Hey bros! I know this isn't either of my normal stories, but I hope you enjoy it!
"…we are the last of the Elvhenan, and never again shall we submit."
The words burned in the Amser's head as he padded softly through the Deep Roads. Beside him, a proud Durgen'len strode confidently, his armor thick and his maul intimidating. "We must be getting close," the dwarf mused in his gravely tone. Amser didn't know how he was sure: these underground passages all seemed very similar to him. One torch-lit corridor reminded him of the last, in an endless series of tunnels and caverns and crossroads. But somehow, his guide had always known the correct path, and now they were nearing the meeting place.
"Gaulm," Amser called softly, after a few moments of silence. "You don't resent my presence here, do you?"
Amser's guide shrugged his shoulders, the armor clinking loudly in the otherwise silent pathways. "We of the Legion only care about two things: orders from the king, and how many darkspawn we can pile up before we're dead. If your elders want to scout out a route through the Deep Roads, far be it from me to send away a capable warrior."
Amser nodded, satisfied. What the dwarf had said was true, to an extent. . Recently, a band of shemlen had accused his clan of murder and kidnapping. Untrue, though no one really cared about the truth when it came to the Dalish. His clan was forced to relocate, because chevaliers were searching for them earnestly. His Keeper had suggested the Deep Roads to be a good option, thanks to a blight in neighboring Ferelden. His friend Rhione had shuddered at the idea of living beneath the earth, but Amser had grown used to the dim lights of the spacious chambers the dwarves had constructed.
Quite by accident, he had stumbled upon Gaulm, who had been struggling with a a powerful genlock. A few arrows to the spine had resolved the issue, and the pair had discovered a mutual interest in the Deep Roads. As Gaulm had led the way, he explained that the Legion of the Dead had moved far beyond Bownammar to secure a few of the smaller thaigs. According to him, a dwarf, castles no less, had actually convinced a human lord to send troops to help Orzammar. Under King Bhelen as well, castles and golems were taking up arms against the darkspawn. To top it off, he said, some Legionnaire scout who was with the castless Grey Warden had sent word of intelligent darkspawn fighting off their lesser cousins. As far as Gaulm was concerned, if he met a darkspawn that didn't try to kill him, it would be a first.
Amser had listened intently, unsure if this had been the same person who had secured land for his people in southern Ferelden. Either way, they were both certain that times were changing. As it happened, once Amser had explained his problem to the dwarf, Gaulm had been more than eager to assist saying, "I know the perfect spot for your clan to nest salroka. I was headed there anyways to meet up with some friends of mine. Tell you what: the Legion won't care who comes and goes in this thaig for years at least. No one but them will be coming and going past Bownammar for awhile, until it falls to us anyways. If you agree to help clear it of vermin, then you will have a perfect home for your clan, if you ever need it."
Amser couldn't refuse his new companion, so together they trooped off into the darkness. Two days and hours of sore feet later, the pair had become fast friends, Amser's quiet nature complimenting Gaulm's cavalier attitude. After a particularly hairy experience involving two emissaries and an ogre, Amser had complained "if you had only let me shoot one first!"
Gaulm had laughed, then said "Yeah, take credit for all of my kills. Like that will happen anytime soon."
Presently, the group rounded a bend, and before Amser were several more dwarves, all wearing the same armor as Gaulm. "Hey Jertah," Amser's friend called, stepping into the camp and raising his arms. Greetings were exchanged, and all eyes fell onto the uncomfortable Dalish elf.
"Guys, this is Amser. He's a Dalish, one of those tree huggers who live topside." Several heads nodded in recognition. "He's looking to take a slice of land for himself. I was thinking: Cadash isn't anything we're looking to keep, except to find the maps. So, if we let some elves move in behind us, at least we know for certain that the spawn won't be moving back in. What do you think Trenga?"
A large, grizzled dwarf, eyes glued to a scrap of parchment, shrugged his shoulders. "If the tree lovers want Cadash, they can take it. All we need are the maps."
"Uh… maps?" the curious elf asked his friend as they sat down near the camp fire.
"Why Cadash was so important," Gaulm explained. "It was built as a tribute to golems, and had maps that showed golem ancient supply lines that the darkspawn never got to. These are old roads though, very treacherous. We won't risk moving any finished golems until we have these maps."
