Somehow I almost regret leaving for the Free Marches soon, because I finally got the hang of writing the characters. And I have discovered that friendly Alistair is far easier to write than grumpy Alistair. A tiny bit of action, some humor… you'll see soon enough. I hope you have as much fun reading as I had writing it!

Chapter 4: The Big Bad Tower

"Loghain, my decision is final. I will stand by the Grey Wardens in this assault." Ah, here goes Alistair's royal half-brother.

"You risk too much, Cailan! The darkspawn horde is too dangerous for you to be playing hero on the front lines." And his grumpy, traitorous advisor / father-in-law follows suit.

"If that's the case, perhaps we should wait for the orlesian forces after all."

Apply cold water to burned area… although I doubt he intended it that way.

"I must protest to your fool notion that we need the Orlesians to defend ourselves."

"It is not a 'fool notion'. Our arguments with the Orlesians are a thing of the past… and you will remember who's king!"

"How fortunate Maric did not live to see his son ready to hand Ferelden over to those who enslaved us for a century."

I readied myself to butt in, but Cailan had already cornered him nicely. What Loghain had more than others in tactical prowess, he obviously lacked in other areas.

"Then our current forces will have to suffice, won't they?" He turned away, ending this conversation for now. "Duncan, are your men ready for battle?"

"They are, your majesty." Duncan confirmed. "Shall we go through the battle strategy again?"

"Fine. The Grey Wardens and I draw the darkspawn into charging our lines and then…?"

With a heavy sigh, Loghain offered to continue. "You will alert the tower to light the beacon, signaling my men to charge from cover."

King Cailan cut him off. "To flank the darkspawn, I remember. This is the tower of Ishal in the ruins, yes? Who shall light this beacon?"

Again it was Teyrn Loghain who answered. "I have a few men stationed there. It is not a dangerous task, but it is a vital one."

Finally, Cailan addressed us. "Then we should send our best. Send Alistair and the two new Grey Wardens with him."

Before any of the other two could complain, I already answered. "We'll do our best, your majesty. 'Tis prudent to ensure that the task will be done. This beacon is a single point of failure. However, if this is truly a blight, then you should consider that the archdemon will know of the tower's tactical value. I wouldn't be surprised to find it crawling with darkspawn. For all we know, they could have dug a tunnel beneath it to gain access."

"It is not your place to plan the battle, Warden" Loghain remarked coldly. It was clear what he thought of us. "Besides, don't be ridiculous. An underground tunnel? Please." he scoffed.

"I must admit, this sounds quite… farfetched." Cailan added. "But if you're right, you will have your own glorious battle!" he exclaimed happily and threw his arms in the air.

It took all my restraint not to facepalm at that, and apparently I wasn't alone with that notion. However, I refrained from pushing further after receiving warning glares from my fellow 'co-conspirators'.

Duncan bowed his head and answered for us. "Very well. We will send them on their way immediately."

"If you say as much as 'I told you so', I will smack you." Alistair growled.

I only smiled as I pulled out my two-handed axe out of a genlock's skull.

"Well how do you think the darkspawn gets to the Old Gods? Should they knock and yell 'Cookies for sale'?" I shouted over the now almost darkspawn free hall.

Daylen had to laugh so hard that the fireball he was casting blew in his face as he lost concentration. Not that it would have damaged him. It even turned out to be a good thing, as the fireball blasted away a genlock rogue who had been about to decloak and strike from behind.

"Damn it, Shepard! Don't make me laugh while I'm playing with fire!" he snorted with laughter.

"Yeah? Look behind you, that little bugger was about to get really touchy-feely with you… from behind." I shot back with a smirk towards Alistair, who had slowly made his way over to me.

"That's what she said!" Alistair yelled as he rammed his shield into the face of the last of those obnoxious hurlocks who staggered back and conveniently impaled himself on the burning barricades.

Daylen groaned and rolled his eyes, but I grinned broadly and returned the offered high five from Alistair.

"I'm proud of you, young padawan!"

Daylen turned to me. "You keep saying this word, but I don't know what it means… it sounds like... paragon?"

"Oh, padawan?" As he nodded in affirmation, I blushed slightly. "It's a word from my old home. It's often used in a very... solemnly… way and means apprentice. I'm educating Alistair here on the art of comic relief. He has already mastered the witty one-liners, but his situational awareness still needs some practice." I said with a wink in his direction.

Ever since I cut that corrupted spider at the entrance in half that tried to get a drop on him while he was still caught in its net, Alistair seemed to have warmed up to me. We had come a long way in a short time. Our first encounter ended with the tip of his sword pointed at my face, and now we made jokes together.

Alistair shoved me a bit towards the big doors. "Come on, we have to go. There's still a beacon to be lit!"

The doors opened with a painfully long creak and gave way to the sight of an ogre munching on a soldier. Upon hearing the loud noise it twisted its head and roared, splattering the man's remnants all over the room.

I tapped Alistair on the shoulder without even averting my gaze from the large darkspawn. "I think we need bigger weapons."

Suddenly Daylen stepped up to us with a maniacal grin on his face. "Did someone say explosions?"

He waved his hands in big gestures. While I still pondered about a accurate comparison, a pained cry came from the ogre. I just turned my head back in time to see the big, fiery explosion tearing large chunks of tainted meat out of his deformed body.

