"So, my darling girl, remind me why we are tramping through the Maker-forsaken Hinterlands again?" Dorian picked his way around a large pile of rocks while making a shooing motion at a curious fennec.
Fen'lath squatted down, pulling an elfroot plant out of the soil. She checked to ensure the root ball was intact, then shook off as much of the dirt as possible before stuffing it in her herb bag. "Dagna wants Drakestone, and there's an abundance by the Dusklight Camp."
Bull muttered, maul slung over his shoulder and looking glum.
"What was that, Bull?"
"I said, there had better be something more exciting to do than get a buncha rocks for Dags."
"Technically, I believe we are gathering ore for the arcanist, Iron Bull, not rocks." The corners of Solas's mouth twitched when the giant Qunari rolled his eyes and grumbled at him.
With a laugh, Fen stood up and dusted her hands off on her leggings. "Bull, the scouts from Dusklight have sent reports of dragonlings in Lady Shayna's Valley. I know dragonlings aren't real dragons, but we can consider them practice for the one in the Storm Coast, right?"
Bull's good eye lit up, and he let out a high squeal of delight that had Dorian rolling his eyes and cursing to himself in Tevene. The Tevinter mage looked at Fen and spoke in a pained tone, "Are we really going to have to fight those nasty lizards, my darling?"
"They're only the young ones, Dorian. You, Solas, and I get to stand back and sparkle while Bull plows through them with that hammer of his."
Bull grinned, mischief crossing his face as he leaned over to Dorian and whispered at the top of his lungs, "The hammer is my p-"
"Bull!" Fen scolded.
"Ah, Boss, you never let me have any fun!" Bull pouted, bottom lip sticking out.
"I let you have plenty of fun, Bull. There's all the Venatori I've brought you along to kill," she ticked off on her fingers, "The bears here in the Hinterlands, plenty of demons, more Red Templars than even I can count, you got a few swings in on Corypheus's dragon, I remember at least two giants-"
"Yeah, yeah, you made your point." Still pouting, Bull grumbled and went back to lead the harts, horse, and nuggalope up the rocky slope towards the camp, Dorian taking lead. Fen snickered and slipped her hand into Solas's as they followed along.
"How do you feel, Iron Bull? Do you need a distraction to focus your mind?" Solas called ahead.
Bull looked at the cliffs of columnar basalt that surrounded the path. "Well, this area's low on dancing girls, sadly."
Solas's eyes lit. "King's pawn to E4."
"You're shitting me. We don't even have a board!"
"Too complicated for a savage Tal-Vashoth?"
Bull let out a grumble and glared over his shoulder at the pair of elves. "Smug little asshole. Pawn to E5."
"Pawn to F4. King's Gambit."
"Accepted. Pawn takes pawn. Give me a bit to get the pieces set in my head. Then we'll see what you've got." Their group entered the camp. Fen spoke with the Requisitions officer, taking small flags on stakes to plant over ore nodes for their people to gather and to tag the bodies of any dragonlings or other creatures they killed to be brought in for leather, meat, and other materials.
At the mouth of the tunnel leading to Lady Shayna's Valley, the scout stopped them and stammered, "Inquisitor, the others think I'm a nutter, but I swear on me mam's life, I've seen a grown dragon flying around the valley! With all the dragonlings, I'd bet me next month's pay it's a Fereldan Frostback. They're mean territorial, and reproduce like scaly rabbits!"
"Fasta vass! A high dragon? I was under the impression we were only here for dragonlings and pretty rocks-ore." Dorian shot a look at Solas.
Fen could feel Bull vibrating with joy at her back. They weren't prepared for anything more than the dragonlings. But, this was the only scout of over two dozen who was claiming there was an adult dragon in the valley. "Thank you for the warning. We'll keep an eye out for the dragon."
They started around the columned basalt cliffs of the valley, marking Drakestone and obsidian deposits in turn, and Bull chortled with glee as they took down one pack of dragonlings, and then another.
"My robes are absolutely ruined, Fen. There's no getting bloodstains out of Silk Brocade!" Dorian mourned as she scrambled up the butte in the middle of the valley, the humming of one of the oculara shards coming from above them.
"I told you several times to move out of the way, but nooooo. Fancy Dorian has to be posed just right to properly show off his profile while casting." She balanced on the flat of a basalt column, tilting her head and listening to the hum to determine the next column to climb onto.
Solas rolled his eyes at the two of them and elbowed Bull, "So, where were we? Ah, yes. Mage to C4."
Bull scratched his chin, "Little aggressive. Arishok to H4. Check."
"Speaking of aggressive. I assume Arishok is your term for the Queen? King to F1."
"Pawn to B5."
"All right. You have my curiosity. Mage takes Pawn."
"You call your Tamassrans Mages? Ben-Hassrath to F6." Bull elbowed Solas, causing him to stumble off balance.
"You call your Knights Ben-Hassrath? Incidentally, Knight to F3."
"Ben-Hassrath makes more sense than horses. They're sneaky, and they can move through enemy lines. Arishok to H6."
Solas nodded, conceding the point, "Pawn to D3."
"Ben-Hassrath to H5. Hah! All right, take some time. Think about your life choices."
"Are you two quite done?" Fen held up the shard with a cry of triumph.
"For now, vhenan." Solas smiled up at her.
She grinned back, then gestured to Bull, "Catch?"
"You got it, Boss." He held his arms up, and she leapt from the column into his arms with a tiny 'oof'.
Bull gave her a squeeze and then set her down. Dusting herself off, Fen slid the shard into her pack. "Well, I think we're done here for the afternoon, unless we need any more embrium or elfroot."
"We could always look for a few more dragonlings." Bull made Big Sad Eye at her.
Fen sighed and looked at Solas and Dorian. Dorian gave an overly dramatic huffing noise, holding up the corner of his robe that had three speckles of dragonling blood on it. "This robe is already irrevocably ruined, I don't see why not."
"I am not averse to spending a little more time outside of camp." Solas unslung his staff.
They found two more packs of dragonlings, much to Bull's utter delight. As they fought the last three dragonlings, Fen thought she heard an odd, deeper shriek. One of the dragonlings flanked Bull and snapped at Dorian, and she sent a Stonefist at it, knocking it over before Solas froze it in place and Bull whipped around to shatter it with his maul. Their concentration turned back to the remaining two, and Fen looked around quickly when the odd shriek echoed again.
As the last dragonling fell, they all turned around as the valley rang with the scream of a very, very angry high dragon. She circled around, smashing into the top of the central butte and sending shattered granite raining down.
"Well that's not good..." Dorian squeaked.
"I think it's time to...run? Yes, that would be the best thing." Fen gasped and started edging around towards the path to the camp, which suddenly seemed much further away than it had only minutes ago.
"But Boss!"
"Bull, no! We're not geared to fight a high dragon."
"But-" Bull cut off as a fireball bigger than he was splashed against the cliff face next to him. "SHITFUCKDAMMIT! RUN!"
The four of them sprinted, dodging the fireballs the dragon spewed out with shrieks of rage. Fen spotted the scout peering out of the tunnel, then gaping. "It is a Fereldan Frostback! Me mam showed me a picture in a book-"
"No time, hide!" Fen grabbed him by the collar and shoved him into the tunnel, all of them getting far enough in that they were out of reach of the fireballs, and the Frostback quickly turned away since they were no longer in its territory.
"Remind me to tell Dagna and Harrit we're going to need fire-resistant gear," Fen gasped from where she sprawled across Bull and Solas.
"Gladly." Dorian fanned himself, not even caring that his robes were now splattered with mud and covered in dirt.