Chapter 34 – Dark Trees

"Watch out!" Lyla dived into Leliana, tackling her to the floor. They had been holding each other when Lyla heard a crack of a twig behind the bard. Opening her eyes, she had just spotted the yellow eyes of a wolf piercing through the underbrush. With not a moment to lose, they hit the floor, the wolf flying overhead and landing the other side of the small clearing they were situated in.

Letting loose a terrifying howl, The wolf rose it's head up to the air and quickly another six wolves jumped into the fray, on the hunt. The women and dog were surrounded and Lyla held her hand backwards, towards Leliana, stepping slowly back as she did so.

"Stand behind me, vhenan." Lyla growled, it was just the two of them and Revas left here, the others had yet to return. Rising her axe horizontally, until it was level with her chin, and her dar'misaan in her right hand, ready to strike, she screamed at the wolves, hoping to scare them slightly but unfortunately, it didn't work.

The alpha wolf stood tall, baring its long white teeth and growled menacingly at the women. The rest of its pack stood behind it, growling similarly until one of the younger pups jumped forwards. Perhaps it was eager to eat, or eager to assert its dominance but all it proved was how quickly an elf hunter can kill a wolf. The wolf jumped at Lyla, hoping to reach her throat but the elf swung her dal'thanu wildly, catching it at the side of its head and cracked the wolf's skull wide open, killing it quickly.

The rest of the pack howled, one might have even whimpered, and charged as one. They were angered now and Lyla would have her hands full protecting them. Revas pounced on the alpha male, the bigger, heavier hound easily tackling it to the ground and proceeded to fight with it whilst leaving the rest for Lyla and Leliana.

Leliana started to pray once more, spouting one of her favoured chant's as she nocked another arrow to let loose but it was fruitless. The wolves were just too close and too quick for her to get a good shot off. Lyla threw her sword to the bard and drew one of her knives, one of many she kept on her person, it would not be as good to fight with as the ironbark sword she usually kept, but it was better than just her hand.

Spinning, she danced into the middle of the pack, striking with wild aggression at the wolves, it didn't matter to Lyla how much damage she took, and as long as they left Leliana alone she could handle it. With a howl of her own to rival the wolves, she swung her axe down on the back of one of the wolves, slicing its head clean off.

Two were dead, and one was distracted by her hound, which left four more for Lyla to kill. "Ma emma harel." She glared at the wolves, standing as tall as she could. She knew now that she could take on the rest of the pack but it would be difficult. She had been lucky when she killed the two she had, and the rest of the wolves would be wary of her now. She hoped, perhaps foolishly, that she could scare them away before they got closer but it was to no avail.

Suddenly an arrow flew from the trees, striking one of the wolves in the chest; quickly another arrow found the same wolf and killed it. Numerous spells flooded the battle and suddenly different shouts were heard.

"For Ferelden!" Came one, as a man in shining armour blasted onto the scene, Alistair.

"Katara, bas." Came another, a great beast of a man burst through the trees, his great sword slicing a wolf clean in two as he turned to face another but the closest had already been taken care of. Shale, charged into the battle, stomping on the closest wolf before it could react.

Mithra's arrows found the final wolf and the rest of the group stepped into the clearing, showing themselves just in time.

"Ah, just like the old stories. A great hero saves the damsel in distress." Zevran purred as he approached Lyla. "But tell me, does the hero get the girl?"

"Only if the girl hits the hero." Lyla growled back. She enjoyed the man's company but detested his constant flirting. It always made her feel so uncomfortable, unlike when Leliana flirted with her. "Good timing, though I could have easily taken them all."

"Oh of course, the mighty Mahariel strikes again." Mithra laughed, teasing her old friend, she knelt down by the alpha wolf Revas had killed and began to skin it. "The wolf pelts will come in handy for later, do we have room in our packs, or should I just take them back to camp?"

"We will take them with us." Lyla ordered, "We can't afford to turn back now." Lyla gave Leliana a quick once-over, checking for injuries she told herself, before turning in the direction the werewolf had fled. She spent a minute catching her team up on what had happened before Morrigan flew back into the clearing.

