Title: A Bard's Love
Author: Guyver89
Game: Dragon Age Origins
Characters/pairing- The Warden, Leliana
Disclaimer- DAO (c) BioWare


Dragon Age: A Bard's Love

Chapter O4
Living is an Oxy Moron

They weren't all gone. Stragglers were still roaming Ferelden and into Orlais. It would only be a matter of time before the inevitable would occur. They were at Halamshiral; a city west of the Frostback Mountains known for being what used to be The Capital city of The Dalish. Cogdale had never gone west past the Frostbacks the area felt alien to him, The fact they were appearing from the loins of the Frostback was no surprise and in a sad and odd way they made the west seem like home.
Cogdale withdrew his blade from the Hurlock's broken ribcage. After 3 months of not hearing or seeing of the Darkspawn, the minute they officially left Ferelden they step in a swarm of the abominations. His pull of the Nevarran blade found itself lodged into another Hurlock's eye socket. Cogdale had no sympathies for these monsters and he slaughtered them as if they were insects on the bottom of his boot.

It was only Cogdale and Leliana fighting the group of 40 darkspawn. A reasonable fight for them seeing as the Darkspawn were without coordination. His sword yearned for the tainted blood to shower its cold silverlite mesh once more. The new improved armor he wore made him move more flexibly and thus in turn his cuts and slashes were deeper and more brutal compared to his movements during the Blight.
The Darkspawn were acting afraid with their body language. Taking a few steps back when they confronted Cogdale face to face. Only to force them to charge headlong into Cogdale's might. They were behaving like a drunken coward who got in a growling competition with a Mabari warhound. Wind cracked as Leliana's arrows flew by Cogdale's head into a hurlock's chest; rupturing his twisted lungs.

Helena and Garrden watched in awe, as Cogdale and Leliana took on the horde of darkspawn single handedly. Perhaps more in awe of Leliana for not being affected by the taint and holding her own against the Grey Warden's kill count. Several more Hurlocks rushed at Cogdale. Thrusting his blade into the center one he pulled with intense strength enough to rip the darkspawn in half and amputating the others' arms with ease. But of course the darkspawn won't go down via flesh wound. They began to chatter their teeth to show intent of biting Cogdale.
Cogdale chuckled and opened his arms wide let them have a go at chewing on him. When they approached him Cogdale was as solid as Shale. The closer and closer they got the larger his smile under his helmet grew. One reached with its neck to clamp down on Cogdale's forearm only to have all its grotesque teeth shattered by a flick of Cogdale's wrist. A Hurlock has no nose so Cogdale's original maneuver of shoving the cartilage in the nose into its brain wouldn't work. While the Hurlock was dazed Cogdale clasped the darkspawn's head in his palms and snapped it with so much force it tore the Hurlock's neck muscles open exposing the now useless jugular veins. The remaining Hurlock stumbled back in fear of Cogdale's terrible kill. The Darkspawn didn't live to calm itself though as a serrated arrow ripped itself through the skull. The corpse collapsing into the cold dirt with a loud thud was no comfort to Helena and Garrden. They had seen Cogdale and Leliana fight but that was with restraint.

What they saw was horrifying and would give qunari nightmares. Cogdale strangled a genlock against a tree. After several minutes of squeezing the short darkspawn's life away but without profit, Cogdale started to slam his head into the genlock's head. After 4 crushing blows the genlock's face was a bloody pulp, almost like a grapes squeezed for wine.
Cogdale shook off the vertigo from the immense attack he had preformed and aided Leliana to fend off some bulkier hurlocks who had peculiar face paint that was never present on the darkspawn during the blight. Cogdale surprising it with his hidden dagger to its face, ripping the lower jaw off, took out the first of the two. The larger one left flexed to try and frighten him but Cogdale didn't flinch. Leliana's arrows barely penetrated the flesh of the hurlock.

Chopping the hurlock with his blade, Cogdale stumbled back from the fortitude of this darkspawn. Of course the blade did leave a mark that bled but the hurlock ignored it and continued its advance towards the 2. The beast knocked Cogdale over with its forearm as wide as Cogdale's torso. Cogdale flew into a nearby tree losing his sword on the flight to the tree. But Cogdale didn't have time to comedically shake his face and blink a few times to get a handle on the situation again.

