I sigh as I rest my head against the Chantry's bounty board. Citizens are still screaming as my Mabari runs around with the small child he found in his mouth. Leliana was aghast and is still trying to rip the child from my dog's mouth. Morrigan is the only one still by my side, and she's busy holding back her chuckles. The only mercy of this entire situation is that Leliana doesn't seem upset or mad at me and I'm free to examine the bounties.
Some bandits are attacking farms outside the limits of Lothering and a few bears and set up in a cave a little north of here. I tear down the pages and shove them in my bag. I'm barely done when Leliana comes up to me with a saddened Duncan slowly walking behind her. I pat my dog on the head and scratch his ear as I question Leliana.
"Anything happen to the boy?". Leliana shakes her head and dusts off her robes. Huh, I might want to get her some armor. I look around and see a merchant arguing with a Chantry sister over something, but that's not the important part. The important part is that he's a merchant and I have a few silver to buy Leliana some proper leathers. My attraction to the woman is waning now that the life-threatening reality of my situation is once again bearing down on me, but I still don't want a random bandit's arrow to end her life while she travels with me.
When I arrive at the scene the merchant turns to me and smiles.
"You there! How would you like to make some silver?". The shem cowers as I glare and snarl at him before questioning his offer.
"What?". The merchant points at the sister.
"Run her off, so she'll stop bothering me!". I'm about to tell the shem to fuck himself because he's pissing me off, then the sister speaks.
"Please! He's overcharging these people for supplies they desperately need!". Well, that makes it different. These refugees are shem (I think I saw a few elves, but not enough to justify calling them 'shem and elves'), but it's still wrong to deny them basic supplies. Their deaths are upon them, so they should at least go in comfort. I despise shem with all of my heart; I just think any poor refugee should be able to die with a warm stomach and rolled up in a comfy bed. Morrigan is cruel enough to disagree.
"Any of them would do the same in his situation. Chase the sister off and get the silver.". Wow, she makes me look like a saint compared to her. I might be a little cruel to her kind, but I'm never as harsh as her. Besides, pissing rich merchant shems off is something I'm in favor of. Leliana seems to like how I think.
"He's being cruel! Stand up for the population that doesn't have a voice!". Duncan doesn't seem to have an opinion because he just looks at me and wags his stubby tail.
I inwardly groan as I look at the man and shrug.
"Start selling your supplies at a fair price, or lose all of your items.". The shem eyes me and seems to decide I'm powerful enough to go through with my threat of beating him up and taking all of his belongings. Smart man. The merchant throws his hands up in the air and relents to the sister.
"Fine! Damn you all! I'll lower my prices!". The sister looks at me and a tremendous grin splits her face before she thanks me.
"Thank you!". She presses a few coppers into my hands and practically flies back to the chantry. I pocket the money and shake my head a little. These coppers are nothing compared to what the merchant was offering. I look over at the merchant with a small ounce of longing in my heart, but I already know it's useless. The man is sulking and kicking the ground. I'm intimidating, just not enough to convince him to give me money for 'chasing the sister off'. Leliana decides to speak up about what I did.
"I think you did the right thing. It's nice to see you helping people.". She likes what I did! It's not much, but she still liked what I did! Morrigan shoves herself in the conversation and promptly ruins my happy mood.
"Oh yes, won't the Darkspawn be impressed by what we've done here.". That's actually a really, really bitchy thing to say to someone.
I consider calling Morrigan out on it, but don't. I still want her to like me and swallowing my pride is required. Swallowing my pride isn't the worst thing I've done to get a girl to like me. Duncan cheers me up by licking my hand and rubbing his skull against me until I pet him. I take a moment to look at my team and decide what to do. Morrigan is pouting and glaring; Duncan is licking himself; and Leliana is lightly smiling at me and waiting for me to say something.
I consider getting Leliana some armor, then decide against it. The merchant is still pissed and will probably charge me too much for shitty armor. Instead, I dig around in my pack and find the papers. So, either bandits or bears. I examine the papers a little closer and find out something fantastic. The farms the bandits have been spotted at are on the way to the bears' den. We can kill the bandits on the way to the bears. I fold up the papers and tell my group the plan. "
Alright, let's go north and find the bandits' hideouts and the bears' den. Then, we'll return here and get the reward.". Leliana's smile grows and she nods to me. Morrigan scoffs and is sarcastic again.
