When she wakes up, she's being laid on a blanket with lush grass beneath it. It's much softer and more comfortable than her bedroll back home, and for a moment, she's tempted to slip away again.
But the scene before her is far too interesting to ignore. Comfortable or not, she absolutely doesn't want to miss a second of this waking dream she's suddenly found herself in.
Trees stand at random throughout the open, grassy space. On the far side, there is a fountain by the wall, with lanterns that must be lit every night. Next to it is a little shack, with it's open door showing a few balls of different colors and sizes, and round, flat things with handles. That's all she can see in the shack from where she sits.
Various bushes with flowers of all kinds are carefully tended by some Chantry sisters around the trees and along the edge of the space next to the ever present wall.
Farill hands Bianca the Crossbow back to Varric. He sits down and starts to unpack the food hidden in the large sack while Kelly sets out clay cups with fancy designs painted on them.
Jack is setting up some kind of game with a heavy ball and some strange looking wooden things. He lays the wooden things in a triangle and stood them up.
Varric seats himself next to Melian and offers her a brown, fuzzy fruit that she's never seen before.
"It's called a kiwi. It's grown in Seheron and Par Vollen. North of here." He points to where she assumes north is. "Try it."
He peels some of the skin off and hands the treat to her. It's bright green on the inside, like lettuce.
It's sweet taste is far better than any pastry!
"Slow down, kid! You'll make yourself sick!" Varric admonishes. She smiles back at his grin.
She looks at all the food surrounding them on the picnic blanket. Various precooked dishes were laid out in plates and bowls, and the number of colors stuns her eyes.
Some things, like the kiwi, she's never seen before.
Varric pours something into her cup called "lemonade". The bitterness stings her mouth even as it's sweetness beckons her to try more. She does her best not to guzzle it.
There are several pastries laid out, although she steers clear of them. With all the new fruits to try, they don't really tempt her anyway.
She tries some of the meat and finds that it fills her quickly. But red meat and poultry are such rarities that she feels she has to take what she can get.
"Kid, what did I say about making yourself sick?" Varric pulls her to her feet and takes her over to where he and Jack are playing the ball game.
"You take this ball and roll it. The idea is to knock over as many of the pins as possible in one throw." He tells her.
She rolls the ball and manges to knock over five or six. The second time, all but a single pin fall.
Jack is surprisingly good at this game. He knocks all the pins over on the first try, and gets eight of them on his second.
Varric announces that he's the referee, and a friendly competition between them begins.
For the first time since she's known him, Jack isn't telling her to get lost, or trying to seem in charge. He's smiling, giving her tips on rolling the ball, and having fun like a normal, decent kid.
"Good game, Squirt. I guess we found something you're good at." He reaches for a handshake after his win. She shakes hands with him and sits down on the blanket to watch her brother's match against Kelly.
Varric declares their game a tie and everyone settles in to listen to one of his famous tales.
Melian takes a moment to breathe in the fresh air and is surprised to find that her breathing is easy and she doesn't even feel tired.
The sunset is orange and rosy pink and a soft wind blows through the scattered trees and shrubs in the space. At the far end of the park, the fountain sparkles in the lamps lit by guardsmen on duty as they switch their day shift for their night shift.
Varric told them a tale about Andraste and her example of leadership in her Exalted March.
"The elves under Shartan had agreed to help the humans in exchange for their own land at the end of the March. They'd been wandering since their first home was destroyed by the humans."
"Why was it destroyed?" Melian asks. She's always heard human adults scorning elves behind their backs in Lowtown, and the elven adults sounding upset that they couldn't live outside the Alienage without being servants or slaves.
It wasn't entirely true though. She has seen some free elves living in Lowtown. But it did look like the elves always got the worst jobs.
All that's different are our noses and ears. So, why do the adults hate each other so much. Jack and Kelly seem alright hanging out with me and Farill. Will we hate them when we grow up?
"It's another story. A very long one. And I'm sure your mother would want to give you her version first. It involves a lot of politics and religion that I honestly don't know too much about. I make a point of staying out of both." Varric's answer disappoints her.
Melian makes a note to ask Mama. She leans closer to Farill for warmth as the air begins to chill. Varric continues his story.
((o0o))
So, Shartan, a freed Tevinter slave, agreed to work with Andraste. And his elves followed his lead. He'd led them to freedom, and they knew he'd never lead them astray. Andraste made certain that her men treated the elves fairly.
One day, as she was riding her horse through the camp, she came across some smiths who had an elf shoveling fuel into their furnaces and working their bellows.
He'd been at it since dawn and was nearly falling over from exhaustion.
Andraste asked which of the men would take the elf's place, and work both the shovel and the bellows for all those forges the next day. None of the four smiths raised their hands.
"Very well," she said in a serene tone of voice.
"You there! Relieve the elf." She suddenly barked the command, her voice strong and sharp. The man she pointed at dropped what he was doing at his forge and hurried to obey.
"Have you had anything to drink?" She asked the elf.
"No m'lady." He panted as he spoke. Sweat ran in rivers down his face, which was beet red.
She got water for him from a well and sat with him while he drank in the shade of a nearby tree.
"Why didn't you simply walk away and get someone to fill your place?" She asked, finally.
"Because I didn't know if anyone would take my place. At least, not today with only a few hours left of daylight. Everyone has an assigned job. This was mine." He replied.
"And time is of the essence. Your commitment to your post will not be forgotten." She said.
They talked for a while, about small things. In that time, Andraste discovered quite a lot about how the elves were being treated when she and Shartan weren't around.
She found that the man she'd appointed to replace the elf at the shovel and bellows was one of the worst perpetrators.