"They've fled to the east. I could not follow, 'tis almost as if the tree's themselves are moving." She spoke quickly as she transformed back to her human form. "Be wary, they knew they were followed. The forest works with them, I fear."

"Moving trees?" Lyla pondered. She had seen this before, a few years past when her clan passed through a deeper part of the forest. This forest was ancient and wondrous, containing secrets most civilizations believed lost, and sometimes, for good or ill, the Dalish would discover it. Sometimes it was as small as an old cave filled with ancient elven lore, other times it was a cave protected by the ancient beasts called Varterrals, horrendous creatures. Once, they had found a group of trees, believed by the keeper to be possessed by demons, which attacked the clan as soon as they came too close. Two hunters had been lost that day defending her clan, but Lyla knew how to fight them now. "Mithra, are there sylvans in this part of the forest?"

"Yes, lethallan, we have managed to keep them away from the campsite but if we go much deeper into the forest we will run into them. I thought the keeper had warned you?" Her brow crumpled in confusion and her eyes shone, as she stood up from the wolf's corpse, to find Lyla's emerald ones.

Lyla shook her head and looked to her group. "Felas, Sten, you stay at the rear, anything comes to close, kill it. Shale you are with me at the front. Revas and Zevran will defend our mages and archers. Neria, I know you can cast frost on our weapons; can you do the same with fire? That would be useful against the trees."

Neria chanted softly to herself waving her arms before her in a way she had only read about. Frost spells came easily to her, fire and electricity not so much. Of course, she could do the spells but she preferred to use frost whenever possible, it was so much easier to control. However, the spells to enchant the weapons, albeit temporarily, were ones that she had read and reread plenty of times. Finishing the spells, she looked to her companions and smiled to herself when she saw the flames coming off their equipment.

"No one stands a chance against us now." Lyla laughed, "Mithra, Leliana, stay in the middle and keep an eye on our surroundings. Morrigan, stay in your true form for now, I believe we need your spells more than your claws right now. Wynne, do what you do best and look after us. We will end these wolves for what they have done."

The going was tough for most, only the Dalish elves truly found no trouble, but they slowly made their way through the dense underbrush of the forest. The horrendously hilly landscape was causing trouble for Alistair, his heavy armour weighing him down even more as he forced himself up and down countless number of mounds. The warning about trees being alive kept him on edge, he was a brave man, but the idea of a tree suddenly coming to life and attacking was not a pleasant one.

"Leliana?" He asked, perhaps a little too loudly judging from the scowl Lyla sent him. "Do you have any stories about this place?"

"The Brecillian forest? But of course I do." Leliana smiled, being a bard was many things. One had to be a singer, a storyteller, a skilled assassin, a lover and more, and Leliana loved all of it. Storytelling most of all. "I apologise to our elves if they have already heard this but do you know the reason this forest is so alive?" Without waiting for an answer, Leliana giggled and continued. "Of course you don't. In the ancient age, when the war between the elves and the Tevinter Imperium was at its worst this forest was the site of a great many battles. So much death occurred here. So many lives destroyed, it's horrifying to think about, but as the bodies grew, the spirits couldn't hide any longer. They say these woods are haunted, Alistair, that all the bodies here attracted so many demons from the fade that the veil between worlds has been torn and it is almost possible to cross over.

"You can smell it in the air, you can see it in the flowers and worst of all, and you can hear it in the silence. In other places you are safe, here you never can be. There is a story, lost to the ages to most about a man and his lost love in this forest." She smiled across at Lyla, who had practically slowed the party to a crawl she was so invested. Another small giggle then the bard continued, "of course, he was an elf and he was an evil ferocious warrior but he had a fondness for one young woman, and surprisingly his fondness was returned. One day the couple were out walking, brushing past the gargantuan trees, and dancing through the flowers that made up the ground they walked upon. The man's heart grew weak at the sight of his love so happy and he took her into his arms, holding her closer than he had ever dared. She smiled down at his face, admiring the old ragged scars of old battles hard-won and she found that she didn't care what evils he had done, she loved him without fear. But she was wrong."

