Chapter 17 – Into the Wood
"Why'd it have to be trees?" Alyx hissed as yet another wild sylvan crashed to the ground at her feet.
"You've seen these before, Commander?" Nate asked as he wiped his sweaty brow with one arm and scowled down at the soot that came off with the moisture.
"Yes, in the Brecilian Forest during the blight. Only they weren't ablaze as these ones are."
She winced as Anders grabbed her hand and ran his long fingers over a fresh burn spanning the length of her forearm. She felt the warm, tingling sensation that always accompanied healing magic and sighed as the pain dissipated.
"Thanks," she murmured gratefully.
Anders' talents were Maker sent, or so she thought as she ran a finger down the pink-tinged skin that had just been charred flesh. It was times like these that she was reminded how lucky she was to have him. She watched as he moved first to Oghren and then to Nate, tending similar burns both received during the skirmish before mending his own wounds.
"If this keeps up, I'll be drained before we ever come across the darkspawn," Anders quipped cheerfully as he finished up his ministrations.
Alyx crouched beside the fallen sylvan and reached for her blade, still jutting from the tree's smoldering form. She winced and immediately pulled her hand back as the heated metal burned her fingertips. Digging through her pack, she found a well-worn, serviceable scarf crammed at the very bottom. She pulled it free and wound it around her hand, tying it in a knot to secure it before reaching for the blade once again. Her nostrils flared as the smell of smoke overwhelmed her senses. Between the trees and the caravans, she had a feeling it would be days before the stench escaped her.
Ever since they entered the Wending Wood they had been attacked first by bandits (there, she assumed, to pillage the destroyed caravans) and then by the crazed sylvans, which had initially been concentrating on said bandits. Nothing about the day's events thus far had made any sense.
"I don't think the darkspawn are responsible for this. If they are, then they have become far more clever than I ever gave them credit for," Alyx murmured as she straightened.
"There is something very strange about all of this, isn't there?" Nate replied, echoing her previous thought. "Responsible or not, there certainly are darkspawn in the area. I can sense them, but it's weak…like they're far away—"
"Or beneath us, more like," Alyx added with an approving nod. "Let's press forward. Perhaps we can find more answers further on."
They didn't have to wait long. They had barely crossed the rickety wooden bridge leading into an area of the wood heavily laden with Tevinter ruins when the pounding of frantic footsteps met Alyx's ears. A scrawny man in shabby leather armor turned the corner and rammed into her, nearly knocking her clean off her feet in the process.
"Out of my way!" the man growled in a harsh, uneducated voice.
Alyx opened her mouth to yell at the man to watch where he was going, but then she saw the fear in his eyes and stopped him instead.
"Calm down. Why are you fleeing?" she asked in a quiet voice as she grabbed his arm to prevent him from running.
"No! You don't understand! I have to get out of here! She's after me!" the man cried.
"Who's after you?" she asked, confused.
"The elf! She makes the trees come alive! All we wanted was some easy money from the caravans, but—"
"Another scavenger here to prey on the misfortunes of others?" a cool, smooth voice interrupted from the hilltop above them.
The petite form of a blonde elf appeared from out of the shadows of the ruins perched at the top of the peek. Judging by her clothing (what little of them that there were), the facial tattoos, and the proud tilt of her chin, Alyx guessed that the woman was Dalish.
"No. You are too well armed. Here for me then," the elf continued, crossing her arms in front of her chest as her expression grew utterly glacial. "You will not drive me from these forests. The shems could not do it, the darkspawn could not, and you will fare no better!"
"Why would I try to drive you away?" Alyx asked her as she mimicked the other woman's stance.
"Because your kind have been hounding me for months! They killed my people, and the merchants kidnapped my sister! The caravans are only the beginning. I want Seranni returned to me or more will die. Consider this a warning!"
And with that the elf disappeared with great theatricality, a sound akin to a bolt of lightning still reverberating in the air long after her departure.
"Neat trick," Anders said as he turned to shoot Alyx a goofy grin. "Do you think I could learn how to do that?"
"Sure. Let me just ask the angry elf to take time out of her vendetta-filled schedule to teach you how to properly disappear," she said dryly.
"Point taken," he replied, ducking his head to hide his answering grin.
They continued further up the path, fighting more bandits and sylvans along the way. Soon, they stumbled on the remains of a small Dalish camp. It looked abandoned, the few visible land-ships stripped of their wheels and any available goods destroyed or scattered across the ruins.
"Don't these Dalish travel in packs?" Oghren asked as he scratched his head. "What's with the tiny camp? And here—looks like there was a bit of a fight, but no bodies. Just all these weapons."
"There," Alyx replied softly, pointing to a line of carefully constructed burial mounds lined on the far side of the camp.
"I didn't know the Dalish buried their dead," Anders murmured.
"Nor did I," Alyx said in return.
"I don't know. Something smells here, Commander, and it isn't me," Oghren interjected.
"Who would just discard their weapons like this? It doesn't make any sense," Nate added as he crouched to take a closer look at the pile of abandoned weapons.
"Well, that's the rub, isn't it?" Alyx replied.
Nathaniel looked up at her and smiled, surprising her yet again as it did every time that he smiled at her. She wondered if she would ever get used to it.
"The darkspawn are gaining ground," he continued as he straightened and looked off into the distance.
"Shall we give them a warm welcome, then?" she replied with a devious smile of her own.
