When we arrived back at camp, Daveth got to cutting up and preparing the edible buck that I had shot, and I went to Alistair and told him what had happened.

"That deer was probably tainted."

I looked at him, puzzlingly. "Tainted?"

"Oh," he continued. "When something is hit with a darkspawn weapon, or has ingested darkspawn blood, they either die or become tainted. It poisons them. It's a very slow death. And painful."

That got me worried. How were we supposed to fight these creatures, but not become tainted. How did the Grey Warden's live for so long if they probably got hit with their weapons all the time. I tried not to think about it.

Later that evening, after we ate some of the deer I headed off to bed early. Alistair arranged for us to have shifts to stay up and keep an eye out for any trouble. I had the last shift of the night, which I was happy about. I always was an early riser.

It was difficult to sleep, though. At first it was because the others talked so loud. But after they retired, it was the Wilds that kept me awake. In the city, there wasn't much noise at night, except the occasional dog barking. Here, there was nothing but noise. Birds. Insects. Wolves howling in the distance. Here, silence wasn't an option.

After the first watch was done, Alistair crawled into the tent and into his bedroll. "You're still awake?" he asked.

I nodded. "Can't sleep. Too many noises."

He stayed up with me for a while and spoke of his life before the Wardens. He grew up most of his life in the Chantry, learning to become a Templar. That explained why the mage from the day before had a problem with him. Templars were also known as mage hunters. They found apostates and either killed them or brought them to the Circle tower, never to leave again. But, Alistair never became a Templar. Duncan had come before he took his vows. Now, he was a Warden, like I was soon to become.

Late into the night we finally got to sleep. Although, it wasn't long before Ser Jory came to wake me up for my shift. I got out of the tent and stretched. Looking around, even with my elven eyes, I could barely see beyond the camps perimeter. I took out my bow and started making my rounds.

Two hours passed; no sign of danger. I placed another log onto the fire and allowed my hands to warm up. One thing I loved about camping was the smell and crackle of the fire. Mother would tell me stories and use the smoke to make shapes of characters and landscapes. How I missed her.

"Meow"

I looked around, bow ready at hand. Something was out there. I looked to the edge of camp to where a bush was shaking I moved closer to the bush, ready to fire.

In the darkness, I saw a pair of beautiful golden eye peering up at me. The creature came out from the bush as I put my bow down. A cat. She looked up at me with such intelligence in her eyes and pushed her head against my hand, which still clutched the bow. I put it down and reached out my hand to her, which she gratefully rubbed her face against.

"What is a beautiful creature like you doing out here?" I asked her. She continued rubbing herself against me, between my legs and through my hands, purring loudly. I sat back and she climbed into my lap, curling into a ball.

There was something odd about her, almost human. I couldn't pin it, but there was... I don't know what, but it was different.

I heard shuffling behind me and the cat bold up and dashed back into the forest, probably never for me to see again. I turned to see Alistair get up and stretch. "Morning, Darrian."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After the other two had woken up, or we forced up in Daveth's case, a quick breakfast was made and we packed up and headed into the forest. We traveled single file; Alistair at the head, Ser Jory second, Daveth next, and I at the rear. The two of us had our bows drawn and the others their swords. Alistair explained to us that being a Warden gave you the ability to sense the Darkspawn, which seemed a little odd to me. How does one suddenly begin to sense those creatures? Is it trained into you at the initiation? Or is is something else? I never liked secrets, especially ones that humans kept from me.

Suddenly, we were stopped. Alistair motioned us to spread out. I went with Ser Jory to the left, Alistair and Daveth to the right. There was a clearing ahead and we snuck our way to it's edge, staying hidden amongst the trees an bushes. In the clearing, there were six creatures, I assumed Darkspawn. From what I could remember of the Chant of Light, it said something about the Magisters of Old Tevinter entering the Golden City and corrupting it with their evil. These Magisters were then transformed into the Darkspawn. Whether I believed that or not, these creatures were just as ugly as the Chant of Light said.

