Morning comes way too early for Arya's comfort. When Cailan throws back the curtains, letting the weak early morning sunlight stream in, she rolls over onto her stomach and buries her face in the pillows. "I'd forgotten how hard you were to wake," he muttered, sitting on the edge of the bed. She let out an incoherent mumble, sinking deeper into the bed.
Cailan reached out, laying a hand on her back. "Arya, you need to get up," he says, gently. She whimpers something into the pillows, and he sighs."Will you get up if I close the curtains and just light a candle?" he asks, and part of her wonders how he's so patient with her. She gives him a definitive yes, one that he can hear through the pillows, and a few seconds later, most of the offending light is gone, with only a candle burning in the darkened room.
She rolls over onto her back, rubbing her eyes with the heel of her hand. "You promised," Cailan says, his voice a warning tone.
"I'll get up. Just….really slowly," she says, and he joins her on the bed again, reaching out to her. She sits up slightly, curling into his side. He wraps his arm around her, rubbing circles on her back with his thumb. "You all could totally just leave me here," she says, after a few minutes. Her body aches because she didn't get enough sleep, the tiredness threading through her bones.
"The darkspawn would get you, if we did that," he said, amusement laced through his tone.
"You know, at this point, I'm ready to embrace death so long as I get to sleep in," she grumbles, and he laughs, pushing her gently into a sitting position. She swings her legs over the bed automatically, wrapping the sheet around her shoulders.
He gives her a one-armed side hug, despite her grumbling, and stands, stretching. His shirt rides up over his stomach, and Arya finds herself wondering how in the hell someone can have abs that are that defined. "We leave in two hours," he tells her, and her eyes go back up to his face, where a cocky grin sits. She rolls her eyes, and contemplates just shoving her face back into the blankets. Instead, she throws the blanket off of her shoulders and stands up, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.
"I'm going to murder whoever suggested we get up at the ass-crack of dawn," she mumbles, going over to her bag and pulling out her underclothes.
"I wish I could get away with just wearing jeans and a t-shirt," she complains, and then Cailan is there, his hands resting lightly on her hips.
"You could. Of course, that might just be the last outfit you ever wear," he says, and she shakes her head, chuckling.
"That's kind of the entire reason that I'm not," she says, and he steps back, letting her gather up all the pieces of her armor. She makes a face at it as she strips out of her pajamas, pulling on the underclothes.
"I'll help," Cailan says, and while that made the task a lot easier, it was still something that Arya was ready to be done with before it even started. Eventually, they got her strapped and fastened into her armor, and then Cailan got dressed while Arya sorted through the crap in her bag. She didn't need her notes or books from school, so she dumped them in the fireplace, freeing up some much-needed space in her bag.
When she finally makes it downstairs, Eldris is the only one there, slumped miserably over a cup of tea. Sam is curled up at his feet, still sleeping, although he perks up for a moment when Arya walks down the stairs. She slides into the seat next to Eldris, the barkeep groggily setting down a cup of tea in front of her. No one, it seemed, was ready to be up this early in the morning. "Who decided that leaving this early was a good idea?" she grumbles. Eldris glances at her sideways, one hand tangled in his hair. That was probably the only thing keeping his head held up, actually.
"I don't know, but if I find out who, I am going to stab them," he replies, and Arya takes comfort in the fact that neither of them are morning people.
"Hey, by the way, I was wondering if we could talk, later," she says, propping her chin up on her hands.
"What about?" Eldris asks, and this is perhaps the least angry she's ever seen him.
"About you. And the Dalish. If you'd rather not talk to a human about it, I understand, but I'd really like to know," she says, swinging her feet through the air.
"Why do you want to know?" he asks, and his tone is slightly guarded but mostly curious.
"I…I don't really have a solid answer. Only that my religion has lost a lot, too, because of an organization like the Chantry. I guess maybe I want to see if there are any similarities. And I'd just like to know. If you'd rather not talk to me about Dalish culture, that's fine, but I am interested in getting to know you as a person. Maybe things will be less antagonistic between us if that's the case," she says.
Eldris actually smiles, reaching out and patting her heartily on the back. "All right, lethallan. If you still want to talk by the end of the day, we'll talk once we set up camp," he says, and Arya smiles brightly. Morrigan enters the tavern, a few minutes later, looking completely unbothered by the early time. Arya bites her lip as she watches her walk towards them, wondering why she found her so attractive. She joins them at the table, sitting back as far as she can. She doesn't speak, other than a muttered greeting, and it's about five minutes before Leliana enters a few minutes later, dressed in leather armor, a bow hanging on her back. Alistair follows almost immediately, looking tired but entirely too cheerful. They both slide into seats nearby, and the two of them start talking animatedly.
"Hey, guys, you're great and all, but it's too early in the damn morning," Arya complains. Leliana laughs, but mostly ignores her, and then Cailan comes down the stairs with Brett and Eliza following. Sten is the only one left, but they'd agreed to meet him near his cage.
