All locations and characters from the Dragon Age universe belong to Bioware, and all of the characters and locations from Legend of Zelda belong to the big N.

I would love to receive any and all constructive criticism that I can get (REVIEW ME PLEASE!). It will help my writing and hopefully feed back into a better story for everyone.

Just to make sure everyone is clear, I am using the male human warrior origin story, and this Link is from Twilight Princess. Enjoy.


"'Tis most strange."

"Oh really? What gave you that idea, your super-witchy senses?"

The witch in question opened her mouth in preparation of the sarcastic lashing that was about to head in the direction of her unfortunate antagonist. Before she could utter a word, she was interrupted by another of the group.

"Could you two both just play nice for once?" The speaker inwardly smiled at the expressions that had just inevitably past the faces of his two companions behind him. Their bickering was, while occasionally irritating, at least some way to pass the journey north. Otherwise, they walked in silence, ever alert in case any darkspawn should discover them. He removed his large backpack and knelt down to get a closer look at the battered remains on front of him. "Alistair, I do not sense any darkspawn nearby, but your ability in this area is superior to my own."

Alistair walked to his fellow Grey Warden's side before replying, "I cannot sense any darkspawn close to our position." He suddenly crouched down before continuing in a lowered tone, no doubt in a futile attempt to avoid their other companion from overhearing. "I do not like this Aedan, and I am not just talking about bringing her along" A shudder seemed to run through the man's body as he motioned towards the apostate Morrigan, who was at that moment torn between angrily staring at them, no doubt aware of what Alistair was saying, and performing some sort of spell if her muttering was anything to go by. "Something killed these creatures. Several bodies are heavily charred, and there is little left. Only magic could cause such a thing. There might be apostates nearby, we should leave."

Suddenly there was a humourless laugh from behind them, causing both to start slightly before realising that it came from Morrigan. Both of them turned and looked at her inquiringly. "What is so funny?" Said Alistair.

"'Twas as good a guess as one could expect from a fool," her eyes narrowed, "A templar fool at that."

Alistair just pulled a face, stood up, and walked a short distance away to examine the bodies and rummage through the equipment of the fallen looking for anything useful.

Aedan rose to his feet and took a quick look between his feuding travelling companions. He doubted that there could be two more different people in all of Thedas. Focusing on the armour clad figure in the forest clearing, his mind travelled back to that cursed place where they had met. Ostagar . Where he and two others had taken part in the secret Joining ritual from which only one had survived and become a Grey Warden. Where Loghain had betrayed them all and left his king and countrymen to die. First Cailan, then Duncan, then all the others. Subconsciously his hand travelled to the vial of darkspawn blood hanging around his neck, and he took a moment to remember his brothers who had not made it this far, Ser Jory and Daveth all the other Grey Wardens who he would never meet. Rage flashed in his heart for what felt like an age before subsiding into an uneasy peace. Moment over, his thoughts turned to his other companion. Truth be told he agreed with Alistair. Morrigan was an unknown quantity, and under normal circumstances he would not have taken her. Not to mention that she was a very… unusual individual, although that was hardly surprising considering her life up to this point had been mostly spent in the middle of a forest with just her mother for human company. However, Flemeth had been very insistent on the importance of taking Morrigan along, and Aedan had not been so sure of her craziness as Alistair had. Besides, despite Alistair's protestations to the contrary he knew how useful it would be to have a mage on their side.

Sighing heavily, he walked over to the witch. "Would it be to much to ask for you to treat him nicely for the rest of our journey, it would make things much easier. For all of us."

Morrigan looked at him slyly before replying, "Why of course. As soon as he admits that he is a fool and that we would increase our chances of survival with him in a ditch somewhere than with us."

Aedan just looked at her sternly and crossed his arms in front of his chest. "You don't mean that."

She just looked him right in the eye and said: "Oh I assure you that I do. Oh, and you might be interested to know, these darkspawn were not killed by magic."

He just raised a disbelieving eyebrow at her before asking, "Are you certain?"

