Arcane Warrior

Chapter 8

The Deep Breath Before the Plunge, part 2

He groaned as he awakened once again. Sleeping at Ostagar necessitated long, thick woolen night clothes. The chill of the Frostback Mountain air rushed down through the broken walls of the ruined fortress as swift and startling as an arrow. Yet, in spite of this, Alim had only the linen bedsheets and the tents canopy as protection from the frigid southern air, and the heat radiating from two warm bodies at his sides.

Blinking his eyes in confusion of that ladder detail, he searched his mind for any memories of the previous day that would explain his current situation. He had spent the day with that soldier, First Corporal Marian Hawke, and that grey warden woman, Jena, he remembered after a bit of thinking, teased and joked with the two of them all through the night.

When everyone had begun to turn in for the night, they had, what... Gone to bed together? He couldn't remember anything fun happening between the three of them, which meant they simply slept together without actually doing anything, despite their apparent nakedness.

He wasn't certain whether or he was disappointed by that fact. On one hand, he hardly knew them, and on the other they were very attractive, and he wasn't sure he'd regret it if anything had happened.

As he was thinking on this however, an arm snaked around his neck and tightened. He immediately gripped the aforementioned arm and tried to gain some breathing space between it and his neck, but apparently the arm's owner had more playful intentions than harmful, as immediately after pulling the back of his head further into her bountiful chest, she whispered mischievously into his ear.

"Well, well, well, I guess you aren't as much of a prude as I thought. Only one day here and you land yourself two beautiful women, that's quite an accomplishment."

Jena chuckled into the elf's ear and watched him go red from embarrassment. As his mind, along with other parts of his anatomy, brushed off the cobwebs he became more aware of his current predicament. He wasn't simply resting beside the two women as he had first thought, he was sandwiched in-between the two of them. Jena's large, soft bust had served as his pillow throughout the night, and Hawke had chosen to lie on top of him with her head on top of his own chest.

Before he had more time to take stock of the situation, the ear-piercing sound of a war horn echoed through the camp and forcefully woke anyone who had yet to be awoken by the frigid air. Marian stretched her arms over her head and yawned loudly, Jena watching amusedly with her head propped up on her hand as Alim lied still against her, afraid of the shorter girl's reaction to his morning erection against her smooth stomach.

To her disappointment, Hawke didn't overly react. Instead, merely looking at him in some mild confusion with a faint blush before rising from the bed as awareness dawned on her. Alim quickly followed suit and rose from the bed and started to gather his clothes and armor, Jena doing the same herself after taking a moment to admire them in the dim morning light.

She would have preferred a more... bombastic reaction from the shorter woman, but she supposed this would have to do.

Alim, Jena and Hawke started out the day with a generous helping of breakfast, with Hawke watching in amusement as her grey warden companions each downed a portion sizeable enough for two.

Alim was still embarrassed by this fact, though not as mortified by it as he had been the day before, as Jena eating as much if not more than he served to soothe his bruised ego somewhat.

The three of them trading some idle small talk as they left their wooden tableware behind to focus on more important matters, preparing for the battle ahead.

He stared at his staff/glaive, pondering his improvements in skill since leaving the tower as his companions traded barbs about their choices of weaponry, namely the oversized blade Jena carried. As far as he had come in the past couple of days, which while impressive in retrospect, was not nearly fast enough for his liking, considering what was going to befall them.

The darkspawn horde would be upon them tomorrow and he needed to improve as fast as possible. He didn't think he was weak, if he had to guess he would put himself above most his age, though it felt arrogant to think as much. He wondered if this was how everyone at Ostagar felt, as if their skill or power meant nothing under the shadow of the looming threat...

Just as Jena and Marian excused themselves from the ring and he had stepped into it, the sound of a pair of impatient feet stomping over to them and shoving his own would-be sparring partner to the side pulled him out of his thoughts, and almost before he could get his weapon up in time, he was forced to parry a slightly telegraphed, but undeniably powerful blow of a greatsword.

"Carver!" He heard the admonition from Hawke, but the man in question simply growled out angrily "not now sister!"

So surprised was he by the impromptu dual between himself and this snarling beast of a man that he found himself speechless.

He blocked an overhead vertical swing, his arms straining from the impact. He leaned his head and shoulders back and hurriedly dodged out of the way when the human tried punching him before he fixed his feet and twisted his staff before him with his hands on either side of the shat to block a powerful overhead chop. Feeling himself pushed by the sudden barrage of swift and powerful blows from his human opponent, he thought quickly and bent his legs before utilizing his lighter body by jumping over a horizontal cut and summersaulting over Carver's head before kicking out, his foot impacting solidly between Carver's shoulder blades.

