It's been so long! Sorry~ ^o^'

But anyway, the new chapter is here finally!
Enjoy :D

"What was that?"
"What was what?"
"Last night" Morrigan scowled.

It was early morning and we had all been irritably awoken to the deafening barking of Riddle, my mabari hound. It turned out to be just a solitary squirrel, but to Riddle it was an intruder to his carefully guarded territory. All the poor creature had been doing was collecting nuts for later consumption; it had not intended to cause a fuss. Unfortunately though, it had, and the whole camp couldn't help but resent it.
Begrudgingly, we all arose from the warmth of our bedrolls and started to make the necessary preparations for the day ahead. There was a mutual silence over the camp as we packed away our temporary homes for another day in the heat of the morning sun and spring breeze. Everyone seemed too tired to speak. At least for a while.

Morrigan had been eyeing Alistair with a notable disdain for the past few minutes. She sat, arms crossed, by the remains of last night's fire with all possessions neatly packed away in her leather bag. Her eagle eyes studying the ex-Templar-in-training as he slowly dismantled his makeshift tent. Then, out of nowhere she directed a question at him, deliberately making her voice as loud as she could so that the whole camp heard.
"What was that?"
I watched silently from the entrance of my tent, anxious at what Alistair would say. I knew Morrigan was referring to last night and so did Alistair. It wasn't hard to interpret. But everything had happened so fast the previous night that Alistair and I hadn't even thought to discuss the inevitable questions from the other members of our party.
From his tent, Alistair quietly turned to face the witch and was silent for a fleeting moment before calmly answering.
"What was what?" He had intentionally decided to play dumb to rile the woman, which wasn't the best of things to do. I smiled inwardly. Alistair always had to go about things the hard way and somehow he seemed more attractive for it.
However, Morrigan was not amused and did not even try to hide her scowl.
"Last night" her reply came through gritted teeth.
"The moon, perhaps? Stars? I'm not sure what you mean?"
Morrigan was seething by now. It was obvious she desperately wanted to snap at the warden but she did not. She breathed deeply before stating with dwindling composure "You and your warden friend," she looked sharply at me before returning her attention back to Alistair. "were rather... close last night, were you not?" The silence of the camp seemed to get impossibly louder. Everyone, including myself, watched Alistair intensely, waiting for a reply. Not a single person even dared move. The atmosphere could have been cut with a knife.
Alistair was sweating somewhat, nerves began to show as he wiped his forehead tentatively. Morrigan smiled sweetly at him, obviously enjoying his discomfort.
"As I said, I don't know what-" He begun to croak before I interrupted.
"I was upset" Morrigan looked at me in annoyance. Clearly, she knew what had happened last night but she wanted to watch Alistair squirm as he tried to avoid her questioning. The pair had never got on from the moment they met and their relationship was not unlike that between a cat and a mabari. Every day, they would argue about something new and each constantly wanted to get one up on the other.
"Alistair was comforting me" I continued with less confidence as I felt the increasing number of eyes upon me "That was all" I shrugged.
For a moment it seemed Morrigan was going to direct a malicious retort at me. My heart skipped a couple of beats as I waited nervously for her reaction. Cautiously, she bit back any kind of response and directed her attention to Alistair once again.
"Well I see." She said, obviously unconvinced "Somehow though, I think 'twas a little more than "comfort", but I'll take her word for it" Her eyes scanning Alistair's sweat laden face with annoyance. With one swift swooping motion, Morrigan picked up her bag and marched over to the opposite side of the camp, as far away from Alistair as she could be. Alistair watched her go with a paralleled air of annoyance before he looked over to me and mouthed "Thank you". I smiled gently and nodded. After a brief second we reluctantly returned to our planning and preparation. The rest of the camp had as well, all except for Wynne that was. She was frowning in a manner that reminded me of the frowns my mother used to give whenever I had returned home with leaves, twigs and other greenery in my hair and mud stains and rips in my frilly frocks. I had never been very girly and my mother could often be heard complaining that it was like she had had a second son.
But Wynne couldn't possibly be frowning at the state of my hair or clothing. But she did not say a word and eventually re-joined the others, but I couldn't help but be wary of the aged woman.

