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In good times and in bad	By : kruemel Category: +A through F > Dragon Age (all) > Dragon Age (all) Views: 14749 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: Dragon Age and the characters of the game do not belong to me. This is a no profit fanfiction

Chapter List
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Rori pulls a grimace behind Duncan's back when I arrive. She's clearly not happy with whatever was decided at the meeting with the king. I mouth a question at her but Duncan catches sight of me and beckons me to follow him.
"You heard the plan. You and Alistair will be going to the Tower of Ishal and ensure the beacon is lit." Duncan repeats the orders to us.
"What? I won't be in the battle?" I must have misheard. Maybe I should wash my ears more often.
"This is by the king's personal request, Alistair. If the beacon is not lit, Teyrn Loghain's men won't know when to charge." Duncan's voice leaves no room for a discussion. That doesn't mean I'm not going to start one anyway.
"So he needs two Grey Wardens standing up there holding the torch just in case, right?" I complain sullenly. Cailan couldn't have thought of anything duller, could he?
"I agree with Alistair. We should be in the battle." Rori is as frustrated as I am.
Duncan looks at us as if we were stubborn children - which we probably are from his point of view. "That is not your choice. If King Cailan wishes the Grey Wardens to ensure the beacon is lit, then Grey Wardens will be there. We must do whatever it takes to destroy the darkspawn, exciting or no."
Yeah. Great. This just isn't fair! "I get it, I get it! Just so you know, if the king ever asks me to put on a dress and dance the Remigold I'm drawing the line - darkspawn or no."
"I think I'd like to see that." Rori murmurs next to me. The way she chews on her lips when shooting an upwards glance at me from her incredibly blue eyes almost makes up for having to stand on the top of a tower with a torch in my hand while an epic battle takes place below. At least I am going to stand there with her to keep me company.
"For you maybe. But it has to be a pretty dress."
Duncan sighs in exasperation and rolls his eyes. Maker give him patience. I'm afraid he will find Rori is as much a pain in the neck as I am.
"Would you also dance with me?" Rori asks pleasantly, completely ignoring Duncan's display of annoyance.
"Only to show off my fancy pretty dress. But I warn you, I am an awful dancer. I'd step on your toes."
"Fergus isn't much of a dancer, too. My toes are used to suffering," she laughs but then her face all of a sudden goes blank and the smile is swept away to be replaced by a haunted look of grief. Uneasily running her fingers through her short red hair, she's busy to avoid looking at me now.
Duncan clears his throat to regain our attention. "From here, you two are on your own. Remember, you are both Grey Wardens. I expect you to be worthy of that title."
"We have to light a beacon. How hard can that be?" Rori mumbles.
"Come on, we shouldn't dawdle," I sigh.
So I am really not going to take part in the battle. I still cannot believe it. I suspect Duncan does this on purpose. I feel betrayed and try to pry out of Rori what happened during the meeting. I suspect this is all about me being King Maric's bastard. I hate it when people judge me by my father. It has never done me any good and I wish Duncan didn't know. But he does. The way he talks about Maric - if he does talk about him at all - I assume they have known each other.
"Why does Cailan want us to light the beacon? With only the few of us, wasting two Grey Wardens for such a task seems stupid." I rant.
Rori doesn't look too pleased either. "I have no idea. Loghain told him his men could do it, but Cailan insisted you and I should go there. He chose you by name. Not just some other Grey Warden but you. Do you know him?"
He's my half-brother but I very much doubt he knows that. Or does he? I recall some weird moments when I was allowed to be there with Duncan when he spoke to the king and the way Cailan looked at me as if he saw it, I mean, him, Maric, in me. "I don't know him more than any other Grey Warden. Of all of us you probably know him best. You're Teyrn Cousland's daughter."
She shrugs while she straps her bow and arrows to her back, clearly trying to avoid that topic. She also carries a shield around I've never seen her use. Add her sword and her dagger and I am surprised she doesn't fall over. "There's nothing we can do about it now. Come on, as you said, we should not dawdle or you'll get to wear that dress for real when they make us the first Grey Warden court jesters ever."
I grumble and she nudges my ribs like the guys would do. It makes me smile. Just one of the boys.
When Rori, her mabari Barkley and I reach the tower nothing is like it should be. Darkspawn has invaded the tower. That much for Loghain's plan.
"Okay, then lets clear the tower and light that damn beacon. We can throw ourselves right off the top of the tower if we don't get this done in time."
Damn right, girl. I'm glad she's here with me and not Ser Jory. He'd probably leave me standing alone here because it is too dangerous. Alright, I'm being unfair. Jory was the only one who had something to lose. Daveth, well, he was a thief and if not for Duncan he'd got hanged. Rori has lost her family. I never had a family to begin with. Maybe that makes it easier to drink a goblet full of poison. There's nothing you leave behind if you die.
