Legend (Dragon Age Origins)

Chapter 25: Return To Ostagar

Teagan's scouts had sent word that Lothering had been destroyed, overrun by the darkspawn. Not many had survived, and as saddening as it were, their bodies now served as a distraction that prevented the darkspawn from pressing further north.

To avoid the village, the group veered off from the Imperial Highway once they left Redcliffe, and cut through the Hinterlands. A farming region of Redcliffe, the lands were usually dangerous due to the mabari hounds that closely guarded the sheep and cattle. Now, the former lush hills were scorched to the dirt, the animals slaughtered and homes burnt to a crisp.

The end of summer brought with it a cool breeze that whipped through the plains. They passed through the wide fields, watching from afar as the darkspawn tore through the bodies of a dozen horses in a nearby stable, too preoccupied in their indulgence to notice the Wardens in the distance. Dru gritted her teeth, feeling the darkspawn blood within her veins beat an unnerving warning of the creatures nearby.

She tried her best to push the feeling aside when she felt something hard underfoot, almost causing her to stumble. Dru turned back to glower at the offending object, halting when she saw that it was a broken porcelain doll. One side of the doll's face was shattered. Its former owner had dressed the doll in a pretty flowered dress, now torn and splattered with old blood.

"What's wrong?" Alistair called. The others turned to watch her with concern.

"Nothing."

Shaking her head, she hefted her pack higher onto her shoulders and continued walking.

The darkspawn's numbers began to dwindle as they reached Ostagar, allowing the group to quicken their pace. Despite their absence on the surface, Dru could sense them deep below the earth and knew there were many others, loitering in the Deep Roads that ran beneath Ferelden. This was how Duncan knew that it was a true Blight. The humans were foolish not to listen, but then they had already met their own doom.

They approached Ostagar from the woods, keeping their distance from the main road. After the battle, the ruins looked even more decrepit than they once were. Many of the walls had been knocked down from stray catapults, the stone charred and marked from combat.

A band of darkspawn stood atop the wooden ramparts that the soldiers had built along the outer wall. Their mutated faces scanned the ground below and Dru recognised the weapons that they clutched tightly in their claws, once belonging to the King's army.

Their path curved dangerously close to the gorge below before reaching a broken wall. Sten hunkered down beneath it, his fingers entwined, the only one large enough to haul them over. Alistair went first, followed by Wynne and then Dru. As she climbed rather clumsily down the wall, she noticed something glinting amongst the dirt and weeds. A familiar chalice, still caked in blood.

"The Joining?" Dru whispered to Alistair.

He nodded, an almost apologetic look in his eyes. As Sten hefted himself over the wall and down to join them, Dru wondered why Duncan would leave it.

Unsheathing their weapons, the group pressed onwards, keeping to the shadows of the ruins. The darkspawn had turned Ostagar into a fortress of their own. Barricades of wooden spikes and jagged metal lined each wall, with half-eaten bodies either speared against them or dangling from nooses high above. The army camp, with its tents and smithies, had been torn apart and destroyed. At the centre of the camp, the darkspawn had piled all of the soldier's belongings and set them alight.

A few of the darkspawn stood around the flames, screeching and banging their fists against their chests. Dru watched the display, disgusted, when an arrow flew past her face, grazing the edge of her ear. Alistair threw up his shield just in time, and the arrow pinged off of its glossy surface.