"Of course I am certain Warden, 'twas no magic of which I know that caused this chaos."

He just grunted his thanks at this news, and turned around slowly to look at the scene before him. Alistair had finished his search and was now headed back towards them. Outwardly, Aedan gave no sign of emotion other than running his hand through his short brown hair, before dropping it down by his side. Inwardly though, his mind was racing. He knew of no weapon nor creature that could cause such damage, save for heavy siege weaponry, and he was fairly certain that wasn't the cause. His thoughts were sidetracked by Alistair jogging up to him.

"Oh look, the pet fool has come back" Smirked Morrigan.

"I am ignoring you from now on. If you want to annoy anyone then it will have to be him. Or perhaps you should get a pet toad."

Aedan could not help but notice the twitch at the corner of Alistair's mouth as he said that. It was all he could do not to smile at Morrigan's hate-fuelled rage as she began to utter various curses at the former templar himself. However, Alistair had already turned towards him. "You will want to take a look at this Aedan," he said, turning and gesturing to follow.

Once they were all in the clearing Aedan's fellow Grey Warden turned and looked around. "As you can see, despite the darkspawn chunks back there, there were still a few who escaped being roasted."

As their eyes scanned the scene they could all see the truth behind this. At least eight corpses lay in a messed heap, mostly Hurlock and one or two genlock. What caught Aedan's eye was the body of an emissary with a hole in its head, showing the unmistakable work of an arrow. He whistled in admirration for the accuracy as he studied the other bodies. Discovering that four others had been killed the same way, and the remaining three with a blade. "This does not seem like the work of bandits, there aren't any casualties of their own around. Even if it was a large bandit group you would expect someone to have fallen. No, this was the work of a more skilled group." Alistair's head snapped up at this.

"Grey Wardens?" He asked, hope filling each word.

"Perhaps." Aedan conceded. Alistair seemed to accept that for now. As for himself, he was not so sure, but it was better to hope than give in to despair.

"You know," interjected Morrigan, contempt dripping into every syllable, "you really are missing the obvious. Perhaps they removed the bodies after they finished with the darkspawn?"

Aedan found that he could not reply to that, and Alistair looked downbeat at the logic facing him. Several seconds passed in silence before he opened his mouth and said…

"They did not."

The whole group spun around to the source of the voice, weapons drawn out of instinct.

The figure before them was at the edge of the clearing, and walking slowly towards them, arms out wide and hands open, clearly indicating that he was not an immediate threat. Despite this none of them relaxed over much, just enough to let the stranger know they were not going to attack him.

As he got closer it became easier to pick out details. He was garbed in a most outlandish manner, being primarily dressed in a tunic of dark green. Aedan could see that he wore a coat of chain mail underneath for protection and a cloth shirt underneath that, no doubt padded with leather for extra protection. Covering his legs there were only a pair of tan leggings, ending in leather boots. Each arm was adorned with leather armguards which covered his forearms and marked him down as a warrior, if his equipment of a shield and longsword, each strapped to his back, were not evidence enough. However, the strangest part of his clothing was undoubtedly the green floppy hat that swayed slightly in the light breeze in time with the surrounding trees. Physically, the stranger's pointy ears immediately marked him down as an elf, and he was young, although it was difficult to tell exactly with elves, Aedan would hazard a guess at the elf being in his late teens to early twenties. Aedan himself had seen few elves in his life, mainly just the few who had flitted about the castle. There had been that pretty elf girl the day before… No! He chastised himself for allowing himself to be distracted by that night when he needed to be in the here and now. Quickly bringing his mind back to focusing on the stranger, who had come even closer, there seemed to be discrepancies that could not be ignored. A quick glance at his companions showed that they too seemed to be trying to make sense of this stranger. Firstly, his face lacked any tattoos, which from what Aedan had read where what marked Dalish elves apart, being a symbol of their clan and their gods. However, his equipment was obviously of high quality and the stranger himself had the look of a trained warrior, both unusual qualities amongst the elves of an alienage. Perhaps if things went well he would discover where this unusual elf hailed from. Physically, the stranger was slightly shorter than either Alistair or himself, but was bulkier than any elf that he had ever seen.

