Varric turned to Chuckles after Prongs had wandered down to the river to bathe, they had set camp near a river after two days of traveling they needed baths, Shartan had gone last as he had been busy setting wards around camp.
"So chuckles what was Prongs like as a young elf?" Varric asked and out of the corner of his eye saw the Seeker sit up straighter, Varric smirked at that, he would have to bug her about it later.
"I do not know." Solas said shortly turning his attention back to a pot of stew that was slowly cooking on the fire.
"Come on you two were old friends, and Prongs does not seem to mind you talking about the past too much." Varric reasoned with the dour elf, but Solas just shook his head.
"I meant what I said master tethras, by the time I met Shartan he was already in the service of Mythal and a full grown elf by our people's standards at the time." Varric felt confusion at the words as his writer's mind recalled all that he knew about the pair of elves.
"I thought he served the Seeker's past life the deer one?"
"Towards the end of the war yes, but in the beginning he served Mythal as her right hand and top guard." Solas explained as the bushes rustled and Shartan reappeared with his short obsidian hair gleaming.
"Digging for stories are we Varric?" the bored rumble came as he flowed rather than walked around the fire, settling behind the Seeker and pulling the lightly armor woman back against him as he leaned against a log behind him.
"Just trying to figure out the herald who got dropped into our laps." Varric said winking at him with a smirk, a pair of disgusted noises came from the mated pair.
"Then you would be better served asking my mate as she would be able to tell you more about who I am now than our dear wolf." Shartan gestured lazily towards Solas, the group was slowly getting use to the fact that one moment the pair almost seemed to be friend then the next they fought like cats and dogs.
"Better a wolf than a boar turned deer." Snarked Solas and a flicker across Shartan's face gave Varric his next line of questioning.
"Boar and deer? Sounds like a story there what does that even have to do with out dear herald here?" Varric teased, Shartan raised a brow at Solas a clear sign that Solas had permission.
"Shartan while in the service of Mythal was know as the crimson boar, this was because he took the form a large wild boar that by the end of a battle was crimson red from the blood soaking his fur." Varric looked at the elf tenderly holding the seeker with his eyes closed, the fire light danced over his marks that came and went as his mood pleased.
"He became know as the black hart when he joined Ghilan'nain as her soulmate and he mellowed greatly no longer charging in with abandon, most agree that it was his soulmate that calmed him and that made him all the more dangerous. Many believed that Mythal planed it that way." "Oh she did, that dragon lady was always scheming something." Shartan drawled just as the stew finished cooking.
The group rode to the crossroads the next day, well most rode Shartan just turned into his hart form and let Cassandra ride him instead of what she called 'a dung monster' Varric had made a joke about the seeker riding him hard, both the hart and the seeker gave a disgusted noise and Shartan tried to kick the dwarf. Solas rode with the two other horses tied to his saddle.
Cassandra was amazed at how smooth the gait of her Soulmate was in this form as she barely felt the dips in the ground with how smooth his stride was, she guessed she should not have been so surprise Shartan had made it clear that this was the form he spent the most time in after all.
The sound of fighting as they neared the cross roads had Cassandra leaping of the Shartan's bare back and rushing towards the incoming mages, a flash of light was the only signal she had before a blur past her to crash into three mages. Shartan stood in the center of the group having killed one mage on impact he spun lashing out a brutal kick into the gut of the closest mage, the mage folded in on himself allowing Shartan to grab his collar and throw him into the last mage's path as the spell erupted from the mage's staff, instead of hitting Shartan the spell lit the mage's partner on fire before the partner crashed into the caster.
Cassandra watched the fight that took less than a few seconds to finish as Shartan quickly sliced the mage's throats, once again she was reminded that her soulmate was the spirit that had taught her almost everything she knew about how to fight and wage war, the war cry of Templars charging pulled her attention back to the battle and she charged the large shield carrier. As they fought Shartan appeared beside her and the other members of their group kept them from being flanked, Cassandra and Shartan moved around each other with ease born from countless nights in the fade training to fight against each other or with each other against hoards of demons, when the great sword her soulmate wielded cleaved the last Templar in two she lowered her weapons to begin the process of cleaning them.
Shartan walked among the injured looking for the mother or someone who need help before someone could reach them, he heard a soldier thrashing and ranting about how magic was evil and he was refusing to let it touch him, Shartan saw a mother heading over to him but Shartan reached the man first and got to one knee next to him.
"Peace brave fighter, magic is not evil." Shartan soothed
"It is the chant proclaims it!" Shartan shook his head gently.
"No it does not that chanty says that magic exists to serve man and not rule him, that means that magic is simply a tool just like your sword that you wielded in defence of the innocent today." The man still and began to calm at his words, Shartan gently placed a hand on the man's shoulders and began to gently press him back on to the cot. "Magic is nothing but a tool for those blessed by the maker to use to help those around them, rest and let those who you saved today repay you by saving you." The man nodded drowsily before falling asleep from the magic Shartan was using.
When he rose a mother gestured him to the side and he followed her, when the woman revealed herself to be the one they had been seeking Shartan thanked her for speaking with them. After a time, the pair moved apart the mother to begin too ready herself to travel to haven and Shartan to speak with the local leader of the inquisition.
Mother Giselle watched the herald move away from her to speak with others, and to both her amazement and horror that every wounded man, woman and child calmed at once as he passed them, the casual display of sheer magical power terrified her. She walked calmly away but inside she was praying that the herald never turned the power that he must wield to evil as that display shook her, after gathering some herbs she moved to place them in a container for the journey and saw once more the herald walking among the wounded stopping and speaking with each fighter who had fought that day.
It was just a few short words each some times is was more but everyone of them when he left look at him like he was Andraste reborn walking among them, Giselle watched him kneel by an elven mother who was clinging to her dead child screaming at anyone who tried to take the child. She moved closer to hear what the elven man was saying to the woman.
"Ir abelas Lethallan for your loss but the soul is no longer with the body, your child has moved into the loving arms of Falon 'din who will carry your child down the paths to peace." Shartan consoled the woman who just sobbed harder for a moment.
"But who will care for my boy? Who will read to him at night, he is too young to be on his own!" she sobbed and Giselle saw the clan marking on the woman's face marking her dalish when she pleaded to Shartan for answers.
"The other children take too soon will be there with him, the mothers who have passed on with or without their own children will care for him." Shartan gently helped the woman stand Gesturing to a few other elves near by to take the body away, the herald then guided the woman to a small hill top over looking an area where orphaned children were being watched.
"in every end there is a new beginning all one must do is look for it, see these Dalen Lethallan?" He gestured to the children and when the woman nodded he continued. "These ones have lost their families and now have none to watch them, so while those in the beyond care for yours you can repay them by caring for those who were left behind. It will not replace your child or lessen your grief but it will allow you to help those Dalen recover from their own, and all that we do we do for those who will come after us." With this he released the woman and walked away, after a moment the woman squared her shoulders and went down and began organizing the women who were having a hard time managing the children.
Giselle walked away smiling thinking that the herald may have been sent to them after all, that thought was shattered a moment later when she heard Shartan call out to his elven companion. "Come on mutt we have Templar fools to relieve of their lives, so stop playing in the dirt you can bury your dinner bone later!" 'or perhaps not.' Giselle thought sadly as the man walked away whistling what sounded like a brothel song.