Maybe that's why this young girl proves to be such a good comrade in arms. We haven't spent much time fighting together. And taking a walk in the Korcari Wilds is totally different from clearing a tower of darkspawn. She has still a lot to learn - especially tactics is nothing she seems to waste too much thought on. But she has other skills and I just think for the both of us when it comes to analysing battle.
We burst in through the doors and I charge forward but Rori stops me. "Shouldn't we first take a look?"
I want to protest because I am not going to let a woman enter a room of darkspawn before me. If I have anything to say about that she'll be behind me as a backup. So I'm at her heels until she turns so abruptly that I almost run into her.
"Alistair, I cannot sneak on anybody if you and Barkley make noise like an elephant herd in stampede." The dog whines and I am tempted to do the same.
"Trust me." She is gone before I can even start an argument with her, sneaking into the room silently. Barkley woofs soflty and tilts his big head to one side. I can tell he doesn't like this at all. Same here.
I peek around the corner and watch her crawl further into the room. She has detected something. A trap? When she reaches to undo it, the first arrows begin to whir around her and Barkley and I charge. I give her cover behind my shield while she fumbles with the string that is attached to a barrel.
"Done!"
"About time!" I peek around my shield. It's spiked with so many arrows that it strangely resembles a porcupine. I jump to my feet, using the momentum to smash my shield against an attacking darkspawn, sending it flying to the ground. Next to me Rori dives under the blade swung against her head and her knee collides with the most private parts of the Genlock. It grunts and topples over, presenting the back of its neck to Rori's swords.
Her way of fighting is far from honourable. I guess if you are a featherweight of a teenage girl fair combat is going to end you six feet under faster than you can spell your name. For Rori with her frail frame this certainly is the best way of fighting.
I get used to her fighting quickly. For now I can use what I learnt about tactics to make the two of us work together more effectively. If we get out of this alive, she should take a lesson or two
"Where does all that darkspwan come from? So far away from the horde, they shouldn't be here."
"Weren't you complaining you wouldn't get to fight?"
This is not what I mean but I guess she knows. There's nothing we can do about it now. and we have to survive to find out what went wrong here with Loghain's smart plan.
When we reach the top of the tower we run into a huge grey skinned monster with mighty horns.
"What the fuck is that?" Rori exclaims.
"Something that's going to smash us like mashed potatoes." I have never met one myself in real. And I certainly could have done without it. Duncan has made me look through some books with detailed drawings, so I am quite sure what this is. An ogre. And it stands between us and the beacon. Suddenly two Grey Wardens seem not enough to light it.
While Rori dodges sideways to find a way around the ogre, I draw the attention of the ogre to myself. Rori is as limber as a cat, when she fights it looks like a dance. But one well aimed hit and she is gone. I am lumbering compared to her but the ogre isn't a prima ballerina either. I jump forward to strike, then retreat and dance around him as good as I can manage. When its fist collides with my shield, the bones in my arm break as if they are made of glass. I scream and fall to my knees as I try to scramble out of the way. The ogre is grabbing for me, but flinches and howls when Rori slices its Achilles heels. It comes tumbling down and I roll to the side, crashing my hurt arm beneath me. The pain makes my eyes water but I stumble to my feet for another charge.
The ogre cannot get up again thanks to Rori. Barkley snaps at its throat but the ogre just grabs him and throws him away as if he was a rat sized lap dog. Rori makes her approach from behind, running up the back of the ogre to reach its neck but the monster just lets itself fall backwards to bury her beneath its body. With a sumersault she spirals out of the way but its flailing arms send her flying.
I am back on my feet now, adrenaline is pumping through my body, numbing the pain in my shield arm. I cannot move it but as long as I can hold a sword I can fight. The ogre isn't looking my direction when I throw myself at it. My blade sinks into its chest and the impact of our bodies throw it backwards to the ground. In a last attempt to save its life, it lifts its arms to grab me. My sword sinks deep into its throat and it's over. I jump off of it and turn to Rori. She is limping towards the fire.
"We must have missed the sign. Quickly, we have to light the beacon!"
With trembling hands Rori picks up a torch and holds it at the oil soaked wood. Then she sinks down with her back against the wall.
"We did it," she mumbles exhaustedly. Neither she nor I ever would have thought lighting that damn fire could prove so completely devastating.
I'm afraid that I wouldn't be able to get up again if I sat down now. So I walk to peer over the battlements at the raging battle. My eyes search the horizon for Loghain's troops. Where is he?
Time is passing and there's no sign of him. "He's not coming," I croak, turning to Rori in horror. She looks at me uncomprehendingly and struggles to her feet to join me.
Suddenly there's a noise from the stairs. I whirl around at the same time as Rori is hit by several arrows. I see her fall. There's no time for sorrow, the darkspawn is coming for me. All I can think about is to kill as many of them as possible before they slay me.
"For the Grey Wardens!" I shout. I am prepared to die. It's not as if I have much of a choice anyway. A Hurlock with a nasty sneer turns my way, I raise my sword - and then I am plucked off the tower by something huge. A bird? Or... a dragon?
That mad laughter ringing in my ears. I think that's me.
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In good times and in bad