It took a couple of days to get everything in order again before leaving Fort Greystone, and they had now been riding for a day. Wiggins was now travelling with them, all too keen to get away from the place, and away from a leadership position. Cullen had instead left one of the older women in charge, an old battleaxe who had previous experience. Siara was all too happy with the decision, and she was equally happy with the decision the commander had made about her returning to Skyhold. Of course, she had argued with him about it at the time. Jacquelyn had still been away when he had left, and he was going against orders that she had given, but Cullen had held firm. Why, Siara didn't really know, but she was happy enough to get away from Fort Greystone.

She was riding with Varric, Solas, and Dorian, Cullen somewhere up near the front of the rather smaller group of Inquisition Soldiers that were headed back to Skyhold. The threat that the bandits posed wasn't completely gone, and Cullen had decided that leaving a good number of the reinforcements behind would be for the best. They still hadn't yet worked out what exactly was going on with them, but they needed to get back to Skyhold before they could discuss that with Leliana. She would know how to find out the details that Cullen was beginning to think they sorely needed. Siara was agreeing with him that there was something they were missing, and they needed to get to the bottom of this.

They were currently setting up camp for the night. Cullen was helping to pitch a tent, thankful that for once he wasn't having to go around giving orders. By this point his men were rather efficient at setting up camp, thank the Maker. He still wasn't feeling at his best, and all he wanted was to finish setting up camp and go to bed. He glanced over to where Siara was returning from further down the ravine they were camping in with Solas, a bundle of wood in her arms. She looked surprisingly at ease, a small smile on her face as she listened to what Solas was saying, and then a laugh escaped her. It brought a small smile to his own lips, but he quickly turned his attention back to what he was doing, suppressing a sigh as he finished tying off a knot. There was a small, thoughtful frown on his face as he pondered on everything that was going on. His thoughts went from Siara, to everything happening at Fort Greystone, and then to Jacquelyn and everything that was happening with Corypheus. His thoughts lingered on Jacquelyn, and he rubbed the back of his neck as he stretched his shoulders.

"Sit down, Cullen. You're wearing me out just by watching you."

He turned to look at Siara, still holding her bundle of sticks, one eyebrow raised as she watched him. Judging by the look on her face, she knew that he wasn't feeling a hundred percent. He lowered his hand, resting it on his sword, and smiled at her.

"I'm fine, Siara. We're almost finished setting up camp, anyway. I'll rest when it's all done."

"Bullshit," she scoffed. "I'm about to get a fire going. You're going to sit down while I do so, and then you're going to take a moment of doing nothing. Understand?"

"You're not the commander of me."

Her eyes narrowed at him and she took a couple of steps closer, peering up at his face.

"I'm not the commander of anyone," she replied, "and it had better stay that way. So you're going to take a seat by the fire and have a moment to rest, or I'm going to do something that will force you to. Do you understand?" Her voice and the smile on her face were far too sweet, and Cullen knew she was already making plans about what that something might be. If she hadn't decided already. But he didn't make a move to take a seat, not yet. He just raised an eyebrow at her, shaking his head slightly.

"There's still work to do, Siara."

"There will always be work to do, Cullen. You can do some of the less physical work for a bit. Surely you have some evil plans to mastermind."

"Some…" he stopped, then shook his head in amusement. "Evil plans are your thing, Siara."

"Planning is never my thing," she retorted. "Now go sit your arse down and get some rest. Before I choose to kick you in the kneecaps." She stepped away, heading over to where a small area had been cleared for a fire to be lit and setting her wood down beside it. Cullen glanced back to where the soldier he'd been setting the tent up with was watching him in amusement, sending a small glare in his direction. The soldier tried to wipe the smirk from his face, standing a bit straighter before turning and finding something else to do, but Cullen knew that he was still amused by what had just occurred. A sigh escaped him as he turned back to Siara and made his way over to her.

"You're going to be the end of my career," he told her, taking a seat on a log that had been pulled over.

"How do you figure?"

"What do you think is going to happen if I keep following your orders?"

Siara slowly looked up at him, eyes narrowed slightly. Cullen just smiled innocently at her, nudging a fallen log back into place in the firepit. She didn't bother with a retort, turning back to her work. Cullen held back a laugh, leaning forward slightly with his elbows resting on his knees. His muscles still ached and he had a pretty good headache brewing, but he felt rather content all the same.

Siara lounged beside the fire the next morning, a little way away from the rest of the camp, watching the food cooking in the pot that had been placed over it the night before. It wasn't anything fancy, but it'd be enough to keep everyone marching for at least a little while. She looked up just as Cullen emerged from his tent, his hair still slightly scruffy. A smirk passed across her face at the sight of him not having taken the time to do his hair.

"The dishevelled look suits you, Commander," she teased as he made his way over to sit beside her. He glared at her, clearly not yet completely awake. Siara grinned at him, leaning forward and tossing another log on the fire. Embers spat up into the sky, floating for a moment before fading away into nothing.

"Feeling any better this morning?" she asked, prodding at the log with a stick to get it positioned better.

"A bit," Cullen rubbed the back of his neck, grimacing slightly. Siara watched him closely as he stretched shoulders, looking for any sign that he could be lying to her.

"I'm sure we have enough supplies that we could take an extra day to get back to Skyhold."

"There's no need. I'll be fine."

"Now, sure. But what about when we get back? There's hardly any point in rushing if when we get back you'll be too sick to do anything."

Cullen paused, his eyes locking with hers as he slowly lowered his hand to his lap, leaning forward slightly. He took a moment to think about what she said, then shook his head.

"I'm not going to slow everyone down just for my own comfort," he told her. Siara shrugged, sitting a bit taller and stretching her own shoulders. She felt her back click slightly and grimaced, but didn't show any other sign of having noticed it.

"Suit yourself," she told him. "Don't come crying to me when you're bedridden for a week once we get back."

"I won't. I'll be stuck in bed, after all."

Siara fought the smile that tugged at her lips, shaking her head as she rolled her eyes at Cullen. She knew he saw, could see him smirking slightly, but she didn't say anything else. Her attention was caught by something else, and a small frown slipped onto her face. She held up her hand to silence Cullen as he opened his mouth to speak, slowly getting to her feet and looking around. Cullen was immediately on his feet next to her, looking down at her with a serious expression on his face.

"What is it?"

"The birds," Siara said, her voice barely above a whisper. "They've gone silent."

Now it was Cullen's turn to pause and listen, raising his head and looking around the tops of the ravine.

"Something's wrong," he muttered. A small sound caught Siara's attention, and her head whipped around. She grabbed Cullen by the arm, roughly tugging him out of the way as an arrow flew past them, imbedding itself in the log that he had been sitting in. Cullen looked at the arrow, then at Siara.

"Thank you," he said after a moment. Siara scoffed, bending down and picking up her blades from where she had left them on the ground. She looked at him as she stood up, her braid falling over her shoulder.

"Don't thank me yet. We still got a bunch of arseholes to kill."

Cullen sighed, nodding tiredly, and stepped past her to start barking orders at the rest of his men, his sword now sitting comfortably in his hand, his shield shrugged off his shoulders and in place on his arm. Siara flicked one of her blades up as another arrow was shot at her, neatly deflecting it before sending a death glare in the direction of the archer who shot it. She was getting so sick of this shit.