The chatter of the groggily woken up larger group was drawn to a slow close as attentions were directed elsewhere, more specifically, to the tent by the fire place. Laeti had always pitched her tent so close to the fireside, finding the soft glow to be a comfort on her restless nights, as they happened nigh daily. On that particular morning, however, she was not how she usually was, where she was awake and sitting by the embers of the fire before any of the others had even started to wake. Rather, she remained in her tent, the noise of such making it rather obvious, as light and spaced gasps filled the air with quiet persistance.

Morrigan rolled her eyes, not being the first to imagine that Laeti was in the middle of an intimate moment, and called out loudly to the closed tent flap "Blast and damnation! Keep it down in there!" her sarcastic voice called out, tinged in annoyance and colored with impatience. All of the group glanced to one another, finding only Zevran to be missing in their admist aside from Laeti.

For a long, tense moment, the gasping continued, paused, then continued once more as the group suspected Zevran was the fault. Interested in what Morrigan had said, Zevran strode out of his own tent, glancing at the various blushing and glaring members curiously. "Ooh, our warden has finally shed her childish innocence, yes?" Zevran laughed excitedly, glancing towards the closed flap of the tent, ears perked at the noises.

Laeti pushed aside the slit of fabric, unamused at her group's assumptions and sitting cross legged on the soil inside her tent. "I have the hiccups." the Dalish explained bluntly, a mentioned hiccup slipping from her lips in a quick gasp, rattling her red hair and making the little dalish jump ever so slightly.

The group spared a slow glance to one another, all thinking the same thing.

The game was on.

"Persistant ones, I take it?" Zevran pressed, challenge finding itself into his gaze. This would be interesting, but naturally, who but him would win? Laeti gave a short bitter laugh "Oh yes, I've been trying to get rid of them all morning!" She explained, a hiccup bouncing her small frame upwards for a moment. Groaning, she leaned forwards from sitting cross legged inside the tent, hiding her eyes in the palm of her hand, "It's getting really annoying, not just for me, I assume.." She complained lightly, stepping out of the tent and straightening upwards, still dressed in the loose white fabric that she so slept in to keep her back from the pain that even her light armor wracked her with.

"I'm going to the river to wash up, with any luck moving around will stop it. Sitting still sure hasn't." Laeti explained, striding down the path, not rightly minding that her feet were bare to the soil and her legs were chilled to the cold breeze. In truth, it felt like home to her, the wet soil between her toes and the leaves along the path rustling by her ear.

It felt like home.

It felt like freedom.

Just as soon as the little Dalish was out of earshot, the group debated among themselves the rules and winnings of the game to be played. The rules, naturally being that each member of the group got only one formal try, and that said try could only last five minutes at the very most. After that time, any of the members could invade and interrupt to steal the win.

The spoils of the game would be that the winner received ten sovereigns from each of the other members, as well as the ability to select any member they so chose to complete their laundry for the month. Some, however, took a bit more persuading, and it was decided that in the case of a Qunari, Golem, or Mabari taking the win, a handful of emerald cystals, bag of cookies, or bone were to be awarded respectfully.

By the time Laeti had started on her return to camp, the game was already under way.

Alistair, knowing only one way to cure persistant hiccups, took to slipping along the path she had strode down, and ducking behind the bark of a large outstretched tree, with it's green leaves hanging low to hide his larger form. Hearing Laeti's light footsteps stroke the dirt of the ground, Alistair gave a heavy roar, leaping around the tree to stand center fold in the path, landing before Laeti with arms outstretched.

Laeti yelped in shock, and without a thought socked Alistair in the face as hard as she could. The body dropping to the ground with a heavy thud and clinking of armor. Laeti guiltily looked down at the still form, giving a sheepish smile.

"Oops." She mumbled, brow creased, a hiccup escaping her lips.

When the Templar came to, the sight of a laughing elf greeted him, though Zevran did offer a hand to help Alistair up good naturedly. "If you had asked, I could have told you that she had done the same to me when we met. She has a good right hook for something so small, no?" Zevran grinned widly, very much resembling the cat that ate the canary.

Taking his hand, Alistair stood, rubbing his own cheek where the fist had connected. "We never speak of this again." Zevran laughed, clapping his hand on the templar's shoulder once in agreement, "agreed, it would be a shame for the others to know that the bastard prince of fereldon got knocked out by such a little dalish, yes?"

