CHAPTER 2

Garrett sat underneath a large palm tree overlooking a pristine sandy beach after receiving his letter from the king of Ferelden summoning him to Weishaupt to help negotiate treaties between the chantry and the mages guild,something he considered a fruitless endeavor but he was almost certain Isabella,Fenris,Varric,Anders (if he was still alive) and Kenshen along with his dark haired sorceress whom he had only met breifly had been summoned and probably most of Kenshens old companions would also be attending so he couldn't miss that.

"there you are Hawke" Merrill panted after climbing the steep hill leading up to the cliff "I've looking everywhere for you"

"Oh sorry about running off like that I saw a hawk" he apologized he had been walking with Merril when he had ran off after the large bird.

Merrill had become used to this,since they had fled Kirkwall into the wilderness he had gone off chasing almost any animal he saw in order to learn to shapeshift into it shapeshifting had become his obsession now that he had so many animals to study.

"Well did you learn to shapeshift into it?" asked Merrill eagerly

There was a flash of white light and a large hawk now stood where Garrett had been sitting,It seemed to be slightly disoriented however because it tottered and fell over another flash of white light and Garrett was back picking himself up off his stomach.

"Ugh the telescopic vision threw me off" Garrett complained rubbing his eyes

Merrill just laughed and said "you'll get it next time"

"maybe you should try to shape shift again" Garrett chided.

"no I don't think it's for me" Merrill responded

recalling vividly the first and only time she had tried to shape shift.

It had been a week after Garrett had taught her the spell and the mental state required,she had shared many a memory with many different animals during her training as a keeper under Marethari. Merrill had taken Garrets advice and started with an insect and used the memories she had gleaned from the mind of a butterfly some years previously. She cast the the spell that allowed her physical body to transform and plunged her mind into the fade and envisioned those memories,the way a breeze traced across her wings,the taste of a flower on her 6 feet,ducking and dodging a bird as it had swooped after her these memories and sensations had allowed her to stop thinking of herself as an elf Merrill was a butterfly.

Suddenly she saw the blades of grass enormous and reflected in her compound eyes accompanied by the sudden strong taste of dirt from her feet,and before she could recover from the overwhelming shock of the initial transformation a large gust of wind blew and lifted her off the ground and she began to panic she landed on a giant,leathery tasting something and quickly ripped her mind back from the fade and into her own body,a fraction of a second later horror and renewed panic gripped her as she realized she hadn't cast the spell of changing before leaving the fade,she began to reach for it again when she realized someone was shaking her slightly and calling out to her rather loudly

"Merrill,Merrill,MERRILL!"

With a gasp Merrill opened her eyes gulping in breath,her heart thundering inside her chest with Garrett staring down at her his bright red eyes alight with concern. She looked around her sight was normal, whole and undivided and the stream of flavors that had emanated from her feet had ceased her 2 feet which she realized with a jolt were hanging in the air the rest of her however,where in Garrett's strong thin arms he lay her down on the grass gently still holding her head up in his arm while the other one reached around and grabbed a leather skin from his belt which he held to her lips

"come on drink up drink up" he murmured soothingly.

Merrill still gasping and trying to slow her heart rate took the skin by the neck and poured half the contents down her throat almost immediately she had felt a comforting warmth bloom within her stomach,she looked up at Garrett and grabbed him 'round the neck,he flinched slightly as he always did when she grabbed him unexpectedly but he held her and rocked back and forth on his knees whispering comforts into her ear until her breathing receded to it's normal tempo and she had stopped trembling and she loosened her grip.

"Oh Hawke that was so horrifying" Merrill quaked

"you should have told me you were going to try it" Garrett lectured her gently "I would've kept you from panicking like that"

"I-I think I need to go to bed" Merrill stammered as she slid slowly from his grasp and crawled into their bedroll,he had joined her soon afterward and had held her and stroked her hair until she had fallen into a fitful sleep.

