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Let's get to know Alistair and Summer better, shall we? Yaaay!

Word count: 1367

Pain: nothing but pain mixed with anguish and fear. Only mighty roars and chants of wordless, yet terrifying nonsense, and no other sound that didn't scream destruction was audible for several miles. Blood spattering everywhere, hearts and gore ripped out of humans, dwarves and elves alike and in large amounts. Fire, bright and strong destroying everything and reducing it to charred ashes, nothing left but a barren wasteland. The rotten faces of grinning darkspawn mocking me, mocking everyone, as the entirety of Thedas fell to the all-consuming and unstoppable Blight.

My eyes flew open and I was panting for air: something that already felt like a habit. That darned dragon that I'd seen when I'd passed out during my Joining was again inside my head, its roars still echoing inside my skull. It was all that death and destruction and-

"Bad dreams, huh?"

I sat up slowly, pressing my hand to my neck. Ugh, I'd been lying in the wrong position. "What?" I mumbled. Alistair was sitting, relaxed, by the fire across from me. "I- it seemed so real."

My words had been but a whisper, but he picked up on them nonetheless, through the crackling of the fire, the endless chattering of the Orlesian red-headed bard and the occasional barking from Twigs.

"Well it is real, sort of," he smiled. "You see, part of being a Grey Warden is being able to hear the Darkspawn. That's what your dream was. Hearing them."

I frowned. "Huh? We can hear the darkspawn?"

His face fell from the small smile, his eyes flickering bit as he clearly thought over how to explain to me. "The Archdemon," he began, "It talks to the horde, and we feel it just as they do. That's how we know this really is a Blight."

I bit my lip softly, my eyes falling onto my bare feet and then the beautiful fire beside me. There was something oddly satisfying at the orange reddish flames dancing around and emitting warmth.

"Are these dreams going to happen a lot?" I asked him, not looking at him, simply chewing on my bottom lip. I was hungry all of a sudden.

"It takes a bit, but eventually you can block the dreams out. Some of the older Grey Wardens say they can understand the Archdemon a bit, but I surely can't. Anyhow, when I heard you thrashing about, I thought I should tell you. It was scary for me at first too."

I nodded, giving a sigh and leaned down to pull the legs of my pants further down as I'd kicked them further up in my sleep. "Thank you Alistair," I said and smiled weakly. That dragon was horrifying.

"That's what I'm here for: to deliver unpleasant news and witty one liners."

I let out a small, nearly soundless laugh, looking at him again. He was smiling softly, looking at me. I looked around camp. A giant Qunari named Sten, whom we had freed from a cage in Lothering which was a village truly in dire need of help, was standing at the edge of camp, scouting for enemies. Leliana was humming not so far away, sitting in front of one of the tents we'd bought, while she tuned her lute. She'd helped us in a fight in a tavern, which sounded much more romantic than it really was. At first I didn't want her to come with us, because as Alistair had said, we were already "full on crazy." However, she'd begged to come with us again, and I'd allowed her to. Morrigan had camped her tent so far away that I didn't really know what she was doing, nor did I honestly care, and Twigs was pressed up against my side, looking at me with small, yet curious eyes. I patted her head.

"It's alright, you can go back to sleep. I'll take care of you. No nasty darkspawn will hurt my baby girl," I said and smiled to her. She barked happily and jumped up, huge tongue licking my face while she pressed me to the ground. I giggled and laughed and tried fighting her off.

"Off, off! Twigs," I giggled, finally able to push her off. Alistair was laughing whole-heartedly while I wiped my face, my adorable dog lying back down happily and putting her head in my lap. I could hear Leliana giggling as well.

"Ugh, you're disgusting," I said in a baby voice, not mad at her. I couldn't be. I looked over at the pack we kept our food in briefly, sighing.

"Hungry?" Alistair guessed. I raised a brow at him and nodded. "It's a Grey Warden thing. I used to get up in the middle of the night and raid the castle larder, I was convinced I'd die of hunger. I remember once during supper, I'd wolfed down my food so fast and when I looked up, everyone was laughing at me for being all covered in gravy."

I smiled, pushing Twigs' head out of my lap and pulling my knees to my chest, hugging my legs. "What was it like with all the other Grey Wardens there?" I asked him curiously, watching him as he got up and went to the pack I'd looked at before, digging around in it.

"Interesting, to say the least," he said, standing up straight again and tossing me an apple. I smiled in thanks and he plopped down in his old spot before with a piece of cheese. "I didn't know any of them very well, but we did talk. It helped somehow, to have someone more experienced to look up to, you know?"

I nodded, taking a bite of the apple. It was perfectly between sweet and sour.

"Anyway, can I hear about your life in Highever? You were the Teyrn's daughter, yes?"

"I'm still his daughter even though he's dead," I said, heart weighing down at the last word.

"Right, of course. I'm sorry," Alistair said, sounding sincerely apologetic.

"It's alright. But yes, what would you like to know?" I asked him, watching him while taking another bite.

"What was it like?"

I frowned. "What was what like?"

"Everything! Being a noblewoman and such. What kind of responsibilities did you have? It wasn't mostly sitting down at tea parties, was it?"

"No, not all of the time," I said, briefly smiling. "I wasn't exactly the most traditional Lady. I trained the knights with my brother Fergus mostly. Otherwise I went around, running errands for people and spending time with friends. Or have tea parties."

He chuckled. "What did those around you think of a lady, fighting?"

"They were outraged, mostly. Fighting should be left to the men and the women should sit and look pretty. I can't do that," I said with a small shrug.

"Oh, but you are looking pretty, sitting right there," he winked.

I laughed. "I meant I couldn't just sit still and be someone's puppet. Thank you for the compliment by the way."

He gave a small nod, and I took another bite of the apple.

"You know, admittedly, when Duncan first told me he was considering a noblewoman for a recruit, I was worried it'd be some snobby hag who'd whine if she got dirt under her nails, but you're not like that at all."

"Oh don't assume," I joked. "I might just be the Queen of Bitches and I'm just lying dormant because of everything that's going on."

He laughed. "Doubt it."

I suppressed a yawn. "I think I'll head to my tent. Dawn is still long away. You should get some sleep too," I told him, pushing myself up. Twigs stood as well, looking at me expectantly.

"I will, just not yet. My sword needs polishing," he said. I giggled and he turned red. "Not that sword. I was mistaken, you're evil."

I clamped my hand over my mouth, laughing. "Sorry. Twigs you keep Alistair company," I told my hound. Then I offered Alistair a small wave. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight," he returned, looking at the massive dog that had just sat down right next to him, breathing him in the face. I went into my tent and smiled as I pulled the flap down.