Chapter #13: Hunted
Rasera
Weeks passed with little trouble from the people of Ferelden. News of the darkspawn victory in the south had people fleeing northbound, but for Rasera and her friends there was no fleeing north. The Qunari had people across the Waking Sea in greater numbers than in Ferelden, but with the possibility of the darkspawn overwhelming the kingdom, Rasera looked for other options.
"We can't stop here. Humans on the road will try to take our things," Tamera told them all as Bastri and Jarvim dropped the front of the cart.
They've been at it for hours and she still wants to press on? Stubborn bull. Though Rasera liked Tamera, a strong woman, if a little short, both in temper and height.
"Get up you lazy mules." Tamera's boot was sharp and to the point, with the younger of the two, Bastri, groaning and rolling away holding his ribs.
"Mother, please, they've been hauling the cart all day." Asaz pleaded as the two males silently thanked the girl.
"I cannot stay in the forest again. Those beasts are out there, they could still be following." Tamera told her daughter and by extension, the rest of the group.
"Let them rest. You Qunari are too insistent on moving about. We got the hunters, enjoy your freedom a bit," Rasera suggested as she pulled an apple from her pack.
"Tal-Vashoth," Jarim corrected with a sad smile.
That's right, left it all behind. Still, her words seemed to work as Tamera didn't fight as they started to veer off into some vegetation. Rasera had come across them at the southern end of Lake Calenhad, they were all heading south to see if they could earn themselves some value and wealth from fighting with the human king and slaying his foes. Then it turned out that it was lucky they hadn't arrived.
They turned back north as soon as they heard, avoiding Lothering in favour of a quick move to put distance between themselves and the blight. They avoided the area where the Qunari had attacked them, a small group led by one of the hornless Qunari, a rare and special person, just not special enough to have captured them. Tamera had lost three warriors to the Qunari that had managed to track them, two going down to the hornless one before Rasera had landed a blow that killed him.
Finding herself a nice rock to sit on, Rasera finished her apple as she scoured the area surrounding them. Passersby wouldn't be able to see them through the vegetation, and so long as they weren't too loud they wouldn't be heard either. Her silence didn't last however as heavy boots came from behind her.
"We were lucky to find you, or you us." Tamera said. "I am sorry that I brought the Qunari after you however, it must have been a while since you lost their tracks."
"Oh I've been hunted, but never by a Qunari before. Perhaps it was more luck that I found you than I did them." The older woman didn't laugh. "I thought the Qunari didn't allow the parents to raise their child?" Rasera asked.
"They do not. Asaz, she is not my real daughter, I have no daughters born to me, as the Qun commanded." Tamera explained. "I was born to be a soldier, though my body. I am what they call, Aqun-Athlok, do you know what that means?" With Rasera giving no answer, the woman continued. "It means I was born one gender but I live as another. It is exceptionally rare for a Qunari woman to become a soldier."
"Perhaps it is because they cannot but help become Tal-Vashoth?" Rasera suggested.
"Do you mock me, child?" the woman's tone deepened and her posture changed.
"If I did then I would also be mocking my own mother." The grin on Rasera's face contrasted Tamera's shock.
"Your own, Vashoth? Your parents were Tal-Vashoth?" Rasera answered with a simple nod.
"One cannot be Tal-Vashoth without knowing the Qun right? At least that's what mother and father used to tell me." The juices of her apple tickled her skin as it trickled down and dripped from her chin. "That's why I said I was lucky. I have never encountered Qunari before. I would not know how to deal with them, should they try to force their religion upon me."
"Incredible. A new generation of our people living, thriving far away."
"I wouldn't say my parents were thriving. They were mercenaries, and then guards. And then they were killed." A silence hung between the two of them. "Don't worry, they taught me enough before that happened, and I knew not to hang around."
"Then, what should we do? We are all Tal-Vashoth, yet your parents were killed for being such."
"Find somewhere safe to settle down, far away from large towns or frequently travelled paths. Find somewhere that the rest of you can survive, even in isolation if that's what you think necessary."
"And what of you, Rasera, will you come with us?"
