Dragon Age: Origins | The story behind Cousland

Chapter 7- Traveling to Redcliffe

Chapter 7- Traveling to Redcliffe

I yawn and stretch, opening my eyes. I hear snoring near me and I turn around, to pat Baby, so he would stop it. I gasp when I see that not Baby is snoring.

Alistair is.

"Dawn? Wake up, Dawn!" I hear Leliana and I can see her at the door of my tent.

"I am awake. I... umm, will change and come."

"Have you seen Alistair? I entered his tent, but he wasn't there." She got into his tent? Without his permission?

"No, I haven't seen Alistair." I say and elbow him into his ribs.

"Oww!" He wakes up and rubs his ribs.

"Dawn? Are you good in there?" Leliana ask. Alistair tries to say something, but I put my hand on his mouth and tell him to shush. When I don't answer Leliana opens the door and looks at us, shocked. I blush and take my hand off of Alistair's mouth. She smirks at us. "So, you haven't seen Alistair. What are you up to, you naughty lovebirds?"

"WE ARE NOT— WE JUST—" Alistair and I start to explain. I put my hand over Alistair's mouth again and look at Leliana. "I had a nightmare, something that Grey Wardens have, so Alistair came to check on me. I was scared and I asked him if he could sleep in my tent this night. Nothing happened."

Leliana smiles. "So sweet." She gets out of my tent and we both stare at each other. "You should probably go and change into your armor." I tell him.

He rubs his neck. "Oh, uh, yeah." After he gets out of the tent I start to put all the armor on me. I hate it, even though it's not as heavy as Alistair's. My armor was designed for a rouge- it's light and it's noiseless. I brush my hair and tie it into a pony tail, after that I get out of the tent and sit at the improvised picnic. I hear laughing and I turn around to see what it is. Of course it's Leliana and Alistair. He blushes and tells her something. I shake my head and get out the map that I have in my pouch. "Guys, if we head to Redcliffe right now we will get there in two days." They all get up and pack their things. I have the bow ready in my hands if anything happens.

"What can a templar do, exactly?" I ask Alistair.

"Essentially they're trained to fight. The Chantry would tell you that the templars exist simply to defend, but don't let them fool you. They're an army." I smile. "The other main purpose for a templar is, of course, to hunt mages. To that end, we train in talents that drain mana and disrupt spells."

"So, uh, templars use magic themselves?"

He thinks a little bit. "You could call it that, sure. The Chantry doesn't look on it the same way, however, sine really out talents only work on mages. Against a regular person, I'm just a guy in a metal suit."

"Have you hunted many mages?"

"No. I never actually became a full templar. Duncan recruited me before I took my vows. I was only present during one Harrowing. That was all I needed, too. I don't know how anyone could get through that." he looks sad. "The girl they tested... she had a demon put inside her, to see if she could resist. And she couldn't. We had to... end it quickly." I pat him on the shoulder and give him a smile. "I have to say I didn't have much interest in becoming a templar after that."

"Seems like the templars could run the Chantry."

"You'd think that, but it's not so. The Chantry keeps a close reign on it's templars. We are given lyrium to help develop our magical talents, you see... which means we become addicted."