Author's Note: This story sprung from, and inspired by, SnowHelm's piece, "Blight and Bliss". Grace is entirely her creation as are characters she created for her story, and Bioware owns the obvious world and familiar characters from Dragon Age. Sunshine Jack and filler characters that you've never heard of are my creation. I strongly recommend reading SnowHelm's work to ensure this makes sense, but mostly because it's fantastic.
The party was heading through a wooded area, the arboreal scenery was like a holiday for the party members. Instead of soothing everyone it made them warier. Every time anything seemed perfect there was a shit storm waiting for them right around the corner. It gave Duncan a sensation rather like vertigo, if you relax and enjoy the scenery the earth will split and you will have to fight something awful, if you don't relax, nothing awful comes but you've twisted your guts inside out and feel sick. Grace likened it more to a perverse playground see-saw that shot you up too high, held you suspended and then lobbed you back toward the ground when you finally got used to your perilous height. Running through everyone's mind, whether in the periphery or forefront was the age old adage - 'this is too good to be true' - or at least to last.
Their paranoia and distrust was rewarded when a single loud boom roared through the trees, causing a moment of perfect chaos with the local fauna as they fled furiously in every which way. The noise was so cacophonic that the startled people felt their ears ringing and their sense of balance thrown off. Grace wracked her brain at the scary, yet almost familiar noise, trying to distinguish it from her memory bank of noises. It a moment of slight clarity, and surprise, she said, to her startled companions, "oh, that's just a car backfiring!" Since Grace was a woman who held many mysteries, they accepted that she knew it was some magical occurrence of which they knew nothing. They were all still strung tight, aside from Grace who's Ferelden brain hadn't caught up with her English one, and hadn't moved.
Anders finally cleared the silence with, "so, umm, what kind of magic is that? Is it dangerous for us?" Everyone turned to Grace who stared back blankly until the car backfired several more times, rather rapidly. It was at that moment that Grace's face went through a rather comical array of expressions, and had not some of her fellows literally pissed themselves, they would have laughed. Her face finally settled on an, 'oh shit!', look that made them almost all further soil themselves.
She yelled, "guns!" Then promptly took off in the direction of the noise. Her startled companions, who all still had their brain fried from the noise, fear, and confusion didn't immediately follow. It was Duncan who managed to fight off his stupor first to chase after her, leaving the rest to get their heads out of their collective ass and follow on their own. He tore off and ran right into her on the fringe of a slight clearing. He relaxed slightly at the sight of two groups of soldiers fighting. It seemed to be some men from one of the Bannorns and some of Loghain's men. He was glad to see that most of the fallen were from Loghain's side. In the space of a moment he saw one of Loghain's men fall, as he looked down he noticed that his head had disappeared at about the same time another roar occurred. Grace pushed them both to the ground and started crawling backwards, dragging Duncan with her.
"What...happened to...that man?" Duncan asked, eyes still wide and wild at the ongoing scene. It seemed that the Bannorn, Rainsfere maybe, seemed to take the noise in stride, while it seemed Loghain's soldiers, who were better trained and equipped, act more desperate and hence disorganized. What ever was causing the exploding heads seemed to be on their side, which for once felt like a break for them. The terrifying magic was on their side, hopefully it would stay that way. The rest of the party caught up and quietly laid around them. Throughout the next while, which was probably minutes, but what seemed like hours, more heads exploded, more men fell to the Bannorn soldiers, until finally it was all quiet. Painfully quiet. Duncan was about to stand but Grace held him down, and signaled for everyone else to stay low and quiet.
After a couple of minutes, as the Bannorn soldiers ensured that all of Loghain's men were well and fully dead, one called out, "You can come out now Sunshine!" After a few moments a woman came into view, wearing strange clothes, with a huge satchel and various metal objects slung around her body. Duncan couldn't make out her face as it was shaded by the brim of a black hat that was in a style that seemed part farmer, part something else, the only thing that really registered was: woman, swagger, metal and leather. She nodded to the men, shared some quiet words with them, her accent maybe placed her as a Free Marcher, but he couldn't be certain as they were just out of hearing range, add to that the overwhelming ringing in their ears and she was just some sort of mysterious figure from some tale. He was slightly nervous as she wandered over to their party and stood looking down at them.
"Pretty smart, keeping your head down with gunfire going on," she stood there appraising them for a long moment. When no one moved, she put on a cheeky grin, backed up a few paces and motioned for them to stand. "I promise, I'm the only sniper here, it's safe to stand."
Grace slowly nodded and stood. Everyone else cautiously stood up as the soldiers moved around the woman. Grace was bracing herself to talk to the woman she thought of as a cowgirl, only loaded with Earth modern weaponry and minus the cows, when she was beat to the punch by one of the soldiers.
