Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Age or any of its related characters. This is just for my own enjoyment and the potential enjoyment of other fans like me, and no monetary gain was expected or received.

Rating: T

Spoilers: May contain spoilers for Origins, Origins DLC, Awakening, and Dragon Age II, Dragon Age II DLC, Dragon Age Inquisition as well as the novels The Stolen Throne and The Calling.

Chapter Three

The Warden was surly in the morning. She was bright and cheerful with everyone else as usual, but refused to speak to Loghain and turned up her nose to him. He knew he would probably have to find a way to apologize in order to make things run smoothly again. He hadn't done anything wrong exactly, but he supposed he had been a bit hard on her about it.

Before they broke camp he caught her away from the others. She didn't want to talk. She tried to push past him back to camp, so he caught her by the shoulders and held her. "I don't want to talk to you," she said.

"Too bad, because I want to talk to you," he said. "I want to tell you I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said what I said last night. I was unnecessarily harsh, as usual. The truth is, your… 'attentions'… disturb me. I don't know how to react to them. I don't understand what a lovely young woman like you would want with an ugly old man like me. So I lash out against them, but I should have handled it differently."

She grinned. "Does that mean I stand a chance?"

He shook his head. "I didn't say that, I just said that I should have shown more regard for your feelings."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Couslands never surrender, you know…"

"Oh? I seem to recall the name Elethia…"

Her eyes widened and she gasped. "Oh! And I suppose you would have held out against Calenhad, eh?"

"I don't see why not. I held out numerous times against his however-many-times Great-Grandsons Maric and Cailan. Granted, holding out against Cailan wasn't any great feat, ordinarily."

"So Mac Tirs never, ever surrender, right?"

"They never have yet."

"Well, no matter what the Couslands themselves may or may not do, the Cousland Barbarian never… ever… surrenders." She put her hands on his shoulders and rubbed herself against him. He pushed her away fairly gently.

"My dear, I believe, if you search your feelings, you'll find that you're looking for less of a lover in me than a replacement father."

"What?"

"Think about it for a moment and you'll see. Your parents are dead, you're thrown headfirst into a frightening situation in which you must take leadership for the first time in your life. You don't want a lover, you want your father."

She slapped him. "What kind of relationship do you think I had with my father?" she said, eyes flashing.

"That's not what I meant, and you know it," he said, not reacting to the slap. "Come now, can you really look at me and say that you find me attractive? I'm two years older than your own father and I haven't slept in a few years."

She grinned again and ran her tongue across her lips. "But you're built like a Great Bear, and I want you to maul me."

He closed his eyes and clicked his tongue. "You truly are a wretched harpy, aren't you?" he said.

"Come on, there's a lot that's attractive about you," she said. "You've got that rugged, ragged, serious thing going on, and those eyes of yours give me the shivers. Plus, you're an actual man, and that seems to be a rare quality these days. I haven't had the chance to sleep with an actual man in my entire debut. Noblemen, common-born men, it doesn't matter - if they're anywhere near my own age, they seem to be nowhere near my own age. Noblemen particularly."

"That much, I can see. But I don't understand jumping straight from there to a fifty-four year old man. There's a lot in between. You can do a lot better."

"Better than the greatest hero Ferelden has ever produced? I don't think so."

"You certainly are stubborn."

"Coming from you, I take that as a compliment," she said brightly.

"Look. Let's just be… friends, all right?"

"Friends? You would… be friends with me?" she said, eyeing him cautiously.

"I suppose I would."

She smiled. "That seems like a good place to start. Let's be friends, then." She held out a hand to him and he shook it.

"No hard feelings, then, for locking you up in my dungeon?" he said, half-humorously.

"Oh no, I've got hard feelings. But I'm willing to set them aside for the greater good. And for getting wedged in under that shell of yours so I can win you for my own," she said, still smiling brightly.

He drew in a deep breath and cleared his throat, but left the subject lie. "We'd better get back to the others. They'll be wondering where we are by now, and making up lurid stories about us."

"Not so lurid as the ones I'm making up," she said in a sing-song voice, and preceded him back to the camp.