"And Cadash has copies?" Amser surmised, testing his longbow's string in preparation for the fight ahead.
"You got it. We need those maps if we're ever going to retake Bownammar."
Amser smiled at his friend. "We'll get them, if you don't die in a frontal assault first."
Gaulm grumbled at that, but was cowed by a general order from Trenga. "We're moving out! Everyone get ready for a fight!" Armor and helmets were donned, mauls, axes, and maces were sheathed. The dwarves were about to do another days work, and Amser was going to watch and learn.
The group tromped through the deep, hands on their weapons, senses trained for any indication of attack. None came, however, and soon natural light was filtering into the tunnels from a source up ahead. Surprised, Amser hurried to the front of the group and gasped a little at the thaig that stood before him. Cadash was rather small, barely the size of a shemlen village. But there was green! And light! Surely this thaig was as close to a home as his clan would find in the Deep Roads.
"Perfect…" he breathed, before movement in the thaig prompted him to notch an arrow and raise his bow. Before him, a shriek crept through the underbrush, unaware of the party behind it. The elf waved silently to Trenga, then pointed to the poor creature with two fingers. The commander nodded, and the arrow was loosed. With a surprised howl of pain, the monster died.
Other darkspawn grunted and growled at the sound of one of their own dying, and charged out to see what had happened, their weapons and armor at the ready. Amser counted at least seventeen on their side of the stream, and an untold number on the other half. "The battle is joined!" Gaulm shouted, his maul already in his hands as he charged down the path and into the first section of houses. The others followed, all bellowing war cries of their own. Amser smiled to himself and started loosing more arrows, one piercing the skull of a hurlock, another hitting a shriek in the chest.
The dwarves were monsters on the battlefield. Each time their weapons fell, another darkspawn failed to get up again. Trenga yelled out orders: "I'll take this genlock! Jertah, that alpha is yours! Gaulm, wait for the elf to weaken that ogre before you kill it!" And as such their fight continued through the houses, over the bridge, and up the ramp to a giant golem monument. Suddenly, there were no more darkspawn to kill. The group looked around, surprised at the lack of enemies, then moved together in front of the giant statue. "I heard it was impressive indeed," Trenga mumbled to himself.
"Right. Those maps…" Amser reminded everyone. The dwarves, startled out of their reverie, scattered to look through the clearing for the maps and charts that were their main objective. The elf moved closer to the inscription on the giant statue. From what he could tell, it was a commemoration to some group, something about a sacrifice. And from what he knew of dwarven runes, the first letter of each line was not used in the rest of the message. "Gaulm!" he called, and the dwarf hurried over. "What are these?" he asked, tracing the strange designs on the tablet.
"Those are map-tracers," Gaulm explained. "We started using them after we realized the darkspawn could read our maps. It must be an important…" he stopped speaking, then whipped out some vellum and ink and began tracing the runes onto the paper. "Trenga! Amser found the charts!"
Sure enough, when the parts were placed together, the result was a detailed map of the Deep Roads, with bold lines to indicate the golem pathways. "We're all set," Trenga told his men, storing the vellum in his pack. "Amser, you've aided the Legion greatly this day: consider Cadash as your own from this day onward. We-" a deafening bellow shook the walls, and a very large, angry, armored ogre stepped from the shadows beyond the statue. Trenga cursed and charged forward, his men at his back.
Amser futilely shot arrows at the beast, only to see them bounce off of its armor. "I can't pierce it!" he called, watching as the dwarves bounced their own weapons off of the monster's armor. Gaulm yelled a warning to Jertah too late; his friend was sliced open by one swing of the ogre's bladed arm.
"Back off! Spread out!" Trenga called to his men, who all took up positions around the beast, forcing it to focus on only one at a time. Amser continued shooting, but his arrows did little more than dent the ogre's armor. Sighing, he slid from his quiver a slaying arrow, one that his keeper had given him only for dire situations.
"Back off!" he yelled to the dwarves, who dutifully retreated from the still-swinging ogre. In one fluid motion, Amser notched and fired the arrow. The ogre's armor shattered, and it arm exploded. Howling in pain, it lashed out at Amser, who dove behind Gaulm and Trenga. They forced the monster back with blow after blow, aiming for its arm and legs, crippling it a little more with every swing. Even with only one arm, the beast was tough to kill, and refused to go down without a fight. It took three arrows to the head and a sliced neck before it finally slumped to the ground, its blood soaking the earth around them.
