A Tale of Two Wardens
Chapter 5 – The Ruins of Ostagar

Her shield swung out, sending the wooden sparring sword flying out of the soldier's hand and into the dirt, at the same time she thrust forward, pressing her sword into his throat. "Next!" Lara yelled and set her shield down against a slab of ancient stone before grabbing a waterskin. Ever since they got to Ostagar in the middle of the night, she had been having a hard time sleeping, so she followed the other soldiers to do some sparring. "I swear to the maker..." She groaned aloud and set the waterskin down just as Theron came walking up with Reilly in tow. The two of them had gotten close along the trip, mostly since she spent the road with her head hanging low. "Hey you two," she whispered as Reilly came trundling up the stairs to where she had been sparring and almost tackled her down, the Mabari whimpering sadly the whole time. "Hey Reilly...mommy is ok," she whispered but the words were weak and shaky, she just couldn't put her spirit into them.

"You should've seen it, when one of the guards insisted that I bring him to the kennel, he nearly tore the guy's arm off. He ended up having breakfast down at the Grey Warden's table with us, that was an interesting sight," Theron chuckled before his eyes fall on hers and he saw the underlying sadness. "You should meet with the other Wardens, some of them are really interesting," he added on with a sigh, running his fingers through his hair. The trip down from Highever had been painful, seeing Lara so devastated, understandably so….made his struggles almost seem small in comparison. What didn't help was when she nearly knocked the down the king while rushing off in tears when he met the group and immediately recognized Lara as Teyrn Cousland's daughter.

"Maybe later on..." She sighed and kissed Reilly's wet nose before walking off when suddenly Theron piped up. "Oh maker, I almost forgot. Duncan wanted me to pass along a message. He wants you to go find his new Warden Alistair, he was doing something for the revered mother so he wasn't at camp. I'm going off after the other recruits, Dory and Javeth or somethin'" he shrugged and made his way up the stairs with Lara. "It's such a peaceful view..." He said and leant his body against the ancient stone wall while looking out into the distant field. "Where do you think the Darkspawn are?" He asked, turning to look at Lara.

"Underground? I'm not sure if they even make camp? Do they eat?" Lara shrugged and looked down at her boots. "It's scary...but we're going to learn quick...we have to," she added on. "Maker you aren't wrong..." He sighed and they stand there quietly as Reilly began to whimper. "I should get going, I'll see you by the Fire pit near the exit to the Wilds," Theron said and walked off, running his fingers through his hair again before walking up to a Knight and swiping his coin purse. "Old habits die hard..." He chuckled and walked off to the part of the camp made into a hospital.

"Reilly, did we do the right thing?" Lara asked as the two of them walk past a chantry sister preaching from atop a set of wooden gallows. Reilly looked up at her, tilting his head to the side and Lara just chuckled, "You know what I'm talking about oaf….Mother and father…" she whispered and Reilly pressed his warm auburn body to her side and licked her hand, as if he was telling her that everything will be ok. "Well I'm glad you're optimistic, now let's go find this Alistair" she chuckled and the two of them walked off together through the massive camp.

The infirmary was a small series of cots with a few men lying back, covered in bandages and whimpering in pain from the poison of Darkspawn blood, most of them unconscious but one man was struggling against the woman helping him down. The man was ranting and raving, "The spawn….they're everywhere, they'll kill us all!" The man raved while Theron slowly walked over to sit at the man's bedside. "Calm down ser, there are Grey wardens here…I'm a new recruit, we're gonna fight the darkspawn," he assured but the man was beyond help, his eyes darting all around the infirmary. "Thank you ser Warden, but he just needs rest," the woman whispered and finally got the man to lay down. Theron was just about to make his way to the blacksmith when suddenly a large man with a greatsword at his back walked over. "Excuse me, elf, did you mention being a recruit for the Wardens? I wasn't aware an elf could be Grey Warden," the man asked, the implication of his statement made Theron's hair bristle on end. "Now, excuse me…shem…" he started to say before turning around and shaking his head. "Duncan warned you about this Theron…you've spent your life among mainly elves, some humans are just inconsiderate," He thought to himself before turning around. "Of course an Elf can be a Grey Warden, who are you to even ask that?" Theron snapped, his anger seeping through his words some when surprisingly, the man stepped back and raised his hands in apology. "Apologies, friend, my name is Jory, I just was not expecting the new recruit to be an elf," he said before Theron sighed in defeat. "Ah Jory, yes….Lara and I just arrived this morning, Duncan told me to find you and the other one…do you happen to know where he is?"

The images of Father and Mother ran through her head while she walked, barely aware of the soldiers around her, Reilly leading her along with his body pressed to her leg. "Bryce…we've made a good life for our children, it is time for them live…" Her mother whispered, just enough for Lara to hear while Theron dragged her away. "I love you, Elie," Father said…using his rarely used nickname for mother from their youth. Suddenly the images were broken and her body was knocked to the ground by a dark skinned man in a set of red robes. "Oi! Watch where you're going!" Lara snapped at him but the man simply scoffed, his eyes focused off at someone in the distance. "I shall go see the woman if I must, now all of you, out of my way!" he barked and left. Reilly started growling at the man who was clearly a mage, judging by the crystalline silver staff on his back, held up by a small leather belt. "And here I thought we were getting along!" The man the mage was barking at suddenly spoke just as she felt a warm hand meet hers. The hand was calloused, that of a warrior…she recognized it, it was just like all the men from the castle, even from her father…an acclaimed warrior in his youth. "I don't think I'm cut out for this Grey Warden stuff if a random man can knock me down," Lara chuckled weakly before looking up to see a chiseled face with warm inviting amber eyes, looking down at hers. "Grey Warden?" The man asked before his face went all red and his hand slipped out of hers. "Oh my, you must be the new recruit from Highever, I was told that Duncan was interested in a woman from around there," he commented. "So…Duncan truly did come for me," Lara thought to herself before looking at the man, "Yes, I am her, Lara Cou-, Lara, just Lara," She introduced herself and the man chuckled, "Well that makes me just Alistair then, Alistair the bastard to my friends." "So you're Alistair, Theron told me that I was supposed to find you, looks like the maker set me this way," Lara giggled slightly. "That's me alright, the end of the maker's path, shame the maker's path seemed to be full of rude mages," Alistair teased.

