Chapter 7: Ostagar

Author`s note: First I want to give my thanks and appreciation to those who have reviewed and given me some really awesome comments and boosts for my writing, I was hardly expecting them, believe me. Shout outs and thanks to Erynnar, Jozern and Crazy-Obsessed-Potter-Chick, hope you guys keep on reading:) Also I want to explain a couple of things. In the next few chapters(like this one for example) and maybe a few later on I will implement the things that happens to the warden when she happens to be nearby to what Skorge is doing or the other way around. I understand that this might confuse some readers since Skorge is meant to be in focus but I thought it would be nice to see a couple of things from the original characters viewed from the darkspawn`s side as well. Also please excuse my terrible grammar. I type fast and sometimes miss a letter or writes a word twice or misspells, you know how it is. I`ll try to fix any faults if I see them.

One month after Skorge`s attack on the Ferelden village.

To say that the Master was pleased by the discovery of the human village by the Fang would be an understatement. He had given Skorge his approval and let it go out across the horde vigorously. Skorge had then suggested that they move the army further up to gain a better foothold then the scattered plain they now inhabited. The Master had agreed and let his Supreme Commander take the horde further north. The sight of the many tens of thousands of darkspawn moving through the woods had been magnificent indeed as they made the ground shake under them. They marched along the mountainside in hope that they might encounter other towns but had no such luck. Skorge stopped them after about two days of marching to scout ahead into unknown territory with two of his Fang hurlocks as his only companions. They had gone about three miles from the horde`s outermost line when they spotted something that had Skorge both worried and excited. They hid behind a low hill and lay on their bellies at the top as they watched a road which led into the Wilds, on which marched a company of heavily armed humans, about thirty of them. They marched in a loose square and were led by a man on horseback, wearing nicely made armor. They all wore quality armor and weapons, much better than the ones they had fought so far. As they passed the three darkspawn two more groups like it, along with wagons of tents and equipment, followed them into the forest and towards the mountain some ways off. Once they had passed and were some distance off Skorge came out of the bush, staring after the humans. This could get interesting indeed. With a command to his minions they snuck after the human cohorts without being seen as they made their way deeper into the forest.

Apparently their attack on the human village had drawn attention, considering these soldiers presence here. He wondered if these were all there were. The three groups of soldiers, with thirty in each, numbered no more than ninety men in total, not nearly enough to halt even the horde`s advance force, and certainly not challenge the bulk of the army itself. They skulked after the humans until they came to a small field next to the mountain and next to that…a fortress, the very fortress he had seen in all his three visions.

Skorge looked up in awe at the stone construction before them. It stood almost as a gateway over a small natural entrance valley. Even though it was nothing but ruins now it was obvious that it had once been great, greatness that was not completely gone. It still stood tall with its two main buildings at either side of the cliff face and connecting bridge stretching between them. On the east side stood a high tower, looking down upon the world below its mighty vigil. At the base below the bridge, in the narrow path leading onward, had the humans marched to. Now Skorge saw that a camp had already been established. The company they had been following now joined the humans already here with loud cheers of welcome. Skorge couldn`t determine from here but he saw that there was at least a few more hundred human soldiers here.

"An army." He mumbled. They must have gathered in response to their raid. He had to go back to the army and prepare for this. He sent his two Fangs back to the horde and remained by himself to scout a bit more. He gave them orders to alert the others. They ran off with the same tireless speed as always while he remained crouched in the foliage.

He watched as the humans set up tents of various sizes and colors, along with banners, shops and stock areas. He even saw them erect a small den where they kept some sort of short yet bulky, four-legged creature. They were all fangs and muscle and fur he saw as they were fed meat while letting out happy barks. Those might be a problem to deal with.