Cogdale quickly noticed Leliana was trying her best to distract the hurlock and even kicked him with all her might to no avail. Cogdale jumped up and sprinted at the darkspawn with enough speed he tackled it off its feet down a steep cliff of about 15 feet down onto a green bluff with a small ray of sunlight making itself between the clouds and leaves. Finally the hurlock was incapacitated. Cogdale called out for his blade, moments later his sword came falling down the cliff for him to catch. Catching this enormous darkspawn off guard was the key to its demise.
Several swift and inelegant chops to the hurlock's face put it to rest. Regaining his posture Cogdale looked back up to Leliana who had watched him kill the darkspawn. The sunlight on his face exposed his eye mist to him. He watched as the mist flew up to the sunlight only to disappear. Cogdale could hear magic exploded behind Leliana. Helena and Garrden must have finally decided to help them. With magic the rest of the darkspawn would be easy pickings. If Helena knew some blood magic she could possibly take out 10 darkspawn. If she had the knowledge Morrigan had. Which would be very unlikely.

Cogdale didn't have the time to do his typical pondering he needed to get back up to help them. The steep climb up was easy enough. It only covered his armor in dry dirt and sand. Leliana caught his hand and helped pull him up. "Wow that armor really is light." Leliana exclaimed once he reached the ledge. "No kidding." Cogdale said running off to aid Helena and Garrden. Branches snapped and rocks were kicked as Cogdale charged through the forest to the combat. Leliana followed behind him using the new path he created to her own advantage. Their arrival was greeted by more darkspawn and more sporadic their attack became. All 4 of them found themselves back to back as the tribal like mentality of these darkspawn surrounded them all.
"How in the fade did this happen?" Garrden said spinning his dual daggers in his hands. Cogdale had no idea moments earlier the darkspawn were routing from the battle. Now the war painted blight now surrounded them. Yet the darkspawn did not attack them. As if darkspawn held hostages, the thought could only merit a scoff.
"Sod it all" Cogdale spat rushing the closest hurlock. Wrenching his sword through tainted intestines, yanking them all out. The other 3 took that sign as attack. Cogdale cut through the closest hurlocks and genlocks that had no armor like butter. Their cold dark blood splattering across the trunks of trees. Cogdale knew he nailed the trees' fate when tainted blood infested their roots, but he had no way to stop it from occurring. While he rushed another group of darkspawn Cogdale could see Leliana and Helena were holding their own. Any darkspawn making a glance at them were erased from the equation by Leliana's keen eyes while the darkspawn who were in their faces were burnt to sinders by Helena's magic and agility.

Their skill and luck guided them to survival for this battle. The remainder of the darkspawn horde retreated back east into the Frostback Mountains. Blood trails drew their fleeting paths. "Garrden go tell Bodahn and Sandal that the path is safe again." Cogdale ordered taking his helmet off to get a fresh breath of cold air. Cogdale's face was bruised and in a sweat. His nose was in a full bleed. Probably from his headbutting spree he had dealt on the genlock earlier. The blood soaked his light beard and soul patch to a darkened crimson.
"Cogdale you're bleeding!" Leliana gasped running over to him and pushed his head back. "Lean your head back to stop the bleeding. Trust me I've had one too many of these." Leliana giggled pinching the bridge of Cogdale's nose. Warranting a grimace from the spike of pain of a broken nose.

"Here I can help stop the bleeding." Helena said approaching the two. Her long fingers drifted over Cogdale's face. Leliana retracted her hand so that it didn't get the majority of the healing. The healing spell did its job and stopped his nose from leaking but it was still broken. "When Bodahn gets here I'll get some bandages Cogdale." Leliana said patting him on the neck. "Right… ouch… it hurts just to talk with a broken nose." Cogdale cringed from the sharp sting. Leliana only smiled, blood scattered across her face. It felt good to vent frustration on sentients who were more or less definitely not beneficial to Thedas.
Leliana sighed, plucking a leaf off a small twig and sniffing it. Something about seeing that seemed a bit morbid to Cogdale. After slaughtering countless tainted souls and flooding the frozen forest's floor with blood. Leliana sniffs a leaf from a plant and smiles. Both Leliana and him were desensitized from murdering darkspawn.

