Journey over the Frostback Mountains
He slowly plowed forward through the deep snow from the harsh snowstorms that never seemed to stop in this place. Being born and raised in Ferelden had made him accustomed to cold climates, but out here even his thick fur cloak was almost useless.
The people he had spoken to at the village inn nestled against the base of the mountains warned him that this time of year was very bad for traveling. They advised him to wait a few more days as the season would turn friendlier for travel. He, however, had no choice but to cross now.
Right after the Archdemon had been slain, Morrigan had vanished without saying a word. Contrary to his promise to her however, he was determined to find her. To this end Lion had sent out messengers immediately after the victory celebrations to all the corners of the realm requesting to keep an eye out for someone matching her description. Several months had passed without word, but just when he had almost given up hope a dwarven messenger arrived with a letter bearing the seal of the King of Orzammar. The letter was in the hand of the dwarven king himself and stated that word had reached him from a surface dwarf who had apparently seen someone matching Morrigan's description heading for the Frostback Mountains. Lion packed his bags, put on his armor and immediately set out for the Frostback Mountains less than an hour later. Now, five days later, he was trekking through the deep snow, the snowstorm whipping in his face. It was as if the mountain itself was trying to prevent him from finding her. The pace was getting harder and harder to keep up, if you could call it a pace at all! Then he came across something that looked like a cave. While resting on one knee and looking at the cave entrance, Lion decided he couldn't continue on like this. He had pushed himself for five days straight without sleep, but now exhaustion had finally set in.
The cave wasn't very large or very deep but it was good shelter and it was dry. Inside the cave Lion opened his backpack and took out a small, golden bowl. Ancient and mystical inscriptions were delicately carved within the precious metal. He reached into his backpack once more and removed several small, yellow gemstones. He placed the gemstones in the bowl which immediately started glowing brightly, their color slowly fading to a bright red. Seconds later smoke came from the bowl and then a small magical fire flaming red began burning inside the golden bowl. Lion started to warm himself by the fire, his eyelids becoming heavy from the heat and exhaustion he felt. It didn't take long for him to fall asleep.
When Lion awoke he had forgotten where he was, but quickly remembered that he was trying to cross this frozen hell. He boiled some water on the small magical fire that was still going strong in the golden bowl, made some tea and ate a few more strips of dried meat. Then Lion blew onto the red stones in the golden bowl as if he was trying to blow out a candle. The flame immediately vanished and the stones returned to their original yellow color. He put everything in his backpack and upon exiting the cave, noticed that the snowstorm had finally stopped. He took a deep breath and set out into the white void again.
Several hours later the snow was starting to get less deep, reaching only up to his knees now, and he was making good time for the first time since he started the journey over the mountain. He could also see much farther now that the snowstorms had stopped. In fact, he could see a city in the far distance. It looked to be beautiful and at its heart there was a huge structure, which had the shape of a cathedral. It had to be the city of Val Royeaux, the huge structure being its famous grand cathedral! He had noticed a while back that he was going down the mountain but had forgotten that automatically meant he was now on the Orlesian side.
Another day of traveling on the mountain passed, but without the snowstorms it wasn't so bad. The lower he got on the mountain the less deep the snow got and by now the snow only covered his feet. He had traveled almost the same distance in these last two days as he had in the five days before and was now almost halfway down the mountain.
It was strange traveling all alone again after being with companions for so long. He stopped for a second and allowed his mind to drift into memories of his companions. He started thinking of Morrigan, subconsciously playing with the ring on his finger that she had given him. He had never worn any jewelry before, but ever since he had gotten this ring he had never taken it off. It had been a gift from Morrigan when they were travelling together. She had claimed it was magically bound to her, which meant she could always find him when he got into trouble. She had stated that it might work both ways and he had sometimes thought he felt emotions and thoughts through the ring when he was thinking of her. He had always wondered if it was just his mind playing tricks on him however, after all the ring never gave him any indication to her whereabouts.
A movement nearby suddenly snapped Lion out of his daydreaming. As he turned towards the sound, he noticed men moving from their hiding places, attempting to surround him. They seemed to be tall, strong men dressed only in furs, carrying large, crude weapons. These where barbarians and there were at least ten of them!
