Author's Note: Like in my previous Dragon Age story, the members of our merry group here are placing quite a few bets on each other to pass the time. If you have a great idea for a bet that you think should appear in the story (example: OMGG! Zula and Zevran should totally bet that even Alistair can't stand his own cooking!) feel free to suggest it to me in a review. It might actually appear in the story.
This chapter is mostly a re-cap of what has happened between the prologue and now.
Disclaimer: I own only what I made up myself.
ONE - SUPPER AND LIES
The dim light of the campfire sun glowed through the trees accompanied by the unmistakable sound of Alistair's now almost nightly routine to get other people to try and eat his... well, let's be nice and call it food for once; even though most of them were quite sure that eating it would most likely result in instant death. They had set up camp when the sun had disappeared behind the trees, both him and Zula agreeing on the fact that it would be painfully stupid to travel through the forest at night with one giant, four humans, one golem, three dwarves (two of them being merchants and one of them being—well, mostly and probably drunk) and a flat-ear that all had no idea on how to navigate this forest or whatsoever.
An entire week had passed since they had first entered the Brecilian Forest; and still they still had not into any of the Dalish. You could tell by the reactions Alistair was receiving that the time they'd spend in the forest was getting to them though – especially the humans seemed to be uncharacteristically nervous. Even Wynne had raised her voice at Alistair just now when he had shoved that bowl of grey stew under her nose for the third time.
Then again, he supposed he couldn't really blame them; this forest wasn't known for its good will towards humans after all.
Without further delay Tamlen stepped out of the shadows and onto the small campsite, dropping the few rabbits he had caught next to the fire with Leliana so that she could prepare them for supper instead of the death-in-a-bowl Alistair was handing out. In exchange he received a thankful smile as the bard went off to prepare the food, leaving him standing by himself next to the fire...well okay, Oghren was there too, but he was passed out snoring like he had just swallowed a cat or something so he didn't really count.
Letting his dark eyes further inspect the campsite he found Bodahn, Wynne and Sten near the edge of the camp seemingly in the middle of a card game (one that looked a suspiciously lot like the poker game Fenarel had brought back to the clan that one time), Shale keeping watch near the other side of camp, Morrigan lecturing his Mabari hound for some reason and eventually; a small group of two elves and a human standing near the only tent they had set up for the night – lacking the space for any other.
As he neared the group he noticed that the templar was once again armed with his bowl of stew (or maybe it was soup... it all looked the same) as he was talking to the two elves, one of them obviously less amused by the situation than the other.
"Yes, but that was only once." He overheard Zevran say manner-of-factly when he got close enough to the group. "You, on the other hand, have tried to poison me on several occasions now."
"It's not poison, it's food!" Alistair exclaimed.
"It really is not, Alistair." The third figure finally said; one whose slender yet curvy frame and midnight black hair he could recognize out of thousands. "Have you ever tried it yourself?"
Sensing his honour being put on the line here; Alistair almost instantly produced a spoon from his pocket and dug it into the stew (again: it could also be some kind of weird soup), using it to bring a large chunk of the grey substance to his mouth. Much to everyone's surprise however, he actually seemed to enjoy the stuff! Even going as far as moving more of it from his bowl to his mouth and actually swallowing the grey stew down!
The elves could only stare at him in disbelieve as he finished the bowl with a satisfied smirk on his face, all of them still half-expecting the templar to drop down dead any moment now. When this did not happen however it was Zevran who first seemed to recover, holding out his hand to Zulandra. "I do believe you owe me three sovereigns now, my dear Warden."
An annoyed grunt was heard as the Warden produced three gold coins out of her pouch muttering something among the lines of "Na Harellan" as she pressed the coins in the annoyingly satisfied looking flat-ear's hand.
Now it was Alistair's turn to be flabbergasted as he obviously tried to figure out why the two elves were exchanging money over him eating the stew.
"...are you guys betting on me?"