Something he was unsure if he was okay or not okay with. Perhaps it was okay since they were true abominations. A punishment The Maker wanted them to redeem themselves for.  But then there is the fact even though evil it was still life being ended. His mind became a swirling mess after thinking too much of something. It didn't help that his nose was broken from his ignorant anger for the darkspawn. Bodahn and his son appeared with the caravan now. They tried their best not to seem afraid of their surroundings. Well… Bodahn anyways. Sandal was always one to not have any emotion about anything except for enchantments. Leliana climbed up the 1st wagon and retrieved small bandages and placed them on Cogdale's nose they would keep his nose from snapping into any other position.
"There we go! And how bout a kiss to make it all better?" Leliana said pecking his nose quickly. The small sting of pain was worth the affection from her. "So we're still heading west to Orlais yes?" Bodahn said holding the reigns of the oxen.

"Yes when we hit Lydes we'll use that to plot the rest of the trip. It is a shame the Imperial Highway's bridge from Lydes to Val Royeaux is destroyed the trip would be 3 or 4 times faster then what we have to take." Cogdale said showing a crude drawing of Ferelden and Orlais map. Bodahn looked at it with such passion you'd think he was a devout Andrastian reading the chant of light.
"We'll basically be in Orlais when we hit Lydes, Leliana… do you want to go anywhere before we finally hit Val Royeaux?" Cogdale asked her, catching her wiping the blood off of her face.

"It is winter but Lake Celestine is magnificent frozen over. We can actually walk across it if it's the right time of winter." Leliana said still wiping off the darkspawn blood from her skin. "Another beautiful city is Montsimmard. It is not much less a city as it is an abandon base of the Orlesian chevaliers ages ago. The fort is covered in flora that you've never seen before. It is now a city and Orlais' Circle of Magi." Helena became worried when The Circle was mentioned. Leliana tried to reassure Helena of the Orlesian Templars. "Don't worry about The Circle Helena. Orlesians are still very prejudiced against you Fereldans I highly doubt they'd want a Fereldan mage in their Circle. No offense." Leliana said.

The ancient city that was Halamshiral opened their ruined gates to the caravan as they neared the city. The forests around Halamshiral were still thick and green. Further proving the city was once a Dalish city. Most of the infrastructure was replaced by Orlesian architecture but there were still remnants of the Elvenhan make around the city. It was still early morning so the group wasn't staying the night in the city.
Guards in unique armor Cogdale could only guess was Orlesian make stopped the caravan. Leliana readied herself to respond to them. The first guard approached the caravan and began talking.
"Halte-là, ce que les entreprises avez-vous ici?" He asked his voice reverberating inside his elongated helmet's mask. Cogdale looked at Leliana wondering what he was saying. She didn't translate for him. She just conversed with the man.
"Nous sommes juste des marchands" Leliana replied to the guard. The man took a few seconds and looked at everyone in the group. Cogdale could tell whatever Leliana was telling the orlesian, he wasn't buying it.

"Vous quatre ne ressemblent pas à des marchands. Vous semblez être des mercenaires." Cogdale could only make out 1 word that seemed relatively similar in King's Tongue. "Mercenaires" must have been "Mercenaries" the orlesian must of thought of them as mercenaries from Ferelden heading into Orlais to cause trouble. Even though the man had no business in protecting Val Royeaux. He was not of Chevalier status his purpose was for Halamshiral.
"Eh bien, ce n'est pas grave vous Numbskull, nous sommes simplement de passage!" Leliana said raising her voice at the man. He readied his hand on the hilt of his rapier sword.
"Je n'ose vous d'essayer!!" Leliana said revealing her massive blades she had stored in her pack. The guard released his grip and walked away. Leliana smiled with boasting grin and nodded at the guard and waved Bodahn through.

