By the time the last bear is dead I'm soaked in blood; heaving with exhaustion; and as angry as I could possibly be. Duncan even shies away from me as I begin storming back to Lothering. This is literally the biggest waste of time! I shouldn't have even done this! Leliana and Morrigan trail after me, but keep their distance due to my obvious burning hatred. It's all because of them! If Leliana hadn't opened her mouth, then I wouldn't have done any of this! The citizens of Lothering practically dodge me as I continue cutting through the city and heading towards the Chantry. The chanter outside cowers at me as I toss my bounties in his face. The poor man fiddles with the paper and struggles to see what they say. His incompetence is the straw that breaks this camel's back.
"Hurry the fuck up and give me my gold!". The chanter quickly digs into his pockets and gives me everything he has. Finally, Leliana and Morrigan catch up to me. I'm still burning with hatred, but now they're both not afraid to get near me. Leliana sees the gold in my hand and gives me another one of her smiles.
"I'm glad to see that you're helping the people of Lothering.". Morrigan scoffs and I ignore her. Leliana's happiness and smile doesn't send my heart aflutter or make me struggle to breathe; however, it does calm me down and slowly begin leeching my anger from me.
It was a complete and utter waste of time doing all of those stupid quests, but at least it made Leliana happy. Now I just need to focus on leaving and getting to camp. I pocket my money and finally begin leaving Lothering. We've almost past the edge of the city when Leliana stops me once again. Her gentle hand comes to rest on my shoulder. Instantly and without thought, I violently jerk away from her and scream.
"DON'T TOUCH ME!". Leliana recoils as I take a few steps away and shudder. The entire time I've been exposed to shem I've been able to avoid touching them. There's always been the occasional brief touch of Duncan; Alistair's few touches; or Leliana's gentle caresses, but those were different. It was either coming from someone who I was fighting with or when I was too love-struck to argue. Now she's just touching me without giving any warning. I can withstand the touch of an elf, but the touch of a shem is where I draw the line. Humans shouldn't touch elves without giving them some warning. It's just natural. Is it? Is it really normal to recoil when someone touches you? My inner ramblings are stopped when Leliana tries to apologize and explain what she was doing.
"I'm sorry... I just wanted to tell you that I think we should talk to the Qunari over there. The chantry locked him up and I think he could be useful.". I almost bit the poor woman's head off for touching my shoulder. It's a little thing to me, but it might be a big thing to her. So, the 'nicest' thing to do to blow this situation over would be to go over and look at the poor sod who's locked up. I walk around Leliana and go over to the caged Qunari.
He's dressed in peasant's clothes and doesn't have a single weapon on him; yet, he still manages to look terrifying. The grey skinned giant towers over me and I can see rippling muscles underneath his clothes. Strangely, he's lacking the horns the rest of his people have. The man is currently looking at the ground and ignoring me. I reach out and tap the metal cage. The Qunari looks up at me with cold eyes and an even colder question.
"Are you here to torment me?". I shake my head and try to calm him down.
"No. Why are you in this cage?". The man walks forward a little to get a better look at me. I can practically feel him sizing me up as he answers.
"I placed myself in here.". Okay. That's extremely weird and vague, but okay. I guess I'll just have to roll with it and hope that something good happens.
"Would you like out?". He shakes his head.
"Why do you ask?". I decide I might as well try to get him on my side. He's big enough to be of use and I'm sure Leliana will think highly of me for springing him.
"I'm a Grey Warden and I'm looking for skilled help in stopping the Blight.". The Qunari's eyes light up and he almost presses himself against the cage's door.
"Stopping the Blight... That's a worthy goal.". He nods and keeps talking.
"My name is Sten of the Beresaad. Free me.". I step aside and look over at my shoulder to Leliana. The woman raises her eyebrow in a silent question. I nod and point to the locked door of the Qunari's cage. Leliana slides past me, kneels down, and begins going to work on the lock before her. It's only a minute or two before the door opens up and the man steps out. The Qunari stretches and looks around. He gives one silent nod, then asks me a question I don't know how to answer.
"What should I do?". I look at the team behind me and come to an instant decision. I'm not getting rid of my dog, Leliana needs to stay around me so I can know her better, and a Qunari is too good to pass up. A mage, however, can easily be replaced with a strong warrior. Especially a mage that can't even heal anyone. I turn to Morrigan and break the news as gently as I can to her.