Zevran responded to this question by casting a brilliant smile towards the templar – you know, one of those grins like the cat that ate the canary has – while Zula... well, she was saved by Tamlen grabbing a hold of her wrist and dragging her off. "We need to talk." Was all he had said, leaving it to the Antivan Crow to explain to Alistair just how many bets were currently running against him.
oOo
"I can't believe we're already in this forest for an entire week." Alistair exclaimed, letting himself fall down next to Leliana who was currently pinning the now skinned rabbits on a stick to roast above the fire. Off in the distance, he could see Tamlen dragging their leader away to Maker knows where - oh well, as long as they were back in time for their watch duties... maybe they would return with more food. That would be nice.
"It is said that if you feel you are being watched in the Brecilian Forest, you are." The bard noticed carefully, looking over her shoulder as if she was expecting someone to stand right behind her. "I now finally understand why."
Alistair nodded, silently agreeing.
He did not quite understand why they were still wondering the forest when they had not one but two Dalish wardens to guide them through it. True, this forest was huge and it would probably take anyone that did not know the exact way months to travel from one side to the other, but something about this entire thing wasn't sitting quite right with him.
Maybe it was the fact that all of trees were starting to look very familiar to him – as if they had already travelled through this part of the forest.
But they couldn't be lost, right?
Zulandra was of no use either; back when they had left Osagar she had agreed to lead their strange group, even after they had stumbled upon that clansmate of her – Tamlen – back at Flemeth's hut. He still wasn't sure why the elf had been there, or why Duncan hadn't told him that he had saved and put another dalish elf though the joining... Urgh, sometimes he really wished he could ask the man those last questions. Somehow, he had expected that this entire thing would be a lot more easier with at least one (now two) other wardens by his side, but it had proven more than a few times to make things only more complicated than they already were. Not that he wanted them to leave – oh no! Could you just imagine him having though all of this by himself? To actually lead? No no no no no no.
Things would have been so much easier if Tamlen and Zulandra had been human... though he did not dare say that when they were around. Such a remark would most likely reward him with an arrow between his eyes.
But he could still think about it, as far as he knew Zula and Tamlen weren't able to read minds after all.
If they hadn't been dalish but human instead, they wouldn't have had a wolf named Assan travelling with them. 'Cause apparently, wolves made great pets for the dalish – great, dangerous, pets that steal meat off your plate. And talking about meat-stealers, that Mabari hound Tamlen had found wasn't much better. Also, if they had been human he would understand everything (or at least most of it, given that there would be Fereldan) they said, instead of having to guess it whenever they were speaking in that elvish language of theirs. They would also be able to read and write in something other than elvish, which would also be useful when they were reading a map for example.
Humans would also have complained less in Orzammar (or at least he'd liked to think that), and might have been less suspicious when they had gone to the Circle Tower than the two dalish had been. Humans would have been a lot less hostile towards other humans on numerous of occasions, though he had to admit that even Zula was becoming more friendly towards him, Wynne and Leliana lately. Whether this was because she was simply getting used to him or just tired of ignoring him the entire time he wasn't sure. He was already glad that he could now have a conversation with her without having to think everything he was going to say over thrice to make sure it wouldn't be offensive and he would actually survive said conversation.
'And humans wouldn't put finding Andraste's Ashes off till the last moment.' He couldn't help but to mentally add, though his thoughts were soon interrupted by a series of sounds that made his neck skin crawl.
What was that?
Whispers?
Alistair turned narrowed his eyes, trying to peek through the shadows underneath the trees around their campsite. Leliana was right, it did feel like they were being watched... but he couldn't find anyone actually watching them.
"People have always spoken of dark and mysterious woods, haunted by unseen beings. The Brecilian Forest is one such forest." Leliana explained as she put the last rabbit over the fire, having noticed his sudden discomfort. "They say the Veil is thin here and spirits from the Fade pass over, drifting through the trees and giving them an unnatural and sinister intelligence."
"Why haven't we heard this before?"
He was referring back to the whispers that seemed to be getting louder—no, louder wasn't the right word. The whispers stayed on the same volume, just barely audible, but they became more frequent. Like more and more joined the already excising ones as time drew by. Every now and then he thought he could make out a spoken word, only to realize that the words whispered weren't from any language he knew.