Lion tossed off his cloak so he could maneuver easier, removed the shield from his back and pulled out his sword, its runes glowing blue. When the barbarians saw his shining armor and formidable weaponry, they paused, losing a bit of their confidence. This was going to be no easy prey. Some even took a few steps back just to make sure there was enough distance between them and this armored knight. Suddenly, a barbarian nearly the size of an ogre barbarian appeared, standing on a large boulder wearing armor and wielding a two handed sword that seemed to be of high quality. He was barking orders to the other barbarians. Lion surmised that this must be the leader. Beside the barbarian leader stood an ugly, odd- looking fellow, his balding head and skinny body making him weirdly out of place amongst these large, muscular barbarians. The skinny man was leaning on a wooden staff adorned with feathers. He gave Lion a cocky grin.
The barbarian leader shouted orders at the three barbarians closest to Lion. They started running towards him, their weapons lifted high. Lion easily ducked under the large axe of the first barbarian and deflected the blow of the two-handed sword of the second with his shield. Before the third barbarian could bring his large war-hammer down, Lion stabbed his sword upwards and ran the man through. The barbarian let out a shriek of shock and let go off the war-hammer as he saw the sword going in. Lion quickly pulled the sword from the barbarians belly and turned to face the other two who where preparing for another round. This time it was Lion who took the initiative by running towards them. The axe wielding barbarian swung his weapon low, but Lion easily jumped over it and slashed his sword horizontally, slitting the man's throat in one fluid motion.
Angered by the realization that this knight had just killed two of his friends, the third barbarian came at Lion while furiously slashing his sword. Lion dodged all of the swings easily and then deflected the two-handed sword downwards with his own sword, bashing the man's face with his shield. As the barbarian stumbled backwards from the blow, Lion stabbed his sword upwards to finish him off. Lion pulled the sword from the barbarian's chest and heard someone coming at him. Falling to one knee, he quickly flipped the sword hilt around in his hand and stabbed backwards causing the assailant to run headlong onto the sword, then retrieved his sword again, ready for another skirmish.
Lion spun around to gaze at the barbarian leader and the skinny man once again, who had lost the smirk on his face. The leader was now clearly filled with rage, shouting new orders to the remaining barbarians who rushed towards Lion simultaneously. Lion quickly regained himself, as his enemies came at him from all sides. He heard two attackers coming at him from behind and quickly used his shield to bash backwards, hitting one of the barbarians right on the nose. He swiftly ducked low to avoid the sword slashing overhead from the second attacker, who, in response, had to use great effort not to tumble forward from the extremely large force he had put into his blow. It was a mistake that Lion immediately exploited by quickly getting up and, in one smooth swing, hit the man's neck, cutting his jugular. Three of the other barbarians were about to reach him as well, but suddenly Lion heard the loud sound of crackling fire. From the corner of his eyes, he could see the skinny man casting a large fireball towards him. Damn it, Lion cursed to himself. The skinny man was a shaman! Lion jumped to the side not a split second too soon and painfully hit the ground. He felt the heat of the fireball pass close to his body, the force of the blast missing him. With trouble, he regained himself and managed to stand. When he turned to face the three barbarians, he noticed they where all dead, burned where they stood. Lion turned to the leader again who was now shouting at the shaman. From the barbarian's uproar, Lion deduced that the shaman had lost his patience and casted the spell without thinking of the side effects. The remaining barbarians came to a halt and considered fleeing when they saw their comrades slain by their own shaman. But then the leader shouted at them to attack, so they continued their charge. Lion deflected the sword of one of the barbarians with his shield, then dodged the attack of another and immediately countered by slicing his sword through the barbarian's abdomen. Just as Lion wondered where the third barbarian had gone, he felt the impact of the war-hammer on his chest plate causing him to fly a few meters backwards. As he lay there on the ground grasping for air, he saw the barbarians backing away from him. He turned his head towards the shaman and saw him casting yet another spell. "This is it! I'm going to die", Lion thought. "There's no way I'm going to be able to dodge this spell." But then…nothing.
