A note: Co-written with Gaspode5. A sprinkle of Andraste's ashes on our revievers, Fenzev, Shakespira and Jaden. :D Without further ado:


The road

For a few breathless heartbeats Riordan allowed himself to just lie there, staring up at the sky as water drained off him into the ground. Next to him Alyse moaned. "Let's not do that again." In this he was quite happy to oblige, he'd had enough of being tossed around in rapids like a leaf in a storm. The strong current had carried them further down the river towards east than he'd hoped. It was far from over yet. The terrain here was rough and with Spawn crawling all over the place going would be slow. It seemed for bloody once the reports had been correct, just his luck.

They scrambled up the cliff that towered over them to get a better look at the lay of the land. "Makers breath!" Alyse breathed as she saw the waterfall below. Watching the masses of water cascading into the gorge, Riordan could do nothing but silently agree. It was beautiful and terrible. He could feel mist on his face and the roaring was so loud he had to shout to make himself heard.

"We were lucky!" The moment he spoke he felt the familiar itch at the back of his neck. He raised his head to catch it better. "Luck's out!"

"Spawn?" the woman mouthed. He nodded dragging her away from the ledge.

"Yes, but distant and moving away." Riordan grabbed the saddlebags. "Let's get going before they sense us. The homesteads here are few and far between. We might find a shepherd's hut if we are lucky but my guess is that we're camping out."

The response was less than enthusiastic. "Great."

-ooo-

After days of wandering, the shortage of food combined with the climbing where Riordan often had to do the same route twice, once for Alyse and once for the packs, put a serious damper on their mood. No matter how many scree filled rocky slopes they traversed there seemed to be yet another ahead and several times they had to double back to avoid Spawn. The cold night watches frayed his temper further but there was simply no way he would trust the woman's newly formed Spawn senses. The few times he managed to snatch some sleep she seemed to wake him instantly, haunted by Taint dreams. Sometimes he wished he'd let her drown.

"I wish my arm would bloody work!" Alyse sighed as Riordan passed her a hardtack. His feeble attempts at hunting had born no fruit so far. There just wasn't time to carefully stalk a prey and whilst he was a good archer he wasn't good enough to take down something as small as a bird by taking random pot shots at it. "I used to go hunting with my father; he's the one who taught me archery." There was a sad longing in her voice that grated on him.

"Did I ask for your life's story?" he snapped. She had been rather placid so far so it took him completely by surprise when she suddenly turned to yell at him.

"Did I ask you to come after me? Did I ask for my shoulder to dislocate? Nobody forced you to help me!" She dissolved into tears. He itched to slap her; instead he turned away, leaving her crying. Perhaps that made him a better man than his father, or perhaps it was simply that he was too tired to rape her. Exhaustion made him sit down before he got far. Burying his head in his hands he tried to make his mind go blank. It was no bloody use. Without thinking his hand went to his, noDuncan's amulet. 'So I've screwed up again, perhaps you know by now. There isn't much chance we'll make it. Yes, I'll do my bloody best but I have to tell you I'm not optimistic. I wish you were here, or I don't. Andraste's tits, I can't even think straight anymore.' He released the amulet feeling slightly embarrassed. Groaning he called on his reserves and slowly went back. He knew what he had to do.

"I'm awfully bloody sorry." The woman paid him no heed but curled up tighter around her misery. "I'll leave if you want, just say the word." All he got was a new burst of tears. He felt ashamed, she was surely as tired as he was and truth be told, had born the hardship better than most. Carefully he sat down at her side.

"I'm useless!" The words bubbled out of her with the tears.

"I left because I'm an asshole." He swallowed. "Stop crying, please." He couldn't have been more surprised had she slapped him in the face when she threw her arms around him. At a loss for what to do he awkwardly hugged her back. There was simply no understanding women. Half in fear that letting go would start a new flood of tears, he kept holding her until she suddenly hissed, "Don't move!" He tensed and tried to figure out where he had gone wrong. She was leaning past him and suddenly made a violent move.

"YES!"

Riordan twisted, he could hardly believe his eyes, she had brought down a coney. He launched himself at it to finish it off, just in case. That startled another, and Maker be damned if she didn't hit that one as well. Triumphantly he brandished them to her. "I can't believe it. You're a fucking beauty!"

Her face was still puffy and blotchy from crying but she smiled tremulously. "Choose your insults more carefully after this. You're much bigger than a rabbit."

He grinned back. "Oh I will!" Quickly he skinned and gutted the conies, tossing her the livers which she immediately ate without grumbling. It seemed she at least had SOME sense. When he was done she gave him a smile that could kill a man.

"Now, hand them over. I'm not having you destroy them."

"I'm perfectly capable." he protested.

"That's not good enough, they are mine!" The glare she gave him was fierce. With some trepidation he handed them over. He could see her watching him closely. "Get some rest. I'll wake you when it's ready." He hesitated and from her next words he guessed she had noticed. "I share fair, trust me."

"I do. Thank you." He lay down and the last thing he remembered was that Duncan had said the very same words once. That time Riordan's reply had not been a lie.

-ooo-

Alyse shook her companion harder. She felt almost sorry but she reckoned he needed food more than sleep. "Dinner's ready." she announced watching him sit and brush the hair from his face. "Here." She presented him with one of the coneys.

"Thank you." He took a bite and his face lit. "This is good! Fantastic actually."

"Told you so!" She grabbed the other, maybe a bit too quickly. "You're welcome by the way. It's flavoured with wild thyme."

Riordan spoke, his mouth full of food, "I swear you're bloody marrying material."

She laughed then, suddenly feeling much lighter. "If you're going to propose you're wasting your breath, I'm too good for you." He grinned at her between bites.

"Ha, so there's a brain in there after all."

