Bodies pressed in all around her. Fetid creatures covered in ragged leather and rusted metal. They were all clamoring together, a mass of nasty flesh and raised weapons, roaring and shifting with battle lust. Where was she? Her mind felt sticky, thoughts stuck together and weren't clear. She couldn't focus, couldn't… control. No control.

Crush them, eat them.

The horde clawed over each other, enthralled by something that was felt rather than seen. Power. It was poured through her, like a rush of hot water dumped over her head. Her hands? Yes. Her dark hands reached out to push others away, wanting to be closer. A beating sound, she roared in response. A great cry went up, and then it was upon her, above her. A bridge. There. She struggled to reach up an impossible height to touch her god, his tattered leathery wings batting winds down over them all. Hunger. It was eating her alive.

Break them, slay them.

His head rose, emptying a bellow and she lost her mind; could feel nothing, sense nothing, everything was gone except hunger. She needed energy. Power. The hunger…

---

The feeling of warmth and wet against her hand over and over finally stirred her. Slowly her mind returned, aching horribly, and she sat up slowly in her bedroll to see the dog watching her worriedly.

"Bad dreams, huh?"

Her hand rose to rub her forehead as she groaned. The sound of Alistair's voice was too loud, making the throbbing in her skull worsen. Hissing with the pain, Rachna sat and cradled her head for awhile, not speaking until the ache ebbed somewhat.

"Unh, dream? It seemed so real…"

Squinting, the light of the fire still too bright, she watched him pluck a blade of grass and examine it for a moment.

"Well, it is real. Sort of."

He tossed the blade of grass away and looked at her seriously.

"You see, part of being a Grey Warden is being able to hear the darkspawn. That's what your dream was, hearing them."

Her face must have betrayed the horror she felt, because his brows drew together in concern. Alistair ran a hand through his hair, looking like he was trying to find the right words.

"The archdemon it… "talks" to the horde, and we feel it just as they do. That's why we know this is really a Blight."

This was too much. So, on top of everything else, she was going to dream of demons and hear voices? Seriously? Her skin shuddered involuntarily as she thought of the gyrating mass of bodies that had pressed against her, the… creature. The thing that had turned her blood to fire and…

"That dragon is the archdemon?"

"I don't know if it's really a dragon, but it sure looks like one. But yes, that's the archdemon."

Shaking her head to herself, she pushed the cloth away, freeing her legs. This was so unreal. Maybe she got knocked around harder than she thought. She could hear Alistair move then, though she didn't look up. He sighed and continued to try and explain.

"It takes a bit… but eventually you can learn to block the dreams out. Some of the older Grey Wardens say they can understand the archdemon a bit, but I sure can't."

Her stomach heaved suddenly, and she thought for sure she was going to be sick. Did that mean Alistair didn't 'hear' what she did? Those feelings, the hunger. Fingers clenched into fists, and then released, over and over. It was almost like she was trying to get a grasp on her sanity. Suddenly she was sitting in shadow, her head inclined slowly and she was looking way up to see Alistair staring down at her, confusion and concern clouding his features.

"…Anyhow… when I heard you… thrashing around, I thought I should tell you. It was scary at first for me too."

"Any other surprises I should know about by chance?"

Was that her voice? It sounded so torn up and scratchy. Had she been screaming in her sleep?

"Other than dying young and the whole defeat-the-Blight-alone thing? No, I'm all tapped out for surprises."

"Thank the Stone."

Her arm was nudged and she looked to see the dog nosing her, ears flat and body slouched. He whined piteously, only stopping once she deigned to pet him.

"He's been with you since you started crying out for him in your sleep. Hey, you never told me you picked a name for him either. Was this last night or something? Crush, huh? Interesting. It suits him, I suppose."

What?

"I cried out in my sleep?"

Rachna was mortified. Rica had told her she snored once, but nothing about sleep talking. Was it taint-induced? What the hell was happening to her? Alistair crouched next to the hound and scratched his back, obviously avoiding looking into her face for one reason or another.

"Mostly nonsense; mumblings. You kept repeating 'crush' over and over again. Must have been pretty bad, if you were calling out for the dog."

She needed to be alone; this was just too overwhelming. Thoughts were swirling around too fast for her to make sense of them, she felt nauseous and shaken. Not only had she heard the archdemon, she felt him. She still felt him. Maybe she was overly tainted? Was such a thing possible? Sucking air hard, she tried to calm down, to soothe her frayed nerves. This was completely unlike her, to be panicking. It had just been a bad dream, right? Like when you drank too much ale and food that didn't agree with you. It was just a bad dream that had a little bit of help is all. What would Leske say if he saw her like this? Probably something like, 'What's wrong with you, Duster? Shake it off; it's just a sodding dream.' That sounded about right.

"-you alright?"

She hadn't noticed that he was talking to her at first. Glancing up, she raised a hand to wave it off, trying to dismiss his concern.

"Fine. Just need a moment."

Groaning, she got to her feet and stretched, already feeling better the more she moved her body. The further she felt from that body she'd 'borrowed' in the dream, the less nauseous she felt. A bit more settled, she could see that Sten was already up, though dawn still hadn't officially broken. How long had she slept? The fire was dying, which suggested a handful of hours at least. She breathed deeply, exhaling slowly after holding her breath as long as she could. There, she was ready.

"Well, you're up now right? Let's pull up camp and get a move on."

She faced Alistair and nodded, eager to be on their way.