"That must be Daveth…" Theron thought to himself as he watched the smarmy man starting up a conversation with a knight who clear wasn't having it. "Ah well come on, next time we can shack up and you can claim to have been with a full-fledged Grey Warden!" Daveth called out as she walked off. Forcing back his bile, he made his way down the stairs to where Daveth was resting against a pillar beside the blacksmith, "Nice show there," Theron commented as Daveth turns around, "It's all a part of my charm you see? She'll come running back in no time," Daveth replied, causing Theron to chuckle. "If you say so, now...down to business, my name is Theron, I'm one of the recruits Duncan brought back with him," Theron explained as Daveth chuckles, "And here I was hoping we would have a pretty blond with bad eyesight." Theron rolled his eyes, "I did come with another, a girl from Highever, Lara," he said and before Daveth could say anything, "Don't—"Theron began to say before looking into the distance at Lara with a tall blond man, wearing the blue and grey mail of the Grey Wardens and the two of them were laughing, Reilly in tow behind them. "Well….this Alistair must be a charming fellow…" Theron thought to himself as Reilly ran over and pressed his body to Theron's.

An hour later, the crew was assembled around a fire pit, Duncan in the center wearing his Grey Warden armor. "When do we get a pair of such fabulous armor?" Daveth asked as Jory stood quiet, oddly fiddling his thumbs and avoiding contact with Lara. "After the joining ritual," Duncan explained and everyone went quiet. "What is this ritual?" Lara asked, "I heard you and Theron briefly talk about it along the road but you wouldn't tell us anymore." Duncan clears his throat, "The Joining ritual is what makes a warden a warden, I will not elaborate on it now and Alistair knows not to answer any questions on the matter either, but now, your mission." Over the next few minutes Duncan elaborated on the recruit's job, under the leadership of Alistair. They had to go into the Korcari Wilds around Ostagar and receive a vial of Darkspawn Blood each, as well as reach an ancient outpost and get some ancient treaties. "Easy enough," Theron said as they finished going over the plans. "Lara, your mabari should stay here," Duncan asked and Reilly huffed in annoyance before walking over to Duncan's side and sitting down with a huff. "Well well Reilly…Theron and now Duncan, you seem to just be listening to everyone all of a sudden," Lara commented and it couldn't help but make Theron smile, she was atleast smiling again.

"We'll all leave in an hour, so pick up any supplies as needed," Alistair announced before turning to Theron. "I got to meet everyone else except you," he says and holds out his hand. "Pleasure," Theron said in return until Alistair started laughing and awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck, "You seem to have a good head on your shoulders, I'm not much more of a recruit myself, I had my joining ritual less than a year ago," He commented and Theron looked up at him. "Well it seems like we're nearly all in the same position then, I don't know much about this area…I'm from the Denerim Alienage, as you can imagine…we uh…don't get out much," Theron explained, going quiet at the end, not wanting a similar reaction to what Jory said. "I figured that, I spoke to Duncan some, he said he knew your mother? Well you must've impressed him for him to recruit you on the spot like that, I had to fail in a Grand Tourney," Alistair joked and Theron breathed a sigh of relief, obviously Duncan hadn't mentioned what happened in Denerim.

"Excuse me!" A voice called out from behind Lara and Reilly as they walked to the blacksmith, the voice come from the kennels. "Yes?" Lara asked, turning around as Reilly yipped at the other Mabari. "You have a mabari of your own…so this is important to you," the Kennel Master said as he walked over. "And a Grey Warden recruit at that," he commented. "We have a sick Mabari here…ingested Darkspawn blood," he explained and Lara gasped. "I heard Darkspawn blood could be poisonous…but I never even thought about…" she whispered and looked at Reilly. "Is there something that can be done?" She asked and he nods, handing her a small slip of paper. "If you go out into the wilds and find the flower on that page, bring some back to me and I can show you how to make a poultice," he explains.

"That's it?" Theron said while still talking to Alistair, waiting for the others to return. "That's it? That can't be it…the archdemon is killed just by lobbing its head off?" Theron asked, not believing what Alistair said. "Well I mean….there may be more than that, and we don't know if this is a real blight…but that's it," he assured Theron as Lara came over. "Ah Lara," Alistair smiled and Lara blushed softly. "You haven't seen Lara fight…your Templar training might be good but you might be up for a challenge," Theron commented while watching the two of them. "I believe it, you have the body of a warrior," Alistair said before blushing when it hit him about what he said. "I'm not saying that you aren't womanly, it it….it is just the scar on your cheek, obvious sword cut," he stammered out, stumbling over his words when Lara started laughing. "Try again…I'll take it as a compliment though," she chuckled and the three of them start laughing.

Finally, Daveth and Jory finally arrived at their meeting point and the five of them left for the entrance to the wilds, weapons ready for whatever they would face there.