"What was that?" Cogdale asked scratching the back of his head. "Une mauvaise excuse pour une confrontation." Leliana answered in Orlesian. "Oh! I apologize. I haven't had to speak my native tongue in for so long." She said giggling. "They wanted to know what we were doing in Halamshiral. I told them we were merchants. Which in a way we are." Leliana said clearing her throat. "He didn't buy my lie so he called us mercenaries going to cause trouble. I accused him of being an imbecile and he challenged me." Leliana leaned back on Cogdale's shoulder.
"Orlesians always settle things man to man so to speak. But most Orlesians can use their tongue but not their fists so to speak." Leliana said looking up at Cogdale. "So I take it you got us through?" Cogdale asked. Leliana nodded and tried closing her eyes. The past 2 weeks from Highever to Jader through the Frostback Mountains can take the toll out of anyone. Especially a woman who was trying her best every night to start a family.

"Leliana…" Cogdale whispered to her. "Hmm?" she raised her eyebrow. "You're gonna have to teach me how to speak fluent Orlesian." He said poking her head. "Alright, then you're going to have to teach me a secret of your own." She said poking him back. "Deal, I'll just put that in the pile of other deals we have with each other." Cogdale jokingly said pretending to put an invisible note into an invisible pocket. "Yeah like you proposing to me." Leliana said. Cogdale's stomach dropped from being reminded that. Even after been given time to think about it he was still unsure if he was worthy enough to have Leliana be his wife.

"Yeah…" He wandered his mind to viewing the overgrowth of the structures of Halamshiral. Vines of ivy and moss appeared like wildfire from every orifice in the buildings. The forest was reclaiming Halamshiral from the Orlesians. Perhaps one day to give back to the wandering Dalish when The Dales is theirs again. For now Orlesians occupied the city. The city had life in it but not what the forest wanted. Plants were growing too fast for the Orlesians to keep from spreading. Within another decade or so they would have to abandon the city. But knowing Orlesians they could possibly burn it down.
"What a beautiful marvel" Helena said looking at the city. "I would've loved to see in its prime. When The Dalish called this home." She sighed resting her face in her hands. The mage would have to be more careful with revealing herself a mage to people in Orlais seeing as the kingdom is the home of The Chantry. Although more lenient then The Imperial Chantry.

Cogdale had heard rumors that most of the Imperial Templars of Tevinter were mages themselves. Seeing as blood magic is allowed in the Imperium a Templar who knows blood magic almost seemed unstoppable to Cogdale. A blood templar could possibly take out blood mages a lot more efficiently then a Templar of The Chantry.

Cogdale only shivered at the thought of the evils that resided inside The Tevinter Imperium. What abominations roam their lands freely and how demons had ties within the politics of the Imperium. The paranoids believe the entire Imperium is actually entirely made up of demons. Using the land as a beachhead for the full invasion of Thedas from The Fade. Some call for an exalted march against the Imperial Chantry. Chantry versus Chantry would only prove more to the Qunari in Seheron that we can't decide for ourselves. Only involving another combined Exalted March against the Qunari.
The loss of life would put any Blight to shame, even the first war with The Qunari. But if The Chantry called for an Exalted March against The Qunari. Cogdale would fight. He had studied his best in libraries about The Qun. It was the removal of individuality, freedom as it were. Something that threatened his love of life and the love of his life.

They were but only halfway through the city. The only noticeably visible building in the city not touched by nature was the Chantry. Not surprising was the several Templars who were on duty to keep the forest's growth at bay from the Chantry. Cogdale frowned that only the religious building would get the satisfaction of keeping the forest from growing on it while apartments and homes were being overrun by the green.

Cogdale's angered thoughts were halted by a singing Leliana. "Oh comment je manque l'odeur de la floraison des lys et la façon dont ils ont apporté la chaleur pour moi." Once again Leliana spoke in Orlesian.
Cogdale had no thought of what she was singing but her voice was enough to keep his thoughts at peace and prefixed on her for the remaining trip to Lydes  .