Alistair was mad at her, she couldn't blame him. She had said that they were just going to talk to a Dalish clan. How was she supposed to know that they had been attacked by talking werewolves and they would have to fight the clan's keeper to get him to remove the curse? He had been particularly put off by the fact that Zevran had been injured. It had only been a few cuts from one of the sylvans they had encountered in the forest, but Alistair had insisted things could have been worse. She couldn't blame Alistair but that didn't mean that she had enjoyed the attitude he had given her.
She sat on the front steps of the castle and finished tyeing an old beef bone to an arrow. She aimed over the wall and launched the bone into the sky. Max dashed off to retrieve the bone. It was his favorite game and right now she would rather be sitting here than inside getting the evil eye from Alistair.
"Most women wouldn't even think of going near an old bone let alone tying it to an arrow and shooting it for a dog to retrieve." Bann Teagan, Eamon's younger brother, said sitting next to her.
"I have darkspawn taint coursing through my veins, an old bone doesn't seem that bad comparatively." she replied as Max dropped the bone at her feet.
"Well an old dirty bone does look a lot better when you look at it that way." he chuckled. She aimed and launched the bone and watched Max take off again.
"So where does a Dalish girl learn how to pick locks and sneak around in the shadows?" he said out of the blue.
"How did you know that?" she said whipping her heads towards him.
"Alistair told Eamon and I. He explained your rogue talents and that you seem to be a very excellent judge of character." he replied a smile tugging at his lips.
"I learned it how other people learn, by being taught." she explained as Max dropped the bone at her feet.
"I have no doubt. I do doubt however that the mighty Dalish surround themselves with shady characters just to teach their daughters how to pick locks and hide in the shadows." he replied and watched her shoot the bone into the sky.
"Thats because you humans know so little about us. We're really planning on taking over the world with our rogue skills and you humans won't even know what hit you."she said sarcastically.
"And here I thought you were a proud people." he laughed.
"Doesn't mean we don't have a sense of humor." she replied with a smile, retying a knot holding the bone and arrow together.
"The sneaking around is more of a hunting skill, used in a different context. The lock picking came from a city elf that we found close to death in the forest. My keeper healed him and one night I caught him trying to open one of the chests in camp and made a deal with him." she stated as she launched the bone over the castle wall.
"He would teach you to pick locks and you wouldn't tell on him, right?" he finished.
"Exactly." she nodded. Instead of dropping the bone at her feet, Max laid on the ground in front of her and started to gnaw on it. She reached down, untied the arrow, and put it in her quiver.
"Your actually going to reuse that arrow?" he asked, almost disgusted.
"I can't throw away everything that smells bad. Where would that leave Oghren?" she teased. Teagan laughed and stood back up.
"Well I better get back to taking care of my brother's lands." he replied as he went inside. The castle had been quieter since Eamon had left for Denerim this morning. He needed to be in the capital and told her to rest for the day and leave first thing the next morning. She leaned back on her elbows and enjoyed the sunshine. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shinning but the breeze coming off the lake kept it from being hot. She closed her eyes and pretended for just a moment that there wasn't a Blight to defeat, a power hungry Teyrn to deal with, or even a man that was her brother in arms angry at her for missing a few fights. For this one moment, even if she had to pretend, the world was perfect.
The next night they camped about a half days walk from the mages tower. Alistair was still annoyed that he missed out on some fighting but had resumed being his usual joking, awkward self, to her relief. They ate some beef that Teagan had insisted on them sat around the fire joking and telling stories. Leliana switched between humming and telling everyone what happened in the Brecilian forest. Keira was a part of the story and still listened in like a young child eager to hear the tale.
One by one everyone slowly made their way to their tents for the night, except Oghren who had to be helped by Zevran and Alistair to his tent, to the amusement of Leliana and Keira. Zevran and Keira were the last ones awake.
"If you would like, I could join you in your tent later." he whispered in her ear.
"You know I do." she whispered back with a smile. He kissed her cheek and disappeared into his tent. She called Max and leaned up against him. She had first watch tonight, but that didn't mean she couldn't be comfortable. Before she even knew what was going on her eyes were closed and she was drifting off. There in her dream she saw the archdemon. The dragon landed somewhere that was unfamiliar to her and seemed to look at her. No it felt as if the archdemon was looking through her, somehow threatening her.
She gasped for air as she quickly sat up and looked around. She was still sitting in front of the fire and Max was laying behind her.
"KEIRA!" Alistair bellowed from his tent. Her heart sank as she realized that Alistair had seen the same thing. She could hear him fumbling around with his armor and others started to get their own armor back on. Alistair emerged from his tent, buckling his sword sheath to his back.
"You saw it too." she whispered dropping her head.
"It was like it saw us! I mean saw us! What does that mean?" he looked frightened. She wasn't sure what the dream meant. Her other companions came from their tents weapons drawn looking around.
"You woke us up because of a dream?" Oghren grumbled. Max picked his head up and started growling. She stood up and drew her bow.
"Wait, do you hear that? What is it?" he asked. From out of thin air shrieks attacked the camp. She couldn't count how many, all she knew was they were surrounded. She quickly jumped up on log next to the fire and took aim at shriek behind Wynne and fired. Her arrow found her target's head and the monster fell over. Her friends quickly jumped into action swinging their weapons trying to keep each other from being overtaken. She aimed around the camp firing one, two arrows at time. She watched as her arrows flew by her companions and found their marks in the shrieks.
She saw a shriek headed right for her and jumped off the log and put her bow back in its place and drew her daggers. She knew she wasn't nearly as good with daggers but this shriek was too close for her bow. The creature took a swipe at her which she quickly blocked and pushed her blade through it's gut. She quickly removed it and watched the creature fall in front of her. She looked around the camp and saw her friends quickly finishing the last of their would be killers. She sighed with relief to see that no one was hurt as everyone huddled around the fire and started talking away.
"Camp will never be the same." Leliana exclaimed.
"We need to fortify camp." Sten said steadily.
"Not even any good assassins." Zev scoffed. Everyone was busy adding their opinions when Keira looked up and saw a figure just standing beyond the light of the fire. She walked in between the tents and stared at the figure. Her Warden senses told her there was taint in this creature but it wasn't attacking the camp, just standing there.
She drew closer to it and tears rolled from her eyes when she recognized the armor and the facial tattoo. It was Tamlen, and suddenly she couldn't breathe.