"The man was a truly evil being, he smoked people out of their homes because they would not give up their possessions, he murdered sons to hurt the fathers, and he took daughters to hurt mothers. The forest does not forget these things and one needs to be careful, the heart of the forest remembers and past wrongs are righted. The young woman let out a delightful laugh and tore herself from the man, 'chase me' she cried as she ran into the trees. The elf followed, laughing loudly as he did so and he woke something that should have stayed sleeping. A great tree. Wronged mothers and angry fathers had made their way through this forest, crying and shouting about the things this man had done and the tree listened and waited."

The group had stopped now; all but the witch and the golem were intrigued in the story. Even Sten was listening, despite his feigned ignorance. Lyla had slowly made her way to the bard's side until she was close enough to hear her heartbeat and Alistair was so enthralled in the story he didn't see a wayward root until he had already tripped over it, landing face first in the mud.

"The woman ran past the great tree and stopped to gaze at its beauty. Somewhere inside her, she felt the need to climb it, to see all of the beauty of the forest surrounding her. With a run, she jumped to the first branch, the fabric of her dress catching and tearing but she didn't care. As she climbed higher, she found that she no longer wanted to move so she placed herself on the tree. Hours passed and the man grew worried, he could not find her and he never would. The tree had shown him the pain of losing a loved one, in the only way it could. In the heart of the forest, one must be wary for past wrongs are remember and mourned."

"You know Dalish stories?" Mithra asked, she had stopped beside the bard, her face showed the shock at a human knowing about the Dalish.

"Leli will surprise you, lethallan, she knows more stories than any Hahren." Lyla smirked, pushing Leliana affectionately before stopping with fear on her face. "Felas, is that?"

Spiders danced along his skull, whispers that made him sick to the stomach, and Alistair recognised it all too well. He nodded as he turned to where the noise was strongest.

Darkspawn.

He could feel them all around him, somehow they had snuck up on them, and Alistair chastised himself silently. He should have been more vigilant. The feeling of dread and fear was replaced by anger and hatred as the monsters slowly appeared into view. He could see genlocks and hurlocks in front of them and he forced his way past the rest of the group to meet Lyla at the front.

Together they felt it, that strange natural hatred for something so unnatural in their blood, in their world. Moreover, together, they were going to end it, killing one darkspawn at a time until it killed them, Alistair knew it.

Together they charged as one. The golem stomping quickly behind them as the group scrambled to attention. The Warden senses allowed them to react quicker to this threat and Alistair would have had it no other way. He longed to kill them, not only for the calling from his blood but also for what they did to Duncan, what they did to his brother. He would destroy them all.

Flaming arrows flew past them as they charged, ignited by the spell Neria had placed upon their weapons and he didn't care whether they were from Leliana or Mithra, as long as they hit their mark, and they did as two darkspawn fell. Black ichor spewed from the wounds, drenching the once beautifully green floor with its evil.

He heard a growl from his left, and an Elvish phrase, another thing he would have to ask Lyla to translate, as his fellow warden struck the arm clean off the first genlock that they reached, the heat from the spell on it melted the skin around the darkspawn's wound. It howled in pain and swiped pathetically with its other hand, which it was quickly relieved of as Alistair's sword severed it at the joint. Lyla's axe met its head and it felt to floor with a thump.

The rest of the horde before them had arrived now, and the pair of wardens were surrounded. With an almost delighted roar, Lyla dived into them, spinning her weapons around her wildly and striking at any weakness she could find. Alistair had a slightly more refined approach to the fight.

He struck savagely with his shield, catching a genlock on the crown as he stabbed at a hurlock, he cried out the name of his god and his country as he slashed whatever monster came close. His approach was only slightly more refined.

