HALTED
Chapter 1
No doubt she was a skilled rogue, of that he was convinced as soon as he saw her sparring in the courtyard of Castle Cousland. Her combat moves were gracefully fluid, and he was impressed with the apparent ease with which she wore her combattants down; restraining her own energy until those final swift movements were made to ensure her the victory.
Usually he would never have even considered challenging a possible recruit, but at her laugh when she defeated the last opponent and – still laughing confidently – threw her glove at him and raised her dark eyebrows questioningly at him - he felt simply compelled to take up the challenge. As he had only just arrived, she would have no chance of knowing who he were – quite a refreshing change from the usual awe and holding back he was met with when sparring the recruits.
So, with a modest bow he had accepted.
"My name is Duncan – and what may I call you, young lady"? He asked. Curiosly, she had made a little frown at that and said: "Well, I think Lady will do just fine"
"Very well, Lady it is then – but would you not like a short recess, before we start?"
"I think not... were I under attack on the road, I should not be likely to ask permittance to go powder my nose before charging the next bandit, right?" she replied with a coy smile.
"I would hope not – but then again, I might not be your average bandit" he said, barely returning her smile.
"hmm... that remains to be seen, Ser" she said as she handed him a blunted sword and dagger.
And with that, the long and rather tedious battle had commenced.
She was quick to deflect, as he had noted before, and just as quick at recoiling after coursing.
As they were both rogues, most of her moves were quite familiar to him – albeit somewhat more elegant than what he was used to see in such a young fighter. He employed the same technique.
Then – after they had both been breathing audibly for a while as the battle prolonged - he finally caught an opening in her defense. He immediately charged with brusque force, and was awarded with a satisfying yell from her as she recoiled, his sword having cut open her leather armor just above the elbow.
"Do you yield, My Lady?" he asked.
"Certainly not, I'm hardly bruised!" was the reply, given in a rather furious tone of voice. He chuckled quite content at that reply, and was rewarded with a no less furious glance from deepblue eyes.
Once again they took up their stances, and the dance continued. He soon however noticed the lessened force of her swordsarm. She was moving noticeably slower on her feet too, and a bright red blot began to show throgh the padding on her slender arm. Then she made a hiss and took a small haltering step backwards, dropping her sword. He just had time to open his mouth to call off the fight – when she hunched in an instant, then launched between his legs. Before he had a chance to recompose himself or even turn at her, she had hurled herself onto his back, both legs curled firmly around his waist and her dagger at his throat.
"Do you yield?" she huffed with a breath of hot air against his ear.
"I do" was all he could croak; her dagger so close he dared hardly take a breath.
A loud cheering and applause broke out from the rather large audience of soldiers they seemed to have gathered during the fight.
"Thank the Maker you fell for that – I don't believe I would have lasted another minute! And as you might have guessed, you really only gave me a tiny flesh wound!" she grinned triumphantly.
"Oh yes. Quite a daring trick my Lady – though not one I would be liable to copy myself" Duncan said, his admiration of her clearly shining through. For a moment he felt himself even more out of breath; quite stunned by those laughing eyes beaming up at him. And as she removed her helmet to reveil a head of tussled bright red hair, he seemed to forget to breathe altogether.
"Oh, so you are not going to jump me anytime soon then?"
As flustered as the two of them already were; both their faces were suddenly colored quite a darker shade of red as the possible implications of her remark dawned on both of them. The roar of laughter from the closest spectators did nothing to diminish that.
"Um, ah – what I meant to say, you're not going to ask for a rematch?" she quickly corrected herself, and suddenly was very busy adjusting a strap on her armor.
"No, My Lady" he said, enjoying her fidgeting. "I dare say, you have already shown me quite how capable you are."
And with a soft chuckle and the feeling that he had not lost the battle at all, he turned and walked in the castle.
Elissa was seemingly still flustered from battle when he met her later in the hall, although she had put her hair in order and was wearing a clean set of light armor. Her eyes burned with a bright eagerness as her father introduced him to her as the Grey Warden Commander. She immediately inquired to know more of the wardens and Duncan was only too eager to satiate her curiosity – and before he knew of it even aired the possibility of conscripting her - despite the slim chance of that, considering she had turned out to be the teyrns daughter.
He suddenly had a pang of desire to see this particular girl in their ranks; vivid pictures of her strolling the camp site or excelling on the battlefield flashed through his mind in an instant – but when Teyrn Cousland rather definitively aborted the proposal, Duncan felt something bordering on relief as he assured the teyrn he was not going to push the matter further .. for now.
"Besides, I've already... assured myself of your daughters fighting abilities, and it seems to me she will be quite capable – whatever position she should decide to throw herself at" he told the teyrn.
"Really, pup?" said the teyrn; his pride of the fighting abilities of his youngest not to be mistaken.
"Right, I bumped into Duncan on the practice grounds and let him have a taste of my sparring technique -or, to tell the truth I cheated" she replied in the same matter-of-factly tone in which Duncan had just made his remark. Her eyes however were bursting with joy and suppressed laughter, and they seemed to widen a little as she observed the pleased smile Duncans beard couldn't quite conceal. He suddenly felt uncomfortably warm and shifted on his feet.
After that he had some difficulty meeting her eyes again.
AN: This is my first time to publish a piece of fiction, ever. So please bear with me and let me know if any of you think this story is worth continuing – there are lots of lovely stories on this site, but way too few starring Duncan I find. Please feel free to correct spelling and grammer mistakes – there are bound to be plenty, as english is my second language. The word "teyrn" (and not teryn) I would not consider changing though, as it is spelled teyrn both ingame and on Dragon Age wiki.