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Ferelden's north was densely forested, like so much else of Ferelden had been, with towering trees grown up along rolling hills. He'd expected them to thin as they approached the coastline - but they really didn't. Instead, days after leaving Denerim, he stood at the tall of a towering cliff and looked down at the ocean far below. The ocean crashed against the cliff, washing over rough-hewn round and square stone-stacks that crept most of the way up the cliffs where lichens and mosses and other plants grew, interspersed at the highest places by bird's nests. In the distance, a sort of peninsula stuck out, with a ruined castle so ancient it had almost been swallowed entirely by the forest. Even so, he could see a little landing down below it, where old docks had a single moderately large ship docked.

"Pirates."

"W-What?" He blinked, turning to the red-haired woman who had come up beside him without him noticing.

"The ship." She explained, smiling warmly and nodding towards it, "Old fortresses like these are favored haunts of theirs."

"Ah." He frowned, "Should we… Do something?"

"Such as?"

"I don't know." Jaune sighed, "Arrest them? Report them?"

"The army is far too busy for mere pirates right now, I fear. Especially if they are operating out of the Free Marches, beyond the sea." She sighed, waving a hand ahead of them and, he assumed, beyond the mist covering the water and to the land beyond it. "As for us… Well, we have no power to arrest anyone. We could, however, cleanse the ruin of them."

"Cleanse?"

"She means kill them." Sten offered from a few yards away where he stood watch, sword laid across his shoulders. He'd taken to keeping that position over the last few days, keeping watch near him almost protectively. "Pirates deserve little else."

"In times like these," Lelianna murmured, "I would wager they are doing less raiding and more smuggling."

"Ah." It wasn't hard to guess what she meant. Sighing, he asked, "Are people that desperate?"

"And afraid." She nodded, "Yes. Especially with Denerim's merchants likely charging all they can carry for ferry across the waters."

"I guess they would be…" It was just like Vale, then. Everyone was afraid, and desperate, and would do anything to protect themselves. If they couldn't get to Denerim, or couldn't afford the price Lelianna described, they'd do anything to survive. To escape. How many had died because of that… How many would die.

"Jaune…?" He felt a hand on his, resting on the pommel of his sword. He turned to Lelianna and, for a moment, saw… Someone else, smiling softly under green eyes. He flinched away and she withdrew, looking… Confused. He didn't know what to say, but she just nodded and smiled and nodded gently, "You were lost in thought, I see."

"Yeah." He sighed, "I guess."

He turned and looked past the castle, now. Along the craggy Storm Coast and further up the Coastlands, where the Frostback Mountains rose up. Even from here they were massive, some of them climbing high enough he couldn't see the peaks among the storms gathered around them. According to Alistair, a lot of the mountains had snow-fall nearly constantly, thanks to how close they ran to the ocean. Or at least, the ones leading to Orzammar did - supposedly the more southern mountains were more ice-capped than snow, not that it mattered much to them.

"Three days." Sten grunted, "And we should arrive."

"Three days by the main road?" Jaune asked, gesturing at the winding dirt path they were on. "Or three days on this one?"

"...Four days."

"Yeah." Jaune sighed, "I was afraid of that."

As they left the Storm Coast behind and ventured on, winding through the Coastlands, the terrain began to change. Rather than climb, however, like he'd expected the land to as they headed towards the mountains, they dipped. The crags grew shorter and shallower, until they were only a dozen or so feet above the water, dotted by even shallower bays where villages had cropped up. Most of them were small and desperate, and they were able to trade information on the road, some labor, and even hunting in Lelianna's case, for a handful of coins while Bodahn traded with the settlements. It was poor pickings, according to him - mostly fish, muscles and the like - but one had an amber deposit that had only recently been found, and he was glad to have some of that as they went on.

Eventually, though, they had to leave the coast and head south, towards Lake Calenhad which came into view only half a day after they left the coastline. It was massive, too, stretching out so far Jaune couldn't always see the other side - and couldn't make out much on it when he could. The land along the lake-side was more open, and lined by farms and wide roads they would have avoided before, but Alistair assured them that the region would be safe. So far from Denerim, the local nobility had something of an independent streak, apparently.

"And besides," Alistair smiled as they made their way past fields of wheat, "Arl Eamon is an old friend, and the one with real influence in the region. We're safe."

"Unless Loghain removes him, somehow…" Morrigan offered quietly, "He has proven himself more than willing to seize power when he sees a need, no?"

"The Bannorn wouldn't stand for it." Alistair argued, "This is Ferelden's breadbasket - they have too much power for Loghain to just take what he wants."

"Do they have more power than a king, I wonder?" Morrigan asked, "Because he took power from him, did he not? And with so much of the south and center of Ferelden under siege, would the Bannorn even have the power you suggest they do now, after everything?"

That soured the mood for the rest of the day, until they reached the forests headed to the mountains. These forests were more tightly grown, and he could already see pines among them. And a steady incline to the road, too. But it was peaceful here, at least, so far from the Darkspawn, even if Jaune could see the local militias already preparing when they passed villages - from building palisades to drilling with spears and pitchforks, and axes in the more wooded areas. But the people here seemed hopeful, working their farms and mills and hunting in the forests. Bodahn had told him they were all eager to trade, too, with extra food and coin from the tax men further south never coming to them. Jaune had worried about Darkspawn, of course, but they were too far west, and Bodahn said no one was talking about them.

