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The True Tale Of The Fifth Blight	By : Serena_Hawke-Theirin Category: +A through F > Dragon Age (all) > Dragon Age (all) Views: 13108 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Age or the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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The Wardens set out before dawn the following morning. Duncan was in such a hurry for them to be on their way that he ordered them back on the road as soon as their tents were broken down and packed. He didn't even allow them time for breakfast. Instead, he required them to eat their meal as they traveled.

It wasn't as if the morning fare was any different than their suppers. Solona was so fed up with hard tack and dried pork that she didn't care if she ever had either again. She was never especially fond of eating meat in the first place, but with such a dire lack of options, she was forced to choke down the jerky when the pangs in her gut became too much to bear.

The mage grimaced while chewing on the tough, stringy meat. She wasn't sure how much more of it her stomach could handle as it rumbled in protest. What she wouldn't have given for a fresh apple or pear at that moment.

"If you're not careful, your face is going to get stuck like that," Alistair teased as he fell in step at her side.

Solona gave a small chuckle. It was the same thing she always said to Jowan when he was being particularly mopey. He presented her with an uneven grin when she looked at him out of the corner of her eye. Her heart skipped a beat, and the queasiness in her belly gave way to the sensation of butterflies. She blanched.

What in the void?

Although she found Alistair attractive, she had never experienced anything like that around him before. In fact, there was only one man who ever created such feelings within her. How was that even possible? She concentrated on the path ahead in an effort to push the thought from her mind.

"If I keep eating this shit," she retorted. "That could become a distinct possibility."

"I know what you mean," he agreed. "If it's true what they say about becoming what you eat, I'm liable to start oinking any minute."

"Don't you do that already?" quipped the mage.

"Only in my tent," the warrior replied. "Tends to put people off otherwise."

Solona snorted a laugh. It was a ridiculous sentiment, but between his delivery of the comeback and the fluttering in her stomach, she couldn't stop the sound from escaping. Her face began to grow overly warm as she felt her cheeks flush from embarrassment.

"Dear Maker, it's happened to you already," he exclaimed before snatching the piece of meat from her hand and flinging it into the dried grass next to the road. "There. We don't want you growing a snout. I don't think you could pull off that look. And the tail…that might get a bit painful when you go to sit down."

"Hey!" the mage protested with the arc of a brow. As disgusting as the pork was, she still needed nourishment. "Now what am I supposed to eat?"

The warrior flashed an impish grin as he reached into his pocket. A moment later, he produced a small pear with skin of pale green and dappled with light brown spots. After days of nothing but dried pork and hardtack, Solona was unable to recall anything that looked more delicious.

"Here," he offered as he handed the piece of fruit over to her. "I've been saving it for an emergency. I think this qualifies as one."

She accepted his gift with an appreciative smile and a quiet, "Thank you."

Alistair's gesture was one of the most considerate things anyone had ever done for her. Solona knew he had to be as fed up with travel rations as she was, yet he chose to give to her the only relief he had from the monotonous fare. For the first time in her life, someone showed her true kindness without any ulterior motive. Even Jowan was no exception to that.

Solona always felt that the affection he gave her was born from a lack of options more than anything. He had always been too timid to make any other friends. He wouldn't even talk to anyone else unless he was forced into it. Alistair, on the other hand, wasn't shy. He could have spent his time with Sithig or even Duncan, for that matter, but he opted to remain in her company.

"You are most welcome," he replied with a slight tilt of the head.

The mage pulled the dagger Duncan purchased for her from its sheath then carefully sliced the pear down the center. She wiped the blade across her sleeve before returning it to its holder then licked off the small bit of juice which had trickled onto her palm, earning her a chortle from Alistair. When she offered one of the halves to her companion, he declined with a wave of his hand.

"No thanks," he refused. "I don't really like pears. To be honest, I don't care for fruit much at all…Except for apples, of course. If that had been an apple, you'd be shit out of luck. I would have eaten it by now."

Solona's brow furrowed in bewilderment. "Then why in void did you have it in the first place if you weren't planning to eat the Maker fucking thing?"

His expression echoed hers. "You say that a lot, don't you? Maker fuck, maker fucking. Where in the void did you come up with that anyway?"

The mage's shoulders drooped with a heavy sigh. Anders. It was his favorite curse. For all his intelligence and arrogance, the older mage certainly maintained decidedly colorful and crass language at times, especially when he was irritated or angry. Over the years, Solona had adopted using such common idioms herself. It was a dreadful practice she really needed to stop.

"Bad habit I picked up in the Circle," she admitted. "I mean no offense."

She had no intention of going into further detail about it. She had already managed to skirt around the subject of Anders once with Alistair. Sooner or later, she was sure he would bring the subject of her former lover up again, but she didn't want to speak of him right then. She didn't really want to ever talk about him, especially not to her fellow Warden. She bit into one of the pear halves and began to chew.

"I'm not really offended," he told her. "Don't get me wrong. I've been known to throw fuck around like a bad tempered horse throws shoes, and I take the Maker's name in vain just about every time I open my mouth, but I've never heard the two used together like that before."

When she took another bite in lieu of answering his unasked question, he continued. "Don't take this the wrong way or anything, but most of the time you seem a little too articulate to use that kind of language."

Solona swallowed the mouthful she had been working on and arched a condescending brow. "That was a really big word for you," she gibed. "I hope you didn't hurt yourself."

He screwed up his face as she took another bite. "Come to think of it, that did smart a bit. I hope there's no permanent damage." His right shoulder lifted then promptly fell. "Oh, well. I suppose that's what I get for spending so much time with such an intelligent and beautiful woman."

