The Dalish Warden (The Daughters of Thedas Book 1)

1: Beginnings

Soundtrack:

This is War ~ 30 Seconds from Mars (Main Theme)

Stand my Ground ~ Within Temptation (Realin's Theme)    

There have been many legends and stories told around the campfires of the world; the legend of the Grey Wardens and the Blight they stand against is no different. They say that Mages were the cause of the First Blight. That they tried to usurp heaven but instead destroyed it. These Mages were cast out and became the first of the Darkspawn and they spread across the lands of the world. They say the Dwarves were the first the fall and from their lands the Darkspawn drove at the remaining peoples again and again until they were nearly annihilated. The Grey Wardens first appeared then, sacrificing everything to turn the tide against the Darkspawn. And they prevailed, defeating the horde. It has been centuries since the last Blight. The Wardens still watch over the lands and protect it from Darkspawn, but many have forgotten what they had done. They are few now, their valor now only legend. Why am I telling you this? What does the Grey Wardens and the Blight have to do with me? Much. But I am getting ahead of myself.

My story begins in the Brecilian Forest. We Dalish Elves consider ourselves true Elves. We are a proud and noble people and we refuse to join human society, unlike those poor souls that choose to dwell in the cities. I shudder at being in cramped quarters, treated no better than animals. I digress. I have known the freedom of the forest my entire life. My clan, Sabrae, travels much, like the other clans; we are wanderers. We are always searching for our forgotten lore. The humans fear and despise us, so we chose to keep to the forests. I prefer it that way. I prefer to hunt. Many times my good friend Tamlen accompanies me. Many times it's not just the wildlife we hunt...

Tamlen found the Shemlin, our name for the humans, first. There were three of them, running as fast as they could. The first slid to a stop and landed on his rear at the sight of Tamlen and his nocked bow. Such ungraceful creatures.

"It's a Dalish!" the one who had fallen cried.

"And you three are somewhere you shouldn't be!" Tamlen responded.

"Let us pass, Elf! You have no right to stop us!" one of the other Shems said. To me, he seemed to be the dominant one, the ringleader of these three. He did most of the talking.

"No? We will see about that won't we?" Tamlen said as I crab stepped towards him, my own bow nocked and trained on the intruders. He glanced over at me. "You're just in time. I found these humans," he said the word as if it left a bitter taste in his mouth. "Lurking in the bushes. Bandits, no doubt."

"We aren't bandits, I swear! Please, don't hurt us!"

I rolled my eyes at his change of tone.

"You Shemlin are pathetic. It's hard to believe you ever drove us from our homeland."

"We've never done nothing to you, Dalish! We didn't even know this forest was yours!"

"This forest isn't ours, fool. You've stumbled too close to our camp. You Shems are like vermin, we can't trust you not to make mischief. What do you say, Realin? What should we do with them?"

I hated when he said my name in front of Shemlen.

"Let's find out what they're doing here," I sighed.

"Does it matter? Hunting or banditry, we'll need to move camp if we let them live."

"Look, we didn't come here to be trouble. We just found a cave," the first Shem said.

"Yes, a cave. With ruins like I've never seen. We thought there might be, uh..."

"Treasure. So you're more akin to thieves then actual bandits."

"If you've been there, you should have treasure to prove it," I said, not believing a word they were saying.

"I... I have proof! Here, we found this just inside the entrance." The leader handed what looked like some sort of stone to Tamlen, who had to relax his bow to take it. He examined it, while I continued to keep my arrow trained on the Shems.

"This stone has carvings...," he sounded amazed. "Is this Elvish? Written Elvish?"

"There's more in the ruins! We didn't get very far in, though."

This piqued my curiosity as Tamlen put the stone into his pack and raised his bow again. "Why not?" I asked.

"There was a demon! It was huge, with black eyes! Thank the Maker we were able to outrun it!"

Tamlen scoffed. I was sure amusement showed plain on my face. "A demon?" he asked. "Where is this cave?"

"Just off to the west, I think. There's a cave in the rock face, and a huge hole just inside."

Tamlen looked at me. "Well? Do you trust them? Shall we let them go?"

"I don't trust them but you've frightened them enough. They won't bother us." I was sure they wouldn't come back out of fear of the so-called demon.

Tamlen seemed to have the same thought. "Run along then, Shems. And don't come back until we Dalish have moved on."

We relaxed our bows to show we weren't going to shoot them in the back. I could see the relief in their eyes.

"Of course! Thank you! Thank you!"

Tamlen took a few steps forward as they ran, then turned back to me. "Well, shall we go see if there's any truth to their story? These carvings make me curious."

I was curious as well. "Sounds like a good idea," I said.

"And if we find anything the Keeper will want to know."

"Of course."

~~~

Since there is nothing to tell of our journey to the cave, I'll take the time now to tell you a bit about us. But first I will tell you my family weren't Sabraes like most of the clan, but Mahariels. My father came to the clan by way of the Arlathvenn, the Gathering of the Clans. Tamlen and I have been best friends for as long as I remember. He had dark blond hair that he kept cut short. Like all Dalish who come of age, he had the facial tattoos, called vallaslin. His were one thick line down the middle of his forehead with three thinner curving lines stemming from that. He also had two thin lines like rivers curving from the corners of his mouth back to his ears. He wore the traditional Dalish armor, rough leather but light. The tunic came down to his thighs and left his legs to just above his knees, where his boots stopped, bare. My clothing was similar, save my armor left my midriff and lower back bare and I wore a type of skirt. I wore gloves that covered my arm to just above the elbow but left my fingers bare. My vallaslin covered most of my forehead with a thin line halfway down my nose. I kept my reddish-brown hair cut at my shoulders with a pair of braids hanging down on either side of my face and another braid around the back of my head. It mostly kept it out of my face when I was hunting. Or doing any kind of fighting; Tamlen and I were both known to do lots of wrestling with our fellow Hunters and my friend, Merrill, and I did so quite often. To the disapproval of the Keeper. But enough about us.

~~~

We found the ruins the Shems spoke of and I admit it was an impressive sight.

"This must be the cave," Tamlen said, his voice showing the awe I felt about seeing it. "I don't recall seeing this before, do you?"

I shook my head. "No, I don't. Let's check it out," I said with a smile.

Tamlen returned the smile. "My thoughts exactly. With luck, we'll find something that will make us clan heroes!"

"Then let's go."

And with that, we descended into the cave. A decision that ultimately changed my life forever.