Another week and another chapter!

Everyone wave at Eva and say thank you ;)

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It was late morning when a barking noise caught Kallia's attention. It was the Mabari she had found the flower for before Ostagar. Kallia didn't know how she knew that, but she was absolutely certain it was him. When he came around a corner in the road followed by a small squadron of darkspawn she immediately pulled her staff from her back.

Alistair ran into the group of darkspawn already slipping into the threatening stance he always took during battle to make sure the enemies focused on him instead of the two women. He knew his place on the battlefield. He might not have liked Morrigan but as long as she contributed to the fighting he could wish no harm on her. Between the three of them and the mabari hound the fight was soon over.

The dog ran from the fallen bodies to Kallia and jumped up on her, putting his paws on her chest and knocking her over. She made a quiet "Oomf" as her back hit the dirt road. She protested as he licked her face excitedly.

"I think that's the mabari you helped out back at Ostagar," Alistair made the same observation she had already.

"It is," she confirmed.

"So now you're telling me that we're also going to have this mangy mutt as a traveling companion?" Morrigan asked with disgust.

"He's not mangy," Alistair defended.

"Actually he is," Kallia told him, the dog started barking happily.

"What?" he looked at her confused.

"He is, Mangy I mean. That's his name." Kallia kept a straight face. She wasn't teasing, she wasn't joking, she was simply relaying a fact. The Mabari hound's name was Mangy.

"That's not a very nice thing to name him..." Alistair whined.

"Why not? He likes it. Maker's breath, he picked it." Now Alistair was staring at her like she was crazy. She admitted it sounded crazy, but there was just something about the dog that had told her he liked the word Mangy and would like that to be his name. Alistair started laughing, clearly he decided it was a joke. She decided it was best to let him think that.

Better he think her joking than insane.

"Well, it's not like he actually knows what it means," Alistair said with a laugh. Mangy let off an angry growl at him and climbed off Kallia.

"Easy now, Alistair, you'll hurt his feeling," she scolded, only half teasing.

Morrigan rolled her eyes, "If you two are done, we should be moving before the darkspawn are upon us. There could be more." Alistair didn't comment that he'd be able to sense it if there were more. Technically Kallia could too but he doubted she'd realize what the feeling was and it wasn't like he could stop and explain it to her in the middle of battle.

Ten minutes later Alistair couldn't keep the glare off his face he was directing at Mangy. Kallia was the only one he had to talk to on this journey and ever since that dog had shown up she'd been paying more attention to him and Alistair hadn't had anyone to talk to besides Morrigan. Which was essentially the same as having no one to talk to. And he was bored. What could possibly be so exciting about talking to a dog anyway? It wasn't like he could answer her... although she seemed to be holding an actual conversation with him.

A few minutes later Alistair smirked when she and the dog went silent, apparently she had gotten bored of talking to herself. Unfortunately now he couldn't think of a way to breach the silence. He was slightly annoyed that she seemed perfectly content with the lack of conversation. Her hand was resting on Mangy's head absently scratching his ears while she walked.

She would stop occasionally, as she had over the last week, and pick herbs she recognized. He tried to help but found that all the plants looked the same to him so he settled for asking what each one did as she picked it or dug it up.

"What's this one called?"

"Deathroot."

"Ohh creepy name. What's it do?"

Kallia sighed and stopped her digging. "The same thing it did the last time you asked." Mangy made some kind of noise and Kallia turned her gaze to him. "Don't you laugh at him. You wouldn't be able to tell me the difference between deathroot and a cattail fern either."

Alistair snickered at that comment and she sent him a glare as well. Maker, she felt like a sodding mother. Everyone in her little group was constantly picking fights with the others and she was the one caught in the middle. Thank Andraste Morrigan had gone on ahead.

Kallia pulled the plant out and broke the stem off so all she was holding was the root. "Of course up until a week ago I couldn't recognize these plants either. I'd only ever seen the dried versions and pictures drawn in books. Duncan was the one who pointed them out to me." She commented absently, but then cursed herself when she saw the look on Alistair's face. "Do you want to talk about it?" Kallia had a lot of experience comforting children, she somehow didn't think comforting Alistair would be that much different.

"You don't have to do this, Kallia. I know that you didn't..." he sighed and shook his head. "You only knew him maybe two weeks."

"But I did still know him. And I do mourn his loss, though perhaps not as deeply as you," she told him gently.

"How do you do it? Keep going as though nothing happened? Have you lost someone before? I.. I don't mean to pry..."

"Alistair, I grew up in the Tower. My bedtime stories were about abominations and maleficar, all of which resulted in death." Kallia didn't add that the warning the stories served as did not always work.

"I suppose being sent to the Tower felt a lot like when I was sent to the Chantry. You didn't have much of a choice either," he commented.

Kallia found herself rather grateful that Alistair had never become a full Templar. She had trouble imagining him doing nothing but patrolling a dusty library. If she knew Alistair, he would be so nervous that one of them was going to turn him into a toad that he would barely be able to function. So they would likely have him watch the children. He would have been good for that... perhaps the children he had watched would have gotten some better bedtime stories. But in the end, watching the children was worse than watching the apprentices or mages.

A child's want is much stronger than adult's is. Their dreams are far grander, and that makes it much easier for demons to pull them into the Fade. When it happened, the older children and mages always did their best to restrain the child until a ritual could be performed to break the link between the child and demon, but sometimes a Templar would get to them first or they were too strong or too dangerous to even wait for the Templars...

Alistair would never have lived with himself if he had to kill a child.

She smiled at him, "I suppose it probably was for the older children, but I was sent to the Tower before I can even remember."

He was quiet for several minutes while she finished cleaning the dirt off the herb she had just dug up and packed it with the others in her pack. "Thank you," he said quietly.

"I thought it might help to talk about it."

"It did, at least at little..."

Kallia nodded and gave him a wry smile. "We should get going." She shouldered her pack and the three set off to catch up with Morrigan, both glad the witch hadn't been there for their talk.

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