Big thanks to the speedy and mighty beta stick of Suilven. Your encouragement and suggestions help so much. Have I told you that you're pure awesomesauce? :)
The plaintive, almost mourning, call of duck hawks overhead drew Lhiannon's attention upward toward a break in the canopy of trees around them, where she watched as the predators circled above on the air currents. They rose and fell as the breeze carried them, their sharp eyes no doubt looking for a free meal in the wake of following the band of travelers deeper into the Brecilian Forest.
I doubt they'll find a meal to their liking by following us, Lhiannon thought to herself as she pulled her eyes from the sky to focus on the forest ahead of them. She removed a gauntlet and rubbed at her tired eyes, sighing slightly at their gritty feel. Sleep was something she craved, but also something she knew would not be coming in great amounts in the short term. Though the sun had risen well above the horizon, the forest seemed to become darker and more foreboding the longer they traveled. Birds had called to each other and small ground creatures had rustled in the underbrush when they had first started their journey earlier that morning; by now, however, those calls had noticeably diminished beneath the rustling of leaves and the creaking of branches high above them.
Oghren and Anwen had been charged with leading the group of Wardens and soldiers into the forest. The irony of a dwarf—who had lived beneath the earth for nearly his entire life—helping to lead a group of humans through a forest would normally have brought a chuckle to Lhiannon. She sensed that it also would have brought a guffaw or two from Oghren as well, but like her—and the others—Oghren was no doubt feeling the effects of the forest around them. Tension had built amongst the companions, making the air seem even more thick and oppressive that it would have been otherwise.
Mutterings of wariness and superstition also flitted through the soldiers accompanying them until the lieutenant in charge—an Amaranthine man named Preston who served as Sergeant Joana's right hand—firmly ordered a halt to their foolishness. Preston was a man not given to superstition, which was a major reason why the Sergeant had picked him to accompany the Grey Wardens on this part of the journey. As for the Sergeant herself, she remained behind with the others near the Dalish camp in case the breach expedition drove fleeing darkspawn toward the Dalish.
A halt was called when Oghren and Anwen began to bicker about which direction they should lead the others in while heading to the breach. Both had been looking for signs of their earlier passage through the forest and had only found a few. Anwen held a hand-drawn Dalish map in her hands, pointing out landmarks and generally dismissing Oghen's protestations that he knew where he was going. After several moments, Loghain called out for both of them to stop their bickering and produced his own carefully drawn map of the forest to try and extrapolate his own way forward.
As Loghain consulted his maps, Lhiannon looked around them, cautiously peering through the underbrush and trees towering over them. The longer they had traveled through this part of the forest, the more wrong it had felt. Not only had the feelings and signs of corruption gradually increased, but it also felt like the Veil had weakened in the process; it felt much like it had in the Blackmarsh months before, just before the Wardens had confronted the pride demon that had resided there. A shiver ran through her and she hugged herself in an almost unconscious gesture. The last thing they needed to encounter on their way to the breach was a pride demon, or any demon for that matter.
"You feel it, too."
Startled by the sudden voice, Lhiannon quickly turned and watched Anders approach, his eyes wary as he scanned the landscape around them. He held his staff in his hands, gripping the weapon so tightly that the leather of his gloves appeared stretched to the breaking point over his knuckles. That he was edgy as well only confirmed Lhiannon's suspicions.
"It's as if I could reach out and touch the Fade itself." Anders paused, bringing up a gloved hand to rub his temple. A painful looking wince crossed his face. "It wouldn't take much to bring my Fade spirit forward to help us if I had to."
Overhead, the breeze picked up slightly, its whispering moan through the leaves and creaking branches doing nothing to ease Lhiannon's apprehension. It's bad enough that the corruption and feel of darkspawn are growing, but to have a sense of the Veil thinning? This day can't get much worse. With another shiver that brought goosebumps to her skin, Lhiannon lowered her hand to Spellweaver's hilt, hoping to find a small amount of reassurance in the feel of the weapon at her side. There had not been an occasion to use the sword as of yet, but her instincts told her that that would likely change, and sooner rather than later.