"I do not know." The bard admitted, absently rubbing her arms in a futile attempt to get rid of the discomforting feeling she was having. "Long ago, a lot of elves died here...maybe it has something to do with both Tamlen and Zula not being here right now."
"They better get back soon." Alistair muttered, his gaze focusing on where he had seen the pair disappear into the forest.
oOo
Neither of the elves spoke a word as Tamlen led them further away from camp, seemingly wanting to make sure that the conversation they were about to have wouldn't be 'accidentally' overheard by curious ears. Zula for once just allowed him to drag her around... at least for now she did. He would never allow himself to lead her into a trap after all. Not again.
'And if this really is a human trap; I am so going to kill him.'
Her face grew dark as she remembered the thought she had had all those months ago when she had followed Tamlen back to that rotten, darkspawn-filled cave. She remembered being so furious with him that day- until after the mirror when she'd thought she had lost him. Losing your clansman, your best friend, one of the few people you could actually trust with your life... it had felt like she had been trampled by a dozen hallas. And then Keeper Marethari had told her that she could no longer stay with the clan; that she had to go with the Grey Wardens; that she would have fall to the darkspawn taint if she would discard this order.
She had kept up a strong mask for the ones to see her on the outside, but on the inside she had felt completely drained. Like there was nothing left inside of her; everything she had ever cared about having been ripped right out of her being.
Being actually tainted had made it even worse.
They had been right; the Joining had stopped the taint from spreading, but it apparently hadn't been able to undo what the darkspawn taint had already done to her body. There were times now (usually when she was upset or angry) when her eyes would turn completely black, even the white disappearing behind the dark hue – and for Tamlen this was the same. But, as far as she knew, that was it and she should probably be glad about it. By now, she had already seen enough ghouls and shierks to know that the alternative was in fact; quite worse.
"..and then Alistair confessed his eternal love to me."
"Wait. What?"
Tamlen grinned.
"Oh, so you are paying attention! Ar din nadas."
An half-smirk appeared on Zula's face as she rolled her eyes in mocked desperation, crossing her arms and leaning back against a nearby tree observing her companion. They had come to a stop on a safe distance from camp, though close enough to be able to hear it if something would actually go wrong there. Not entirely private, but enough for a hushed conversation. "Abelas, ven vir."
Although she had just told him to continue his story – or at least explain why he had brought her here – Tamlen remained silent after her words. His silence had always been unsettling to her, though she had found that lately Tamlen was residing to silence more and more often, saying that he needed time to think and he couldn't do so with a dozen voices in his head. It stayed silent for a few more seconds before she could finally hear her Lethallin draw in a long breath before asking the question she had been so afraid to hear ever since entering the forest:
"Why are we walking in circles?"
This question felt like a slap in the face to Zula. Of course she had known that she had been leading the group in large circles around the forest for the past few days... but they weren't supposed to know about it. Not even Tamlen.
Instead of looking at him she chose to pull a face, looking back towards the direction of the camp. "So you've noticed?"
Tamlen scoffed. "It's hard not to notice. It surprises me that none of the others recognizes the area's we walk through. But then again, they didn't grow up with this forest as their home for over twenty years." When Zulandra stayed silent instead of responding to his question like she usually would he hesitatingly rose his hand, only to grab her shoulder and turn her around; forcing her to look him in the eyes.
Fear.
That was what he saw in those eyes... but why? A Dalish hunter feared nothing! Yes, that were the words she always has been so keen on reminding him of. But even before he could question her about it she had slapped away his hand and placed her emotionless mask back on, making it clear that now was not the time.
"We'll go to the camp tomorrow."
Elvish – English
Na Harellan – You trickster (mild insult, can be jokingly).
Ar din nadas – I wasn't sure.
Abelas, ven vir – Sorry, go ahead.
Lethallan – Casual reference used for a female with whom one is familiar.
Lethallin – Casual reference used for a male with whom one is familiar.
Shemlen/Shem – The original name of the elves for the human race.
Thanks for reading! Feel free to place a review, they make me happy~