This made her pause, though not from chewing the apple in her mouth. Her parents were the only ones of her kind that she knew, and now with a little more than half a dozen Tal-Vashoth alive in Ferelden, she didn't know. "I'll help you, at least until I get bored or I think it's too great of a risk to my own life."
"You would leave your own kind?"
"We might have horns, but I know next to nothing about you and even less of those that were pursuing you. If the Qunari continue to hunt you down, then I will cut my losses before it costs me my life."
Tamera glared at her with that. "Then I would have you remain with us, but only until we have been free of danger for more than a month."
"That sounds agreeable," Rasera answered.
Tamera left after that, both gaining more knowledge about the other. Rasera knew that the leader was a soldier, one of the Aqun-Athlok as it were. The others were all Tal-Vashoth like her parents, on the run and being chased, now previously chased by hunters that the Qunari sent after them.
She left them alone as she went off to hunt, taking one of their spears along with her. Tamera might have been a soldier, but the best hunter they had with them fell in the fight against their pursuers. Now it fell to her to provide them with meat, a much needed comfort after trying to avoid contact with anyone over the past several weeks. Bandits and highwaymen were becoming bolder, though she didn't know and didn't want to find out if they were bold enough to attack a party of what everyone would call, Qunari.
Growing up in Ferelden had given Rasera more knowledge of the land that her current fellows. She was taught to read and write by her parents, use a range of close range weapons and how to effectively use her horns if needed. She was taught how to throw a spear too, and to hunt while treading lightly upon the ground. How to find the softer patches of earth and avoid the twigs that had fallen from the trees, which she was currently doing.
Food was plentiful in Ferelden, if one knew where to look, how to hunt or how to fish. Thankfully, Rasera knew that the Bannorn had a plethora of animals that she could kill, though without a shepherd or hurdsman noticing, she wondered. There were other beasts that still roamed the lands however. Wolves, bears, even werewolves if some believed the wild tales of old, and more recent news that came from the East near the Brecilian Forest.
Smaller game is what she was after, however, rabbits and birds, an elk or deer if the gods were kind to her. And that early evening, they were kind. After more than an hour of hunting, she had slain a rabbit and two ducks, more than enough to satisfy her own needs, but perhaps not the entire group she now travelled with.
She returned to cheers from the two youngest, Asaz and Jarvim, as well as one of the females, Meelan. She headed to the woman who looked pleased with meat Rasera had gathered, more so than the few berries and roots that the other woman had gathered in her absence.
Meelan was an older woman, older than Tamera even who had the hairs greying between her horns. This woman however, had more grey and small horns. Rasera had been taught that the Qun had roles based on what gender you were, and that there was even selective breeding. She figured Meelan was born to be a chef, or cook of some kind since every night since she had joined with the Tal-Vashoth, Meelan had cooked their meals.
"You're skilled at skinning the animals too? You would have been a valued scout under the Qun," Meelan commented as she stripped the meat from the skinless and headless rabbit.
"Scout, or breeder." It wasn't a question, more of an insult at the woman's former belief.
"You've spoken to Tamera then," Meelan said with a sad chuckle. "Not all women were breeders."
"No, only most of them. No choice in the matter, no objection as to who would take them. Oh yes, the ideal position for every woman." Meelan didn't say a thing to that and Rasera was grateful. She knew the Qun was their whole lives, up until a few months ago. "So why did you leave?"
The old woman just laughed. "I was asking dangerous questions, according to the Ben-Hassrath. I am old, maybe not old enough to worry about dying in my sleep, but old enough to have grown bored, and with it curious of what lay beyond the Qun."
"Bored? You actually ran away because you were bored?" It seemed like a stupid thing to throw away one's life for, but she had never experienced the Qun, only through her parents past had she known the culture and religion of those called the Qunari.
"Perhaps to someone as young and as lively as yourself," the woman said with affection. "I feel both sorry for you and jealous. The Qun was a beautiful thing, not perfect, but living outside the Qun, every day I have felt strange. Fearful that any moment could be my last, our last."
Yes, because the Qunari are hunting you fools down. And I joined you. Smiling in self amusement, Rasera shook her head. "And what of the others?"
