At First Blush

He stared at her, he couldn't help it. He was trying to decide if she was breath taking because she was beautiful or terrifying.

She was tall, about as tall as he was; she stood there in black armor. It was nearly as black as her hair which seemed to have blue streaks it was so black and currently it was up in a severe ponytail high on the back of her head. Her eyes were disconcerting; they were a deep blue and purple seemingly at the same time.

She also had a tattoo, its color also was a little difficult to discern it had a purple tint, but it also seemed slightly grey. The tattoo itself was beautiful, it looked like she had a crescent of lace in an arc across her forehead from eyebrow to eyebrow, between her eyes and traveling a ways down her nose was what looked like a flame. There were two lightly curled lines traveling from each corner of her mouth straight back and ending below her ears. Two more lines ran from the middle of her bottom lip down and under her chin. Her skin was a beautiful caramel color.

He couldn't wait until this tedious mage was gone, he really wanted to know who she was and was afraid she would leave before he could talk to her. At long last the mage stormed off in a huff. He turned to the striking woman and looked at her full on finally and realized she was remarkably curvy under that armor. And that armor, it was like nothing he had ever seen before. It was black leather, which was generally meant to be for a rogue but instead of the traditional rogue armor it had long sleeves and trousers instead of the traditional short sleeves and the battle skirt. He briefly wondered how she would be able to move in it.

He blushed furiously when he saw that she was smirking at him.

"Like what you see?" She was full out smiling now.

"I ..I was looking at your armor; I've never seen anything like it."

She raised her eyebrows and smirked again, she clearly didn't believe him. She briefly thought about picking on him some more, but was so grateful that he had made her smile and forget, for even a moment the painful events of the recent past she decided to be honest with him.

"It was made for me, a gift from my parents."

He noticed how she darted her eyes away from him for a second and then right back, but decided not to say anything about it. She seemed incongruously a little sad now instead of smug. "Did they get you those great weapons too?" he said noticing the silverite daggers at her hips.

She misunderstood and pulled out the long swords on her back, holding them out so he could see them. "Yeah, once they realized I was learning to fight one way or another they became pretty supportive. My ma even taught me some of her skills. She was amazing considering she hadn't fought in so long." She smiled at him, hoping he wouldn't notice that all she wanted to do was cry.

It suddenly dawned on him that he had no idea who he was talking to. "I'm so sorry where are my manners. I'm Alistair, would you mind if I asked your name?" he queried as he handed back the beautiful Dragonbone swords feeling a little sad for having to relinquish those pieces of deadly art.

Her eyes brightened at his question. "I'm Sareyna, and I was looking for you."

He knitted his brows in confusion for a moment and then it suddenly made sense, the great armor, the beautiful and deadly weapons. "Oh right, you're the new recruit. Did Duncan send you after me?"

"Yes, he says we have to get ready for the Joining."

"Alright we should head back then, and before you ask, I'll answer any questions except about the Joining."

Her smile faltered but only for a second and then that smirk came back. "You're going to regret saying that, I can ask a lot of questions."

Alistair was relieved when they arrived at Duncan's fire. True to her word, she had peppered him with questions all the way back. He had wanted to ask a few but had never had the chance. Her questions were all sensible questions, nothing frivolous so he had been saved from that at least. She was keenly intelligent and understood battles better than he did. As such he wasn't able to answer all her questions. It hadn't seemed to faze her, and as an extra blessing she didn't mock or belittle him when he couldn't answer her.

He was really struggling with keeping his distance from her emotionally. He didn't want to get close with any of the recruits in case they didn't make it through the Joining. His stomach clenched as he remember his own Joining.

As soon as Duncan had briefed them on what they would be doing Sareyna disappeared into her tent. She came out with a pack on her back. Alistair looked at her quizzically.

She noticed his gaze and shrugged. "Its poultices and the like, I want to be prepared for anything."

"Well you know I wasn't planning on going empty handed. As a Grey Warden I have seen the results of battle before." His lips twitched as he tried not to smile. Something about this woman brought out the smart alec in him, not that it needed much prompting in truth.

The Kocari Wilds was an interesting trip. Sareyna was in fact a rogue, an extremely, fast and agile one. It made their trip a lot shorter than he had anticipated and things went off without much of a hitch. That was until that sniping witch showed up. He rankled at the very thought of her. At any rate, much to his chagrin, while he and the other men were a bit nervous about the witch, Sareyna had been polite and had quickly procured the documents they had been sent after. They even received an escort back to Ostagar. He had to admit, the escort had made the trip back much quicker.

