Dragon Age Origins: I Am Cousland

Chapter 31: A City In Flames

Chapter 31: A City In Flames

"Stop!" Alistair held his fist up, gesturing for the small army behind us to stop. Cullen was directly beside me, his mouth almost hit the ground when he saw the enormity of the blight. Thousands of darkspawn were straggling everywhere, ogres bellowing in anger and the shrieks of the people of the city.

Alistair scrunched up his face as he observed the city, these were only the outskirts, what horrors were scurrying in the city walls. 

"Shemlen!" A dalish elf rode up to our side, Alistair smiled weakly at the elf who was also astounded by the army of darkspawn.

"We were the first here, but our numbers are too few to storm the city." The elf explained in hushed tones to Alistair who shook his head.

Alistair jerked his horse to the side, walking him slowly in front of the men, glaring at the city as he tried to figure out a plan.

"Where are our allies?" Alistair hissed through clenched teeth at me, I narrowed my eyes, he was right with questioning, only the elves were here. Where were the templars, the dwarves, the other armies from the other arlings, and the mages. 

"The dwarves, templars and mages will take longer." I explained, "They are further away then us." I sighed as I rubbed Arod softly, reassuring him. "We have enough now to storm the outskirts." I pressed, Alistair nodded and turned to the elf.

"Ready your army." He gestured to the elves who were watching us carefully, the elf smiled wickedly and motioned for his army to join ours.

After a short time Alistair turned around to address the army, the army that could be plunging straight to their deaths now, most would die tonight.

The dalish commander looked over at Alistair for direction, "I need your army to flank the darkspawn outside the city, I need arrows while we charge straight down the middle to meet them head on." Alistair said quickly, the elf nodded and took his army around the left side of the city.

Alistair puffed out air and smiled over at Eamon, "This is it." Alistair sad quickly, a tremor in his voice was the only thing that betrayed his look of calm. "This is it." Eamon patted Alistair on the shoulder reassuringly. 

Alistair jerked his horse, causing it to rear slightly as it turned to face the burning city. Alistair unsheathed his sword, holding it high. 

He looked over at me, I took a deep breath and pulled my bow off my back, smiling back at him weakly. 

"Ready!" Alistair screamed out over the yells of the men that echoed down the hill to the city, "Ready!" Eamon and the captains responded, Alistair gulped and kicked his horse and began galloping down the hill; I yelled out and galloped after him, the roar of the men following behind us. 

Arrows whizzed past me, jabbing into men that were close behind me. I could hear the groans as they fell off their horses and were trampled by the horses running at full speed behind them. Hurlocks bellowed out orders at the darkspawn, gesturing for them to fire. 

The dalish joined us from the left, firing arrows quickly at the monsters.

I squeezed Arod's sides and released the reins to begin firing arrows, we were closing in quickly with most of our group intact, the darkspawn began backing up as we charged as hard as we could at them.

The clanging of metal on metal echoed around us as we collided with the horde, the screams of men and horses filled the air. I hopped off Arod and quickly unsheathed my daggers, dodging low blows and stabbing several darkspawn, Cullen stood his ground beside me. Slamming his shield against the faces of the darkspawn and cleaving open the skull.