He twisted as fast as he could to face Carver when he landed, wary of a quick recovery, and widened his stance even as the man stumbled forward before turning to face him with a great deal more grace than he thought the overly muscular human would possess.

Alim breathed out slowly as it became clear to him that this was a spar only in his own thoughts, in Carver's mind this was a hot-blooded fight between men. Though what brought it on, he could only guess.

He briefly entertained the notion that Carver was simply being an overprotective brother but given the way that he seemed to interact with his sister, he doubted that was the case. Though, never having had a sibling, he didn't think he would be able to tell one way or the other. Either way, he was now involved in a fight with naught but pride on the line with Hawke's beast of a brother.

After a moment of hesitation to collect their bearings, Carver took his sword in both hands attacked him again, stabbing at him with his wide blade as he sprinted towards the elf to lend his own impressive speed towards the strike, a bold gambit that ultimately proved a failure as Alim, now more confident in this conflict, once again utilized his superior agility by leaping into the air, though this time instead of summersaulting over Carver's head he spread his legs and landed on top of the flat of Carver's blade.

Carver moved his weapon, unable to bear his weight, and feeling his footing shift underneath him, he quickly leapt back towards his end of the ring and throwing the blunt end of his glaive at Carver's broad chest like a javelin, a gambit as risky as Carver's previous move, which also proved a failure as the large human deftly moved to the side.

'I understand now' he thought, finally able to make sense of this situation. 'He's got something to prove, it isn't that I slept with his sister. He's afraid, all of us are, but...' he looked around at the faces staring at the two combatants, mostly human, some dwarves and a few elves, and turned his eyes back to Carver.

'Sorry about this Carver, but I've got to end it now before this goes any further!' Were his thoughts as he dodged past a vertical swing of Carver's sword, seeming to make a move towards the hilt hooked to his belt, but instead brought his hands up to tightly grip Carver's bicep and wrist before hooking his left foot around Carver's ankle and pulled, causing the large human to trip before he struck the man's right wrist making him drop his greatsword as pain flared in his forearm.

"What the... What in the bloody hell was that!?" growled Carver after his head had impacted the arena's dirt floor in a futile attempt to cover up his bruised pride. "Mind your tongue, there are ladies present."

Both Marian and Jena, who were standing at opposite ends of the gathered crowd, clapped with the rest of the crowd and smiled at his chivalry. Though both of them had fouler vocabularies than the mild words used by Carver, but they appreciated the sentiment of his words if not the words themselves.

Carver growled and picked himself up and brushed himself off. He was a knight, or at least fancied himself as such, so held himself in check and simply grabbed his sword and held it against his shoulder in a non-aggressive posture. Alim, trying to put an end to any rivalry that might develop between them because of this fiasco, stepped closer to Carver and extended the proverbial olive branch in the form of his open hand.

Carver tightly gripped the elf's firm wrist and nodded in respect once before stepping out of the ring and retreating through the crowd. The strength and ferocity he had shown seemed to have earned him no small amount of respect, as those in his way simply moved to the side to give him room. Alim stepped out of the ring as well before turning to Marian who looked to be torn between staying and running after her brother. "I apologize for all this Hawke" he said, knowing how embarrassed she must be, he had felt the same when Leorah and Amaliah spent all those months passive aggressively glaring at each other.

"No, no, it's fine." She said, though he could tell it wasn't. He sighed, he knew how she felt, torn between two parties and unable to get through to... well, one of them. He just counted her lucky that she was torn between a lover and a sibling rather than two lovers... the situation wasn't quite as awkward and much easier to resolve.

Given time, that is. Time that they might not even have.

"Go to your brother Hawke, I should get back to the wardens, it is likely that they have some training or information for me about my new position." Marian looked pleased at his help with her personal issues, if a little disappointed that she couldn't spend more time with him.

He was once again surprised by the situation he found himself in. Even among all this danger and tension, there was family and relationship drama. Of course, it could be that people were trying to distance themselves from the darkspawn on their doorstep, seeking moments of levity in dark times, just as Master Irving had said. He was honestly a bit relieved by that, back when he had first looked up at the imposing walls of Ostagar, which now feels like so much longer than just yesterday morning, he had thought that all the people within would be just as grim.

Their hopes and will torn down by the specter of the Blight, but what he found was just the opposite. He never really engaged in small talk or gossip as most people did, but within these hallowed halls he had found very few of the solemn sentinels he had expected, rather almost everyone he had met was hopeful. Perhaps it was as Flemeth had said, that these people were underestimating the danger that the blight presented...

Or perhaps these people were just hopeful that they would defeat the enemy and return home to their families...

For all their sakes, he desperately hoped that it was the latter.