"Yeah, I feel it, too. I don't like this one bit…" She let her voice drift off as her eyes roamed the landscape around them once more. According to both Oghren and Anwen, they would be within the vicinity of the breach before nightfall, which left Lhiannon asking herself if the Wardens should make camp for the night on the surface or continue into the breach. Making camp would give them a little extra rest—rest they would likely need as they investigated the area. However, would camping so close to—or even within—the breach leave them vulnerable to darkspawn attack? Could the breach have even sundered the Veil there? There was no way of knowing in advance and they could very easily walk into a situation where there would be no opportunity to rest.
Indecision threatened to freeze her in place, the doubts that had ran rampant through her mind the night before coming to the forefront of her thoughts once more. Should they just camp now, exchanging the waste of daylight travel for the relative safety of distance? Should they push on, waiting to make camp until they could see the breach, but risk constant darkspawn attacks, or even attacks from the Fade if the Veil was indeed thinner—or even pierced—there?
"Lhi? You all right?"
Bringing her thoughts back to the current situation, Lhiannon gave Anders a small smile that she hoped conveyed more confidence than she felt. "Yeah, Andy. It's just that this place makes me uneasy."
"All I can say is that if I have to go into the bushes to do the necessary, someone is coming with me," Anders said, glancing about warily once more; to Lhiannon, his expression looked very much like prey sensing a hunter closing in. "I'm not going anywhere around here without at least one of you with me; preferably with weapons drawn."
Footsteps approached from nearby, though Lhiannon did not need to hear them to know one of the Wardens approached. She turned to see Sigrun coming to her side, fingers nervously dancing on the hilts of her daggers. The oppressive, foreboding atmosphere was also taking a toll on the normally perky dwarf; her dark tattoos appeared to stand out even more prominently against her fair skin and her normally sunny expression had turned nervous and strained.
"Oh yeah," Sigrun said, pulling one of her daggers from its sheathe and twirling it with deft fingers. "This place is just plain creepy and not only because I can sense darkspawn. There's something else… maybe it's all these trees…" Her face scrunched in consternation and she slowly shook her head, as if she had a thought that quickly fled. The others waited patiently as Sigrun thought; at last, she waved a hand through the air in dismissal. "Bah, I can't place it. Something isn't right—not that the darkspawn ever are—but I can't put my finger on what it is."
Several paces away, Loghain was still perusing his own maps as Anwen and Oghren continued to bicker over theirs, each suggesting a way through the terrain ahead to continue toward the breach. Anwen, citing her tracking skills, suggested a longer and slightly more circuitous route to the breach. The trek would be longer, true, but the landscape easier to navigate; it would require less moving through thick brush and would conserve their energy.
Oghren, without surprise, had suggested that the straightest distance between two points was a straight line. Loghain had not been surprised at Oghren's idea; the dwarf was one to directly confront obstacles in front of him, not seek alternate courses of action just because they were easier. It made him a respectable warrior, if brash and somewhat stubborn.
As they had argued, Loghain had consulted his own map of the Brecilian Forest. Having spent a great deal of time in Gwaren, he and his men had had many opportunities to travel into the forest, seeking better and shorter routes to Denerim other than the Brecilian Passage. A path ran along the Amaranthine Ocean, but that was a long and sometimes dangerous trek depending on the time of year. The path was often washed out in places by storms and tide, and, thus, not the most reliable route to Denerim.
There were hunting trails that dotted the landscape, used by those who either did not believe in, or ignored, the superstitions regarding the haunted folktales of the forest. It was Loghain's experience that most people had held some sort of fear of the forest, whether they admitted it to themselves—or others—or not. It could certainly be a disconcerting place, but no more so than the areas of Gwaren that bordered the Kocari Wilds or any other lightly traveled areas of Ferelden. He loved his country and countrymen—most of them, anyway—but there were times when he felt that many of the people were more superstitious than practical, making them the subjects of pity or ridicule among the other nations of Thedas. Loghain snorted quietly. Enough foolishness. Back to the task at hand.
