Dragon Age: Origins | The story behind Cousland

Chapter 1- In war, in peace, in death

Chapter 1- In war, in peace, in death

I fall on my knees, hugging myself, as tears started to roll down my cheeks. 

I'll kill him.

I'm going to kill every last Howe. I feel an arm on my shoulder and I look up, only to see Duncan's face- his eyes telling me to move. I shake my head and run my fingers over my brown hair. Baby, my mabari, starts to lick my face, wiping the tears away. Mom... Dad... Ser Gilmore.

"We have to move, or his guards will catch us" says Duncan.

"I-I just can't. He betrayed my family! We trusted him!" I shout at the Grey Warden.

"Dawn! You are going to die if you don't keep moving!"

"I want revenge! That traitor must be killed."

"You are not going to get revenge if you are going to let yourself be killed."

Something that he said made my brain function. I get up and start to run, with Duncan beside me. I run through the snow, with the blanket that had the sign of the Grey Wardens covering me from the cold. After a while we stop and Duncan starts to build a camp.

"I'm going to hunt." I say and grab my bow, that has elvish carvings on it. "Baby, you come with me."

"Do you know elven?" he asks me.

"A little. While I was a kid, my best friend was an elven slave. He taught me a little bit."

"Say something in elven."

"Ma melava halani. It means 'you helped me'."

"Interesting" he says, lost in thoughts.

I run into the forest and get my bow out, pointing it at the trees. We only need two rabbits and we will be fine until tomorrow when we arrive at Ostagar. Me, a Grey Warden? Perish the thoughts.

But maybe I can do it. And after that I will kill Arl Howe. After all, I am a Cousland. I draw my bow quickly as I see one rabbit hopping around. I take a deep breath and let go of the arrow. Right through the head!

I run at it and hang it by my hip with some rope. One more. As I venture deep into the forest I hear some awful noise, like someone is scratching metal. I turn around only to see a darkspawn running at me. I blink, incapable to move, but as I see it closer I draw my bow, ready to shoot. The darkspawn falls and I see Duncan beside him.

"Come, girl" he says with his calming voice.

"Andraste's sweet ashes, what was that?"

"That was a hurlock. It is a rank among the darkspawn."

"But what are darkspawn? Where do they come from?" I ask as I get down near my tent, hugging myself with the blanket. "The Chantry tells us that they were created when the of the opened a portal into the , tainting the realm of the with their corruption and returning as the first darkspawn, their evil transfiguring them into the monsters they became."

"They are a race, just as we are. The Chantry believes that the Maker himself send them to punish us, because we are nonbelievers. Now that a Blight is to come we need as many Grey Wardens as we can get."

"That is why you are recruiting me."

"Yes. Do you know what Grey Wardens are?"