Her first thought was that he looked just like Oren. This little boy standing by the bridge looking for his mother, who was probably not coming for him. The second thought was of how she might help him. The young boy looked like he was fighting tears as he told her about how his mother was taking so long to come to Lothering.
Elissa knelt down in front of him reaching forward to lay her hand on his small shoulder. "You were very brave, coming here all by yourself like that," She gave him a comforting smile. "I will go look for your mother as long as you promise me you will go wait in the Chantry."
She knew in the back of her mind that they preists would probably be leaving soon and Maker willing wouldn't leave this boy behind. The boy smiled and thanked her, telling her she was a nice lady. Elissa kept her smile fixed on her face as she thanked him in return for the compliment, a twing of saddness running through her as she watched him run off towards the Chantry.
"Are we going to go rescue some kittens from trees now?" Morrigan sneered, arms crossed over her chest. Elissa clentched her teeth, keeping herself from killing the apostate was becoming more difficult. Mercifully Alistair stepped inbetween the two again, He wasn't very subtle about it but Elissa appreciated the gesture anyway.
"Look, the tavern is just on the other side of the bridge! You were saying we were in need of supplies weren't you, oh amazing leader?" Alistair gestured to the rustic looking building just ahead of them, giving her a small bow to punctuate his statment. Elissa snorted, feeling her frustration with Morrigan ease a bit. It wasn't completely gone, but Alistairs intervention did its trick.
"True, and we could probably look for any signs of that boys mother, give him some closure at least." Summer gave a soft bark of approval next to her. Elissa reached down to scratch behind his ear, he turned and licked her hand in thanks.
"Well, come along then. We don't have all day to stand about." Morrigan trudged ahead not bothering to see if her companions followed. Elissa grimmaced at her back before sighing and turning to face Alistair.
"The cranky lady is right, lets go enjoy the company of some, sightly drunk, desperate locals shall we?" Elissa gave him a grin before following after Morrigan. She heard him grunt in agreement, fllowed by the suffle and clink of his splintmail boots.
"Maker knows we could use some more simple problems to deal with right?" He commented as they drew closer to the tavern.
-.-.-.-.-.-
The day was coming to a close, and Alistair was amazed at how long this particular day had felt.
The trip to the local tavern had ended in a brawl with some of Loghain's men and the addition of a Orleasian lay sister who may or may not be delusional. Then they went to go look for that small boys mother, which ended the way they had all expected. They found her body laying on a hill not too far from the villiage. She had obviously been struugling to get herself there before she succomed to her wounds. Elissa gingerly looked over her body, finding a soft scarf tucked into a pack at the woman's hip. Elissa held it reverently muttering softly as she smoothed out the fabric.
"Let's give this to her boy and inform the sisters in the Chantry so they can come and take care of her body." Leliana rested a hand on Elissa's shoulder. Elissa sighed while stuffing the scarf in her pack. Alistair watched as she stood, turned around and muttered. "That boy desverved better than this." Her dog followed, close on her heels as she marched off to gather some elfroot they had past while searching for the ill fated woman.
As they were walking back to the Chantry Elissa stopped in front of a rusty cage that held Alistair could only assume was some kind of giant.
"Go on human, I have nothing for you now leave me in peace." The creature rummbled out in his deep voice, even before Elissa had a chance to say anything to him. This wasn't normally something that would persuade Alistair to continue to talk to someone, but Elissa didn't seem bothered by it and went on to question the creature, who they quickly found out was a qunari named Sten, about why he was standing in the cage. Sten was reluctant to give her any answers but for some reason Elissa seemed determined to try and get him to agree to come with them.
As they walked away Alistair fell into step next to Elissa. "Do you think getting him to come with us is a good idea?" He whispered leaning closer to her. "I mean I don't like the idea of leaving him in there, not with the Darkspawn getting closer. Still Leliana said he was in there for killing a family...I'm just not sure we should trust the large killer man to watch us while we sleep."
Elissa looked at him without breaking stride. "I know Alistair, but the fact is that we don't have many people with us. We are also not likely to get much help on the road if we have a price on our heads. So I am not about to throw away a oppertunity to get more aid." She sounded so sure in her decision that Alistair couldn't help but feel a little envious. Leading and making these sorts of choices just seemed to come naturally to her. Alistair smiled slightly, not that she hadn't been in charge of everything they did together when they were younger.
"What's with the grin?" Elissa questioned looking up at him out of the corner of her eye.
"Oh, nothing." Alistair said raising his hands in mock surrender. "Just thinking about this little girl I used to know who dragged me everywhere with her and wouldn't stop talking. You know, the kind of girl who would always make me be the Orleasian's when we played Fereldan's verses Orleasian's." Alistair smirked down at her. She snorted looking away from him.
"I don't know who you are talking about. I was a perfectly behaved, graceful, sweet young child." She said waving a hand at him in dismissal.
