Author's Notes: This is my first fanfiction so sorry if it's not good. Also i use english-english which means i spell words like armour and colur with the 'u' and spell metre with the 're' that way and do a few other things some readers might not be used to. The stories picture is a picture of the main character. More notes at the end of this chapter.
Fraizor sat in the cold snow, his eyes squinted trying to see through the blizzard. He wore chainmail armour and astandard issue helmet. He had a sword sheathed at his waist and a kite shield slung over his back with the Highever heraldry painted on it. All of his gear was made of silverite. He was with a unit of Highever soldiers moving south to Ostagar, many would have thought them crazy going back after escaping the battle but once they discovered Teyrn Loghain had betrayed King Cailan they had to go back. They had been hoping to find shelter before night fell, but when they hadn't been able to they had been forced to set up camp in the middle of a cold, snowy blizzard somewhere in the middle of Ferelden. Fraizor had volunteered for first watch, not that having a lookout was helpful in all of this wind and snow.
Then several metres in front of him, he saw what looked to be a person crawling towards the camp. He drew his sword and unslung his shield and entered his combat stance. "Unkown approaching!" Fraizor warned the rest of his unit. He heard footsteps run up behind him as his Sergeant, Nigel, approached. Nigel wore heavy chainmail silverite armour and a commander's helmet and held his greatsword at the ready. Following closely behind Nigel was a mage that had been assigned to their unit who wore feathery hooded robes and held a wooden staff with a small blade on the bottom end and had a Dragon's head carved into the top end with a bright red ruby in it's mouth, his name was Hector and beneath his hood he had short, brown hair and a beard of the same length and colour. Behind him was a soldier named Fred with the same equipment as Fraizor. Fred had no beard and under his helmet had barely any hair. Behind Fred was Vincent, who wore the same armour as Fraizor and Fred but had dule daggers in place of a sword and shield and kept his head entirely shaved. Behind Vincent, Kathriel and and Bolfmer, the unit's archers, readied their bows. Bolfmer wore the same armour as the majority of the unit but stood out as he was a little bigger than the others and had a bright orange beard and tufts of hair sticking out from his wore the same armour as the majority of the unit except she didn't wear a helmet. She had midnight black hair pulled back into a ponytail with a streak of silver grey. it was not because she was old that she was going grey she was only in her mid twenties like the rest of them but times in Ferelden were hard and many people aged before their time.
"Help!" gasped the prone form in the snow.
The sergeant looked at Fraizor and ordered "Approach him, but be careful it could be a trap."
"Yes, sir." Fraizor replied. As Fraizor approached he saw a second human shaped figure running towards him, he squinted to try to make out what it was, it's arms were raised in the air, swinging wildy and holding a jagged sword. it ran with a gait that seemed oddly familiar...
And then it clicked "DARKSPAWN!" he shouted. Kathriel loosed an arrow that plunged right into the Hurlock's left eye. He crouched next to the man on the ground and examined him. He was severely wounded and probably wouldn't make it, even with Hector's healing magic. Then he recognised the man as the son of Lord Bryce Cousland, the Teyrn of Highever. "My Lord, what are you doing out here? We thought you were killed at Ostagar after you joined the Grey Wardens?"
"There isn't time to explain, you must listen," replied Cousland, "there is a camp straight South East from here, it is being attacked by darkspawn, the only other Grey Warden and future King is there you must protect him at all costs, do you understand?"
"Yes sir!" Fraizor shouted as he saluted his Lord.
"Also take my sword and shield, they have been past down my family line for generations and must be delivered to my brother, the future Teyrn of Highever!" rasped Lord Cousland.
"Yes sir!" Fraizor shouted saluting, he couldn't belive he was being entrusted with the Kings life and two priceless artifacts. But he didn't have time to think about the weight of these tasks as Lord Cousland had just started coughing dark red blood onto the snow. Hector ran over and announced what everyone had already figured out "i can't save him, he is going to die...". Then as if on cue the noble breathed his final breath and his slightly raised head fell back into the snow and blood.
"Fraizor, quick find Lord Cousland's camp, the rest of us will pack up camp and retrieve his Family's sword and shield from his body!" ordered Sergeant Nigel who had been listen closely from a few metres away.
Fraizor set off sprinting straight south east. After a few minutes he saw a camp ahead, it was close but difficult to see from all the snow. if conditions were clear he would have been able to see it from his team's camp. As he got closer he saw silhouettes around a camp fire that appeared to be dancing but were probably fighting.
