Dragon Age: Origins | The story behind Cousland

Chapter 3- Kal'Hirol

Chapter 3- Kal'Hirol

"Ah, can you smell that?" Anders asks, inhaling. "That is the smell of freedom. It comes complete with the smell of dogs and dust, but the freedom is in there, too."

I chuckle. "You think being a Grey Warden is freedom?"

"I may not have a choice about fighting the darkspawn, but this is a step up for me. I escaped from the tower seven times. After the last time they put me in solitary confinement for a year. Eventually, I'm sure they would have branded me a maleficar, true or not, and executed me."

"I'm actually surprised they didn't do it sooner." I confess to him.

"They're not murderers. They only kill mages when they can prove we're dangerous. For the good of all. The problem is that mages are tolerated. Barely. It's like you need permission to be alive. There's nothing a mage can do to prove himself. Everyone needs to be protected from you. The end."

"I understand."

He chuckles. "I should certainly hope so." After that, Anders lets out a sigh. "All I want is a pretty girl, a decent meal, and the right to shoot lighting at fools." I chuckle and his eyes go all over my body. "Hmm, I might be closer to my dream than I think," He says and I roll my eyes. In your dreams, pretty boy.

"I think these are the guys," I say and we start to go towards them.

The tall man rakes his eyes all over my body. I mentally gag. "Looking for some company, honey-pie? I'm always available for riveting conversations with fine women."

"I'll rivet you to the floor if you call me that again." I tell him.

"I like a woman who's all business." I grit my teeth so I won't punch this guy in the face. I can already hear the town criers: 'News of the hour: the queen just punched to death a poor man that flirted with her!'.

"We received word about an entrance to the Deep Roads."

"I can't take all the credit for finding the rift, you know? Micah here fell in first," He says and shows me the elf near him. Micah grunts.

"Keep talking."

"It's quite a ways out of town. We were tracking a buck off in that direction, you see... before this darkspawn mess. We'd been on his tail about a week at that point. I'd wager he thought it was great fun, leading us on a merry chase as he did."

"Go on."

"That buck was a sly one, he was. He had big feet and a—"

"Dude, get to the point." I interrupt him.

"Oh, the chasm! Yes, er... we saw it coming over a rise. It really was something to behold, a huge cleft, as though the Maker Himself had cracked the earth in two, like... like an egg."

"I like eggs," Micah says and I glance at the elf.

"It looked like someone had tried to build over it, but it must have been abandoned a long time ago. No one in town knew about it."

I nod my head. "What happened then?"

"Well, of course we had to investigate! That was when Micah fell in. A shriek like you wouldn't believe, and he was gone."