"…The Tevinter Imperium built Ostagar long ago to prevent the Wilders from invading the northern lowlands. It's fitting we make our stand here, even if we face a different foe within that forest. The king's forces have clashed with the darkspawn several times, but here is where the bulk of the horde will show itself. There are only a few Grey Wardens within Ferelden at the moment, but all of us are here. This Blight must stop here and now. If it spreads to the north, Ferelden will fall."

"Ho there, Duncan!"

I saw the King before I heard him. His armor was the exact opposite of mine – shiny, large, and most likely heavy – with a sword to match.

Duncan looked vaguely surprised, and that in turn surprised me. "King Cailan? I didn't expect—"

"—a royal welcome? I was beginning to worry you'd miss all the fun!"

"Not if I could help it, your Majesty."

Cailan looked overjoyed – in fact, most of his features suggested that he was still not much more than a human in his early twenties. "Then I'll have the mighty Duncan at my side at my side in battle after all! Glorious! The other Wardens told me that you've found a promising recruit. I take it this is she?"

Duncan turned to me. "Allow me to introduce you, your Majesty."

"No need to be so formal, Duncan. We'll be shedding blood together, after all. Ho there, friend! Might I know your name?"

I remembered the manners my mother had spent many precious hours instilling into me. "I am Kallian, your Majesty."

"Pleased to meet you!" the King responded. "The Grey Wardens are desperate to bolster their numbers, and I, for one, am glad to help them. I see you're an elf, friend. From where do you hail?"

Manners or not this guy was going to get a Captain Obvious award if he kept up his line of questioning. "The city of Denerim."

"As do I! Though I've not been in the palace in some time. Do you come from the Alienage? Tell me, how is it there? My guards all but forbid me from going there."

It was bound to come out sooner or later. I looked him straight in the eye. "I killed an Arl's son for raping my friend."

The look on his face, quite frankly, was priceless. "You… what?"

Duncan came to my rescue quite quickly. "Your Majesty, I would not have put it so bluntly. There are events in Denerim that you should be aware of."

Cailan nodded gravely. "So it seems. I will hear more about this matter later. For now, we have a war to attend to."

The King turned back to me, his voice less enthusiastic. "Allow me to be the first one to welcome you to Ostagar. The Wardens will benefit greatly with you in their ranks."

"You're too kind, your Majesty," I returned, letting the manners slip back into place.

"I'm sorry to cut this short, but I should return to my tent. Loghain waits eagerly to bore me with his strategies."

Duncan caught the King's attention once again. "Your Uncle sends his greetings and reminds you that Redcliffe forces could be here in less than a week."

"Ha! Eamon just wants in on the glory. We've won three battles against these monsters and tomorrow should be no different."

I cut in then. "I didn't realize that things were going so well."

"I'm not even sure that this is a true Blight. There are plenty of darkspawn on the field, but alas, we've seen no sign of an Archdemon."

Duncan picked up my thoughts. "Disappointed, your Majesty?"

Cailan huffed. "I'd hoped for a war like in the tales! A king riding with the fabled Grey Wardens against a tainted god! But I suppose this will have to do. I must go before Loghain sends out a search party. Farewell, Grey Wardens!"

Duncan turned to me once the King had left. "What the king said is true. They've won several battles against the darkspawn here."

There was a 'but' hanging in the air. "Yet you don't sound very reassured."

He continued. "Despite the victories so far, the darkspawn horde grows larger with each passing day. By now, they look to outnumber us. I know there is an archdemon behind this. But I cannot ask the king to act solely on my feeling."

I glanced at Duncan. "Then maybe we should move quickly."

"Yes. We should proceed with the ritual."

"What do you need me to do?" I asked. I wanted to prove myself after the beating I had taken from Duncan.

"Feel free to explore the camp as you wish. All I ask is that you do not leave it for the time being. There is another Grey Warden in the camp – by the name of Alistair. When you are ready, seek him out and tell him it's time to summon the other recruits," he stopped. "Until then, I have business I must attend to. You may find me at the Grey Warden tent on the other side of this bridge, should you need to."

Duncan turned and left, and I followed him across the bridge a few seconds behind. The bridge didn't look very stable, but if a human man weighing at least two of me with his armor, equipment, and himself, I could too.

A guard on the other side saw I looked a little lost. "This side is the King's camp. We have the Grey Wardens here, the Circle of Magi, the Chantry… you can't swing a dead cat without hitting someone important."

Ignoring why I'd be swinging a dead cat around anyhow, I decided to find out some more about the mages. "The Circle of Magi is here?"