At the crack of dawn the next day, the forges were fired up once more, the man appointed by Andraste to finish the previous day's work was back at his post, dutifully shoveling coal and pumping the bellows, desperately trying to keep up with the ravenous fires.
Andraste, in her white robes, her usually loose hair tied firmly back, rode in on her horse and walked in to see how things were coming along.
To the shock of everyone there, she rolled up her sleeves, put on a pair of work gloves, and grabbed a shovel.
She shoveled coal while he worked the bellows, occasionally hurrying to a bellows when a smith called out that his flame was too cold.
They were soon both black with coal dirt, but on they worked.
The elf showed up and watched for a bit. Then, without so much as a sigh or roll of the eyes, he too began working the bellows. He smiled at the man who'd jeered and shouted at him the day before.
The three of them rotated, two on the bellows, one shoveling, for the rest of the day.
That night at their makeshift meeting hall during dinner, Andraste gave her customary thanks to the Maker for the day's work and their food. She pleaded for wisdom and guidance in the battles to come.
When she opened her eyes, she scanned the crowd before her and asked if there were any questions or issues from the day that needed her attention.
Immediately, chaos broke out as all tried to have their voices heard. She motioned for silence, and it came quickly.
"Oh great Andraste! Please hear me!" A man called out, near the back of the tent.
Her eyes found him and he stood.
"We all saw you work at the forge this day, sweating and toiling with the lowest of us. You have battles to plan, and an army to lead! Why spend a day working in a commoner's place when you could have ordered someone else to do it?" He asked.
Her eyes scanned the crowd, looking for the smith and the elf. She called them out by name and they came to stand beside her at the front of the room.
The bitterness in the eyes of the elves in the room seemed to shrink the smith.
Andraste placed a steadying hand on his shoulder and put her other arm around the shoulders of the elf.
"The battle plans are made. The march is set. There is nothing to do now but wait for the building of our arms and armor, and for our last crops to be harvested and preserved for travel. My place is to help wherever the help is needed. It is the place of all who follow me now and who hope to sit beside the Maker when their time in this world is ended.
There is not one of us who is above another in the eyes of the Maker. Man or woman. Adult or child. Human, dwarf, or elf. We are all equal in His mind and heart. He placed us here so that we could create for His amusement, discover and delight in His creation, and rejoice in the peace and kindness of heart that community offers us.
The elf you see here with me stayed in his assigned position, even when it would have been easy for him to leave and ask someone else to take his place. He endured heartless reprimands despite his continuous effort to do the job of four men.
The smith you see here with me has abused the services of those he deemed to be less in stature to himself. He has continually berated the efforts of those who willingly chose to serve our cause. And yet, when asked to take on their burden, he did so. He too could have walked away, and asked another to do his job once I had left. He did not.
And he came back the next day to do common labor again, instead of his craft, as he was asked to do. He did this freely, without being asked or ordered a second time. He did not once complain or shirk his task.
Despite the treatment he'd received from this man only a day before, the elf came back to help him in his labor. The elf had been given the day off for his dedication. Instead, he dedicated himself again to the work and to the cause."
She would have continued speaking, but the smith stepped forward. Speaking directly to the elves, he said,
"I know I've been rather cruel to you. And I know I deserve your bitterness and scorn. I have realized the error in my actions, and now humbly ask for your forgiveness. In our work, your kind and mine have forged several friendships, like that of me and my new friend here." He batted the elf's head playfully.
"You might say our friendship was forged in the fires of the forge!" The elf said, grinning at his own joke.
Everyone groaned in an exaggerated manner. The two guys, man and elf, shook hands there in front of everyone.
When they moved to take their seats again, the smith was pulled over the elves side of the tent and welcomed there with open arms.
(o0o)
"But she didn't tell them why she shoveled coal!" Jack bursts.
"Didn't she? Right at the beginning, she said there was nothing else to do, and that she wasn't above helping where help was needed." Kelly answers.
"I think the bottom line was to lead by example." Farill offers.
"But why didn't she punish the smith for his treatment of the elves?" Jack asks.
"I think she forgave him." Melian murmurs. "That's what it's about, right?" She turns to Varric.
"The elves forgave the man and it was because Andraste did."
"How should I know! I'm a storyteller, not a Chantry sister." Varric huffs, standing up. "That's not even one of the official stories of Andraste. It's just one of the myths."
"It's still a good one. What were their names?" Kelly gathers the empty canteens.
"Of the smith and the elf?"
She nods.
"Nobody really knows." He shrugs. He holds open the sack for Jack to put the dried meats, vegetable and fruit preserves into it.
Farill returns the ball and pins to their place on the far side of the park, in a little shack beside the fountain.
Melian is surprised to find that she has all the energy in the world, even though it's dark out and time for bed. She challenges Kelly and Farill to a race across the open space as Jack and Varric stack dishes and secure them in a smaller sack.
Farill wins easily, but she almost manages to tie with Kelly for second.
"You have a lot more spring in your step than I've ever seen, Sister." Farill comments, as they start back into Hightown proper.
Melian jogs in place whenever she gets too far ahead of everyone.
"I just feel great! Better than ever before! I want to run to the ends of the world and back!" She exclaims.
"How are you going to explain your hyper sister to your mother?" Jack asks, back to being the "in charge" one. "You know she won't approve of us running around in Hightown. The guardsmen could figure out who we are and arrest everyone for trespassing."
"Melian, you're going to be really tired when we get home, right? If you can pull it off, you can come with us again." Farill says.
"Alright!" She agrees. Easy to do. The agreeing part.
"Maker help us! Why can't you stop making promises, Farill?" Jack groans and facepalms.
