Author's Note: And finally some new material! Sten's chapter has been moved; it initially took place following the same ogre fight as the last chapter, and immediately preceding the events in Chapter 4 in MIT. I decided to spread things out a bit more, & decided that Sten's discontent would make more sense on the way to Soldier's Peak.
This chapter once again correlates closely with MIT, this time showing what Shale and Brego were doing during the campfire scene in Chapter 6. I'll be reworking Sten's chapter a bit, get it posted, and then back to the rework on the main story!
See Chapter 1 for the disclaimer.
With eye upraised his master's look to scan,
The joy, the solace, and the aid of man:
The rich man's guardian and the poor man's friend,
The only creature faithful to the end.
George Crabbe
"You like her, don't you?" Brego cocks his head and regards his Talia with a soft whine. She speaks of Leliana, he knows, and he does like the female...but he is not sure if his Talia does. Last night, something Leliana said had angered his Talia, caused her pain, but while this would normally have made him hostile in turn, the scent of hurt from Leliana had been almost as strong as that from Talia, and he had heard her crying in her tent after their watch had ended.
Then, today, something Alistair had said had made his Talia look at Leliana with suspicion, the scent of hostility making his fur bristle and his eyes search for an enemy, but then the scent of darkspawn had come on the wind, and all else had been set aside as they had entered a town to find darkspawn and demons and a cat – a cat! – who spoke and then turned into a demon, and then finally, a massive stone that spoke and moved and, to Brego's consternation, accompanied his pack when they left the town.
Stone should not speak, and it definitely should not move. It looked like a stone; it even smelled like a stone, which is to say, it had no scent at all, save the scent of what had been left upon it by the elements and the villagers and countless birds. It had confused him greatly, and he had stayed away while his Talia had spoken with it, all the time worrying what he could do if it attacked her. Surely, he would break his teeth if he tried to bite it, but try he would, if the thing tried to harm his Talia, or any other in his pack.
Was Leliana included in that number? He had begun to think so, but today, his Talia's scent, and the way she has been regarding the female make him wonder. There is no anger in her scent now, though; only the first hints of the pain that comes to her every night.
"Do you miss them?" The scent of pain deepens, and he knows that she speaks now of their first pack. He does miss them: her father, with his deep voice and ready approval; her mother, who scolded him often, but snuck him treats when no one was looking; Fergus, who would wrestle with him; Fergus' mate, with her gentle hands and voice, but it is the small one, Oren, that he misses the most, misses the small arms around his neck, the piping voice calling his name, the way that he could make his Talia smile and laugh.
His last memories of their first pack are filled with the scents of blood and death and fire and fear and rage, and sorrow wells up in him anew with the memories, his pain matching hers, and he lowers his head to press it against her chest, seeking comfort as well as offering it.
"I should apologize to her, shouldn't I?"
Occasionally – more than occasionally – the complexities of human speech leave him confused, but he almost never has difficulty comprehending his Talia's meaning. His nose is attuned to the subtleties of her scent, and he has been trained to observe her every gesture, even as he listens to her words. She is looking at Leliana now, the scents of doubt and guilt replacing the pain. He lifts his head to meet her eyes, woofing gently, looks to the fire and Leliana, then back to his Talia. She doesn't want to be angry with Leliana; she wants her to be part of their pack, and Brego thinks this is a good thing (and not only because he hopes that one of the birds that Leliana is cooking will be offered to him). But if she decides otherwise, he will obey, because she is his Talia, and he loves her best.
It is one of the times that he wishes so that he could speak, to be sure that she knows what he feels, but he must make do with staring deep into her eyes and giving a low whine, and, as is most often the case, she does understand him.
"All right," she says, smiling at him and scratching his ears. "I'll do it."
He wants to go with her, but duty demands that he make a closer examination of the stone that talks, determine just what its place will be in the pack, so while his Talia approaches the fire, he circles wide, staying within the treeline, but growing ever closer to where the stone stands in a clearing. It is motionless, the flickering lights that dance across its surface when it moves gone dull and sluggish.
He drops to his belly and inches from the trees, low in the grass, only his head up, sniffing, confirming that baffling not-scent, as well as...
"Pigeon crap."
The deep, resonant voice startles him, and he freezes, staring at the stone.
"What it is smelling, dog, is decades of pigeon crap," the stone continues. "They would land upon me, build nests upon my shoulders, and all the time make their disgusting deposits all over me! And those insipid villagers thought it was cute! Put out seeds to draw them in! And twice a year – only twice! - they would scrub it off of me. I have had more than enough of serving as a latrine."
Brego sits up, regarding the stone quizzically. No, he would not like to have birds doing that to him. He didn't much care for birds. The chickens at Highever had pecked at his nose, secure in the knowledge that he was not permitted to chase them. He glances over his shoulder at the fire. His Talia is speaking to Leliana, but it is the smell of the birds that draws his attention now, making his mouth water. The stone had killed them all with a sudden wash of light across its surface and a sharp scent that resembled Morrigan's magic, and he thinks this would have been a fine thing to be able to do...to simply lie still until one of the annoying things hopped on his back or head, and then -
"I am informing it of this for a reason, dog," the stone spoke again. "Does it know how many of its kind urinated on me in that village? And all I could do is stand there and watch, helpless. If I see one of those legs lift so much as an inch in my direction - pow!"