"I need you to go find Alistair and help him set up camp.". The woman's eyes go wide and she's instantly arguing.
"You're going to have three melee warriors and a single rogue! You need at least one more distance fighter to make the battleground even!". I shrug and point towards where Alistair stormed off to make camp.
Morrigan shoots me a glare before finally relenting and storming off. Duncan begins trailing after her, but comes back when I whistle. When Duncan's back I decide to talk to our new 'friend'.
"Do you need any arms or armor, or do you mind if we wait until camp?". The hornless Qunari stares at me for a few seconds. A weaker woman would cower under his gaze; however, I know I can kill him if the need should arise. Finally, the man speaks.
"I'll survive until camp.". I nod and instantly begin walking towards camp. All of my team is silent until we notice something ahead. I stop and look at the people blocking our path. Ragged, poorly dressed, and filthy. The group of refugees is mingling in the road and awkwardly holding weapons. Leliana comes up to my side and shares my exact thoughts out loud.
"I don't like the looks of this.". I nod to show I agree with her. A group of starving people with weapons waiting in the middle of the road is a recipe for disaster. I scan the area and see a small rock pile to the right of the refugees. If we sneak around it, then we can completely bypass the people in the road. I grab Duncan by the collar to assure he doesn't try to greet the new people as we walk. Leliana and Sten both follow after me. All of us easily walk around the rock pile without any of the people noticing us.
I spare a final glance at the ragged shem; I even spit in their direction when I see them looking for (most likely) us. Sten grunts in approval while Leliana and Duncan remain silent. My group is forced back onto the ruined road that leads out of Lothering. I have no idea how Morrigan or Alistair avoided them, but the second we're on the bridge we're attacked by Darkspawn. I groan as Sten charges forward with Duncan. The poor unarmored Qunari is going to get hurt if I don't help him, so I take out my sword and rush forward. Instantly, I know Morrigan was fight about having three warriors. All of us are shoving, hitting, and fighting one another to get to the enemy we want to fight. There isn't even a hint of my battle rage as I'm forced to shove and jostle for my position on the field.
Poor Leliana can't even fire an arrow as her allies swarm the enemies. It takes us twice as long as it should, but eventually the Darkspawn are dead and we can move on. I'm leaving when I notice a dwarf is motioning to me. Looks like we saved him from the Darkspawn. I strut past the man and continue on my way. We find the camp a few miles into the woods that surround Lothering. I make a mental note to demand we move further away before the Darkspawn overcome Lothering. Being that close to the horde doesn't sit well with me.
I take in the area as my companions get settled. We're in the clearing with rocks surrounding us on all sides besides the entrance. Well, at least it's easy to defend. Duncan is sitting near the entrance and scratching at the ground with dust covering him. Cute. Alistair is nursing a fire in the middle of the clearing that's surrounded by tents. My fellow Grey Warden throws his hands in the air when he sees Sten, then begins putting up another tent. Stupid. Morrigan is set up at her own fire and shelter at the opposite end of the clearing. Okay, she can be like that. Not like I give a shit.
Sten is standing by the fire and kicking a rock in boredom. Odd. Finally, Leliana is sitting by a tent by the fire. Also cute. I decide to call over the team I'm going to take out on my mission with me. I whistle for Duncan; motion Leliana over; and scream for Morrigan. It takes a minute or two for Morrigan to get over to us, then we're ready to start. I sit down on the ground, Duncan flops down beside me, and my human companions sit down with me. I unroll the map Duncan (the human one) gave me all those days ago in the middle of the woods. I take a piece of charcoal from my pocket and mark out Ostagar, the Korcari Wilds, and Lothering. Those are the areas that're taken over by the Darkspawn, or at least about to be taken over.
Suddenly, Leliana points to the area Duncan circled. The red circle is faded, but it's enough. My human acquaintance asks a question that I can easily answer for once.
"Why's the marked?". I open my mouth, then freeze up. What am I going to tell her? 'That's where I was going to run away to instead of becoming a Grey Warden.'? No, I need to tell her something that'll make me look like I know what I'm doing. Thankfully, I have an idea of what to say.
"That's where we're going first. We're going to use one of the treaties to make the Dalish work with us.". Leliana smiles and nods.
"That sounds like a wonderful place to start.". I run it past the team I'm going to take out.
"Sound good to everyone?". Morrigan and Leliana nod while Duncan barks. Well, that's that. Looks like we're going to the Dalish.