Well... this is my first attempt at writing for... a very long time. There will probably be a lot of mistakes, which will probably include: Spelling, Grammar, morality, personal boundaries, character personalities and/or mannerisms, and lastly- language. Maker help me, I don't know a lick of Elvish... so no one run to get the pitch forks and torches if I mispronounce a word or too. That aside; Have at it.
I do not own any of the characters in this story. They belong to Bioware... Those lucky, evil bastards.
Act one:
The Beginning of the End
Everything was on fire... bodies littered the streets- some warm, some already cold to the touch. Her home was far behind her by now, a distant speck down the hill and off in the valley. She was numb to its death, just as she was numb to the violence around her. She had watched as people were cleaved in two by Darkspawn, as women were dragged off by hair and ankles, kicking and screaming for the maker to save them- someone, anyone...
Blood from men and beasts alike was splattered across her front, glistening on the worn metal of her armor. Red and black liquid decorated her arms, her face, her hair... she could taste it on her tongue and dearly hoped she would not be catching any sort of nasty diseases because of it... Wouldn't it be a bitch to survive an epic battle, hacking your way through a hoard of blood thirsty tunnel crawlers only to succumb to some taint from the blood from a filthy tavern whore? Yes, that would indeed be a bitch, one she fully intended to ward away with very panicked, silent prayers to the Maker...
Each breath came at a ragged and frightening pace, savaging her throat even as she gulped and attempted to sooth the burning with her own saliva. Bile had a tendency to burn the flesh like acid, if you heaved enough of it up. She should know, she had been drunk enough times in her life to learn such a lesson. Right now though, with the end of the hill looming up ahead and her family racing along behind her, she had more to worry about than a sore throat in the morning. A burst of pride for successfully leading her siblings and mother to safety burst within her chest, and with a triumphant grin the youngest Hawk quickened her step in order to claim the rights of the first up the hill. For a moment, the life or death battle raging on behind her was a distant memory, and all that concerned her was beating her brother to the top- just as she always had as a child...
...and then her foot caught on a rock. And then she belly flopped into the dirt... aaand then she tasted said dirt. Very, very dry dirty dirt. "Come on sis, no time for playing in the dust like a child..." Her brother called, darting past her quickly with a prance in his step and what she was sure was delight in his voice.
For a moment... just a small, tiny moment, she was perfectly content with remaining in the dirt and letting the Darkspawn find her, in spite of her brother. Then, as her sister reached down and tugged at her arm, she remembered all of the horror stories about what happened to the women who got dragged off into the tunnels. She was on her feet in an instant, and hurriedly dragging her sister along as she caught up with her mother and her brother. Bethany chose that moment to stop, her brows furrowed in worry as she looked down the long winding path into the desolate landscape that loomed ahead.
"...W-wait, where are... we even going to go?" She breathed, leaning on her staff in a manner that told volumes about how tired she was. The band of four halted, Carver turning a frustrated glower over his shoulder at the mage.
"Is this really the time to stop and chat? Come on Bethany, there are Darkspawn on our heels..." Their mother raised a hand to hault the argument that was sure to start, and let herself lean back against the sun heated rock wall behind her. Though she would never admit it, Leandra was feeling more or less battered from the run. Her hips ached, her shoulders were knotted and tight... she didn't honestly know how much longer she could go on without a rest. "Enough of this, Bethany, Carver... Please!"
Anna looked on, letting herself lean over into her knees as she rested, and shifted her eyes from her mother, to the flushed face of her sister, then finally to the dark scowl on her brothers lips as he crossed his arms and turned to keep watch on the roads. You go, mom. She smirked inwardly, not daring to let her male sibling catch sight of an actual smirk on her lips.
Leandra accepted the quiet agreement from her children and raised her eyes to the sky. It tore at her heart to see the black plumes of smoke that had overtaken the blue and blotted out the fluffy white clouds she was used to. She needed to think... where was it safe to travel that the blight would not reach them? Where would they be able to start over... pick of the pieces of their shattered life and try to move on? Her heart clenched suddenly, feeling the stress and the pain wash over her again now that she had stopped, and her mothers face drifted to mind. Realization flashed through her eyes and she dropped her chin and turned to face Carver.
