Dragon Age Origins: The Battle of Redcliffe

Chapter 1: The Start

Kip tugged on the leather collar he wore around his neck. The jingle of the small amulet that hung from the dark material there was bothersome. He did not completely understand why he needed to wear it.

"Is this really necessary?" he pouted.

"Would you prefer I strapped it someplace else?" Flemeth laughed loudly.

Kip snarled in her direction. He lifted the armor over his head, letting the smooth metal find its own place on his shoulders before strapping it down.

Kip did not find the jest as amusing as the old hag did. "You do me this favor, and I'll remove the bind," she sashayed over to the door of the wooden hut. Her red dress was a thick hide. Kip wasn't sure what animal it was from, but he shuddered to think about what it must have taken to bring it down. He looked away as he put on his boots.

Flemeth's eyes skirted over, if only for a second, to the solider she had saved. She found the young man quite attractive. He was well built with a power brow, and eyes that demanded attention. His instant connection to Solana was no coincidence, this she knew. He had something deep down that was unawake until he met her. Flemeth had seen it the moment she saw him lying unconscious up on that tower—an old spirit. She laughed when the man gave her a stern look.

"Come now, we have not a moment to lose."

"I don't know if I should trust a Witch of the Wilds...." Kip stood ridged outside the door.

Flemeth frowned in the afternoon sun. From behind her, he could see the smoke arising to the sky. A fire—a large fire—was burning to the North. "You had better. Or perhaps I should have left you dead up on that tower to become what you most fear."

Kip grimaced. She knew too much... He hated that.

When he had awoke in this hut the day before, he was surprised by how little he remembered about his self. What he did recall was the beautiful face of an elven maiden. She had his mind captured so entirely. Solana... His last memory of her he had was seeing her body being struck with darksapwn arrows. He could do nothing when the light left her eyes.

"Your fair Solana lives," the old woman purred before. The horns that had begun to extrude from her head was a little shocking. Kip sat on the edge of the bed he found himself in. His rescuer, this illegal mage, this apostate, was not what he was accustomed to handling. Her words, however, did brighten his faded brown eyes.

"What? How? Where is she?"

"You sound shocked," the witch cynically laughed with her head thrown back. "Do you think so little of your maiden's ability?"

"She's," Kip's face went slightly red, "not my maid. She's married..."

The woman grinned big. "Are you so sure?"

Did Kip dare hope that there might be a chance with Solana? "Why should I believe anything you say," he questioned.

"You have to do nothing, least of all believe little old me," Flemeth smiled broadened. "You should know, however, that one normally listens to old legends. And I... well, as Morrigan would put it, am such a one."

"Legends?"

"I am Flemeth, if that interests you any. And this Blight is going to do more to your future than you realize."

"Flemeth!" The Witch of the Wilds? Impossible! Kip had nearly fallen over from where he sat on the bed. What could she possibly want with him? This Witch of the Wilds... It felt almost silly thinking she might exist at all!

"You can't be her," Kip denied standing. "She's... That is just a fairy tell."

"Perhaps you are right," Flemeth smiled. "But, that doesn't stop things from being what they are. Now, about this mission I need of you—"

"Oh, no," Kip began collecting his things, getting angrier by the minute, "I appreciate you for saving me and all, but I'll have no help from an apostate claiming to be fables."

"You are not very wise." Flemeth smiled.

"I am wise enough to stand my ground," Kip turned, sword drawn. "And I know how to fight mages, mage."

"How very threatening," Flemeth yawned. Her hands on hips, she taunted again, "Alas, you have no bark to your bite. Or, do you?"

Kip had gritted his teeth. He shoved the sword towards the woman, jumping with surprise when blue sparks ignited his hands. He dropped the sword. Looking down at his hands now covered in the blue flame, Kip felt his heart beat quicken from the sudden rage he had just felt. "What—" the flames estinguesed. "What did you do to me?"

"I did nothing you had not already possed." Flemeth turned and began towards the fire place to poke at the ashes inside. "I simply contained what wanted to become."

Kip, a little shaken, turned to the old woman. What was she? Why did she suddenly appear so familiar standing by that fire place. Her yellow eyes cut over to him, and he shrunk away into a past that wasn't his own... or was it?

"Who—who are you?"

"I believe you already know the answer to that question."

Back to the present, Kip was finding it harder to see just a simple hag. She was old... very old, and powerful. The Witch of the Wilds.

"Come, we must go."

"Where should we go?"

Flemeth smiled and he wasn't surprised to see her teeth had a sharper point to them. "You will follow my shadow, and once there you will know what you must do."

Before he could say much else, he watched the woman envelop into a pillar of grey smoke, and the animal that stood before him made his knees go weak. The dragon smiled knowingly at him—in the same place the woman once stood—and took off into the air above.