By the time that he had analysed as many details as possible the elf had come within a few feet of the group before stopping. If he were aware of any tensions he was causing he seemed unaware. Aedan looked him in the eyes. They were blue, almost unnaturally so, but not cold. Indeed, they seemed to contain a warmth and joy for the world that had been tempered on the furnace of experience.

"So I guess we have your you and your men to thank for this?" He said, gesturing around and with a slight smile.

"I'm afraid not," the elf replied. He spoke the King's Tongue clearly enough, his accent was not one that Aedan had ever heard before. He almost let his disappointment show through before the elf continued. "Just me."

"That can't be true," Alistair exclaimed: "there couldn't have been less than twenty darkspawn here! Including an emissary! But… how?"

The elf turned to him, an eyebrow raised and a faint sign of amusement playing on his lips. "Darkspawn? So that's what they are called. Named or no; they were monsters."

Morrigan, who at this point had been content to stay silent, and indeed had been in favour of leaving sooner, picked up on his turn of phrase. "The way you talk 'Tis almost as if you had not heard of the darkspawn?

"I have not." At this both Alistair and Aedan could not hide their shock, although Morrigan remained her usual unreadable self. "I am a newcomer to these lands and do not know them. Perhaps, if it would be acceptable, I could travel with you, at least for a while?" His words seemed honest and hopeful, and his eyes betrayed no evil intent. However, the Warden did not wish to antagonise his new companions by blindly accepting, so he turned around to face his fellows before he asked, "What do you think Alistair?"

"Aedan, if he's telling the truth, then I think we should help him. Besides," he said, looking around, "he could be quite helpful, even if I am not convinced he is not a mage."

Morrigan saw the slightest glimpse of surprise cross the elf's features, before they settled quickly back into their usual state. Curiosity peaked, she inwardly made a note to discover everything that she could about this creature.

"Morrigan?"

The witch simply scowled back at him and said: "If we must, although I will not accept every lost stray which we come across."

He turned back to the elf, who was now clearly smiling.

"Very well. For your information we are heading north to a small village called Lothering. From there you may choose whichever direction you wish to travel in. I am sure there will be someone with maps."

The elf nodded graciously at this news. As the group gathered up their backpacks, Aedan saw that the elf did not have any supplies. Cursing inwardly, he pointed this out to the elf.

"Do not worry, I can supply myself."

Aedan raised an eyebrow at that, but decided not to query any further. The group, now four strong, journeyed for the rest of the day, before setting camp for the night. He had been spared the usual fighting, and every member seemed to be lost in thoughts. Alistair had been very quiet since the forest clearing. While he had been like that largely since Ostagar, it was clear that he had got his hopes up over Grey Warden survivors. Aedan knew how he felt. Duncan had been the one to save him, bring him from the end of his old life into what seemed like was going to be his new. The pain and unfairness of his death tore at Aedan's soul, and Alistair had known him for far longer. Glancing over to the far end of the camp he saw a small hut that Morrigan had built for herself. He wasn't surprised that she separated herself from the others while in camp, not being quite the social sort, but she had been unusually quiet during the journey as well. Every so often he thought that he caught her sneaking curious glances at their newest member. It was enough to make him suspicious and he had decided to keep a closer eye on her in the future. It was not until then that it occurred to Aedan that he did not actually know the elf's name. Chastening himself for his stupidity, he strolled over to the patch of grass where the elf was lying, gazing at the stars.

"I am sorry, my manners seem to be few and far between these days." He sat down beside the elf. "I am Aedan, that is Alistair and way over there is Morrigan."

The elf gave no inclination of hearing him. A few seconds passed by and Aedan wondered if he would have to be more direct with the elf, when he sat up suddenly with a large sigh and simply said: "My name is Link."