Here is some more snippets of Vhrinn. I am just enjoying writting her. I hope you all enjoy. This section is long, around 4.5k words. Please, enjoy, and don't be afraid to leave comments, constructive, complimentary or the nasty ones. Any feedback makes a writter better. Thanks, and enjoy.
After King Cailen departed back to his strategies tent, Duncan led the Mage across the bridge. He spoke of the battle to come, and of the Joining, which eagerly caught her attention. She tried prying information out of the Grey Warden, but to no avail. Finally, he ended her persistance with a sharp, if ever calm, statement.
"The Joining is a secret, for a reason. We shall speak of it no further."
Vhrinn bit her lip, and let it drop. They were walking over a high bridge, and she was afraid if she pressed her dear saviour, he might not be so forgiving. And, last time she checked, there were no spells that gave the Mage the ability to fly. Her mind wandered off. Why was that, exactly? Why hadn't anyone sought to soar the skies like birds? Had it just never occurred to anyone? Was it a forbidden art? Did Mages simply not posses that talent to create such a spell? The latter seemed unlikely, but it was odd as to why such a spell did not exist. Surely someone must've looked to the sky and wondered what it would be like to fly.
Then again, she lived in a tower. Whenever she looked up, it was grey stone blocks she saw, instead of an infinite ceiling of blue. Flying didn't seem so grand when you'd go ten feet and hit your head on the walls of your cage. Vhrinn sighed. So much for one good idea. What good would flying be if you had nowhere to fly? Maybe she would in the years to come, as a Grey Warden, but her fellow mages? It was too depressing to even consider further.
"Vhrinn!" Duncan called. During her musing, she apparently had stopped walking alongisde the Grey Warden. She grabbed her robes, hiking them just a bit to run to cover teh distance she had missed while in Duncan's presence. "We are here. Go ahead and look around, familiarize yourself with the camp, and trade for supplies if you need them. There are two otehr recruits here, besides yourself, and another Grey Warden besides myself. .. "
"Where are the others?" Vhrinn interrupted.
"Down in the camp with the Kings' men. Don't worry, you'll meet them soon enough. Now, when your ready to begin with the ritual, go and find Alistair, the other Grey Warden, and we shall proceed at once. Time is of the essence." Vhrinn nodded as Duncan finished. Trade/sell, familiarize yourself with the camp, get to know the other recruits and find Alister. And be quick about it. Yup, she could do it. As a Mage, you learned fast or you didn't become a mage. She could handle this assignment.
Duncan headed off, leaving Vhrinn to her own devices. She entered the camp after speaking to a Guardsmen who was more than willing to give her a basic layout of the camp. Using his directions to guide her, she was able to find the Quartermaster with no problems. As she came up to his hut, she caught ear of a conversation that perked her intrest.
"I'm about to become a Grey Warden, you know. Gonna fight with the King, I am." When that didn't seem to intrest the lady the man was talking to, he continued. "You know, we could die tomorrow. So many Darkspawn, we should go find comfort together in your tent. . .?
I'll take that glare to mean no. . ."
Vhrinn giggled. Apparently this man had no clue how to trick a lady into a night of companionship. Still, he didn't seem put out in the least. "Your usual charms not doing the trick?" She jibed at him. He spun around surprised, seeing Vhrinn chuckling at him. He smiled back and shared a short chuckle with her.
"Ah, so you must be the new recruit. I'm Daveth, I am. You're not quite what I expected you to be."
"Did you expect fangs and fur? Or perhaps a goofy overbite and glasses?" She was both in a lively mood and annoyed. Annoyed that people were usually unsettled around her, as she was a Mage.
Daveth snickered and waved his hands in front of him defensively. "No, no. I meant, you're a woman, there aren't usually many woman Wardens."
"And that bothers you?" It was odd to be picked out because she was a woman, and not because she was a mage. Still, it was just as disrespectful to think that she didn't have what it took because she had a different set of genitalia. Daveth laughed again.
"No, not at all, Mi'Lady. The more the merrier. In fact, there should be more women Grey Wardens."
"So you'll have more company on those long lonely nights?" Vhrinn teased, playing on his earlier failure to woo the lady who denounced him with a single glare.