When he reached the camp he saw what appeared to be statue crushing darkspawn of all kinds with it's stony fists. Next to the statue was an enormous man in heavy plate armour swinging a giant two handed sword in wide arcs cutting down up to four darspawn at a time. Fraizor guessed this man was a hornless Qunari. in front of them were dozens of darkspawn. And behind the Quanri and the animated statue was an elderly woman waving a staff that shot bolts of energy at the assailing darkspawn. The ground was littered with dozens of bodies, most darkspawn but there were some humans and even an elf, a dwarf and a mabari. Fraizor drew his sword and shield and moved towards the darkspawn but was careful to keep clear of the wide blows of the statue and Qunari.
As Fraizor moved closer three of the darkspawn spotted him and charged towards him, two of them were hurlocks and one a genlock. The first hurlock reached him a hefted a greatsword above it's head and was about to bring it down on Fraizor when he raised his shield block the blow. Fraizor staggered backward from the force of the blow and the darkspawn stumbled forward from putting too much force behind the blow. Fraizor regained his balance quicker than the hurlock and took this chance to thrust his blade into the hurlock's chest, cutting it's tainted life short. The next hurlock had a sword and shield and was in a defensive pose. As Frazor advanced on it he noticed the genlock was missing. He heard quiet footsteps behind him and turned just in time to deflect the genlocks twin daggers with his sword. He turned 45 degrees to his right and backed away so that both of the darkspawn were in front of him. He didn't know if he could bring both down on his own. Suddenly the hurlock lowered it's shield and lunged out with it's sword. Fraizor side stepped the hurlock and stuck out his and tripped it. it fell face first onto the ground. He faced the genlock just in time to see it charge at him. He didn't have enough time to ready himself for the attack.
Then, seemingly out of nowhere, a bolt of lightning struck the genlock in the side of the head. He turned and the rest of his group had arrived and Hector had cast a lightning spell. Hector, Kathriel and Bolfmer lined up behind the group and began to unleash a deadly hail of arrows and spells upon the darkspawn. Fraizor and the rest of the team charged the darkspawn.
After close to half an hour they had cut the darkspawn to a dozen. Just as it looked like the battle was over a cry of pain could be only just heard over the wind. Fraizor turned looking for the source and saw a sherlock, nicknamed a shriek, sink it's claws into Bolfmer's face so far that it killed him instantly. Hector immediately cast a frost spell on the sherlock and stabbed the small blade on the end of his staff into it's skull to make sure that it was dead.
Once the remaining darkspawn had been finished off Sergeant Nigel ordered the team to pile up the darkspawn bodies for burning. "Except Fraizor, i want you to come with me and talk to the mage lady and her companions." he shouted over the wind. The statue and the Qunari looked like they were helpig gather the darkspawn bodies, so Fraizor and Nigel walked over to the mage first. Though she was definitely old she still looked quite capable, she had aged well.
"May we know your name mam?" Nigel asked.
"i am Wynne senior enchanter of the circle, and you are?" she replied.
"i am Sergeant Nigel of Highever, and this man here is one of the soldiers under my command," Nigel introduced them. "may i ask what happened here?"
"Of course you saved us after all," Wynne replied, "No interruptions please. We are, or were as may be the case, travelling to Redcliffe. My companions were Warden Cousland, Prince and Warden Alistair, Leliana a bard od Orlais, Zevran an Antivan assassin, Oghren of Orzammar, Morrigan a witch of the wilds and a particularly smart mabari called Mouse Catcher. My surviving companions are a chiseled down golem called Shale and a Qunari warrior who goes by the title Sten. Earlier today we decided to set camp here as we had seen no signs of darkspawn in the area. When night fell the darkspwn attacked... Morrigan always isolated herself from the group and was caught out all by herself, she was killed before she even got the chance to defend herself... However, her death warned the rest of us and we had time to prepare. That hot headed dwarf instantly charged at the darkspawn and was overwhelmed. Leliana is skilled at range but she is no good at melee combat unless she has the oportunity to sneak up on her foes. When the darkspawn reached the camp she did not have that opportunity and was slain... then Sten, Shale, Alistair, Cousland Mouse Catcher formed a line to hold the darkspawn back. i brought down what darkspawn i could with my spells but mostly i cast healing spells whenever one of them got an injury. Meanwhile Zevran tried to sneak around the darkspawn group and ambush them, but a darkspawn archer spotted him a shot him in the head... i didn't have a chance to heal him... one of the hurlocks picked up Mouse Catcher and hurled him across the camp. When we realised we were going to be overwhelmed Cousland said he thought he had seen another camp in the distance when he was scouting, so he left to find help but several darkspawn followed him... after he left the darkspawn focused on Alistair, as he was the only remaining Warden. The darrkspawn leader, a huge hulking hurlock crushed his skull with a gargantuan war hammer... another life i couldn't save..." the look on Wynne's face told Fraizor that she felt like she had failed her travelling companions... Fraizor never wanted to feel that way himself, it must be terrible for her. "it's okay mam, it's not your fault, there was nothing you could do." Fraizor consoled her.