He also saw more human soldiers arrive, many of them. They had soon mustered a good number and the certainty of victory Skorge had allowed himself was gone by now. Last came the largest single croup of human soldiers he had ever seen into the field. They were obviously heavy shock troops by their armor and heavy weapons. At the head rode two men. One was tall and had the air of authority about him. He wore bulky silver shinning plate armor and his pale skin stood in sharp contrast to his long black hair. Next to him rode a man Skorge recognized. It was the gold-armored human from his first vision he had had of this place. Even though he wore fancier looking armor than the other man, he lacked the sense of…dominion, of command that his older peer had. The gold armored human, with his long blonde hair and a face which showed that he had not yet experienced true battle, smiled and laughed as he saw the grand army now in front of him. As the two men rode into the camp the column of soldiers behind them were still coming out of the forest and into the field. There must have been an additional thousand in just that group. After that there came no more men for the remainder of the day and Skorge had counted them to be about half of the horde`s number. That was dangerous when they held such a position to defend and he cursed the fact that he hadn`t found it first. Once night settled in the humans had begun to fortify the place with barricades and some of the largest tents had been moved up to camp within the fortress itself while the majority of the soldiers remained in the valley. This would be difficult.

…..

When Skorge later returned to the darkspawn lines it was with loud roaring commands to break camp and move onward. He had been granted an audience with the Master by the ever suspicious emissaries to report, though it was no need really. The Master had a divine way of knowing exactly what every darkspawn under his rule knew. With quite a bit of grandeur he had ordered Skorge to remove the obstacle the humans represented. Skorge could only nod and return to his tent to pack up his equipment, which really meant that Hily would pack. They then broke the massive camp and marched on. Skorge could only imagine the humans once they realized the power that had been unleashed upon them. After spending the day marching, and routing a few terrified human scouts, they settle about ten miles away from the fortress and made camp. In between the two armies lay mostly swampy forest and the road that led to the fortress which the humans had used to get there.

"Time to introduce ourselves!" Skorge said as he gathered his Fang to him and marched away from the camp, followed by many other darkspawn.

Three weeks after first contact between the horde and the Ferelden army

The peace, or relative peace, in the darkspawn camp was suddenly broken by a howl of rage coming from Skorge`s command tent. The darkspawn directly around the tent glanced at it nervously while tending to whatever they were doing. A gunlock runner came scurrying from the tents flaps with a bleeding chest as he ran away. The roars continued for some time after that. The source was Skorge, the infuriated commander of the so far unsuccessful campaign against the human army. Three times had they faced each other in open battle and three times the darkspawn had been beaten. Skorge had of course been in those battles and in each he had spotted the pale skinned, black haired commander from that first day when the enemy arrived in the distance. He was clearly their general and a good one, which was now very clear.

The first battle had been unexpected on Skorge`s part. As soon as they had arrived in this part of the forest they had been attacked by a human force. When the horde traveled it was inevitable that it would grow more and more widespread in groups as it went. Some of these had gone ahead of the others and entered the valley long before the main force. Either because the humans had yet to find out the horde`s true numbers or because of impatience they had sprung their trap too soon for the darkspawn to be completely enveloped. As the long line of the advance force walked along the road through the forest the humans had attacked from both sides, charging out from the woods with arrows flying ahead of them. The effect was like slamming two metal clubs against the sides of an enemy´s head at the same time. The line collapsed quickly into unorganized fighting, which the humans dominated due to their compact formation. Skorge had not been in that group but a bit behind it. Once he understood what was happening he had ordered the main army to charge into the fray. He personally led the first wave along with Fist and his Fang as they crashed into the humans flank, slowly turning the fighting to their advantage as more of their numbers poured in. The fighting had been long and quite even as it went back and forth. Skorge had been in the middle of the melee, striking with his battle axe and taking a few bad hits himself. Once he had gained a respite from the fighting he had seen a glint of gold in the distance and when he peered in that direction he had seen the gold-armored human surrounded by a bodyguard, clearly itching for a chance to get in on the fighting. The guards around him seemed to prevent that from happening however as the black haired commander stayed close as well. The commander looked on with a grim face and he gestured to a couple of men close to him once the darkspawn got a bit too close to the royal bodyguard and a horn sounded. The humans had turned and fled back through the trees and towards the fortress. Skorge had wished to persue them but stopped himself. His force was battered and too few of them were ready for another battle so soon.

Technically that had been a victory, they had driven the humans back and their advance continued. But then he had taken a body count and realized that it might as well have been a defeat. His entire advance force was dead and he had lost half of his fifty Fangs in the effort to drive the enemy away. He would have to replenish their numbers with the best of the surviving hurlocks from that fight. He had let the horde lose upon the battlefield and by the next day not a single human body remained in the mud and the grass.

