Anne readjusted the brace of rabbits over her shoulder and reached down with her hand to scratch at Puck's neck as they both listened to Leliana's low, haunting tune. It was a rare peaceful moment in their quest, even with the bloodied results of their hunt dripping onto her armor. A light led the way along the path, swaying slowly to match the rhythm of Leliana's song.
The song ended and the light snuffed out. The path wasn't completely dark, the flicker of their campfire visible through the trees, and Anne exchanged a glance with Leliana as they could just barely hear other voices raised in song, loud and raucous. The voices grew louder, interspersed with laughter, and when they broke through the trees into the clearing the source became clear.
Oghren and Alistair were standing, arms around each other as they swayed and sung a bawdy dwarven drinking song. Alistair was holding Oghren's flask, and Wynne was holding a bottle of her favorite wine as she sat on a log and sung along. Zevran was across the fire, laughing uncontrollably into his hands, while Morrigan pretended she wasn't watching with clear amusement from her smaller fire.
Sten was standing watch, his face stoic with no hint of acknowledgment of the antics going on behind him. It was Shale who spoke to them, her stone face contorted into what Anne interpreted as confusion. "I do not understand this human behavior. And the smell is unpleasant. You should not leave them alone again."
Leliana had joined Zevran at the fire, giggling as Alistair stumbled and almost knocked himself and Oghren into the fire. Anne shook her head and clapped Shale on the arm, carefully avoiding the icy crystals. "Don't worry, Shale, I won't." She had no intention of leaving Alistair alone with Oghren and Wynne ever again; who would have guessed that they would be worse influences than Zevran?
In the meantime, however, she intended to thoroughly enjoy every moment of the spectacle while it lasted. Including torturing her lover through his alcohol sickness the next morning.
x
Alistair moved his head, approaching wakefulness, and then groaned. What in Andraste's name had done this to him? His head hadn't hurt this much since his Joining.
"Good morning, love!" Anne sung out and Alistair winced. Surely her voice wasn't normally this high pitched and loud? Had some curse affected them?
He attempted to open his eyes and then groaned again as the soft morning light stabbed directly into his skull. Anne laughed, a sound he usually lived for and now wanted nothing more than to stop. "Having some difficulty this morning, dear? Oghren and Wynne didn't warn you about this part, did they?"
Alistair shuddered, sudden flashes of memory doing nothing to dull the throbbing ache in his skull and everything to make him feel like an idiot. He thought he'd had his fill of this in his first month as a warden. "Hey, honey?"
"Yes, dear?" Anne asked him, her voice rich with amusement as she pressed cold fingers to his forehead, making him sigh in temporary bliss.
"Think you could beat them up for me?"
"I don't know," Anne said, placing a flask of water in one of his hands. "That might imply that you're not wise enough to make your own choices, and we don't want people thinking that of their future king, do we?"
Alistair fumbled with the flask and managed to pour about half of it all over himself before getting any in his mouth. He carefully squinted his eyes open and managed a pitiful glare. "You are a cruel, heartless woman."
Anne laughed and then pulled her hand away from his head, placing a kiss there before standing up. "I'm going to go make some breakfast while you figure out how to be human again." She looked back at him before stepping out of the tent and shook her head, a wide grin on her face. "Do you remember the singing?"
Alistair turned his head and mumbled incoherently into his pillow, his lover's laugh lingering in the tent after she left. He was never talking to Wynne and Oghren again. Never.