Disclaimer: don't own DA
A/N: sorry for the short chapter everyone. Next chapter will be longer. This one isn't beta'd yet either.
Chapter 4: Bonding
The group was quiet as they made their way quickly out of the city, Duncan leading them along the road until it was time to make camp when he led them to a small secluded area just out of sight of the road.
"We'll camp here for the night." Duncan announced, laying down his pack and looked around. Without even being asked, Dylan started to ward the perimeter of the area and Duran started to put together a camp fire. Melody hovered off to the side, unsure of what she should be doing or what her place in this group would be.
"Melody, would you get some water from the stream? It's just a ways that way." Duncan asked, gesturing to his left. Melody agreed, relieved to have something to do and grabbed the dinner pot and every ones water skins before going to look for some water. When she got back, the camp had been fully set up and the other two recruits were both busy, Duran was sharpening his weapons and Dylan was taking inventory of his herbs and tonics, but she couldn't see Duncan.
"Where did Duncan go?" She asked curiously, putting the large pot carefully over the fire before giving everyone's water skins back.
"He went to see if he could catch some hares for dinner." Dylan answered after a moment, looking up from his things. Melody just blinked and looked between the men, wondering if she should try to talk to them or just sit and wait for Duncan. Eventually she decided to sit next to Dylan.
"What are you doing?" She questioned, looking at the many herbs that he had laid out with vials, both empty and full.
"I'm figuring out what potions I have and what I need to make as well as taking inventory of the herbs I have." He explained. Melody watched curiously as her counted out five of a group of herbs before binding them together and putting them to the side.
"Why are you doing that?" She picked up one of the bundles to look at the herbs closely. They looked like the same plant, but she didn't have enough knowledge about plants to know exactly what one.
"So I know how many I have. Each bundle has five because it's easier to bundle up a smaller number than having a bunch of loose herbs as you wait to get a hold of ten. Any herbs I have that don't have five, I'll use to make health potions or salves with. I'm doing this now because I might not have time to later." Dylan told Melody who watched curiously as he pulled out a mortar and started to mix things together.
Melody watched for a few moments before Duncan strode back into camp, three hares in his hands. He sat down and started to skin them, but watching unsettled Melody so she decided to go over to Duran who was sheathing his sword and several of his daggers.
"What kind of experience do you have fighting?" Duran asked before Melody could even start to open her mouth to ask something. She blinked in surprise before thinking about it.
"Not a lot, I admit. My mother taught me how to use bows, which I'm most skilled in using, but I also have a bit of talent using twin daggers. As far as real fights go, mostly just what happened in the Arls estate." She scowled when she realized she didn't actually have a lot of fighting experience, but Duran looked surprised and pleased.
"Well, for what little experience you have, you were able to take down quite a few trained men with relative ease from what I heard. You have a lot of raw talent. Up you get, I want a quick spar." He said, clamoring to his feet. Melody watched him with disbelief.
"Now?" She squeaked, scrambling to her own feet. She looked over to Duncan who was watching in amusement while he continued to work on dinner, then to Dylan who was also watching them in growing amusement.
"Now is a good a time as any other lass." Duran said. Melody grabbed her daggers that they had purchased on their way out of Denerim and stood anxiously across from Duran who had grabbed his sword and waited for his commands. "Now, we're just going to do a light spar, we're not trying to injure each other, just get you used to fighting people. We'll start out slow and get faster as we go. I'll give you advice as we go." He said.
"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Melody asked, eyeing him nervously.
Duran barked out a laugh, "Lass, I was about to become the commander of Ostegars army when I joined the wardens, I know how to train people." This calmed Melody down and she fell into the familiar stance that her mother had trained her to use. "When you're ready." Duran stated, waiting for Melody.
She watched him closely, trying to think of a good way to attack before she decided to just launch into an attack like she did at the estate. Duran's blade came up to catch her daggers and he started to fight back with much more talent than the Arl's guards had. Melody quickly found herself disarmed, with Duran's sword resting lightly next to her color bone.
"Well, if you had caught me by surprise that would have been much more effective. Also, you start to forget your stance after your first two attacks, you need to remember to keep it or it'll be easy to break your guard, and you'll leave more openings for attacks to get through." Duran lectured, switching his sword for some of his daggers before standing next to her, taking a similar stance. "Now, we're going to go through some stances and we'll work on them every night before doing a quick spar."
Melody nodded, while she was disappointed she hadn't lasted longer, she was pleased she could finally finish learning how to fight with her twin daggers properly.
While the two of them worked on stances, Dylan joined Duncan in helping with dinner.
"So, where are we headed to next, oh illustrious leader?" he asked.
"The Brazilian forest," He answered, not looking away from the stew, "The Wardens have received word of a magical mirror that were used for communication. Over time, some of them simply break and many become tainted with the same taint that the darkspawn have. It is my fear that this mirror has become tainted, and so we are going to check on it."
Dylan hummed in thought, watching as Duran started to drill Melody on the stances she had just learned. "It sounds like an eluvium." He finally said, receiving an intrigued look from Duncan.
"You know about them?" he asked.
Dylan shrugged, "Not a lot, they're tavinter in origin, but you're correct in that all of the mirrors are connected to each other. If you could find one that works, you would theoretically be able to not just communicate with people at the other mirrors, but actually travel between them. So I can see how if the darkspawn managed to taint one mirror, the others would all eventually be tainted as well."