The second battle had been slightly more successful. That one had been initiated by Skorge when his runners had discovered the patrol routes of the human army. For three day he had set small ambushes along those paths and intercepted the patrols, which served both to take out a few dozen of their soldiers but also to make them blind as to the darkspawns locations and movements in the forest. This had allowed Skorge to move a portion of the army closer to the enemy camp at night and had his best genlock archers take out as many of the camp`s sentries as they could. The plan would have been perfect had it not been for a new treat. Once the outer watchmen had been dealt with his had been about to order the main attack. His grand victory had been deprived off him however when he saw a fully prepared human force charge out from the camp to meet them among the trees in the dark. It was only after the vicious fighting that ensured, and the retreat he had to order once the whole human army came at them, that he learned that the prepared force had been led by a group of warriors that had fought with unmatched skill. He had even seen one of them close by in the fighting and he realized that these were the warriors he had seen in his vision, the ones with the taint of his kind in their blood. Everything was drawing closer to that vision it seemed; the fortress, the gold-armored human and now these strange fighters.

The third battle had followed the next day in fact, where the tainted humans led a raiding party close to the darkspawn camp in a coordinated attack to take out darkspawn commanders. Many Alphas and Emissaries had fallen in that last fight and Skorge had taken an arrow to the shoulder. He had made the archer pay dearly before the humans fell back in an organized retreat.

This was the reason for his current rage. He lay on a bedroll on the ground in his tent, trying not to squirm as Hily worked on removing the arrow in his shoulders. She was no healer so to say that the procedure was painful as she worked it back and forth would be an understatement. His anger also sprang from these losses and what it had cost. Great numbers of darkspawn lay dead and to get an outlet for his fury he had erected a ring of sharpened poles in the center of the camp on which he had placed the heads of the darkspawn commanders he had executed for their incompetence. An odd thing was that the Master had taken an interest in the archer he had killed, who had turned out to be one of the tainted humans. The dragon had asked Skorge to come to him with the body as soon as the arrow was out.

With gritted teeth Hily pulled hard and the arrow came out with a wet, tearing sound. Skorge growled in pain and shoved her away as he sat up. The dead human lay against the tents wall, ready to be taken away.

"Call for someone to come and carry it." He told her and pointed to the human. Hily looked a bit nervous as she looked down and didn`t move.

"Um is the Dark One going to see the Master, m-maybe Hily could take human there instead, she wants to see His glory herself." She mumbled enthusiastically. Skorge sprang up and marched over to her, grabbing her collar and shoving her to the ground. His injury had taken all his patience. Hily whimpered where she lay curled up.

"You are a maggot, a lowlife maggot crawling on your belly in the dirt. Are you suggesting I show the Master a maggot?" he growled. Hily shook her head with loud sobs and shivers a she hugged her sides. She was the image of misery. Skorge felt no pity as he had a genlock drag the body to the hill where the Master rested. He put the body at the base of the hill and sent the little darkspawn away before kneeling down, his head bowed.

"I have brought the human as you requested Master." He said in a deep monotone. The giant dragon turned his head to look first at Skorge and then the body. Snaking his head down he sniffed it for a second and then gazed at the hurlock.

"It seems it is time I tell you about the Grey, Commander. They are great warriors drawn from all of the surface races who`s only purpose it to stand in our way. They represent the single most significant threat to us. This man was one such Grey warden." He said, his voice loud in Skorge`s head.

"Then I shall slay them all myself."

"Don`t be foolish. The wardens are not to be underestimated or taken lightly." The Master`s voice was tinged with irritation. Skorge bowed his head lower in response.

"I am returning to the deep tunnels to gather more of our followers to the surface. I trust you to take what remains here and take that Fortress." The dragon said. Skorge felt a shudder of nerves run along his spine. His force still outnumbered the humans but so far they had been unsuccessful in their battle. He would never admit to the Master that he would not be able to, nor did he think he would be. He nodded

"Yes Master, it will be done."

…..

