Chapter 2: Lake Calenhad
A few weeks had passed since that night of Diamondback. The five decided that under that tree would be their meeting place and once a month they will end up there. In about a week's time would be their next meeting to play. The five knew they could never talk about it, due to the templars or the elders finding out. But it was still memorized...
This day was a week from their meeting. The teenage apprentices were having their monthly routine of exercise out on the beaches of the tower, the water being lake Calenhad.
Pandora looked out to the lake, sighing heavily as their instructor began to give them the rules. Anders sat next to her.
Jowan and Niall had been in the group that morning and Karl was towards the evening.
Anders was looking at her arms as she softly spoke. The two had become slightly closer as friends, but Pandora was still ruthlessly violent and Anders was still silly.
Just like the other apprentices, Anders and Pandora wore cloth shorts and a cloth shirt with no sleeves to exercise in.
"I woke up to them" she showed him her burns on her arm, "I know I sleep on my arms.. do you think my tears could burn me in my sleep?" she asked Anders.
Anders tilted his head to the left, staring at her arms. "Maybe.. if you want... later, I can heal them for you?" he offered. Although at times silly, Anders was sweet and willing to help his friends, especially if he knew he could help them out.
Pandora nodded as the instructor got their group up to swim.
"You can swim right?" Anders asked Pandora, showing a confident smirk.
Pandora glared at Anders, "Is the sky blue Anders?" she asked harshly as he laughed.
After Anders laughter died, he smirked to her again, "Then how about a race? All the way to the end of Lake Calenhad?"
Pandora raised a brow, the lake was huge. How could they swim all the way to the other end?
"... did you hit your head on the way here?" she asked him and then looked to the templars watching them from afar, "And don't you think we will be stopped?" she asked, whispering almost.
Anders smirk grew, "Not if they are preoccupied" he urged her, "Come on, It'll be fine" he told her.
Pandora felt her insides squeeze, "I...I... I don't know Anders..." she finally looked away, upset that he wasn't listening... again.
Anders frowned, "Then I guess you really can't swim" he coaxed, watching her for a rise, Resting his hands behind his head as he spoke.
Pandora snapped her glare to him, "You are soooo On, Serrah" she crouched down and touched the grass under her feet. It immediately caught fire and she backed away to the sand, grabbing one of Anders's wrist along with her.
It didn't take long for the fire to spread and for everyone: templar, apprentice and Elder alike to notice the fire spreading.
The two charged into the water threw the commotion and began to swim away from the tower.
Pandora recalled the elders telling them to never use magic outside of the circle walls... Well she had a score to settle. Couldn't let that get in the way, could she?
Pandora didn't know when she decided to stop to tread water, but when she did, she could see that the tower was further away than she had meant it to be.
She looked next to her to see Anders swimming up beside her and treading water easily.
"We are half way there" He told her as she looked back to the tower. She couldn't see the fire or any of the templars from here.
Anders began to swim away again and Pandora followed suit.
They arrived on land long after the sun had set. The crescent moon high in the night sky.
Pandora sat on the sand and coughed loudly, getting cold quickly. She laid back and rested there, watching Anders climb up next to her and lay back on the sand.
"I totally won" Anders chuckled to her.
Pandora scoffed, "You keep telling yourself that" she said close to a whisper.
A silence sliced between the two and Pandora sat up, her hair wrinkled from the lake and slightly shivering.
"We just escaped the tower didn't we?" Pandora asked Anders as he rested his hands behind his head.
"Pandora.. I am hurt, we didn't escape." Anders shrugged, "We are just taking a vacation"
Pandora glared at Anders, "Vacation huh?" she sighed and laid back down. "If it wasn't for the fact I was exhausted, I would beat you right now..." She sighed and looked up to the sky, feeling sleep hit her hard.
She heard movement next to her and Anders scooted closer to her.
"What is it?" She bitterly asked Anders.
Anders face saddened, "Are you mad at me?" he asked.
She watched as his face became a beacon of sadness that she couldn't resist. She huffed and shook her head, "No.. I am not mad. Cold, but not mad" She flipped over to her side, back facing him. "Good night Anders"
She felt him shiver a moment and then latch onto her back.
"What are you doing?" she asked him.
"I am cold too" Anders sounded hurt.
"Then find your own warmth"
"But you are warm...Can't you share?"
"No. I will not share my fire with you. You tricked me into coming out here"
"... I didn't want to go alone alright...I am tired of that place you know..."
Anders voice sounded cracked, broken, like a piece of glass.
Pandora felt her heart sink into her stomach as she flipped over to stare at him.
Ander's face had dropped to sorrow. He remembered his family. He remembered his home.
"...you want to go home?" She asked, now staring at him.
Anders looked into Pandora's eyes, "Not home.. just away from there..." He grumbled, "I don't like it..."
Pandora softened her glare and put her hands in between them. She sparked a small flame that warmed the two.
"I... I am sorry for lying Pan..." He shortened her name.
She... sort of liked it.
Pandora sighed, "I forgive you.. just warn me next time you want to leave..." she explained, "So we can be prepared to leave"
Anders eyes lifted upwards, "...but we are away from the tower... they won't find us.."
Pandora frowned, "Yes they will.. they have a sample of our blood..They'll find us eventually..."
That made Anders sour more, as if the hope from his big caramel eyes were leaving him.