"Yes, I..." Marian said, hesitatingly, "I suppose I'll go do that then." "I hope you get through to him Marian" he said, thinking of his own family, wondering if they were even alive after what happened back then. He was conflicted on the matter of his cousin especially, on one hand he hoped that she was dead, at the Maker's side and free of all pain and suffering, but on the other hand he hoped she still lived so that he could reconnect with her.

When he was small, he had thought of her as a sister, he still did, and they were the best of friends. He could not imagine being rivals with your own sibling... for a brief moment he felt pity for Marian, but quickly reminded himself that not only would she not want his pity, but that there were those more deserving.

She rested her hand on his shoulder and pressed her rosy lips on his cheek in a chaste kiss, and when she pulled away, they smiled reassuringly at each other, silently wishing each other good luck in the present drama and the looming threat of the darkspawn. She turned and left the arena in the direction her brother stormed off in.

He sighed and turned to Jena, who gave him a sly smile before turning and heading in the direction of the grey warden's pavilion with a seductive sway to her hips.

Later that day, Alim found himself walking the misty marshlands of the Korkari Wilds again. He was right about what he should expect at the Gray Warden camp, on both accounts. They gave him a half empty journal which contained a section specifically for the different varieties of darkspawn he would surely face in the coming years, along with a great variety of spells invented by wardens which would be helpful in his campaign as a warden battlemage.

Concerningly, a decent amount of the arcane knowledge in the tome was blood magic.

The book itself was surprisingly ornate for a travel log, with intricate steel on the binding and edges of the book along with a clasp to keep it closed, with the warden insignia emblazoned on the blue leather in bright silver. It was moderately thick and enchanted to resist damage and wear.

As for the training he was to go through, there was a traditional training regimen he was to go through, but it was put on hold at the moment, as Duncan had sensed another darkspawn scouting party in the wilds. To compromise he was to eliminate them himself, with his trainers hanging back and watching, saying they would only interfere if his life was in danger.

Live combat against a party of darkspawn seemed a better training regimen for a warden recruit than whatever else he would be subjected to, though he really shouldn't question the wisdom of his superiors.

His attention was drawn to the left of his current path when he felt a steady pulse. He wondered if he wasn't already starting to sense them as Duncan said he would. Tightening his grip on his staff, he left the path in the direction the pulse came from, his racing heart comforted by the distant sounds of crunching of grass and sloshing of water, signs that the others were watching him still.

Soon he came upon a hill, on the other side of which he could feel the origins of the pulse. He crouched down low so he could creep over the hill without alerting them to his presence, though in his inexperience he forgot one very crucial fact. Grey Wardens could sense the darkspawn, but the same was true in reverse.

So, as he was creeping up the hill he was surprised when a hurlock alpha crested the hill in a full charge, greatsword and war axe at the ready and gold armor reflecting the dim, morning light. Surprised though he was, Alim instantly sprang to his feet.

He raised his staff before him and readied an arcane bolt. He had aimed for the eyes of the charging alpha, but in his panicked haste he wasn't able to pull off such a pinpoint casting and hit one of the hurlock archers to the left of it instead, and by happy coincidence it seemed to be the only long-range fighter that this particular scouting party had.

He managed to kill a few more before they crashed down upon him, three genlocks, four hurlocks, two shrieks, and a ghoul surprisingly enough. Before they crashed down upon him, he drew his sword. He ducked under a heavy swing by the alpha and, crouching low, thrust his sword into the pelvis of a hurlock, and letting go of the handle he twisted around, and grabbing the hilt once more, he pulled up on it, cutting cleanly through the monster vertically, the sword exited the monster's shoulder before he swung it down diagonally of front of him, opening a gash in the alpha's back, but not killing it, and bisecting a genlock next to it.

The alpha turned to skewer him with its greatsword, but was blown away and stunned by a blast of telekinetic energy. Alim inhaled deeply, grateful for the bit of breathing room the mind blast gained him. Sheathing his sword, he lifted his staff in both hands and cast a force field around himself before casting a crushing prison spell on himself, the two opposing spells clashing with each other and unleashing wide area shockwave spell. He had attempted to end the battle early as using the two highly taxing spells in conjunction started to weigh on his reserves.

A bright white-blue shield shimmered to life around him, appearing to onlookers as a thin glass barrier rising from the ground and completely encircling him, before a network of cracks formed on every inch of the barrier's surface, and then with a deafening shattering noise ethereal blue energy exploded outwards in every direction just as the darkspawn began to regain their bearings and charge at him once again the energy blew all the darkspawn in the area back, all but the strongest darkspawn falling to the ground never to rise as the explosion of spirit energy tore into their bodies.