"We will go to Kirkwall... We have family there, and an estate..." Yes... Her parents estate had plenty of room to house them, and her brother would surely be ecstatic to finally meet her children.
Anna could not help but raise an eyebrow, and was about to open her mouth before she a dark look from her brother and snapped her jaws shut. For a moment, she had forgotten who was in charge here. "Fine, We will head for Kirkwall, but first we need to finish getting away from Lothering, agreed?"
Anna nodded, Bethany nodded, and he strode over to help his mother away from the wall with as gentle a hand as he could manage. Anna took that as a sign that she was going to have to step into the scouting roll, something that he solidified with a little nod as she drew her blood stained daggers again and took the lead down the winding road on the other side of the hill.
Only a few yards away around a bend, the rogue came to a dead stop before a small battle and raised her hand in warning for the others to stay away. Bethany remained at their mothers side while Carver drew his longword and charged over to where Anna was standing.
Two bodies, obviously human, were surrounded by growling and howling Darkspawn. She saw one get swiped at and spotted a flash of Andraste's sword on the man's chest plate. "Shit... It's a templar. We should try and find another away around, let them act as a distraction..."
Her idea was met with a very deep frown, and a look that told her no such thing was going to happen. As Carver turned the corner and went charging off into the thick of battle, Anna cursed again and readjusted her grip on her weapons. Leave it to her pig headed brother to act the hero when they could have been fleeing. Her brother's sword came crashing down upon the head of an unfortunate Hurlock who had his back turned. The resulting crackle of a shattering skull and the splatter of brain matter and bone shards was enough to turn the attention away from the struggling red headed woman and her injured Templar.
Anna took that as a welcome chance to leap in and sink her blades deep into the crevices between another Darkspawns armor. Each blade fell from the creatures hands as her daggers sank in nearly to the hilt on either side of it's shoulder blades, and as it fell she yanked her weapons free and turned to the next attaker.
The battle only lasted a few more moments once Bethany started flinging fire like a mad woman, forcing both her and Carver to roll out of the way a few times as stray burning balls flew past them to devour a Darkspawn in flames. It wasn't until the last creature had ceased to move, helped by Carver sinking his blade into its neck, that the woman and her templar companion turned to greet and or evaluate them.
Though the male at the red head's side was clearly injured, his eyes were pinned on Bethany as she strode forward to join the group with their mother at her side. Anna watched the two carefully, noticing that Carver had chosen to watch them as well.
"Apostate." The man breathed, stepping toward the mage. Carve instinctively stepped in to block the man, his chest puffed out and his expression clearly daring him to make a move towards his twin.
Anna frowned, casting a dark look at the woman as she breathed the man's name and gently took ahold of his arm. Wesley, was it? "I told you we should have left them, brother..."
The short, bitter remark was all she shot her brothers way as she crossed her arms over her chest, daggers still held securely in her red head's gaze was instantly upon her, and my, was it ever furious.
"No, sister. It was the right thing to do. Perhaps this... Templar will recognize the fact that we just saved his skin, before he thinks to pass judgment on our sister." Anna rolled her eyes, but clamped her mouth shut all the same.
Her brother was in charge, as always. It would be useless to argue now that he had his mind set upon this. Wesley introduced himself, as well as his female companion. Avaline. She couldn't stop a smirk from overtaking her lips, and barely managed to control herself before mouthing off about whether this woman had any relation to the knight Avaline herself.
"Well..." Her brother started, turning to cast a weary glance over his shoulder. "As nice and cheery as this little meeting has been, we must be off. You two are more than welcome to join us... a few more blades at our side is something I will not turn away."
"It's not like we have much choice..." Avaline cast a worried glance at her partner, and after a brief exchanging of words, Anna knew more about the two. A husband and wife.
"We are going to Kirkwall." She added in quietly, her smirk dropping away as soon as she realized that they would have two more traveling companions along for the ride if her brother had his way. She honestly wondered if his decision was for the best, considering Bethany would be fair game to the templar and his 'Maker given duty' as soon as they were out of danger... but, she doubted there was any way of persuading him out of it.