Four of them were as tall as the humans, but were all equally disgusting. They were skinny looking, almost diseased looking, missing their noses. Their armor was skin tight, showing off every rib of their bodies. The other two, plump dwarf-sized bastards, had round faces, almost prime ape looking, missing their ears. Their fingers were as thick as my wrists. One of them had a crossbow, the other had a staff.

"Is that one a mage?" I asked.

"They're called Emissary's, I believe," Ser Jory explained to me. "They're known to have magic that's similar to blood magic, and are known only to appear when their's a blight. I've heard that their staves are made from talking tree branches.

I looked at him puzzlingly. "There's no such thing as a talking tree."

"Does it matter?" he asked me. "All that matters is that these creatures are evil and need to die."

That was when Alistair and Daveth jumped out of their hiding spot, and Jory followed suit. I stayed hidden, shooting my bow at the creatures. Alistair was facing one of the tall ones, who had a huge horned helmet that hid it's gruesome face. I assumed that one was the leader to the others. I was aiming my bow at it's head, but couldn't get a clear shot because of Alistair. It was getting frustrating.

Suddenly, I saw what looked like a shadow sneaking up behind Alistair, with a gleam of daggers. I took my bow and shot. The creature appeared out of a fog and screeched in pain. It turned to face me, but before it could advance, I shot another arrow right into the creature's nose, killing it instantly.

Alistair and the other two finished dispatching the others and I came out of hiding to meet them in the clearing. He looked around at the dead darkspawn and smiled. "Great job, everyone. Now take the vials that I handed you yesterday and collect some blood."

We did as we were told. I knelt down next to the genlock I had hilled and used one of my daggers to open one of the wounds more so I could pour the blood in. The blood was black as night, not red like mine. No wonder these creatures were considered evil.
"Now that you each have your blood we need to find the Warden Outpost and find those documents," said Alistair.

We headed further west into the Wilds. After an hour's walk I could see the broken towers above the trees. We ran into two other small groups of Darskpawn and one larger one when we arrived at the ruins, but we easily dispatched them.

The ruins looked as if it had been here since two or three ages ago. Some of the walls had fallen, others were only partially there. Well, at least it kept us out of the wind that was starting to pick up.

"Everyone, spread out," Alistair commanded. "Duncan said the documents should be in a magic chest."

Everyone went in their own directions. I found some broken stairs that lead to a second level, which only half of the floor was there. There was a wall that had fallen down in a corner and I felt drawn to it. I carefully climbed up the stairs and onto the second floor, watching that my feet wouldn't accidentally fall through, until I came to the pile of stones and started removing them. It took me about a half hour before I finally found what I had been searching for. Although, once I had it in my grasp, my heart sank. I did find the chest, but the lid looked as if it something had smashed the lid into it, making a large hole in it, the seal on the front was broken, and the inside empty. "Damn!"

I dragged the chest back down to the court yard and brought it to the fire that had been built. Alistair looked up from tending it. "It's empty," I said.

He gave me a look of disbelief and looked in it himself. "But... but, that can't be! Duncan said only a Warden could open it." He looked in again as if he couldn't believe what he didn't see with his own eyes. He shook his head and slammed his fist on the chest, breaking the lid even more. "Damn!" He then shook his hand that his the chest. "Ow..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We searched the ruins more that night, just to be sure, but there was nothing to be found; no sign of the documents anywhere. It was too late for us to go anywhere, so we settled right there in the courtyard. Once again, I went to bed early, but this time I fell asleep quickly. The only sounds being the crackle of the fire and the howling of the wind. Ser Jory came to wake me at my turn of shift and I repeated the previous night. This time, there was no black cat with golden eyes that came to visit, so I entertained myself with my daggers, twirling, throwing, jabbing. I imagined myself fighting darkspawn, up close and personal, killing all foes in my path, using the ruin pillars as targets, or as leverage against my invisible enemies.

I dodged the attack from an Emissary, charged it and cut it's head off. The hurlock came at me then. I flipped over it and plunged my daggers into it's back, sending it to the fade. Arrows from a genlock shot past my face and I turned and flung a dagger into it's head, killing it instantly.