While the hurlocks and the alpha were already starting to struggle to their feet, he grabbed his sword and started to run, forcing the surviving darkspawn to chase after him, enabling him to get to a more strategic position before having to deal with them. The smaller and lighter hurlocks caught up to him quickly and using the trees to his advantage to block a few of their wilder attacks, he was able to cut them down quickly before the alpha caught up to him, although it was slowed down somewhat by the gash in its back.

Ignoring the burning muscles in his arms and torso, he adjusted his grip on his staff and blocked the large axe blade with his glaive and parried the greatsword with his sword.

Pushing with his blade, he tried to keep the alpha occupied with his left side while he stuck the head of his glaive underneath the axe blade and tried to twist it out of the alpha's grip, but its strength proved too great. Leaping back out of range and dropping his staff and maneuvering it out of the way with his foot, bolts of spirit arced off his fingers and into the darkspawn.

Hulking through the weak magical bolts with its sheer bulk, the alpha drove itself toward him in slow staggering movements driven solely by rage, he was about to finish it off before he felt another pulse coming up rapidly from below him. Sidestepping, he barely managed to avoid being cleaved in half by a shriek, one far larger than the others he had seen, another alpha. With a loud screech that almost disoriented him, the shriek would've gutted him with one of its long claws if he hadn't thrusted his buttocks backwards and sucked in his belly.

Using another mind blast to give himself some more breathing room, weaker for want of his staff, he panted while thinking on his next move. He didn't have enough mana left to use another wide area attack, the list of techniques he could use with his sword was limited as his muscles were severely protesting any further movement, and because of the intense wind kicked up by his shockwave, there was nothing around him that he could use to gain himself an advantage.

He panicked when they began to charge at him again and used his remaining mana to create five blue spectral swords, slowly rotating around him. With a wave of his hand at the rapidly approaching darkspawn, they flew forward and honed-in on them. The hurlock, being the slower of the two, was impaled and killed while the shriek managed to evade them and continue rushing toward him. The shriek attacked him with a wild but flurry with its long claws, but he dropped to the ground and dodged between its legs before he picked up the hurlock's axe.

By the time the shriek alpha managed to turn around, he had already beheaded it in a heavy swing of the massive weapon. All of the darkspawn around him dead he stood there on high alert, waiting to feel another pulse besides the ones that told him the other wardens were in the tree fourteen feet away from him, panting heavily and waiting for his racing heart to calm down.

When the adrenaline stopped rushing through his veins, he suddenly felt the fatigue of all the fighting, dodging and spell use he had done in such quick succession come to a head, and his eyes rolled up into his head in a dead faint. Before everything went black though, he felt himself fall into someone's arms, and his last sight was bountiful dusky-skinned cleavage framed by blue cloth.

"Duncan..." said Warden-Constable Korith said as he stepped out of the tree line. Duncan nodded approvingly at their unconscious comrade and said "I know. It's just as expected." He smiled, looking down at the elf being cradled in Jena's arms as Desmond stood guard over them with his hand on the hilt of his arming sword.

Over the course of his time at the camp and in this test, their newest comrade showed no small amount of power, strength, determination, creativity and resourcefulness, honor and nobility of character. All the qualities he was looking for in a successor. Sadly, those qualities weren't easy to come by in a single person.

One of his main fears regarding this Blight was that he would perish without passing down leadership of the Ferelden wardens to someone he found worthy of the position.

'But now, I found the one.'

Bleary eyes opened to see the deep blue canvas the Grey Warden tent, he felt his head rested on a very comfortable pillow while he stared at blurry green fabric. He sighed as memories of how he came to be unconscious hit him, and surprisingly absent were the aches and pains of battle and the exhaustion he had been expecting was gone as well. He shifted his body slightly to see if there was any lingering pain, and he felt nothing.

Alim rose to a sitting position, hearing a sigh of disappointment from behind him. He turned around and, blinking the blurriness from his eyes, he saw none other than Jena in blue trousers and a black sleeveless undershirt. He looked down and saw that he was wearing the same thing, meaning that somebody had removed his armor... he blushed at the thought that Jena had done it... and that his 'pillow' had indeed been her lap. His blush deepened at the thought of him asleep with his head in her lap, her running her fingers through his hair.

He blinked in surprise when, upon meeting her eyes, she turned her head away shyly. He blinked in confusion, he had expected her to either say something lewd or joke about it, that's what she normally did in situations like this or any other... right? Of course, there was also the possibility that her flirtations were something he had dreamed up to stroke his ego... yes, that sounded probable. He was about to say something to her when he heard "hello again young Surana. Good to see you among the land of the living once again."

He turned his head to the direction the voice came from to see Senior Enchanter Wynne, and that the green fabric from earlier was her robe. She must have healed him in his sleep, it would explain why he didn't feel any lingering aches or pains... he was worried about that actually, he had always healed more quickly than some, but never quickly enough to be completely pain free after a short rest.