At any rate, there were one or two trails that had traversed the forest at one time, but they were likely little more than small paths of dirt and crushed vegetation that only the heartiest and most avid hunters had used. With the rebuilding of Ferelden after the Orlesian occupation, there had been little in the way of funding to improve the trails and make actual roadways of them. Loghain scoffed to himself; it was one more item on the never ending list of things to do for Anora and Alistair.
One of those more heavily used paths, Loghain was sure, passed not too far away from where Anwen and Oghren had indicated the breach was. Since no one who had been on the original expedition had mentioned the path—Nathaniel had only seen the breach from a distance and that from the upper branches of a tree—Loghain was fairly certain they had not discovered it; if they had come across it, Anwen would likely have mentioned it, scorning it because it was "shemlen" made. It would also be interesting, Loghain thought, to see if the horde had made use of that path at any point in their journey toward Denerim. Surely a horde of the size that had besieged the capital would have left telltale signs that would still be visible; if the other expedition had not found them, he would.
Loghain turned to where Lhiannon stood with Anders and Sigrun. She looked troubled as she spoke with them, even more so than she had been in the previous couple of days. He knew her well enough to recognize when something was amiss… and also well enough to know when she was not being entirely frank about it. He had asked her before they had settled into their bedroll the night before if she wanted to discuss whatever it was on her mind. All she had said was that she was preoccupied by their journey to the breach and, while Loghain had no doubt that was part of it, she had adverted his eyes as she had spoken. Clearly, there was more to her melancholy mood than just the breach. As much as Loghain wanted to help her resolve whatever it was that troubled her, he could not force her to share her burdens, no matter how much he wanted to shake her and make her share them.
Loghain took a deep breath and let it out in a low sigh. He hoped Lhiannon would tell him what was really bothering her before too long. He knew a great deal about letting concerns linger inside overlong; after all, he had believed that he was the only one capable of solving Ferelden's problems during the Blight. Looking back, it had turned out for the best, but it could have easily ended with his neck stretched. Once again, Loghain snorted; more pressing matters waited.
"Commander; a moment?"
Lhiannon looked toward him, giving him a nod of acknowledgement as she approached. Her eyes darted from side to side as if looking for predators in their midst; with the itch of the taint in their blood increasing as they traveled east, there might well be. Oghren and Anwen broke off their bickering long enough to watch as Lhiannon stopped before them, no doubt curious.
"What is it?"
Beckoning Anwen and Oghren closer, Loghain turned his map so that they all could see it. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Anders and Sigrun approach as well. When everyone had gathered around and craned their necks to get a view of the map, Loghain began to speak.
"From Anwen and Oghren's account, the breach should be in this area," he said, indicating a spot on the map that he had marked with a small piece of charcoal. Once they had all acknowledged his action in some way, Loghain moved his finger to a small line that ran north and south not far from the breach itself.
"This is a hunting trail that had been used somewhat regularly while I was Teyrn of Gwaren. Granted, time and the forest could have reclaimed the path, but it did exist at one time in the not-too-distant past. It's very close to the breach according to our maps; I am of the opinion that—since we're here—we should find the trail and scout north a bit to see if it was utilized by the horde as they advanced on Denerim."
Lhiannon turned her attention to Anwen, who was studying the map closely. Her face was pinched in concentration. "Are you familiar with this trail, Anwen?"
"My people have used this trail before, but not in some time. For a shemlen trail, it does go through some fine hunting land. Or, it was fine when last we used it."
