A soft chirp in her ear broke Faleni's reverie. She held a hand up to her shoulder and waited until she felt the prick of Bora's claws in her finger to bring him in front of her. There was a piece of parchment tied to his leg. She fed him a couple of seeds and he allowed her to untie the knot around his leg. Free of his burden and happy with his treats, he fluttered back to her shoulder. Faleni unfurled the parchment to read it. There wasn't much.

Can't right now Faleni. Stuck with Master Paivel. Maybe we can play when he gives up on me.

-Tamlen.

Faleni frowned. This is the fifth master Tamlen had been with since the hahren decided he was ready for an apprenticeship. The past four had all declared themselves a bad fit. Tamlen acted fine, but Faleni could tell that he was anxious about finding a mentor. She worried for him; after Haysha turned him away it was Faleni who burst into tears and sought Ashalle for comfort. Ashalle reassured the girl that Tamlen would eventually find his place and he was in no danger of being cast out.

She read the letter again. Paivel this time? That was unlikely to go well. Paivel wasn't a hunter anymore and so very stern whereas Tamlen was... not. At least it shouldn't take long for Paivel to figure out it wasn't going to work, and then Tamlen could go exploring with her again. It was slightly annoying that both of her friends had training all the time now and she was stuck with the smaller len. Or by herself, which was infinitely preferable.

"Faleni?" A voice asked sweetly. She looked up from Tamlen's note to see Keeper Marethari in front of her. Merrill was there too, looking for all the world like she wanted to disappear behind Marethari.

"Yes Keeper?"

"I need some plants to finish my medicines, but I lack the time to go to the woods and get them. Would you mind going with Merrill and gathering some for me?"

"Huh?"

"Merrill knows what I'm looking for, but I don't want her going alone." Marethari said, stroking the girl's dark head fondly as she clung even tighter to the Keeper. Faleni groaned.

"Does it have to be me?" She asked, a little sulkily; Merrill was a lot younger than her, and more than a little odd.

"You know the area well." Faleni started to protest that statement, but Marethari contiued to speak. "Don't pretend you don't know what I'm referring to, da'len. I'm aware you've been forbidden from leaving camp for the next moon, and I'm also aware that you manage to sneak away every chance you get anyway. At the moment, I'm willing to overlook things, but that could easily change." The Keeper stared pointedly at the somewhat-chastened girl. "So, will you help my First and I?"

"Yes, Keeper."

"Good." Marethari pried Merrill from her side and gently shoved her towards Faleni. "Enjoy yourselves, but don't forget about the task at hand."

"I won't, hahren." Merrill squeaked. Faleni rolled her eyes, but grabbed the smaller girl's hand, and took off. Marethari watched them go for a moment before turning back to her aravel.

"Let's get this over with." She could feel Merrill dragging her heels, and her fingers were digging painfully into Faleni's hand. This was going to be even harder than she thought. "Merrill, stop it."

"Faleni, I'm scared."

"Creators, save me." She said, echoing Ashalle's favorite phrase. They hadn't even left the aravels yet. "Merrill, it's totally safe. I promise."

"But... what if there are big animals? Or demons? Or... or... something? What if they want to eat us? What'll we do?"

"Have you ever been outside of camp without a hahren around?"

"No... they said I was too valuable. That I couldn't until I learned to control my magic better."

"Fine. Whatever. Look, we're not going far, we're going to stay very close to camp. All of the animals are scared of our fires, so they're going to stay very far away. And there are no demons here." She started to go again, but Merrill pulled her back with a suprising strength.

"Yes there are. Demons are everywhere." Merrill said, with a strange glint in her overly-large green eyes. Faleni shivered.

"So what?" She said, more bravely than she felt. "We still have to get Marethari's plants."

"But what if..." Merrill started again.

"Here." In one swift move, Faleni removed Bora from her shoulder and deposited him on Merrill's. The little bird gave a startled chirp but didn't move. "Bora'll protect you. If there's anything nasty, he'll be the first to know, and he'll warn you, so that we can hide. Okay? Let's go already."

Having the bird on her shoulder seemed to comfort Merrill, and the two girls finally left camp. As Faleni suspected, they didn't have to go very far before Merrill spotted something she needed and started grabbing handfuls of some plant.

"What's that?" Faleni asked curiously.

"Elfroot. It's good for healing." Merrill said, not looking up. "You can eat it on it's own, but it works better if you mash it up and make a potion out of it. Keeper Marethari's teaching me how to make potions. I'm not very good at it yet, though. I made one of the halla even sicker once. It threw up all over me. It smelled really bad. Have you ever had a halla throw up on you?"

"No."

