Mythal's Favour: A Dragon Age Origins Fan Fiction

Chapter 4

Chapter 4 – Redcliffe

The party cautiously poked their heads out of their tents. Ayu was sitting up on her bedroll near the central fire. Her hair was alight with dancing flames, her eyes ringed in golden light. From her back two great wings of fire had erupted. Tendrils of smoke wafted off her body as she sat panting for air. Alistair was in front of her attempting to bring her back into the waking world. It took a few minutes, but Ayu began to come to her senses again. Her eyes focused on Alistair kneeling a little away from her and her breathing began to slow. She took a moment and looked at her surroundings. The wings extinguished and vanished in a plume of smoke. Ayu's hair settled around her shoulders and with one final deep breath, Ayu was herself again.

“Ayu?” Alistair asked cautiously as he slowly approached her. “Are you with me?”

She blinked hard for a minute before Ayu answered him.

“Was that the . . did I dream of . . .” Ayu searched for the right words, her mind still reeling. She rubbed her temples with both her hands, squeezing her eyes shut.

“The archdemon? Yes my friend. You dreamt of the archdemon. So did I.” Alistair sat near her and continued. “It's one of the side effects of becoming a Grey Warden. We can sense the Darkspawn because we are linked to them. When the archdemon speaks to the Darkspawn, we can hear it too. It usually permeates our dreams when we are most vulnerable. The fear you felt is real Ayu. The archdemon is readying the Darkspawn army to wipe us out.”

Ayu didn't respond, but let out her breath in one long rush.

“We have our work cut out for us then.” She finally said with a worn out voice. “Hopefully the Arl will be able to assist us.”

Ayu flopped down on her bedroll again to find that she hit the hard ground instead. Sitting up quickly again, she turned and looked at where her bedroll should have been. What she saw momentarily shocked her. The upper half of her bedroll had been burned to ashes, black soot spread out on the ground. She turned sheepishly to her group of friends.

“Would you believe that this has happened before? I just can't have a nice bed for long. I know better than to have anything against my marking for long.” Ayu shook her head as she stood and brushed herself off.

Now that the entire camp was awake, they settled in for breakfast and broke camp. The party loaded up Bodhan's cart with their gear and strapped Ajax into the cart. By mid-morning the group was on the road again heading to Redcliffe.

The journey was long, but thankfully uneventful. Leliana kept the group entertained with stories and songs. Ajax kept a steady pace, the cart being fairly easy for him to pull. The party arrived at the outskirts of Redcliffe by late afternoon, only running into a few Darkspawn as they drew closer to the village.

“Ayu, I have something that I need to tell you now that we are here.” Alistair said quietly to her. “I am the late King Maric's bastard son. King Cailan was my half-brother. The Arl here, Eamon, raised me as his own until he sent me to the Chantry to become a Templar. You are my best friend Ayu. You needed to know, I just didn't know how to tell you. I hope . . I hope this doesn't effect our friendship.”

“Alistair, you will always be my friend. Whether you're the prince or a drunkard dancing the Remigold. You'll always be Alistair to me.” Ayu patted Alistair's hand, laughing.

Reaching the village proper, a man named Tomas stopped the party.

“Are you adventurers heading into the village? I wish to warn you. There is something wrong at the Castle. No one has come in or out in a long time. On top of all that, the village is being attacked at night by vile monsters. Bann Teagan will like to speak with you if you are willing to help.”