I think she just complimented humans, Lhiannon thought to herself, which normally would have brought a smile to her face but, in this instance, had not. Loghain's theory was sound; it would make sense to see if the horde had used the trail as they traveled north. They could find it fairly soon if she and Anders used haste spells to quicken their pace. It could also solve the problem of camping for the evening; rather than wasting a part of the day if they had set up camp now, they could reconnoiter the trail for a ways while still remaining in close proximity to the breach. Keeping busy would also help keep her uneasiness from overwhelming her.
Lhiannon looked to each of her Wardens, attempting to judge their opinions or anticipate their objections to the plan. No one—Anwen aside—had a particularly negative expression on their faces. She nodded slightly.
"We will try to find the trail and scout north a bit; Anders and I will cast haste on us to reach it sooner; we'll alternate castings to keep our mana as high as possible in case it's needed at some point. If we find it, we'll make camp along the trail so long as we don't sense a great deal of darkspawn. If they are still massing around the vicinity of the breach as Nathaniel had reported, we'll rethink strategy." She paused a moment, looking to Anders. "Camping tonight won't be easy on anyone. Anders and I both feel that the Veil is very thin here, which means all of us—not just Anders and I—may have to deal with Fade dreams as well as the darkspawn. Sleeping shifts will be short for everyone, but especially for Anders and me. With the Veil so thin, we may find ourselves easy targets for demons."
"I hate the Fade," Anders said, his voice a low mutter. "I hate the Veil; I hate the demons; I hate the dreams; I hate the Black City just hovering in the distance, never getting any closer or farther away."
"Why would the Veil be so thin?" Sigrun asked. "I mean, I know this place is just plain creepy, but I don't understand."
"The tales about the forest claim it is haunted; that the Veil was sundered in Tevinter times and never recovered," Lhiannon said.
Loghain shook his head, harrumphing slightly. "Rumors and fishwives tales," he said, scoffing slightly.
Lhiannon brushed Loghain's comment off with a shrug. "Be that as it may, it's just one explanation for why the Veil is thin here. I'm sure the Blight didn't help matters. " Lhiannon turned east, motioning toward what lay ahead with a jerk of her head. "Let's be off."
The seething of the taint had increased to a crescendo a split second before the first of the shrieks appeared amongst them as they investigated the small hunting path leading away from the breach. Their long claws and blades whistled through the air as they attacked, their screeches making the Wardens' ears ring painfully. Several of the Wardens' accompanying soldiers were immediately overwhelmed by the creatures, their screams tearing through the trees of the forest as the darkspawn clawed at them in a frenzy of bloodlust. Several other darkspawn emerged from the growth of the forest; hurlocks in a mishmash of armor and weapons who quickly joined their brethren in battle.
Anders was casting healing spells as quickly as he could, his concentration focused on his chanting and making him oblivious to the shriek quietly flanking him. Lhiannon shouted a warning to him as she drew Spellweaver into her hand and sprinted to close the distance between them before he could be overwhelmed himself. She had only taken a half dozen steps before something slammed into her from behind and forced her to the ground, where she landed onto her stomach with a loud thud. Her breath whooshed out of her in a great gust, Spellweaver falling from her hand to settle just out of her reach. The taint roiled and seethed within her as the shriek on her back screeched, its fetid breath burning Lhiannon's nose as she tried to regain her breath. Her burning and seized lungs refused to cooperate, only allowing her a tiny breath as she struggled against the weight on her back. Her armored hand scrabbled in the soil for Spellweaver as the first of the shriek's jabs struck the heavy armor encasing her torso. It had not pierced her armor, but the force of the strike was enough to drive what little breath she had out of her once more in a wheeze. Her lungs began to scream for air, little spots of darkness beginning to dance within her field of vision as she struggled beneath the attacking darkspawn. Forceful jabs landed on her back once more and this time one of the shriek's blades managed to find a gap in the plates of her armor, puncturing the skin of Lhiannon's left side and stopping when it scraped against one of her ribs. White hot and nearly blinding pain shot through her; she suffered in near silence as her lungs continued to refuse her breath and give her any sort of voice.
