A/N: Hey there readers! I hope everything is okay :)

From now on, our meetings will be every Sathurday (or Sunday, if somethings goes wrong.)

My special thanks for the follows/Faves again - this kind of thing fills my heart with happiness :D

Please, leave a review if you're liking it. I don't bite, really :D

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Credits:

Portuguese Beta: Rohh Lael

English Beta: wintryone

Disclaimer: Dragon Age Universe belongs to Bioware.

Chapter 20

Da'shal

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=== In the morning before ===

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"What is she doing here?" Mahariel asked aiming her bow ,ready to shoot at the first sign of danger from the witch. Morrigan, despite being in the crosshair of the Dalish, didn't seem bothered at all. In fact, she leaned against the fence of the abandoned hut, apparently nonchalant toward the blond hunter's threat..

"Morrigan is our guide," Kallian replied, with her hands raised defensively between the two. "She is helping us."

"Na'falon dar Asha'belannar'len!" Mahariel said, visibly upset. However, none of them seemed to understand a word.

"Okay ..." Kallian said slowly, raising her hand up to her hair and lowering her head, trying to figure out what just happened.

"What did she say?" Alistair asked, wearing his best puzzled expression on his face.

"I have no idea." Kallian replied, glancing a pleading look at the Dalish, hoping that she would translate whatever she had said.

"You're an elf. You were supposed to know about this stuff," Noah muttered, crossing his arms against his broken chest plate.

Kallian grumbled something barely audible, rolling her eyes.

"She is the daughter of the Witch of the Wilds!" Mahariel exclaimed, pulling further the string of her bow. "There's no Dalish that doesn't know her tales, and the atrocities she and her daughter have committed! They say she is not even from this world!"

"People talk a lot of things, such as the immortality of the Elvhen or that the Maker exists," Morrigan replied, starting to walk away from the hut toward the road. "Fairy tales seems to be quite popular these days."

"Oh, you son of-" Mahariel exclaimed, ready to shot, when Kallian threw herself between them, right in front of her arrow.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait!" Kallian said, holding her breath. "Mahariel… Please, she is our best choice. I explained our situation to you earlier - we cannot choose allies," She whispered, hoping she would stop targeting Morrigan.

"I hope you know what you're doing, Da'shal," Mahariel said, replacing her bow to her back, under her brown cloak.

"Me too," the little elf whispered, sighing, and relieved at being able to avoid the conflict. Oh, and avoiding the arrow in her head had been a good thing, too. Kallian wasn't sure what to call Mahariel - she had no idea if her name had been given to her in confidence. Since she'd awakened, Eilleen began to call her Da'shal. Kallian knew that 'da' was the Dalish word for small, so she could only think that 'shal' was some kind of joke, even considering the fact that she was always serious. Mahariel wasn't using the same mocking tone that she used when she called her 'city girl', but even with that small hint that the new nickname may be not what it seemed to be, Kallian thought it was better to keep her doubt to herself.

The group walked for hours, following the main road. They were all silent, lost in their own worlds, too busy contemplating their own problems to socialize with each other.

Morrigan was not leading the group anymore - Noah took the lead, and was walking a few steps ahead of the others. Neither of them seemed uncomfortable with this new situation, or with how close they were from each other. Actually, Morrigan was enjoying her new position, which allowed her to admire him from another angle. The 'Sexy Beast', as she was calling Noah, was exactly the kind of man she very often used to seduce while she was bored, wandering in the Wilds - Strong, beautiful, wild...

She constantly wondered if he was as good in bed as his appearance told her.

Mahariel remained behind everyone, diverting her attention between Noah and Morrigan. It was difficult to decide which of the two inspired more distrust in the hunter - The daughter of Asha'Belannar or the shemlen that suggested her death. Anyway, at the same time that she wanted distance, she also wanted to keep them where her eyes could watch them, to be sure that they wouldn't bring her more problems.

Noah hadn't said a word to her since that day. Survive, he said, and throw it at my face later.

It was very easy to say that just to relieve his conscious of his filthy sins, or all his wrong choices. Hypocrite, she thought.

She still had a hard time in understanding how Kallian could walk so close to shemlens so naturally.

Alistair was silently walking just a few steps behind Kallian. Since the day before, he was apprehensive about letting the little elf and Noah alone. He witnessed two intense discussions between the two, and both times, he thought they would kill each other. Just thinking about the idea, his stomach twisted violently.