Alistair let out a deep, from the gut laugh. "Of...of course you were...What ever you say." He managed to get out in between boughts of laughter. She gave him a icy glare as he reached over to ruffle her hair. She reached up to swat away his hand. "Hey, I just barley managed to keep my hair from being a frizzy mess this morning so keep your hands off please." She said chuckling to herself.
"Yes please, such displays may just make me lose what little breakfast I had." Came Morrigan's voice drifting from behind them. This cause the two of them to pull apart, trying rather hard not to look at the other. Alistair vould have sworn however that he had seen a blush cover Elissa's cheeks.
-.-.-.-.-
Alistair wandered through the doors of the Chantry, letting out a heavy sigh as he went. They had met a knight from Red Cliff who had informed them that Eamon was deathly ill. This didn't bode well for the army they were trying to assemble. Let alone the fact that one of the few father figures Alistair had was on the verge of death. Alistair ran a hand through his hair in frustration, trying to banish thoughts of Duncan from his mind. He didn't want to lose someone else close to him. Even if Eamon did send him off to the Chantry.
Elissa and Leliana were inside talking to the reverand mother about freeing Sten, he didn't have much to add to the conversation so he had excused himself while they discussed the qunari situation.
Alistair tilted his head back to look at the wide expanse of sky above him. Maker, it seemed like a impossible task set out before them. Could they really stop the blight? Just the two of them, and a ramshackle group of strangers? The seriousness of the situation was settling on him, on top of the guilt he still felt over the death of the other grey wardens. The fact that this was completely insane became more and more apparent. Alistair lowered his head in defeat, gritting his teeth in anger at himself for feeling this way.
He raised his head to look out across the Chantry's yard, when his eyes settled on a grey, dead bush along the stone wall surrounding the Chantry. Nesttled amungst the dried, ugly, twisting thorns, lay a single rose bud. He didn't know what compelled him to do so but he found himself walking across the yard to get a closer look at the flower. The rose was a beautiful deep scarlett and had large, fat petals. Staring at this blossom made something inside Alistair feel lighter, like maybe even though their situation was horrible, that they would find a way to overcome it. That there was beauty even in a place that was surrouned by dispare.
Before he could even think about it he reached out a hand and plucked it from the dried bush. As he held it up to his nose he heard a voice call out to him.
"Alistair," Elissa's voice cut through his thoughts. "Come one. We got the key to Sten's cage. Lets get him and head out. There's still enough light that we could get pretty far before nightfall!" Alistair hid the blossom, gently stashing it in his pack. When he stood at turned Elissa was standing at the top of the stairs in front of the Chantry doors. The sunlight illuminated her pale skin, lending a extra flash of flame to her determined eyes. The slight of her looking so in charge and focused made his heart thud in his chest.
'Yes,' he thought. 'We will do this. With her here, we can.'
-.-.-.-.-.-
So now they were setting up camp in a clearing they and found off the road. Alistair had just finished setting up his tent when he looked over to find Elissa struggling to get her tent up. Alistair smiled at the scene before walking over to lend her a hand.
"Having issues are we?" He reached a hand out to brace the pole she was having problems keeping straight.
"There wasn't much call for setting up my own tent whenever we traveled." Elissa said, annoyance creeping into her tone. "So i'm sorry this skill isn't in my wheel house."
"Oh, it's alright, that's what I'm here for right? To take orders and take care of the grunt work." He grinned up at her trying to make her feel better.
"Then does that mean you get to carry my pack around for me? I mean a lady like me shouldn't have to carry something so heavy." She brought a hand up to fan herself.
"It wouldn't be so heavy if you didn't insist on picking up everything you find." He said looking away to hammer a stake into the ground.
"Hey some of that could be valuable to us later." She huffed at his back.
"Oh, i'm sorry. I didn't realize some pants with holes in them were a hidden treasure." He chuckled turning to finish his work. "There you are. One tent ready for use." He prentened to wipe his brow before reaching over to pat Elissa on the shoulder. "If you need my services again just ask."
"I'll probably have to call on your skills again soon." Her smile up at him made his pulse beat a bit faster, though he couldn't really say why.
"Well, I have quite a few talents that you can take advantage of." He didn't really think about what he was saying until the words were out of his mouth. Once he realized what he said he wished for some kind of magic to turn back time. He watched as her face turned red and she looked away from his face.
'Great,' he thought. ' now she thinks I'm some leacher. Fantastic.'
Before he could think of something to save the situation Elissa cleared her throat.
"Well, I think I need some sleep now...so just wake me when it's my turn for watch." She said moving to pull back the flap on her tent. Alistair groaned internally, kicking himself for making things awkward. He was just about to leave to go wallow when Elissa interuppted his thoughts.
"And Alistair..." She was facing the inside of her tent, but Alistair could see the blush still on her cheeks. "Maybe we could talk about your other talents later." With that she disapeared inside her tent.
Alistair's mind was empty for awhile after that. Mainly because he knew that if he really thought about what she had said he would never be able to get to sleep that night.