Rapid thudding sounds drew closer to Lhiannon as she continued to reach for Spellweaver, which remained maddeningly out of her grasp. Turning her head, she caught a glimpse of dark armor covering stubby legs just before the shriek on her back roared in what could only have been anger and pain. A grunt sounded in Lhiannon's ears just before the darkspawn's weight lessened. She turned her body onto its side, feeling a small amount of air begin to fill her lungs as hot blood spilled from the wound in her side.
"That's right, you filthy nughumper," Lhiannon heard Sigrun say, her voice a strained growl through gritted teeth and the visor of her horned helmet. The dwarf tightly held her daggers—which were now buried up to the hilt into the shriek—and began to twist them as she pulled the darkspawn almost completely off Lhiannon. "Two can play that 'sneak and stab' game. Not so much fun when you're the one being stabbed, is it?"
A nearly soundless gasp allowed Lhiannon to take a small breath of air. Reaching forward, she pressed the tips of her fingers into the corrupted flesh of the shriek struggling with Sigrun and whispered a spell of fire. The heat her words conjured flowed within her, moving down her arm and through her fingertips to where she touched the creature's leg. Smoke began to curl upward in stinking trails as the shriek burned from the inside out. The stench of burning and corrupted flesh increased as more smoke began to billow from its mouth. Its screams became impossibly loud for a moment as the corrupted flesh quickly charred, but then were abruptly cut off as the fire reached the creature's throat. After the thrashing and convulsions stopped, Sigrun pulled her warmed daggers from the blackened corpse.
"You okay, Commander?" she asked, helping Lhiannon into a seated position.
Lhiannon gave her a relieved nod and a grimace. "Help me get this armor off; I'm wounded."
Sigrun pulled her gauntlets off, tossing them aside before going to work on the straps holding Lhiannon's upper armor in place. While Sigrun worked, Lhiannon looked around to see the other soldiers and Wardens battling the last of the darkspawn. Anwen had climbed one of the trees and was raining arrows down upon several creatures; Lhiannon noted two still alive with arrows protruding from their flesh, and another three lying motionless on the ground with arrows buried in them. Near the corpses of the darkspawn lay two of their small compliment of soldiers; their body positions and lack of movement told Lhiannon all she needed to know about their unfortunate fate.
Loghain and two soldiers had held equidistant positions around Anders during the battle as he had cast spells of ice to slow and freeze the darkspawn in place. From what Lhiannon could see, several of them had been frozen by magic before being shattered into gory fragments by the blows of heavy weapons. Judging by the specks of blood and gore dotting Oghren's body—and the bright spots of red on his cheeks and almost cheerful bellowing—Lhiannon surmised that it was his great axe that inflicted most of the damage.
After several moments of fussing with the straps, Sigrun parted the front and back halves of Lhiannon's armor; a rush of cool air enveloped her body, causing her to shiver slightly and the injury to send a sharp spike of pain through her. Just having the armor pulled away made her feel as if she could finally breathe deeply again despite the pain of her injury. With gentle fingers, she touched the wound in her side and sent what healing magic she could through it. Lifting her eyes from her work, she watched the remainder of the soldiers and Wardens finish off the last of the darkspawn while Loghain approached her at a swift pace, concern etched on his rugged features as he spotted the fresh blood that had stained the padding under her armor.
"What happened? Are you injured?"
"Not too badly," Lhiannon said, her breath finally coming back to her in full and soothing her aching chest. It was blessedly refreshing, even if the air was tinged with the thickness of blood and corruption. "I was hit from behind by a shriek; it got its blade through my armor and punctured my side. Sigrun helped me."
At the mention of her name, Sigrun stood, kicking the corpse of the shriek beside them for good measure. "Sodding bastard snuck up on her as she was trying to warn Anders." Turning to the side, Sigrun wiped the blades of her daggers along the ferns covering the ground near them.
