A/N: Firstly, I want to thank anyone reading this in advance. This is my first attempt at writing a fan fiction. Although there are so many Dragon Age based stories posted (The ones I have read are great! They really inspired me to start writing my own!) I figured what's one more to the pile? Anyway, I decided to start the story off nine years before Ostagar soon after the Hawke's settle in Lothering. Please feel free to comment on my work. Every critique helps me to develop my writing. In the future, some of the dialogue will be straight from DA2. (Only in parts that I feel need to remain that same and parts that I loved just the way there were) I also decided to date the chapters as well as give name days to the characters. Marian's name day is my birthday translate to the month names in Thedas. (Harvestmere is October, essentially). Enjoy! xx
22 Harvestmere 9:22 Dragon
It is a well-known fact that a girl who is skilled in the deadly arts must be in want of proper blades. That was what Malcolm Hawke was thinking when he purchased the daggers currently being unwrapped by his daughter. Marian Hawke was celebrating her sixteenth name day and, to her mother's chagrin, had a thorough dedication to a skill set that was considered by many to be unfit for a lady. The truth was, in fact, that Marian had no desire to be a lady. After years of desperate attempts to form her eldest daughter into the mold she herself had been schooled in when she was a girl, Leandra simply could not get her daughter to fully comply. When Marian had been old enough, Leandra had tried many times to tutor her daughter in the skills that would mark her as accomplished. It was, however, a difficult task due to the family often needing to flee from an area once suspicions arose about Malcolm's true nature.
Four months before, the Hawke family had settled into a homestead on the outskirts of Lothering. It was a small, relatively quiet hamlet in the Arling of South Reach bordering the Kocari Wilds to the south. Although it had both a Chantry and a garrison of Templars, the townsfolk were not predisposed to reporting suspicion of magic use, unless of course the person in question was deemed dangerous. Many had suspicions about the patriarch of the Hawke family, but he was well liked and a hard worker. None would choose to harm a man who did so much to help out the community as Malcolm Hawke had in such a short span of time. Alike, the residents turned away their eyes when it came to the Hawke's younger daughter. She had begun to show signs of magehood, but was such a polite, kind child who showed a discipline and maturity so well beyond her years that the townsfolk had become rather endeared to the young Bethany Hawke.
As Marian revealed her father's gift, Leandra looked on through narrowed eyes at her husband as their daughter leapt out of her chair and into Malcolm's arms. "Love really," Leandra said in exasperation, "what in the Maker's name possessed you to purchase those?" Malcolm stared back at his wife, a gleam in his eye, as he bathed in his daughter's enthusiastic affection. "Father," Marian exclaimed, "Oh father, thank you!" She pulled away from her embrace to look at her new daggers again. They were simply made "but elegant" she thought to herself. She looked over the blade and grip of each with a careful eye. To another other eye the daggers would have looked like nothing more than steel and leather, but Marian could see beyond that. They were crafted with a subtle maker's mark that told her they had been crafted by Owen, the blacksmith in Redcliffe.
Marian beamed as the realization of just how special they were came over her. These blades had been crafted especially for her. "I have to try these out right now!" Marian announced before kissing her father's cheek and bounding for the door. "Wait just a second, young lady," Marian halted at her mother's words, "You still have your other presents to open." She turned, a pout on her face, and looked at her mother. "You can spend the rest of the day playing with those things." "Look darling," Malcolm added, "I know you are excited, but that gives you no excuse to be rude." Shoulders slumped, Marian headed back over to the table, flopping down in a vacant chair. "Open mine next!" Bethany urged. "No! Open the one from me next!" Bethany frowned as she looked at the boy sitting next to her. "I've got an idea, "Marian replied, "How about you each hold the present you got for me and I'll pull the ribbons on each of them? That way, I'll unwrap them both at the same time." The twins smiled widely before doing what their sister had suggested.