They headed deeper into the Brecilian that day, until Loghain jumped off his horse around midday and checked the ground, squatting and seeming to sniff like a hunting dog checking a scent. "Tracks," he said at last. "A few days old, but better than nothing. They're heading this way," he said, with a nod of the head to the east.

"If the tracks are a few days old, we'll never catch up to them," Alistair said.

"Possible, except for one thing: Dalish put down in one area and make camp for a number of days at a time," Loghain said. "They might not do that at this time, what with the darkspawn and all, but these tracks are heading away from the darkspawn concentrations. I think we've got a better than even chance of catching up with them. Especially if we stop talking and start walking."

"What if you don't find any more tracks? We'll just head east randomly and miss them entirely," Alistair said.

"We'll find 'em," Loghain said. "I've got their trail now, and we've got dogs."

"Dogs with nothing to catch scent of," Alistair said.

"Quiet, Serrah Negative."

Alistair's worries came to naught, as apparently Loghain's hunting skills were as good as he claimed. They kept finding signs of the Dalish passage, at least according to Loghain, and two days later Leliana asked how they would know they had found the Dalish themselves.

"I have heard they are very secretive in their campsites, almost like they are invisible," she said.

"Well, I can't speak to that, but we won't find them anyway," Loghain said.

"What?" Alistair said. "After all this, you say now that we won't find them?"

"We won't. They'll find us. They're probably watching right now. Hopefully they'll talk to us instead of simply filling us full of arrows. The size of our group may well be working against us on that."

"So they are invisible," Leliana said, and leaned forward in her saddle in excitement.

"Probably not," Loghain said. "They are, however, excellent woodsmen, which works out about the same. If you really look close, you might see their eyes glitter, but they stay at a distance at first so that very thing doesn't happen. The first you know of them, you're looking down the bolt of a very large arrow pointed straight at your face."

"Even when you're as good a woodsman as you?" the Warden said.

"I don't spend as much time in the wilderness as the Dalish do. That said, it's past time to be wary. They're definitely close by."

"How do you know?" Alistair said. "You just said you don't know."

"Because their tracks are fresh here, and are simply footprints, meaning that they're probably camped somewhere nearby," Loghain patiently explained. "They've got to know we're in the area by now. They'll do one of two things - watch us, and probably try to drive us away, or they'll leave the area themselves and try to lose us again. The latter is unlikely as it will take them awhile to pack up and move."

"If they're such great woodsmen, they've probably known we've been tracking them for some time now," Alistair said.

"What with the bickering and the constant bellyaching, we haven't been particularly stealthy, that is true," Loghain said. "But I think they've had their own worries. There's a lot of other tracks around about, heading straight for them. I think they may have been attacked by some sort of large animal I am unfamiliar with. They're likely to be more edgy than normal, even."

"What kind of large animal?" Sten said, urging his horse forward. Loghain gave him a look.

"As I already said, I am uncertain. By its tracks, however, it appears to be some sort of giant wolf-like creature. Strange, though. The tracks left by the hind paws are far more distinct than those left by the front paws, as though they were tracking about only on their hindlegs, maybe using their forelegs only for balance, or to gain a bit more speed and traction."

The Warden looked at him wide-eyed. "Do you think it could have been… werewolves?" she asked. "I remember learning of the lycanthrope plagues during my studies…"

"That was a long time ago. I haven't heard tell of any werewolf problems since then, but if any place still had werewolves, I suppose it would be the Brecilian," Loghain said. "Why the Dalish would suddenly start having troubles with them after so long I don't know, but perhaps it's part of the general upset of the forest itself. Maybe restless spirits possessed a pack of wolves and transformed them, and they found the Dalish by accident, just looking for any prey."

"Not by accident," a new voice said. Loghain turned his head slowly to look at the very large bow pointed directly at him and nodded his head calmly. "They came for us deliberately. You know much, but not enough, shemlen. I believe I recognize you - you are the big one that stands as the leader of the small village we sometimes trade in to the south of here, are you not?"

