining the King's Army and fighting Orlesians, just like my father did in the war. I knew we weren't at war anymore, but surely a new enemy would arise by then.
I felt my stomach grumble; it was already quite late and I was ready for supper. Dinner was a small meal of bread and cheese since we were traveling. I was tired of riding in a cramped wagon all day and was yearning to get out, stretch my legs, and eat a full meal.
"Eilonwy, don't slouch dear. You'll wrinkle your dress," my mother called from the front of our wagon.
Mother was always telling me not to slouch. She had high hopes that I would train in the arts of a rogue like she did, settle down one day and bear her many grandchildren. At the time I was content enough to do so, though even then I felt like there was something grander waiting for me.
My brother, Fergus, had just started his warrior training and I remember staring out my bedroom window to watch him practice in his shining armor. Oh, how I envied him. Instead I was stuck indoors; learning how to knit and act like a lady. I hated acting like a lady.
"Careful, Ely," my brother teased. "If you're not careful you'll mess up that pretty dress and the whole world will end."
I stuck my tongue out at him in reply while mother wasn't watching, which only made him laugh harder.
My brother was always teasing me. Like the time I snuck out of the castle during lessons. Our historian, Aldous, was so boring to listen to as he droned on and on about my family's history and the history of Ferelden that I always became restless during lessons. This particular time was a warm summer's day and I wanted to go outside and run in the field with the other children. So, when Aldous wasn't looking, I snuck away and ran outside to play. My plan was to sneak back in before the lecture was over and nobody would even notice I was gone. Except, I tripped over the ridiculous dress my mother made me wear and fell into a pile of dung. Fergus never let me live that one down. I can still hear him taunting me to this day. "Some rogue you'll be, smellyely!"
Father spoke from the front of the wagon. "Pup, look; there's the castle of Redcliffe. We're almost there."
I grinned and scampered over the trunks in the back so I could get a better view. I poked my head forward between my parents, pushing my long ebony hair out of my eyes.
Castle Redcliffe loomed up ahead, so dark and distant in my eyes. It sat upon a large hill and almost seemed to be glaring at the village below. I was awed at the sight, it was smaller than our castle but it was an unknown place for me and, therefore, more impressive. I was excited to explore its hidden places and secret spots. I knew Nathaniel would enjoy exploring it with me as well.
Nathaniel Howe was the son of Rendon Howe, Arl of Amaranthine, and my playmate whenever his family came to visit. The Howes had been friends of the Couslands for many generations and our fathers fought together during The Rebellion against Orlais, from what little I remembered from Aldous's lectures. Nathaniel was my brother's age but nicer to me than Fergus. He always let me tag along when they would play, ruffling my hair and smiling openly. "Let her come along, Fergus. She's tough and can keep up," he would always say when my brother would tell me to leave them be.
The Howe family was traveling with us to Redcliffe, except for Nathaniel's mother. She had decided to go visit her parents instead. I knew Delilah would probably try to convince me to do something boring, like attend a ball or some such nonsense, and Thomas was still just a baby in my mind. Five years old was much too young to go "adventuring" around a castle and he spent most of his time clinging to his father anyway.
Soon our wagons were pulling up to the castle stables. A couple of elves were waiting for us and, as if on cue, they reached for the reigns of our oxen and helped my mother get down from the wagon.
The elven lass kept her eyes cast low to the ground. "Here, milady, allow us to take your things inside the castle," the elven lass muttered, her shoulders hunched as if a great burden weighed upon her. Father had told me the elves were not treated kindly everywhere else as kindly as we treated ours at home.
"Ah, thank you. It has been such a long and tiring trip with a wagon full of children." She smiled, handing the elven servants a couple of silvers in return for their help. My mother was kind and generous woman, even if she was overly fixated on me getting married someday.
"Thank you kindly, milady," the elven lass replied.
I looked around, greedily taking in all the sights and smells around me. The sun glittered off the windows of the castle; the stone walls were tall and seemed impenetrable. The grass was vibrant green and the hills were steep and appeared to go on foreve in my mind. I was only eight so everything appeared so grand to me back then.
"Watch out, Ely!" Nathaniel called. "Stand there with your mouth open long enough and bugs will fly in!" he laughed as he ruffled my hair.
I grinned mischievously at him, already thinking of all the places we could explore together. I had opened my mouth to say something I thought was clever and witty when Delilah came over.
"Don't be silly, Brother," she said. "Besides, you shouldn't talk to a lady so. Didn't father teach you better manners by now?" she asked primly, adjusting her lace and silk dress as she spoke.
