Author's notes: Today I'm sick . Not very good for me but maybe good for you because here is the next chapter! Many Elvish words in this one, translations are on the bottom. I hope you guys like this chapter and let me know what you think, Reviews are always welcome ^,^ I'm also updating the chapters 1,2,3 later today. There are no big changes, I'm just correcting some misspelled words.
* Update: Uhm... lots of changes, but nothing that will differ the story too much.

Disclaimer: I own nothing, though I desperately want to own Tamlen

Sleepless Nights

The Grey Wardens, a world full of sleep deprivation

WARNING
Each Dalish is an expert archer, and apart from their regular weapons they carry two knives – one for throwing, and one for hunting. Dalish are also highly skilled at tracking, concealment and unseen movement. They can blend in to the colors of whatever landscape they find themselves in, whether a dappled forest glade or the shadows of a castle at night. They use dark magic in order to maintain their abilities. On no account should one go out and face one of the Dalish on their own.

Looking over the Orlesian book that had been given to him to read, Tamlen raised an eyebrow. "And this is why shems fear us?" He wondered on a mocking tone while studying the text once again, allowing Selyna to read with him over his shoulder. "They seem perfectly able to think of harel myths about our talents without us having to go through the trouble of making them... Don't you think, lethallan?"

"Well, I feel flattered. Though they strangely missed the part of our bloodlust and unnatural beauty." Selyna noted sarcastically in return. "...the beauty part of course being used to attract lone human travelers and children on who we will later experiment our magic on." After the she-elf was done speaking she leaned forward a bit further, leaning on Tamlen's shoulder to support herself, and lifted the book with the fancy Orlesian letters from his hands.

The small group had arrived in Lothering earlier that day, starting their hospitable (not), pleasant (no) and short (that it was, actually) stay in the already doomed city with the oldest quest you could possibly ever complete; driving a bunch of bandits off a bridge. Most people in the city seemed to be grateful about this, but by long not everyone. Some men send by that son-of-a-whore Loghain for example. Luckily these men had also proven to be no real trouble to deal with hadn't that chantry priest- Oh, sorry, their newest companion thanks to a certain ex-templar, gotten in the way of it. Both Leliana and Alistair had assured the elves that she had helped them in the fight, though the elves seemed to have a different opinion on this. Even worse, Alistair had volunteered to help the owner of Dane's Refuge - which was the name of the tavern they had been fighting in - to clean up the mess (Well actually 'volunteered' was not quite the right word. Unfortunately, it could apparently be seen as their 'duty' to clean up after their fights... however, it soon became apparent that Morrigan and Leliana seemed to have think of such work as 'a men's job' while the two elves had simply refused to do any labor for a shem, so that Alistair ended up doing everything by himself) and the tavern owner was even nice enough to give them fresh supplies and the last free room if they promised to keep their future fights outside.

"So it's not true?" Leliana asked, catching the book as it was thrown back at her over the table with surprise ease- you know, for a chantry priest.

"No, it's true. Sadly."

"We DON'T use black magic!"

Finding his statement immediately roughly denied, Alistair bit the inside of his cheek. "Alright, maybe not all of it is true. But there are a few things that fit." This received him a both questioning and warning look from both elves, to which he responded by explaining his statement further. "Oh, don't look at me like that! I saw you two kill darkspawn with a single arrow like it was nothing. We've never gotten lost even once, so that part about tracking skills is probably also not entirely false and you..." He paused to look at Selyna. "...are sometimes very hard to keep an eye on, even in battle."

"Of course it is! The clan-" Her words were abruptly stopped when the she-elf received an elbow between the ribs from Tamlen, an obvious reminder of the rule that clan secrets should stay secrets for outsiders. Shemlen couldn't be trusted. Her sudden silence had led to various suspicious looks given to them, though luckily none of the humans seemed to fancy another argument with the stubborn elves and left the subject. Or at least for now.

There stayed an uncomfortable silence between the two races at the table for a long couple of minutes, until Alistair finally stood up and announced that it was probably for the best to turn in early tonight. "After all, I haven't seen a bed since Ostagar." A slight chuckle escaped his mouth before he retreated to the small room all of them shared in the inn.