"Exactly!" Daveth said, smiling at her. He patted her on the shoulder acceptingly. "I like you. . .What did you say your name was?"
"I didn't. It's Vhrinn though."
"Ah, Vhrinn." He said dreamily. She cuffed him on the arm to get his head out whatever thoughts he might be compiling with her. "Ah, yes. I should get back to Duncan. I'll see you there soon enough."
Vhrinn smiled as the devilish rogue walked away. She certainly liked him. He was funny and carefree, and nice. Most people were afraid of her because she was a mage, and either kept well of her, or treated her with disdain. He hadn't even asked if she was a Mage, and liked her for just being, well, herself. That was rare, and she found it refreshing.
She quickly made haste with the Quartermaster, discarding some of the equipment she found no use for and even managing to buy herself another backpack to carry future goods. She explored the camp, met the Mage Wynne. She recalled her from the Tower. She had been one of her teachers, but she hadn't really gotten to know Wynne well. She lectured her, as was her way as a teacher with a young pupil. Still, Wynne had much to tell her, and she listened aptly she the elder mage dragged on. With polite farwells, Vhrinn went off and continued her explorations.
The Kennel master was another who had attracted her attention. Apparently, news spread like wildfire in a camp, and he knew she was a Grey Warden (or going to become one soon) and knew she was going out into the Korcari wilds. Even she didn't know that, but stuffed away that tidbit for future reference. He pleaded with her to get a white wildflower with a red center. It was said that it might cure the dog of the Darkspawn taint. It was lethal to mabaris and he didn't want to lose another dog to the Blight. The dog had lost his master as well, and the Kennel master thought the mabari might imprint upon her.
An interesting prospect. Having a mabari of her own. The dogs were intelligent and fearsome. Trained to carry out commands and think for themselves, as well as being deadly in combat. She'd definetly would consider it, seeing as she didn't know any mages who had a Mabari of their own. And mabari's were known to be loyal and faithful. If this one imprinted on her, she'd have a loyal and lethal bodyguard.
As she slipped into the cage, it was obvious the animal was in pain, it whimpered and writhed on the ground, panting heavily against the pain. It looked at her though, with the dark brown eyes, similar to her own. He stared at her as she brought the muzzle around his mouth, but made no attempts to bite her, although he could ahve easily done so. She gently stroked his head after the muzzle was in place and continued to be absorbed in the mabari's eyes, and he hers.
"Looks like he's takin' to ya. We might be able to imprint him to you after all." The Kennel Master said, As Vhrinn reluctantly left the cage. Without the flower, there was nothing that could be done, she would have to come check on him later. Thanking the houndsman, she continued about her way. Judging by the time of day, she approximated that it was shortly after noon, and she should get to Alistair and begin the Joining, whatever that may be.
Many people had never heard of Alistair, and after she explained that he was a Grey Warden, they all kept pointing in a Northerly direction. She followed it, until she found a man in a cage. Of three cages that hung up, he was the only one to occupy any of them, and was stripped to his small clothes as well. They hadn't even given him simple clothes to wear. Curiosity piqued her intrest and she made her way over to him.
"Please, ma'am, would you help me out here? I know I don't have the right to beg such a beautiful woman such as yourself for a favor, being a criminal and all, but would you bring me some food?" The prisoner begged when he saw that he was her target of meanderings.
"WHy are you in there?"
"I was caught deserting. Which I wasn't, not to say that I might have at some point, but when they caught me, I wasn't deserting, they jus' thought I was. Please, ma'am I only beg for one last meal before they hang me, or whatever they plan on doing."
"So what 'were' you doing?"
"What's it matter? They are going to kill me either way. Desertion is punishable by death." The prisoner sat back in his cage, seeing that she wasn't going to yield so quickly, or probably wasn't going to spare him a meal.
"What's worse? A grumbly belly or confessing your true crime?" Vhrinn folded her arms over her chest and stared atthe man. The tattoos on her face didn't seem to bother the man in the least. Noone, in fact, seemed bothered out here by them. Still, they added to her dark features and made many too nervous not to answer her questions. In this case, however, it was the man's stomach, and not her accessories that compelled him to speak.