He knew that couldn't push him away from her, so the only thing he could do was stay close to her, to make sure that no one would hurt the little elf.

Kallian didn't seem to notice what was happening around her. Her eyes wandered from the darkest clouds of the greyish sky to the farthest trees along the road, focusing on everything and nothing, at the same time. At first, Alistair thought she was only being cautious, alert to what was happening around them. But when her eyes fixed on the horizon, looking for anything specific, he realized something was wrong. And he'd give anything to know what she was thinking.

The little redhead didn't notice the intense gaze of the Templar in her direction.

In fact, her eyes were doing a silently sweep through the place, but it wasn't enemies she sought. For days she has been looking for a sign, anything that could denounce the arrival of what she feared most. But everything was very quiet.

Too quiet.

Since its "peaceful" threat after the fall of Ostagar, the Lion hadn't show its face again. The nights were quiet, without dreams or nightmares, empty as the Void itself. It was as if, for a moment, she was normal again.

Normal…

She'd forgot the meaning of this word long ago. Even if the curse could be broken, she doubted that her life would return to what it was. Her soul was tormented enough, corrupted enough to possibly know what the hell normal meant. She heard strange sounds in the dark of the night, she saw creepy figures in the light of the day and not even in the silent refuge of her mind she was completely alone.

No one could possible heal completely from all that damage. No one could exorcise so many ghosts without fracturing her own mind in the process. No one could possibly understand what it was like to feel so lost, living in constant craving to awaken from a never ending vortex of disturbing dreams and crushing nightmares…

If she wasn't so tied to life… If the choice was truly hers…

Kallian pushed away those thoughts. Long time ago, she learned that "If"s were as good as an empty bottle of water – unless you could actually fill it with something consistent, it will be only a useless flask of unclaimed opportunities. All she knew was that the lion was around, silently pulling the strings of his game. It was inevitable to not look twice at every shadow that she passed through, or check carefully every strange noise she heard.

She felt trapped inside a maze of unknown threats that increased at every rustle of the leaves. She was beginning to see its despicable face even in the clouds.

I'm getting paranoid, she thought, looking at the sun, which shone in the midst of sky. I don't know how much longer I can take it...

Distracted, she didn't notice the root standing in her way and only realized it when she stumbled, feeling the ground disappearing from under her feet. Instead of landing on the hard ground, however, she felt a strong arm wrapping around her waist, preventing her from falling.

"Oops, I got you!" Alistair said, smiling. Realizing that she was in the arms of the Templar, with his body so close to hers, her first reaction was to push him away. How dare he to touch her? Shems, in the end, they are all the same, she thought.

But then she noticed that even though his hands were still on her stomach, they hadn't wandered to inappropriate places. How he kept a distance, however small, between their bodies, and especially how he didn't do more than it was needed to put her back up.

When she frowned at him, confused by this unexpected situation, Alistair just smiled back.

It was so much easier when she had to deal with 'classic' humans that only spread chaos with their ulterior motives and their iniquities. There wasn't much to do other than unsheathe her daggers and put them back into their place. Then Alistair crossed her path, making her constantly question her beliefs. It was easy to travel with him, but at the same time, intriguing. He very often let her speechless with his protective actions.

It was the noise of a bowstring stretching that made Kallian finally realizes what was happening around her: The Dalish was pointing an arrow against Alistair's head.

"Get your hands off her," said Mahariel seriously, further increasing the tension on the line from her bow.

The Templar, not knowing what to do, raised his hands in a peace sign, but that didn't make her change her mind.

"Alright, Mahariel," Kallian said, imitating the gesture of Alistair. "Could you please lower your bow...?"

The Dalish let out a disapproving roar through her throat, but she kept her bow still aiming toward the Templar with a sharp look on her face. Frightened, he gulped, sustaining her gaze until she simply turned away, resuming her walking. She kept a safe distance from Morrigan and Noah, who, incidentally, didn't bother with little confusion and were well ahead of others.

Kallian sighed deeply, pressing her temple with her fingertips. Again, she had to fight the urge to hit her head against a tree. At each step, things got more and more difficult. Just the thought that they had just begun their journey already made her insides ache. If it was hard to keep the group out of trouble now, imagine the pandemonium that it would be when the real battles began?

"What… was… that?" Alistair whispered to the redhead when they resumed their walk.