Pandora sighed, "Don't worry, even if they catch us again, We will always find a way out" She encouraged him.
That made Anders smile, which in turn, warmed Pandora's heart.
"Now go to sleep so we can start early tomorrow" She ordered him.
Anders nodded and snuggled close to her warm hands and shut his eyes.
Pandora watched his form sleep for a moment before shutting her own eyes into a deep sleep.
The morning after, Pandora found herself sleeping in the sand alone. The sun shown on her face as she cringed at its light. She groaned and sat up. Tempted to rub the sleep from her eyes, but noticing just in time that she was covered in sand. She grumbled and walked over to the water and washed the sand away.
Pandora then looked around, not seeing Anders anywhere... she wondered if someone had taken him in the night or if he simply found something to occupy his simple brain.
It was probably the latter.
She finished cleaning the sand off, but now she was wet again. She huffed, not caring too much about being wet. She walked past the sand into the forest just behind the sand. Grass wedging themselves in between her toes as she was able to see the sun light shine threw as it rose slowly into the sky.
"Anders?" she called out and suddenly hearing a thud a little ways in. She walked into the forest and looked to her left, hearing a groaning now.
She looked over to Find Anders, upside down, in front of a tree.
"... Do I want to know what you are doing?" she asked, raising her hand to her head and pushed her hair out of the way, showing both eyes now.
Anders rolled over and sat up, now staring at her eyes. They were an ice blue color and shined brightly. "I ...I was trying to find breakfast" he pointed upwards to the trees, "There are some apples up there.." he told her, still looking to her eyes, almost mesmerized.
Pandora let her hair fall back over her right eye and watched Anders snap out of his trance. She guessed not even he was immune to the color of her eyes. She looked up to find Apples in the branches above.
"...hmmm" she hummed a bit, "Do you think this is an orchard for apple trees? Do you think we are trespassing?" she asked him as he looked up too.
Anders shrugged, "I don't know.. I haven't seen anyone else but you" he told her and climbed back up the tree again. Or at least attempted to again.
After the third try, he had to stop and heal himself, hurting his right elbow and shoulder.
Pandora sighed and began to climb the tree. She was smaller, lighter and could hold her own weight. She made it to the first branch and pulled on an Apple just above her head. She grabbed it and tossed it to Anders, who was staring up at her from the ground.
She tossed a few more before deciding that would be enough. She dropped down and landed on her feet and knees, almost like an assassin.
"That was awesome!" Anders had already began to eat one of the apples as she walked over and sat down in front of him, "Where did you learn to do that?" he asked.
Pandora shrugged, "I don't know.. I have a vague memory of a woman telling me that its in my blood.. So I have always kept it up." she told him, grabbing an apple and taking a bite.
"A woman... your mother maybe?" He asked, curiously.
Pandora shrugged as she ate, "I don't know.. I was 4 when I arrived at the circle.. I don't remember much of my parents or where I grew up...I know I have living family here in Fereldan... somewhere..." she explained.
He had finished his first apple and started on his second. He seemed saddened, "...living family... do you mean your parents are... gone?" he asked, trying to mask the word dead.
Pandora stopped eating her apple and looked to him, saddening. "The night they brought me to the circle... I remember it being winter.. really cold.. and... the Templars made the house... warm.. like fire..." she began to think, trying to remember... not much coming to mind. "I mostly just remember the switch of extreme cold and extreme heat... if they burned my parents house down and killed them.. I do not remember.." she explained, watching his face full of sorrow. "What of you? Do you remember your parents?" she asked, trying to get him to cheer up.
Asking about his parents made him hurt more. "My mother tried to hide me... my father found out and he turned me into the templars... they only allowed me to keep the pillow my mother made for me when I was younger.." he explained to her, looking up at her. His body hunched over now, seemingly depressed.
Pandora nodded as he continued, "I was 11 when I joined the circle.. from the Anderfells..."
Pandora then raised his brow, "Anders... from the Anderfells?" she asked, almost giggling at that, "Is that a nickname?" she asked, raising a brow.
Anders blushed lightly and looked away, trying to play it off. "It... sort of..." he mumbled out, now looking to the lake.
Pandora finished her apple and threw her core at him, causing a "OW!" from Anders.
"Tell me the truth" Pandora ordered.
Anders sighed and scratched the back of his head, "Its a self proclaimed nickname alright... jeez... that hurt" he complained, now holding his shoulder, where the core had hit.
Pandora nodded at the answer and looked back out at the lake, to the tower. They could just make it out.
"It has to be a few days walk from here to there..." Pandora commented as Anders continued to eat.
"More like a week" Anders told her, looking back to her, "now that we are away.. what do you think we should do?" He asked her.
Pandora raised a brow, "If I knew where my cousins were living, we could go there" she shrugged, "But I don't know their names.. I wouldn't know where to start... and I wouldn't want to bother them with mages..."
Anders nodded and finished his second apple. "Then we should head to the nearest town"
"Which would be?" Pandora glared at him.
"Redcliffe, Its just over there..." he stopped pointing in the opposite direction of the lake. Within a moment, he thought about it, slightly pouting, "I.. uh... I think"
Pandora raised a brow, "No sense of Direction, hmm?" she asked him.
"I resent that" Anders told her, pointing at her mockingly.
Pandora smirked and stood up, "I am sure you do Anders...I am sure you do"