This was kind of a transition chapter. I found it kind of hard to write since not a lot happens, and I didn't want to rehash a lot of the in-game dialogue.
When Alistair woke up the day following the battle, his first thoughts were of Eriana, picturing her disappearing beneath a wave of darkspawn and him powerless to stop it. Feelings of desperation and helpless flooded him as he began fully regain consciousness. Upon waking, he realized a few things; one, he was no longer in the tower; two, he was being tended by that witch, Morrigan; and three, he had no idea where Eriana was. He had failed her. He had vowed that he would protect her, and he failed, miserably. Finally seeing her didn't help him much; she looked so fragile, so broken. She was laying on a bed in the small cabin, most of her limbs wrapped in bandages. The bandage covering her left shoulder where the arrows had impaled her was beginning to turn red as the blood seeped through. Her beautiful face was black and blue and swollen, and her breath came in shallow, uneven gasps.
"Will she be okay?" he asked in a hushed voice.
Morrigan didn't look up, so it was her mother who answered. "It's too soon to tell," she said frankly, "but we are doing all we can, boy."
Alistair was sure that she was still talking, but he heard nothing else. She may not survive. He wanted to take her in his arms, to hold her, to make her better, but he couldn't even find a place to touch her where she wasn't injured. Despair flooded him, and then he began to register what the old woman was telling him. She was explaining what had happened to the armies at Ostagar. Alistair could barely comprehend what she was telling him; the army was gone, the King, dead, all the Grey Wardens were killed by the darkspawn, including Duncan. Teyrn Loghain had betrayed them and had left the armies to die. Now he and Eriana were the only two Grey Wardens left in Fereldan, and she may not even make it. Alistair couldn't process it all at once, so he fixated on Eriana and her condition. His constant questioning and badgering the two mages about his companion eventually got him kicked out, so he spent the rest of the day pacing in front of the door, mentally berating himself allowing the elf to get so injured. He didn't sleep well that first night, either. In his dreams, they were back on the tower. She was being pulled away by darkspawn, and he was moving in slow motion, unable to reach her in time. Alistair finally gave up on sleep and went back to pacing.
Early the next morning, Morrigan came out and told him that the elf would live. She was not yet awake, but her bleeding had stopped, and she was starting to make a recovery. Relief rushed over Alistair. She would make it; he wouldn't be alone in all this. It was then that the fact that all the other Wardens were dead began to set in, so Alistair spent the second day grieving the loss of Duncan and the rest of the Wardens. Duncan's loss was especially hard for him to process. Duncan had saved him from a life in the Chantry and had given him a true purpose in his life. He couldn't believe that they were all gone. What was he going to do, now? By the end of the second day, his pacing had stopped, and he had started merely sitting and staring into the swamp.
The third day was the worst. Eriana still hadn't awoken, and Alistair was beginning to doubt the assurances of the witches, even though Morrigan's mother had joined him outside, claiming she was no longer needed. Duncan's death and Loghain's betrayal depressed him as well, but it was the Blight that weighed heavily on his mind that day. Two Grey Wardens in all of Fereldan. Duncan had been worried that their numbers were small to begin with, but now, how could the two of them stop the Blight. What could they do against a horde and an archdemon. He was now he most senior Warden in the nation, but what did he know? He was no Duncan; things didn't end well when he lead. What were they going to do?
He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't hear the door open and didn't even notice Eriana walking up to him till Morrigan's mother began to speak. For the first time in three days, Alistair felt relief rush through him as Eriana walked toward him. Quickly closing the distance between them, he pulled her into him arms, too relieved to see her to notice how she stiffened momentarily at his touch.
"Thank the Maker you're alive. I thought you were dead for sure," he whispered to her as he pulled back to look at her, keeping a hold on her arms as if she would disappear if he let go.
"What can I say, it takes more than a few darkspawn to kill me," she said with a slight laugh. Then she turned to Morrigan's mother. "Thank you for saving us, um, I don't think I ever caught your name."
"The Chasined call me Flemeth," answered Morrigan's mother, "and I suppose you may as well."
"Thank you, Flemeth, we appreciate what you've done, but why did you save us?" Eriana asked. "I mean, why risk your life in a battle to save two people you don't even know?"
Alistair found himself not listening as Flemeth and Eriana discussed the dangers of the Blight; he had been mulling over their situation all morning. He mumbled responses to whatever the women were talking about, but he was too depressed to really focus on the conversation. Talking about the two of them stopping the Blight alone was just too overwhelming, and he couldn't quite wrap his mind around it. Eriana's voice suddenly snapped him out of his reflections.
"Can we do that, Alistair? Can we go to all these allies and build an army against the Blight?"
"An army? Us?" he mumbled.