Once they all double-checked that they had everything, they headed out. Sten was indeed waiting by his cage, deep in meditation. It felt wrong to disturb him, but they needed to get moving. Brett was the brave soul who cleared his throat. "Sten? We're all ready to go," he said, quietly, and Sten cracked one eye open and then the other before rising. They'd found a mismatched set of armor for him, and a heavy battle-axe, but Arya could see he didn't feel comfortable.
The darkspawn attacked as they reached the wall, just like they had in the game. Cailan, Alistair, Sten, Brett, and Eliza all rushed forward, doing an incredible job of tanking. Leliana hung back, firing arrows into the fray, and Eldris disappeared and reappeared near Bodahn and Sandal. Morrigan stood nearby, flinging ice and fire and electricity at the darkspawn. Arya was the only one not doing anything, hanging back incompetently.
A Hurlock broke away from the main group. It was big, and ugly, with a heavy great sword on its back. It let out a snarl as it rushed towards her, and Arya panicked. Time seemed to speed up and she thrust her hands out. She reached deep inside herself, pulling on that wild, primal thing and urging it to come out. It did, ice freezing the Hurlock solid. She held her breath for a few moments, the silence ringing in her ears. Everyone else, it seemed, had taken care of the others, and their eyes were on her. She brought her hand above her head, then brought it down in a sharp slicing motion. The Hurlock shattered, and the stench finally reached her. She almost gagged, but she swallowed it down, and then Cailan was there.
"Hey, you did good," he murmured, pulling her hair back away from her face. "Deep breaths," he urged, and by the time he'd calmed her down, everyone else was ready to move on. She thought perhaps she should be embarrassed, but her magic was still there, thrumming underneath the surface, and she couldn't bring herself to care.
"Your technique could use some work. At the very least, however, you have a very good foundation to build upon," Morrigan said, and Arya flashed her a smile.
"Does that mean you'll teach me?" she asked. The black-haired woman gave her a rare, indulgent smile.
"Of course it does. It would hardly do for some Chantry mage to teach you," she said, and Arya felt more triumphant over that than actually killing the darkspawn.
They gathered their things once more and headed out, looking forward to an entire day of walking. Arya wasn't pleased about that, considering they rarely stopped to rest, but there was still some part of her that felt oddly energized. She walked next to Cailan, Sam trotting by her side, and while they occasionally filled the silence with small talk, most of the time the entire group of them were silent.
When they finally made camp, Arya insisted on setting up her own tent. She spent thirty minutes working diligently before she ended up tangled and miserable. Cailan took pity on her, then, taking over and setting it up in about ten minutes. "We'll share, all right?" he says, and she nods. Leliana was bent over the campfire, stirring something in a pot, but she thought it'd be awhile before supper was finished. Eldris was cleaning his daggers, and she didn't feel like bothering him, so she made her way to Morrigan's sequestered campsite.
"Are you here for lessons?" Morrigan asked. Arya nodded, sitting on a log and looking up at Morrigan. The view from down there was quite nice, after all.
"Very well. One of the most important spells that you could ever learn is a basic healing one. With it, you'll be able to help yourself and others. Most mages, however, have an affinity for specific groups of magic. I am most proficient with electricity magic, although I have no idea what you'll find the easiest to learn," she said, dragging another log over in front of Arya. The two of them set to work in earnest, then, Arya stubbornly determined to learn the spell before the night was over. Cailan came over, eventually, sitting next to Morrigan and watching them working.
Morrigan decided the best way to teach was through practice, so she made a small, shallow cut on Arya's wrist after teaching her the spell. "Heal it," she ordered, and though it took Arya a few tries, she managed it. It was messily done, leaving a small, raised scar, but she'd done it. She held her wrist out to Cailan, a delighted smile on her face. "I did it!" she said.
"That you did," he replied, chuckling. Morrigan had a faint smile of amusement on her face.
"That's enough for tonight. It's amazing that you managed to cast it that quickly," Morrigan praised, and Arya almost glowed. Cailan stood, helping her to her feet, and they headed off towards the campfire.
"I can't believe I actually did it!" she said, and he grinned, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.
"Maybe you're a natural born healer," he says. She smiles, thoughtfully.
"Perhaps I am. That'd be nice," she says.
She's so tired that she almost falls asleep in her stew. Cailan rescues her, taking the stew out of her hands and passing it off to Eldris. "I think we're ready for bed," Cailan says, laughter in his voice. Arya mumbles something, and he scoops her up into his arms. She curls closer, already almost asleep. He shakes his head fondly as he ducks into their tent, settling down for the night. Eldris and Alistair were going to take turns on watch, making sure that no darkspawn crept up on them. They weren't going to keep that schedule up long, only until they were well on their way to Redcliffe, but it had been decided that Arya would stay out of the watch rotation indefinitely. She wouldn't be much help.
That night, though, Arya dreamt. When she woke, all she remembered was running through a forest, sunlight dancing on the ground, and laughter chasing after her.