Diana met up the Wardens, the king and the small group of guards the next morning with Zevran by her side. She felt glad, something she hadn't felt for a long time. Last night had been wonderful, everything forgiven and she now knew the truth why he had been acting the way he did. And he wouldn't leave for Antiva he promised. She wanted to believe that, and that nothing would actually ruin this for the moment. Not now. Right now she just wanted to remain a bit happy with him.
Zevran had also placed his earring back in her ear, and been calling her his emerald now during the night.
So yes, she felt wonderful. Alistair looked a bit shocked when he saw them coming together. He didn't make any comments though. And now she had to focus on the attacks, a small part of reality.
"Hey, Zevran." Alistair waved his hand.
Zevran bowed.
"I'm so delighted to get such a satisfactory welcome from the beloved king!"
Alistair just frowned and looked at Diana.
"Diana, I would have hoped you came to your senses now. You are not going are you?" The king had a very hopeful tone in his voice.
She shook her head and he groaned.
"You do know, you can come with us. It will be fun!" She clapped her hands together and jumped like a five year old.
He raised his eyebrows.
"Riiiiiight." He looked at Zevran, "Did you give her something?"
"Me? But my king, I feel offended! I don't resort to poisons for everything you know." He said in a fake hurt voice.
David stepped in front of Diana and snarled, "Who are you?" He looked very disapprovingly at the elf.
"He's a friend." Diana said through gritted teeth. The happiness she felt was gone by his tone.
David looked at her and snorted. "You are a friend with an elf?"
"Yes, what's the problem with that?" She turned to face him, daring him to answer.
"My problem is that he is not a warden. He has no business here with you." He was about to say something else but chose to keep silent as he saw Diana's eyes flash with anger.
"I can handle my own business, thank you very much! And believe me, you will want a man like Zevran guarding your back. He was with us during the Blight."
"I'm more in the mood to stab something in his back, but alas, I guess my private fun has to wait." Zevran whispered in her ear, very low. She held back a giggle.
The commander sighed, "Fine. He better be useful." Diana really wanted to wipe of that judging look of his face, as he left and walked to the king and talked about something.
"So your leader is a racist hm?" Zevran had a sharp tone.
"I always get blessed with the worst idiots imaginable." She said sarcastically.
They went to the armor room, and she found her warden armor glistening on its stand with its daggers. Zevran helped buckling it on.
"I still think it's a bad idea, you should not do this. You should be resting like any pregnant woman."
"Ah, but I'm not like any other woman." She pointed out, putting on the belt and attached healing potions on it. The armor felt heavy on her shoulders, she wasn't used to it.
"When was the last time you sparred?" The elf asked as he handed her the daggers.
She shrugged her shoulders. "The archdemon I would guess."
"Even more the reason why you should not go."
"It will be fine." She said with a angry tone. Zevran walked around and faced her.
"I will never forgive myself if you come to harm." His amber eyes staring into her deep green ones with concern.
"I won't. Please, this is my choice." She said.
He looked at her and simply nodded and they walked out and met up with the group. She waved Alistair goodbye fast, so he wouldn't try to change her decision, before they headed out the city.
They arrived at Dragon's Peak late in the evening the next day and set up a camp. Diana had spotted a little stream of water leading to a river. She longed to be clean again and took clean trousers and blouse with her. Zevran stood up, but she just shook her head. She wanted to be alone. It wasn't far from the camp and she would be quick, and would be more comfortable to wash herself alone.
She took of her armor and the tunic under it and looked down her body. Still in the middle of the second month, she wondered how long it would take for it to show. At the moment, her tummy looked like it usually did. She stepped in the cold water, and decided very quickly that this was not going to be a long bath and went under the water with her entire body.
"Aren't you a sight for sore eyes?" She heard sniggering as she had hurriedly came back to the surface, and with fright she saw the Orlesian Warden leaning against the tree close to the streaming water.