"You had best ask… No, you've fought and bled for us. No doubt you've noticed that one of us has a rather, unique skill," Meelan's eyes studied the young Vashoth.
"The mage you mean. Hard not to notice him after the fight against the Qunari. He was instrumental in giving us the advantage and the healing many of us needed afterwards." Raesera recalled seeing him in action. She was less impressed with his offensive skills and more interested in his ability to heal. Her own wounds had closed over when the warmth and glow of his power consumed her. "Father said the mages were bound with chains and led by another."
"Yes, that is why when Tamera brought this mage to our village and had him heal Asaz, many of us fled with her."
"You all… because of a mage with healing magic?"
Meelan laughed softly as she finished stripping the second rabbit of flesh. "Oh no child, we left because of what Tamera had done. Disobeyed the Qun and brought a Saarebas into a town, unchained, free. She had him heal Asaz who was suffering with an illness." The woman hung her head but held a smile on her face. "Because of her and the mage, and because the other Qunari would have left the girl to die, we fled with them, because we thought… Well, you already know why I left, you'll have to ask the others their own reasons."
Meelan shooed Rasera away after that, putting the rabbit in a pot and starting a stew. The feathers from the bird might be enough to make a few arrows, given that the spear hadn't damaged those big enough to be considered.
The old soldier patrolled the perimeter of the camp, rarely looking back inside at those she had brought with her during their escape. Rasera had joined when there were ten of them, but from the stories they told and the names a few cried at night, she guessed there could have been almost twenty of them that escaped the Qun. Asking if there were former companions just didn't sit right with her, it could open old wounds and end up with crying, and she hated crying.
And crying is exactly what followed after the stew and berries. Nighttime always drew out the scared and weak, and even though Rasera hated them for showing such weakness in front of their pairs, she couldn't blame the young girl or even Jarvim who had lost someone he considered an older brother in the scrap against the Qunari. She only wished, she had been swifted in her execution of the first opponent, they were however, all well trained. It showed even as they were outnumbered almost two to one, yet slew three before they were overwhelmed.
There was a thunk next to her, and radiant warmth accompanied the mass to her left. She knew who it was, why he was there.
"Can't sleep huh?" There was no answer. "I agree, their crying is… it encourages the others. It's pitiful."
She turned to look at the Tal-Vashoth mage, the one that had saved Asaz and been freed by Tamera. He was a tall thing, taller than her by several inches, though not as thick or muscular as the other Qunari males she had seen in her life, which was a very tiny amount. Her father was her image for their kind, the male portion anyway. Tall and strong, large horns, muscles that were covered in scars and serious eyes that gave nothing away. Save for when he was alone with her and showed his softer, more caring side.
"Are all Saarebas as thin as you?" She asked. Nothing yet again, he never did speak to her. "I bet they are thin and weak, relying on magic to do everything in their lives, your life." Her insult was only meant to prick him, to draw out some conversation, even an insult back. But none ever came.
The Saarebas just sat there in silence, the tip of his staff glowing a warming orange that banished the night air away from them. Her parents had told her that Ferelden was cold, very cold compared to what they had been used to. But for Rasera, Ferelden was her home and the temperature suited her well enough. Though she wouldn't say no to a fire on a cold night, or the warmth a mage could provide.
Turning to face the thin giant, Rasera narrowed her eyes and examined his face. It looked like she would expect, like a human only with horns growing from the top. His horns sloped backwards and curved downwards, before finishing abruptly. They had been shortened, removed at some point, as if melted to a nub. His nose was flattened though, his jaw wide, but to her the most surprising thing was his lips. A darker purple than the rest of him, and with spots and lines of pale white.
"Why don't the other Tal-Vashoth have those on their lips?" she asked, leaning in curiously, but he turned away. "No fair, if you aren't going to talk at least let me look." Nothing, always nothing. Gods, Tal-Vashoth are stubborn fools. Fools, the word echoed in her mind for a moment. "Any chance you know spells that can put people to sleep?" The look she got was one of faint horror. "Temporarily," she added.
Without a word or hesitation, the Saarebas named Kanok took to his feet and went over to the younger members of the group. The warmth left her exposed and the cold filled in the gaps, cloaking her with a familiar chill. But at least the crying stopped, replaced by soft breathing… and a hefty snore.