"Oh this wouldn't be like that time love" Garrett said snapping Merrill back to the present

"why doesn't anyone anyone call me by my real name?" Merrill asked abruptly changing tact though whether or not she did it on purpose he couldn't tell

"Why whatever do you mean love?" Garrett asked back with a falsely stoic expression

"you call me love,Isabella calls me kitten,Varric calls me daisy the only person whose ever called me Merrill is Fenris and he never spoke to me that much anyways" Merrill rambled

"Nope don't know what you mean love" Garrett responded keeping his mouth hidden because of the prominent grin he had utterly failed to restrain.

"See you did it again" Merrill exclaimed pointing at him

"still don't have the slightest idea what your talking about love" Garrett choked out now having to stuff his mouth into his bicep to muffle the snorts of laughter that kept escaping him

"how can you not notice I mean I think Varric does but maybe I'm just-" she stopped mid sentence and turned to Garrett and started slapping his arm playfully as she exclaimed

"you did to know and you sat there and let me ramble to myself like an idiot oh I can't believe you!"

Garrett laughed while jumping backwards and tripped over a concealed rock Merrill falling right on top of him

"you are so juvenile" she giggled

"Is that a bad thing?" he asked raising an eyebrow.

"definitely not" Merrill replied playfully and kissed him,

he rolled over pinning her underneath him she squealed and tried to wriggle away but he pulled her back a lustful smile on his face. Garrett locked his lips onto hers as he ran his fingers through her hair and down to her neck and began unwrapping her scarf,trailing his fingers down her spine and listening to her gasp. Moving towards the straps on her robes quickly unbuckling them and stripping them away,as his hands began to explore her body his mouth began moving down raking his teeth ever so slightly against her neck and down towards her bare breasts listening to her gasp and moan. Then he heard her whimper and she turned over on top of him a positively devilish look on her face

"now" she said impishly "let's begin".

An hour and half later Garrett lay there with Merrill dozing on top of him,she looked at him a lazy smile on her face

"we should get moving you know".

Garrett stretched like a cat and asked

"can we go one more time?"

"by the creators no" Merrill exclaimed huskily "another round like that and I'll have to lay here a week before I could get the energy to get up and move"

"I wouldn't complain" Garrett cracked with a grin.

"of course you wouldn't" Merrill grinned back "you are man"

"ah well you've got me there love" Garrett admitted as he pulled dark blue trousers back on

"why does everyone call me love or daisy or kitten or something else" she wondered aloud and she rolled over looking for her robes.

"because your cute" Garret replied "and people give cute people nicknames"

"maybe" Merrill said still looking for her robes

"and speaking of getting moving and being cute"

he picked up a bundle of robes he had hidden and started running down the hill out towards the beach

"catch me if you want' em back!" he called

"Garrett no!" Merrill exclaimed running down the hill after him laughing "give those back"

"you gotta catch me first" he laughed,

When she got to the beach she saw him at the edge of the water making to throw her robes into the water

"oh no you don't" she cried sprinting down the beach and making a dive for her robes.

Garrett lifted the robes over Merrill's outstretched arms and watched her soar into the water and land with a splash

he howled with laughter as she stood up sputtering

"oh I can't believe you did that" she exclaimed

"I can't believe YOU did that" He gasped laughing with tears in his eyes

"oh come here you" she said as she grabbed his shoulders and pulled him into the water along with the robes, For awhile the splashed and played like teenagers they were just emerging from the water sopping wet and laughing when they heard a familiar voice.

"Well well well I certainly wasn't expecting to find this" Isabela smirked

Merrill let out a surprised gasp and lowered herself farther into the water with color blooming in her cheeks she still hadn't put her robes back on.

"Aw jealous you didn't get to join in on the fun" Garrett replied a grin

"yes" she pouted "I heard shrieking awile ago I thought someone was torturing a genlock".