He had that expression on his face, the one that told her she could squawk like a parrot and shit an egg and he wouldn't even take notice. With a sigh, all she could do was take up the lead again at her brothers side as they started off down the path again with their new companions in tow.
"Shitshitshi- SHIT!"
A barrage of arrows rained down at her from above, and if it wasn't for Avaline's quick thinking she'd have been turned into a Darkspawn pin cushion. Wide eyed, the youngest Hawk lowered her arm from her face and turned her eyes to the red head at her side- who, against all odds had managed to slide in at the last moment and cover them both with her shield.
She looked into the older woman's blue, blue eyes and saw something that she hadn't expected. A fierce determination and a fire that lit the woman's face and made her seem... well, somewhat frightening. Anna swore right then and there not to tread on the woman's toes in the future... at least not too much, anyway.
"Thanks." She breathed simply, nodding her head as she adjusted her stance and readied herself to leap away again into the thick of battle.
"I'll bet you are quite happy that you did not leave us behind as you had wanted to, aren't you?" There was a bitterness in her voice... but also a slight humor.
Anna suddenly felt as if the woman was talking down to her like a mother and she couldn't stop a flustered flush from blazing across her cheeks. Before she could come up with an appropriate come back however, Avaline rose and bolted off- back to Wesley's side.
Ooh... She'd get that ginger back if it was the last thing she did... The battle raged on for a few more agonizing minutes, before they saw a break in the hoard and hope blossomed in each of their chests. There was finally a light at the end of the tunnel.
She turned, trading places with Bethany at her mothers side with a cheerful high-five and took a slight rest as she watched the battle come to a close. Avaline had cleared out all of the creatures from her side of the clearing, which was not scattered with hacked apart bodies, and wriggling Darkspawn who had yet to fully die. Anna made a note to finish them off once things had calmed down, just to be safe, and turned her attention to where Carver and Bethany stood at the other end of the clearing.
They were doing well, fending off the last of the attackers with sword and fireball alike- ...and then the ground started to shake under foot. Anna instinctively squatted down, her blades at her side in an instant. The rumbling grew and with a soft, surprised curse the rogue turned too late. A giant clawed hand swiped through the air and hit her with the power of a charging ox. She felt the air rush from her lungs, and stars and shadows danced before her eyes. It felt like an eternity passed as she flew through the air, before her back met solid stone and she crumpled to the ground.
Her daggers clattered uselessly off in different directions, and even though she was disoriented and unable to get to her feet- she wasn't spared from hearing a heart wrenching scream, nor from the sound of many things snapping and crunching, and her brother's horrified scream.
"MOTHER!"
Everything faded to black for just a moment. In that time she felt all her worldly pains wash away and a comforting coldness touched her. In all honesty, she felt content to stay there- unmoving- in the cold, and enjoy the silence... but then she felt herself moving, and grumbled softly, forlornly about how much of a pain it was. She blinked... and suddenly she could see a spot of dirt colored light.
Another blink, and the spot widened. Her eye sight gradually returned, but it was still deathly quiet. The world was fuzzy and rippled like water... Her hands were there, clutching the dirt and as she raised her head she spotted the damned cause of her current ailment. The Oger, once might and powerful, now dead with her brother's long sword buried in its eye socket. But... where was her-
Everything came flooding back to her as soon as her eyes focused on Carvers back. More accurately, on the delicate, bloodstained hand that was poking out from under his arm... the hand that was attached to her mothers dress.
Her hearing came back exactly then and brought a terrible ringing with it. Anna was on her feet instantly, if a little unsteadily, and was soon at her brother and sisters side. Her mother was pale and unmoving, her body was twisted at an odd angle from the waist down, one that shouldn't have been possible, and her neck was marred with an ugly jagged gash that tore down into her ruined dress.
Anna... couldn't think... or move. She stood still, even as Avaline joined them and carefully, but forcefully told Carver that she was gone. It was then, when the woman's words had settled on her brother, that she heard him speak. "...why... why didn't you protect her?"