From that point on it seemed that everything in the wood was out to get them. They couldn't walk more than a few yards without yet another wild sylvan or a pack of wolves attacking them. Alyx was beginning to feel like they were walking in circles, yet they still hadn't run into any darkspawn. She was growing impatient when they found the evidence of infestation that they were looking for: a pit filled with dead, mutilated bodies.
"Gah!" Alyx grumbled as she pinched her nose in disgust. "I could've lived without ever experiencing this again."
"Glad to see some things don't change. Warms the heart, even," Anders replied cheekily.
"You are utterly ridiculous, you know that?" Nate growled, scowling at Anders.
"You mean ridiculously awesome, right?" Anders threw back.
"Enough. It is obvious that the darkspawn were here. Let's move—" Alyx began.
"Falcon," Oghren interrupted.
He was crouched a few feet away staring at the ground. He looked up at her and gestured for her to join him. When she kneeled beside him he pointed to the earth at their feet.
"Blood," she murmured, pressing her fingers to the earth and then rubbing them together. "Fresh, too."
"Leads off in that direction," he replied, looking off to the east.
Alyx blinked at him, noticing for the first time that Oghren was sober. Hmm, maybe I should hide his liquor stores, she thought, amazed at how much more perceptive he was when he wasn't three sheets to the wind. It reminded her that there was a time when Oghren had been considered the best and the brightest of the warrior caste. Some of his former colleagues had been heard to say that he had once been a brilliant tactician as well as a formidable fighter on the battlefield. Then Branka had left and his world fell apart. Grimacing, she realized that she wasn't helping the situation by allowing him to overindulge, but she also knew that pushing him to quit would most likely have the opposite effect. She couldn't really blame him either. There were times when she seriously considered falling into a bottle head first as he had, but then her responsibilities would always bring her firmly back to reality.
"Good job, Oghren," she told him as she slapped him on the back good-naturedly before standing and brushing off her knees.
They followed the trail of blood down a winding dirt path, the splatters growing into full-blown puddles by the time they found yet another camp in a small clearing.
"Oh no," Alyx whispered as she spotted the single man sprawled by the fire.
He wore blood-stained splintmail and though alive, had all the telltale signs of the darkspawn taint.
"Poor sod," Anders said in a low voice beside her. "Do you want to put him out of his misery or shall I?"
"Let's just—see if he's lucid enough to answer some questions first," she replied once she swallowed the pity that rose into her throat at the sight of the suffering man.
She walked towards him slowly, deliberately, so as to not frighten him needlessly. Yet when she crouched beside him he still nearly jumped out of his skin.
"Don't! Just…stay away from me! Don't come near…" the man hissed as he attempted to scoot away from her.
"Shhh, it's alright. We're not here to harm you. We're Grey Wardens," she said in a calm, soothing tone. "What's your name, soldier?"
"Name? I…have a name, but I can't…" he ground out, every word painfully forced between his cracked lips as his body shook from the taint in his blood.
"What happened? Why were you here?" she asked him slowly so that he could understand her words.
"Militia…came to in-investigate…We…were ripped apart…biting claws and teeth from the darkness and…then I woke…flesh and bone and gristle under me…around me. Everyone dead…dead, soft meat melting into the ground. I…I crawled away…came here. Can't stand to see…it…"
"Did you kill the elves?" she persisted.
"No. No. Darkspawn came first. They slaughtered us…took our steel. Brought it to the elven camp. Tricked us…tricked elf. Now…she thinks we are to blame. Hunts all in her rage…while they watch…"
"So…all these people died over a…misunderstanding?" Anders interjected, his voice laced with shock and anger. "Maker…that's horrible! We have to stop her, tell her she's wrong! Do you think she's back at her camp?"
"The dark ones are curious about you, too," the man continued, ignoring Anders. "They watch as well as her. Can you feel them?"
Even as he said this, she could feel the all-too familiar vibration creeping across her skin. They were close…too close.
"Where did the darkspawn come from?" she asked him.
"Beneath…around…from shadows…" he wheezed out between deep, haggard breaths of air, milky eyes darting everywhere.
"Do you know anything about the elf's sister?"
"Sister? I…have a sister…do I? Elf-sister? No…we did not take her. Probably dead…or eaten."
Or currently pumping out baby darkspawn as we speak, she thought grimly, remembering the broodmother they found in the deep roads. She shuddered at the mere thought of such a fate.
"This disease will kill you, you know," she said softly, turning sympathetic eyes back towards the man.
"Am already dead. Am already gone. Make…make an end…please," he breathed, his eyes begging her.
Alyx closed her eyes for a moment, knowing what she had to do, but hating that she had to take this poor man's life. Hesitantly, she pulled her dirk from her belt holster. Though small, the dagger was her sharpest blade. It would make his death both quicker and cleaner for the both of them. She gently cupped the back of his head with one hand and leaned over to whisper in his ear.
"Maker have mercy on you." Then with a flick of her wrist it was over. She promptly wiped the blade clean and placed it back in its holster.
"Uh…Commander? We're about to have company," Anders called from behind her.
Turning, she saw the first of the darkspawn melting from out of the shadows. The others noticed as well, but it was too late. They were surrounded.
*Muse Tunes:"The First Ambush" by John Williams (Patriot OST) and "Cursed by Beauty" by Tyler Bates (300 OST).