All Hail Cousland || Dragon Age Origins

The Joining

It was midday.
Jenna and her fellow comrades would have to return quickly before nightfall.

The guards recognized Alistair and allowed him and his charges entrance to the Korcari Wilds without any questions.

The weather got more thick and humid as they got deeper into the Wilds, however, it got colder with each step they took.

The Wilds were an expense of forest and swamp. It was quiet, apart from the crows cawing and the wind blowing.
Jenna normally loved being in the nature, but this time wasn't going to be very pleasant.

She followed Alistair carefully and looked at him for guidance, although she wasn't sure why he was accompanying them exactly. As future members of the best order of warriors, she could have came alone with the recruits.
Alistair was following a map, so he seemed to know exactly where they were going.

Later, she felt someone getting close to her.
"Well. You're not what I thought you'd be." Daveth muttered.
"What did you expect me to be?" she asked sarcastically, "And why are you whispering?"
"Not a woman! Yet, here you are!" he exclaimed.

Jenna rolled her eyes and remained silent, annoyed by the comment, and returned to concentrating on where Alistair was taking them, and inspecting the surroundings with watchful eyes.

Daveth followed her again and continued, "The name's Daveth, if you were wondering. It's about bloody time you came along. So what do you think of that mysterious ritual they're all talking about? Me, I'm perfectly willing to accept that this Joining is some kind of punishment. It's all too secretive for me. Makes my nose twitch." he told worriedly.
Daveth waited for a response from Jenna, which she didn't give, so he kept quiet and followed the group instead.

As they were walking, they heard a groan of pain from the distance.
They moved forward to find a dying soldier lying on the ground, and gravely wounded.

"Who.. is .. that? Grey Wardens?" he hardly asked.
"Well, he's not half as dead as he looks, is he?" Alistair scoffed.
"My scouting band was attacked by darkspawn." he told.

This worried Jenna. The first thing that crossed her mind was the possibility that this scouting band he mentioned was her brother's.
She didn't know the man, and he wasn't wearing the Cousland armor, but that didn't put her mind at ease.

"Is Fergus with you? Are you from Highever?" she overwhelmed him with question, terrified.
"Who? What? No! These monsters came out of the ground.. please.. help me.. I've got to.. return to camp." the wounded soldier begged.

What he said didn't reassure her at all, but only made things worse. Her brother was in danger, but so was she. She wished with all her heart she could see him, find him, be with him.
But he could be anywhere.

As she got lost in her thoughts, Alistair saw the horrified look on her face and knelt to the soldier, "I've got bandages in my pack." he offered.
He opened his pack and bandaged the soldier's wounds before helping him stand on his feet.
"Thank you! I've got to.. get out of here!" the soldier said then started limping back to the camp.

"Did you hear? An entire patrol of seasoned men killed by darkspawn!" Ser Jory remarked, his expression worried and scared.
Alistair tried to reassure him, "Calm down, Ser Jory. We'll be fine if we're careful."
But that didn't calm him at all.
"Those men were careful, but they were still overwhelmed. How many darkspawn can the four of us slay? A dozen? A hundred? There's an entire army in these forests!" he exclaimed, horrified.