Leliana and Morrigan soon followed his example, the latter of those two mumbling something about kicking that 'dim-witted templar' out of the only bed or turning him into a toad... whatever worked out easier. Tamlen had volunteered to take the first watch and wake up the next one a few hours after midnight. Seeing that they already were inside a tavern with enough people in it to warn them if something would go wrong, the five of them had decided to have only one person per watch with the help of Adahlen and Assan. That being said, the only one left to retreat for the night was-

"Lethallan, you should turn in as well." Tamlen said, giving a stern look to the elf – who was now seated on the bench across of him against the wall – obviously using all of the energy she had left to prevent herself from dozing off.

Still, even with her obvious tiredness, Selyna just scoffed. "Sleep? I will be sleeping in a room full of shemlen. And I surely don't trust those shems well enough to be found sleeping anywhere near them."

"Would you rather be killed in battle because you haven't slept for a moment in three days?"

The she-elf pulled a face at hearing his words, somewhere knowing that he was more than right though at the same time fighting a mental battle against the voice inside her head that told her not to allow any of those 'humans' near her when she was unable to defend herself. Shemlen were cowards, and they wouldn't shy away from attacking while their target is helpless and asleep. This was proven to her long ago.

"Fine" Tamlen grumbled as he got up from his seat to pick up his bow before he slipped next to her onto the bench, and placed her head on his shoulder. "Then you can go to sleep now, can't you?"

"W-What?"

"You don't trust the shems, right?" Already knowing the answer, he didn't wait for her response. "But you do trust me so there shouldn't be any problems like this. I keep watch while you sleep." Tamlen continued, absently plucking at the string of his bow as he spoke. "You know that I won't let shemlen hurt any friend of mine, right?"

It stayed silent for another short moment before Selyna finally closed her eyes. "Ma serannas lethallin." After these words she instantly drifted off into a deep sleep, not hearing at all what else was said to her.

"Anytime, emma lath."

oOo

"And... What did you find?"

Alistair looked up at the question asked directly after he had returned to the cage with the giant (and not-so-friendly looking) man inside of it. "Some pretty... interesting things." He looked at the rest of his companions. "Though there is also 'bad' news." A large sigh escaped his mouth before continuing. "Look, I want to help our giant family-murdering friend over there as much as you guys do, but the Revered Mother refused to give me the key from his cage."

Together, they had agreed that Alistair should be the one go to the Chantry and look for the key and any information he would be able to find. 'They didn't want to help the human bartender yesterday and now they even refused to enter the Chantry… Great.' Yes, these had been his thoughts on the situation, though he was smart enough not to voice them.

Shifting her weight to her other foot, Selyna simply shrugged. "Well, you tried."

Though before she had even been able to completely finish this sentence Alistair noticed a large shadow appearing behind her, the figure nearing them with heavy footsteps. "Watch out Se- Wait, Sten?" Wasn't he supposed to be still locked up? Releasing the grip on his sword – though if you would ask, he wouldn't remember actually reaching for it – Alistair's eyes slowly shifted back at the rest of his companions. "How did you get him out of his cage..?"

"Selyna picked the lock." Leliana responded, disapproval clear in her voice.

oOo

Soon night began to fall, a sign for Selyna and Tamlen to begin their search for a camping spot. Before they had left, the group had bought enough tents for the all of them and a few extra (you never know) so that they would at least have a bit of cover when rain would set in. Which, seeing that we're talking about Ferelden here, probably wouldn't be long before it did.

Not much had happened that day. After Selyna had freed Sten they had decided that it was probably for the best to leave as soon as possible. The revered mother wouldn't like to see her giant walking around freely without her permission... When they had entered the path away from the town the six had run into a straggler group of darkspawn, who had been targeting a dwarven merchant and his son. The two dwarves were saved and Alistair had once again gone out of his way and – much to the annoyance of both elves - invited the two to join them. Since that moment the elves and dwarves had been arguing with each other without pause, but the rest of the group was just glad that they at least had a wagon (and a pony to pull it) to carry their possessions.

But now that they had found a spot to set up camp, it was time to make the last arrangements for the night. Thanks to a bit of the magic Morrigan carried with her, a large fire was soon lightening the center of camp, with a smaller one on the edge of camp where the witch herself had set up her tent. All others on the other hand were just placing their tents around the fire... yes, all others, except for the two Dalish elves who just rolled out their bedrolls.