"Bah, you are an ignorant fool." Alyse huffed. "Also, you have an Orlesian accent, not my thing." That seemed to catch him off guard.

"What? I have not!"

"You so have!" She smirked feeling smug.

That night they found an abandoned shepherds hut and Riordan sensed no Spawn. Perhaps they would both get a decent night's sleep. Alyse reached out for the half blanket he handed her and hesitated. It hardly seemed fair. "We can share it, if you want."

"Thank you, but I'm fine."

"Do you find it hard to lay close, I mean...without, you know...?" Blight now she was NOT thinking about food. Instead IT crossed her mind. He would think she was hitting on him and she certainly wasn't.

"No. I feel like I've spent half my life crowding Duncan and I don't fuck him do I?"

"You might for all I know."

"Well, we don't. Take my word for it, or bloody don't. I don't care either way."

"Maker, you laying on a burr or something? Alyse rearranged her sorry excuse for a pillow. Fine, be like that then."

-ooo-

The nights turned even colder bringing with them a smell of frost, yet they didn't always dare to light a fire, light travels far in the mountains after dark. Sitting shivering underneath the blanket, reluctant to endure more Taint dreams, Alyse asked, "How long have you been a warden?"

"Feels like forever, but what is it now, eight years, nine?" Riordan seemed to lose himself in his own thoughts. Leaning against him for warmth, she could feel him tilt his head back and look up at the stars that shimmered across the black sky as if they could provide the answer.

"You were pretty young when you joined then?" He still seemed quite young to her but there were times when he made her feel like a naive child. Nearly ten years, she thought and if he's lucky he'll live another twenty but probably less. She could outlive him by many years. Suddenly it bothered her

"Most of us are, aren't we? Young and stupid." His arm came up shaking her by the neck. She could hear the smile in his voice.

"Why did you join?"

"None of your business, you?" The wry voice took the edge of the words.

"My parents died. I was alone and I had to go somewhere." she offered.

He snorted. "So you thought joining the Wardens would be a great idea?"

"Why not, I had nothing else. I had a brother once but he died."

"That's what happens to family sometimes. It's not always a bad thing either." He became very quiet and she was afraid she had offended him in some way.

-ooo-

While the nights were cold the days in The Dales were still hot. The climbing made it no better. They stopped for a breather and to refill the canteen. Once he had reassured himself that there were no Darkspawn nearby, Riordan unbuckled his leather armour and stripped off. Alyse did the same and then watched enviously as his tunic followed. She wondered idly what he would do if she did the same. Sourly she came to the conclusion that he probably wouldn't even notice.

Distracted from this particular thought she watched Riordan squat by the small stream to splash water on his neck and arms. He stood and turned. As he straightened she found her eyes following the dark line of hair that ran from his navel down his flat abdomen. Horrified she realised he was watching her. To cover her embarrassment she said, "Your tattoo is er...cute."

There was a snort. "Nice try."

She wondered if he'd recognised where her eyes had lingered, the beast! She fixed her eyes on a particularly nasty scar. "You've seen a lot of battle."

"My share, scars aren't exactly a sign of success you know."

"That you're alive is though, isn't it?"

"It could also mean I'm clumsy but lucky, I'm sure I got a few from shaving like anyone else. Or that I've been around a lot of bad healer's, or none. The good one's don't leave scars, most of the time." He wandered over and sat down next to her, resting his elbows on his knees.

"That one," she indicated a dent in his bicep, "where did you get that?"

He smiled. "Ah that was Duncan actually."

"Duncan?" she said incredulously. "You're having me on?"

"No, but the fault was mine more than his." She tried to imagine the Warden, taking a knife to his friend, she couldn't. As if reading her mind Riordan said. "We haven't always been on friendly terms."

"And that one." She nearly prodded the intricate pink web of lines on his underarm but stopped herself.

"Ha! I took a fall, landed in a fire." He stood and rolled his shoulders.

Her eyes travelled down his back. "That scar at least must be a sword."

"Since when did I grow eyes in the back of my head? Stop ogling me and get on your feet." He scooped up his tunic.

"I wasn't ogling!" she objected, cheeks aflame.

"No? Don't worry, the next village may hold an unsuspecting fresh-faced lad you can try your wiles on instead."

"I hate you." she muttered.

-ooo-

Next day they came across a small farmstead. To Alyse it was as welcome as the city of Denerim itself. The people living there didn't have anything in the way of arms to offer, at least nothing better than Alyse's partially destroyed bow, but in exchange for coin they gave them food, another blanket and an offer to sleep in the barn, 'For yourself and the missus'.

With her belly full of stew and freshly baked bread Alyse felt she could take on an army of Spawn, laughing all the way. The prospect of a night's sleep in relative safety behind the palisades of the farm was also beckoning with welcoming arms. It almost made her too elated to sleep.

"Did you notice the daughter?" Alyse asked mischievously as they bedded down in the hay.

Riordan grinned. "I did! That one could send a man to oblivion and back eight days in a week, take my word for it. I think she even had a hump." He lay down on his side and winked at Alyse. "Mind you I'm not sure my theory holds for men, but if it does, that farmhand..."

"Maybe they are married." Alyse giggled.

"Maybe they are, lucky bastards." For a long while she lay listening to the sounds of the night and Riordan's slowing breathing as disquiet settled in her body. She thought about how his hands felt when he was steadying her on the raft and of the map of old violence on his naked body.

"But you wouldn't want to bed me." she bit her tongue, "assuming I would agree, of course."

"Are you out of your mind? Go get uglyface!" he murmured sleepily, "I'm a lousy lay too." She regarded his face in the pale moonlight. His eyelashes were very long and completely straight, just like her own.

"Yes, horrible no doubt."