When I Look at You (a Dragon Age fanfiction)

Gates

They could hear the sounds of battle before they reached the city, and the troops cheered—after such a long march dreading what was to come, it was a relief to all of them to finally have something in front of them to fight. There had been stray darkspawn on the way, easily handled by a few soldiers, but this was the horde ahead of them. This was what they had all signed on to fight, and they were ready.

Una dreaded what she would find, but there was no more time to dwell on that. She had a job to do. Raising her hammer, she shouted for the troops to follow her, and together they joined battle with the darkspawn surrounding the city gates.

She and her crew were used to fighting darkspawn, and they had the armies with them—but there was an army of darkspawn, as well, and there was a point when, sweaty and bloody and so tired she wasn't certain she could raise the hammer one more time, she despaired of ever getting through the horde to the gates ... much less past them to the Archdemon.

It had to be a good sign that this many of the darkspawn were still outside the city, though, she thought. Maybe what they would find inside the gates wouldn't be as bad as they'd feared. The thought gave her renewed strength, and she shouted to her armies to follow her, to give their all in one big push that would take them into the city.

Next to her, Alistair took up the cheer. "For Ferelden! For the Grey Wardens!"

Una raised her hammer and faced off against a massive hurlock, meeting him blow for blow. Slowly she realized that he was edging her backward, away from the gates and away from her team. Everyone she could see was fully occupied; there was no help to be found, and the hurlock was pressing the attack, taking advantage of a shoulder wound she'd sustained earlier.

Suddenly a bird swooped over the hurlock's head, a big black bird. It touched down on the ground and immediately became a giant black spider, spitting poison at the hurlock. Una fell back, letting Morrigan do her worst to the darkspawn, taking advantage of the momentary break in combat to rest the hammer on the ground and give her arms a break.

As soon as the hurlock fell, Morrigan shifted back to herself. Without a word, she put her hands on Una's shoulder and repaired the wound there.

"Good timing," Una said with relief.

Morrigan gave a faint smile. "It seemed the least I could do."

"It looks like you got here in time." She didn't want to ask about Fergus and Grenli, couldn't bring herself to. As long as she didn't ask, they were okay.

"Yes; the citizens were able to prepare, once I convinced your brother the threat was real. He is inside, with your animal, although I was not able to keep either of them from the fray." Her golden eyes warmed slightly. "In my place, I do not believe you could have, either."

"Probably not." Una could feel her smile stretching from ear to ear. Fergus was alive! It was as though she had never been tired; she flung herself back into the fight with fresh energy and determination.

At last she was able to push through to the gates, to make her way inside Denerim through the grim-faced ranks of soldiers holding off as many of the darkspawn as they could.

She looked immediately for Fergus, eventually finding him by the sound of his voice, shouting to be heard above the din. He shouted at her, too, when she first touched his arm, then he looked at her again and his face lit up. Next to him, Grenli barked and whined a welcome, and Una's hand dropped to the dog's head, scratching his ears.

"Here you are at last!" Fergus said in relief.

"Yes. I'm sorry we weren't here to begin with. Has it been hard to hold?"