Nathaniel scoffed. "Well, maybe Ely doesn't want to be a lady. Maybe she'll surprise us all and become a warrior." Nathaniel winked at me.
Delilah gasped. "Nathaniel Howe! You do say the most improper things sometimes, I swear!" she exclaimed.
He rolled his eyes. "Oh, by the Maker, 'Lilah, you do take things so seriously. Anyway, what of Ser Cauthrien? She is warrior and quite an excellent one from what I hear," he goaded.
"Enough, children," my mother interrupted. "My daughter will soon learn rogue training if she so desires, but it is not a noblewoman's place to become a warrior and fight in the army, and that is the end of that." She took my hand and guided me up to the castle doors but I wasn't really paying attention anymore.
Me? A warrior? Did Nathaniel really mean that or was he just trying to tease his sister? The idea stayed present in my mind all throughout the tour of the castle and even during supper. I knew father was a great warrior in his time; my father was a great man in general. Kind, devoted and loving with his family, my father could do no wrong in my eyes. He ruled his lands with a fair and even hand and he possessed great skill with a blade. The only man that came close was the great Hero of River Dane, general of King Maric's rebel army, Teyrn Loghain. At least, that was my opinion back then. Maybe my view on my father and Loghain were a distorted child's view, but I looked up to them both nonetheless, despite never having met Loghain in person.
"I hear our young Prince will be making a visit this year?" my father inquired over dinner.
My ears perked at the mention of Prince Cailan. I had never met him, but he was to be my King someday and I was itching with curiosity.
"Yes, it would seem so." Arl Eamon replied conversationally. "Loghain is bringing his daughter Anora, as well as escorting Cailan here for the festival. It would appear our King is to be traveling the kingdom at this time and wanted my nephew to be with family."
The arl was a very boring man, in my mind. He seemed to talk rather slow and his long braided beard hid most of his face and made him appear older than he was at the time; he reminded me of Aldous. Maybe that's why I found him dull. Still, he did seem to be a good man, as my father had said. Of course, Father was never wrong.
"When will they be arriving?" Father asked.
"Hm? Oh, sometime early tomorrow morning if I remember Loghain's letter correctly. Of course, I worry at how he will receive my dear Isolde. You know how paranoid he still is of Orlais."
"Well, he does have right to be. They did invade our country and enslaved our people for nearly a century," my father replied dryly.
"Well, my Isolde is different," Eamon replied, looking at his wife with love and affection.
Of course, Lady Isolde refrained from comment. She rarely spoke at all and when she did her Orlesian accent was so thick it seemed to make people uncomfortable. Maybe that's why she was often silent during our trips there, only speaking with Eamon in hushed whispers.
After our meal was finished we were all sent straight to bed as we had to arise early to greet our future king and Anora when they arrived. It wasn't long after I had lied down between my sheets that I heard a quick rat-a-tat-tat on my window.
I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and rushed to open the window; I knew it was Nathaniel as he often did this back home as well. He'd sneak into my room and we would secretly explore the castle together in the dark of night.
"Ely, there are too many guards stationed in the hallway tonight in preparation for Prince Calian's arrival tomorrow, if we wish to explore we must both sneak out the window," Nathaniel whispered as he scuttled into my bedroom.
"But Nathaniel, I'll fall!" I exclaimed as quietly as I could, feeling both excited and nervous at the idea of scaling the castle walls to explore the outside.
"Nonsense. I'm here and I'd never let you fall Ely." Nathaniel vowed solemnly, grasping my hands and locking his steel gray eyes with my light blue ones.
I grinned and nodded in agreement; I trusted Nathaniel with my life and was about to prove it. He grinned back and pulled me towards the window. "Now, the trick is: don't look down," he said as he carefully climbed out the window.
He reached his hand back in through the opening, waiting patiently for me to grab hold. I lifted my nightdress with one hand and grasped onto Nathaniel with my other one and gingerly stepped through my window and out into the night.
"Now, watch carefully Ely. Just grab hold to the same places I grab hold; I'll be beneath you so I'll catch you if you slip."
I stepped carefully in the places where bricks were missing and grabbed tightly onto the places where they jutted out from the surface of the castle, almost as if it were designed to allow small children to escape in the night. I giggled to myself at the thought of maybe the arl himself doing this when he was but a boy. I imagined him the same age as Nathaniel; eleven years old and skin free of wrinkles but with a full beard still! Oh, what sight that was in my head.