The next day the Master flew off into the sky and back over the mountains they had come from. All the assembled Emissaries then turned to him and he felt a momentary pang of being overwhelmed by it all. He would have to lead them now, get them past that fortress. He would need a plan and so he decided to scout ahead by himself after sending out the scout parties around the human camp as usual. He went dangerously close himself as he snuck up on the ridge where one of the fortress`s main buildings were, towards another road that led all the way back out from the forest and out to the plains beyond, hoping to get a good view of a possible way up there. He had no such luck, finding no path that was easily accessible by a large number of warriors at a reasonably fast pace. He scouted the road leading into the ruin for three hours, the morning slowly coming about. The forest was silent beside a few distant birds. The sun shone through the leaves and the branches, creating spotlights all over the ground where he sat hidden. He was determined to find a way past this place. He didn`t want to think of the fate that awaited him of he let the Master`s campaign end already.

Then he felt an odd sensation. It was like his blood was being tickled by ants or ran through his veins at a very fast speed. It was slowly starting to burn as well, heating up from the inside. He started scratching his arms and legs in irritation and was about to jump up when he saw someone coming on the road. He hunched down low and peered through a bush. He stared in shock when he saw the two humans coming down the road some ways off.

The first one he noticed was the male. He was the white clothed, dark skinned man he had seen in his visions, one of the grey wardens. He wore the same light armor, which consisted of a chest piece along with a pair of plates for the shoulders, arms and legs along with a few belts for knives and small bags, beard and weapons like he had seen before. He was talking with the shorter woman walking beside him in an earnest tone about something Skorge could not make out. The man had an aura of experience and subtle confidence the Hurlock could admire and even respect. It was clear in the way he carried himself that he had a great burden on him but also the discipline to lift it. The woman in the other hand was different. She too wore leather armor but of less noticeable quality, probably made for hunting. On her hips she carried a dagger and over her back hung a longsword, of much better make than the rest of her equipment. Her blond hair was just long enough that it rested lightly on her strong shoulders and her green eyes held the same easy-going smile as he lips. She too had a confidence about her but unlike the man she let it radiate from her clearly for all to bask in it. Behind her trotted the same kind of furry beast he had seen several of in the camp already, following close behind its mistress.

The Hurlock gripped the handle of his battle axe tightly, considering if he should try an attack on the pair. In his vision he had seen some of the man`s skills and he knew not what the woman was capable of. Besides, the fight might attract more humans from the camp, and he was not that foolish. So he let his grip relax as the two humans passed him. Just as they did, the white clothed human seemed to hesitate a step and frowned, unease written in his features. The itch in Skorge`s blood intensified a little as the human man glanced around. Could he feel the darkspawn sitting there as well? Skorge didn`t dare to try an escape while they stood there so he waited, holding his breath. For a moment nothing moved or made a sound. The bush Skorge hid behind waved in the wind, giving off a sweet scent of new leaves.

When nothing happened, and the girl asked her male companion what was wrong, he shrugged and moved onward again, though with a stiffer walk this time. He heard them talk as they entered the ruin and disappeared around a corner. He decided to dare a closer look so he went alongside the road to the outer wall of the ruin which the two had just passed. His metal dubbed boots clanked on the stone floor and he was briefly worried that it might have been noticed as he ducked behind the wall, peering past the edge. The white clothed human and the woman was now talking with the gold armored human, whom Skorge had figured to be the leader of the human army considering how he had seen the other humans interact with him during the campaign so far. He watched them shake hands, introduce each other and talk about the battles so far. Skorge gritted his teeth when the king voiced his doubts about the darkspawn threat being a true "Blight." Skorge had no idea what that meant, all he knew was that the gold armored man didn`t take them seriously, something he would regret, that Skorge promised.

Soon the king left the man and the women with a sigh and turned his back to return to the camp beyond the bridge. The older man stopped to speak with the woman a little before taking her beast with him across the bridge while she remained, apparently to gather herself. Skorge dared to sneak inside the wall and crouch behind a bush at the base of a small slope within that led from the side of the road to the edge of the ruin where a few soldiers were keeping watch. He was in dangerous territory now but the female intrigued him. He had seen her survive where others did not, and she had faced the danger with a hard determination he could admire.