She barely registered what he was saying, until his eyes were on her and she felt their unrelenting fury. It didn't help that there were tears racing down his cheeks, leaving peach lines in the dirt that caked his cheeks. "Why didn't you save her!" He didn't need to outright accuse her of anything, she could hear it in his voice and see it in his eyes. Why did you let her die?
Bethany laid a cool hand on her twins shoulder, earning his furious gaze- which calmed instantly. Anna felt her guilt triple. This was to fall on no one else's shoulders but her own, just as it had before... as it probably would in the future. She was distinctly aware of herself wishing she had died instead...
-oo-
The Beginning of a New Beginning
The events that had followed after her mothers death had flown by, more or less. Anna had all but shut herself off from the group, even though they lost another- Wesley- to the sickness, and met a rather interesting witch. Which, in fact, was why they were huddled amongst a vast group of fellow refugee's, rocking and bouncing along the waves as their ship sailed into the Kirkwall harbor.
The youngest Hawk could not help but stare up through the squares of light above her, where the blue of the sky waited and birds she had never seen before danced gracefully on the wind. What she wouldn't give to be one of them right now, free to spread her wings and sail off in any direction she pleased at a moments notice.
If only, she mused, and became acutely aware that the searing heat of her brothers glare was on her again. It seemed that he had decided to pick up where he had left off on trying to set her ablaze with his eyes. She heard her sister sigh, as she was sitting next to her twin, and shifted her eyes to see that Carver's attention had been turned elsewhere.
Avaline was sitting to her left alongside the wall, while the rogue had her back planted firmly against the mast of the ship. She could feel the vessel slowing, and knew that any moment they would be docking. A welcome notion, seeing as she'd at least be able to work the feeling back into her toes and slip away from her brother's fury for at least a moment.
The ground felt odd under her feet after a week or two- she had lost count, actually- at sea. It was... distressing, and pleasurable all in the same sudden oncoming of feelings. Forget sea legs, she was going to have to re-learn how to use her normal ones.
"Come on, we have to find Uncle Gamlen and... tell him the news." The metal of Carver's armor grated against her own as he strode past, but all she could do was down cast her eyes sourly and follow after him. Bethany had spoken to her a few times on the journey over, trying to wipe away the damage that Carver's words had done to her little sister- but Anna had informed her gently that their brother probably needed her companionship and consoling words more than she.
Still, it was nice to know that at least of of her siblings still loved her, even if they did have an awkward, if strained relationship. What did surprise her, was the fact that Avaline chose to walk at her side. She glanced at the woman, suddenly jealous at the fact that she carried herself- and her guilt, with and air of strength that Anna knew she could never even hope to wield. It was annoying, and she was pretty sure the woman was well aware of her jealousy. They were halted at the gates, and after Carver had words with one of the city guard, they were on their way to find the person who was in charger, and sort out how exactly they were to get into the city.
The hours crawled by slowly enough that she found herself trying to pace a circle into the stone floor of the gallows. The very air of this place made her skin itch, and she was damn sure that every templar in the square had glances at Bethany at least once. It was unnerving, an she was sure her sister felt the same as her. When Gamlen finally arrived, all three Hawks got to watch the happy light in his eyes die as he realized that Leandra was not with them.
She felt the prickle of eyes on her again, and sighed. Carver no doubt, burning holes in the back of her head again. "You... are her kids?...Leandra's?" The confusion on his face was almost to much to bare, and Anna had to avert her eyes. It was Bethany, who finally broke the short silence and answered their Uncle's questions, both the voiced and the unvoiced.
"We are, Uncle... Mother-" The pain in her sisters voice, as it cracked and trembled, tore at her heart. She fixed her eyes on the ground and picked at a scab on her elbow to ease her distress as her sister continued. "...Mother didn't make it..."
Bethany tried her hardest to calm the man as he burst into tears and went on an emotion fueled tirade about how his sister should have never left, should have never run off with that mage. She felt eyes on her again at the mention of their father, and only made to stare harder at the ground as if it was the most fascinating thing she had ever seen in all her life.