"I was. . .stealing, from the mages. One of them got drunk and passed out. He had a key on him, that opened a chest of goods they brought. If you bring me some food, you can have it."
Vhrinn narrowed her eyes. "And why wasn't it taken form you when you were caught?"
"I, uh, swallowed it, and it, uh, recently came back into my possession." The man blushed.
Vhrinn covered her mouth with her hand to hide the reflex she had to the notion of 'how' it had returned to his possesions. If she had been in his place, she wouldn't have wanted to keep it either.
"I'll see what I can fish up for you," she said behind her hand, still retching. The man, encouraged, came to teh front of his cage again, and waved wildly at the guard nearby. "Ask that guard, I saw him stuff a sandwich in his coat."
Vhrinn nodded, finally able to uncover her mouth and went to teh guard standing watch over the prisoner. Not that he truly needed it. "Excuse me, Ser."
"I saw you over there talkin' to thet prisoner, what'd he want?" The guard sneered.
"Simply a last meal before he's hanged." A thought occurred to her. "Why hasn't this man been fed?"
"He's a deserter. They's told me ta stand here and guard him. They's brought no food to feed him, and I'm not about to give up my own meals to a condemed man." The guard sniffed, suddenly feeling awkward as Vhrinn's deep dark eyes began boring into his.
"And whats one last meal to a dying man? Probably the most savory thing in all the world. Where you can simply get someone to bring you more food, will anyone but you show this man any kind of kindness. Wouldn't you want that, if you were about to die? One last act of mercy? He just wants food, he's prepared to die, just not of starvation."
"Alright, ye can have this half-eaten sandwich. But if they ask why he's belching, I'm sending tehm to you." The guard said, opening his coat and pulling out a thick half eaten sub. Even to Vhrinn it smelled like The Golden City. Thinkly sliced ham on rye bread, with cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, onions and olives. A hickory sauce was the final touch to the mouth watering meal before her. After this, she was going to have to find one of these herself.
Taking her prize in her hand, she strolled over to the prisoner who was just about drooling as she approached. Undoubtably, the smell had him near frantic to satethe hunger that clawed at his abdomen. He stuck his arm out like a crazed man as she neared his cage with the food. Snatching it quickly, his arm retracted into teh cell and the man engulfed the sandwich in near record time. She waited patiently for him to finish, although she didn't have to wait long.
"Thank you, kind lady. Truly the Maker looks upon you. Here, as promised, you can have this key." He replied, pulling the metalic item from his underwear. Vhrinn recoiled, not having forgotten where exactly that had been. She indicated form him to drop it on the ground. It landed in the grass, folding the blades around it form, but otherwise making no sound.
Taking a handkerchief from her robes, she reached down and picked up the offending object. Folding it neatly within, with promises of never using it again, she tucked it inside her new backpack, away from anything she might actually use. She was now thankful she had gotten it, and wonder if the Maker had a hand in her decision to buy it. Shrugging, she didn't care, she needed to find Alistair.
Vhrinn made her way past the infirmary and continued to strike in a Northerly direction. She seemed to be heading towards the fringes of the encampment, which said alot about the ground she had covered. The Tevinters had built this place as a fort (huge at that!) to prevent the 'wilders' from invading their lands. The size and scope of the place was simply awe-inspiring. Tall columns high up into the sky, reaching higher than men should possibly be able to build. The mages obviously had a hand in the creation, and again, her mind drifted back towards flying. Did they have spells that could lift things into the air? Would certainly explain most of teh architecture here.
Vhrinn's mind dwelling on her musing as her feet picked out the path on their own. She hadn't even realized she'd stumbling into Alister until an irrate Mage shouldered her on his way out of the area.
"Get out of teh way, fool." He sneered at her, as he left.
"Ah, the good thing about a Blight is how it brings people together." Alistair said, smirking at Vhrinn's befuddled look.
"Sorry, what?"
"We haven't met, I'm Alistair, the newest Grey Warden. You wouldn't happen to be another Mage, would you?" Clearly, he was trying to lighten the mood, and he obviously figured out too late, that she was indeed.