"Why not, that's what Grey Wardens do. We can't just give up," she said, looking up at him.
"So," said Flemeth, "are you ready now? Ready to be Grey Wardens?" The two young Wardens nodded. "Good, if that's the case, I have one last request."
The next week passed slowly for Eriana. The walk toward Lothering seemed to take twice as long as it had the week before when she walked to Ostagar with Duncan and Daveth. The first two days were almost painful. Alistair was so lost in grief over the loss of Duncan that he would barely speak, no matter how much Eriana tried to talk to him. In fact, the only time that he spoke was when he and Morrigan were arguing or insulting each other. Most of the time, the two of them walked silently behind the annoyed elf. If the mabari hadn't found them, Eriana was quite sure that she would have gone insane, but even the hound couldn't lift Alistair's spirits.
To pass the time as they walked, Eriana began working with the dog, teaching him hand signals and learning how to command Ramoth. The dog definitely made camp life easier, disappearing into the woods as they were setting up camp and returning with a fresh kill for dinner before a fire was even lit. By the time they reached Lothering, with a flick of her wrist, she could command her dog to scout their surrounding area, move into cover, or get into a defensive position in front of any of her companions.
"If that blasted mutt comes near me again, I will freeze its hindquarters off," an exasperated shouted one time as the dog nearly barreled into her.
"Look, he needs to know your name so that I can command him to cover you during a fight. He can protect you because I don't think those robes offer that much protection," Eriana snapped back. She looked down at her mabari, "Just to be safe, boy, why don't you run beside her instead of in front of her."
When they entered Lothering, Eriana was struck was a overwhelming feeling of familiarity. She couldn't put her finger on it immediately, but as she walked through the streets, seeing the downcast faces, it suddenly hit her. It was the ailenage, only with humans instead of elves. An almost crippling feeling of homesickness was just starting to flood her when Alistair began to suggest where they should go after Lothering. As she listened to his suggestions, it suddenly struck her; he is waiting for her to make a decision. Alistair was waiting for her to take the lead. This came as a bit of a surprise to her because she had expected Alistair to take command; he had seemed so strong back at Ostagar. Losing the other Wardens must have hit him harder than she thought. So, now it falls on her, not because she is the best for the job, but because she is the only one to do it.
"Alistair, why are you leaving this up to me?"
"Well, I don't know what we should do; I'll just do whatever you tell me, okay."
Morrigan started laughing, "Aren't you the senior Warden here Alistair? What are you afraid of leadership?"
Eriana glared at her, but Ailstair answered before she had a chance to say anything. "Yes, things don't go well when I lead; we get lost, people end up without pants. It's not a pretty picture."
Eriana glanced down at the silver ring on her left hand. "Don't wait for others to step up," she said to herself, "remember what happens when you wait."
She glanced at Alistair, "Hey, it's alright. Here's what we need to do; we head into Lothering to get some supplies then we will make our way to Redcliff. We will need the armies of Fereldan behind us, so we need someone in the Landsmeet to support us, Eamon seems to be our best option. After we secure his alliance, we begin work on the treaties," she said as she turned to head into Lothering. She will have to deal with her feelings of homesickness later; now, there was work to do.
The group only spent only a few days in Lothering, but they were productive. Eriana made deals with merchants, threatened mercenaries, and even settled a small riot. Now, they had the supplies they needed and some coin to play around with. When they finally set out for Redcliff, they also had two new companions, a stoic giant named Sten and a slightly crazy Chantry sister named Liliana. Alistair still worried Eriana, however. His cheerful sense of humor was nonexistent, and even his fighting felt half-hearted. Several times, she tried to talk about Duncan with him, but all that managed to do was get him worked up all over again.
After they set up camp on their first night out of Lothering, Eriana decided once again to try to cheer up Alistair. She found him kneeling by the camp fire, poking it intently with his sword.
"If you're trying to make dinner, it would probably help if you stuck something on the end of that sword," she said elbowing him as she sat down. He seemed to smile a bit, but didn't say anything. "Now, I'm going to need you to tell me about Redcliff because, before all this, I had never left Denerim. So, tell me something about Redcliff; know you grew up there."
"Um, well, the cliffs around it are red," he said with a sight chuckle, "and it sits on a huge lake. The Arl and his family live in a castle that overlooks the village."
"The Arl Eamon, right? Didn't you say he raised you?"
"Did I say that? No, I mean that dogs raised me. Yeah, giant slobbering dogs, a whole pack of them."
Eriana laughed, "Well, that must have been tough, on the dogs I mean."
"You see, they were flying dogs, surprisingly strict parents too…"
Eriana sat back, smiling, as Alistair continued to describe his childhood as a ward of the flying dogs of the Anderfels, and she knew that everything was going to be alright. The old Alistair was back.