The Rogue's Tale

This is the story of Daveth. I liked Ser Jory well enough, but Daveth really was my favorite of the two Warden recruits. These chapters are short snippets of Daveth's life before joining the Wardens.

Chapter 1

[Sixteen]

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Sixteen. For sixteen miserable winters, he had lived in this sorry blot of a town. Sixteen people – the entire population of said town. Twice-sixteen, the number of livestock and poultry that outnumbered the humans here. Sixteen logs – the amount of wood Daveth had chopped for the fire.

He raised the axe over his head, swinging it down with monotonous movements – almost mechanical in nature. He had done this every day for as long as he could remember – next, he'd go and work the fields for one of the older farmers in town, and earn a handful of bits for his troubles. He was saving up his coin, scrounging any bit that he could. He wanted to leave. He needed to – this town was a leech; it sucked the life out of its inhabitants. That was why his mother had run off with some bloody Antivan merchant when he wasn't yet six winters.

"Boy!" his father shouted from the house. Sod, Daveth thought, gritting his teeth as he put down the axe as his father limped towards him. The man was an old vet – a half-Chasind who served during the Orlesian Occupation. He had taken to drink not long after his wife had gone; he could barely remember Daveth's name on a good day.

Daveth listened in silence as the man rambled on about nothing, threatening to tan his hide if he caught him sneaking out again. The boy nodded, saying 'yes ser' after every few lines, bowing his head obediently. Tonight, he thought, I'll have fifty silvers. I can make it to Lothering with that, and maybe to Denerim from there.

"Your old man giving you trouble again, lad?" old man Perkins chuckled as Daveth crossed the dirt road, picking up the weeding tools and getting to work on the fields.

"Same old same old," the boy replied, kneeling in the dirt and tugging at the weeds, carefully pulling the roots out, swearing quietly whenever he broke the stems. Perkins sat down on a low bench by his house, stroking the back of his old guard dog, Mardi, who didn't do so much guarding as she did sleeping, nowadays.

"Don't let him talk like that to you, boy," Perkins said suddenly, and Daveth glanced up. The old man leaned forward, propping his knees up on his elbows and chewing on the pipe between his teeth, taking the object out and breathing smoke over Daveth. "Half the time he still thinks he's battling the Orlesians, the way we hear you screaming across town."

Daveth stiffened, and he reflexively reached a hand over his back, looking down quickly as he removed his hand, returning to weeding the garden. Perkins stood slowly, hobbling back into the house, and Mardi raised her old, fluffy head, her fur stuck at odd angles from how she was sleeping. The dog let out a low, half-hearted bark at Daveth – she was half-blind with age – before she recognized him. She settled back down with a low grunt and was snoring before she closed her eyes.

Perkins came back a while later, sitting back down with a long sigh and complaining about his knees. He clicked his tongue and nudged Mardi over, making room for Daveth on the bench as the boy sat, and the two ate lunch in silence. "Pack your things, boy, and leave tonight," old man Perkins mumbled through his sandwich. He took something out of his pocket, and Daveth stared in surprise at the gold sovereign the man offered him.

"Perkins, I can't–" the old man waved a hand dismissively, cutting off Daveth's protests.

"I'm not long for this world, boy," Perkins grunted, "and neither will you be, the way your father treats you," he scoffed. "Your mother was a bright girl." At the mention of his mother, Daveth scowled at the ground. Perkins patted the boy's arm gently as he continued, sensing the anger and resentment in the youth's stiffened shoulders. "She shouldn't have left the way she did, and she shouldn't have left you behind, but she got out of this place, and so should you." Daveth remained silent, but accepted the coin, tucking it into his pocket before returning to his weeding.

He spent the rest of the day hunting in the nearby woods, stepping lightly over marshland and avoiding the deeper parts of the wilderness – he had heard stories of witches that lived deep in the Korcari Wilds. A particularly gruesome tale was that of Flemeth – the Witch of the Wilds who begat the daughters of captured Chasind men, using them until they were spent before feasting on their living hearts. Daveth shuddered at the thought, swearing quietly and making a protective sign with his hands, warding off evil; he could almost feel the eyes of the witches on his back as he moved through the bogs.

oooo

In the dark of night, Daveth woke and packed his things in a small rucksack – a bundle of clothes, some traveling rations, his old bow, and his wallet, with fifty silvers and a single sovereign. He didn't know where old man Perkins had found the coin, or what spirit of compassion had possessed the old man and made him hand it over, and Daveth honestly didn't care – he was getting out of this place.

He looked at his father, the drunk man lying passed out with his head slumped against the dining room table, shaking his head slightly; sire would have been a more apt description – the man was no father to him. The young rogue crept out of the house and locked the door behind him, walking down the dirt path a short way before pausing. He took a long breath, looking out towards the Korcari Wilds – he could cut through the wilderness and marshlands to a town called Lothering. He had been there once or twice to help some of the local farmers load and unload the goods from their carts.

"To Denerim, then," he whispered – as he left the village that he had spent the first sixteen years of his life, he had a broad grin on his face. He never looked back.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Note:

Here's the first revision - I plan to flesh out the other chapters as well. Hope you like it :)