"A few mages, yes. They even brought those creepy quiet fellows, the Tranquil. Gives me the shivers when they talk, all cold and even. They're to the north of here, bunched up with a herd of Templars glaring at them. Can't miss it."

I hoped that Neria was there. "I'll be on my way."

"Good luck to you, then," the guard said.

I wandered around the camp for awhile so that I could get to know the surroundings, and I did replace my equipment after a rude encounter with the store clerk. The daggers I bought were of better balance than the previous blades I had, but not by much. I regretted leaving my mother's daggers behind, as well as her equipment, but I hadn't thought to pack while Shianni was in my room crying and promising that she'd be okay.

The thought of that day left me in a dark mood until I stumbled upon an elderly appearing woman with the most bizarre clothes I'd ever seen. I realized I'd been steadily heading north since I'd gotten the new equipment, and while I didn't see Neria around, it couldn't hurt to ask.

"Greetings to you, young lady. You are Duncan's newest recruit, are you not? He is not a man easily impressed. You should be proud. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Wynne, one of the mages summoned by the king."

"Kallian of Denerim, pleased to meet you," I returned. By now I was getting used to the idea that everyone would know more about me than I knew of them.

Wynne smiled. "Well met, and good luck on the battlefield to you. To us all, in fact."

She was a mage… "Would you know Neria Surana?"

"She's one of my best students, if a just a little shy. That's a common problem with the apprentices who have lived at the Circle since they were children. How do you know her?"

"I was her best friend when we lived by each other in the Denerim Alienage, and she was mine. I wrote to her for a while after she was taken, but when I was around ten she stopped writing very often, and by eleven she barely wrote at all. Her last letter was about three years ago."

"She was able to get letters out of the Circle?" Wynne said with a little bit of wonder. It felt like my comments confirmed a mystery she'd been pursuing.

I realized I may have said too much – and if I had, I was very glad that Neria was not at the battlefield with Wynne. I might have gotten turned into one of her icicles that she was so popular for back when she was in the Denerim Alienage. Good thing I didn't mention the dolls that got smuggled in…

She saw the look on my face and laughed. "No, I'm not out to get her in trouble. It is just exceedingly hard for letters to get out without the Templars redacting 90% of what's in there. If anything, I'm a little proud of her. She had passed her test to become a full mage before I left."

I didn't really know what that meant, but it sounded like a good thing. "After the battle, if you see her again… tell her I said hi."

"I will, Kallian of Denerim."

She spoke of the king and the darkspawn – horrible things I'd only heard about from Duncan on the way here and the occasional Chantry sister– and a 'Fade', which sounded like an actual lala land. I took my leave after that as we'd run out of things to talk about and wandered over to the place they held the mabaris at. I didn't like being over there, but I heard the trainer say something about losing a promising member of the breed.

He turned and looked at me. "Are you the new Warden? I could use some help."

"I don't know anything about dogs," I replied. I wanted to inch away from the dogs – bad memories and all – but the trainer went on.

"This dog's a mabari. Smart dog and strong breed. His owner died in the last battle, and the poor hound swallowed darkspawn blood. I have medicine that might help, but I need him muzzled first."

"Why do you think I could muzzle him?" I asked. I looked at the poor mutt, and from what I could see he was in a bad way.

"You're a Grey Warden, or soon will be. All Wardens are immune to the darkspawn taint," the man explained. "The most you have to worry about is some tooth marks."

One mabari hound now wasn't responsible for tracking down my mother in the past, and this hound might not even be related to the ones in the kennels at Denerim – who, now that I looked back, were simply following training and trying to put down unfriendly visitors in the castle. And as much as I disliked my prior interactions with mabari, it didn't mean I wished any sort of agony on them. "I'll give it a shot."

"Go in the pen and let him smell you. We'll know right away if he'll respond." Once I put my pack on the ground and got ready to go in, he added, "Let's hope this works. I would really hate to have to put him down."

I got in and approached the mabari in question. He relaxed his stance, and I could see that he was smarter than some of the people I'd grown up around. He was also very sick. It was so weird, but when he looked up at me, I got the sense that the dog wasn't looking at me, he was looking into me. This mabari was different than the other for some reason, and while I knew that I'd never like dogs as a whole – maybe, just maybe, I could like this one.

I muzzled him, and the trainer smiled. "Glad to see that. I wasn't sure if it was possible or not. There's one last thing – if you're in the forest anytime soon, there's a flower in there that could make the process a lot easier on the dog. Without the flower, the chances of him making it aren't all that great."

"I don't know if I'll be in the forest anytime soon, but I'll keep my eye open just in case." I didn't want to promise anything, but I couldn't forget how that dog looked into me.

"That's all I can ask. Thank you for what you've done already."