"Ely, I swear you are the only girl I know who could climb down a castle wall and laugh the entire time!" I heard Nathaniel say from somewhere below me. When I described to him what I had been picturing he had to stifle his laughter so as not to alert anyone to our descent. "Alright, we're almost to the bottom. We should be able to jump the rest of the way."
Nathaniel let go of the castle wall and landed nimbly on his feet, like a cat. I gulped nervously, closed my eyes and dropped. I landed with a thunk on top of something soft and squishy.
"Oof! Elyigertoffme!" I quickly scrambled off of Nathaniel with hushed squeals of laughter. "Andraste's ass. If your mother thinks you're going to be rogue someday she's going to sorely disappointed. You lack grace something awful Ely." Nathaniel and I both laughed; he at my graceless fall and I at his swearing.
I looked around at the landscape, now cast in shadows. The darkness played tricks on my tired eyes and I swore I saw shapes forming in the corner of my eye but when I looked closer, there was nothing there. I grasped Nathaniel's hand as we slowly crept towards the stables.
As we entered the stable doors with a rather loud creak, or so it seemed, I could hear a soft rustling sound from above. We both stopped dead in our tracks and looked up at the loft where we saw a small boy with golden brown eyes and blonde hair peeking at us over the side.
"Psst. Boy. Don't tell anyone you saw us here, 'kay?" Nathaniel hissed.
The boy simply nodded his head in reply and ducked back into the hay, seemingly going back to sleep. Nathaniel grinned at me, his hand still grasping mine in the moonlight.
"Let's go further in, shall we? Or are you frightened yet?" he taunted with a smile.
I kicked him in the shins and stuck my tongue out in reply. "I'm a Cousland. I fear nothing," I said, full of false bravado.
Nathaniel just chuckled and tugged me further into the stable. The hay crunched nosily beneath my feet and I looked around, drinking in everything I could. The oxen slept soundly in their stalls; the smell of beast and hay was so strong it was almost too much. Soon we had finished exploring the small stable and started to sneak back to the entrance when two shadows loomed in the doorway.
I froze in shock and fear; my mind racing with all the possibilities of whom those shadows belonged to. Demons from the fade, murderous bandits, and apostate mages were but a few of the ideas that popped in my child's mind before I realized the truth: It was my father and Arl Howe. We were caught.
"Eilonwy Cousland, what in the Maker's name are you two doing here? And pray tell how you managed to sneak out of the castle at this hour?" my father asked, his brow raised in question.
"Well, Father, we c-climbed the castle wall and.."
"You did WHAT?" my father shouted, all composure lost. "You- you could have died Eilonwy! What in Andraste's name were you thinking? Do you have any idea what your mother and I would do if something happened to you? Your mother is pacing your room at this very moment, worried sick over you!"
"But Father! Nathaniel was with me! Nothing bad could happen when Nathaniel's around!" I protested, stomping my tiny foot on the ground.
My father stopped mid-step and glanced at Nathaniel, finally noticing that his hand was still clasped around mine. I noticed his lip starting to twitch; almost like he was trying to hide a smile. "Ah. Well. In that case. It would seem my daughter has developed a bit of a crush on your boy, Rendon. Whatever shall we do," my Father asked; a slight teasing tone to his voice. I could feel my cheeks burning and was glad the darkness hid my blush.
"Well, perhaps your wife will not have to worry as much now about your daughter's future, old friend." Howe replied.
My father laughed in return, "A future of scaling castle walls? Oh no, nothing to worry about there! Come now, both of you. Up to bed and no more scaling walls. Honestly, Pup, you're going to give your mother and me gray hair before our time."
"I'm sorry, Father. I just wanted to explore," I replied meekly, still embarrassed about their talk of marriage and such.
"I am sorry as well Father, Teyrn Cousland. I won't put Ely in such danger again, you have my word." Nathaniel said, solemnly.
My mother gave me a stern lecture as well when I reached my room, not amused at my insistence at being safe with Nathaniel. I could tell she was worried but, at the time, I felt like she was only nagging.
I hid a yawn behind my hand and she paused for a second before sighing aloud.
"All right, love. Go on to bed. Please, know that I only worry because you are my darling daughter and I love you," she said before kissing my forehead and heading for the door.
My final thoughts before drifting off to sleep were of Nathaniel. I hoped tonight's disaster didn't mean we wouldn't still go adventuring.
I hope you enjoyed chapter one! Review if you'd like to!