"Oh... but you kids... what can I do? There is no estate like she promised, it was lost a long time ago." There was a shocked silence, one that seemed to catch all three children off guard. Their mother had been so sure, so absolutely sure that they would have a home in Kirkwall- now they were finding out that there was nothing, not even the right to cling the the Amell family name.
"You mean, you really can't help us?" Bethany broke the silence, one hand pressed to her cheek, the other clinging to her twins shoulder for support. Gamlen looked disgruntled, but distressed, and she couldn't help but feel like somehow, something about him was fishy.
...Maybe it was because the guard's description of him had been less than tasteful and trustworthy. "Now now, that wasn't what I meant. I... I think I can still get you in, it just won't be the picture I'm sure your mother painted it to be."
The reminded of their mother's absence caused them to quiet again, and all three children searched for somewhere to train their eyes. "There are some people I know, who may need help. I can get you into jobs with them, and in return they can get you into the city."
Carver was the first to raise his eyes, his posture straightening into one that positively screamed don't screw with me. Sometimes- though not very often- she admired her brother just for that reason. If she tried such a thing, someone would likely pat her on the head, or laugh themselves to tears at the sight. She hadn't been blessed with an imposing appearance, unlike her brother.
"..And? I sense there is a catch in there somewhere." Her brother started, crossing his arms over his chest as he and Gamlen locked eyes.
The older man shifted slightly, a move that told Anna that Carver's posture had indeed made him uncomfortable. "it's not a catch!" The older man growled, "...they would simply require that you work... for a set amount of time."
Anna opened her mouth, but Avaline beat her to it. "How long, exactly?"
Their uncle shifted his eyes away, and scratched the back of his head. "A year."
Carver seemed to be done with the conversation at that, and turned to try and tug Bethany away. "Come on, lets see if we can find somewhere else to go..." She protested, and pulled her arm from his grasp.
"Carver, no. Mother-... Mother wanted us to come here. This is where our family is." He heard the passion in her voice just as much as Anna did, and in an instant the youngest of the siblings knew that Bethany would get her way. When it came to his twin, Carver just could not say no. For the first time since her mother had died, a small smirk lifted one corner of her lips, and she tucked her hands into the pockets of her breeches. "What's one year, anyway?"
"Where does that leave me?" Avaline asked, suddenly conscious that she was not actually part of their family, and thus had no reason to really be there. Carver turned to her and smiled a little, another thing that made Anna more jealous of the flame haired woman. "Well, you can come along with us, I see no reason for us to part ways now."
She nodded, and turned to Gamlen as the rest of them did. After a short explanation on who exactly these people were they they would be helping, the foursome found themselves crossing the square twice. Once to speak with the merry band of mercenaries, and another time to chat with a group of local smugglers.
They found themselves back in the middle soon after, torn down the center of the group. "I really don't see how there is even room to argue about this..."
Anna stomped her foot, and glared at her older brother from under her bangs. "What the hell do you mean? You'd rather we work for a bunch of paid murderers rather than work for someone who doesn't kill people for a living?"
The scathing look he leveled at her told her that she still was not forgiven, and that he didn't appreciate her opinion. Avaline at his side agreed, and the two of them crossed their arms over their chests and tried to turn her into a pile of ash with their eyes.
It was Bethany that turned the two against one odds into a stale mate, as she stepped over to Anna's side and frowned sadly at her twin. "I don't want to side against you brother... but I am against killing as well." The betrayal that marked her brothers face was almost too much, and before she could help it she had turned on her heels and kicked up dust as she marched away, a wide smirk present on her lips.
Bethany lingered for a few moments, explaining more to her brother- out of Anna's earshot- about how she really didn't want to spill more blood, as well as how she needed to keep an eye on their little sister. The reminder of Anna's age and blood relation came flooding back to the man for a moment, as he watched her march off determinedly. With a curse that told Bethany he understood and accepted. The twins shares a lingering hug, before the two separated and each group moved off to finalize their deals.
Carver and Avaline would spend their year doing what they were best at, while Bethany and her baby sister would spend their year working a less deadly career as smugglers. The foursome regrouped, Anna and Carver giving each other a good distance, and they followed their uncle through the gates and in to the city.