The Awakening
A Dragon Age Fanfiction
By Bionca Femme
Chapter 7:
Sidona awoke to the sounds of clanking cooking utensils and the smell of bacon. She blinked blearily and groaned as she realized it was morning and did what she usually did when she first wakes up, she drew the blanket over her head and buried her face into her pillow. But her pillow chuckled and rolled over so that her nose met with a broad chest.
She froze momentarily until she heard Alistair laugh softly. "Good Morning," he said affectionately.
"Non, il n'est pas matin." She slid her arms around him and snuggled up to him, eliciting another laugh.
"I didn't understand a word of that, but we have to get up at some point, you know," he said fondly.
"Who says such things?" she demanded with mock-irritation. "I'm the Commander, and I say we stay right here for the remainder of the day!" her stomach responded with a growl.
"I think your appetite disagrees with you," Alistair teased.
Sidona sighed theatrically. "Oh, the burden of a tainted stomach!" she giggled. "Though it seems that your elven friend managed to barter for more than just a dagger yesterday. I smell breakfast!" she pulled out of Alistair's arms and sat up, grabbing her trousers from nearby.
Alistair sat up as well and watched as she shimmied into her pants underneath the blankets. "You look nice in my shirt," he commented.
She lifted an eyebrow at him and then looked down at the shirt that she was swimming in. She laughed, "It was comfortable." She drew it up over her head and tossed it at him, before grabbing her own and slipping it back on. When she was done she found Alistair gaping at her. "What?"
His cheeks reddened, "Um, heh…well I didn't expect you to just, you know, and…you weren't wearing anything under it and I…" he averted his eyes as if he'd seen something he shouldn't have.
"Enjoyed the view?" she finished for him with a hint of hopefulness in her voice.
He turned back to her suddenly and pulled her into his arms. "Maker, did I ever!" he exclaimed with a grin and then he kissed her.
"Consider it payback for yesterday," she said with a grin when the kiss broke.
The Pilgrims path lay before them that morning, oddly devoid of travelers. Though Alistair thought that might be more from the threat of being overtaken by dark spawn than any other reason. However, from what they had learned from the merchant, there was also a whole lot of bandits that were ambushing the Caravans.
"There once was a woman who lived in the sea," Zevran said suddenly, breaking up the nice silent morning they had so far on the road.
Alistair groaned. "Maker's breath!"
Sidona giggled, seeming to know what was coming.
Nathaniel raised a dark brow at the Antivan Crow, who smiled and waggled his own at the other rogue before continuing. "I didn't love her but I think she loved me. I brought her diamonds, rubies, silver and gold, but all she wanted was to be saved from the cold."
Alistair shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose.
Zevran grinned and continued, "She asked me to catch her, convinced me I should. I built her a house, all gray stone and wood. We made love in the sea, we made love on the shore. I was just there for playing, but she wanted more."
Nathaniel by this time had dropped back to walk beside Zevran and Alistair had caught up to Sidona, hoping that he would some how not have to listen to the undoubtedly outrageous thing that was going to come out of the Antivan's mouth.
"There's just one problem you see, I can't grant her wish, my wife gets suspicious when I come home smelling like fish!" Zevran finished.
There was a loud unexpected guffaw from Nathaniel and Sidona and Alistair turned to find Nathaniel laughing a full belly laugh, and Zevran chuckling, obviously enjoying the fact that he'd made someone laugh. Soon Nathaniel's laughter became infectious and Alistair and Sidona were laughing as well.
Their brief moment of levity was short lived, however, as an arrow came flying out of nowhere and embedded itself in the dirt inches away from Alistair's heel.
"Brigands!" Sidona growled and unsheathed her weapons.
Alistair's eyes snapped up from the arrow embedded in the dirt near his foot and found that they were being charged by several expensively armed men.
"Not brigands, my dear Commander," Zevran replied, slightly amused. "Antivan Crows. For such a formidable woman, only the best!"
Sidona chuckled darkly, "You'll forgive me if I wait until later to feel flattered, yes?"
Zevran did not get a chance to answer her as the first of the crows had reached them. Zevran strode forward to meet the man first. Alistair only had a moment to appreciate the mastery with which the two men dueled before he was set upon by his own attacker.
Zevran whirled and parried, deflecting the lithe man's attacks easily. He took a step back and a swipe meant for his throat passed just before his nose, leaving a sickly sweet smell behind in its wake. Zevran's eyes widened. "Soldier's bane! They are using soldier's bane on their daggers!"
There was a feminine cry of rage and as Alistair caved in the skull of his attacker with the edge of his shield, he turned his attention towards Sidona who was sunk to one knee and deflecting blows with her own shield, there was blood seeping through a seam in her left grieve. Alistair watched as Zevran finished off his own Crow and headed off to take out the last melee fighters. There were still two archer's and they were aiming right for him.
