"Mamae, mamae, mamae!" A small child bounded across the room and bounced into his mother's lap. She reached down and hugged him closely. "What is it, sweetling?"
"Tell me a story mamae!"
She smiled. "A story is it? And what do you want a story of?"
"Fighting! And battles! And Grey Wardens!" the boy shrieked, and bounced up and down on her knees.
She laughed, a low rich chuckle. "Very well then, Grey Wardens it is. Now sit back and I'll tell you the story of the Battle of Denerim, and how the Grey Wardens saved us."
The boy snuggled obediently back into his mother's arms and listened intently as she began.
"It was not so very long ago that the Grey Wardens saved us from the Blight. We had all heard about how things were happening, how the darkspawn had started to appear, but that was all down in the south so we didn't pay much attention. Then, the old king Cailan took all the troops he could find, and they all went down to Ostagar. And there they had a terrible battle with the darkspawn. The king himself was killed. And the leader of the Grey Wardens died as well. But worst of all, they were betrayed."
"Oooooohh," said the boy appreciatively.
She hugged him and continued. "It was after this betrayal that we heard only two Grey Wardens had survived, both novices, one only newly created. We can't imagine how they might have felt, knowing they were the last Wardens in the whole of Ferelden…"
"I know!" interrupted the boy.
"You do?"
"Yes! It's like when Puppy died. I was very sad, and alone." The corners of his mouth turned down in remembrance.
She kissed him on the forehead and closed her arms around him reassuringly. "Yes, sweetling, it was probably very much like that.
"Anyway, they were the last two Wardens left. But there was still a Blight to face. So they gathered up their courage and decided that they would get together as many people as they could to help them fight it.
'Now do you remember who those last Wardens were?" she asked him.
"Yes! It was the Hero, and King Alistair!"
"Exactly right!" she congratulated him. "Now the hero's name was Solona, and she was a mage."
"Girls can't be heroes," grumbled the boy.
"Of course they can, silly. Now shush and listen.
"Solona joined the Wardens when she was barely out of her apprenticeship. All she had was her staff and her robes. But it was said even then that great things were expected of her. She was tall, and beautiful, with eyes of the deepest sky and deep brown hair. She could put a room to sleep with her magic, and make the strongest foe weak. And she had such a way with words! Charm the birds right out of the sky, she would.
"King Alistair wasn't the king back then either. Back then, no one was the king. He was just a nobody, a failed Templar who'd been a Grey Warden for less than a year.
"Of course, what nobody knew was that he was also the bastard son of King Cailan's father. Which meant that with King Cailan dead, he was eligible to take the throne.
"So, the last two Wardens in all of Ferelden started gathering up people to help them fight the blight. They visited the dwarves in underground Orzammar. It is said that Solona herself fought in the dwarves' Proving fights to show she was worthy to ask for their aid. Then she persuaded their King to send them troops to help in the fighting. At first he hummed and hahed over it, and made her and Alistair complete all sorts of tasks for him, but eventually he agreed. So then they had the dwarves on their side.
'Next, they visited the Dalish elves to ask for their help too. Back then, they used to live in the Brecilian Forest, and were wild and dangerous, and they were also cursed."
The boy gasped. "Cursed?"
"Mmm hmm. They were cursed to become werewolves. No one knows how it happens, but apparently the Dalish can become werewolves. So you must make sure you never anger a Dalish!"
The boy nodded, wide eyed and apprehensive. She smiled and hugged him before continuing.
"Well of course the Dalish didn't all like the idea of becoming werewolves, so they asked Solona for her help. And because she was good and kind, she agreed. She traveled throughout the forest with Alistair and their companions, looking for the cure for the Dalish. They had to fight bad spirit trees, and evil werewolves, and mad mages, but eventually they found it. And the Dalish were cured and promised to send their aid in the battle against the Blight as well.
"It was about this time that Solona had heard from her friends at the old Tower of Magi that there were problems there. Now despite being made a Grey Warden, Solona was still also a mage, and she remembered her training and hurried back to the Tower to help. What she found there was truly horrible. Demons had taken over some of the mages, and they had killed people inside the Tower. The Templars had shut the Tower up, with some surviving mages still inside.