"Why don't you set up your tents?" Alistair had asked.

Tamlen had casted his eyes at the sky after hearing this question, apparently asking the creators how on earth shemlen could be asking about this obvious fact. After all, even the shem should be able to tell this... "It's not going to rain tonight and the ground is warm enough to sleep on." He looked back at the templar, who was still armed with his tent sticks. "Why are you setting up your tent?"

"Because it could rain."

"Din, it won't."

"But it could."

"And I say it won't."

Coming to the conclusion that talking to Tamlen was more impossible than talking to Sten at the moment, Alistair had let out a soft sigh before deciding to continue helping Leliana to set up her tent. Selyna, who had just silently watched the exchange between Tamlen and Alistair go by, apparently took this as the moment to follow the shem's example and go find something to do as well, though when she turned around she instantly faced the ground. Letting out an annoyed grunt, the slender elf looked furiously over her shoulder, finding a very huge and very proud looking Mabari hound standing up again and taking a few steps towards her. "What are you planni-" Her sentence was left unfinished as Adahlen decided that it was the right moment to crash down on the she-elf's legs, holding her down on the ground with his massive weight. "Don't dare to laugh."

Biting down on his lip to prevent himself from doing the exact opposite of this warning, Tamlen moved towards the two and took Selyna's hands to pull her out from underneath the large hound. "Maybe he thinks you're a comfortable pillow?" The elf tried once he had freed his female companion, not quite able to hide the smile forming on his face.

"Or maybe he's jealous." She replied, attempting to wipe the mud, darkspawn blood and wet dog hair (it seemed like Adahlen had been fighting a mud monster along with the group of darkspawn) off her bare legs and boots before straightening up again.

"Jealous?" Tamlen wondered "Of what?"

The reply was delayed a bit by Selyna taking the time to shoot a glare at the mabari hound, though she soon turned back to him with that familiar smile showing on her lips. "Me, of course." She replied, in that same way as she always used to make it hard for Tamlen to figure out whether or not she was actually being serious. "Currently I am getting way more attention from you than he gets."

Instead of laughing like he usually would, a deep frown appeared on Tamlen's face. "Hm, then maybe I should back off before Fenarel gets jealous too..."

Selyna's face instantly darkened at the mention of this name, shooting daggers at the other elf with only her eyes. "Thanks for helping me remind of the reason why I was angry at you before all of this started!" She blew, directing a punch towards Tamlen's head (which he dodged, barely) before continuing on a slightly lower tone. "Where in the creator's name were you? You know you can't just go out and disappear for a few days! And WHY did you not tell me? I know he told it to you even before I knew it from Ashalle!"

"I didn't want to come between you and your dear-" By the time Tamlen had finally managed to get his words through he was about as annoyed as Selyna currently was. Though his sentence was interrupted when the both of them got a clay bowl filled with a thick, grey substance stuffed underneath their noses.

At an instant the two elves backed away, trying to get as much distance as possible between them and the cheerfully smiling man holding the bowls. "What is that?" One of the elves asked, voice completely filled with disgust that at the same time made it pretty clear that neither one of the elves really liked the- whatever it was inside the bowls.

"Supper." The templar responded cheerfully.

"..Are you sure?"

"Of course!" Alistair exclaimed, looking a bit like a kicked puppy after being forced to hear Tamlen's opinion on his cooking. "It's a great Ferelden stew, I made it myself." He finished, handing them their bowls.

"It's grey." The Selyna noticed suspiciously, obviously still not sure whether the substance was eatable or not.

"Stew is always grey."

Now was Tamlen's turn to raise his eyebrow. "No it's not."

"It looks like a poison I once made..." Selyna made a face "Ugh, it surely smells the same." After a short moment of hesitation she placed the bowl on the ground for Assan, though the wolf apparently thought the same way about the 'food' as the elves did and left it for what it was without even doing as much as sniffing it twice. Adahlen on the other hand seemed to actually like the grey... stuff. Not staying around to watch the hound devour her meal Selyna turned on her heels, grabbed her bow and quiver, and took away towards the forest – Assan on her heels.

"Where are you going?"

"Hunting." She replied, glancing back at the templar over her shoulder as she replied before continuing her pass. "...and maybe I'll find some eatable herbs."