"I am." Vhrinn said, her dark eyes, again, being utilized as a weapon as she drilled them into the Grey Warden uncomfortably. He raised his armored hand to scratch his head, trying to find a way out of teh predicament he'd blundered into.
"Wait, your the new recruit that Duncan brought. Good, so you're all here! What was your name again?" He smiled again, his boyish face soothing the embarassment of earlier. She smiled back at his gaiety.
"Vhrinn. Pleased to meet you." She really was. She was liking the world outside the Tower. For the most part, everyone was kind to her, and didn't seem to treat her any differently because she was a Mage. The usual Chantry propganda about Mages and magic being evil didn't really seem to apply here.
"Ah, have you met the other recruits?" At her nod, he continued. "Good, we should go find Duncan, no doubt they are there waiting on us. We should get moving on the Joining."
He fell in step next to her as they headed out of the deserted nook of teh ruins. Walking down the slope leading back towards the main encampment, Vhrinn turned to her new companion. "And what was that all about?"
"With the Mage you mean?" Vhrinn nodded. "Oh, you see, I was asked to give the Mages a message, and well, beign a Templar and all, the Grand Cleric. . .hey! Wait, where are you going?" Alistair said, picking up his pace to catch up with the Mage who suddenly began walking faster.
"Stop right there." She commanded, her dark eyes boiling in suppresed anger. "Don't you dare follow me."
"But I'm to come with you. . ."He said, uncertain what had set the firey Mage off. She lifted a finger in silent warned and spun around, leaving the Templar to figure out what he'd said wrong. Realizing that she was still storming away on his own, he hung back as he followed her back to Duncan.
"You can't possibly be thinking about letting him come with us!" Vhrinn demanded storming into camp, her finger pointing to the Gery Warden two steps behind her. Duncan, and the other two recuits' eyes shot up at the Mage as she stood a restrained tempest ready to spill over. Duncan stood up, calm and collected as ever.
"Ah, I see you've found Alistair, we can now begin with the Joining." Duncan began, pretending as if Vhrinn's outburst had never happened. "You will be going out into the Korcari Wilds to complete two tasks. Your first is to obtain three vials of Darkspawn blood, and the second is to recover some ancient Grey Warden scrolls. We had a base out in the Wilds, long ago, long since abandoned and forgotten. Alister will show you the way."
"No!" Vhrinn demanded again, hearing enough of what she was supposed to do. "I just said, he is not coming with us! Go get another Grey Warden, if you will, but he will not be going with us." The other recruits held back, wating to see just how Duncan would react to the Mage's tantrum.
"Is there a problem, Vhrinn Amnell?" Duncan said calmly, seemngly unphased by her bristling mood. This just egged her on.
She pointed back at Alistair. "He's a Templar! I'm no longer a Circle Mage, I'm to be a Grey Warden, that's obviously worth something, and now you send a Templar to watch my every move, make sure I'm a good girl and use my magic properly? No, I won't allow it!"
Upon hearing the menacing growl in her voice, Alistair skirted the edge of the fire pit and went to stand next to Duncan, more for safety than simply to be near the Elder Grey Warden.
"It is tradition, Vhrinn. Our youngest member always goes out with the new recruits. Now, Alistair, are you done rileing up mages? Duncan said, turning his head towards the Templar Warden.
"Uh, yeah." He said, glancing a nervous peek towards the female mage across from him.
"Good. You have your mission then. Protect your charges, Alistair, and may the Maker watch over all of you. On this outting, Vhrinn will be in charge, you all take your orders from her, listen to her as you would listen to me." Duncan decreed.
"SO if I tell him to drop dead, will he imaple himself on his sword?" Vhrinn sneered at Alistair. Alistair, getting sick of her venom, stuck out his tongue at her.
"Make haste, the sooner we can get to the Joining, the better." Duncan said, again, ignoring Vhrinn's outburst. Ser Jory, Daveth, Alistair and Vhrinn joined and made their way to the gates in silence. Noone wanted to spark off teh Mage again. And it wasn't until they were out in the Wilds that they began to converse.