...

"So what's yer plan? I hope it involves cracking a few skulls!"
I smiled briefly at Oghren. His crude bloodlust was one of the dwarf's defining features, along with his drunkenness.
"Well, we've acquired the aid of the mages, elves, dwarves and even a few golems." I recalled to the camp, pacing back and forth as I did. "We also have the support of Arl Eamon. The only thing left is the Landsmeet" As the words left my lips, I looked instinctively over at where Alistair was standing. He avoided making eye contact with me, staring straight down at the dusted gravel floor. He gulped somewhat before blushing profusely. Alistair was completely aware of my gaze but he desperately tried not to acknowledge it.

"Where is the Landsmeet to be held?" Leliana broke the silence. I turned to her, much to Alistair's relief, and replied "I'm not actually too sure. I guess the palace in Denerim, but Arl Eamon said to go to his estate there. There are probably things that we need to settle before the Landsmeet actually happens"
"Like whether bumbling fools truly have the brain capacity to rule, I assume" Morrigan appeared from the shadows leering at Alistair. It was evident she had been waiting for another chance to provoke him and it had worked like a charm. Alistair's cheeks flushed red with anger at the witch and his were fists clenched by his sides. He looked positively violent towards the woman, but she remained unfazed.
"Morrigan!" I hissed "We have enough enemies right now. We don't exactly need to add to their numbers!"
She didn't take a great deal of notice and continued to smirk at the man.
Wynne stepped in front of Alistair, gently placing her hands on his shoulders and murmuring something to him. Whatever she'd said seemed to calm the warden to an extent, but there he was no doubt still fuming at the insult. It didn't help that he was already stressing out over the prospect of kingship.
"Has the Swamp Witch quite finished? I would much prefer that it told us its plan so we can start moving. I fear there may be more of those blasted pigeons nearby" To my left, the great dwarven golem, Shale, spoke in its gravelly tone of annoyance. It waited for the "Swamp Witch" to answer it; eyes glowing fiercely even in the daylight. But unfortunately, Morrigan was hardly in one of her more obedient moods and instead she remained silent, but the look of irritation at the stone carving spoke louder than words.
"Umm… Thank you, Shale. As I was saying… urrr…" I began "We've recruited all the help we can get to defeat the Blight and now we need to find Arl Eamon in Denerim. I propose we go around Lake Calenhad and towards Redcliffe. At Redcliffe we should stop for supplies before continuing towards Denerim. Any objections?"
The camp remained silent.
"Ok, let's go"

And with my plan of action in mind, we began our long walk to the village of Redcliffe. It would take a few days to reach the village and hopefully it would be in a better state than the last time we were there.
The party was oddly quiet. Only a few words were said and usually they were between the red-headed Leliana and the elven assassin, Zevran. I couldn't help but notice how close the pair had grown. "Is that how Alistair and I appear to everyone?" I couldn't help but wonder.
Sten and Shale lead the party with Morrigan bringing up the rear. Alistair walked directly behind me. He didn't say anything and kept his head down, deep in thought. I willed him to say something; the quiet Alistair was rather unnerving.

After at least an hour of trudging through the Ferelden countryside with the sun beating down onto our backs, I couldn't help but notice Wynne, who had been towards the front of the group, begun to hang back somewhat as if she was waiting for the rest of us to catch up. I eyed her with an air suspicion which she matched in equal measure. After the morning's incident with Morrigan and Alistair, I was unsure where I stood with the Mage. From the looks she gave, she clearly thought I was up to something. What, I did not know.
I was about to open my mouth to ask what her problem was, as her scrutinising looks had become unbearably uncomfortable, when she leaned in towards Alistair and asked in a concerned manner "Alistair, can I have a word?" Then she looked directly at me and added "In private"

Chapter 3 shouldn't take too long!
Thank you for reading