"But the sun is already set! You won't be able to see anything in the forest! You can't go out hunting! Or at least not alone!" Alistair yelled after her, but she just ignored him and kept walking.

"Elves have better senses than shemlen." Tamlen mumbles as he picked up his bow as well and followed behind her. At least Alistair had been right about one thing; it wasn't wise if Selyna would go out hunting alone. Especially not when she was upset about something.

oOo

Selyna only slowed down her inhumanly quick steps after she had reached a small lake; a great place for thirsty animals but also the best place for eatable herbs to grow. But it had been easy enough for her to discover that someone had been following her, and this someone could be no one else but Tamlen. Which brought her to the following question: "Why are you following me?"

Her sensitive ears could easily pick up the sound of a sigh escaping from Tamlen's mouth before he responded, he obviously seemed tired of all this. "Why are you acting like this?"

"Why are you acting like this?" She reflected back. "You're not the one who was forced into an engagement behind your own back!"

"Right, to my closest friend!"

"Wasn't I your closest friend?"

"You are!" At least his words were spoken without hesitation, though now he was hesitating about something else; Fenarel's position in his limited circle of friends. "...He's my closest male-friend, alright?"

Somehow that explanation did not help her at all. Pushing back a lost lock of her red hair Selyna rolled her eyes. "So what exactly is the problem when your two best friend going to be life-mates? Afraid you're going to be left out?"

"That's not it and you know it!"

"Oh, Din? Then what is your problem?" When no answer came Selyna let out a growl, suddenly starting to walk away from him again. This was going nowhere and a she wasn't feeling much for- 'Oh, great.' Feeling a certain force keeping her from walking away, the she-elf looked down at her hand, noticing that it was Tamlen's hand around her wrist that prevented her from leaving. "Tamlen, what are-" Her words trailed off as she watched him lower his eyes to the ground, briefly noticing the gold colored globes disappearing behind his eyelids. 'Wait... gold?'

Tamlen, however, was too occupied with his own thoughts to be paying too much attention to what Selyna had been noticing in his eyes. Instead he was studying the wet leaves on the ground, attempting to come up with the right words to say. "...It was..." He hesitated. "...It's because..." Pause. Sigh. Try again. "...I think..." Just one more time. "Selyna, I..."

"Tamlen look at me."

Oh, she was not planning to let him finish his sentence? By the love of the creators. "Err, Selyna... I'm trying to.. apologize here."

Selyna being Selyna, she was once again ignorant enough to pay no single attention to his complains before pressing on. "Just look at me!" She repeated, impatiently waiting for him to do what she asked. The moment his eyes focused at hers she could only blankly stare at his gold colored eyes, not the weird yellowish color Morrigain's eyes were, but a real gold color. But Tamlen's eyes were green, not the same teal color like hers but still! "That can't be good..." The slender elf mumbled, feeling somewhat surprised when Tamlen watched her with the same strange look as she gave him.

And apparently, Tamlen agreed with her previous comment. "Your eyes..."

"What mine too?"

"Too?"

After this last discovery the two finally looked away from each other, focusing their eyes on their own reflections in the still water of the lake to notice their own changes. "...exactly when did my eyes changed color?"

oOo

"Alistair!"

The templar jumped when he suddenly heard his name being called across the clearing, first night outside and already someone needed his help? Their group was doomed... "Already done hunting?" He questioned while looking at the two elves, one being the elf that had called his name. "Where is the prey?" As an answer to this question, a few herbs and berries came down at his feet. "...Maybe those rumors about hunting skills are a bit overestimated after all..."

"Is that another Grey Warden thing?" Tamlen asked as he gestured towards Selyna's face – and more specifically; her eyes. Surely he wasn't planning to wait for Alistair to finish offending and making fun of the Dalish before this matter was solved. Afterwards that the templar would probably get a well earned beating from either Tamlen himself or his lethallan.

A short hesitation followed, wherein Alistair found himself wondering what exactly Tamlen was talking about. Something about Selyna's...face? Yes, she was a Grey Warden now but that hadn't affected her appearance. It couldn't. "Nooo..." He drew slowly. "I'm pretty sure she is born that way."

"Stop the jesting and be serious for once!" Obviously the elf was now really losing his patience with the Templar. "I'm talking about why our eyes are like this."