"Thank you young man, i know that i couldn't have saved them but deep down i still feel responsibility for them as the groups healer," she responded "Now, however, i must ask you why you are here? Are you the people that were at the other camp?"
"Yes," Nigel answered "when Lord Cousland arrived at our camp he was severely injured and only one darkspawn was following him so he must have fought them at some point. He was near death and there was nothing our healer could do for him. Before he died he had only enough time to tell us where his camp and to ordered us to take his family weapons to his brother and order us to save Prince Alistair... but it seems we to have failed at that as well. However we did retrieve his weapons from his body."
"Well that at least is good news," Wynne replied, "But i have another question, why are you out here? in the middle of Ferelden?"
"We were at Ostagar," Nigel explained, "We are from Highever but we were stationed with Teyrn Loghain's men to help bolster their numbers for the charge. We were also assigned Hector to help us," Nigel pointed to Hector, "due to a a plan Loghain came up with to encourage positive relations between the circle and the army as well as increasing the army's effectiveness by placing mages in selected units. When Loghain signaled the retreat we assumed that the battle was lost and that King Cailan and the Wardens had retreated as well. When we arrived at Denerim we were told that Lord Rendon Howe was the new ruler of Highever and tat we had to report to him. We obviously knew that something was wrong, the Wardens declared traitors, the Couslands deposed and Loghain leaving the battle and then claiming power. So i sent Vincent to the Royal Palace to... listen in to the chatter... he's the best in our unit at stealth. After a few hours of sneaking around he over heard Loghain arguing with the Queen about Loghain abandoning the King. So, then we knew for sure that Loghain was a traitor and we decided to go back to Ostagar, we knew that there would be no survivors but we had to avenge those that we abandoned, we didn't deserve to survive that battle... so we had to make things right. Now, however, we have a new mission given to us be a real, living Cousland, so we must carry out."
"Hmm..." Wynne had a thoughtful look on her face "Fergus may at Redcliffe, Eamon is rallying nobles so he sent a party to fish Fergus out of the wilds, he arrived at Redcliffe before we left, he may still be there."
"Thank you for the information," Nigel replied, "and it looks like the darkspawn bodies are piled up now, so perhaps we should introduce our unit to you and your companions." Then the sergeant introduced the unit to Wynne and her comapions and Wynne introduced herself and her companions to the unit.
After the introductions Fraizor heard a sort of soft bark from the other sound of the camp, he turned and saw Mouse Catcher trying to stand. "Mouse Catcher!" Wynne shouted and sprinted over to the mabari, she was fats for her age. Once she reached Mouse Catcher she took out her staff and bathed him in a bright blue light. Mouse Cathcer jumped up and barked happily, but then hung his head as he saw most of his travelling companions had been killed byt the darkspawn. "Nice work," Fraizor said to Wynne, "looks like you did save one of your companions."
"Yes, it does." Wynne said slightly more cheerily than before.
"We're going to cremate our dead squad mate, do you want us to build a pyre big enough for your companions as well?" Nigel asked Wynne. The entire unit was saddened by the loss of Bolfmer but they had been trained to keep going no matter the losses suffered, with the exception of taking time to cremate bodies.
Then the golem spoke "i will retrieve it's body, i know what direction your old camp is so i don't need directions." The golem had a deep, smooth voice but it was somehow feminine... Shale then stomped off.
"When Shale says "it" she is talking about Lord Cousland." Wynne informed them.
"She?" Asked Fred.
"Yes," replied Wynne, "she was once a dwarven woman but was then made into a golem, the only woman to have such a thing done to her, all the rest were dwarven men. While some could argue she no longer has a gender, i think she likes being given one and she identifies as a woman so we address her as such."
They then readied a pyre and put the non darkspawn bodies on it and waited for Shale to return.
Once Shale returned and carefully placed Cousland's body on the pyre Wynne cast a spell to light it, she also cast one on the pile of darkspawn bodies though she seemed to cast that spell a bit more carelessly.
They waited until the bodies of their fallen comrades were burned to ash and then collected them up and placed them in a satchel. The unit decided they would travel with Wynne and her companions (she had taken control of her group as Shale seemed to trust her, it appeared that the Qun said elders had a position of leadership so Sten was fine with following her lead and Mouse Catcher had become extremely protective of her) to Redcliffe to return the Cousland heirlooms to Fergus, to help Eamon extract revenge on Lohain and figure out how to stop the Blight without the Wardens...
Author's Notes: if your unhappy about who survived just know i have my reasons. Also i'm terrible at naming things so sorry if the names are a bit awkward. if you notice any errors let me know through reviews or private messaging and i'll fix them.