Alistair:

He watches as she chatted with king Cailan. He didn't want to watch them become friends, but his eyes kept darting in her direction. Finding himself hovering in the area, it shouldn't matter that much if he listens to the conversation.

"...so the templars took him away... again." Her voice was still somewhat cheerful, but he heard the underlying tones of pain.

"Yet your friend did run away from the tower, making him an apostate in the eyes of the Chantry," Cailan said.

"Andy just can't stand the tower," she laughed lightly.

That was when he stopped paying attention. One word kept circling in his head, templars. He was going to be a templar if Duncan didn't recruit him. Alistair winced slightly, thinking of how terrible it would have been to be a templar. The others always made fun of him for not wanting to become one and being kind. He could still remember their laughs as they pulled pranks on him.

Alistair decided to let them talk, he could always ask her about it later, not that he was curious or anything. Somehow he found himself grabbing more food and joining his fellow Wardens.

"If it isn't Alistair. Not sticking to the new recruit?" Alistair spotted Carter laughing at him. Carter had light brown hair that he kept tied up in a ponytail and grey eyes that always has a hint of laughter in them. His skin was a bit tan, and he had freckles across his cheeks. He was one of the younger recruits, but he was a Grey Warden for a little longer than Alistair, maybe by a year.

"Now why would I do that?" he asked curiously.

"Because you have a crush on her," Carter stated. Instantly Alistair could feel his cheeks turn pink and he looked anywhere but in the direction of Meara.

"Of course I don't! She's just a new recruit and I was the junior member, so I had to watch her in case something happened," Alistair defended, feeling his cheeks warming up at the accusation.

Carter just smirked at him. "Is that why you've been hovering around her even after the Joining and tried to listen in on her conversation with the king?" His eyes were giving Alistair a smirk as well.

"I just happened to be walking in that direction." Even he could tell that was an excuse, which made his cheeks turn an even brighter shade of red when he looked away from Carter.

Carver just snorted and took another bite of his food and Alistair looked to see is she was still talking to him, which she was. He couldn't tell from this distance but he could have sworn he saw her whisper in his ear. His chest was starting to hurt and he looked back at Carter. He just smirked at him some more.

"Is that also why you keep looking at her?" Carter asked innocently, but his eyes gave away his real objective.

"I hate you."

"Not as much as you love the newbie." Carter smirked before he shrugged, "do you know anything about her?"

"Maybe you like her," Alistair accused him. "Is that why you keep questioning me?" Alistair argued.

"Well, she does have a nice rack, and she looks like she is dangerous," Carter agreed. "She looks hot."

"Yeah the new recruit is an interesting one. Where did Duncan even pick her up from?" Another warden asked. This warden was an elf named Ainon. His hair was a bright, ginger red, and he had his bow strapped to his back around his leather armor. Ainon was about thirty five or so and had been a warden for about ten years. Alistair watched as both of them watched Meara, feeling a bit jealous.

"You know, I don't think I know that either. Who got the message that he would be returning with a recruit?" Alistair asked.

Carter shrugged, pulling handfuls of food into his mouth. "Beats me. I know he went to Denerim for a while and Redcliffe, and to the Circle of Magi to get more mages." He then glared at the magi camp before saying, "though I don't think he got any more help from them because I don't see any new faces besides hers," he paused for a moment before adding, "which by the way is beautiful."

Alistair thought for a moment, eating his own food. She couldn't be a mage, could she? She wears armor and I haven't seen her cast a spell, he thought, but there is something different about her. He did notice how she always stayed back, but she said that she was part Dalish, which meant that she lived with the elves for at least some time. He stared at her again, but she was gone. Alistair panicked for a second, almost getting up from his spot until he saw her walking this way, and unclenched his fists he didn't even know were clenched.

She walked almost as if she were dancing, right on the front of her feet, and she glided gracefully into the seat across from him, next to Carter. She had a smile on her face and her eyes looked sort of purple this time. Her bow was across her back and she had her gloves off. He looked at her hands carefully and he thought he saw light scars across her wrists as if she was held in chains or something. They were slightly raised and circled all the way around her wrist, which made his gut wrench just thinking about what it was from. He looked up and noticed that she had a gold earring in her right ear that sort of had a blue glow around it, not that strong or bright, but enough to notice in the sparce lighting. She pulled her hair back behind her ear and smiled as she took some of Carter's food.

"How's it going over here?" she asked, covering her mouth as she ate.

"Hey, that's my food!" Carter complained. She just licked her lips and gave him a smile.

"Aw, do you want it back?" she flirted, giving Carter full view of her chest.

Carter stared at Alistair for a second before he looked a her and smiled. "What did you have in mind?"

"Well, since I can't give it to you entirely," she licked her lips, "how about I give you a taste?" Alistair saw the way Carter's eyes lit up and he started to get angry.

"That sounds... delightful," Carter purred.

"Why don't you to just get a room, nobody wants to see that," Alistair said with his voice full of disgust.

"Oh, that reminds me," she turned to face Alistair, "who got to the cache first?"

"Do you mean who spotted it or opened the broken chest?" Alistair asked.

"Spotted it. I do believe that if it was you, then I owe you something." She flashed a flirtacious grin at him before taking just a little more of Carter's food, but Carter didn't notice it that time. Carter looked interested in where the conversation was headed, and Alistair started to blush again.

"Um... not me?" he squeaked. Very smooth, he thought, just give her another reason to tease you.

Meara looked at him curiously for a moment before responding, "too bad." She then turned around to flirt with Carver again.

She laughed at his poor jokes and each one was like a knife twisting in his stomach. Alistair stood up, ignoring the rest of his meal, and just walked. He wasn't sure what it was that made him feel that way, watching her with someone else. Walking along the edges of camp, Alistair calmed himself down.

The sky was starting to brighten by the time he went to his tent, but he didn't go in it, just stood there and stared for a moment. The sunrise made the sky bright with yellows and reds that faded into the blues. The trees were like shadows across the sky and he felt a shiver run down his spine. There were others walking around the camp, with their armor on and weapons ready just in case. Alistair spotted the quartermaster out of the corner of his eye yelling at a red-headed elf holding a set of armor and Duncan staring at the remanents of the fire from the night before.

...

"My nightmares are coming back again Alistair," Duncan stated.

"Wait, what? You mean..."

"Yes. After this battle I was thinking of heading into the Deep Roads for my time." Duncan stared at Alistair and he felt the sorrow behind his stare.

...

He knew that Duncan had been a Grey Warden for a long time, but he didn't want to think about him leaving him behind for his Calling. He knew that Duncan probably couldn't sleep at all, but he knew he couldn't do anything about it. Duncan's hair was out of it's usual ponytail and Alistair could see his hair starting to grey. Alistair watched as Duncan looked around the camp, but not really paying attention to it.

Alistair stared at him for a moment longer until he turned around and walked away.