"Nate!" Alistair barked out. "Get those arrow slinging bastard's!" he snarled and then charged the Crow attacking Sidona.
The battle was over quickly and soon Alistair was helping Sidona to the ground and taking off her plate armor. "Zev!" he called out to the Antivan desperately as Sidona slumped in his arms in exhaustion.
Zevran trotted over and sunk to his knees at Alistair's side. Together they managed to pull off the greave and Zevran wiped at a patch of blood on the inside of her trouser leg where the dagger had nicked her. He held the blood up to his nose and the same sickly sweet smell mingled with the coppery smell of blood filled his nostrils. He wiped off his hand and then he rummaged through his pack and brought forth a small vial with a pearly white substance in it. "Expose the wound," he instructed Alistair.
Alistair did as he was bade and ripped open the pant leg from knee to crotch and watched helplessly as Zevran poured the substance into the wound, then he got out some bandages and wrapped the leg. Sidona's head had fallen against Alistair's chest and he held her tightly. "What's wrong with her?" he asked fearfully.
"Worry not, my friend. I have given her the antidote, it should be chasing the poison through her veins now. Though, she will be exhausted. That is the main purpose of the poison, to weaken, to make her vulnerable. She was already losing stamina when the blade cut her, she's just passed out. A particularly nasty side effect, however, is that it also weakens the immune system. We'll have to get her back to the Vigil, quickly, so that Anders can close that wound. She'll be susceptible to infection if she doesn't get healing soon."
Alistair nodded mutely and then started to undo the straps on her armor.
"What are you doing?" Nathaniel knelt by his side and laid a hand on Alistair's forearm.
Alistair yanked his arm out of Nathaniel's grasp. "I can't carry her unless we get all this armor off."
"We'll make a litter, Alistair. You don't need to carry her," Nathaniel replied.
Alistair ignored him and finished getting the armor off her, then he picked her up gently in his arms, regretting that he couldn't feel her warmth through his plate armor. With her armor off she seemed so small, the sight of her so helpless made him angry. "Just watch my back," he growled.
Nathaniel nodded in reply and looked to Zevran for help. Zevran only shook his head and snatched up the discarded bits off armor off the ground, then they followed after.
Anders stood in the doorway of the Commander's bedroom, watching as Alistair's head drooped for the third time since he'd found him still sitting at the edge of Sidona's bed clutching her hand in his own with and expectant look on his face.
"Alistair," Anders called out softly into the the soft firelight of her room. "She's going to be alright, you know. Our fearless leader just needs some rest. It might be best if you got some sleep yourself."
"I'm fine," Alistair waved his hand dismissively and then yawned.
Anders chuckled. "Riiiight, and who do you think she'll blame if you aren't well rested and ready to kick some dark spawn backside when she wakes up? Me, that's who!"
Alistair chuckled. "She'll really be ok?" he looked up at Anders after a moment.
Anders felt the old familiar sting of being mistrusted prickle inside him. "Look, I know I'm an apostate and everything but we're not all maleficarum, you know! If I say she'll be fine, I mean she'll be fine."
Alistair's eyes widened. "I didn't mean to imply...I'm sorry Anders."
Anders felt immediately ashamed. "No, no. I'm sorry. Its just that...I'm used to people having a certain opinion of me... being an escaped Mage and all."
Alistair nodded. "I think I can understand how you feel."
Anders couldn't help the scoffing noise. "No, I'm quite sure you wouldn't know how it feels to be an apostate."
Alistiar chuckled. "I meant that I know how it feels to be stuck somewhere I didn't want to be, with my fate already decided for me and no one at all willing to give me a choice about it."
"Oh," Anders said. "You know," he said thoughtfully as he looked down at the sleeping form of the Commander. "she really saved me. I mean, more than just from the Templars and death and all that. I mean that I've been escaping so long that I didn't realize that I wouldn't know what to do with freedom even if I had it. Being a Grey Warden is actually tolerable. I get to shoot lightning at fools, I've got a cat, and I can spend my off hours however I like without having to worry about the Templars breathing down my neck. This is the most freedom I've had since I was a teenager, really."
Alistair nodded and then went back to staring down at Sidona.
Anders sighed heavily. "You really don't intend to leave her side until she wakes up, do you?"
"No," was the reply he received.
"Well then at least try and get comfortable," Anders ordered and then turned on his heel, leaving Alistair with Sidona.
Once he was gone, Alistair started nodding off again and when his head hand fallen onto her arm for the fourth time he decided that perhaps Anders was right. Although, rather than leave and go to his own room he merely took off his boots and climbed up onto the bed. He laid back on the pillows and watched the firelight dance on her golden skin and glint brilliantly off her red-hair, slowly his eyes slid closed and he drifted off into the fade.