The next day, Tamera turned them west, towards Orzammar and the distant Orlais. The blight hadn't reached there yet and wouldn't for some time, it would have to overcome Ferelden first and they would be long gone, lost in the Dales or perhaps moving even further west into Orlais. It was a place Rasera had never gone, a place her parents had known of but never been to. Their knowledge was hers, though what little she did know was that Orlais was said to be the most powerful nation in Thedas, and that the relationship between it and Ferelden had been very strained since Orlais occupied the kingdom over the mountains.
"So how long will this trek take?" Jarvim asked as he pulled the cart with Bastri.
"Several days. Orzammar isn't far, we will stop there and rest before using the pass." Tamera's plan seemed solid enough to Rasera, though she had never left Ferelden and wondered just how the Orlesian people would treat the Tal-Vashoth and herself.
"And how I ask, do you expect these people to treat us?" The others all seemed to focus when that question rode the wind.
"Like any other place. With caution and perhaps hostility. They will call us Qunari for they do not know what we are. Even you, Vashoth." Tamera answered with a smile and everyone seemed a little let down.
They run from their home and expect welcome? Fools. She had lived her life with and around human people, seclusion was of equal measure though. But when her parents had interacted with the humans and even the elves of Ferelden, she got to experience how they were treated.
Some hated and avoided them, others wanted to use her father to intimidate others. Qunari were large and feared beings, and her father had made no small amount of coin by acting as the muscle, and occasionally the butcher for well paying offers of course. Rasera had even acted as hired muscle, though for a female to do so was more difficult. Tall and wired, she wasn't as thick as her father and didn't have the massive horns, she had inherited her mother's in that regard.
Rasera's horns grew more horizontal along her skull, never sloping downwards, but towards the rear like her mother's, they curved upwards and to a sharp point that reached several inches above where the top of her skull was. She found herself looking at Kanok again, wondering if having them cut down would hurt.
"Saarebas," Tamera said to her side, surprising the younger woman. "They are treated horribly under the Qun. Chained up, made to wear large metal apparel to slow them. Pauldrons, wrist and ankle shackles, visors that near blind them. Some of the metal is even burned onto their skin, never to be removed." Swallowing deeply with a revolted frown upon her face, she looked back at Kanok.
"How, how do they do that to their own kind?" Burning metal onto flesh? It had been a nauseating revelation from the old warrior.
"Because they fear them. Saarebas can do amazing things, dangerous things. They can kill people with the raise of a hand, set houses or structures alight with ease. For this they are feared and controlled, and if ever they disobey, swift punishment, even death may follow." With her eyes downcast, Tamera seemed done with the topic.
"So they're slaves?"
"Tools, we… they think of them as tools to be used, directed to the enemies of the Qun. But while they can cause death and destruction, they can also create stability, and life." Their eyes turned to Asaz who seemed happy enough as she walked on, chatting away to the two boys pulling along everything they had left with them in the cart.
"I have felt his healing ability, and seen some of his flames. It is hard to know if the Qunari are right to treat them in such a way."
"It is wrong," Tamera quickly quashed Rasera's thoughts. "They are living people, just like you and I. Just as you can kill someone with a blade, it is up to you to choose to do so."
Rasera thought about that for a while, long enough that Tamera left to speak with the others and encourage them to keep going. She held a hand to her sword and toyed with the hilt. She could kill someone easily enough, but not as easily as magic could. Mages had the power of the elements at their fingertips, and she didn't know what else besides healing and the elemental magic they could perform. But as the day wore on and the sun beat down against her silvery-bronze skin, Rasera grew tired and suggested they all make camp.
Two days passed as they travelled further from the blight, further into the unknown. Even Rasera hadn't been in the northern regions of Ferelden and her familiarity with the land had ended Jormot's Crossing and she only found the names of the towns they passed through to be of some unknown familiarity, and that was just by their name.
"What about his horns?" Rasera asked as she finally got Tamera alone again.
"So you've taken notice."
"I try to take notice of a great many things. I am not considered family here."