Laeti shook her hand as she stepped to camp, curious what the hell had just occurred, and simply shook her head, attributing it to perhaps simply being a Templar thing, or Alistair was goofing off to attempt to scare her. Taking a seat beside the dying fire, Laeti rolled some of the spare logs of dry firewood into the embers, leaning down she coaxed the flames to spread a new, task completed, she straightend upwards, glancing over to see the elder mage Wynne calmly take a seat beside the red head.

Wynne, having had a few cases of persistant hiccups in her past, led Laeti through breathing excersises designed to calm the cause of the hiccups. Just as the red headed elf seemed to slow in the spaced gasps of breath, five minutes had passed, leaving her formal attempt to be interupted by any of the group. In the case, it was Zevran, who, desiring to keep the game going for some time longer, leaned down, his lips by Laeti's ear as he spoke softly and breathily.

"How are those hiccups? Still.. Persistant, I take it?"

Laeti grew a deep red, the hiccups returning with a vengence as she stammered, stood up, spun around and backed up from him. "Ah, well," She passed a hand over her burning cheeks, "Yes, they're still there, as you.. can tell.." Laeti backed up half a pace, bumping into sten lightly with her back.

Zevran grinned wide, despite the glaring look Wynne shot him. "That was cruel." She scoffed, to which Zevran gave a laugh "I know, I'm a bad, bad man, may I rest my head on your bosom? I wish to cry." He gave a playful grin her way.

"Egad, not this again.." Wynne gave an exhausted sigh, rubbing her head with her hand.

"Qunari do not get hiccups." Sten stated, to which Laeti gave a quizzicle look, "Is that a species thing? No lungs?" Slyly, Laeti grinned, eyes sparkling with humour, "Do you have gills, sten?" She accused suspiciously and the woman tapped her chin lightly as if in thought.

"No. Qunari do not get hiccups because we have the willpower to not." Sten stated in that blunt and obvious way that he did, though stating more firmly the 'no' in the sentence then anything else. Laeti hiccuped, bouncing slightly as she did so, sticking out her tongue for a moment, Laeti scowled "I have willpower, gills!"

"Prove it, Kadan." Sten demanded, all to pleased with the fact that a bit of reverse phycology always seemed to work on the little elf, perhaps, it worked with all elves..

Morrigan paced her portion of camp, trying to recall just what that spell was to be rid of hiccups.. She knew that it was one she'd never used before, and it's appearance only allowing itself in a footnote in one of her texts, as that was simply not the purpose of magic. Still, she could have sworn she could recall it, and, seeing that the qunari had said something that had Laeti slowly growing redder in the face as if she intended to hold her breath until she passed out, Morrigan decided to skip the rule of a formal attempt for the moment.

The dark witch concentrated, magic sizzling under her finger tips as her hands wove the spell into appearance, flickering her wrist, she found that not only was her aim off ever so slightly to the left, but also seemingly having the opposite effect.

Sten hiccuped, his tall and muscular frame jumping slightly, shooting Morrigan the famed intimidating look of the Qunari, to which she acted innocent, and strode into her own tent as if distracted by something else. "Bas Saarabas.." He growled in her direction, hiccuping once again.

Laeti laughed hard, throwing her head back, her laughter a mix of hiccuping gasps and the bubbling noise that Zevran quite found himself craving at times. Leliana rolled her eyes, setting down her lute from her hands and propping it against Laeti's tent for the moment being, stood and gave the other members of the group a deliberate look. "Oh please, this just requires a bit of finesse." Leliana's voice was laced with her Orlesian accent, striding over to Laeti.

Leliana certainly knew how to fix hiccups, when all else failed, what she had always done was to deliver shocking news, or something of that nature. Laeti, on the other hand, didn't seem the type to mind to terribly about the fashions that the latest king wore, and instead Leliana decided on an old classic.

Sex.

Laeti's innocence was obvious, as well as her fraternization with Zevran, herself being one of the many in the group thinking that the Antivan Massage had led to more, as it was the common belief through the camp, as only the qunari was still awake to see the assassin kicked out of her tent forcefully when the misunderstanding came to light.

The two women walked to the edge of camp to speak privatly, where, speaking softly, they were out of earshot of the many members of the group.

"So, you and Zevran.." Leliana started, expecting her tone to be taken into account for what she intended to bring up in conversation. Laeti simply tilted her head, her red hair splaying on her back in the slight movement. "Yes..?"