The sky overhead was a sickly green and the blackened ground trembled beneath Alistair's feet. He whirled around, taking in the twisted landscape that surrounded him on all sides, the dirt and rocks crunched beneath his boot heels with an odd sound that had him looking down at his feet. He immediately jumped back with a startled yelp as he realized that he was standing on the shattered remnants of a skull. He sank down onto his haunches and looked at the bones and came to the conclusion that they were, in fact, human. He frowned and stood up again, his eyes scanned the terrain and he spotted a hill that he could climb for a better vantage point.
As he neared the top the sky on the other side of the hill bled from green to orange stained with black wisps of clouds and it was only when he reached the top of the hill that he realized that the clouds were made of smoke. The orange glow was the city below on fire.
He could hear women and children screaming and he started forward, intending on trying to save someone, anyone. When a hand set itself down on his shoulder. He turned to find Lyna's blue eyes staring back at him. "Lyn?"
"You must stop them Lethallin," she said, her face was grim and smudged with dirt and blood, as was the rest of her. Though none of it seemed to be hers, she looked exactly as she had on top of Fort Drakon, battle weary and pale. "Before it is too late."
"Stop who?" he asked, grasping at her hand.
"Find the source, Alistair. Kill them all," she said and she seemed to move away from him and he tried to hold tighter onto her but her fingers seemed slippery.
"Lyn! Wait! I don't understand, please!" he cried out as she faded from view. "Lyn!"
"Lyn!" he cried out and struggled against hands that were pressing him into the the mattress. Mattress? He stopped struggling and opened his eyes, finding not Lyna's blue eyes, but Sidona's worried dark brown ones staring down at him. "Sidona?" he blinked.
She lifted an eyebrow, "You were expecting to maybe wake up next to Zevran?"
He laughed in relief then he pulled her down into his arms, "Are you alright? How are you feeling?"
"I am as well as can be expected," she admitted. "The Crow's reputation is well deserved," she winced as she moved her leg.
He kissed the top of her head. "Well, I know you're my Commander and everything, but as the man who is courting you, I demand you stay away from poisoned blades. Maker's breath you had me worried!" he said softly.
She laughed softly, "You were worried? How do you think I felt waking up to a screaming man in my bed, mmm?"
"Nightmare," Alistair said by way of explanation.
"I could tell," she toyed with a button on his shirt. "It was about your friend, yes? Lyna?"
"Yes, I think...she was trying to tell me something," he replied. "She said that I needed to find the source and kill them all. I can only imagine that she meant dark spawn."
"The source?" she propped herself up on her elbow next to him so that she could look down at his face. "Dark spawn come from broodmothers."
"I know, I don't know what she means," he frowned. "Maybe there is an original source? Something that started it all?"
Sidona shook her head. "The chant of light says that the dark spawn came from evil mages that tried to take over the golden city."
Alistair couldn't help the bitter laugh, "You know the Chantry says a lot of things, many of which aren't entirely true."
Sidona inclined her head, acknowledging that he had a point. "I don't know that we could find a source, even if one existed."
"I know that it may sound crazy, but, if Lyna crossed the veil and found out the truth, it would be entirely like her to find a way of letting me know. She was very strong-willed," he replied thoughtfully.
"Alistair?" she asked after a moment.
"Yes, love?" he replied.
"You said something about...courting?" her eyes searched his and when they crinkled at the sides and his lips lifted in a smile, she couldn't help but smile back.
"Finally caught on to that, did you?" he teased and then chuckled when she smacked him lightly on the chest.
"So, we are courting then?" she looked away from his face, her own cheeks flushed and she fiddled with one of his shirt buttons.
Alistair grasped her chin lightly and tilted her head back up so that he could look into her eyes, "I would love nothing more, if you would do me the honor."
"I would like that, very much," she smiled. Then the button she had been fiddling with came undone. "Oh, how silly of me! Here, let me fix it," and instead of fixing it she undid another one.
He laughed, "What are you doing?"
"I'm sure I do not know what you are talking about," she batted her eyelashes at him and then another button came undone.
Just then there was a knock on your door and before either of them could say anything Anders burst into the room. "Decent or not here I come!" he said cheerfully, laughing when he saw the commander lying half on top of Alistair with her hand attached to his half-unbuttoned shirt. "Oooh, I guess I'm just in time for the 'or not'!" he chuckled and then ducked the pillow that Alistair threw at him.
A/N:
Me: {Glares at Anders in irritation} You just had to get right in the middle of it, didn't you?
Anders:{grins} That's what she said!
Me: {facepalm}
I hope that you've enjoyed this chapter. Right now I am working on "Witches and Mirrors". I've done a One shot that is the prelude to it that I'm including in "Blight Tales", it is the second chapter. The actual fic is going to be posted sometime near the end of this story.
Thank you to Melismo for helping me out on this!