Passing the King and General Loghain's tents, Ana starts away in search of Hawke. Surely if anybody could possibly put her mind at ease at this time, it would be him. There was just something about him that brightened her day and made her worries seem smaller than they actually were.
Towering walls and arches cast shadows across the ruins and the wind that whipped through the space seemed colder than before. Pulling her cloak around her, she presses forward when Much suddenly stops. Stopping, her eyes follow the shadows he's staring into and she feels a chill run up her spine as he emits a low growl. Kneeling beside him, she holds onto him and tries to calm him with scratches and soothing words but he didn't move.
"What's wrong, boy?" She asks as his ears flatten against his head and he bares his teeth.
Within moments, she hears a few voices coming closer and reaches down to her belt for her mother's dagger. Her heart beats loudly in her chest as the figures emerge from the shadows. Immediately, she recognizes the two Wardens that first greeted her when she arrived and she rises to her feet. Upon seeing her, the blonde one smirks. "Well, well. Would you look at this, Roy. It seems out little princess is lost."
Roy snickers behind him and Ana raises her chin. "I'm not lost. I'm meeting with my friend. Now if you'll excuse me…" She tries to walk around them but Daniel steps into her path. She tries to move to his other side and is once more blocked."Let. Me. Through."
"Or what?" He sneers. "You'll tell the King? I've told you before, he won't help you."
Terror seeps in but she keeps her expression flat. "I know that. I'll tell your Warden-Commander. I know he doesn't mind punishing Wardens. I doubt he would like it if he heard that you were harassing his newest recruit."
Daniel lets out a bark of laughter. "You?" Reaching out, he strokes her cheek with his finger which makes her skin crawl. "What a waste. Beauty like yours isn't very common; I'd had to see your beautiful featured destroyed by ugly scars and deteriorating."
Scowling, she flinches away from his touch and Much growls. "Don't touch me." She hisses.
Daniel scoffs. "I do like my women to have some fight in them. My offer to join me in my tent later still stands."
"Eat shit." Ana spits.
Violently, he grabs her arm and she lets out a surprised pained cry which sets Much off. He barks and nips at the man before Daniel gets mad. "Fuck off, mutt!" He bellows, kicking Much hard and sending him back into the crumbling wall where he slumps down motionless.
"Much!" Ana cries, but Daniel tightens his grip on her arm and swings her around to face him.
"No. I imagine a woman like you is far more naughty than you let off. You hide behind your pretty things and title but I just know that there's a freak in there just begging to come out. Perhaps you'd like for Roy and I to double team you." As he says this, Roy grins while Daniel pulls her close. She feels his warm breath on her ear. "I bet you'll like that, wouldn't you? Having both your tight little holes fucked at once?"
Turning his head, he forcibly presses his lips against hers before flinching away as she bites his lip. She tastes the blood she drew on her lips and he touches his hand to his lip and looks down.
"You little bitch!" He exclaims, backhanding her. She tastes her own blood from her split lip as she falls to the ground, her mother's dagger falling from her hand. Much whines nearby and Ana weakly reaches out for the dagger but Daniel spots it first and picks it up. He turns it over in the light before nodding.
"This is quite the little weapon you have there, my lady." He grins, mockingly. "I could use a nice little dagger like this."
"No! That's mine!" Ana cries, reaching up for it only to be silenced with a hard kick to the side. She doubles over coughing as she hears Daniel and Roy laugh before she recieves a couple more kicks from each of them.
"We need to go but just know that this," He says, motioning between them, "isn't over."
Putting the dagger in his belt, the two men walk away and the tears she was trying to hold back break loose and begin to cascade down her cheeks. Much whines once more she attempts to move closer to him, trying her best to ignore her pain to no avail. Reaching him, she sucks in a shaky breath through her teeth as she manages to place a hand on his snout. His eyes move to meet hers with a soft whine. "I know." She soothes. "I'm so sorry, boy."
Placing his head on her hand, he weakly licks her which makes her want to cry even more.