"It's a good thing that Darkspawn are allied with bandits and bears, or else we'd be wasting our time going off and killing all of these random villains.". Duncan barks at me, but that means nothing.
I decide to ignore all of them and get started on our missions. The crowded city is quickly left behind as we all head northwards. We pass a gigantic Qunari trapped in a cage on the outskirts of Lothering, but I give him a wide distance as I continue on my way. My father warned me of the Qun and its people when I was a young girl, so I know the dangers of getting near one of those people. Instead, I turn my attention to a farm up ahead of us. I already see people gathering around in the middle of the field and can see their armor and weapons. Cheap leather armor and iron weapons. Clearly bandits or very, very poor mercenaries. Considering the bounty I'm going to assume they're the bandits.
I pull my sword from my back and everyone gets ready. Morrigan lowers her staff, Duncan growls, and Leliana loads her bow. The bandits hear us coming and try to defend themselves. Unfortunately, Duncan is faster than any of us. He rams into one of the bandit's legs and brings her to the ground. Her three fellows try to pry my beast off of their companion, and that's when I reach them. I hack my sword deep in between one of the brigand's ribs and hear him scream with fury. The man tries to rip his sword out and defend himself, but I'm faster than him. I rip my sword out of him and aim for the same wound a second time.
When I rip my sword away hot, thick blood pours over me and the bandit goes down. Duncan's finished off his enemy and another bandit is on the ground covered in arrows. Duncan is sinking his teeth into the last bandit's leg as arrows and magic rain down upon him. I put my blade away and watch my team do their job. When everything's said and done I begin looting the bodies. A full set of leather armor for Leliana; leather boots and gloves for Morrigan; and a leather helmet for me.
I give my companions their supplies and all of us change. Leliana takes a few minutes to awkwardly put her armor over her robes before stripping, but other than that we act quickly. I look at the paper and cross off one area that the bandits were reported in. Finally, I snap my fingers at Duncan and begin walking towards the second area. My dog barks and begins licking my armor as we all go.
Morrigan groans and Leliana chuckles a little, but neither of them say anything about me letting my dog lick the bandits' blood off of me. It takes us a few minutes to reach the next spot where the bandits are suppose to be. Three men are milling around and in the same shitty gear as the others. I look over my shoulder and ask a simple question.
"Everyone ready?". Duncan growls while Leiana and Morrigan nod at me.
Duncan and I charge the bandits while Leliana and Morrigan attack from a distance. A few stray arrows dink off of my armor and a spell nearly cripples my knee, but other than that everything works out perfectly. In fact, I've noticed the battles getting less and less exciting for me. No white noise pounding in my ears, no heart pumping like wild, and no nervousness in my gut. As I sink my blade into a man's gut I think I realize why. This is too easy. I know I'm going to kill them all with no trouble. Damn, fighting almost feels like a chore now. Duncan finishes ripping out a man's throat while Leliana and Morrigan kill the other with their projectiles.
I've already put my sword away by the time it's done. I kick a body of a bandit without looting it. I doubt they have anything of interest anyway. I pull out my map and see the bear's den is a small walk away from us. Honestly, I'm not even sure why I bothered doing this. I want Leliana to like me, but the attraction's starting to wear off. It usually does, it's just that when it wears off I'm usually over the girl.
I've gotten over Morrigan (although I still want a powerful witch as a friend and fighting by my side) and for some reason haven't moved on from Leliana. I want her to be my friend (I'll admit more would be nice) and she isn't even powerful. She's not a healer, particularly intimidating fighter, or commanding presence.
I'm still struggling to find out why I still want her around me. She's religious, a shem, and not useful to me at all. There's literally no reason I should even bother wanting her, but here I am. Doing things to impress her and taking time away from my own personal agenda. I always want pretty girls to like me, I just usually don't go to this much trouble. I'm still thinking about my feelings when Duncan barks and begins rubbing away as quickly as he possibly can. I groan and turn. Sure enough, three bears are standing about fifty feet away from us. I draw my blade and begin running. Might as well get this over with.
Note: I'd once again like to apologize for the wait. I'm trying my best, but my computer's starting to give out on me. I'd start expecting week long delays. I'm terribly sorry. Life just gets in the way sometimes and there's nothing we can do about it.
