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At Morrigan's request, they had stopped early today—she claimed she had to collect ingredients from a nearby swamp. Thora didn't mind, entirely, as they were all rather tired and could use the rest, but she wished she felt able to trust Morrigan when she said things like that, rather than always wondering why they had really stopped.
Either way, it was nice to have camp set up and a stew bubbling over the fire while there was still light to see by. Orzammar was dimly lit compared to the sunlight on the surface, but nothing had prepared Thora for the way everything turned black when the sun went down. At least in Orzammar something nearby always gave off some kind of ambient light. One more thing to get used to.
Once she had checked with Wynne and determined the mage didn't need her help with dinner, Thora went looking for Alistair, who had disappeared after dropping an armload of wood next to the fire. The grass here was long, waving against her face, tickling her with the ends until she sneezed and sputtered and pushed it away. Coming out the other side of the long grasses, she found herself in a meadow of shorter grasses, dotted with colorful wildflowers. And in the midst of that she saw Alistair, lying on his back with his hands folded under his head.
"Here you are," she said, picking her way through the flowers toward him, careful not to step on any.
He twisted his head around to look at her. "Here I am."
"What exactly are you doing here? If you wanted to take a nap, the tent is all set."
"Oh, I wasn't napping. I was looking at the clouds."
Thora frowned. "Why?"
"Because they're pretty? I don't know … it's peaceful. Nothing changes in the sky. It's always the same. Summer, winter … Blight, the sky is still blue. Like nothing we mess up down here can spoil it."
Tilting her head back, Thora looked up. She supposed it was rather pretty. It was also endless, and so high up you couldn't even imagine climbing that far. She swayed dizzily, and Alistair reached up to catch her hand before she could fall.
"It's easier if you lie down."
She did so, lying close enough to him that their arms were touching. "In Orzammar, the ceiling is always just … there. Comforting. Safe. This is—there's just so much of it."
"It must take some getting used to."
"I mean, I like it. It's just strange. But much prettier than all that rock," Thora admitted, watching a fluffy cloud scud across the sky.
"Look there. It's a bunny rabbit."
She sat up, reaching for her dagger. "Where?"
"No, no, in the clouds." Chuckling, he tugged her back down.
"There are rabbits in the clouds?"
"Not real ones. Just shapes. Right? That one's shaped like a bunny rabbit, and that one kind of looks like a big mound of mashed potatoes."
"They all look like mashed potatoes."
"Well, if you're going to be so literal about it, I suppose they do." He was silent a long time, unusual for him, and she worried that she had offended him by not taking his cloud-watching seriously. But when he spoke again, he sounded thoughtful. "We should do this at night some time, so I can show you the constellations."
"Constellations?"
"Yes, the stars form shapes. Peraquialus is a ship, and Fervenial is an oak tree, and …" His voice trailed off as he tried to remember the rest of the constellations.
"Does everything in the sky reflect what's down here?"
"Hm. I never thought of it that way. I suppose maybe that's so? Maybe we look for recognizable shapes in the sky so it seems closer and more familiar. Do you do that in Orzammar?"
Thora smiled. "The ceiling is made of stone. There's a lot of stone in Orzammar—it's plenty familiar enough."
"Good point."
"I actually think the stars are the most familiar thing about the sky up here. They look like these glowing mushrooms that grow on the ceilings of caves. They make it less dark."
He turned his head to look at her. "Do you miss it?"
"Orzammar? No. It just takes some getting used to, all that space up there. Like, how do you know you won't just float right up there and disappear? But I guess you get used to the idea that you won't, and then it's not so scary that there's nothing over your head."
"I think I'd be more scared to have a whole lot of stone over my head. I'd worry that it was going to come down on me."
Thora frowned. "You don't feel that way in a house, or a store, or the tent, do you? The Stone in Orzammar is just like that."
"I hadn't thought of it that way. Makes sense." He reached for her hand. "I like talking to you."
"I like talking to you, too."
"That's … I mean, I never really expected to find someone who liked talking to me. No one ever did before."
"They don't know what they were missing."
His hand tightened around hers. "It sounds terrible to say this, what with the Blight and the war and everything, but—I'm really happy. I never knew what that felt like. It's nice."
Thora considered the word. Happy. No, she had never really known what it felt like, either. It hadn't been part of her training or her expectations. "I was never happy before, either."
"But now?"
She could feel him holding his breath, and she sat up, turning on her side so that they were face to face. "You make me very happy."
"Really?" He brought their joined hands to his chest.
"Really."
"Good." Alistair drew her closer, his arm around her shoulders, as they both lay back, looking up at the clouds again. "That one looks like a biscuit."
"Rabbits, potatoes, biscuits—you're just hungry. You're not actually seeing shapes in the clouds."
"That's not fair. It does look like a biscuit. All right, you try. What do you see?"
She studied the cloud just above her head. Truly, it mostly looked like a cloud, but for Alistair's sake, she narrowed her eyes and tried to imagine what it could be. "It's a flower. See? It's all rounded on the edges, like petals."
"It is a flower. I see it!"
He sounded so excited, Thora was glad she had made the effort. Picking out another cloud, she said, "And that one's a giant spider, with all those wispy legs."
"Seriously? Of all the things, and you think of giant spiders?"
"Well, they're certainly familiar."
Alistair laughed. "That they are. Look at that one. What do you think it is?"
And they lay there while the clouds played in the sky, supremely content.