"Well, Solona was horrified at this. She vowed to go in there and rescue them all by herself. And so she did. When the demons got too close, she would freeze them right where they stood. And then she would use her magic to drain the life from them. And if there were many all around her, she would stun them, so that she could back away, and kill them from a little distance. When she came across a particularly nasty demon, she would paralyse it, and then weaken it with hexes, and then use her magic staff to kill it. Oh, she was a magnificent mage!
"After many great battles with the demons, she eventually freed all the remaining mages. Tired and sweaty from her battles, she got the First Enchanter himself to pledge his support. He promised to send mages to help in the coming battle. And so, tired but happy, she left the Tower again and rejoined her companions.
"Now, do you remember her companions, sweetling?"
"Uh huh," replied the boy. "There's a rhyme." And he chanted:
"Sten the magnificent, valorous and brave.
The bard Leliana, whose songs would save.
Morrigan the Witch, master of forms.
The golem Shale, who all birds scorned.
Dwarven Oghram, with mighty axe.
Assassin Zevram, whose quips would tax.
Niko the mabari, her faithful hound.
Bastard Alistair, with true love found.
Gentle Wynne, the healing mage.
The companions of the Dragon Age."
"Yes, that's right, well done!" said his mother.
"Now Solona and Alistair and their companions traveled all over Ferelden to get all the troops they could find. And along the way, they fell in love. This was probably only natural between two young people, so full of life, in close company with each other. Alistair was strong and charming, sweet and affectionate, and he looked at Solona and loved her. He gave her his rose, and she treasured it always. It is said that their love was the most pure and sweet, truest love you could ever find. All men were jealous of Alistair because of Solona's bravery and beauty, and all women were jealous of Solona because Alistair's handsomeness and chivalry. It is said that when they kissed, even the hardest of hearts heard the sweet lilting of music in the air, and would weep over the beauty of it."
The boy grimaced and squirmed in her lap. "I didn't ask for a kissing story, mamae!" he pouted. She laughed and continued.
"Very well then, demanding one.
"It was soon after Solona had rescued the Tower of Magi that Alistair got word that the old Arl of Redcliff was very ill. Alistair had been raised by the old Arl, before he was sent off to the Chantry to become a Templar, so he begged Solona to hurry there to see if they could help.
"When they arrived in Redcliff with their companions, they found the castle overrun by dead people! The town was under siege every night! The townsfolk were so relieved to see them, they put Solona in charge of protecting them. Solona organised the town and the remaining knights of Redcliff, and set up their defenses. She had the brilliant idea of putting barrels of oil on the main path, and setting them alight so that the corpses would get burnt when they came to attack. And it worked! When the corpses attacked that night, Solona, Alistair and the companions wiped them out. In the morning, the town celebrated, and Alistair, being so very worried about the Arl, asked Solona to investigate the castle.
"So they set off and found that there was a great demon there which had taken over the castle, poisoned the Arl, and was raising the dead to attack the village. The demon dragged Solona, Alistair and her companions into the Fade, to do battle with them there.
"But Solona was a mage, and was not afraid of being in the Fade. She had faced it before. So she hunted the wily demon down, defeated it in a duel, and then rescued each of her companions, and returned them to the waking world. And they were all very glad to be back!
"However, the Arl was still poisoned and could not recover. So his younger brother, Teagan, who is now the Arl himself, asked Solona to travel to the mountains to find the one thing that could save his brother: the Sacred Ashes of Andraste.
"It was at this time that Alistair confessed to Solona that he was in fact the bastard son of the old king, the brother of dead King Cailan, and the rightful claimant to the throne. Solona was upset that he had not trusted her with this information, but forgave him, because he was her love. It was also at this time that they discovered that they were being hunted.
"One day, while traveling to the mountains, they were waylaid by an ambush party. It was a very fierce fight. Solona was gravely wounded, and required all the healing magics that Wynne could give her. The only enemy survivor was an Antivan elf, who was also an assassin.
"The assassin begged Solona for mercy and explained that he had been hired by Teyrn Loghain, the father of Queen Anora, to kill the last remaining Grey Wardens. He vowed to Solona that he would serve her faithfully now, and Solona accepted him. But she remembered always that he was sent by Loghain, and was wary from thereon out."
She looked down and noticed her son's eyes had drooped shut, smiled, and lifted him onto the bed.
"We'll continue this another day, sweetling," she murmured, kissing him on the forehead.