"It's like this forest has eyes," Lhiannon said, gathering up the pieces of her armor and setting them back in place. Sigrun sheathed her daggers and then began to help her refasten them together. As she worked, Lhiannon shook her head slightly. "I feel like something has been watching us for some time now. Something I just can't place…"
"My people believe the goddess of the forest always watches over us," Anwen's voice called out from nearby as she pulled arrows from the dead and examined them. Likely, Lhiannon thought, she was looking to see what could be salvaged and which were damaged beyond repair. Throwing a hopelessly broken one aside, Anwen huffed angrily. "I do not fear the forest as others do."
A low snort came from Loghain as he extended his hand to Lhiannon, gently pulling her to her feet once her armor was secured in place. She looked into his face and saw a pinched expression there. Clearly, he did not think much of Anwen's curt attitude and obvious jab at Lhiannon's comment about being uneasy. Lhiannon sighed through her nose, knowing that a tit-for-tat, curt comment of her own was likely what Anwen was looking for. Though she had not known the Dalish Warden for long, Lhiannon had quickly learned that Anwen derived satisfaction from what she perceived as the ignorance of the non-Dalish; Anwen appeared to enjoy pointing out such apparent shortcomings, reminding any and all humans that the elves were an ancient people who had forgotten more knowledge than humans would likely ever know. If Anwen continued with such games, Lhiannon knew she would have to put a stop to it, but now was not the time; investigating the breach was more important than playing catty games with a subordinate Warden. Though she was curious as to the tale behind Anwen's comment, Lhiannon decided that now was not the time to ask.
Instead, Lhiannon stood and looked to the sky, seeing only a fraction of the bright ball that was the sun through the heavy canopy of trees. By her best estimation, they had a few hours until dusk. It was probably best to dispose of the dead darkspawn and soldiers while they had daylight as well as set up camp for the night. The breach had waited this long; it could wait for one more night.
Lhiannon swept her eyes over the hunting path once more, sighing at the sight of it. It appeared that the horde had not been concerned with the formality of a path, but rather sought to make their own path north. While many of the larger trees appeared unaffected, many smaller trees had been uprooted and bushes had been flattened by the passage of the horde. Even after all this time, some evidence of the Blight remained, most likely due to the close proximity of the breach and the nearly constant presence of darkspawn in the area. Perhaps, once the breach was investigated and closed, they could follow the path north to have a better understanding of how the horde was able to reach Denerim so quickly and without being discovered until it was nearly too late. They would also need to see how badly the corruption had spread in other parts the forest farther away from the breach, or if it had begun to retreat now that the archdemon and the vast majority of the horde had been eliminated. It would be a good opportunity for more research into the advancement of the Blight; new Wardens would need to be educated as to the Blight's behavior and signs to look for when trying to determine if the danger was increasing. The Wardens from neighboring lands would likely ask about the Blight at some point, since no one alive had witnessed one before. Would they send investigators to Ferelden? Only time would tell.
The makeshift camp soon bustled with activity as the Wardens and soldiers prepared to bed down for the evening. Sigrun and Anwen walked the perimeter of the small camp while on patrol with the soldiers, ready to warn them if darkspawn drew closer. Loghain and Oghren were charged with gathering the bodies of the dead, pulling them away from the camp so that they could be safely burned. Anders and Lhiannon used fire to burn and ice to cool an area for the camp, making sure any signs of corruption were cleansed. The camp would be small and tightly packed together, but relatively safe.
"Hey, Commander. Yer man is requestin' your presence."
Lhiannon turned from where she was directing a jet of cool air at a spot of land that Anders had burned and cleansed. Oghren stood behind her, jerking a thumb behind him to the area where he and Loghain had been stacking bodies in preparation for cremation. The pile of corpses lay just beyond a small brush line mostly out of view of the camp. The evening sunlight reflected off Loghain's heavy armor in the distance, flashing in bursts as he moved into and out of the weakening rays.
"Are you ready for fire, Oghren?"
