The thaig was drenched in darkspawn blood and segmented body parts as the first of the wardens opened their eyes to the roaring, shrieking fire that was a living ogre, his flesh being consumed as he tried to fight a golem of lava. Cormack sat on a small rise and laughed joyously as he watched no less than fifty giant spiders set upon a line of darkspawn battle mages. The mages shielded themselves against their attackers in force globes.

Cormack smiled at the round, glowing ball, then stared at the sheilded mage.

The mage looked to the child.

Cormack's eyes glowed, flashed gold, and the mage crushed itself within it's own prism, and within minutes Cormack made himself a new collection; he soon collected all of the battle mages - as marbles.

"Cormack," Aeden said softly, "is that necessary?," he asked and pointed at the Ogre and the golem.

"No daddy, it didn't like my friend the spider, so I gave it a new friend to play with," he said happily.

"A lava golem?"

"Yeah! Pretty... right?"

"Hey!," Ogrhen shouted, "who turned on the sodding lights? I got a monster headache! Oh, the godling, should have guessed. BURP! Morning Gormack."

"Cormack! you ignorant pile of Nug shit!," the Elf shouted and hugged the boy, "and what a good little fella you are preparing breakfast for everyone, look everybody! Grilled Ogre!"

"It's tainted." the dwarf recruit stated flatly and stretched out, indifferent to the agony the Ogre was in.

"So are we," Nathaniel said, and prepped an arrow in his quiver.

"Save it," Morrigan said and kissed her son, "It should have known better."

"Look mommy, more marbles," Cormack said happily as the battle mage marbles rolled up to the boy's hand.

"Beautiful darling," she shouted joyfully, "aren't they daddy?"

"Beautiful isn't the word," Aeden cheered, and lifted his son to his face, "how long have you been up?" he asked his son.

"Not long, my new friends woke me up."

"When did they show up Cormack?," Bethany asked sweetly.

"A little while ago... I haven't played with them for long, they break too easy."

"How many were there?," A legion of the dead dwarf asked carefully.

"LOTS," Cormack said bluntly, with a happy grin.

"Yeah," a second dwarf added, his face pale, and gestured over a hill to the open arena of the thaig, "A real lots."

The space was filled to the tops of the surrounding dwellings with the dismembered bodies of the previous inhabitants: thousands of dead - eviscerated - Darkspawn.

"They tried a sneak attack as we slept," the dwarf surmised, "Then... they gutted each other," he choked back his bile, and gestured to the entrails hanging from the darkspawn blades.

"Cormack?," Aeden said gently.

"Yes daddy?"

"Did you watch your friends "play' with each other?"

"No daddy, I was playing with the big fellow, he didn't like playing with the spiders, so I made him a new friend, the glowing one."

"Thank the Maker," Aeden sighed in relief, turned to Morrigan, and mouthed the words, 'it's bad.'

Morrigan looked over the rise, smiled, then covered her mouth against her gag impulse, then turned to her son, beaming with pride, "Darling?"

"Yes mommy?"

"Tell the 'glowing one' to clean the thaig. My very good boy," she sighed hugged, and covered her son's smiling face in kisses.

"Ok mommy," the boy laughed, then gazed at his creation. The huge molten creature walked over the rise. Within moments, the air filled with the strangely sweet smell of roasted flesh, and the snap and pop as broiled organs exploded inside the bodies, the flames lit the thaig and the surrounding caves for miles.