"Gwaren. Yes," Loghain said.

The woman holding the bow nodded her head but did not lessen the tension on her bowstring. "Why do you come here now looking for us, leading this pack of warriors? We have never done anything to you and yours."

"We come in escort to a pair of Grey Wardens - all the Grey Wardens Ferelden now boasts. They wish to speak to your people. The rest of us are just along to make sure they survive the trip."

The tension on the bowstring relaxed a fraction. "You don't put much faith in your Grey Wardens," she said.

"We have a long journey to go from here," Loghain said, "and a lot of people just up and volunteered to come along."

She lowered the bow and gestured to her fellow hunters around them. "Very well. I will take you to our Keeper so that your so-called 'Wardens' may speak with him themselves, but only because you have treated us fairly up until now. If you are playing us, we will kill you faster than you can think. We have no time for shemlen games."

"Real live Dalish," Shianni whispered to Tabris as they were led to the hidden camp. "You know, I half believed they were just a legend."

"Me too," he said. "Not very friendly, though, are they?"

"It would be different if we weren't here with so many humans, I'd bet."

The Dalish woman led them into the camp and straight to a fairly tall elven man in flowing robes. He was bald-headed and he carried a staff. At the sight of him, Loghain seemed to deflate somehow. "Ah," he said. "Zathrien. Long time no see."

"Loghain Mac Tir," Zathrien said in return. It sounded less like a greeting than an accusation. "Why have you brought these people here, Mythra?"

"They claim to have among their number two Grey Wardens who wish to speak with you, Keeper," the Dalish woman said, inclining her head to her Keeper. "I thought I had best to leave the matter in your hands."

"Grey Wardens? Then you have done well. Ma serannas, Mythra. I will take it from here."

Mythra bowed, and she and the hunters left, with the party's horses. Zathrien turned back to the humans and their elven companions. "Which of you are the Grey Wardens?" he said.

Elilia stepped forward, dragging Alistair with her. "We are," she said. She executed a formal bow. Zathrien nodded politely.

"I suppose then you have come to warn us of the darkspawn massing to the south. We are already aware of it. Indeed, we would have left for the north already, except that we have had… problems of our own."

"We know. Our friend Loghain saw the tracks. You've been attacked by animals."

"By monsters," Zathrien said. "Werewolves, to be precise. We've always known this forest harbored their ilk, but they've always left our caravans alone. Now they've attacked, and many of our hunters were slain or injured. Many were turned, and had to be killed. Many more are ill, just awaiting the curse to show. As you can see, we may not be able to stand by the ancient treaty we signed with your Order."

"What can be done for your people?" the Warden asked, all concern and all genuine. Loghain saw this and sighed, knowing it would be this way all along the journey - jumping through every hoop they were presented with, because as much as he knew Zathrien hated humans, he knew also that Zathrien would have a plan to save his people, and he wouldn't pass up their assistance. No one else would, either.

"I have sent a group of hunters into the forest to retrieve the heart of a great wolf, Witherfang, the leader of the werewolves," Zathrien said. "It is from him that this curse was brought. It from his heart that the cure can be derived. However… it has been some time, and we have had no word from them."

"Well, we can find this Witherfang, can't we?" the Warden said, looking around earnestly at her companions. "We're more than strong enough to take on werewolves."

"I assure you, Warden, werewolves are a dangerous foe," Zathrien said. "The forest itself is dangerous enough, and nearest their lair, it is quite angry."

"I think we should listen to the man," Alistair said. "Werewolves are scary, and they pass that scariness on when they bite or claw. Sounds like something we should really stay away from, and these elves really aren't in any condition to fight darkspawn."

"Come on, everyone, this is a good test for us!" the Warden said. "If we can take care of werewolves, we can handle anything! Darkspawn will be a cinch! The Archdemon had better look out!"

Loghain sighed again. "If this is what you want to do, Warden, then we'll follow you."

"You, taking orders, Loghain? This is new," Zathrien said, with a thin, slightly unpleasant smile and a raised eyebrow.

"It's her expedition," Loghain said. "I'm merely along for the ride."