I know! I know! I've been gone forever, and I'm sorry! Things pile up, y'konw...? Anyhow, I got some done for you guys, and I'll up date again ASAP! Thanks for all your interest!

The man was fairly tall, with blonde, rugged hair and dusky brown eyes. His smile was bright enough to be seen from the entrance, in fact Amelia was surprised that she hadn't. She looked over him. 'At least he's cute... if he's even the right guy...'

"I know exactly what you mean." Amelia sighed sarcastically.

"It's like a party! We could all get in a circle and join hands... Now THAT would give the darkspawn something to think about!"

The man laughed for a moment, then looked Amelia over once more. "Sorry, have we met? You wouldn't happen to be another mage would you?"

She grinned "Maybe, maybe not... 'think I'll hex you or something?"
"Sort of... I like to know my chances of being turned into a toad at any given moment..."

Amelia laughed again., then she properly introduced herself. "I'm Amelia Coss...Cousland... I'm uh, a new recruit, I guess."

"Amelia? Hmm..." He thought for a moment. "Sorry, but when Duncan left a while back, I could have sworn he said he was looking for an Ellisa Cousland..." Amelia stood quietly and nervously for a moment. "Maker!" He finally said, "my memory must be terrible! Sorry about that! I'm Alistair..." She gave an inward, relieved sigh. It seemed this was the Alistair she was looking for.

"...As the junior Grey Warden, I'll be accompanying you in your joining with the other two recruits, have you met them? No? Well, I'm sure we'll see them somewhere around here..." He looked her over a third time before meeting her eyes with his, quickly looking away and changing the subject. "You know, it's just struck me that there have never been many women in the Grey Wardens... I wonder why that is..."

Amelia raised an eyebrow, "Maybe they saved room for the best, I can uh... handle myself better than most, y'know."

Alistair smiled, "I'm getting that impression." The pair sat in silence for a never ending moment until Alistair spoke again, "Well, unless you have any questions, we should get moving."

"Nope, none. I look forward to working with you, Alistair."

He blinked a few times, "Really? Huh... that's a switch... Anyway, if you need anything let me know, otherwise, we should head back to Duncan now."

The pair walked together through the camp and back to Duncan. "I'm curious," Alistair pondered aloud as the travelled. "Have you ever seen a darkspawn before?" Amelia thought.

'That was those things I saw in the alley... right?' She chuckled anxiously, "Uh...yeah. I think so. They where... not pleasant."

"Indeed" Alistair agreed, "I'll never forget the first time I saw one, it was truly... Monstrous."

"Yup."

Finally, they reached Duncan's camp. It was there that she met Ser Jury and David, two other new recruits. They were told that they where to enter the near by forest, otherwise known as "the wilds" and collect three vials of darkspawn blood. Then they where to locate an old Grey Warden base where they would find a collection of old treaties that where likely to come in handy later. Duncan wished them luck, and the recruits where led by Alistair to the Wilds to begin their joining.

Two thoughts came quickly to Amelia as she stood there in the wilds, looking at the devastation, at the monsters the were responsible and quickly approaching. One; She hated being dragged into all this, and two; she hated darkspawn twice as much as that.

Even so, the group quickly tore their way through the small drove. It was after slice number six to the stomach from one of the little short things that she was finally grateful for the tight, slightly constricting leather armour with far too much cleavage for her liking, that Duncan had allowed her to change into before heading out.

The collected their blood and marched on towards the old, crumbling tower. Now in a bad mood the her stomach hurt and her hair smelled like the wrong end of a very sick donkey, Amelia stomped past the others and searched for the cache of Grey Warden goods. It wasn't hard to find, stuck out like a sore thumb. A bright, wooden and completely destroyed crate lay before them. Amelia groaned, rolled her eyes, and began searching for any trace of the now officially missing documents when she heard an unfamiliar voice coo from behind her.

"Well, well, well... What have we here?"