I walked around a little more and found myself near the King's tent. A guard stood outside in more practical armor than I had seen on his liege.

"Greetings. King Cailan is not in his tent right now."

I had been told often by the traders that I could be very persuasive, and now it was time to see if they were just blowing smoke. "Tell me about the king. You must see him a lot."

The guard looked uncomfortable. "I suppose I do, but the King spends most of his time with the Grey Wardens. He rides with them wherever they go, in fact. Teyrn Loghain sees the King whenever he can and argues with him over coming battles, but the King just waves him off. The King wants to end the Blight with a single huge battle the bards will sing of for centuries. Do you think it's possible?"

I didn't want to say too much because of how little I knew, but Duncan's attitude and general tone gave me enough to say "I have my doubts."

"That's how the Teyrn feels. He'll do what the King wants in the end, though. The King thought it was funny the Teyrn called him reckless. And they fought about the Queen."

That struck me as an odd topic to fight about on a battlefield. "The Queen?"

The guard misinterpreted my question. "To the Teyrn's daughter, no less. He wasn't happy about something she did or the King did… I'm not sure. I probably shouldn't discuss it."

I could sense that this was the end of the conversation. "I should go."

The guard nodded, and said "As you wish."

I walked away and saw a group of men all together. They were in what appeared to be leather armor, and they were all well armed – as opposed to the normal army, who wore traditionally metal armor, and had arms of various skill. Mabaris sniffed around beside them, and I walked over to see who they were.

"Maker's breath – another elf. What do you want?"

I wanted him to not sound so judgmental, but I settle on something I could ask. "I wanted to talk; that's all."

"Make it quick," he snapped. "We're busy."

"You don't look like the other soldiers in the army."

"We aren't. We are Ash Warriors." He said this with a little bit of pride mixed in his impatience.

"What is an Ash Warrior?" The tales in the Alienage were primarily of human heroes, but I'd never heard of these men.

"Our training has been passed down since Luthias the Dwarfson first harnessed the battle-rage of the dwarves. It is an old tale."

He looked like he really wanted to go somewhere else, but he couldn't get off that easily. "So what does an Ash Warrior do?"

"We harness the rage inside us, nurture it, and draw it out so we cannot fall in battle until our last foe is slain. It is a dwarven discipline, but we have adapted it to let us fight alongside our hounds. That is our way; I trust my hound with my life, as he trusts me with his."

The mabari earlier had gotten me curious as to what mabaris could do in the field of battle. "Is a dog that good in combat?"

He smirked. "A trained mabari hound is as dangerous as any sword. We do not speak of a city pet or those things that sit in an old woman's lap."

Other men were around polishing their armor and testing their equipment. "What are you preparing for?"

"To scout the Wilds and watch the progression of the darkspawn horde," he stated. "With luck, we'll find and slaughter many stragglers. The hunt will be good if my hound survives the blood of his prey. If he dies, I shall mourn tonight. Darkspawn blood is poisonous, but not always fatal. Those who survive grow immune to its effects. The Wardens say the tainted blood drives even the survivors mad eventually… but not today. Today we hunt, and we kill."

I avoided commenting on how gung ho he was on fighting. "Wouldn't it be smarter to leave your dogs behind?"

The man snorted. "They fight at our side. We do not fret over their safety as if they were children. So we paint ourselves with kaddis, which overpowers the blood, and also paint our hounds, so they know we are the same."

I saw an obvious flaw. "What if the enemy is painted with kaddis, as well?"

"Why? Would you steal our kaddis and give it to the darkspawn hordes?" He could not see past this Blight.

"Absolutely not!" I responded. Why ever would I when I had no hound and used daggers?

"Good. I hear death is unpleasant."

There was absolutely nothing more that I could ask this man. "I should be going."

The man breathed a sigh of relief. "My thanks. There is hunting to be done, and I'll not be kept from it."

I found Duncan in front of a large campfire. "You found our tent, I see. Is there something you need?"

"I'm ready to begin the Joining ritual."

Duncan nodded in approval, and I wondered what he was nodding at – my choice or the fact that I had taken his advice and gotten myself new armor and weapons? "Then you will need to locate Alistair and tell him it is time. I'm not certain where he went off to. Knowing him, I'm not sure I want to know."

I took my leave and decided to find this 'Alistair', but I ran into a man with a quiver on his back. "Well, you're not what I thought you'd be."

This startled me a little. "And who are you?"

"The name's Daveth. It's about bloody time you came along. I was beginning to think they cooked this ritual up just for our benefit."

Sorry, Shellbow, but the chapters will be around this length in the foreseeable future. It's just easier.