Tamera just laughed at this, but said nothing against the woman. "Good, that will serve you well in life. But as for her horns," she got that dark look in her eyes again, "horns can be used as a tool, striking and stabbing. Saarebas already have enough offensive capability so, as a way of marking them as extremely dangerous…"
"Their horns are made useless, bluntened." Rasera interrupted.
Nodding without scolding the younger Kossith for interrupting an elder, Tamera continued. "Melted away, it only hurts when the base is affected. You may have experienced some pain around the base of your horns, if they've ever been tugged at." Finding out more about her people, her kind was a painful experience. She had always wondered if what her parents taught her was true, and with Tamera telling her just a small part, she already hated how they treated Saarebas.
"And… their lips." Their eyes met and Rasera began to wonder if she asked too much.
"You remember how I told you that they sometimes mutilate the Saarebas?" Rasera nodded, already becoming squeamish at the possibilities that flooded her mind. "If they feel the need to, they will stitch their lips together… or remove their tongue." Clenching her jaw and running her own tongue along the inside of her teeth, Rasera looked over to Kanok.
She had noted that his lips had some strange markings on them, and knew she understood why. "Tamera." She turned back to the leader of the Tal-Vashoth. "You did the right thing when you took him from the Qun."
Tamera's laughter surprised her, as did the rough hand clapping her shoulder. "Did I just? Time will tell I suppose, if what awaits us over the mountains turns out to give us a new life, I will consider the lives lost on the way here… not to have been in vain."
Rasera was sure that it had been the right choice, and although she had only seen three of their group die, she was certain that if Tamera could get the rest to safety they would all live better lives.
As they closed in on Orzammar and reached a small town, they found it to be a little more populated than it should be. There were tents and vendors, wagons and carts stacked with goods, dwarves talking loudly and constantly with whoever came near. There were humans there too, mostly Ferelden, but those dressed in more clean and tidy garbs too, then there were the different accents. But all that didn't matter, as when they walked through on their way to Orzammar all of the eyes fell upon them and the talking died down.
I don't like this. Her hands were busy, on the hilt of a blade, the other opening and closing gently. The townsfolk and traders didn't seem to be doing any better as she noticed many men ready to draw his blade.
"Keep quiet and get through. We'll go off the road soon enough," Tamera told them.
Eventually they passed through unmolested, and made for a treeline that would put them out of sight and hopefully out of mind. Rasera was restless though, she paced and checked the road constantly, talked with Tamera about moving again or at least setting up some traps.
"We don't have much, but you're welcome to use some of our rope and knives if you are that concerned."
"And you aren't?" Rasera asked.
"There were soldiers there, but did you hear what was being said?" Rasera just shrugged.
"I was too busy watching for those that might try and strike at us as we passed," she admitted.
"And I am thankful, but there was talk of the Teyrn not having the full support of the people. That means the blight could take the country inside a year."
A year to take an entire county. It seemed like a monumental undertaking to Rasera, but she didn't know a lot about darkspawn or their blights, only that this was the fifth time it was occuring.
"Then it is best we escape from Ferelden, before it's too late," Rasera agreed.
The late afternoon and evening was spent setting up small warning systems around trees and sharpening the ends of sticks. She got Bastri and Jarvim to help sharpen normal sticks into points and dig shallow holes around the outside of their camp. Nothing big, but enough to trip someone.
As the first fire died out she took what was left - mainly the ashes - and began to treat many of the wooden spear tips. The boys watched closely, wondering why she was burning, ruining the spears she had made. After explaining that she wasn't ruining them but hardening the tips through a process she had failed over and over again and finally came to become quite good at over the years, she handed them one each. Sure they had swords taken from their fallen friends, but the spears, although short, could be used for hunting or throwing.
"Get out of here. I don't want to see either of you until you've got an animal or a fish," Rasera said to the two young men, both who bolted off into the forest, away from where they'd dug the holes.
That night they feasted on fish caught at the nearby river, only three fish but it was better than expected. Tamera was hard to please though and the size of the fish wasn't up to her standards. Rasera turned in after finishing her tiny amount of meat, being thankful for just that much. Though she didn't sleep easily as she listened to the forest around them and waited, almost expecting the traps to be triggered before darkness finally took her.