As the men draw further and further into the swamp, the temperature begins to drop and a damp chill falls over them. Thick fog masks the area around the path in all directions and their breath becomes visible before them.
"I don't like this." Daveth comments, his teeth audibly chattering as he pulls his cloak closer. A fine mist had begun to fall which only added to the gloom.
Alistair pauses as he listens to the low humming at the back of his mind. We're getting close .
Seeing a patch of flowers barely peeking through the fog nearby, he walks over and kneels beside them and takes on in his hand.
"We're in the middle of the fucking swamp and he wants to pick fucking flowers?" Daveth hisses, pacing around impatiently.
Alistair rolls his eyes and begins to pick them and places them in his pack before rising. "The kennel master has been requesting these flowers, white with a red center, to help the mabaris that are sick after getting bit by darkspawn." Casually, he reaches for his sword and Daveth backs away. "Be on your guard. I sense darkspawn nearby."
Immediately, everyone draws their weapons and Daveth glances around as they continue. Before long, they come across detached and decomposing body parts strewn around the grass and some pieces floating in the stagnant swamp water. Gilmore finds a whole body lying face down in the water, it's black robes torn to reveal deep gashes.
"Maker's breath." Daveth exclaims. Alistair and the other wince.
"Poor soul." Jory mutters.
Spotting something sticking out of the pocket of the corpse's robes, Gilmore starts toward it. Daveth calls to him but he ignores him and crouches down to examine the gashes. If it wasn't the fatal wounds that killed him, it was for sure drowning. Muttering a prayer under his breath before reaching into the man's pocket to retrieve the rolled up piece of parchment. He opens it and reads it.
"What is it?" Jory calls to him. Rising, he walks over and hands the parchment to Alistair. "It's the man's will. It looks like he wrote it before he passed on."
"What does it say?" Jory asks Alistair.
"He talks about a sealed box he hid. He wants it to be brought to Redcliffe and given to his wife."
Daveth scoffs. "Yeah, like that's going to happen. With our luck, most of us will die in the battle."
Rolling the parchment up, he memorizes the spot that's stated and puts it in his pack. "Maybe." He mutters and starts walking once more.
The others exchange glances and begin to follow when they come across a large fallen tree that forms a makeshift bridge between the hills. The party stops as they see the bodies strung up, creaking as they swing in the breeze. Chills shiver down Gilmore and Alistair's spines as the look at it. Jory makes the sign of the Maker. "Poor souls."
The buzzing in Alistair's head grows louder as they past the hanged men until a loud shriek cuts through the eerie gloom. The recruits look around frantically as Alistair stands perfectly still, his sword and shield ready as he tries to gauge what type of darkspawn they're dealing with.
"Show yourselves, you bastards!" Daveth bellows, turning around with his knives drawn.
An ear-splitting scream cuts through the silence like a knife as a tall, agile creature with blades attached to its arms runs out of the fog at Daveth while two dwarf-like figures with spiked armor and razor sharp teeth run toward the others with a taller, grey creature in tow.
Daveth rolls to the side as the shriek swings it's blade down at him before he lashes out with his knives. In his panicked state, he misses and the creature's other arm arcs outward and the tip of its blade slices at the front of the thief's leather armor.
Standing back to back with Ser Jory, Gilmore slices at the genlock that rushes toward him and catches it just under it's bony chin. Black ichor spurts from it as it rages and swings the flair around it's head before letting it loose. Gilmore ducks and feels the spikes touch his hair and he jabs his sword outwards into the creature's arm. It howls and swiftly moves the rapidly in a figure-eight motion before once more throwing it at the knight. The ball hits Gilmore's arm as the Hurlock's sword glances off Alistair's shield and scratches his cheek and he cries out before swinging outward. The blade sinks deep into the pale flesh as ichor spurts out and covers the front of his armor before the creature falls.