He watched now as the blond woman watched her two companions leave her there. She then drew a deep breath which made her leather armor heave slowly. He swore he could almost hear the intake of air from where he sat. She then glanced around curiously before taking a slow walk around the area, inspecting every corner and edge of the ruin with fascination in her bright green eyes. At one point she came extremely close to his hiding spot. She had walked by the bushes and suddenly came to a stop. He nose wrinkled, as if she smelled something foul before walking off again. She seemed bored after a minute or so and walked towards the bridge to follow the man and the beast. Skorge watched her go and waited for about ten more minutes before silently sneaking away. He wanted to keep watch but there were no chance he would get across that chasm without being seen. So instead he went back the way he had come and entered the forest below. Prowling in a wide arc along the three line of the field below he made his way to the other side of the valley and towards the second part of the fortress where a small camp were arranged. Once he had made his way up the slope he saw that a thick barricade had been erected in front on the only entrance, which led to a natural path into the swamp below. He knew that one of their scouting parties had made camp further ahead to guard against human patrols returning from their rounds. As he looked for a good spot from which he could look into the camp the wooden doors suddenly swung open. Jumping down behind a pair of fallen logs he tried to press himself as far down as he could into the soft, wet mud as he could, once again cursing that he had chosen to wear his armor for this as it made quite a bit of sound as he slammed into the ground.

Out came the same woman from before, along with the three men from his vision. The one walking next to the blond woman was equally blond and wore splint mail armor and carried a sword along with a shield on his back. The third had short black hair and a sly grin as his eyes seemed to wander between the path ahead and the woman`s swaying backside in front of him, though she did not seem aware of the attention the male was giving her. That man carried a short bow in his hand. The last man was not impressive in the least, despite the fact that he was the one who was the most armored. His balding head snapped from side to side at every sound and he looked positively jumpy, his greatsword apparently of little comfort to him. They advanced along the downward slope into the marshy swamp until they were out of sight around a broad hill topped with trees and Skorge realized that it was likely that would come across the scouting party. Interesting…

Skorge stood from his place behind the logs and ran to the hill, climbing it in a few quick strides before throwing himself down again flat on his belly to watch the scene in front of him. Just beyond the hill was the path the humans had taken which led into a marsh with more hills, scattered groups of dying trees and pools of filthy water. His eyes were immediately drawn to a decimated caravan further ahead. The overturned wagons, some of which were on fire, had spilled their content over the ground and much of it was broken. The oxen that had been dragging the things lay dead in the mud as well; the swamp flies already getting to their work of feeding upon he bloody hides. Along with these were about half a dozen dead soldiers, the victims of his warriors no doubt. They all wore the armor of the human army and it was apparent that the fight had been resent, as the blood on both them and the animals were fresh enough for Skorge to smell it from where he lay. He knew that his brethren would have ambushed the patrol, scavenged what they could and then pulled back further away to regroup for a second attack should the opportunity arise.

He saw the humans he was following stand among the wagons, looking at something on the ground and talking lowly. The woman turned to the blond man who removed some sort of white cloth from a bag on his hip which he handed to the woman. A burning wagon prevented Skorge from seeing what was happening as she knelt down and then stood up again after a few moments, now helping one of the soldiers who had been on the ground to his feet. He held his now bandaged chest as he waddled off back the way the others had come.

Narrowing his eyes Skorge peered through the flames and saw that the balding man looked increasingly nervous now, though the blond woman answered his babbling with an even tone and an adventurous grin. During that time Skorge had decided to move around to get a better look. He slowly rose from the hill and snuck down and around it, spotting the stone wall of a ruin, which was all that was left of it by the way, and ran over to it. As he moved he heard surprised shouting and blades leaving their scabbards, mixed with the battle cries of hurlocks. Skorge guessed that the humans had met the scouting party, some of them anyway, and engaged as he jumped over a fallen log and pressed himself against the moss covered stone wall. When he heard another howl, this one of pain, he glanced around the corner and saw that he had been right. The woman and her group had engaged a pair of hurlocks and a trio of genlock archers who had taken up position on a hill. The howl had likely come from the genlock now on the ground, an arrow sprouting from his chest. The other two tried to find targets but the two hurlocks had engaged the woman and the blond knight. The man`s face was a mask of calm and his skills were impressive, using his shield for fast blocks and striking out whit long arcs of his sword. The hurlock he was fighting was armed in the same way and the two traded furious blows. The black haired man had been the one to fire the arrow that had killed the gunlock and he was now busy knocking a second one onto the bowstring while the balding man was glancing around for more attackers.