"And before you make any smart comments; we mean the color." Selyna added impatiently even before Alistair could open his mouth to form a response.

Once again a frown appeared on his face, though this one was much deeper than the previous one. "You mean... it's not an elven thing?"

"And why in Andruil's name would you consider having gold eyes as an 'elven' thing?"

This was probably not the best time to be asking who Andruil is, right? Yeah, he already thought so. "When you first came to Ostagar, your eyes were gold all the time." He shrugged "I figured it was the normal color. After all; it was only once you had passed your joining before your eyes changed color again. Duncan had told me not to mention it to you."

"That..." Yes, that made her wonder again about things. And now there was yet another thing that Duncan had been hiding from her! What was next? The miraculous way to slay the archdemon? "Just... How often does this happen?"

"That gold-thing?" He waited for her to nod in response before continuing. "Quite often since we've left Flemeth's hut, less when we were in Lothering. Maybe it only happens when you're upset?"

The she-elf scoffed at the templar's suggestion. "Upset? Pff, try angry."

"Then, how about me?" Tamlen wanted to know.

"Pretty much the same, but I haven't seen you at Ostagar."

"How?"

"I'm sorry but I have no idea. I've never heard of Grey Wardens with color shifting eyes. Maybe there have been a few before you, but they did not found it worth mentioning." A slight smile shifted over his lips, probably more to break tension than anything else. "Or maybe you two are the first! Congratulations."

"Yeah... lucky us." Tamlen responded sarcastically, just before suddenly getting an idea that disturbed him quite a bit. "What color are darkspawn eyes?"

"Most of the time, I don't compliment them on their eyes before I run my sword through them." The second witty comment in two sentences; that just asked for a threatening gold-eyed look from Tamlen. "They're black, but in the early stages some tainted eyes are..."

"Gold?" Selyna finished, giving her response in a questioning matter though it was pretty obvious from Alistair's reaction alone to see she was right.

"It doesn't have to mean anything." The templar assured them "You've both been through the Joining, so it has stopped the taint from spreading. I don't know how you got infected but it can't turn you anymore. You've only got a souvenir."

"And there is the reason why I hate gifts." She looked from the star-filled sky back to the human, still obviously annoyed though the gold was finally fading away in the sea of teal of her eyes. So now everyone would just know whether or not she was upset just by looking at her eyes? Great. "Don't mention this to the others."

"Of course not, it's just going to be another of those dirty Grey Warden secrets we all love so much."

oOo

Apparently another one of those secrets was that she had to relive the horrors of being tainted every night and an occasional visit of the Archdemon in her dreams. The visions and voices she had heard before came back in the nightmares she had now. Just like the dragon and his song...

Selyna woke up in a cold sweat, instantly sitting up as straight as she could to check for any real life danger. It had only been due the years of training to stay silent, that she had kept herself from yelling out as soon as she awoke. From the position of the moon the elf could see that it was just after midnight. A few feet away she saw Tamlen sitting up too, when he looked at her his face was deadly pale. 'I probably look even worse than him.' She thought while putting on her 'everything is fine' mask.

"Bad dreams, huh?" Alistair's voice said more than asked. When looking up, she could see him poking around in the fire. He had taken it up on himself to take the first watch; though it was only thanks to Assan being with them that Selyna had trusted him with this task while both she and Tamlen were asleep.

"It seemed so real..." The she-elf responded finally, snapping out of her thoughts.

"Well it is real, sort of." He said, once again looking into the fire before deciding that it was best to leave it alone for a while now. "You see, part of being a Grey Warden is being able to hear the darkspawn. That's what your dream was. Hearing them. The archdemon, it... 'talks' to the horde, and we feel it just as they do. That's why we know this is really a Blight."

"Grey Wardens don't feel the archdemon 'just as the horde does' for the tainted, it's actually worse." Tamlen noted, but his words were both ignored by the templar as by his clanmate. Apparently not one of them wanted to think about that, and honestly, neither did Tamlen himself.

"Well it takes a bit, but eventually you can block the dreams out." Alistair continued, "Some of the older Grey Wardens say they can understand the archdemon a bit, but I sure can't."

"You can pretty much guess what it says. It just wants to kill every living thing."

"Anyhow, when I heard you two thrashing around, I thought I should tell you. It was scary at first for me too."