Zevran saw it all from his position by the ranged fighters. Like the last time they fought the darkspawn he was relegated to protecting them, whilst it made him feel a tad useless, he understood the reasoning and desired catching the taint only slightly less than another disease from one of the whores in Denerim, Wynne certainly would not heal him then. He saw how Sten, with his great sword, sliced down onto a hurlock and almost cut it in two. Shale brought its two enormous fists down upon darkspawn after darkspawn, a threat they never seemed to learn to be wary off.

The mages were working quietly together, Wynne concentrating solely on their leader, who was no doubt going to get another batch of injuries requiring even more of her lyrium stash. She would chastise the woman if she weren't so effective; Neria had been tasked with keeping the rest of the clan safe. She had been learning as much healing magic as she could from the elder mage since they left Kinloch hold, the tower, and as such felt quietly confident in her abilities to keep them safe enough.

Morrigan cared little for healing her team. Yes, she knew a few spells but as she found when Lyla was injured she was useless at incorporating them into her repertoire. She much preferred offensive magic, the more dangerous the better. Lyla had asked her not to shift at this moment in time and frankly, Morrigan could see why, the battlefield was too cramped and there were already too many bodies in the mix, adding another would be foolish. She fired spell after spell at the group of monsters and slowly but surely their numbers began to thin when suddenly there was a scream from beside her.

A long gangly looking creature had appeared in the midst of their group, seemingly out of the ground. It's long sharp ears reminiscent of elves but its jaw was horrific. It had sharper teeth than perhaps even Revas and a set of mandibles similar to spiders. Its armour was savagely moulded into its body, with little care for comfort, and on the ends of its arms where pointed metal protrusions that emerged from its gauntlets.

Leliana was the closest to it as it appeared but fortunately, she reacted quickly, diving out of the way too slowly as she received a gash down her side, instead of anything more serious. Zevran was there in an instant; he didn't want to be responsible for Lyla's anger at Leliana being injured and knew that the elf was too far from them to be any use. That and he couldn't just let such a gorgeous woman be attacked and not protect her; he wasn't a monster, merely a man who loved beautiful people.

His daggers clashed with the monsters weapons for a time before he got the upper hand, shifting almost seamlessly out of the way of its daggers. He twisted under its long spindly arm and turned to face its back and before it could react, his own daggers had met its neck, piercing it and covering himself in the black ichor that made the monster its home.

The darkspawn were defeated for now and the feeling that their wardens felt was no longer there, leaving them satisfied for now. Lyla ran towards Leliana, ignoring the faint cuts and scratches that the monsters had managed to leave on her.

Wynne had already appeared at the bard's side, expertly weaving a spell on the woman. Leliana's body was enveloped with a bright blue light, burning brightest at her injury. In a few short moments, Leliana breathed a sigh of relief, whilst Wynne breathed one of exhaustion.

"I may need a moment to recover my strength, Warden." She spoke quietly. The injury was much more serious than it seemed from the outside. The weapon had pierced some of the bard's internals and she had been bleeding quite severely. It took more out of Wynne than she liked to admit and she needed to drink a potion of lyrium before continuing.

"Ma nuvenin, we will stop for a moment, not too long though, we cannot waste too much time." Lyla smiled down at the mage but it never reached her eyes. They were too busy showing the fear that the elf had just felt. Leliana was supposed to be safer than her yet she was injured. She couldn't let herself think about that right now, only be thankful that the bard was healthy once again.

The group separated into smaller ones as conversations quietly took place, Leliana and Lyla took a moment of peace to be as close as possible without revealing too much, and the rest were too invested in their own words to notice.

Eventually the experienced mage stood, and was ready to travel. Drinking a lyrium potion that Neria expertly prepared for her, Wynne followed the rest of the group as they continued onwards.

Lyla once again instructed them to walk in the same formation; it made sense to her to have a warden at the front and back of the group, especially if more of those darkspawn who could appear out of nowhere appeared. The hills gave way to a small river as they walked on and it seemed as though hours passed until the group finally made their way up a small hill, whose summit was decorated with a campsite.

Lyla approached carefully, she could almost recognise the camp, it seemed almost Dalish in nature, but there was something off.