"It wasn't fun. I had to take a really long bath. That halla won't come near me anymore. And I was just trying to help him too. I think if I wasn't going to be a Keeper, I'd like to take care of the halla. They're so pretty. My mamae was in charge of the halla in my clan. Or my old clan, anyway. This is my clan now. Still..." Merrill heaved a large sighed, "I miss my mamae sometimes." Merrill stared forlornly at the clump of elfroot in her hand. Faleni waited for her to start talking again, but the girl had gotten lost in her thoughts.

"Do you want to go back to your old clan?" Faleni asked, a little uneasily.

"Oh no!" Merrill perked up. "I really like Sabrae. Everyone is so nice to me. Especially Marethari. She's much more patient than my other Keeper. He said I talked too much. Do I talk too much?"

"Yes."

"I'm sorry. I'll be quiet. I think I've got enough elfroot though. We just need to get some spindleweed and some embrium still. I think I see some spindleweed over there." Merrill pointed to a thicket some distance away, and immediately went skipping off in that direction. Faleni trailed behind slowly. With her companion so preoccupied, she had some time to practice some of the things Sular taught her. Faleni went low to the ground, and started to search for tracks around Merrill, going out into an ever-widening spiral. There were definitely signs that animals had been there, but they were all very old and faint; they weren't going to be of much use to her. The only thing that was even remotely fresh was Merrill's footprints. Remembering another of Sular's lessons, she broke off a needled branch, and used it to erase signs of their passage.

"Faleni? Where did you go?" Merrill sounded a bit nervous. Faleni looked up, and realized that she couldn't see the small girl anymore.

"Not far, Merrill. Stay there, I'll come back for you." Faleni tossed her branch into a nearby bush. Something on the ground caught her eye and she bent down to take a look.

"Faleni?" Now she was starting to sound a little panicky. Faleni stood up; forgetting about the object on the ground and sprinted back to Merrill.

"What is it?"

"I've got all the spindleweed I need." Merrill hefted up a pouch. There was a thorny, skinny twig-like thing sticking out of the top. "I just need embrium, but I don't see any around here. It's supposed to grow near water though."

"And there's none by the river we've camped by? We'll have to go further downstream then."

"But..."

"It's fine. I've been out this way before, remember? I haven't been killed yet." Faleni grabbed the bag of spindleweed, and started walking south; towards the river, but even further away from camp.

"You'd look a lot different if you were dead, wouldn't you?" Merrill giggled. "You wouldn't even be here. I wonder what being dead is like. Paivel said that the ancient elves praticed uthenera, and that they would sleep for centuries. I wonder if being dead is similar to sleeping. That wouldn't be so bad; as long as I have good dreams, like dreams about mamae and flowers and things. As long as it wasn't a bad dream. I hate bad dreams, don't you? Sometimes I dream that I'm falling forever and ever..."

"Merrill?"

"What?"

"Shut up." Faleni said exasperated. Merrill bit her lip and immediately squealed in pain; having bit it a little too hard. Faleni shushed her, and the girl fell silent, her green eyes welling up with tears. The two of them walked on without saying a word. They eventually found their way to a part of the river, and, when the didn't see any embrium, contiued to follow it southward. There was all manner of flowers and plant life, but none of it seemed to be what Merrill was looking for.

"Maybe we should turn around and go back." Merrill piped up nervously.

"Uh-uh. The Keeper said we needed to get these supplies. She'll be mad if we don't."

"No she won't."

"Yes she will. She'll think it's my fault, and then I won't be able to leave camp for two moons. And I'll have to do all of her chores." Faleni made a face.

"You're not supposed to be out of camp anyway." Merrill pointed out. "And anyway, she won't get mad at you if I tell her it's my fault."

"That could work."

"Hey look, there it is!" Merrill said excitedly. "Now neither of us we'll get in trouble!" In front of them was a small patch of tiny red flowers. Faleni heaved a huge sigh of relief, which turned to dismay when she saw Merrill delicately picking the petals off one by one. This was turning out to be a much longer adventure than she thought. Even Bora had gotten bored, and flew off of Merrill's shoulder.

Faleni followed the bird with her eyes as he fluttered around the trees, slowly down towards the forest floor. He landed on the ground, and began to peck at something. Her eyes narrowed when she saw his landing spot; a depression in the dirt; similar in shape to the one she saw earlier. She didn't recognize it at all. It was long and skinny, like half of a halla-print, only much bigger and deeper. She traced the print with her finger, very much confused. There were more prints a bit further ahead, and Faleni walked alongside them. Whatever made them walked on two legs. Bora chirped and flew up to the trees. She heard a twig snap in the distance and she stiffened. There was another snap, closer this time.

"Merrill!" She hissed quietly. The smaller girl was humming, and apparently didn't hear her. "Merrill!" When there was still no response, Faleni ran back, and pulled the girl roughly upwards.

