Hello again! Sorry for not updating for a few days, but my broadband company decided to switch off all connections to my area :/ We have it back now, and I'll be updating regularly again! (Thank you for the concern, Apollo - makes me feel loved :D)

So, here is a Merrill-centric ficlet for you! This was originally planned around Merrill and a young Mahariel, but I decided it didn't work. Like a boss.

Enjoy :)

I Wanna Be Like Other Girls (Mulan II) – Keeper Marethari and Merrill

Merrill sighed. She'd had to spend all day watching Mahariel, Tamlen and the others play fight and run around, while she had been stuck in the aravel, learning about Arlathan. She didn't mind learning about history – she loved it – but she knew that the other children in the camp thought she was strange. Not just because she was from outside the clan, that was normal, but because she couldn't ever go out and play.

Keeper Marethari smiled at the girl, who was staring wistfully at the campfire outside where Hahren Paivel was telling some scary story. The children were enraptured, clinging onto each other when the more thrilling parts were told.

"Merrill," she sighed, sitting down next to the wide eyed girl. "Why don't you go and join them? You have finished your studies."

"I can't, Keeper," mumbled the girl. "I don't know what to do."

"What about Mahariel? She is a nice girl, is she not?"

Merrill nodded, then shrugged. "They're all too busy for me."

Marethari nodded. It was hard, being a First, and never being able to join in with the frolicks of others your age. She put an arm around the girl. "The life of a Keeper," she explained, quietly, "from her birth is well-defined.She must humbly serve her people… Play the parts she's been assigned.She guards the hopes of her people – weak and mighty, craft and bow.Who could ever ask for more?"

"Who could ever ask for more…?" repeated Merrill, sadly.

"Who could ever ask for more?"

Merrill sighed. Then her head straightened, and she stood bolt upright. Looking almost pained, she began ranting. "I wanna be like other girls!" she raved. "Climb up a tree like other girls can!Just to be free, like other girls get to be!"

The girl began pacing the aravel, motioning wildly with her hands. "To slouch when I sit,to eat a whole cake, feel the sun on my feet –"

"Get dirty!" came a chuckle from the door, and Marethari saw Ashalle's kind face looking through the door of the aravel, laughing quietly at the First's outburst. "Act silly!"

"Be anything I want to be!" continued Merrill. "To dance around in my underwear!"

Ashalle laughed, climbing into the aravel as Marethari shook her head, smiling. "To run really fast!" swooned her First. "To get rid of this staff! To eat a whole cake!"

"Get crazy!" added Ashalle, mischieviously.

"With berries!" Merrill elaborated. "No magic, no training, no thick books, no worries, no learning the history that goes back millennia…"

"No itchy robes?" asked the Keeper, chuckling at the gleeful expression on the girl's face.

"I wanna be like other girls!" she cried, pointing to Mahariel and the others outside. "Scrape up my knees like other girls can!Just to be free,like other girls get to be."

She sighed, looking longingly at the group outside. "To speak for myself,to sing way off key… Bond with someone I've met,who loves me for me!" She turned to the older women, who looked fondly back. "No magic,no training,no thick books,no worries, no learning the history that goes back millennia…No itchy robes!"

"I wanna be like other girls!" she shouted, staring uncertainly at the door of the aravel. "Climb up a tree like other girls can! Just to be free, like other girls get to be!"

With one more look at the adults, she grinned and ran out to join the others.

Looking out of the window, Marethari saw Mahariel and Fenarel welcome her warmly as the First sat between them. The Keeper smiled.

"She'll be a mischievous one," chuckled Ashalle, affectionately. "You won't hold her down."

-0-0-0-0-

Yay for crazy Merrill!

IMPORTANT FOR NEXT FICLET - I've written the next update around a Fenris/MALE HAWKE relationship. So, slash, I guess. Being an iclusive writer FTW ;D If there is any serious issues taken with this, then I'll change. Hopefully there won't be.

Loves!

Up Next: Fenris and Hawke wonder if there's something there that wasn't there before.