Rabbit's POV
Master is a good man. Master and I fight side by side. When people try to hurt Master, I protect Master. Master never does anything wrong. I am happy when I'm by Master.
Master walked at the head of the group. I trotted beside him, but occasionally I ventured off into the nearby woods of the path, but at one whistle I'm always back by Master's side. Master had painted a white paste over my body earlier, now I smell like Master. We walked on a path with idiots behind us, then suddenly a woman screamed for help from my master. Master obliged to help her, because Master is a good man.
BUT IT WAS A TRICK! Good Master was tricked by evil woman. A man who smelled like yummy leather yelled angrily at Master. Then a tree fell where Master and I had been just moments before, Master needed to dive to get out of the way.
I growled at the man, barring my teeth. Master pulled his sword out and barked orders out to idiots. Idiots listened and soon everyone was fighting. We were fighting a BIG group. My teeth tasted like blood, everything smelled like blood. Except for me, I smelled like Master. There was a whistle, Master's whistle. I sniffed the air and soon located Master, I raced to his side.
"Good boy!" Master yelled to me when I arrived at his side. He was fighting a group of three men. "Attack Rabbit!"
Master told me to attack, so I charged the man on the right. Jumping, my paws made contact with the man's shoulders. He smelled like ale and dirt as he struggled beneath my weight. I swiped at his face, soon the man stopped struggling. But then I was knocked off the man, a new man was trying to stab a sword in me! I barked. Then Master came with his shield and forced the man off of me. Master chopped the man's head off with one stroke.
"BRENNER!" I heard Dumb-man yell for Master, "ARROWS!"
Master propped his shield above his head and pulled me in toward him. Soon I heard things that sounded like Nan's boiling cooking oil, but what I have learned to be arrows that get stuck in Master's shield. Master pointed at Miss Snooty who was being overwhelmed with two rogues and a mage, he told me to help. I don't like Miss Snooty, but I listened to Master and ran over to help Miss Snooty.
When I got to Miss Snooty though, she was no longer Miss Snooty. She was a giant spider. We fought side by side until the three that were attacking her were gone. Then Miss Snooty came back and the spider was gone. I barked at her, to which her eyes rolled.
"Go back to Brenner," she said, as if she could order me around.
I ran to Master anyway though. Master was in a duel with a short man, the man who smelled like leather. He reminded me of Nan's servants. Servants are fun to play with, they're always scared of me!
The short man faked an attack at Master, but he didn't see me coming and I charged him. Master did not have to worry about even being scratched. Short Leather Man fell to the ground. His head his stone and the smell of more blood caked the air.
"Good Rabbit," Master said, I felt my tail wagging. Master was happy with me.
Soon all the enemies weren't moving and all the idiots began to search through all the fallen enemies. I followed Master around as he inspected a cart. I hopes there was salted meat in there, but I could only smell blood and Master.
"Rabbit, do you see anything interesting?" Master asked me.
I barked and ran away to find something. I ran to where Miss Snooty was searching a mage's cloak. She was boring. I ran to Happy Girl, Happy Girl was breaking traps. I ran to Dumb-man. He was grabbing arrows from archers. Dumb-man is stupid.
"Hey Boy!" Dumb-man said to me, "Here I found this, maybe you'll like it."
Dumb-man threw a bone to me. I barked and grabbed the bone in my mouth. Then ran back to Master. Master laughed at me when I brought back the bone. I whined at him, why was he laughing at me?
"Oh it's nothing," Master said to me, "Go ahead enjoy your bone."
"Warden," Huge Giant said to Master, suddenly appearing near the cart, "The assassin is still alive."
Zevran's POV
Suicide. Who ever thought it would be so hard? I groaned and opened my eyes. The bright sunlight made it nearly impossible to see, not that my spinning vision helped either though. Before me stood, what I could make out at least, was a very broad silhouette of a man.
Unintentionally I groaned again, blinked my eyes repeatedly, hoping it would help my sight. The spinning stopped and my eyes started to adjust to the brightness. That's when I took in my situation.
My ankles were tightly bound together, as were my wrists. I was the only one of my group alive. How the hell did I manage to be the only one to survive? Can't I die? I was also surrounded by a large group of people, which included a giant and a large hound. All were glaring at me. I did a quick count. Seven. Seven things wanted me dead.
On the far left stood a human girl with flaming red hair. Her eyes glared, but in comparison to the others' glares, she actually seemed friendly. Beside her was the hound, a brown muscular beast with black paint smeared over his body. He growled at me. Behind the hound was an elderly woman with a staff, she was sitting on a boulder, her hands busy peeling elfroot from a nearby plant. None of her attention was focused on me like the others. Close to the woman protectively stood the giant. His dark skin and white hair, with his bulging muscles terrified me. On his back was the largest great sword I had ever seen. I gulped upon recognizing that he was a Qunari. Far to the right was a mysterious woman who glared at me through golden eyes. She also had a staff like the elderly woman, but she showed no signs of aloofness. Then before me stood a tall man with light brown hair with a shield, he glared at me, but it was nervous. Sweat caked his forehead. This man, however, stood behind and even larger man. My eyes had to do a double take when I saw him.
The man closest to me had green eyes, slightly tanned white skin. He wore red steel armor that clung to his body, exaggerating his muscles and emphasized his broad build. I immediately took him to be the warden that had been my supposed mark. He had pale blonde hair, paler than mine. With a straight line for a mouth, he was trying to hide any emotion, any weakness. But due to my assassin training I could see through his mask, he had hopelessness and despair deep I his eyes. Perhaps if I didn't feel the same I wouldn't have seen it, but I did. He wore a mask to try and cover it, a good face to have when dealing with an assassin, like myself. I could not distinguish what he was thinking, though I could detect his hidden feelings. His high cheek bones were decorated with faint floral swirls that trailed down nearly to his chin. He was just about to speak, but I cut him off, knowing that if I could speak first I may be able to stay alive.