Upon hearing this Merrill sunk even lower into the water her entire face now a brilliant shade of magenta,Isabela seeing this laughed and said

"I was just kidding Kitten though it does look like you two were up to no good"

"no good isn't the phrase I would use" Garret responded with a grin as he summoned his and Merrill's staffs from where they had left them and ran them through her soaked robes

"Isabela hold these please" giving her the the ends of the staffs

"what are you goint to do?" she asked

"a little trick I picked up from Kenshen" was his only response

he then raised 2 large pieces of stone as long as Merrill's robes and perhaps 8 inches thick he then bathed them in fire for about a minute and then stopped and exclaimed

"Behold the instadryer!"

Garrett then had Isabela hold the staffs as far away from her as she could then levitated the pieces of stone and clamped them over over the robes with a definitive hiss,he pulled the stones away after 4 seconds and gave threw them to Merrill who had come out of the water since Isabela had positioned herself with her back to it,Merrill had quickly buttoned the robes back on and they were pleasantly warm.

Garrett had then turned his robes inside out,his like his cousins had black high dragon hide stitched over the cloth,the robes had actually been a gift from Kenshen for having learned to be an arcane warrior,battle mage,shapeshifter and learning many other things besides shortly before they had went off in search of Morrigan and he had disappeared with her through the elven portal leaving him with a his codex,mabari hound,the key to a cache of rare drinks and items and extremely angry dalish elf ranting about her blighted book.

"We still need to get our things from the hilltop" Merrill reminded Garrett

"oh decided to get a change of scenery eh" Isabela asked slyly

"well actually-" Merrill started

"no need to go into details kitten" Isabela purred

"I thought you liked that kind of thing Isabela" Garrett chided

"only when they know what they're saying poppet" Isabela replied with a giggle.

After Garrett and Merrill had retrieved their gloves,boots,belts and camping equipment

Isabela piped up "oh Andraste's roasted tits I forgot I had Fenris and Varric with me I left them behind"

Garrett cocked his head and asked "how did you manage that?"

"well I went into the woods to relieve myself when I thought I heard your voices and I took off without giving them a second thought" she answered

"relieve yourself" Merrill asked innocently

"she means she took a shit love" Garrett responded with a grin

"ooohhh" she said understanding dawning on her

Isabela chuckled "well anyways we should probably find them before they have kittens"

"wait how would you leaving make Varric and Fenris have kittens" Merril inquired innocently once again though Garrett swore he saw the smallest of smirks appear on her face ever so briefly

"just an expression Kitten" Isabela laughed "though I think if ever Fenris managed to sneak up behind him..."

"okay 1 he would have to get past Bianca and 2 theres no way in the void he's..." Garrett trailed off

"think about it poppet" Issabela giggled "Merril,Aveline and I are the only women I've ever seen him with well if you could call Aveline a woman there are times when I have my doubts."

Before Garrett could respond he heard a smooth voice shouting through the underbrush

"dammit Isabela where did you go"

"allo Varric" Garrett greeted the dwarf as he emerged from the the trees and brush Fenris following shortly afterwords

the dwarf looked up at Garrett in dumb surprise surprise then his more stubbled than usual face split into a wide smile

"Hawke? wait Isabela is that why you ran off? hah Fenris was sure you had led us into some kind of ambush"

Isabela looked at Fenris with an expression of mock hurt on her face.

"Fenris do you really not trust me?"

"not in the slightest" he replied but with a small smile then asked

"wait did you ever figure out what was making that shriek"

Merrill let out a small utterly mortified gasp which made Garrett and Isabela snigger

Garrett clapped his hands together.

"Good now that we're all reunited except for Sebastian,Aveline and Anders maker only knows if he hasn't had a huge mental breakdown and blown up half of orleas by now we should get back underway to Wiesshaupt so onward!"

"for blood,glory and damn fine drinks"Varric added they all laughed and set out on their way again happy to be reunited.