"Prince Alistair? Thank the Maker! We are on our way to Redcliffe, these bastards were sent from Loghain to cause trouble, we would have been crushed if we didn't have our Sunshine" One of the older soldiers said in a rush. It was best that he was the first to speak as it relaxed everyone into total ally mode, and though not all, but a great deal of tension that everyone was holding was relieved. Sunshine looked slightly nonplussed with the whole interaction. Grace figured that Sunshine probably thought with big enough guns you don't need to be that afraid. Her musing was interrupted by Alistair's awkward coughing.
"It's just Warden Alistair now, if you don't mind, Captain Hanlock," came his slightly embarrassed reply. "Why are you out of Rainsfere?"
"We got word from Bann Teagan to come to Redcliffe Castle, with all due haste, we were set upon early from scouts sent by Loghain. We would have gone down dead, but Sunshine here stepped in and helped out with her magic shooters and has been traveling with us. We were hoping to avoid more trouble with the long way 'bout."
The conversation was headed into one-way, exuberant territory - with the Captain holding the fort, as it were, and speaking at an exhausting pace. Duncan held up his hand, "Excuse me Captain, but might I be introduced to your companion?" Before Captain Hanlock could launch himself into a convoluted story, Sunshine jumped in.
"Where are our manners? Sunshine Jack, Disreputable Urban Cowgirl and Trans-Universal Intergalactic Space Being, at your service," she finished with a jaunty tip of her hat and full smile, holding her hand out to Duncan. While Duncan tried mulling over her meaning, manner, and various titles, he shook her hand. Her firm grip felt sincere and strong.
"Warden Commander Duncan, a pleasure, uh...," he paused trying to determine just how to refer to her by title.
"Just Sunshine, please, and how may I address you?"
"Please, just Duncan," he replied, smiling and realized that his fellow Wardens were looking at him, and felt a blush creep up his cheeks. Really! To be blushing at his age. He was just glad that Sunshine was definitely a woman, in spite of calling herself a cowgirl (did that mean milk maid?, there was no way she was a gentle, farm girl), she had too much wisdom and age in her face. In a pleasant way, in a way that made men of his age blush. Such foolishness, he was sure, until he saw her wink at his blush and he realized that he was also still holding her hand. Being older he knew better than to drop it like a callow youth, so he gently rubbed her knuckles, squeezed a final time and released it.
"Allow me to introduce the rest of my companions: this is Grace, my daughter, and our fellow companions are Alistair, Anders, Danforth, Gavarth, Zevran, Leliana, Aedan and Oghren." As he listed them he pointed them out in turn, and watched her shake their hands and murmur pleasantries. Before there was an awkward lull, which was just waiting right around the corner, Sunshine opted to jump in before it could round the bend.
"I hate to change this nice exchange into something gross and practical, but what, uh, do we do with the dead guys? I'm all for letting nature take it's course, but do we strip them down to better aid Nature? Or...?"
Captain Hanlock gasped, "Sunshine, surely we must commend their souls to the Maker! It wouldn't be right otherwise! And then have a pyre, as is only right of us!" Sunshine always thought it strange how Hanlock had managed to get promoted to captain and talk like a Suburban Teenage Princess, it was a mystery. She managed to hide her eyeroll in the shade of the brim of her Stetson, aware of her own immaturity in the gesture.
"Look Captain, commending their souls is all well and good if you truly mourn them, funerals and the like are really for the grief struck living. However if you want to ask your Maker to forgive them for trying to kill you and following asinine orders, please be my guest. I will mention that a funeral pyre would be ill advised in this area, as we do not want to harm the local wildlife with a fire. Plus, it smells bad, as I learned when I let you burn them the last time, I would like to eat tonight and I will not be able to if we set them on fire."
This exchange, greatly amused Duncan and his companions, especially Grace. This woman was just so insouciant, yet not without compassion. Captain Hanlock was having a difficult time reconciling her words with his worldview, but he knew she was wise, and so she had to be right. And she did have a point about the smell. Duncan rescued the poor Captain by agreeing with Sunshine, "it really makes more sense to take off their armor, line them up respectfully, and say a few words, we've worried the local wildlife enough today."
Within an hour the bodies had been stripped of armor, and lined up, more or less respectfully, with face covers on those who still had a head attached, and were ready for the final send off. Sunshine had carefully asked Duncan to do it outside of earshot of Captain Hanlock as she wanted to get on with the day as quickly as possible, and sensed that Duncan would be a man who knew the value of 'brief'. They gathered around with Duncan on one side of the bodies and everyone else on the other.
"It is a sad day that we have to take arms against our brothers, who we call the opposition, because of the pointless schemes of politicians. May the Maker understand their actions and grant them peace at his side." He then bowed his head respectfully in a moment of silence, nodded, and then motioned for the groups to finish up their packing and be on their separate ways. He watched as Sunshine said her final farewells to her companions and then picked up her belongings and went to the Warden's side, with surprise from his companions.