"Careful!" Alistair yells, bashing his shield ito the hurlock and sending it toppling back into the swamp water. "Darkspawn blood is tainted. Don't let it get into open wounds or-"
Before he can finish, the hurlock rises from the stagnant pool and lunges at him, tackling him to the ground. His shield gets knocked away and he raises his sword to block the incoming strike. Rancid breath assaults his nose as the hurlock pushes against his sword, it's sharp teeth inches from his face as it screeches. With all his might, he manages to push it away from his face when a blade falls from above and takes off the creatures head. The head falls and hits Alistair's breastplate before rolling off and onto the muddy ground. He winces as darkspawn blood spays him in the face before the lifeless body topples onto him. Trying not to open his mouth, he pushes it off and looks up at the hand offered to him. Taking it, he allows Gilmore to help him to his feet before Gilmore quickly turns around to help Daveth as he barely manages to parry the lightning quick swipes, the metal sparking as it hits his knives. The next strike flicks the small blade from Daveth's hand before the second strike slices up his arm. He cries out but the shriek continues its onslaught, slicing through the leather and piecing the flesh beneath.
Ser Jory takes down the genlock before him and swivels at the sound of screams nearby as the shriek runs Daveth through, his eyes widening as the thief coughs up blood before slumping to the ground.
"Daveth!" He calls out as he starts running toward the creature. Before he can get to it, Alistair appears with his shield raised. The young Warden cries out as he swings his sword down in a lethal arc, taking off one of the shriek's bladed arms just below the elbow. Blood spurts out from the wound and it's shrieks make his ears feel like they're going to bleed. Rushing up, Jory swipes takes off the other arm before both Gilmore and Alistair strike at once. Alistair's blade chops the creature's head off making the shrieks stop as Gilmore's sword gets thrust through its chest before he kicks it off. The three men look down at the creature as its body convulses while blood pours out if it and mixes with the mud.
A strangled cough nearby grabs the men's attention and they quickly sheath their weapons and run over to Daveth.
"Bloody…. Fucking hell." He sputters. "This isn't…. How I wanted to go."
His brows furrowed, Jory looks up at Alistair. "Surely you have more bandages? You can bandage him up and we can carry him back to camp…"
Alistair shakes his head solemnly. "It's too late." He motions with his chin to the deep gash in the man's leathers, reaching down to pull the torn fabric to reveal the already darkening and brined flesh. "He's already been tainted. There's nothing we can do."
Kneeling beside the man, Gilmore touches Daveth's hand. "Is there anything you want to say? Do you need us to inform your family?"
Daveth coughs up blood once more as he shakes his head. "I have no family." He mutters. "None that would care at least."
Kneeling beside Gilmore, Alistair sets his sword aside and clasps his hands together which the other two follow suit as they all bow their heads. Alistair says a small prayer he learned while with the Templars and, when they all raise their heads once more, Daveth is gone.
"This is madness." Jory frowns as Gilmore shuts Daveth's eyes. "We should head back before these abominations take more of us."
Taking his sword from the ground, Alistair wipes the mixture of blood and ichor on his sleeve before he rises and sheathes it. "No. We're almost to the Warden archive. It would be foolish to head back now." He casts a sympathetic look at the dead recruit. "It's unfortunate that this happened but sometimes it cannot be helped."
Jory's brows furrow as he looks at the Junior Warden as if he's gone mad. "Sometimes it cannot be helped?"" He sneers. "Is that really all you have to say? Do you not care?"
Reaching into his pack, Alistair grabs Ana's vial and kneels down to fill it before capping it and placing it back in his pack. "While I doubt these will be the only darkspawn we encounter, I recommend filling your vial now."
"And what about him?" Jory asks, gesturing to Daveth's body. "Thief or not, he still at least deserves to be properly put to rest." He glances around but before Alistair can reply, Gilmore steps forward and lays a hand on the knight's shoulder.
"Jory, I know that you're in shock right now and want to set things right but you know as well as I that that is not wise. Look around." He motions around them. "Even if a fire wouldn't call too much attention to us, where would we make the pyre? Everything is too wet."
Jory nods sadly. "You're right." He mutters, glancing over at Alistair. "Forgive me, Warden. Let's carry on."