"Can you please go away?" She asked shivering, trying to be polite, and put her arms across her chest even though it was covered in the dark light, also being under water. It rapidly got colder and harsh.
"It's a free world is it not?" He asked and sat down next to her pile of clothes.
"I think I actually rather stay." He said teasingly.
She cursed under her breath, and couldn't stay in the water to long. Sighing, she tried again;
"Please?"
"What will I get if I comply?" He asked.
Nothing, and nothing in your disgusting mind!
"Maybe my respect." She tried.
"Why should I care about that?" The Orlesian laughed.
"You fien-"
"Ah, ah, ah. Don't finish that sentence princess." He said standing up, and he started taking of his leather boots. Diana's eyes widened when she realized what he was planning to do. And nothing was worth him being in the same water as him. She quickly waded to the little beach where her clothes were.
"Afraid of company are you?" He said, apparently happy with the effect he's having on her.
She was still in the water and he was looking at her with interest, and stopped his attention with the boots. Diana started to feel utterly disgusted how his eyes was looking at her with such intensity. She sighed and got of the water, and faster then he could react, she had already bended down and grabbed her clothes and hurriedly put on her tunic. She was happy that it covered over her behind, and was very angry with the man next to her. He merely chuckled lightly.
He must be pleased with himself. She snorted mentally.
He took a step closer to her, which caused her to back into a tree, and he was closer to her then she liked, and she didn't feel that strong or confident in only a tunic.
"Such a fiery little thing." He whispered.
She slapped him with all the might she possessed, which wasn't that much during the time, being icy cold and almost naked. He grabbed her wrist.
"Now, now, that's not very nice." She didn't like the fact that he was very strong, and she tried getting her hand out of his grip, which was a pointless effort. He just laughed and twisted her arm in a way so she bumped against him.
"Let me go!" She was very frustrated now and slightly scared. She didn't want to be touched by him. And why did she feel so weak? She defeated a big flying dragon but can't fend of one guy?
He moved closer to the tree so he had her pinned against it.
"Let's play nicely, princess. You don't have to be afraid." He wasn't touching her in places where she thought he would go now when he had the chance, that didn't help though. He was waiting for her to make a move. Well, he can forget it. She stared defiantly in his big eyes, and he took this as a good sign apparently and bended down to kiss her. That was it. She shoved him away, that was enough to get him to back away and he removed his hand from her wrist. She breathed heavily out of disgust and marched against him and punched him hard in the face. He actually staggered and his grin vanished and got replace with bewilderment.
"Don't ever touch or come near me again!" She hissed and picked up her clothes and walked quickly back to the camp, not looking back at the man. Zevran looked at her very confusingly and changed his face to anger when she explained the event.
"I should have come with you."
"He won't do that again after that punch." She said moving inside his tent and put on her trousers. He moved quietly behind her and took her wrist in his hand. It was slightly bruised and his expression was unreadable.
"Really, Zev. It's fine." She tried to say soothingly, not wanting fights within the group, while being away from Denerim.
"Not to worry, my dear." He whispered, but the look on his face made Diana nervous, like it always did, when she saw that old assassin's charm.
"Can we just go to sleep?" She yawned a bit more exaggerated then usual, to make her point.
He nodded and moved with her onto the bedroll. Her back against his front, and he nuzzled in her neck. Which caused immediate goosebumps. His hand was softly caressing her belly and she fell asleep quicker then usual and didn't have any nightmares for the second time after the archdemon.
She woke up by a loud crash and angry voices. Diana massaged her closed eyelids and wonder what the hell happened. Also, the smell of smoke was heavy and Zevran was not in the tent. It seemed fairly light outside, so she assumed that it was morning. She didn't put on her armor, but attached the belt, and placed her daggers in between the potions and rushed out the tent.
Everything was a mess in the camp, the guards were running around in circles, and some of the tents were on fire and the cauldron's was thrown down and she noticed that most of the supplies that were around them was gone. She saw the Commander yelling out orders to the guards and she rushed to him.