"Sunshine has asked to travel with us while we are on our way to the Landsmeet, and I have agreed. I believe that she will be an able ally along our journey and have consented for her to join us," Duncan spoke formally, implying that he wanted to make sure everyone understood that he was fully on board with granting her request, and was indeed glad that she asked. He had no idea how he would have asked her without blushing like a knave. Only Danforth and Gavarth understood his formality, and shared sly smiles with one another behind his back. Duncan ignored this insubordination, knowing any recognition of it would only lead to further teasing.
They headed out shortly with Sunshine walking alongside Duncan, chatting amicably about the current political situation. Grace had been tugged further back by Danforth when he realized she was trying to get close to the pair and eavesdrop on their conversation, or worse yet, interrupt. For her part Grace was sure that this woman was from somewhere more modern, maybe even Earth, and she was anxious to hear what she was saying, or to even have a private conversation. Danforth was equally determined to let Duncan have a private moment with Sunshine and was afraid that Grace might intervene, unintentionally or not. Of course both of them being moderately self-absorbed with their motivations led to a frustrated Grace and a determined Danforth.
Not known for her patience when she was determined, she finally growled in a low voice, "Danforth, why are you stone walling me?" She stared at him, frowning, glaring and trying to look tough. This would normally work, but Danforth could be just as stubborn, and was naturally intimidating to look at. He pulled her back even further, careful to avoid their companions looks.
"Look, Grace," he sighed, "I've known your da for a long time. In all that time I've never seen him blush, and I've never seen him carry on a conversation with a lady for over an hour and not want to kill his self. I know you're relationship with him is new, but please give him a little time alone with her."
Grace's face started with an irritated look, went to astonished, confused and then settled on wonderment. Her dad, Sunshine, her dad, Sunshine, her dad, Sunshine...Danforth could see the two images rotating in her mind. Being a romantic, ibid Alistair, Grace rather liked the idea of her dad having a passionate affair. Being a pragmatist, she still needed to talk to Sunshine. She just now realized that she had neglected to see the little signs the two had been giving off. "Isn't this a little fast? They met three hours ago." Danforth just nodded and smiled. "Three. Hours." She repeated herself.
"Yup," came the reply.
"And...," she prompted.
Sigh. "Sweetling, when you get older there are a few things that you realize. One, you know what you like and what you don't. Two, you have less time to fuss around. Three, from One and Two, if you find someone attractive you get to the point really quick. By the end of tonight, if we let them they'll know how they'll want to settle things."
"Uh, please tell me I won't have to hear them 'settle things'," she said, while gesturing vaguely with her hands.
"Probably not tonight."
"Probably?"
"Yup."
"That's it?" Sigh. She was so stunned by Danforth's revelation, that she didn't fully stop to wonder why he thought it was important that she not go near them, unless he thought...Oh, of course. They thought I was trying to get in between the two of them. "Danforth?"
"What?"
"Why did you think I was trying to separate them?"
Danforth frowned, "isn't that what young ladies do to women interested in their dads?"
They had more or less caught with the end of the group by this point, Grace with a huge brazen smile on her face. "Do you remember my big revelation after we left Orzammar?," at his nod she continued, "good."
Grace felt a moment of delighted revenge when she saw the flow of expressions on Danforth's face. She was sure his looked slightly more ridiculous than her expressions. She strode forward, deciding that it would be better to get this conversation over with sooner than later. As she was reaching the two of them she heard her father say, "Grace is the best thing that I ever did, my only regret is that I've had so little time with her, and if the blight doesn't end me, the civil war might. I wish I had more time with her. I don't mean in the measure of hours, but in the measure of years"
Everyone else had edged closer and were all eavesdropping alongside Grace. Sunshine put her arm through Duncan's and swung her hip, bumping it into him, to everyone, but Grace and Duncan's, astonishment. Grace because, hey, isn't that how a Disreputable Urban Cowgirl would act? Duncan because her touch felt natural. "I know, I don't know whether it's worse to have them for a brief time at the beginning as I did, or for a brief time when they're older. For what it's worth, given my lack of ability to see the future, and not wanting to feed you empty promises, I hope that you have many more years with her. And I'll do everything I can to help ensure that." Her voice came out gravely towards the end, and the party members began to feel uncomfortable with their brazen eavesdropping. But not before feeling somewhat satisfied when they saw Duncan wrap an arm around her waist and squeeze.
Grace realized that this was better than watching a romance at the cinema, or reading it in a book, and realized her questions about Earth, Guns and Cowgirls, could wait. Too bad there was no popcorn. Everyone else realized that there was a chance that these two women might help smooth out the hard, rough edges of their Commander. For once, they decided that they preferred to have the storm before the calm.
* I would like to give a shout out to SnowHelm, who graciously has allowed me to insert myself into her story, also to R2Muse, AnnBlackwater and Isabella Monroe who have all exchanged kind word with me about writing. Although this story will be a surprise to the last three. Love you all!
** Please read and review, you will not see me moping at any criticism you pass my way.