The mage nearly choked on the fruit she was attempting to swallow. Was he actually flirting with her? Up until that moment, she had honestly grown to believe Alistair preferred the company of other men. She stopped in her tracks and turned to face him, causing him to halt his own progression. He stared down at her as if he hadn't said anything out of the ordinary. As usual, she detected no hint of lust or even affection in his hazel eyes, just a slight twinkle of mischief to match his impish grin.

Damn, you're sexy.

Those were the first words that came to mind, but she wasn't about to tell him that. Instead, she chose to dawn one of her haughty, questioning looks.

"Did you just call me beautiful?" she asked.

"And intelligent," he repeated. "Don't forget that part."

Her lids narrowed. "But you called me beautiful."

He shrugged, the smirk never leaving his lips. "Yes, I suppose I did," he said then began marching forward again. After a few steps, he peered at her over his shoulder. "You coming or are you just going to keep standing there with your mouth open like that?"

Alistair's grin widened as he continued along the highway. He didn't see any harm in a bit of flirtatious banter, and Solona's addled expression was worth any backlash he might receive from the deed. It wasn't as if he didn't care for her. Quite the contrary, actually. After the hour or so they spent talking the previous evening, his affection for her had grown immensely.

When the mage hurried to catch up to him, he internally recoiled from the coming repercussion of his earlier transgression. He was genuinely surprised when she remained silent, opting to take another bite of her pear instead. When he looked down at her, he could have sworn he detected the hint of a smile. Could her newfound disposition really have been a result of his flirting? Was it possible she shared his fondness?

It didn't really matter either way. For the first time since he met Solona, she appeared to be in a good mood. Before that, even when she smiled or laughed, there was always something sad and dark beneath the surface. There wasn't even a hint of any of that sort of emotion right then, and he had never seen her look more beautiful.

"You never did answer my question," she observed upon finishing the bite of fruit.

"Oh?" he asked. "Which question was that?"

"Why did you have a pear when you don't even like them?" she inquired.

He found a way to avoid her query before, but she obviously had no intention of letting it go. The truth was, he got it for her. He noticed her eyeing the fruit when they were back at the inn in Wenborne. After he had his bath that evening, he went downstairs and got the proprietor to agree to his request to take one. Alistair meant to give it to Solona before, but they hadn't really spoken until the night of her Joining. With the situation being what it was, he had forgotten all about the damned thing until he found it while packing up that morning.

"I told you," he said. "In case of an emergency."

"What kind of emergency could possibly warrant a pear?" she pressed.

"I had to have something to throw at the bandits if I ran out of hardtack. Even if it didn't knock them out, it could have served as a distraction." She raised a questioning brow. "I mean how would you react if some guy in Grey Warden armor threw a pear at your head? It would probably make you doubt his sanity, right? You'd think, I'm holding a knife and that bastard just hit me with a piece of fruit. He's crazy. I'm not fucking with his ass. At very least, you'd just stand there a minute and say, What the fuck? Which would buy me enough time to run away."

Before he finished his explanation, Solona was laughing so hard she had tears running down her cheeks. He couldn't help but chuckle along with her. When their laughter finally died down, the mage wiped away the tears with her fingertips. When she gazed up at him, he was taken in by her lustrous blue eyes. For the first time he noticed tiny flecks of gold peppered within the field of lapis, adding to the brilliance of the effect. Never in his life had Alistair wanted to kiss anyone so badly.

Her smile took on a sardonic quality. "So," she said. "Now that you've gotten that out of your system, what's the real reason?"

Damn, woman. Let it go.

No matter how much he wished her to, she just wasn't going to let up without a plausible explanation, and an honest confession would be simpler than trying to come up with anything else. The warrior scratched the crown of his head and ran his tongue across his lips. He exhaled a relinquishing breath and shrugged.

"Truth is," he told her as he turned his eyes back to the road ahead. "I got it for you."

"Any particular reason why?" she asked.

Alistair wasn't about to tell her the truth on that point. At the time he obtained the fruit, he was suffering from a mild case of infatuation with a woman who had no interest in him. To make matters worse, his fondness for her had increased tenfold since that night.

"Mainly so you'd stop making that scowly face when you eat." He mimicked the expression she wore while gnawing on the dried pork. "Although, it might come in handy to scare away the darkspawn."

Solona's face wilted into disappointment for only a second before she donned her usual mask of indifference. He hurt her feelings. He hadn't intended to, but he did.

"I thought that's what we had you for," she retorted in a snarky tone. "Your ugly mug could frighten an archdemon."

. "That's my plan, you know" he japed. "When we finally face it, I'm just going to play a game of peek-a-boo with it, and it will die of shock."

She presented him with a half-hearted smile. He had to salvage the situation somehow. He sidled up to her until he was close enough to bump her shoulder with his.

"Oh, come on, you know your beautiful," he admitted. "You're beautiful, ravishing, stunning, gorgeous…You know all those things women hit men for if they don't say."

The corners of her mouth curled into a smirk as she returned his shoulder bump. "It's nice to see you finally noticed," she said. "I guess you're not quite as stupid as I thought, after all."

The story about the pear has always been one of Solona's favorites. First, because it was funny, but mainly due to the fact that it was the day she truly began to see Alistair in a different light. Yes, she thought he was same gender oriented and that day didn't help to alter that view, but she began to fall for him anyway.

As for her use of the colorful phrases she learned from Doc, Solona eventually stopped using the terms when she matured a bit. The only time I really heard her say those words was when she had reached her limit of anger. Doc, however never did mature that much. No matter how hard he tried to present himself as someone of noble birth, the peasant boy had a tendency to rear his head quite often in conversation.

-G
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The True Tale Of The Fifth Blight