Lion forced himself to get up and once he had struggled on his feet again he noticed the barbarians were in shock and panicking. When he looked to where the shaman was he saw why. The shaman had been frozen like a statue before he had finished his cast. Just as Lion looked at the statue he saw a bolt of energy flying towards it, shattering him completely. That action caused the leader of the barbarians to join the fray. He roared at his comrades to come help him take this knight down. Lion noticed that the barbarian closest to him hadn't responded to the leaders command and was still staring off into the distance trying to figure out what had happened to his shaman. So Lion immediately went for him. When the barbarian finally sensed the danger and brought his weapon up to react, it was too late. Lion had run him through.
Lion turned and saw the leader and the last barbarian coming for him. He stood his ground and waited until they were very close, then as the barbarian leader started his swing, Lion dashed to the side avoiding the leader's sword completely. Lion then quickly stepped forward and bashed the other barbarian in the face knocking him out cold.
Lion deftly turned around to face the leader again, expecting to find him off balance after the high powered miss. But this was no ordinary savage. He had clearly been trained in the ways of combat and was able to keep his balance. This was going to be a formidable foe. They clashed several times and every time both the leader and Lion knew how to avoid each others moves. Unexpectedly, the other barbarian gained consciousness and picked up his spear to join the fight. The stab of the spear caught Lion off-guard just as he was deflecting a dangerous blow from the barbarian leader. Luckily, the spear slid off his armor, but it caused Lion to lose his balance for a split second, which was all the barbarian leader needed to make a second slash at his opponent. Lion somehow managed to deflect the blow, but not without falling to the ground. As Lion rolled over, attempting to rise, he saw the tip of the spear coming at him. The second barbarian was trying to finish him off. Just as he attempted to deflect it with his gauntlet, he saw the spear point fly sideways and heard a loud thud as if something heavy had hit the ground . Lion rolled over, quickly climbed to his feet and saw the spearman lying on the ground, his throat being ripped open by a huge grey wolf.
Out of the corner of his eyes, Lion saw the barbarian leader going for the grey wolf, which was too busy with the spearman to notice the impending attack. Lion tossed his shield aside and quickly rushed forward, barely managing to stop the blade of the leader before it hit the wolf. The wolf now noticed the leader and growled at him fiercely. Lion immediately lifted his sword with a strong tug causing the barbarian's blade to bounce up, leaving the leader's chest open for attack. Lion swiftly swung his sword down hard, slicing through the leader's armor. He was rewarded with a shriek of pain from the barbarian. Lion changed the positioning of his hands on the hilt so he held the sword upside-down, turned his shoulders away from the leader and then stabbed his sword through the leader's chest. The man shouted out in terror and pain as he noticed the hilt of the sword sticking out of his chest before falling down to the ground and exhaling his last breath.
As Lion pulled his sword from the leader's chest, he saw the grey wolf moving away. It stopped near some large rocks and turned to regard him. Only then did Lion notice the wolf had strange yellow eyes that seemed to look at him with a great sadness. By the gods, he would recognize those eyes anywhere! They where Morrigan's! As he started to run towards the wolf he shouted, "Morrigan!", but the wolf quickly turned and ran away, vanishing behind the rocks. When Lion came closer he saw a huge bird fly up from behind the rocks. By the time he reached the spot, there was nothing there.
Two days later Lion reached a small village at the base of the mountain on the Orlesian side. As he entered the inn he was greeted by a young Grey Warden initiate who told him he had been sent by the Grey Warden Commander of Orlais to provide Lion with his new orders. Lion could hereby consider himself promoted to the rank of Grey Warden Commander for Ferelden. His first assignment was to go to the fortress of Vigil's Keep in Amaranthine immediately and oversee the rebuilding of the Grey Wardens in Ferelden. He also had to pick up a new recruit called Mhairi on his way there.
Lion cursed to himself, "So close and now they want me to turn around and cleanup their darned mess again!". He reminded himself that he was a Grey Warden and that his duty always came before his own desires. The words of his father echoed in his ears; "We are Couslands and we do what must be done."
With a heavy heart, Lion packed his bags the next day, bought a horse and took the public route around the mountain back to Ferelden towards Vigil's Keep.