Dragon Age Origins: I Am Cousland

Chapter 3: The Joining

Chapter 3: The Joining

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"Well doesn't this just look homely." Alistair said smiling at me, the grass was dead; everything was twisted by what Alistair called the taint. I walked onward trying not to think about the monsters that probably surrounded us.

"How many vials do we need?" I asked Alistair.

"Two or three for each person. It shouldn't be a hard task, just be prepared for how monstrous the darkspawn are." He looked ahead at the path we were following, just like Duncan did.

"Why do we have to get darkspawn blood, why couldn't it be 'find the colorful flower' or I dunno something to that effect." Ser Jory said nervously, though I could tell he was trying to lighten the mood of it all, I gave him a reassuring smile.

"Because it's necessary for the joining! which.. I can't talk about right now so stop looking at me like that." Alistair ran his fingers through his hair.

"Do you see that?" I said sharply stringing my bow, "I swear I saw something moving on the path up ahead." Alistair looked at the path then arched his eyebrow at me. I rolled my eyes and jogged up behind one of the dead trees. "There's a cart.. I think it was a caravan." I said to the group who jogged up to the area and I followed behind them. There was blood and mangled bodies scattered over the ground, my eyes widened. What if this was my brothers search party. I thought, I looked around to see a soldiers body still moving and jogged over to him.

"Don't come any closer! So many of the monsters!" The man yelled in a weak voice.

"We're here to help, we're Grey Wardens." Alistair said.

"We have to help him!" I yelled at Alistair.

"We don't have time for that," Ser Jory said, "The man said there were monsters, I doubt he's lying! I will not leave him here." I glared at him, he shrunk back.

"I have bandages in my pack, Katria." Alistair put his hand on my shoulder, breaking my anger toward Jory. Alistair bandaged the man quickly.

"Follow the path and you'll hit the camp, can you make it?" Alistair asked the man.

"I believe so," the man said insecurely, "I wish you luck." The man ran off and Alistair stood back up beside me, I nodded at him and continued down the path treading carefully now. We walked for quite a while, I stopped and narrowed my eyes, observing everything. Something was very wrong. I could feel it. The group walked past me. I jumped forward to the group after the whiz of an arrow being loosed flooded through my ears.

"MOVE!" I grabbed Alistair's arm and threw him out of the way, an arrow slammed into the ground where he had been standing. I grabbed my bow and spun around finding the small monster about to loose another arrow at me, and as quickly as I could I took a deep breath and let it out as my arrow flew out of my hand. I heard the screech as it impaled the monster and smirked. The three men charged up the hill and I let them kill the remaining monsters as I walked up the hill after them. When I got there they were covered with blood and Ser Jory and Daveth were panting, Alistair was staring at me his eyes were wide.

"What?" I asked him.

"How did you do that?" He asked still staring at me.

"Do what?" I arched an eyebrow at him.

"How did you know that there was a genlock up here?" Alistair walked over to me.

"I heard it." I said shortly putting my bow onto my back, shrugging.

"How?" Alistair asked.

"I'll tell you after the joining." I said as a smile graced my lips. I winced at a sudden sharp pain on my cheek, I put my hand up to where the pain came from which only made it sting more. Alistair stepped towards me.