Jack hefted her favorite shotgun as she waited for Alistair to talk to the guard. She'd turned on her warp ammo just in case although she didn't expect to meet anything besides hostile wildlife. Daveth and Jory, Daveth in particular, couldn't stop staring at Jack. For Daveth, she was sure he was simply staring at her lack of clothes. Jory was probably staring because he'd never seen the weapon she was wielding. Jack ignored them. They weren't why she was here. They might even get in her way.
Finally, Alistair beckoned them to follow and they entered the Korcari Wilds. Jack looked around, taking in the scenery as they walked. It'd been a long time since she'd seen a place without the evidence of buildings or civilization. The area felt oddly empty without them.
A long howl broke her musings.
"Wolves!" Alistair shouted, drawing his sword and shield.
As she watched, a stream of wolves turned the corner, all of them baring their teeth. Jack ran forward, pushing Alistair out of the way as she let loose a shockwave. Her biotic attack knocked most of wolves away, their bodies smashing back into the ground. More wolves turned the corner. She tagged them as they came, careful to avoid Jory and Alistair as they cut down the ones she missed or couldn't get to.
Alistair cut down the last one and turned to Jack. "What was that purple…wave thing you did earlier?"
"Biotics," Jack answered, shrugging. She noticed all the blank stares. "I mean magic," she amended in an exasperated tone.
"Not any magic I've ever seen…" Alistair replied slowly. He looked at her suspiciously.
Jack glared back. "Look, just don't worry about it. I'm not going to stab you in the back. Can we move on?"
After another moment, Alistair backed down and they continued on their way. They didn't' get far before they came across the aftermath of a battle. Body parts and swaths of blood were splattered all over the ground and vegetation. As they neared, a wounded man reached out to them. "Help, I need to get back…"
"I've got bandages in my pack. It should patch you up enough to allow you to get back to Ostagar."
As Alistair bent down to tend to the man's wounds, Jack asked, "Do we really have time for this?"
"And where are you going in such a hurry? We've got time to at least bandage him."
Jack decided not to argue further. She wasn't in charge and her time with Shepard had honed her willingness to follow. Her first encounter with the darkspawn was invigorating. Jack hadn't been able to kill anything sentient since they had finished the suicide mission. She could still feel the tingle of phantom narcotics with each kill. The darkspawn were similar to the husks, only more intelligent and organized. They also reeked of carrion. Regardless, they died when she shot them and when she threw them with her biotics. She almost couldn't tell why people were so afraid of assassins caught Jack off guard and that was the one time Alistair needed to save her. She still resented him for that.
She resented Daveth even more because he was the one to spot the flower first. This was her mission; not his. She should have seen the flower. Jack scowled at Daveth when he presented her with the flower, but otherwise made no other sign that she was angry.
Finally they reached the place where the Grey Warden treaties were supposed to be. As the group neared, Jack noticed that the chest had been cracked open. "Looks like someone else beat us to it," she commented as Alistair bent down to inspect the chest.
"This can't be right, it's magically protected!"
"Well, well, what have we here?"
Jack jerked around, her body glowing purple with biotics. A scantily dressed, but not as scantily as Jack, woman with ebony hair sauntered down a nearby ramp. "Are you a vulture, I wonder? A scavenger poking amidst a corpse whose bones were long since cleaned. Or merely an intruder coming to these darkspawn-filled wilds of mine in search of easy prey? What say you, scavenger or intruder?"
"We're here to get what belongs to us: the Grey Warden treaties," Alistair answered carefully. Then he whispered to Jack, "She looks Chasind. That means others must be nearby."
The woman laughed. "This tower has long since been abandoned. And your fear of having barbarians swoop down upon you is misplaced."
"Yes…swooping is bad…"
"She's the Witch of the Wild she is! She'll turn us into toads," Daveth exclaimed.
Jack cast Daveth a disbelieving look, but kept her mouth shut.
"Witch of the Wilds, such idle fancies those legends. Have you no minds of your own? You there, women are not frightened little boys. Tell me your name and I shall tell you mine."
Jack crossed her arms. "What the fuck do I care? I'm just here to save a dog. If you don't have what we want then get the fuck out of here."
The woman looked aghast at Jack's attitude, but recovered a little. "All right then, I shall not tell you mine either. I take it you are looking for the treaties that are no longer here."
"Probably because you stole them. You're some kind of sneaky…witch thief!" Alistair struggled.
Jack grumbled with frustration. This was getting them nowhere. Calmly, she biotically pulled Morrigan towards her. She chuckled as she watched Morrigan float up and sail serenely across the space between them. Suddenly a gigantic spider thudded to the ground where Morrigan should have ended up. Jack had barely enough time to throw up her arms as a hasty protection between them before she was forced onto the ground by the spider's weight. The spider tried vainly to use her four-pronged mouth to snap Jack's neck but her arms and barrier managed to hold her off momentarily. The spider gave up trying to get at Jack's neck and instead stabbed her through the shoulder using one of her legs. Jack's barriers were already weakened by Morrigan's assault on her neck and the leg slid disgustingly smoothly into her shoulder. Cursing the fact that they needed this woman and the fact she had just stabbedher, Jack pulled back her fist and slammed it into the creature's jaw, using minimal biotics. There was a loud crack and then the spider's squeal of pain.
With room to maneuver, Jack used her biotics to throw Morrigan a fair distance away. Getting to her feet, Jack pulled out her pistol just as Morrigan was about to launch herself at her again. Jack squeezed off one shot. The bullet tore through the spider's carapace and exited out the back of her shoulder. The same shoulder Jack had been stabbed in, at least relative to a spider. With a final shriek, the spider disappeared and a wounded Morrigan took its place.
Jack kept the gun aimed at Morrigan. "Now that you know what the fuck my gun can do, give us the fucking treaties. I am not in a good mood since you just fucking stabbed me so you better answer quickly, bitch."
Morrigan cast a healing spell for her arm and her jaw. Panting, she replied, "I will not because t'was not I the one who removed them."
"Then who?" Alistair, who miraculously was not hurt, interjected.
"T'was my mother…"
"Then what the fuck were you waiting for? A fucking invitation? Take us to her!" Jack yelled. She wanted to get back to the Ostagar as soon as possible and have time to apply some medi-gel for her arm.
Morrigan shot Jack a menacing glare. "Come with me." She waved her hand, signaling for the group to follow her.
Jack didn't listen to Alistair talk to Flemeth. The biotic was actually surprised she had paid attention long enough to catch the crone's name. To make up for it, she shut out their conversation and focused on the wild flower she—Daveth, she admitted grudgingly—had found. She ran her fingers over the smooth petals and stared deep into its red center. When they were walking around the Wilds, she had thought she saw another flower, but hadn't been sure. Darkspawn had attacked before she could inspect the flora. All she could do now was hope that one flower would be enough. She cast a swift glance at her shoulder. It was mostly healed. A pack of medi-gel had done wonders to the hole.
"Jack, Morrigan's going to lead us back to camp," Alistair informed her after he tapped her shoulder.
"About fucking time…" Jack grumbled, massaging her shoulder.