Brego utters a whine of protest. He is a Good Dog, and he has not relieved himself inappropriately since he was a puppy...with one exception. The first tainted one, who had taken his Talia from their pack. Brego could smell his Talia's grief, her desire to return to their pack, yet the tainted one only took them ever further away, but when he tried to challenge him, his Talia had forbidden it. He might not be able to fight his adversary, but he refused to accept his dominance; each time the tainted one had taken his armor off, Brego had placed his mark upon it, showing this interloper just where his place was. His Talia had not scolded him for this, and had given him a treat when the tainted one was not looking.
Brego would not do such a thing to one that his Talia had brought into their pack, however strange they might be. The thought has not even occurred to him, and to make his point, he rises, trots to a tree and relieves himself against it, then sits down, watching the stone expectantly.
"Good," it rumbles. "I am glad we have this understanding. At least your kind can be reasoned with... unlike those damned feathered fiends!"
Brego gives a soft bark of agreement, rising and drawing closer cautiously.
"I gather that it is supposed to be more intelligent than the average mutt," it addresses him. "I propose an experiment of sorts – my former master was quite fond of experiments, but rest assured that I shall not do anything so undignified as to discover if it can pull a plow or how many bales of hay it can carry so that lazy villagers need not bestir themselves. No, I simply wish to determine how much of what I say it truly understands. I will ask it questions that can be answered with a simple 'yes' or 'no'. If the answer is 'yes', it is to bark as it just did. If the answer is 'no', scratch at the ground with a paw. Does it understand?"
Much of the stone's words make little sense, but Brego comprehends the last and replies with a soft chuff.
Glowing eyes fix upon him. "Hmmph. It could simply be a coincidence. What if I was to ask it if it were a cat?"
He sits up straighter, suppressing the indignant yelp that tries to escape him and digs vigorously at the ground with one paw.
An odd sound comes from the stone, one that he finally decides is laughter. "Most intriguing. I must admit that having devised a means of communication, I am uncertain what to ask of it. Does it possess free will, as well as intelligence, or is it compelled to obey the Warden by magic?"
He cocks his head, and uncertain whine bubbles in his throat as he decides how to respond. He settles for first barking, as softly as his outrage at the question will let him, and then digging a deep furrow in the earth before him with repeated rakes of his paw.
"I should interpret that as 'yes' to the first part of my question, and 'no' to the second?" the stone inquires, earning another bark. "Intelligent, indeed...for a dog, though it would be far more interesting if it were able to explain to me why it follows the Warden, if not magical compulsion. The dogs in the village were slavishly devoted to their masters, fawning over them shamelessly, but they were dolts. Is servitude so great a part of canine nature that even enhanced intelligence cannot eliminate it? But of course, you were bred by men, and they would not want to eliminate something so useful to themselves."
Brego wishes once again that he could speak, if only so he could tell this foolish stone that it is not servitude: she is his Talia, she leads his pack, and he is hers because he loves her and not because of any funny-smelling magic. But the sudden scent of fear on the wind captures his attention, and he turns to the fire, where Morrigan has joined Leliana and his Talia. It is from Leliana that the scent of fear comes, and he whines anxiously as voices rise and the smell of his Talia's growing anger joins the fear. Alistair comes out of his tent, and Brego feels hopeful; the male is often able to calm his Talia's anger, sometimes even make her laugh.
"An argument?" The stone sounds uninterested. "I could tell it so many tales of the petty squabbles I was forced to witness in the village, but that would be gossiping, would it not? Still, most of those concerned are dead, so I suppose – what?"
Brego ignores the stone. His head has snapped around, nostrils flaring and ears straining as he tries to identify what alerted him. There! A scent, faint against the wind, of a strange human male, and now the sound of feet moving through grass. He drops to his belly and crawls around the stone, until its glow is at his back, no longer blinding him to what lays beyond.
A shadow moves in the moonlight: a single man, approaching the camp without stealth. Brego can detect no scent of aggression, nor see any weapons in his hands, but his duty is to guard his pack, and that is what he will do. His Talia can decide what the newcomer's intent is.
Keeping low to the ground and moving swiftly, he closes the distance to the intruder and leaps with a snarl.
A.N. - Shale was without a doubt the hardest character to find the voice for until the events in the Deep Roads revealed her origins and restored her memories. Once again, smell is the first way that Brego acquaints himself with a newcomer, and the lack of an innate scent would be as baffling (and suspicious) as Morrigan's melange of smells is fascinating.
The method of communication devised by Shale is loosely based on one used by Dean Koontz in "Watchers" (a must-read for all dog lovers). I figured the golem would have sufficient curiosity about what appeared to be another creature bound in servitude to humans to want to be able to ask. It never occurred to Talia because she and Brego have always understood each other quite well. I'd imagine that Leliana would have hit on it, given a little more time, but there have been more pressing matters on her mind to date.
Now that I've established it, I'll probably have other characters utilize it and work it in here and there on the MIT edits.