Wynne was one of the greatest mages Ferelden had ever seen, and most notable among her talents was healing. His pains and fatigue would have been a breeze for her to fix.

He stood from the bed he had been placed on and thanked her with a bow, one which she returned and promptly left for the mages pavilion in the King's Camp on the hill above. Just how many times had it been that she had healed him from his various misadventures, scrapes and training accidents... he had long lost count, he even had a bed reserved for him in the healer's ward.

He smiled slightly, amused at the thought of his antics as an apprentice.

He sat back down beside his fellow warden and folded his hands on top of his lap. "Has Hawke come by? I had thought she'd be here when I returned to camp."

She took him by surprise again when she spun around on the cot and put one arm around his back and the other on his shoulder, pressed her body flush against his. Surprising him was becoming all too easy for her to do, "she was here before, but a runner came by calling her to the wilds. Another darkspawn scouting party had been spotted and Captain Varel's company is being tasked with dealing with it."

Taking advantage of the downtime they were being given, they talked for a while, just the two of them.

It quickly became apparent that they had a lot in common. He talked about his time at the tower, and she told him about her home life with her adoptive parents. When he told her about Leorah, her eyes softened visibly, and she laid her head on top of his. She told him about her joining, and how it was a nightmare for her far worse than most wardens ever had to endure.

The rare darkspawn raiding party occasionally wandered to the surface, even in times when there was no blight. Such was the case with her, her village was destroyed, her adoptive family was slaughtered. When the darkspawn were finished with their killing, they dragged her and three other women with them down into the cave they came from. She survived off of cave mushrooms and nugs for two weeks as she was forced to watch what their tainted captors did to the others.

They would drag the first woman, Ursula, away for hours on end. Every time she came back, she was crying, bleeding and barely able to move. It was just after a few days when they left Ursula alone and started on the second woman, Diana. What they were doing to them was terrifyingly obvious as Ursula's body started to turn grey and expand. It was just when her turn came when Duncan came, killing the darkspawn in a whirlwind of cold steel and fiery eyes, and Ursula, Diana and Marsha fell that day as well, each of them begging to be struck down rather than be left to their cruel fates.

As the only one of the untainted women, Duncan took her with him when he left the deep roads. He was forced to tell her the truth of her captivity, and it was then, when she learned how they were born, that her hatred of darkspawn began.

"How are they born?" Whispered a pale Alim, almost too afraid to give voice to the question, and Jena, eyes glazed over with memories better left forgotten answered him "you must remember that the first darkspawn were human magisters, and there were no female magisters till hundreds of years later."

The implications of her statement chilled his spine and curdled his blood.

Far too angry to be led like a damsel in distress out of the caves, she picked up a darkspawn blade and carved her way to freedom alongside Duncan. Impressed by her skill and resolve, Duncan recruited her. When the senior wardens sent her and several other recruits into the deep roads for vials of blood, she took the blood of a broodmother, the creature she would have become had it not been for Duncan.

It has been seven years since.

"I... I don't know what to say." "Don't say anything then, the platitudes always end up sounding shallow and pretentious anyway." Jena leaned into him for comfort, and he put his arms around her tightly, trying to draw her away from her nightmares with his presence. He didn't know if it was working, but he wanted to try anyway.

He told her of his own nightmares, of being brutalized at a mere seven years of age, of seeing the woman he thought of as a mother becoming tranquil and barely even recognizing him the next day... of nearly drowning in a vat of dragon blood.

That part seemed to get her attention. "You are a reaver?" she asked in shock. "Yes," he answered, showing her his eyes. She watched in silence as the pupils of his eyes changed from round to slits and back before he began to laugh darkly. "I wonder how many people can say they nearly drowned in blood."

She didn't know what to think of this turn of events. Even if he didn't possess enough reaver qualities for it to outwardly show, the Chantry viewed reavers as being no better than practitioners of blood magic.

"They even went so far as to summon a dragonologist to the tower to study me, seeing that the dragon blood came from a male dragon that was, by all accounts, older than the Tevinter Imperium..." Alim laughed sardonically again at Jena's dumbstruck face.

Who wouldn't be, after all, the Imperium was well over five thousand years old. She counted in her head, the aging cycle of a dragon started out as dragonlings, newly hatched, and after a few decades they became either dragons or drakes, depending on their gender, and high dragons after a millenia... five thousand years, that would mean the blood came from a great dragon, ancient dragons that were, according to legend, capable of speech, high intelligence, even magic...

