Disclaimer: Dragon Age and it's characters belong to Bioware. Only Aithne is my creation.

9:12 Dragon Age

Aithne walks along the dusty road, dragging her feet lethargically. She is tired, hot and thirsty but happy to have done well at the market and to have some coin to take home to her father. Either side of the road stretch fields of wilting crops, the result of a prolonged drought that has made it a hard summer for all the farming families in the region. The utter stillness of the late afternoon is broken by the cawing of a bird of prey. As the sun sinks down towards the horizon, the heat of the day starts to abate and Aithne picks up her pace, suddenly aware that she needs to get home before the light fades and the uneven road becomes difficult to navigate.

As Aithne continues on, a sense of unease encroaches upon her, and a sixth sense tells her to look behind her. She glances back along the road without breaking her stride. A man is silhouetted against the glaring light of the setting sun, but she cannot make out who it is. An unconscious fear prompts her to pick up the pace a little, aware that she is carrying a tidy sum and that she may have been noticed selling her wares at the market. She stumbles on, tired feet breaking into a brisk walk. After a few minutes a glance over her shoulder reveals that the gap between her and the stranger has closed. Intuition cuts in and Aithne breaks into a sprint. The stranger immediately breaks into a run behind her. Gripped with panic, she turns into one of the fields, hoping that she might lose her pursuer among the tall crops, but the tightly packed stems only slow her down. Before she knows it, the stranger has caught up to her and is grabbing her arm, twisting her around and pushing her to the ground. The coins fly from her pockets. Terrified, she cannot speak, but struggles wildly, earning a punch to the face as he grabs the rest of the money, scrabbling around in the dirt for coins that have already been dropped. Aithne thinks of how her family are depending on this money. Her gut knots, and despite the obvious superior strength and size of her assailant she screams and thrashes in desperation. To her amazement as well as his, a force surges within her, drawing sparks that leap from her fingers, burning his face as she claws at him. He yelps in surprise and pain and slaps her, hard. Her head spins. She cannot get up for a moment and when she does the stranger has already picked up the money and taken off across the field. She is dazed but manages to stand up, although her legs are shaking.

As if from a dream, another figure appears from the road. A striking man with long dark hair charges into the field on horseback. It is rare to see a horse in Ferelden, and she is mesmerized by the scene. The dark-haired man easily catches up with the thief, felling him with a single blow from horseback and then dismounting and disappearing from view as they scuffle among the long stems of the crops. After a few minutes there is silence. Aithne cannot see what is happening and so she stands, stunned and quite unable to move.

It seems like an eternity until the dark-haired man stands up. His gaze seeks her out and he quickly covers the distance between them. Wide eyed she waits, frozen to the spot as he approaches. When he reaches her he falls to one knee in front of her, to bring himself down to her level. She takes a stumbling step backwards, eyeing him fearfully through her tears. He fumbles for a moment and pulls a handful of coins from his pocket, holding them out to her, waiting for her to approach him. She looks at him in amazement and stifles her sobs. He tells her that he won't hurt her, that he will take her home and that she will be safe now. Moving towards him, her trembling hands accept the money. His piercing blue eyes hold hers and concern furrows his brow. He tells her that his name is Loghain. She glances towards the road and sees more men on horses, presumably waiting for him. Loghain dispatches his men to turn in the thief, lifts Aithne up onto his horse, wraps a strong arm around her and takes her the rest of the short journey home.

He might have berated her family for letting a 10 year old girl be out alone so far from home, but when he sees that her father is blind, he understands the desperation that has driven them to this. For a fleeting moment his gaze rests upon her, his hand strokes her hair and then he mounts his steed and is gone.

It will be 18 years before Aithne sees Loghain Mac Tir again.