Reviews
davycrockett100
Thank you.
Selias
I actually started playing Dragon Age a while ago but I had no time for writing. I do know and am playing it again
slayer1hello
I did write up a sample chapter for a Game of Thrones story.
Maben00
Hopefully I will find the time
Author Note
This is a short chapter just to show some character development and to show the start of a growing friendship between Alistair and Gothic.
Warden Gothic – Camp
A dragon stands upon a fallen pillar as it watches a thousand dots of light move within the darkness of the Deep Roads. The tainted god roars its approval as the army marches.
The view changes. He now sees the Darkspawn. There numbers seem endless but he is able to focus on a few faces. They are not human, or dwarf or elf. They are soulless things, motivated by the desire to spread the Blight. Each of them is a killer, a monster, those whose faces aren't hidden can be seen to be smiling. They are eager to fight, to kill, to eat the flesh of the fallen and to do other things, things that shouldn't be mentioned.
Again the view changes. Back to the dragon now, or the thing that at leasts looks like a dragon. The tainted god has a body so black that it seems to drink up the light but that doesn't prevent the dreamer from seeing every detail of the corrupted things form. It has wings, as one would expect and the basic shape of a dragon but there is something very wrong about.
Its eyes are glowing green it is such an alien thing that the What is worse is that those horrible eyes seem to see things that they shouldn't.
Including the dreamer.
The tainted god turns it head and breathes it purple flame, then its green eyes meet the eyes of the dreamer and the two look upon each other.
"Bad dreams?".
The question was out of Alistair's mouth before I was even fully awake.
"You could say that" I replied.
Quickly I looked around and noticed that no one else seemed to be paying me any attention so either they were pretending that nothing was wrong or I hadn't drawn attention to myself. Alistair most likely had been expecting me to have nightmares because he would have had them to.
"We all have the dreams" explained the now dead king's half brother "Grey Wardens I mean. In time you learn to block them out but they really go away, not during a Blight".
I got the sense that I would be having a lot of dreams about that dragon before this was all over.
"Is there anything else I should know about being a Grey Warden?" I asked of the only other one of my kind in the entire land.
He didn't reply right away. I wasn't sure why but he just kept stirring the stew he had been messing about with the entire night. I could only assume that he trying to decide if he could trust me or not.
Normally I'd give him a chance to get to know me before I tried to discuss matters like these but I really did need to know in case there was something about being a Warden that the game didn't cover.
"I don't know if its the same for everyone" Alistair began "but when I became a Warden the first thing I noticed was my increased appetite".
Personally I suspected that he still had the appetite and that he had in fact been adding to the stew pot all night because he kept nearly emptying it.
"I'd wolf down every meal like it was my last and then lick all the gravy off the plate".
That was when my stomach growled proving that the organ had a sense of comedic timing.
After the laughter ended Alistair passed me a bowl of his passable cooking and I chowed down as he explained what little he knew about the Wardens.
"Aside from being able to sense the Darkspawn and of course those lovely dreams. You also become faster, stronger and even a bit tougher. The Darkspawn don't seem as scary either so we can fight them better than other people".
That all seemed of the good, not a bad trade off really. Although the fact that we came better at fighting the Spawn might have something do with the fact that we were more like them than other people.
"But there's a price" warned the illegitimate heir to the throne "You've got thirty years top. Grey Wardens don't die of old age the Taint is killing you slowly. Wardens go down into the Deep Roads at the end, they die fighting rather than suffer a slow death".
I'd always wondered about that. I had the nasty feeling that the Taint would eventually transform the Warden into something like the Dark spawn. If so it was better to die taking out as many of the monsters with you as you could, then at least if did become of them you'd made sure that it didn't increase the enemies numbers.
"There was other stuff as well" added the bastard prince "but Duncan was suppose to..".
Alistair and Duncan had been closer to each other than I had been to our mentor during that short time. It wasn't just the length of time spent with each other, the real difference was that to my fellow Warden was that Duncan and the others had been a sort of family. Now all he had left was me and he didn't really know me very well.
"There are few rules were suppose to follow as well" informed Alistair "well there more like guidelines really. The Wardens don't kill their own unless you betray them first or help the Spawn but that''s never happened as far as I know".
You'd have to be completely off your rocker to want to help the Darkspawn but even if you were they were far more likely to kill than to try and strike a deal.
"Rules?" I asked between filling my mouth with rabbit stew.
"Well like I said there guidelines really. Your a Warden for life, but you shouldn't have any children because the Taint can pass on, so it not a good idea to have a wife either. Having a lover is fine but Wardens don't settle down so its not really fair on the other person".
Interesting that, the Taint could be passed on from parent to child but it wasn't something you can pass onto a person simply by having sex with them. It was all in the blood so as long as no one drank my blood or injected themselves with it then there was no danger to any even if I somehow ended up back on my world. Casual flings were also acceptable as long as you used birth control, but you could never had children. I could live with that.
I was curious as to what sort of contraception they had in this world but given that Alistair had been raised by the Church he might not know the details.
Morrigan would know, but that was not a conversation I wanted to have right now.
"The other stuff is obvious" said not the quite a proper Templar "protect people from the Darkspawn. Try and unite people when there's a Blight and of course to slay the Arch-Demon which is something only a Grey Warden can do for reasons I was never told".
I actually knew the reason, but I couldn't come out and tell Alistair the truth as there was no way that I should know this information.
"So nothing else, then?" I inquired "No physical changes".
If there were it wasn't obvious, I doubted that we grew horns or anything like that but their could be more subtle changes.
"I asked Duncan about it a few times" admitted Alistair "but he just said 'You'll see'. I think he was just winding me up".
The old Warden hadn't much of a sense of humour when I'd been around but things had been very serious when I'd joined up so perhaps I'd simply hadn't seen that side of him during our time together. Still I'd admired him greatly, he was a better fighter than me and he no guardian spirit helping him out, also he had been a learned man and very wise. I could see how Alistair, who was an orphan as well as a bastard, could come to see Duncan as beloved uncle or even as a surrogate father.
A person didn't have to read minds to have known that Alistair needed to talk about the people he had lost. I should of dealt with the issue back in Lothering but we'd been on the clock. So at some point I'd decided to bring the subject up in a round about way and now he'd finally said what he'd needed to say.
"I was lucky really" I told my fellow Warden "we don't have Darkspawn where I am from or dragons so all my family is safe at home. Still I miss Duncan. He would already knew what to do and we'd be half away to building an army by now".
"Yeah he'd already be planning the battle in which we heroically take down the Arch-Demon using only rusty spoons... or at least he would be taking it down. We'd be at the back cheering or something".
That remark made me wince. Alistair hadn't forgiven his mentor for not letting him fight at the battle. It was a very good thing that he hadn't but it left my 'brother' feeling more than a little resentful.
"If we were we both know it would be because Duncan wanted to protect us, not because he didn't trust us".
Alistair sighed and then said.
"I know that.. its just".
"That you think that you should of died with him" I supplied.
The trainee Templar shook his head.
"No but maybe I could of saved him... I mean I know I couldn't of made a difference but that...".
"Your head knows that it was the right thing to but your heart says something else" I added.
As if he had sense that Alistair needed some comfort my dog came over for a petting. His presence seemed to have a calming effect and I soon found myself able to sleep. Which was good as tomorrow was going to be a very busy day.
There was a lot waiting for us at Redcliff.