The legends of King Calenhad, the ones that placed him as a reaver, told of him drinking blood from a bound and prostrate great dragon with the aid of a powerful witch. According to those legends, the great dragon blood was so powerful, it remained strong in Calenhad's bloodline even now, four hundred years later. Whether or not anyone believed those legends was up for debate, and normally they were only generally accepted with any historical accuracy among the qunari.

"Wow, so how do I know you aren't just trying to impress me?" Jena leaned back with mirth in her eyes. "You could have just snuck off after hours and knocked back a vial of dragonling blood."

Her attempt at humor caught him off guard, and he couldn't help a chuckle at the thought.

"Yes, well the Knight Commander did always watch me a little closer than other mages because of it however."

Jena hummed in thought, while neither of their lives had been sunshine and roses, neither one necessarily had it easier than the other. But then again, people of caliber weren't built by happy lives, so maybe it evened out. She snorted and shook her head, unable to make sense of her own thoughts. She was thinking in circles again.

The two of them started laughing as the heavy talks had given way to light-hearted jokes.

(Lemon Warning)

Alim fiddled with a knife and a block of wood as he waited for Hawke to come back from the forest, too preoccupied to carve anything from it.

Jena sighed and lied her hand on top of his and rubbed the back of his smooth, pale hand with her thumb.

"Don't worry, Hawke's a big girl. I'm sure she's fine" she smiled at her elven companion as he gave her a softer smile, setting the block of wood and knife down with a nod.

He looked up at her and their eye's met. His violet eyes stared into her amber orbs, which stared back before she gently grasped the sides of his face and pulled him into a soft kiss. He made a noise of surprise before melting into her embrace, their eyes drifted closed before he wrapped his arms around her, his heart pounding against his ribcage as they deepened the kiss.

Without thinking and without hesitation, Alim thrust his tongue into her mouth and kissed her passionately, Jena hitched her breath in surprise before she sucked his tongue into her mouth and caressed it softly with her tongue.

They moaned delightedly at the feelings this caused in both of them, he was being far more passionate and gentler than she had expected, but still a bit rough which delighted her to no end. Losing himself more and more in the moment, he slipped his arms out of her loosened grip and cupped her face and cheeks almost delicately as his lips pressed more firmly against hers.

Alim's hands pressed into her firm back and pulled her a little harder into him as his kiss became more eager, each of them wanting to devour the other and when they finally pulled away to catch their breath, he flipped them over her so that she was flat on her back, and he was straddling her wide hips and the evidence of his lust was grinding against her body.

He lowered his face to hers again and kissed her furiously, his hands caressing her thick thighs sensually through her trousers. She groaned lustfully, she could feel his hard cock grinding against her wet cunt, hindered by their thick clothing. Her arms slid around his shoulders and idly played with his gorgeous hair. The unusual shade of his hair was a major source of fascination for her, she had never seen it before, and being able to play with it like this made an unfamiliar feeling bloom to life in her chest.

Breathing in deeply, Jena summoning the strength that seemed to have left her limbs and she shoved Alim back. Opening his eyes in the dim light, he saw that she had hurriedly pulled her top over her head and pulled away the bindings from her chest to show him her magnificent dusky skinned breasts, each capped with a circle of darker skin and a hardened nipple.

"Come here" She beckoned him in a husky voice.

Alim leapt forward eagerly, his hands hungrily cupping Jena's naked breasts while he kissed her neck and sucked her earlobe into his mouth. The dark-skinned woman groaned a shuddered in delight as his skilled tongue worked over her sensitive flesh. She inhaled sharply when Alim's hands squeezed a little harder than she was used to, his fingers digging into her soft skin in his desire to please his first human lover.

"You're so beautiful, Jena." Alim murmured lustfully into her ear in a deep growl, sending a tingling shiver up her spine.

Pulling one hand from her chest and sliding it slowly down her chest and stomach. The slow motions of his fingers over her smooth, muscled stomach made her shiver in anticipation.

His hand reached her trousers, and he undid the clasp before he started to lower the fabric down her hips, his fingertips grazing the front of her knickers. Jena's eyes widened at the sensations he made her feel when his fingertips grazed her clothed cunt, her arms tightened around his body and her legs stiffened as she moaned loudly.

Silently making the decision that she wasn't going to let him do all the work, she slowly worked up enough strength into her limp arms to flip him over onto his back. He was so lost in the moment that the expression on his face almost made her laugh.

She bent forward and kissed him, both of their lips were bruised at this point, evidence of their lust for each other. She pulled back and kissed his chest lightly, flicking her fingers over his nipples. She had heard that some men showed pleasure when their nipples were stimulated, and so it proved with him as he let out a low, shuddering moan.

She placed a series of small kisses down his chest and stomach, her fingertips tracing his lightly defined muscles before she dug her fingers into his trousers. Breathing in deeply, she tugged his trousers down his hips and thighs in one quick movement, his cock springing free of his strained clothes before her face.