Kallian looked at him from the corner of her eyes, still holding her temple. Her first impulse was to reply that she had no idea, but something clicked in her brain before she could open her mouth. She realized that Mahariel was serious about her need to pay her debt, even against her protests. Although grateful for the concern, she didn't want a slave, that would risk her life because she felt obliged to do so.

She meant it when she said she wanted no bodyguards.

"I think ..." The redhead began, further squeezing her temple. "She was trying to defend me..."

"If she did this to me, when I was just trying to help, I can't imagine what she would do with Noah ..." Alistair said, grimacing. "This crazy girl will end up killing him..."

Kallian let out a muffled laugh, covering her mouth with her hand. "Ah, she will for sure."

"I can hear you, Shemlen." Mahariel growled, slightly ahead of them. Alistair froze, preparing psychologically to be her target again.

"Elves and their damn sensitive ears," he muttered, letting out a breath that he didn't know that he was holding when he realized that her threat would not leave her words.

Kallian stopped and crossed her arms, narrowing her eyes to look at him. "Seriously, Alistair?"

At first he didn't understand her reaction, turning his head to the side trying to remember what he had spoken to justify her scowl. When his eyes fell on the redhead pointy ears, his eyes widened.

Oops, he thought.

"Look, that's not what I meant, I ..."

"If I were you I'd shut up," Noah growled, giving them a competent look of "Don't make me go there" that made Kallian roll her eyes.

Defeated and in a clear minority, the Templar sighed, resuming his walk staring at the ground, feeling like the worse person in the world. Kallian, on the other hand, opened an amused smile on her face.

"Hey," she whispered to the Templar, walking beside him. Seeing the teasing expression on the little elf's face, he pouted discreetly, frowning in an expression of repressed grief.

"What's so funny?" He whispered back, feeling a little betrayed.

"You," she replied flatly, taking her backpack from her back. He hoped so much that she would not join forces with Noah against him, not after everything they'd been through together. Maker have mercy, he defended her… Why did she turn against him now?

"Oh, really?," he muttered under his breath as he watched the elf searching something in her stuff.

"You took it seriously." Kallian stated, grabbing an apple and putting her backpack back on her back. "The ear stuff."

"Of course I did! You two conspiring against m…. Ears?" He asked, confused. "You're not talking about…? I thought you were…"

The elf took a big bite of the apple before answering, "You know that you're not making any sense, don't you?"

"I thought you were speaking about what he did." Alistair pointed at Noah.

"And why in the Void would I be speaking about him?" She replied, putting her hand over her face trying to cover her full mouth.

"I just thought ..." Alistair laughed, feeling a fool for being upset so easily. Of course she wouldn't betray him – she wasn't like Noah, not even a bit. "Forget about it."

"You're thinking too much," She said before biting her apple again.

"Maybe…" He said, scratching his nape. "So, about the ears…"

"I didn't take it seriously," she said, pausing to swallow. If it was another situation, she would be angry. But considering the spontaneity and innocence that he said that, mixed with all the confusion that followed, it was impossible to not take it lightly. Besides, she was having so much fun watching how he stumbled over his nervous words, that being angry at him sounded just as stupid as trying to catch the air with her hands. "Apple?" She offered the fruit to him.

He shook his head, more embarrassed than ever. Apparently she was not angry with him, but that didn't mean he didn't have to apologize. Try at least.

"Look, I'm sor-"

"Thank you," said Kallian, biting another piece of apple.

"I know I've been a ... What?" He said, stumbling over the words again. Kallian giggled, watching his puzzled expression.

"For the help. The root, the stumbling… remember?"

"So easily? No whining about how everything was under control and that you didn't need my help?" He asked skeptically, his eyes widening slightly.

"That can be easily arranged," She raised an eyebrow.

He chuckled, "I take back what I said."

They looked at each other in silence. Definitely having her around was a relief. Having someone to talk to, someone who would not criticizing or humiliating him all the time or threaten him every time he opened his mouth… She was probably the only reason that kept him from freaking out.

Her friendship was what kept him walking.

"Elf, I liked you so much more when you kept your mouth shut," Noah muttered.

"I also prefer you silent, Grumpy," Kallian replied, showing her tongue to Noah's back.

Alistair smiled again. More than relieved, he was grateful for the company of the sharp-tongued little elf.

Note: Da'shal means "Little protector" in Dalish.