The woman dueled the second hurlock. She held her sword in a two handed grip, using the blade for both attack and defense as she moved with incredible speed and agility. She became a blur as she slashed, stabbed and spun on her heel, all the while maintaining a vicious grin. The hurlock she fought was to slow to keep up with her pace as fell with a shrill howl and a bleeding neck which he clutched desperately as blood flowed between his fingers. The woman stared down at the body for a few seconds until a shout from her companion drew her attention to the second fight. The knight had a little more difficulty in taking down his hurlock. The taller creature hacked away at his shield furiously, forcing him to step back several feet before he finally lost grip of his shield. It dropped to the ground, only making a wet crunch as it hit the wet mud. The blonde man looked up at his attacker and tried a desperate slash at his rotten head. The blow was deflected by the hurlock`s own shield which he then suddenly threw away with a growl. His sword followed shortly before he reached out, grabbed the knight`s armor by the collar and delivered a brutal head-butt to his face, making the blonde man drop to the ground.

"Alistair!"

Skorge heard the woman shout and then saw her race forward with drawn dagger. When she came up behind the darkspawn she plunged the weapon into his back, making him fall to his knees with a shrill howl. A kick to the back sent him forward face first into the mud. She then knelt down and helped her dazed companion to a sitting position while the black haired man killed the last remaining genlock with his last arrow. The man referred to as Alistair gave his female comrade a small smile, almost a grin.

"Don`t worry, I`ve had worse, believe me." The man said with a tone that sounded positively flustered, making the woman smirk in turn. She helped him up while he held his sore nose with his free hand, groaning at the pain that now really seemed to be setting in.

Skorge had seen enough, he had to get ahead and stop these humans. For that he would need some reinforcements and he guessed that the rest of the scouting party would be but a short distance away from where the little battle had occurred. Bush, mud a water crunched and splashed as he ran along the path.

He met several scattered groups of darkspawn and told them to be ready for the humans arrival whenever he found them. He noted that his warriors had erected sharp, bloody poles topped with the heads and limbs of dead human soldiers along with the bodies that he spotted dangling from tree branches and smirked at the sight of it. He came across the main group after crossing a short bridge that stretched over a small stream. The group consisted of the party's leader, a hurlock Emissary surrounded by a pack of genlocks wearing armor that was meant to hide them in the foliage. He told the darkspawn mage to hide them and prepare to spring the ambush as soon as the humans crossed that bridge. The Emissary nodded affirmatively before sending his minions to set up traps in the ground and get into their hiding spots. Skorge glanced around and saw a much larger ruin than the others further ahead up a wide hill slope. He decided to that was where he would make his stand if the woman and her companions came so he ran there, meeting four hurlocks with bows at the entrance to the ruin. With a brisk command he told them to be ready while he entered the ruin to take a look.

It was obvious that it had once been a grand building, at least as grand as you could hope to find in a murky swamp. It was a wide circle shaped building which seemed to have been split in two at the center, where one of the circle`s halfs rose above the other, connected by a wide set of stairs. It made Skorge think of a place made for worship, since it was easy to imagine an altar on the higher part of the room, beyond the stairs. Most of the walls were long gone and covered with moss and dirt. Skorge`s eyes were drawn to a chest next to the western wall, which was all gone. It was of fine woodcraft and he might have admired it had it not been that it was smashed open, showing an empty inside. He was about to take a closer look at it when his attention was jerked back to the door by a warning howl from one of the hurlocks outside, followed by bowstrings pinging as they were fired.

Skorge bared his teeth in anticipation as he realized that the humans had arrived and he turned to run back to the gateway, drawing the sword he had chosen to take on the original scouting mission, which had now somehow turned into this. When he left the ruin it was to find the same humans he had spotted before coming charging up the hill while his four warriors fired down at them. Skorge guessed that the blond woman and her party had defeated the others in their way, if the black blood on them were any indication. His gaze was drawn to the woman, almost magnetically.

Her eyes were wild, as was her grin and swinging hair, which was also soaked with the black liquid that covered her armor. Her sword was in her hands in a two-handed grip as she held it high above her head. She sprinted ahead of her male comrades with a war-cry. Her entire appearance screamed out battle lust. Skorge was obliged to meet her. He gripped his own sword tightly and picked up a shield from one of the other darkspawn`s feet, where he had likely placed it so he could use the bow. He then let out a furious roar in response to the woman`s cry and ran to meet her head on.