After a day's walk the new party had finally run into more life. It was a Mabari, the same one Ezra had saved back before the battle. Only this time rather than needing a flower the dog needed help with some darkspawn. It didn't matter if the rest of the party didn't want to help as Ezra had already run towards the darkspawn with the dog in tow.
After the short battle the dog, now covered with specks of darkspawn blood, stood in front of Ezra wagging his tail.
"You're not hurt are you buddy?" Ezra asked. The Mabari shook its head and barked at Ezra in response.
"I think he's looking for you. He's...chosen you. Mabari are like that. They call it imprinting," Alistair explained.
"Does this mean we're going to have this mangy mutt following us around? Wonderful," Morrigan said with sarcasm dripping from her words.
"He's not mangy," Alistair cooed at the dog.
"Well we can't just leave him on his own. Come on Alador!"
The newly named Alador gave a happy bark in response and followed Ezra around as he began to gather supplies from the dead darkspawn.
The party continued on and soon found themselves on the bridge to lothering. They also found some very annoying men 'guarding' the bridge.
"Greetings travelers!" the leader spoke.
"Highway men, preying on those fleeing the darkspawn," Alistair commented quietly.
"They are fools to get in our way. I say we teach them a lesson," Morrigan said. She was not one to care about keeping the peace only getting the job done.
"Now, now," the leader started, "is that any way to greet someone. Tsk,tsk. A simple ten silvers and you are free to move on."
"You should listen to your friend over there, We're not refugees."
"What did I tell you? No wagons, they looked armed," the 'friend' said in response.
"The toll applies to everyone. That's why its a toll and not say... a refugee tax," the leader said.
"We're not paying your made up toll, now let us through" Ezra didn't have time for this nonsense.
"Well I can't say I'm pleased to hear that. We do have rules you know."
"Right! We get to ransack your corpse then, those are the rules," one of his other lackeys said.
"You don't really want to try and kill a Grey Warden do you?" Ezra threatened. The lackey's muttered between themselves until the leader said,
"Traitors to Ferreldan, I hear. Teryn Loghain put quite a bounty on any who are found."
"But aren't them Grey Wardens good? Like really good? Good enough to kill the king?"
"You do have a point. Well let's just forget about the toll then. We'll just leave you to your darkspawn fighting, king-killing ways." Ezra didn't like the king killer part but was glad to have avoided more bloodshed.
"Now you're going to give back all the stuff you've stolen. And if I hear you haven't made good on that we will not be having such a nice conversation next time," Ezra said as he passed by. When Ezra looked back over his shoulder he saw the leader's mouth agape. He turned his head back forward and kept walking.
"Impressive," Morrigan said. "Maybe you aren't as useless are your friend."
"Hey I'm not useless!" Alistair exclaimed.
"No of course not, you would make a great meat shield should we ever need one."
The two went on bickering and Ezra just rolled his eyes.