"Oh my." Leliana began, walking quickly to join Lyla at the front of the group. "Did the Dalish hunters camp here? Lucky for us, the fire hasn't burnt out."

"No." Mithra spat. "There have been no hunters out here for days. It isn't from our people. Careful, we are not alone." The camp left an uneasy feeling in the hunter's stomach, there was something very wrong here, and she could not figure it out.

"Werewolves would not make a camp here, they would have no need. What have we stumbled upon?" Wynne pondered. She crept towards the fire in the centre of the camp, bending down to feel the heat from the ashes.

Pulling. Dragging. She couldn't look away from the fire pit. Longing. Warmth. Love. Wynne tore her gaze away and looked towards the group but her eyes were heavy with sleep and it took all of her strength to stand yet still she stumbled. "Stay away from the fire. There's some magic at work here. I feel so weak." Alistair strode up to her, placing an arm around her shoulders to help her stand. "Thank you, child. To think, me an old woman being helped by the prince of Ferelden." She smirked.

"Don't make me drop you, Wynne." He smiled back at her but he too was feeling the pull from the fire. He carried her over to sit by one of the bedrolls and had to stop himself from collapsing. "Maker's breath. I could just lie down here and sleep for days. What is wrong with me?"

The rest of the group were similarly affected, slowly sitting down where they sat. The power at work here was powerful indeed and it took all of Lyla's strength to step away from the fire in the middle. She started to move towards the edge of the camp when Leliana took her hand. "My sweet, can we just lie down for a moment, come share this tent and we can have a nice sleep. It's just such a perfect spot."

Blood rushed to Lyla's cheeks as Leliana spoke, she had accepted the need to tell her group but having Leliana address her in such a way before them was still embarrassing. Pulling Leliana with her, she dragged her out of the campsite. "We are going? Please, ma cherie, let us stay for a little while, my feet are so sore."

Turning to face Leliana, something awoke inside the elf. With a shake of her head, she used all of her strength to step back further away from the camp and suddenly she was filled with a renewed vigour.

The campsite faded away instantly, revealing old rotted tents with piles of dusty, ancient bones. Many people had fallen for the same trick that nearly took her clan, and in the corner of the camp, a monster rose.

A shade grew out of the ground, much bigger than the ones Lyla was used to from the tower, and started towards the group but fortunately they had all recovered enough.

Neria was the first to react, calling upon her innate powers to chant and shoot a fireball spell towards the shade. She knew from her studies that the demons were weak to flames, and as such, she knew exactly how to do the most damage to it. The demon shrieked and turned to freeze her, but Neria dived out of the way just in time and the spell only caught her legs. Ice grew from the floor and surrounded her legs, capturing her in place and Neria had to use her own magic to free herself.

Alistair saw this happen and charged. He had begun to care deeply for all of his companions, Neria especially so. He called on his Templar training to help drain the demon of its power. He brought his large sword down upon the shade and was relieved to see he sliced one of its arms clean off. The demon screamed once more, swiped at Alistair with its one good arm, and knocked him to the floor.

This provided the necessary distraction for Zevran to dive upon its back, stabbing wildly as he pierced its skin repeatedly. The demon howled with pain and collapsed into nothingness, Zevran had killed it.

"How awful." Leliana whispered, as she stood closer to Lyla. "All these people taken in by the clutches of that monster. It is good we escaped it." She took her elf's hand gently for reassurance, giving it a quick squeeze before letting it go again.

Alistair looked at the woman inquisitively but all thought of voicing his question left him when he saw the glare that Lyla was giving him, instead he opted for a safer bet. "Shall we keep moving? The elves don't have too long to waste."

"Ma nuvenin, let's go." Lyla marched out of the camp, her company in tow.

Author's note

Ha-ha, another chapter with little to no story. Woopsie.

I hope that there was enough combat in it though to satiate you all.

Translations

Elvish

Vhenan – heart

Ma emma harel – you should fear me

Ma nuvenin – As you wish

Qunlat

Katara, bas – die thing

Orlesian (French)

Ma cherie – my sweetheart