For one heart stopping moment, Laeti was certain that Leliana was going to accuse her of her last adventures with Zevran, in which upon a trip and a shove, the two had wound up in another's tent. Seperatly, of course.

"You and Zevran. Together, looking contented. You even have a... glow about you. So shameless." Leliana playfully scolded, shaking her head slightly, though, disappointingly, Laeti hiccuped with a short jump, the innuendo going over her head, and the dalish imagined that Leliana was speaking of the Antivan massage and not what many assumed had come after it.

Laeti gave a smile, holding her hand before her eyes, yes, that massage had felt rather nice, her muscles had yet to ache again, but she wouldn't go so far as to say she 'glowed'.. Though, the memory of his touch was a rather common one on her mind.

Oh, she had it bad.

"I'm not glowing, am I?" Laeti frowned slightly, hiccuping as she turned her hand before her eyes, fingers spread. "Of course you're not! Leliana's just seeing things again, isn't she?" Leliana allowed, gesturing loosly with a hand, it seemed she'd have to be a bit more obvious on this one "So, how is Zevran?"

Zevran, who after hearing his name said so many times, grew rather curious at the conversation at hand, and ever so slyly kept his back to the women, polishing the blade, acting as if it held all of his attention, but ears perked to the words spoken.

"He looks fine to me.." Laeti looked over at the blonde elf, frowning, "Why? Do you think he's ill?" Leliana laughed lightly, going on as the hiccups continued, "You know what I mean.. Zevran and you.. That time in camp.. He must be quite delightful.. You wouldn't be so happy otherwise, I think." Leliana pressed, disappointed to see that the hiccups remained, "He's athletic, that's always nice. And he's very experianced, isn't he?"

Zevran was terribly afraid he'd ruin it by laughing, and settled for silently staring into the blade, the grin on his features spreading.

They thought that Laeti had bedded him, did they?

"VERY experianced," Laeti gave a nod, of course, talking about a massage, though sadly, like so often, her words were come to be misunderstood, especially when she continued with, "and he takes charge!" Laeti gave a hearted shake of the fist.

The blade slipped in Zevran's hands, cutting his palm as his shoulders shook with the hilarity of the event. Laeti, being as she was, was speaking of an innocent (mostly) massage, while Leliana heard and was speaking clearly about bedding!

Alistair strode back into camp, glancing over at Leliana as she spoke to Laeti in a hushed tone. "What are you giggling about? What's she giggling about?" Alistair asked Zevran when Leliana didn't answer quickly enough for him. "Me and my performance, apparently, Chantry Boy." Zevran smirked, putting the blade aside.

Alistair blinked for a second, "Your performance? What performance? Did I miss something while I was away?" Alistair asked curiously, certain that he had missed something entertaining while he was on the path to the river.

Leliana glanced over Laeti's shoulder at Alistair, with Laeti turning around slightly as she did so, both elaborating at the same time, speaking over one another.

"We're just talking about how he treats her in bed-"

"We're talking about massages-"

Both women stopped and slowly stared to one another.

"Why would anyone- Maker! What's WRONG with you women?" Alistair demanded, face red and unbelieving that a whole conversation could be dedicated to that. It took a moment to explain to the others that Laeti was speaking of a massage, and that she hadn't in fact, bedded Zevran (much to many of the group's relief) the time that he had been invited (allowed, really) into her tent.

Oghren snorted a laugh, walking over with a drunken swagger, flask in hand, the ale sloshing over the sides and clumping in the soil at his booted feet. These surface dwellers were sodding idiots, as far as hiccups were concerned, everyone rightly knew that one had to drink something to get rid of some persistant hiccups! "Aye, warden, I know what you need for.. heh, hiccups.." He held out the flask that so often was in his hand to the taller woman, to which the elf raised her eyebrows curiously.

Zevran lifted the flask from Oghren's hand. "No, no I don't think that our warden will handle alcohol well." The flask stank to his senses, and Zevran gave it a disgusted look, recalling the words spoken to the dwarf about the never ending supply that he never seemed to purchase. "This swill would not be a wise choice, in any event."

Laeti hiccuped, shaking her head at the group that seemed to flock around her, acting so strangely and seemingly so obsessed with her persistant hiccups. "You are all acting very strangely.." She slipped out of the many bodies around her, walking to her own tent to pull a folded and faded map out of her pack that lie beside her bedroll. Sitting on the roll cross legged, Laeti opened the map in her lap, tracing the paths for their next destination with a light finger tip.