Having seen enough gore for the past three floors, I only shrugged my shoulders. "No bigger weapons, but that'll do just fine." Then I rushed forward and beheaded the surrounding darkspawn in a large sweep.

That's why I love big weapons! I thought with a smile on my face.

"Huh, you'd think they would pour more darkspawn in here, not just a big ass ogre and a few critters." Alistair wondered.

I did my best imitation of a facepalm (without getting actual darkspawn blood on my face - gross). "You just had to jinx it, didn't you?"

As Alistair only shrugged, I motioned to Daylen to throw a fireball into the oven to light the signal, but the ogre was still in the way. While our mage stayed behind, Al and I charged the ogre.

Alistair tried his luck up in the front, driving his sword in the ogre's chest plate again and again, but I could already see that it had as much effect as if Alistair had only tried to rip out his chest hair one by one (to think of an ogre's chest hair was disturbing to say the least, but the image itself was fitting nonetheless).

"If you can't go for the head, go for what you can reach." That earned me a short questioning glance from Alistair, but he didn't have time to inquire further as the ogre swung at him and barely missed.

I didn't know if this would work though… Ah hell, might as well go with it. Shrugging, I flanked the jumbo and whirled my axe into his tendons. He roared in pain and began to stagger.

"Timber, bitches!" I yelled as the ogre started toppling over.

Alistair barely got out of the way.

I climbed the colossus while he was still on his fall down and chopped the head off as soon as we landed. I had heard the stories of ogres who "came back from the dead".

Daylen watched the whole thing. "That was surprisingly anticlimactic. I thought this would be harder, considering the lower floors that were crawling with darkspawn."

I groaned. "Not you, too!"

"What?"

"Now we're jinxed twice! With stating that we would've expected something harder than what we have faced, we're bound to encounter bigger challenges in the future, or else your statements would've been superfluous. Ask Chekhov."

"Who's Chekhov?" Alistair asked.

I exhaled deeply and pinched the bridge of my nose. "Never mind. Let's get this over with and set this damned beacon on fire, okay?"

As soon as Daylen had lit it with a fireball, a ground shaking roar hit us in the back. When we turned, the sight of an alpha ogre greeted us.

"Alistair?"

"What is it?"

"I told you so."

We didn't even have time before it knocked us off our feet. Daylen was hit the hardest, as he only had his robe and not real armor like Alistair and me.

"I said that I would smack you, but as we just got bullrushed by an alpha ogre, I'd say we're even!" Alistair groaned.

"You're too kind, Alistair." I bit back. Hopefully we would get help in time…

"Do you hear wings flapping?" I suddenly asked, not trusting my own hearing, given that my head was still ringing from what was probably a concussion.

"That must've been the impact, Shepard." Daylen coughed. His robe was smeared with blood, but with my slightly blurry vision, I couldn't tell if it was his or not. It most likely was, though. Hell, I was pretty beat up, and I had my armor that bore the brunt. He didn't.

"No, John's right, I hear it too!" Alistair said.

We all turned our heads towards the large window that become darker and darker as a giant dragon blocked our vision.

We all expected it to land, but it didn't even bother. The big red dragon collided full force with the roof of the tower, which then took a long dive to the ground, dragging the ogre with it. We were lucky that we were lying on the ground, or else we would have taken the same road. The dragon turned mid-air and landed on the floor.

"Did someone ask for a ride?" the dragon asked.

I smirked, knowing full well who was behind the dragon shape. Daylen and Alistair should already be familiar with Morrigan's mother, Flemeth, although there wasn't much that resembled her.

Well, maybe the hairdo from Dragon Age II. And the personality.

To my surprise, I was still in the best shape of us three, so that made the task at hand easier. At least I thought so, until I turned around and saw my two comrades passed out on the floor. That made the task at hand harder.

"May I?" I asked her, motioning to her back. As soon she nodded, I climbed the scales on her back, cutting myself at least two times. When I was settled, I patted her as a sign to go.

"Would you kindly take my companions in your talons? Much obliged, mylady."

Have you ever heard a mature dragon chuckle? You would shit your pants. Short flames shot out of her nostrils while her whole body rumbled with laughter. It was even difficult to stay in place.

"You, I like. Shall we?"

"After you."

With another rumble of laughter, we took to the skies, the smell of roasted darkspawn getting in my nose as we flew over the burning battlefield.

From afar, I could see a lifeless corpse in a golden armor right next to a dead ogre. It seemed as if the story took that turn after all.

I'm back! Wait, actually, I'm not. I officially "report back for duty" here not sooner than Saturday. Still have three exams to write (Wednesday, Friday, Saturday -.-), but I carved out a little time each day, grinding out a few hundred words whenever I got the time, you know the drill. I was so happy I got this chapter finished ahead of schedule, I just had to upload it sooner than I had planned.

Anyhow, you should know that I work on my stories like I get ideas for them. How soon I will update, I don't know. Just so you're warned.

And I still have no beta, by the way.

Who has spotted any (subtle) references may post them in his / her review. Maybe I included one unintentionally? I was told on several occasions that this happens a lot to me :D

Padawan doesn't count, that one isn't subtle at all^^