"I'm not frightened." Selyna's response was instant, but what he added did not go without a quick look and smile at Tamlen. Her words were more to assure him that she was fine than anyone else after all. "A Dalish hunter fears nothing!"

Alistair smiled "Well, then at least I have done my job for the night then. Delivering unpleasant news and witty one-liners; someone should do it." He stood up "Anyhow, you're up now, right? We should pick our next destination before we pull up camp." Seeing that it probably was for the best, the others agreed and soon the three of them were hovering over the map Alistair had placed on the ground.

"So we have treaty's from the dalish elves, the circle mages and the dwarves of Orzammar." He pointed to three points on the map. "The circle mages can be found inside the tower of magi which lies here, Orzammar over there and I think we can find some dalish clans in that forest. I'm sure that Arl Eamon would help us too, but I've heard he is terribly ill... They say that the only thing that can cure him is the sacred urn of Andraste. A friend of mine told me that we need to find brother Genitivi in Denerim, he was trying to locate the urn." Another place was pointed out on the map, this one a bit further off compared to the rest.

"You're the elder Grey Warden here" Selyna said on a annoyed tone as she suddenly tore her eyes away from the map. "I'm guessing you take the lead from here?"

Alistair's reaction however, was nothing like she had expected. Quite the opposite, to be honest. For his eyes went entirely big, and he quickly started denying the statement. "What? Lead? Me? No, no, no! No leading. Bad things happen when I lead. We get lost, people die, and the next thing you know I'm stranded somewhere without any pants." Now his eyes were focused back on Selyna and Tamlen, the latter of those two who was seeking support with the other.

"What?" The she-elf asked when she suddenly realized that both of them were now staring at her. "You guys are planning to dup all the responsibilities on my shoulders? Great..." Her sarcastic words could poison men but she didn't protest any further. This could also be thanks to the fact that a frustrated cry came from the other side of camp to distract their attention. Apparently Leliana's tent just had collapsed – again.

"Here take a look at the documents and the map while I help her." Alistair said, stuffing the parchments into Selyna's hands before going off to rescue Leliana. All while desperately trying to withhold his laugh, naturally.

His actions were unnoticed by the red-haired elf though, for her concentration was already fully taken by the hateful papers in her hands. "Wonderful..." Selyna commented annoyed while looking up at Tamlen. After returning to camp they seemed to have created a silent agreement not to mention their fight earlier. It wasn't like they could trust any of their other companions as they trusted each other. "Can you read Fereldish?"

He shook his head "Din." At this response Selyna turned to look at Alistair again, opening her mouth only to yell his name over the camping place once again. At least it would wake the others up... They both smiled when they saw how Alistair jumped at the sudden noise and began to make his way towards them again as if the archdemon itself was chasing him.

"We still need him, you know?" Tamlen commented dryly. "And one day very soon; you're going to deliver the shem a heart attack."

"Serves him right." She replied when they saw the templar stumbling over something (mostly likely his own feet) while trying to walk in their direction. "...but maybe there is some sense in what you're saying."

"What's wrong?" Alistair asked as he came to a halt, only just preventing himself from tripping again.

"No need in replacing that tent. We'll leave for Orzammar at once."

He raised his eyebrows in surprise "That I wasn't expecting. Why do you want to do that one first?"

The she-elf stood up "Because of a lesson someone learned me once."

"May I ask which lesson this was?" Alistair asked when she walked away.

Selyna stopped to look over her shoulder "Halam sa sahlin." The response caused Tamlen to chuckle and Alistair to look even more confused. 'Next time I ask her something I'll make sure I can actually understand her answer...' He thought before he stood and took off to pack up his tent.

English-Elvish translation:

Harel (hah-REHL): dreaded, frightening, causing fear.
Da'len (dah-LEN): little child(ren).
Ma serannas (ma SEHR-ahn-ahs): Thank you.
Din (DEEN): Not, here used as 'no'
Emma (EM-mah): my.
Halam sa sahlin (hah-LAHM SAH sah-LEEN): Worst things first
Shemlen/Shem (SHEHM-lehn): Literally "quick children", the original name of the elves for the human race.
Lethallan (leth-ah-LAHN): Casual reference used for someone with whom one is familiar, used for females
Lethallin (leth-ah-LEEN): Casual reference used for someone with whom one is familiar, used for males