"I don't know if I like this." Ser Jory said, after patching up a wounded scout. The man had regailed them with his version of being ambushed by Darkspawn, saying how they had come up from the ground, materialized from the mists. Still, he had been the only survivor and was just anxious to be away to report to the King.
"It'll be fine, Ser Jory. We won't be ambushed by any darkspawn, not as long as I am here."
"And what makes you more special than a squad of well trained men?" Vhrinn spat. Again, Alistair stuck his tongue out at the mage. She lifted a finger in warning, and he quickly retracted it back into his mouth, as if her warning had said:
"If you like using that tongue so much, I can make you a toad and you can use it all the time!"
"Well, I am the only Grey Warden here, and aside from all the special things we can do, we can sense the Darkspawn, so we'll have plenty of warning before they attack." Alistair said, looking over at Ser Jory, hoping the news would sequester his ill feelings.
"Hear that, Ser Jory. We might die, but at least we'll be warned about it first." Daveth said jovially, and Vhrinn and Alistair both laughed. Realizing they were both laughing at the same thing, they stopped and shot eachother arduous stares.
Leading the way, Vhrinn carefully picked her way through the Wilds, passing by some broken wagons that had belonged to some poor sots who had been attacked by the Darkspawn. The bodies had been mutilated, and almost recognizable as human anymore. Flies were already humming over the corpses, no doubt looking for a delectable spot to lay their eggs. The group moved past them quickly.
It wasn't much further when Alistair cocked his head to the side, hearing something the others could not. He reached for his weapons before calling out to everyone else. "Darkspawn!"
He raced to the nearest one, a tall Hurlock with an axe and shield. As their shields collided against eachother, a bolt of power ailed over his shoulder to land firmly in the Hurlock's chest. Alistair pushed away from the beast with his shield, sending it back a few inches, giving Daveth an opening to pierce it with an arrow. It landed squarely in its eye, and fell over backwards, it maw agap in silent death cry.
Ser Jory had engaged a smaller Genlock, with two weapons. It tried cutting low on the taller man, but Ser Jory expertly fielded the deadly blades away from his armored body with his gigantic sword. He used his foot to push the stoutly darkspawn away from him, following it up with a might cleave with his sword, dispatching teh genlocks head form its shoulders. With one more left, Vhrinn called for a halt.
"What are you doing!?" Alistair said, raising his shield to block an arrow that came his way. Vhrinn extended her hand and cast a spell. The genlock that remained looked a little shaken, but yet it still lived. It pulled back on his bow, his hands shaking, and let loose an arrow, flying over Vhrinn's shoulder, disturbing only her hair as it flew by. Alistair seemed torn from following her orders and finishing off teh darkspawn before it managed to kill them all.
Vhrinn grabbed the Warden by his splintmail and pulled him down to her. "I want to make something perfectly clear, Templar. I am going to be a Grey Warden, and after were through with this Blight, I don't want to see you ever again." Another arrow flew between them, not one finding its mark yet. The Genlock seemed to be having trouble keeping his bow still. Drops of sweat had beaded his brow. If a Darkspawn could look sick, it would look like one before the group. "I will not be hounded by some man in shiny metal armor because I can weild an entirely different type of weapon than he. I will not be insulted by my good honor and faith by having you constantly about makign sure I'm not casting the wrong spell. Or you'll end up like that."
Vhrinn snapped her fingers and the ailing Genlock exploded in a shower of blood and gore. Vhrinn held tightly onto Alistairs cuirass as the massacered remains pelted their bodies, while Jory and Daveth shielded themselves best they could. The blood was atomized in teh air, making for a light drizzled of the vial stuff as it rained down upon them. Vhrinn's eyes and deed held Alistair mystified as she continued to hold him put.
"Do I make myself perfectly clear?"
"Yes, ma'am." Alistair said politely. She smiled then, letting go of his breastplate and picking a large chunk if flesh and sinew. It may have even had a bone in it, but Alistair didn't care to look. She held it out before him, like a prize, before unceremoniously dropping on the ground.
"Good! Glad were all on the same page then!" She said, heading back off into the Wilds, leaving the three men to watch after her in shock.