She smiled widely at the sight of it, it was a decent length and width, certainly enough for her to have fun with.

"I'm willing to bet no one has ever done this for you before." She grinned wider at the expression he made, and before he could ask the obvious question, she took her large breasts in her hands and wrapped them tightly around his thick cock.

His eyes widening, he groaned lowly and arched his back.

"You like that?" She almost chuckled as a warm feeling bloomed in her chest at her ability to make him feel this way. He nodded to her wordlessly, and she started stroking his cock with her cleavage, the head only just peeking out of her chest when they rested against his thighs.

She bit her lip as she gave him a boob job, reading about this she never saw the point in doing this for someone. But hearing the noises he was making, knowing how she was making him feel made a warm feeling blossom in her chest.

After what felt like forever of pleasing him with her chest, she bent forward and licked the head of his cock and his hips jumped on the cot and his back arched in pleasure as he loudly groaned.

"Jena, I'm... I'm cumming!"

Feeling a brief moment of panic at his exclamation, she drew her head back and rubbed his cock faster with her breasts, his cock twitched several times inside of her cleavage, even seeming to get thicker before his hands gripped the sides of the cot tightly as a spurt of liquid erupted from the tip of his cock, quickly followed by several more before his cock seemed to deflate with a deep sigh.

Squeezing her breasts together and pulling them off of his cock, she briefly marveled at how odd the slimy, sticky fluid felt between her breasts as she scooted up the cot to rest beside her elf.

"See that?" She gestured towards her breasts, where his cum was leaking out of the bottom of her cleavage. "That's what we call an Antivan Milk Sandwich."

He looked at her chest for a moment, dumbstruck, before he blushed deeply and turned away, unable to help himself as his eyes remained glued to her chest. "Th-That's... stop!"

She couldn't help but giggle at how adorably shy he was being, even now. They heard some noises outside of the tent, and it occurred to them that they should be more concerned with something. Just like that, all at once everything came crashing down onto them, before the lust and the life affirming sex buried everything deep down again, and they were once more completely caught up in the moment.

Alim turned back to his human lover and kissed her again, the couple embracing each other passionately as they resumed grinding against each other on the bed. Alim remembered what he was doing before Jena took charge, and once more lowered his fingers to her trousers.

His fingertips grazed her cunt again, causing her to moan and arch her back against their embrace, one of his hands circled around her waist and found the small of her back before he lifted, allowing him to pull her trousers down over her firm, round ass. His heart pounded faster as his hand grazed the smooth flesh of her ass and thighs, his other hand pulling down her knickers before burying a finger deep inside of her cunt.

Jena's eyes widened at the new sensation of having something aside from her own fingers inside of her and she arched her back against Alim as a silent scream left her mouth. The elf panted heavily against her neck as he probed around inside of her wet tunnel with his finger before adding another finger, his cock throbbed against her thigh in anticipation of giving in and fucking her already.

"Fuck!" Jena dug her fingers into his back as he steadily drover her insane with his ministrations, and he had to admit a perverse pleasure at watching her squirm. Especially after she made him cum so quickly with her marvelous breasts.

He licked and sucked at her neck, enjoying how her chest heaved against his own as his tongue explored her dusky flesh, particularly how her breasts would shudder as he licked over her pulse point. "Oh fuck, I'm cumming!" She clung to him even tighter as her inner walls squeezed his fingers almost to a painful extent after he flicked her clit with his thumb.

He kissed her deeply once again after her convulsions left her weak and she collapsed on the cot. She moaned into the kiss as she wrapped one of her boneless arms around his neck and pulled him against her, gasping against his lips when his cock brushed against her overly sensitive cunt, she never had a proper partner before, so she was unprepared for how sensitive she would be after being played with.

He seemed to sense her discomfort and pulled his hips back, but she didn't want to wait anymore. Her heart was pounding against her ribs at everything they had already done, and despite her nerves she wanted to do even more with her elf.

She wrapped one long, shapely leg around hips and pulled him closer, her hand grasped his cock and lined him up with her eager cunt.

"G-Go ahead, I'm ready" Jena bit her lip nervously and stared into Alim's beautiful eyes as she begged him to go ahead and push inside of her, to become one with him.

"Jena" he panted heavily in lust, leaning in he kissed her passionately as he thrust his hips forwards perhaps faster than he should have, burying all of himself inside of her folds in one thrust. Something tore as his cock forced her inner walls wide open and he filled her completely, her eyes widened at the sensation of being filled as she squealed in pain and pleasure into the kiss.

In other circumstances he would be concerned at the pained noise she made, and in other circumstances she would be more worried at the slight tinge of pain she felt at being stretched so far, but as lost in the moment and in each other as they were they brushed it off and pushed ahead.