Trenga breathed a sigh of relief, then strode over the Jertah's body. After a moment of silence for his fallen comrade, he said "Amser, you've saved us once more. We would be honored to bury Jertah's body in your new home."
Amser smiled. "Our new home, huh? Yes, my keeper would appreciate that."
After the burial, the dwarves and Amser left the thaig for the time being. The dwarves were to return to Ortan thaig in preparation for the assault on Bownammar. Amser went a different way, reaching the surface and quickly running back to his clan. The Keeper was eager to hear of his travels, and was overjoyed at the description of Cadash. "I will call for preparations straight away," he declared, hurrying off to call the clan together. Amser blinked, then turned and smiled. Behind him was Gaulm, his helmet off, blinking in the sunlight. "You followed, I see."
The dwarf panted. "It wasn't easy! You elves are too quick for your own good!"
Amser laughed and clapped his friend on the shoulder. "Don't feel so bad, the clan will be overjoyed to have a dwarf companion in the Deep Roads. We'll move as slowly as you want."
Gaulm rolled his eyes. "So, is there anything I need to know about being a Dalish?"
Amser laughed and shook his head. "No. Now come and lets help our Keeper with the directions to Cadash."
Preparations were soon in a flurry, with tents being struck and aravels being loaded. The clan was wary of Gaulm for the most part, but did not show it because Amser trusted him. His friend Rhione was fearless, and she promptly introduced herself to the stout man with an "Aneth ara."
Very soon, the clan was ready to move out. "My friends," the Keeper began, resting on his staff. "We go to our new home, with our fearless guides Gaulm, of the Durgen'len and Amser of the Dalish. We must be forever grateful to them for providing us this chance to live free, and be our own clan once again."
Screams arose from the back of the crowd, as chevaliers rode into the elf's clearing. First four, then eight, then ten, then twenty, and finally thirty five, fully armored chevaliers stood before the Dalish clan. Amser stepped forward and whispered to the Keeper: "Use the magic signal to give them a volley of arrows. Gaulm and I will hold them off after that. You get the clan out of here and head to Cadash."
"But with thirty-five you-" the Keeper began, but a warning glance from Amser silenced him. "Very well. You get one volley, make it count."
Amser nodded, then he and Gaulm stepped silently through the crowded elves stand closest to the chevaliers, who were reading off some proclamation of extermination and evidence that did not exist. "Hey Gaulm?" Amser asked.
"Yeah, salroka?" was the subdued response.
"You asked if there was anything to being a Dalish, right?"
"Yeah…"
"Well, we do have a mantra," Amser explained. "I didn't think you'd need to learn it so soon."
"How does it go?" Gaulm asked.
"The way of the arrow: fly straight and do not waver," prompted an elderly female elf standing close to them.
Amser nodded and continued. "The way of the bow: bend, but do not break."
Around them, several other elves finished the saying: "The way of the forest: together, we are stronger than one."
"We are the last of the Elvhenan, and never again shall we submit!" cried the Keeper, and the elves shot their arrows at the chevaliers, who were entirely taken off guard. More than a few dropped from their mounts.
Amser and Gaulm charged, and the clan surged in the opposite direction, the speed of their halla carrying the aravels and the elves through the thick trees and out of sight. "Fly straight and do not waver!" Gaulm roared, charging towards a chevalier and slicing through his chest.
The mounts with dead riders were trained to move away, and the pair of fighters were fighting against heavy odds as they were encircled.
"Bend, but do not break!" Amser responded, ducking beneath the jab of a sword and stabbing his opponent through the eye with an arrow.
The remaining chevaliers pulled their horses in a circle around the two fighters, who now stood back to back, Amser with his bow raised, Gaulm with his axe pointed at a chevalier with an arrow in his shoulder. "Together, we are stronger than one," they breathed, tensed for the moment to strike.
"Get them!" screamed the commander of the chevaliers, and the horses charged, seeking the trample their foes.
Gaulm and Amser stood their ground until the very end. "We are the last of the Elvenhan!" they cried, defiant in the face of their enemies. "Never again shall we submit!"