"My, my. What have we here?"

I ran to my dagger, pulled it out of the wall and faced the voice. On the second level, where I found the broken chest, stood a young woman with raven black hair tied in a messy bun. She wore a loose shirt, not hiding much of her well endowed chest. Her skirt was made of black leather and had belts all over it, not seeming to be of any use; her boots matched the skirt. Then, I noticed her eyes. There was something familiar about that golden hue, but I couldn't put my finger on it.

She strode slowly down the stairs and I, without taking my eyes off her, maneuvered to one of the tents and nudged what I thought was Alistair's side that was right up against the wall of fabric with my foot. "What are you?" She asked as Alistair crawled out and went to wake the other two.

"Are you a vulture, I wonder? A scavenger, poking amidst a corpse whose bones were long since picked cleaned?" The other two recruits crawled out of their tents, weapons drawn, as the woman reached the bottom of the stairs and swaggered towards us.

"Or, are you merely an intruder, coming to these Wilds of mine in search of easy prey?" She then looked at me thoughtfully for a moment with a hind of a smirk on her lips. "What say you?"

"Don't answer her," Alistair whispered to me. "She looks Chasind. There could be others-"

"Oh! You think barbarians will come swoop down upon you!" she interrupted, exaggerating by throwing her arms up in the air. Alistair looked offended, and muttered under his breath, something about swooping is bad, or something like that. "I wasn't talking to you." Her eyes came back to me. "As I said, 'What say you?'"

"Neither," I responded, keeping my daggers up in defense. "We only come seeking what is ours."

An eyebrow rose on her forehead, but then she came walking towards us. "I have been watching you since yesterday. 'Where do they go?' 'Why are they here?' I wondered." She came to stand by the broken chest. "I suppose you were looking for whatever was in this chest here?"

"Yes," Alistair replied. "Those documents are Grey Warden property."

She turned, angrily, to him. "Once again, I was not speaking to YOU!"

"Don't anger her!" Daveth spoke up. She's a Witch of the Wilds! She'll turn us all into toads, she will." I could see from the corner of my eye that he was starting to back up, getting ready to run. Cowardly human.

Ser Jory gave him a shocked look. "Witches can do that?"

"ENOUGH!" We turned our eyes back to the woman. "Ugh, men. You!" She pointed to me. "Elves are not frightened little boys. Tell me your name, and I shall tell you mine."

I knew I had to gain this woman's trust if we were to find the documents, somehow, and the best way I knew how to gain any woman's trust was to show her respect. I flipped my daggers back into their sheathes at my belt and bowed my head, slightly. "My name is Darrian Tabris, milady."

She looked quite astonished by my sudden change of character. "Now, that IS a civil greeting, even here in the Wilds." She bowed her head to me. "You may call me Morrigan." The way she said that was as if she only gave me permission, none of the others. "Shall I guess your purpose, now?" she asked, crossing her arms across her chest. "You sought something that was in that chest? Something that is here no longer?"

"As my friend here said earlier," I said, gesturing towards Alistair. "There was supposed to be some documents in this chest that belongs to the Grey Wardens."

"And why were they left behind?" Morrigan asked. "This ruin hasn't been inhabited for centuries."

I was silent for a moment. How was supposed to know the answer? Duncan, or Alistair, never explained to me. "I truly don't know. It must have been forgotten. But if you know where they are, we would be very grateful if you could tell us."

I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to see Alistair. "I wouldn't ask her, Darrian. I don't trust her."

"I know, Al. But we have no choice." I turned back to the mage. "Please. If you know where they are, please tell us."

This time the smirk was obvious. "Since you said 'please.' I do not have them, but I know who does."

I could see Alistair was going to say something, bur decided against it. Wise. "Would you take us to them?"

"Now, there is a sensible request."

This time Daveth grabbed my other shoulder. "She'll throw us all in the pot, Elf. Don't listen to her."

"Well," Ser Jory said. "It'd be a nice change from this cold dampness."

I nodded my agreement. "We don't have much choice, anyways." I looked back to Morrigan. "Lead on, please."