"What happened?"
"I have no idea. Joris is nowhere to be found. I sent Gareth and the elf to go look for him." He said while pointing out different directions for the single minded humans. Diana tried not to react how he toned the word elf.
"Where are they?"
"They went on a search around one hour ago, I hope them to be back soon."
"And what the hell has happened here? Was no one on watch?" She asked horrified.
"Yes. Ambushed. The dead bodies are already gone, which wasn't much and most of the supplies are gone."
"Who can have done this?" Diana scouted the camp, looking for visible marks from their attackers.
"Bandits probably. That they took us by surprise will never cease to amaze me. If it was the darkspawns we should have sensed them."
"Commander!" They both turned and saw a bloody Gareth carrying a body in his arms. Diana saw Zevran walking behind him his armor had dots of dark red color, not showing compassion for the man that carried his friend, whatsoever.
Diana rushed to Gareth, and gasped and put her hand on her mouth. The body belonged to Joris. He seemed to have been stabbed several times, what she could see from all the holes that pierced his armor and the coagulated blood. He was dead. She hated the man, but felt a bit of remorse. She actually never wanted him dead. She shot a quick look at Zevran, whom just stood quietly next to Gareth not meeting her eyes, while he put the body of his friend on the ground. The Commander kneeled, and his expression was unreadable as he inspected the dead Warden.
"Joris was a good fighter. He wold not been easy to take by surprise. Where did you find him?" He asked coolly to Gareth.
"By the river, under a tree."
David rolled Joris's body so they could see the back. Both of their eyes widened when they saw the long slash that went from his left shoulder all the way down to the hip. No wonder he was easily overpowered.
"Cowards!" She heard the Commander mutter, his voice filled with anger and sadness.
He stood up, eyeing Joris. "Put him with the dead." He said to Gareth. He seemed shocked.
"But, Commander. He was a Warden – a Broth-"
"Put him with the bodies. He is dead and of no use to use any longer." David stomped his foot to escalate his point which shut Gareth up and he carried his friends body along with him.
"He is right. He deserves a proper good bye." Diana hurried to the Commander's side. He stopped and glared sulky at her.
"Wake up! Grey Wardens don't get a proper funeral. They either die here or in the deep roads. No glory funeral is given for anyone except for the ones defeating the Blights!"
"But-"
"Warden. I'm not in a mood for our disputes." He snapped and left to yell a bit more at the guards.
Diana stood numb, still not really comprehending the events that had happened. Zevran stood next to her.
"Did you do something to him?" She asked, not meeting his surprised eyes.
"Usually I would be glad to take credits for causing someone's death, my dear, but did you see the wounds? I'm not that clumsy when I kill. It would have been a insult to my work! Devastating!"
She sighed and chuckled.
"Of course it would."
After several hours, in the late afternoon, they had fixed the camp and burned the dead. Diana had fixed that she could wear the armor for a long time, without it being to much of a burden for the moment. They left to walk to a small village where they suspected darkspawn activity. It got increased when she sensed them. The smell of dead and smoke got even stronger the longer they marched. As did the screams.
David gestured the little group to be quiet while they hurriedly sprinted to the top of a hill and they could see the village clearly. She spotted around twenty darkspawns about. They saw darkspawn going through the burned down village, killing the remainder males and some of them were dragging some of the living females into a hut, that seemed to have been built by them. That's were the screams came from. Diana was shocked, what shocked her more though was that a feeling in her told her to go down and kill everything down there. And it got stronger and fiercer by the second they were up the hill.
Zevran seemed to notice and grabbed her hand firmly and looked at her. While she was told that darkspawn could sense grey wardens, she never believed that. It was rectified this very moment. The ogre straightened himself and sniffed in the air. And its eyes fixed upon Diana the moment it looked up the hill and it roared. A chilly feeling went through her spine and the adrenaline was pumping heavily. And on top of it, she smiled.