The kiss broke as he pumped his hips against hers, his cock pushing into her heavenly cunt again and again. The two lovers panted heavily and stared into one another's eyes intently, both determined to draw this out as long as possible and get as much pleasure out of this frenzied coupling as they possibly could.

Jena moaned in intense pleasure and clawed at his back as he tore away the last shred of her innocence and fucked her in his hurried, frenzied pace. Alim hissed in pain as her fingernails dug into his back, leaving angry red lines, the pain only adding force to his thrusts as he bit her shoulder.

She howled in pain and pleasure at his ministrations, feeling his teeth digging into her skin only made her mind race even more, all of this serving as a heady mix and driving her crazy. Everything and everyone else faded away, and only the two of them existed, and the only thing that mattered was the steadily climbing pleasure and pain driving them closer and closer to their peak.

After what felt like hours of wildly fucking and biting and clawing at each other, everything seemed to speed up and slow down all at once. The earth shook and the world exploded before everything went silent and still.

His senses slowly coming back to him, Alim stared wide eyed into Jena's amber eyes, breathing heavily as sweat dripped from his exhausted body. He didn't know how much time had passed or how many times he came into her cunt, he was only aware of her body beneath him, her arms tightly wrapped around his back and her legs crossed behind his waist.

Jena stared into Alim's violet eyes as she slowly came down from her euphoria. She didn't know how many times she came as she lie collapsed on the cot, her weak limbs entangled around her lover the only thing keeping her from lying there in a boneless heap.

Like a switch, they both realized at once how emptied out they were, how exhausted they were from their vigorous rutting. Wordlessly, Alim grabbed her thighs with shaking arms and unfolded them from where they were seemingly locked around his waist, and that was the signal their bodies seemingly needed, as they both collapsed onto the cot.

Neither of them knew what to say to one another after everything that transpired, so neither of them said anything.

Captain Varel looked out over the misty swampland stretched out before him, wishing he had asked for a warden to accompany them. Without their ability to sense out spawn, they were left in the dark about this scouting party.

The only clue they had been given to go on was 'south'. Not much to go on, but let it never be said that Third Company were anything less than the best, or that they would give less than their best.

Signaling Hawke to keep to his left flank and Thomas to keep to his right, the company marched south. The going was slow, and the soldiers tried to bury down their nerves as every sight and sound and smell of this bog only seemed to hamper their progress as each of them constantly expected the darkspawn to bear down on them from every shadow or knee-deep stretch of cloudy water.

From the middle of the formation Emelia whimpered as she longed for her warm bed in Amaranthine, she didn't want to die here in this cold, damp swamp.

Thomas thought he heard a twig snap somewhere to his left, and shakily pointing his crossbow in that direction he nudged the captain and started heading for the source of the sound. So focused was the company on outward threats, they failed to notice the threat at their center.

Emelia took a step, and her foot sank deeper than usual and before she knew her body was flung into the air, completely entangled in cruel, razor wires. Gripped by panic and only able to stare at the at her captain, she didn't even have time to scream before the wires contracted around her body and she was shredded into bloody viscera.

Hawke's stared in shock as her comrade fell to back to the ground in bloody chunks, and before any of them could react a large body exploded from a green pool and brought a massive maul down on Thomas, a brief cry of terror echoed in the eerie silence before the sound of crunching bone and armor.

In less than ten seconds, one of their number had been turned into ribbons of flesh, and a second was reduced to a smear on the ground as the remaining members of third company were embroiled in chaotic battle with the darkspawn ambush.

Captain Varel barely got his greatsword up in time to block the strike of a claymore, twisting his blade skillfully he was able to behead the genlock without hesitation. His blood boiling in his veins at the anger and rage he felt towards the spawn for taking two of his precious soldiers away from him. Warren fought at his back, not letting any of the monsters get a strike at the captain from behind, sheathing one of his twin short blades he removed a fire grenade from his belt and threw them into the rush of darkspawn bodies.

The explosion and rush of heat swept over Hawke, standing away from the rest of the company were gathered together as she needed room to maneuver her swordstaff around her body. Her polearm's long blade sliced cleanly through darkspawn limbs and severed heads as the caged gemstone on the weapon's end melted through darkspawn armor with enchanted flames.

As fiercely as they fought though, third company was picked off one by one. Alaric, Clarke, Armond, Willis, Amelia, Jaune and Adelaide all fell in turn, leaving only Hawke, Warren and Captain Varrel.

Most of the scouting party had been killed, and the remainder of third company fought desperately, wanting nothing more than for just one of their number to survive to deliver a message back to the camp.

The enemy was at their doorstep.