"Hey!" Merrill protested. Faleni muffled her with her hand. More snapping twigs, getting ever closer.

"We've got to hide. Now."

"Hide?"

"Yes." Faleni looked frantically around them, and then spotted a large bush. Without another word, she pulled Merrill into it. It was covered in thorns, but it was the only place large enough to hide two small children.

"Faleni, this bush is poking me."

"Quiet, Merrill." The noise was getting louder. Whatever it was, wasn't even trying to be stealthy. And it was making some odd grunting noises. Merrill apparently heard it too, and she had gone stock-still.

"'I saw them' she said. 'Heathen elves' she said 'Bandits, they want my jewels...'. Stupid woman, I say. There's nothing out here..." a gruff, masculine voice mumbled. Faleni was astonished to hear speech; the language sounded familiar, but the accent was like nothing she'd ever heard, and rendered the words almost unintelligible. A different clan of elvhen? She was tempted to go out and get a closer look, but something told her that it was a bad idea.

She saw the feet before anything else, as it came near the bush where they were hiding and stopped. Brown hide-covered feet. Faleni turned her blue eyes upwards, and then further up. More brown hide as far as the eye could see but then she saw the head, and she nearly gave herself away. It looked kind of like a male elf only bigger; taller and broader than even the tallest of her people. His ears were small and round, not like an elf's at all. Beside her, Merrill was also staring upwards, and shaking like a leaf. Faleni made a silent plea to the Creators that the man would not see them; that she had hidden the two of them well enough. It was an agonizingly long moment before the strange man snorted, and trudged off. Faleni released a breath she almost didn't realize she'd been holding.

The two of them waited until they could no longer hear anything before leaving the safety of the bush. The first thing Faleni did was examine the place where he stood in front of them. There were two large half-halla looking prints. So, that's where the tracks came from.

"Merrill, do you know what that was?" Faleni asked. She didn't expect an answer, not really, as Merrill still looked scared out of her wits. But it seemed to work, as Merrill shook herself and stared at the older girl.

"You've never seen the shemlen before?"

"That was a shemlen?" Paivel's stories made shemlen seem like monsters – giant, evil, murderous demons. She never expected them to look so much like the elvhen. "His people know our clan is here. He was hunting us."

"We gotta get back. Marethari has to know."

"Right." The two of them tore off, Faleni holding back her stride so that the smaller girl could keep up. They followed the river upstream, and it was with great relief that they finally spotted the aravels and their camp. They stumbled into camp, panting and out of breath. Ashalle spotted them first.

"Faleni? Where have you been?" She asked accusingly.

"We have to find Keeper." Faleni said, ignoring the question. A look of concern crossed Ashalle's face, and she herded the girls to Marethari's aravel. They burst inside, where she seemed to be cooking something.

"Ah good, just in time. I hope you got everything..." Marethari said gaily, and stopped. "What's wrong?"

"We saw shemlen." Merrill said. Faleni just nodded.

"Shemlen?"

"They know we're here." Faleni added. Marethari's eyes widened in surprise. "And they sent a scout to look for us."

"You specifically? Did they find you? Hurt you?" Marethari asked. Merrill shook her head. "No, of course not. Not that it matters. Not friendly then." The Keeper muttered something under her breath. "We must get ready to leave, go elsewhere."

"But we just got settled!" Ashalle exclaimed.

"And they will find us if we stay here. We can't take that chance." Marethari looked down at the two girls. "Thank you for telling me da'len. We have a lot of preparations to make. Faleni, Ashalle, you should get ready to go." Ashalle nodded and turned to leave.

"Here Keeper, we got the supplies you needed."

"Thank you, Faleni. I appreciate it. Although it might be sometime before I get to put them to use." Marethari took the prooffered bags, and turned back to Merrill. Faleni nodded curtly, and skipped out to find Ashalle waiting for her.

"Are you all right da'len?" Ashalle pulled her ward to herself in a protective embrace.

"I'm fine, Ashalle. Both Merrill and I are fine." Faleni said, wriggling out her grasp.

"Good. We've got work to do then." Faleni made a face, but followed Ashalle, musing on the shemlen. Paivel's stories would be very different from now on, she suspected, now that she knew what they looked like. They were so close to elvhen, yet so different. How could someone who looked so much like themselves be so evil, and cause so much trouble for the Dalish?

"Faleni?" Ashalle queried, startling her out of her reverie.

"Yes?"

"I thought I told you that you were forbidden to leave camp. What were you doing in the woods with Merrill?" It looked like the shemlen weren't her only problem.

A/N: Woohoo! Finally done with my show. It's been hard there for the last month, but now I'm free and back to writing. I've missed writing Faleni, it's good to be back in the world of the Dalish.