Duncan pursed his lips in thought before grabbing everyone's bowls and calling everyone to eat. Dylan laughed loudly as Melody practically collapsed next to Duncan while Duran just calmly took his own bowl and sat down, hardly even winded.
"Slave driver!" Melody panted. The three men just laughed.
"Lass, it wasn't that bad, I could have had you doing intense workouts as well, but you're no warrior so you lucked out." Duran said, his brown eyes twinkling in amusement. Melody just grumbled and started to eat her own dinner,
"Don't know why you're laughing, Dylan. It's not like you've had to do a hard work out ever."
Dylan just shrugged, "As a mage living in the circle, no I haven't." he agreed. Duran and Duncan shared a look and seemed to come to an agreement.
"That will be something that will be changed." Duncan stated, turning to him. "Starting tomorrow, I think Duran and I shall trade off with you and Melody for training. While he trains Melody in her stances and gets her ready for battle, I'll start you on some basic body conditioning and then the next day, we'll switch." He said. Dylan stopped laughing and looked between him and Duran in slight disbelief and no little amount of apprehension while Melody laughed at him.
"How do you expect to train me in battle with my magic? I doubt you've ever encountered a magic user while in Orzammar." Dylan asked.
Duran snorted, I've fought a few Darkspawn magic users, mostly we concentrated on taking them out first because they can be nasty buggers when by themselves, but I plan on training you in close combat situations. You're staff seems sturdy enough to take some hits so I'll teach you to use it as a weapon as well. Might even teach you to use a dagger." Duran mused, eyeing Dylan thoughtfully.
"Duran is correct, there might be instances where you'll find yourself without the ability to use your magic and you'll need to defend yourself. And the conditioning will help your endurance as well as your strength."
Dylan nodded, he remembered the struggle he had pushing the huge bookcase aside, and grinned.
"Alright, sounds like a plan to me."
Melody also agreed, "I agree, it will be useful in the long run especially if we're meant to fight in a battle in two weeks."
Duncan looked at them with approval, "Good, I'll also be working on your stealth skills, Melody. You make a good rogue and we should make sure you can be the best one you can be." He added.
Duran nodded, "that's a good idea, the lass will be unstoppable if she can sneak up on her foes."
That seemed to end the conversation as they all finished eating and cleaning up. Duncan taught Melody how watches worked and what to look for as well as how to tell when it was time to wake the next person up during their shared watch before sleeping for the night.
The next couple of days were tough on both Melody and Dylan as their muscles started to build up through the difficult training Duncan and Duran pushed them through. Every night they would immediately crash for the night after their training and dinner was done and they didn't budge until morning when they were woken up for breakfast. After that, they spent the day traveling at a quick but steady pace. It took them a week to get to the Brazilian forest and two more days of searching to find the ruins that Duncan was told the mirror would be in.
To the group's surprise, and Duncan's alarm, just outside of the ruins was a petite female Dalish elf, her tanned skin looked deathly pale and her veins were standing out, Duncan ordered the group to set up camp a safe distance away from the ruins and to stay alert before picking up the Dalish and running in the opposite direction.
"Well, we better do as he says. Don't let down you're guard, Duncan looked too alarmed for the lass to have been attacked by bandits. If it was darkspawn, don't let them bleed on you and try not to get cut by them." Duran ordered as Melody and Dylan started to make a small camp. They seemed to just wordlessly agree that Duran was the leader, after all, he was older and had more experience leading and fighting than either of them did.
The group waited anxiously for Duncan to come back, Duran paced while Melody stood crouched, listening intently to their surroundings. Dylan spent time warding their surroundings before checking the over.
"This is worse than the feeling I got before my Harrowing. And trust me, the feeling that a demon will be trying to hunt you down and try to possess you is not the best feeling ever." He grumbled. Melody paused and turned to stare at him.
"They feed you to the demons?" She asked incredulously.
"Sort of. It's a test that fully realized mages must go through, every test takes place in the fade so each one is different. But yes, they pretty much feed the mages to the demons to see if they can resist being possessed." Dylan explained, not caring he just broke about ten different rules about not telling people about the Harrowing.
Duran grunted, "Always knew you all were insane."
Dylan laughed, "Yes, we're all cracked, some of us more than others." And like that, the tension in the group was broke. While they were still vigilant, they were no longer worked up. They went about their business as usual until Duncan reappeared, one elf short.
"Is she alright?" Melody asked immediately. Duncan hesitated for a moment, mulling over his answer before saying,
"For now, she is alive. Her Keeper was able to push the taint back." Duran looked up at him in alarm.
"She's tainted? And you let her live?" He asked in disbelief. Duncan nodded.
"Yes, I did. Her Keeper has some strong magic that was able to push the taint back. It's still there, but should she live through this, I plan to recruit her. If she becomes a Warden, it will cure the taint." He explained.
"Woah, woah, woah! You mean there's magic out there that can help suppress the taint? I want to learn that!" Dylan burst out. The three turned to look at him and he just looked back, "What? I'm a healer, it's my specialization. Not to mention in our line of work it might help out." He pointed out.
Melody just grinned widely as the other two shook their heads.
"What's the plan Duncan?" Duran asked. Duncan scanned the area briefly before making his decision.
"We'll camp here for tonight, Melody and Dylan aren't going to do training today, we will need them both to be able to wake up quickly and to take watch tonight. Keep your weapons close to you." Duncan ordered as they got ready to bunk down for the night.