Bumu, having finished digging a nice hole beside camp, strode up to his Mistress' tent, leaping through the open flap, the mabari widened his stance and barked loudly at the woman. Clearly, he could startle the elf, and thus, end her persistant hiccups (whatever THOSE were)

Laeti jolted with another hiccup, and simply smiled lightly, patting the mabari on the head and scratching behind his floppy ears lightly. "Good boy, Bumu." She praised, voice as affectionate as always when she regarded him.

It took her some time before she had selected the best route, stepping out of her tent, she came face to face with Shale. Towering over the little elf, the golem had to look downwards to meet her eye.

"It has occurred to me that hiccups are an optional occurance." Shale stated, of course, knowing for certain that this was in fact, the truth. After all, Shale had never desired to have hiccups, and thus, could never recall having one. Or, at the very least, be saddled with persistant ones that seemed immune to just about everything.

"Do you think so?" Laeti indulged the golem, a hiccup jumping her small frame once again. "It would appear so." Shale remarked, "But, regardless, it seems that it lacks the ability to keep itself from doing such. Eating a sweet thing is said to be a cure." Shale nodded once, her word, naturally being true, and would thus end the damnable hiccups.

"We don't have anything sweet in camp, Sten ate it all." Laeti explained with a short hiccup.

Zevran, who was quite entertained by the whole aspect, gave a very wide, cocky grin as Shale strode past him in defeat. To which the golem seemed bemused, voice hard as it confronted the elf, "What is it so cheerful about? It's attempt failed as well.

"You haven't seen my attempt, now have you?" Zevran smirked, shaking his head. "My friend, I would not even have to say one word to rid our dear warden of those hiccups." He stated confidently, knowing for certain for such to be true. Shale, on the other hand, sadly seemed to doubt him strongly. Morrigan smirked, striding past the pair with a grin, "Remind me to take you with if we ever go sailing, all that hot air should prove useful." with a purpose, she ducked inside her own tent, the cloth closing behind her.

Morrigan, having had heard that a sudden suprise of pain or shock would rid one of hiccups, rifled through her own pack in her tent. Finally, her fingers closed around the cloth of the Alistair doll, complete with the pin stowed inside it's stomach.

Luckily for the templar, she hadn't put on the voodoo spell.

Yet.

It seemed that the day was coming to an end with Laeti still hiccuping, though after some time she found herself devoted to the fire once again, crouched over the dying flickers of flames to coax life into the shrinking heat. Plucking the pin out of the soft fabric of the doll, Morrigan strode to the fireside. With a quick hand, the pin flashed in the flickering fire light, to peirce the skin of the Grey Warden, drawing a doublet of blood. Laeti yelped, for all her Dalish hunting training and leapt from the needle, hopping on one leg comidically to keep from falling into the fire face first.

Still, it was only with a quick move on the assassin's part that the Grey warden did not. Reaching out a hand, he caught her by the back of the shirt, pulling her back to land on the soil with a soft thump. Giving Shale a purposeful look, Zevran gave a coy wink, crouching in front of the hiccuping elf, his hands slide out to cup her face slightly, pulling her closer.

The kiss was sweet, and rather innocent, maddeningly.

Laeti was flushed, and silent as he pulled back after a moment, time seeming to move ever so much slower. Everything seemed to fall silent, at least to her, and she blankly searched his features for defining expressions of anything.

Did he like her?

Or was this simply a joke to him? A taunt?

Zevran stood, spreading his arms to the rest of the group. "I believe I win, yes?"

Damn. She thought hollowly, the world crashing back around her miserably. Laeti's fingers scrambled to find her bow, and without a word, she strode down the path. Hunting. Hunting would clear her mind. Laeti thought firmly, lifting a hand and tracing her lips with a light finger.

But.. For a moment, she'd thought he'd liked her.

By the time that she returned to the camp, all eyes slid to the still hiccuping Qunari, who blantedly ignored the members of the company, polishing his blade in his hand with much skill, his back to the party and eyes on the flames. Laeti smiled slightly, glancing to Alistair slyly as she shifted her weight to lean ever so slightly closer as she mumbled softly his way.

"So, what are the rules for curing a Qunari of hiccups?"