Dragon Age Origins: I Am Cousland

Chapter 17: The Nature of The Beast

I hope everyone is still enjoying the book! Thanks for all the support you guys have given me! Enjoy the chapter(:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 15: The Nature of The Beast

I woke up slowly, I haven't had this good of a nights' sleep in quite some time. I sighed and sat up, rubbing my neck; sleeping on the ground was getting old, and painful. Alistair was snoring quietly. I smiled and walked out of the tent, Cullen and Morrigan were sitting at the fire.

"It's only going to get worse," Cullen said, obviously annoyed. Morrigan rolled her eyes.

"You believe that every mage is the same, that is not the case." She responded condescendingly.

"You saw what happened in the tower! How can you say that?" Cullen spat back, glaring at Morrigan darkly. She sighed and noticed I was standing at the entrance of my tent.

"Sleeping in, are we?" She asked, Cullen's head whipped around.

"Oh! Good morning," He said, smiling over at me.

"If it is actually morning," I said, looking up at the canopy of trees that blocked out the sunlight.

"It is." Morrigan said, not even looking up at me. I glared at her, and walked away from the camp.

"Where are you going?" Cullen asked as he jogged to catch up to me.

"I'm going to climb a tree," I said, looking around for a easy one to climb up.

"You're what?" Cullen laughed slightly, I smiled at the corner of my mouth as I walked over to a tree, found a foot-hold and clamored up the towering tree.

"Wait here," I called down to him, Cullen shrugged and leaned against the tree. I climbed out of the thick bunch of leaves and into the air, the forest was enormous. We could easily get lost here, I thought to myself as I looked around; there were enormous ruins not too far from where we were, maybe an afternoon journey, parts of the forest were deformed and burnt.

"Darkspawn," I said out loud, they weren't as far as I thought they were, and if we could feel them, there's no doubt they could feel us. I climbed down the tree, "We need to move, and quick." I said briskly as I walked up the hill back to camp. "Pack everything. Now." I demanded, Alistair was awake and was arching his eyebrows at me. "Darkspawn are very close, closer than I thought." I said as I walked into my tent to put my armor on, Alistair followed.

"How close?" He asked as we both fumbled around trying to get our armor on as quickly as possible,

"About a mile," I said, "And they are on the move." I threw my pack on and walked out of the tent, Cullen had already started taking down the tents, "There's no time." I said as I grabbed his arm dragging him behind me, Alistair jogged up beside me.

"Hear that?" He asked, I paused and listened. I could hear the grumbling and growling of the darkspawn,

"Go," I whispered loudly and started running through the forest,

"The keeper said the ruins were to the north," Leliana said, out of breath. I nodded quickly and kept running; we ran for some time until Alistair and I felt like we were far enough away from the monsters.

"Any idea where we are?" I turned around to look at the group, Cullen had a puzzled look on his face. I pressed my fingers against my nose and looked around. I couldn't see anything; there was a small path, barely visible to the eyes nearby. I motioned for Alistair to come towards me, he walked over arching his eyebrows down at me, "That looks like a path to me," I said, pointing to the faded dirt, Alistair stared at it for a moment and nodded.

"What's the worst that could happen," He said, smiling at the corner of his mouth and starting down the path. I felt like we walked down that path forever, the forest only got darker and darker.