Powdered snow gave way easily under the hooves of Stephan's mount as he redirected the great beast back onto the main road, not for the first time. He was still unused to the side-to-side lumbering that came with riding on horseback, and he quietly vowed to himself that the next time Sister Nightingale requested volunteers for a job that seemed too simple to be true, he'd check first whether riding would be involved.
"I've never been much good at riding on horse-back either," the elf on her own mount beside him observed, smiling gently, or perhaps it was tiredly, he couldn't tell. The size and shape of elves' eyes lent an overly expressive touch to their faces. It was part of what gave them their famously otherworldly beauty, but in Stephan's experience, it also made them difficult to read. This elf in particular had eyes big enough to prove that she was indeed an elf, if her ears and stature weren't giveaways to that fact already, but not so big that they looked downright alien like others of her kind. Waves of hair fell around her shoulders, sticking up in places where snow had landed and promptly frozen at the ends. Stephan might have even found her attractive, for an elf, or for a girl, for that matter.
Not that either of those facts really did matter, at the moment. Whatever she was, Sister Nightingale wanted her present at Haven so badly that she'd sent two scouts, Stephan included, to ensure her safe arrival. Sister Nightingale wasn't one to give away details she deemed unnecessary, and the elf, despite her apparent friendliness, had been nearly as tight-lipped. When he and Roka had arrived at the encampment near Jader, they'd been met with all the suspicion that years of being on the run had trained into its inhabitants; a motley crowd of apostates and elves, of which only a few looked capable of defending the rest against attackers. They looked more like a band of refugees than anything else, which, Stephan considered, was probably an accurate description now that he thought of it.
They'd asked to speak with whoever was in charge, and Fae had come striding up to them, bags (or bag, rather) packed and ready to go. Either Fae had already said her goodbyes, or had no desire to prolong matters with emotional farewells, because she'd introduced herself to the horse they'd brought for her as if it was a person, asked, with a little embarrassment, for a leg up, and then they were on their way again. It would have been a much more uncomfortable trip if not for Roka; without the dwarf's constant observations of the fields they were passing, or the ruins, or the weather, the time probably would have passed in silence, with Fae's unwillingness to make conversation and Stephan's inability to chat the quiet away as Roka could, and for that he was grateful.
It took the group just under two weeks to reach the village of Haven. Perhaps, in another time, it would have been a shorter journey, at least until they reached the Frostbacks, but the roads, as well as the villages which once dotted across the landscape, were often either ruined, still scarred by the Blight from ten years earlier or more recently by the frequent clashes between mages and templars. It took longer to hunt or buy food, to find shelter or somewhere to camp, longer to cater for the horses. The aptly-named Frostback Mountains narrowed the options considerably, which did simplify some things, but the roads which they needed to take to Haven were old and narrow, forcing the party to slow down for the sake of caution.
But all this time spent wasn't enough for Stephan to get used to riding on horse-back, and he suspected Dusty, the horse in question, was not only well aware of this, but enjoyed making a game of it, veering onto the snow just to feel its crunch underneath her hooves.
"And here we are, one Haven village!" Roka suddenly announced, with all the grandeur of an Orlesian marquess inviting guests into her summer home. Fae craned her neck, looking around as they directed their horses towards the stables, which Stephan realised were empty at present. Sister Nightingale had really sent their last remaining mounts to fetch this girl?
Otherwise, the village looked the same as when they'd left. To the left was a maze of tents which formed a semi-circle around a wide-open, snow-scraped space the chantry's forces were currently using as a training field. Many of them still wore their templar armour, although their presence here meant that they were technically no longer templars; these were the men and women who remained by the chantry's side to fight for them, after the Templar Order officially cut ties with its ancient benefactors. Even so, Stephan glanced at the dark wooden staff strapped to Fae's back. If the presence of templars, former or otherwise, bothered her, she didn't show it.
To the right was the blacksmith, and a couple of wooden cabins, and the main road straight down the middle led to the gates of Haven proper; a village made up of similar wooden cabins and tents, overlooked by the comparatively massive stone chantry, which in the new absence of the Temple of Sacred Ashes, was by far the most impressive monument for miles around.
After dismounting, Stephan asked the stable-boy if there was any news to be had, and was unsurprised to hear that little had changed since his departure. The enormous swirl of green light, clouds and debris that was the Breach remained, but thanks to the Herald of Andraste's peculiar ability, it had stopped growing in size, and demons no longer fell through it into this world. The Herald herself was still unconscious, although rumour had it, she would be due to wake up any day now. For the time being, she was said to be resting while Enchanter Aidan took efforts to heal her; the confrontation with the Breach had taken its toll.
Stephan was a little alarmed to see that his charge had already wandered off by the time he'd finished talking with the stable-boy, but he hoped Sister Nightingale wouldn't fault him for that. His job was to escort the elf safely to Haven, and he'd done so. Now it was time to find something to fill his grumbling belly.
A/N: She's back! Story is still a work in progress, the first few chapters are done so I'll be posting them soon, after that I'll just post as I go bc I want to take my time with this x