The Joining had been a total disaster they lost two out of the three recruits. Alistair was feeling terribly guilty. He had been very relieved that Sareyna had been the recruit to survive; he knew it was wrong but he hadn't really liked either Jory or Daveth.

Daveth had been a lecher and could not give up on picking pockets; Maker knows why Duncan had recruited him. Jory was even worse, he whined constantly and when push came to shove in the Wilds he had frozen in the first fight until Alistair had shouted at him.

While Sareyna had been passed out after the Joining Duncan had filled Alistair in on what had happened to Sareyna's family. Alistair wasn't sure why Rendon Howe would want to kill Sareyna's family since he didn't know who her family was and Duncan didn't seem willing to elaborate. Perhaps in time she would tell him. Duncan had only given Alistair that much information because Alistair had commented on how she had suddenly turned from amused to sad earlier when she mentioned her family. Duncan had also made it very clear Alistair was not to pry. He had no problem with that, Maker knew he had a pretty big secret of his own.

When Sareyna had come around Duncan and Alistair were both there. Alistair gave her a pendant to honor those who had not made it. She wondered if she would be able to wear it without feeling guilty. Duncan then sent Alistair back to the fire as King Cailan had wanted to speak to Duncan and her.

When Sareyna had first seen him earlier all she could think was that she needed to tell him about her family and have Cailan fix it. Now she was struck by how handsome he was in his gleaming armor.

"Lady Cousland." Cailan was smiling and then bowed to her dropping a wink.

"You're Majesty." She said nodding back.

"Come on now you know better, call me Cailan." He took her hand and kissed it.

Sareyna pulled her hand back, but was still smiling. "And it's just 'Reyna now, I'm a Grey Warden."

"Ah, yes I had heard congratulations were in order."

"Thank you, Cailan. Shall we?" She nodded to Loghain who was obviously irritated at being made to wait. Cailan was clearly not taking this battle seriously. She was irritated by how dense he seemed to be. She thought that if she were king and had at her disposal the knowledge and expertise of the man who had helped her father drive the Orlesians from Ferelden after they had occupied Ferelden for 70 years she would probably listen to them. Also, she would not be disrespectful to him.

Cailan had stated that she and Alistair would be lighting the signal fire in the top of the tower. She felt this was a total waste of her and Alistair's talent but did not argue. She had learned a few things when her mother was trying so desperately to make her a lady. She almost teared up thinking about her mother. She replaced the pain with anger, and once again it sustained her.

Alistair was upset about missing out on the battle and he was not shy about saying it. Duncan advised him that it was the king's request. Alistair's face twitched, the whole thing tightened up and then it relaxed again just as quickly.

"Just so you know, if the King ever asks me to put on a dress and dance the Remigold, I'm drawing the line. Darkspawn or no." He watched Duncan try and be annoyed. The corners of Duncan's lips turned up and then he stopped when he heard Sareyna tell Alistair.

"Really, I would like to see that." She smirked at him.

"Well maybe for you but only if it's a pretty dress." Alistair replied. At this Duncan rolled his eyes and then cleared his throat to get their attention back. He realized he had probably recruited the only other person in Ferelden who was as smart mouthed as Alistair. He was hoping that maybe the two of them could help each other, neither one of them really had a family to speak of.

Duncan had both of them to gather their equipment before heading out. It was better to be mobile in case they needed to leave quickly. As they were packing their respective packs Alistair couldn't help himself.

"What kind of leather is your armor made from, it is so black and so flexible, but is obviously very strong. I've never seen anything like it."

She wasn't sure if she wanted to answer him at first, he might get an idea of who she was, but then she realized he had already seen her weapons, which clearly were not cheap either. "It's high dragon hide."

Alistair's eye went wide. "Really, I didn't realize armor could be made from dragon hide. It's beautiful." And expensive he thought to himself. Between her weapons and her armor whoever she was her family clearly had a lot of money, or rather they used to as they were all dead now except for her.

They walked back to Duncan, she was walking a bit in front of Alistair and he was looking at her armor more and more fascinated with how it moved with her. He then realized he wasn't staring so much at her armor as he was her backside. Alistair blushed furiously and concentrated on the ground until they reached Duncan, he hoped his blush was gone, although he felt hot all over. Alistair was grateful when Duncan started talking as soon as they reached him.

Duncan outlined the battle plan for Alistair who had not been at the meeting with Cailan and then sent the two of them on their way while he joined the rest of the Wardens and the king on the battlefield.