Author's Note: This particular fanfiction will end up playing a vital role in A Pirate's Proposal, so read up! I hope you enjoy my little stretch of things that could have been in Thedas. Also I once had this story include Arya Fallon's origins, but I think I'll just make a separate fanfic for that.

Disclaimer: Bioware owns all.

Origins: Hawke and the Wilds

Chapter 1: The Mage and The Noblewoman

In another village, further south in the lands of Ostagar, resided another rambunctious child, and another family that defied the Chantry's strict laws. A girl cautiously opened a sturdy wooden door, and poked in her head–a head full of twigs and leaves. She carefully slid through the small crack in the door and began to tip toe to one of the room on the far end of the hallway.

"Marian."

The lanky girl stopped dead in her tracks and slowly turned her head to see her mother standing right behind her. She wasn't sure how her mother had managed to sneak up on her; she must have been an assassin in another life.

"Aren't you supposed to be asleep in bed?" Leandra cocked one eyebrow. "Unless…" she silently counted to three and heard the whimpers of an animal nearby. "Marian…" her mother groaned as she went to the door and found a small Mabari pup on their porch.

"I found her in the Wilds!" Marian exclaimed as she followed her mother to the door and picked up the pup. "Isn't she beautiful?"

"In the Wilds! Marian, you know you aren't to play near there, especially not at the twilight hours!" She lightly scolded the young girl, but then resumed a rather tender tone. "Anyways, we can't keep a dog. It's enough feeding your father, you and your brother and sister." Leandra tried to keep her gaze from falling on the rather adorable Mabari.

"But mother, she'll die if left alone out there." Marian clutched the pup to her chest. "She likes taking walks; that's all we were doing right before I came back. I promise I'll take care of her." The child pleaded; her piercing blue eyes sparkled with tears.

"It looks like she took you for a walk." Leandra chuckled as she pulled out a twig from her child's unruly hair. "When your father returns from his trip, we'll see what he has to say about this, but I can't promise anything."

"Thank you, Mother!" Her tears quickly vanished, regardless of the lack of guarantee, and she smiled widely up at her mother before taking off with her pup to the room she shared with Bethany.

"Come on little Feros! Bethany is going to be so happy to meet you!"

The young mage held up the pup to her face and giggled at the licks it was planting on her face. She placed Feros on the floor beside Bethany's bed, and gently nudged her younger sister.

"Beth, Beth, wake up" She whispered, "I have something to show you."

The small child of 5 murmured something in her sleep before she could begin to open her eyes. The younger girl looked dozily at her elder sister and yawned as she wrapped her arms around Marian's neck only to pull her in for a hug.

"What, sis?" The girl nestled in the crevice of Marian's neck.

"Don't fall back asleep silly girl, look what I brought home." She pulled away slightly so that Bethany could see the pup on the floor.

"A puppy!" Bethany squealed and climbed out of bed to hold the puppy.

Feros hopped into the small girls arms and allowed the younger mage to pet her lovingly. Bethany giggled as Feros tried to lick her face, and turned to Marian.

"Mama let you keep her?"

"Not yet, but I won't give her up." Marian grinned with confidence as she petted the pup and calmed her down. "Let's go show Carver."

"Show me what?" A small boy walked into the room while rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"Baby brother!" Marian smiled as Feros charged at the young Hawke. "Watch out!" But the warning came too late, and the small pup tackled the young boy to the wooden floor.

"Ah!" Carver shielded his face from Feros' lapping tongue. "Sis, help me!"

Hawke hurried over and picked an affectionate Feros off of her brother. She laughed and patted the pups head until she emitted a yawn and and snuggled in Marian's shirt. Carver picked himself up and eyed the puppy with big, round eyes–he had always wanted a pup.

"Can we keep him?" Carver asked and looked up at his eldest sister.

"I think Father will say yes." Marian held the pup tenderly and placed a small kiss on her forehead.

"Oh will I now?" A booming voice entered the room much to the children's surprise.

"Father!" Marian ran to him with Feros held tight. "Welcome home!" She exclaimed as he picked her up with ease.

"Pa!" The twins ran at him and each latched on to a leg.

Leandra smiled at the scene before her, and knew their home was complete now that her husband and father to her children had returned. He had been out healing a very sick child of a family that had helped them on their voyage from Kirkwall–a journey that had been difficult and dangerous.

"How are my little apostates doing?" He ruffled Marian and Bethany's hair. "And how about my mighty stick warrior?" He knelt down and kissed all three of them on their foreheads. "And who is this?" He eyed the pup in Marian's arms.

"Her name is Feros," Marian lifted the sleepy pup to her father's face. The pup whined but then lazily licked her father's cheek. "She's a good pup." Marian vouched for the tiny mabari.

"This is a mabari, Marian, do you know what that means?"

Marian looked into the clear blue eyes of her father and made her own clear blue eyes just as hard and stern as his were. She didn't know what difference it made that Feros was a mabari, but she didn't want to seem unprepared to take care of her pup. She shook her head and hugged Feros close to her. Feros let out a yawn and snuggled against Marian's shirt until she fell asleep.

"It means that she's already imprinted on you; it wouldn't matter if I said you couldn't keep her; she'd always follow you around anyways." He grinned and pet the sleeping pup.

"I can keep her then?" Marian was elated as she looked at both her parents.

"You will be responsible for training her and taking care of her." Marian's father stood back up next to Leandra. "What say you dear?"

"A mabari," Leandra sighed, "of all the pets; your grandparents would be ecstatic." Leandra lightly chuckled as she thought of her noble parents and her very sheltered upbringing. She honestly missed their company, and quickly veered her thoughts before the sadness could set in. "I will allow it, as long as you all get to bed and take care of her properly."

The children squealed in joy, but with a slight cough from their father, they all remembered that they were supposed to head to bed. Instead of returning to his room, Carver joined his sisters in their shared bed so that he could also sleep with the pup. Leandra chuckled at the image before her. The bed was barely big enough to fit all three children, but they all seemed perfectly content as they drifted off to sleep.

The adults exited the room and returned to their own. Leandra lay on the bed and watched as her husband shed his clothes and rinsed his face in the washing bin. When Leandra had first met the apostate mage, she had thought him to be a warrior of some sort–he was tall, with broad shoulders and muscles all around. Not to mention, he carried two blades with him instead of a staff. It wasn't until later that he revealed to her that not all mages were limited to staffs, and that he was, what the Dalish called, an arcane warrior.

"How was the child?" Leandra asked as he lay beside her.

"He was very weak when I arrived," he laced his arms around his wife as he said so. "I used every healing tactic I knew of but… he didn't make it."

"Malcolm... I'm so sorry, love." She felt his arms tighten around her.

"Magic can't fix everything."

Leandra held her husband and knew he would have a sleepless night regardless of how worn out he was from the trip.