"Not exactly. There's somethin' you need to see." Oghren turned to lead Lhiannon to the makeshift pyre, muttering obscenities about the sodding trees and sodding darkspawn. Loghain turned as they approached, beckoning Lhiannon over with a wave of his hand. His face held a troubled expression, which caused the hairs on the back of Lhiannon's neck to stand on end.
"Oghren and I discovered something unusual as we were gathering the dead darkspawn for burning," Loghain said, moving closer to the pile of corpses. He had his sword in hand and used it to tip back the helmet visor of a hurlock. The milky, lifeless eyes staring back at them looked... different.
"This isn't a hurlock," she said, moving to another body and using Spellweaver to flip the visor back on that creature's helmet. It too looked slightly different than the darkspawn. "These are ghouls. Human, by the looks of it."
"Yeah," Oghren said, twisting one of his beard's braids with meaty fingers. "Couldn't have had too much longer to live, sodding bastards."
"Not all of them are shemlen," a low, shaking voice said.
Lhiannon looked up to see that Anwen had joined them, breaking off from her patrol duty to see what the other Wardens had discovered. She crouched down near another darkspawn, pointing to the creature's blotchy skin with a trembling finger. Moving closer, Lhiannon could only, at first, see the dark patches of corruption that covered nearly all of the creature's face. As she looked closer—following Anwen's gestures as her hand hovered just above the tainted face—Lhiannon saw faint lines on the ghoul's skin.
Lhiannon turned to look at Anwen; the elf's face had gone pale and she clenched her jaw tightly. Beyond the tension in her face, there was sadness in her eyes.
"Blood writing," Lhiannon said, looking up to where Loghain and Oghren stood nearby. "Dalish."
"Deygan," Anwen said, her voice barely above a whisper. "I would know these vallaslin anywhere. I watched Keeper Zathrian apply these markings only a year or so before Hadyn and I received ours. He was talented at making hunting weapons; it was part of the reason why Keeper Zathrian sent him into the forest to help the clan when the werewolves…" Anwen closed her eyes for a moment, her silence heavy in the air as the other Wardens waited for her to speak again.
"Deygan went missing a few months ago. He went hunting and never returned. It… it happens among the elvhen from time to time. We searched for him, but never found him. He was beloved by Anduril as well and we thought she had called him to her side…"
Lhiannon felt sympathy for the prickly elf as Anwen continued to mourn over the body of Deygan; the Dalish were, by nature, a close knit people. What bothered her even more was that Deygan had become a ghoul; was it because he simply stumbled upon the taint in the wilderness and contracted the blight sickness? Had he sated some sort of morbid curiosity about the breach and decided to try to explore it despite the warnings of the Wardens and Dalish about approaching it?
A shiver ran through her body as another thought crossed her mind: what if Deygan was made into a ghoul? That suggested to Lhiannon that the possibility existed that his condition was not the result of an accident, but a deliberate act to bring him into the darkspawn fold.
What sort of creature would do that?
She knew the answer to her own question.
Duck hawks are another name for peregrine falcons, birds the frequent many parts of North America. They like to nest on the bridge that spans the US/Canadian border near where I live.
Heads up, readers: there may be a gap between this chapter and the next one (and I left you with a cliffhanger... how naughty of me!). Baby's due date is three weeks away and while she's currently in no hurry to make her grand entrance, that can change quickly. I hope to continue some writing when I get snippets of time right after she's born, but you know how babies can be. I'll see if I can post short chapters then; it all depends on Baby. If you'd like to PM me, please do! I'd be happy to chat with you and be the proud new mommy!
Loads of thanks go to reviewers Naomis8329, Wyl, Oleander's One, Shakespira, JackOfBladesX, Arsinoe, Suilven, Ventisquear, Seika, Judy, and Tyanilth. You all have my gratitude for your kind words and encouragement.
Thank you to everyone following along as well! I'll be back to posting new chapters for my stories as quickly as I can.