Wait- Stay alive? Didn't I want to die?
NO! I want to live, please let me live!
"I rather thought I would wake up dead, or not wake up at all as the case may be, but I see you haven't killed me yet…" I let my voice carry on without restraint. "Let me save you some time. My name is Zevran, Zev to my friends. I am a member of the Antivan Crows, brought here for the purpose of slaying any surviving Gray Wardens. Which I have failed at, sadly."
For a split second I thought I saw the Warden smirk, but it was gone before I could be positive that's what I saw.
"I'm rather happy you failed," he replied, his face became a stone wall again.
I nodded in agreement, "So would I be, if I were in your shoes. For me, however, it sets a rather poor president. Getting captured by a targets seems to be a tad detrimental to one's budding assassin career."
"Too bad for you then," the Warden smirked again, but I was positive I saw it this time before it disappeared. He was having fun with me.
"Yes it's true, too bad for me," I sighed exasperatedly and dramatically.
"Leliana?" the Warden turned his head to look at the redheaded woman, her head immediately perked up with excellent obedience. Then the Warden asked, "What are the Antivan Crows?"
It became apparent that the redhead, Leliana, was the person in the group who had all the knowledge of people and places. I then pegged her for a bard, which was confirmed when she answered in an Orlesian accent.
The Orlesian girl spoke, "They are an order of assassins, out of Antiva, very powerful and renowned for always getting the job done. So to speak. Someone went through great expense to hire this man."
"Quite right," I said, disappointed he had not heard of the Crows, "I'm surprised you haven't heard much of the Crows out here. Back from where I come from, we're rather infamous."
"Not for being good assassins, I see," the man with the shield added snappishly. Looking at him for the second time I guessed he was the other Gray Warden, my second mark.
"Oh fine!" I exclaimed sending my own glare at the other Warden's way, "Is that what you Fereldens do, mock your prisoners? Such cruelty."
"Who hired you to kill us?" the larger, and much more handsome, Gray Warden asked me. His voice was tired, as if he was bored interrogating me. He interrogated me as if it was just an obligation to appease his followers. He had already decided what he planned to do to me after the interrogation and was now just waiting for our conversation to end. Terrified for my life, I decided to elongate this conversation as much as I could.
"A rather taciturn fellow in the capital… Loghain, I think his name was. Yes, that's it."
The Warden did not seem surprised by my answer at all, but a few of his companions' faces appeared shocked. The most so was the other Gray Warden, the one with the shield.
"If you're done interrogating me, I have a proposition."
A few stray blonde hairs fluttered over my face. Instinctively my hand went to brush it away, but the rope kept my hand behind my back and cut into my skin when I tried to move. The Warden, who had noticed my movement, instantly grabbed the long sword at his side. I tried to pretend I didn't notice this, but for a moment I thought he was just going to chop my head off.
"Well, here's the thing: I failed to kill you, so my life is forfeit, that's how it works. If you don't kill me, the Crows will. Thing is, I like living. And you are obviously the sort to give the Crows pause. So let me serve you instead."
I spoke without thinking, but after I listened in my head to what I had just spoken, it sounded like a decent enough idea to me. I didn't want to be a part of the Crows anymore so why not go join up with someone they couldn't touch? The pretty Warden would just be a bonus for joining.
"And what's to stop you from finishing the job later?" snapped the beautiful witch on my far right. She did not seem to be a fan of keeping me with them. The Warden flashed a look toward the witch, but seeing as how she was behind him, I couldn't see the type of look he flashed.
"The only way out of the Crows is to sign up with someone they can't touch, even if I did kill you now, they might just kill me on principle for failing the first time. Honestly? I'd rather take my chances with you," I answered her, my voice calm.
"Why would we want your services?" the witch continued.
"Why?" I asked, faking to be hurt, looking at the witch I said, "Because I am skilled at many things," I glanced Mr. Shield and Mr. Giant, "From fighting," I looked at friendly Leliana, "to stealth and picking locks," my eyes flashed cruelly to the witch, in a snobby way, "I could also warn you should the Antivan Crows attempt something more… sophisticated, now that my attempts have failed." Then I looked at the pretty Warden, "I could also stand around and look pretty, if you prefer. Warm your bed? Fend off unwanted suitors, no?"
"Bed-warming might be nice," the Warden said laughing, his mask had dissolved, and he smiled down at me.
"See! I knew we could find a common interest!" I exclaimed whole-heartedly, "Or two, or three- Really, I could go all night. So what shall it be? I'll even shine armor. You won't find a better deal, I promise."
"Very well," the Warden said, "I accept your offer."
To which Mr. Shield exclaimed angrily, "What? You're taking the assassin with us now? Does that really seem like a good idea?"
"Don't worry about it. We could use him," the Warden persuaded.
"Alright, alright, I see your point," Mr. Shield sighed, easily caving in, "Still, if there was a sign saying we were desperate I think it just knocked on the door. And said hello."
Leliana then spoke to me with kind comforting words, "Welcome, Zevran, having an Antivan Crow join us sounds like a fine plan."
I decided to play with her, "Oh? You are another companion to be then? I wasn't aware such loveliness existed amongst adventurers, surely."
"Or maybe not," Leliana replied curtly.
The Warden untied my bindings and pulled me off of the ground with an outstretched hand. The moment my cold fingers touched his warm hand, I felt my heart flutter. A jolt of electricity zapped through my body… just like Rinna.
"I hereby pledge my oath of loyalty to you until such a time you chose to release me from it. I am your man, without reservation, this I swear."