This was possibly the strangest situation I'd ever been in. We'd been roving through the Hinterlands for two weeks helping every Thom, Dick and Harry that happened to need it! Sure I was all for the aiding the needy but this... This really took the biscuit.
"Why won't he come down the hill?" Tevelyan groaned in frustration.
"Herald is this entirely necessary?" Cassandra sighed.
"Oh course it is!" She rebuked, turning round immediately, bright blue eyes aglow with indignity. Gods, she was so young.
"The poor things lost and he needs to go home."
I bit my fingers to keep from laughing, bit once I saw Varric's eyes sparkle I couldn't contain the ugly snort that escaped.
"Charming." Solas quipped, but that didn't stop me laughing.
"Please tell me this will go into the history books." I said, leaning on my knees. "The great Inquisition leading a bloody druffalo back to pasture. Look at it! It can't even get down a bloody hill for Gods' sake." My voice fell into laughter again and Varric joined me. The Herald was trying to mirror Cassandra with her straight face but was failing quite terribly. True enough the druffalo stood at the top of the hill, stamping its feet and shaking its head as if it didn't rightly know what to do. It probably didn't, the poor thing, but that didn't make it any less hilarious.
"Can we please hurry this along." Cassandra grouced, looking down at her feet that were now soaked through because of the river. We were still laughing however. It was then I heard a squawk from the trees, a familiar squawk that I recognised. He swiftly glided down from his perch and swooped down, narrowly missing Solas. He did the most ungraceful duck I've ever seen which only put me and Varric into further hysterics.
His glare was ice. The bird landed carefully on my shoulder and let out a soft squawk before shaking his feathers. I laughed atvhis display and took the small roll of parchment from his foot. As the others still struggles with the druffulo, I read Leliana's message. Her writing was neat and practised, probably from her years in the chantry.
It said simply, "Good work."
I thanked the crow for his delivery and he cawed softly. I still hadn't named him and he really did deserve a name. I thought back on Varric's attempt, Captain Feathers McSquaw, but that was far too much of a mouthful.
"What about, just Captain, eh Lethalan?" I whispered. His jerking movements stopped and he nuzzled his beak into my ear."Oh you like that don't you, Captain!" He cawed in what I could only take as agreement. I laughed and let him fly off back to a near by tree.
"Naming something will only attach you to it." Solas voice appeared beside me and I startled. He looked concerned.
"That is kind of the point." I said with an arched brow.
"Messenger birds are always a prime target for for interceptors, whether you have named him or not." He said seriously.
I frowned then, hurt spreading through like a weight in my chest.
"Look I get I'm not your favourite elf, but why do you insist on doing that?" I said through gritted teeth. He looked surprised. He dared to look surprised.
"I simply offered advice."
"Cruel advice."
"Is still advice none the less." He countered and I through my hands up in frustration.
"What did I do to irritate you so much?"
"Nothing, you do not irritate me." He stepped closer, "If you truly irritated me would I have saved your life?"
I guffawed, "You didn't save my life."
"You were poisoned." He said simply.
"I would've sorted it out." I argued, anger replacing the weight of hurt in my chest. "You knit pick everything I say and do and you patronise me with every second breath. I tried to be civil but still you insist on being..." Before I could think of an adequate insult, I felt a pull of strong magic and that familiar distant scream. By the look on his face he felt it too but he barely got the chance to turn and look behind him as from out of a rift, a demon wrapped in cloth launched a ball of ice straight in our direction. I didn't have time to think, my muscles moved on instinct and I launched myself forward, bringing myself and Solas tumbling to the ground, but safely out of harm's way. For a few seconds at least. He let out a huff of air, as I landed on top of him and then he did... A thing... His eyes glinted with silent question, his left brow arched and he barely hid his smirk. Immediately, I lept off him, my mouth going abruptly dry and my face getting warm. I cleared my throat as he too got up and tried to hide the hoarseness in my voice.
"Now we're even."
The corner of his mouth almost rose as he drew his staff, "Ma nuvenin." I desperately tried to ignore the butterflies in my stomach and notched an arrow to my bow.
The fight was hard. Very hard. The demons were powerful and they kept coming and by the time Trevelyan finally closed the rift, my brow was cut, my ankle pained and Varric was unconscious.
Immediately, Solas was healing him and Cassandra and Trevelyan shared a stamina draught. I felt exhausted. I'd used a lot of mana and the pain in my ankle was draining my energy too. We got Varric up and made it back to camp, but not before the Herald made us lead that blasted druffulo the whole way back to his farm. My ankle burned and I couldn't hide my limp anymore as we reached the camp. I slumped down at a rock and immediately undid my foot wraps. It was very badly swollen. I hissed pain as I tried to move it and I resigned myself to my fate. My ankle was in fact broken. I let my head fall back on the rock in agitation. This was a set back I couldn't afford. I could try the little healing magic I knew but my knowledge there was severely lacking and I was only liable to make it worse. It was then footsteps appeared beside me. How he managed to stalk about so bloody quietly I will never know.
"Would you like some assistance?" He said dryly. I glared up at him. He simply chuckled and knelt down beside me. Without a word he gently took my ankle and bent it up.
"Ow!" I cried.
"You're prone to dramatics I see." He said calmly. "It is not broken, merely a bad sprain."
Did he just call me a drama queen? I clenched my jaw tight in a frown and tried not to think about his gentle hands and his gentle magic caressing my injured muscles. After the glow subsided he moved my ankle again and it hurt far less. It was well into the evening now and the sky was clear and peppered with stars but the firelight of the camp gave a warmer glow.
"I suppose we are still uneven." He said with a smile then.
"What?" I asked him, not quite understanding what he meant.
"You said before, we are even. I would like to rectify it as uneven." He said smartly.
I frowned, "This doesn't count as saving my life."
"On the contrary, have you forgotten about my apparent flooring of a chantry mother?"
I let out another ugly snort of laughter then at the image. "I have not." I said simply, trying to convey some sort of apology in my tone.
"A truce then." He said, standing up and offering his hand
I felt my mouth quirk upwards and I nodded, "A truce." I agreed and I hoped that this time, we might finally start to get along.