Author's Note: Check my LiveJournal site (link on profile) for more eye-friendly viewing and/or to leave comments (anonymous or otherwise). All chapters/segments of this story have been converted to LJ entries and a few sections have been updated with new content.

Halfway through the night, the warehouse doors opened and cool, fresh air made its way towards the cages for a few moments. Zevran was mostly asleep and only heard snippets of a conversation.

"A fire in the north district –again? How many made it this time?" Master Tomas was yelling at someone.

"Just pack them in the cages with the others for now. We'll sort them out in the morning. Go fetch the Masters at first light…." The blonde elf dozed off again and didn't hear anything else until his cage was unlocked. Zevran was rudely awakened by the sound of metal on metal, then two soot-covered elven boys were pushed into his cage. In the dim candlelight, he could see that the taller one was clutching his side and squeezing his eyes as if in pain. But both boys didn't make any sound, except for the occasional wheezing and coughing. He was glad they were staying close to the door of the cage. He didn't want to have to fight anybody for his relatively comfortable spot near the wall.

Zevran was running in a field of grass, racing the other boys toward an ocean that seemed to move farther and farther away. He was starting to get very discouraged and was about to tell everyone what a pointless exercise this was when suddenly, a bright blue light appeared by his side. A form appeared, hazy at first, but unmistakable. It was the little Ferelden girl!

"Hello. What're you doing?"

"Hello to you, too. I'm running, I guess. But I've stopped now."

"Oh. Well, you should give me a kiss again." She smiled at him, and his spirits lifted as he admired her strange-colored eyes and long, pretty hair. He kissed her on the lips and held her close for a few moments, all too happy to oblige.

"There, is that what you wanted?" Zevran asked, wondering how she had gotten there.

"Mmmm… hmmm… yes. But only if you wanted it too. Do you like to kiss me?"

"Yes, I should think so. And there's nobody else here to kiss." He replied.

"Don't worry, Zevran. You'll be okay. But you have to wake up now. Kick it in the face."

"Huh?" He wrinkled his brow in confusion. She was starting to fade.

Leilani smiled again, kissed his cheek, and smoothed a stray lock of his hair before fading to a blue glow again. The last thing he heard before she disappeared was, "Just use your boots."

Zevran was laying with his face toward the wall and almost gagged as he woke up. The stench was absolutely vile! What smelled so awful? He could hear the sounds of someone noisily eating something, licking and gulping down their meal like a wild animal. He opened his eyes and as they adjusted to the dim light, he turned toward the cage door and received the scare of his young life.

One of the boys who had entered his cage last night was eating other one! Zevran could see that the boy's eyes were dull and lifeless, and his mouth was covered in blood and other ghastly fluids. He had been eating the other kid's innards and was now chewing on a length of intestine. The boy had a messy burn wound and a nasty yellowish liquid was oozing out through his shirt. Zevran's mind revolted against the thought of the undead creature so close to him. The thing moaned as if in pain and clutched the collar around its neck, still slurping down chunks of flesh. As the creature swiveled its head towards him, Zevran started screaming at the top of his lungs.

"Bloody hell! What's all the commotion about?" Someone yelled in the distance.

"There's a zombie in my cage!"

The creature sniffed into the air and started moving closer to where Zevran was huddled against the wall. It gurgled angrily and flung bits of crimson gore around as it clumsily shoved its former meal aside, intent on having a fresh new corpse to dine upon. As the blonde elf quickly crawled to the opposite side of the cage along the wall to escape its clutches, the other boys started yelling and screaming. Suddenly, the zombie lunged forward again, quicker than it seemed possible. Its hands reached for his chest, and Zevran could smell its fetid breath as its teeth closed on the air near his face. He rolled away just in time.

Zevran thought he was a goner for sure. He had no weapons and was trapped in with this thing…and oh, Andraste, please no... was the other boy's body starting to stir as well? It was! The elf's adrenaline went to work as his instincts took over. Zevran put his back towards the bars on one side of the cage and reached up to grip the bars overhead. He held on tight with his hands while he kicked with his boots at the first zombie's chest. It lunged at him again, but this time, he kicked it hard in the face. Its head cracked noisily against the bars on the other side of the cage. He kicked it in the face with both boots again and again, until it finally went limp and its head hung at an odd angle, a dark liquid oozing slowly from its mouth. As the first undead corpse slid to the bottom of the cage, the second one reared its head. It was trying to crawl towards him on its hands, as it had almost been severed completely in half from the first zombie's attack and subsequent feeding.

The living boy froze as a whistle sounded, and the corpse abruptly stopped moving. A shiny silverite dagger was now protruding out of the new zombie's skull. After hearing all the horrified screams, this silence was deafening. Zevran held his breath and looked up as a light approached. Master Tomas appeared, Hans closely following with an oil lamp by his side.

"Did it bite you? Are you alright, boy?" The bald man queried.

Zevran breathed a sigh of relief before answering the man. "No, ser, I didn't let it bite me. And I think I'm alright," he replied shakily.

"Maker's bollocks!" Hans exclaimed as he illuminated the gruesome scene.

"You are the luckiest little knife-eared whoreson I have ever seen!" Tomas added as a couple of his initiates began dragging the fully dead corpses out of Zevran's cage. Though it was rare now that the trainers had started accepting less recruits and keeping them in separate cages, the inevitable zombification still occurred every couple of fortnights to wounded victims. Until now, no recruit had ever survived an attack by one of his caged fellows who had turned into a revenant.

All of the children were released from their miniature prisons and ordered to prepare for the morning exercises. Zevran looked down at his blood-splattered footwear as the initiates cleared out the mess.

"You are definitely one lucky bastard in boots. Now get outta here and go clean up." Hans shooed him away.


"I thought for sure you was a goner, Zevran." Elrik announced breathlessly as he jogged beside the elf.

"Yeah, you and me both. I think Andraste herself must be watching over me or something."

Olaf interrupted with a snort "My Da used to say Andraste watches over us all before he died, too. Lot of good that did him. You're just lucky you woke up in time; before that thing started gnawing on you, you dirty little knife-ear." He moved closer to Zevran and stuck out his elbow, hoping to nudge him to the ground.

"Stop it, Olaf!" Elrik scolded. "It's against the rules to fight outside of pit-time."

"Oh, really? And what happens if I do?" Olaf retorted in a condescending tone.

"You get twenty lashes with the hickory switch, that's what." Elrik responded with a smirk.

Olaf scowled but was mollified by his answer. "Whatever. Just wait until next time, then." He jogged in place for a few steps, waiting for Donatello and Miguel to catch up to him. "That goes for you little knife-eared bastards, too. All of you are going to get what's coming for you today."

"Uh, nope. There's no fighting today. Just learning and exercising and watching the older ones train. Andraste's ass, you stupid shem! How long do you'd think we'd last if they had us kill each other every damned day?" Donatello retorted angrily. The human in question started running faster, his face red with frustration and embarrassment. He quickly moved away from his group, and the rest of the recruits ignored him during the remainder of their morning exercises.

Zevran, however, was overjoyed to hear this news. "Well, there would probably be many more zombies after a while." The blonde elf shrugged nonchalantly. "But that would make it far more terrifying if we were forced to fight THEM with blunt knives, don't you think?" He and the other boys laughed heartily, very glad to have a moment of levity at his expense.