While they walked, he and Sten talked, if only because the Qunari wouldn't leave him alone. And seemed as curious as he was judgemental - which was to say, eternally.

"And these… Characters." He rumbled, "They break the law to fight criminals?"

"Yeah."

"Does that not make them criminals?"

"It does." He nodded, sighing and rolling his stiff shoulder as they walked along the silent forest path. "But X-Ray and Vav don't mind the risk. They feel like they have to help people, even if the law doesn't like it. And the story does, you know, talk about it, too. Another character, The Barb, she bought it up and the way Vav put it, if they could help and didn't… They'd be responsible if someone got hurt."

"So it is a… Responsibility?"

"Yeah." He nodded again, "Like us. We're, you know, criminals right now. Yet here we are."

"Loghain is the criminal." He rumbled, "Not us. Aside from the witch."

"Oh, and here I thought a day might pass without you passively threatening me…"

"It was not a threat."

"Insulting, then, for all the better that is." Morrigan grunted from behind them, just ahead of Bodahn's carts and, at their rear, Lelianna and Alistair whose turn it was to take rear guard - and dodge the landmines Bodahn's cart haulers left every now and again. "And people do not have a responsibility to help others merely for its own sake, Arc. Surely these 'super heroes' of yours have some other reasoning for their actions?"

"Nope." He shrugged, smiling. "They don't."

"Foolishness…"

"Come on, Morrigan." Jaune sighed, "You have to understand that some people just want to do the right thing."

"What should she come on to?"

"It's just a saying." He and Morrigan both answered at the same time, albeit she spoke in a much more mocking tone. And, when he turned, she was smirking at him, too. Rolling his eyes, Jaune moved on, "My point is just that even Morrigan has to accept that some people just like to do good for it's own sake."

"Do they?" She hummed, "Or do they enjoy what it brings, and the act, and do it for pleasure?"

"It doesn't matter." Jaune shrugged, "Either way, the good gets done."

"You won't even argue the point?"

"No." He sighed, turning to smile back at her. "I know enough about you to know you want me to."

"Well that is quite the disappointment."

"And I know enough to know that honestly? You aren't entirely wrong." He'd met plenty of Hunters who let the privileges go to their head, or were just too mercenary to do any real good, to not have learned that. And then there were the Hunters in Atlas. The soldiers, more like, doing whatever Ironwood told them to without a second thought for so long…

And he had been a Hunter, too, hadn't he?

"Arc…?" He blinked and realised that, at some point, he'd nearly walked off the road as it curved to the side. Morrigan had a hand on his shoulder that had stopped him, and her brows furrowed in… Less concern, he though, but more confusion. "What was it you said? Lien for your thoughts?"

He snorted and shook his head, "Yeah, you have some dough to share?"

"I… Can make some?" She frowned, then scowled when Jaune laughed. "Do not laugh at me, fool! I can-"

"Jaune!" Alistair barked, jogging up to them and grabbing his shoulder. He started to assure the other Warden he was fine, but the man turned him and pointed ahead of them and up at the sky. Black smoke curled up lazily and Alistair said, "This road runs straight from here for two miles. The smoke is straight ahead, though-"

"Someone is in trouble." Jaune nodded, understanding and drawing his sword while Crocea Mors extended on his arm. "Let's go."

The caravan was made up of five heavy carts with wide, iron-reinforced wheels and wooden struts for horses to stand in to pull them, a lot like Bodahn's. Unlike his, though, these were overturned to either side of the path, fallen onto their sides with their boxes and barrels spilled everywhere. Most had been smashed, too, but he could tell from how their debris lay, scattered around them regardless of how their carts had fallen and always with the break on top, that they'd been smashed open. Some had been piled up by the road, too, and lit on fire - he could see smashed lanterns where they'd probably been thrown in to help it get going. Which was odd, but…

That wasn't the only strange thing.

"Not everything was taken." Jaune hummed, kneeling by an opened crate of salty-smelling meat, wrapped in linens and stacked neatly. "Darkspawn would have taken this…"

"Bandits, however, would take what they could carry." Morrigan offered, standing over him and humming. "Those seem a fine quality… We should add them to our stock."

"Morrigan-"

"Good idea - better than letting it all rot, at least." Jaune cut the other Warden off, resealing the crate and pulling out his shortened sword to cut an 'A' into it so he could see it later. Sheathing it, he turned, stood and nodded at the fire. "That doesn't make much sense, though."

"No it doesn't… I see some crates, but most of that looks like cut wood. Which would take time to gather and prepare."

"Maybe the caravan had some and they started with that?" Jaune offered, "Then they just added more after?"

"Maybe. But… I still don't understand why." Alistair sighed, pacing away and turning his eyes over the forest's edge beyond the wide, worn path they were on. He paused, looking down at the front of an overturned carriage where its driver lay, sprawled out in the road. He had a pair of simple arrows in his back, and Jaune saw five more bodies along the path in the same condition. "Five dead men… Five carts…"

"Is that weird?"

"If they had so much cargo that the thieves could not take it all…" Lelianna murmured, "Then why are there no caravan hands? Or guards, even?"

"Yeah, I guess that's a bit off…" It made sense, even if he hadn't thought about it.

Back home, he hadn't had much experience with caravans. His team and Ruby had guarded a couple while they passed through Mistral, sure, but not many. And always smaller ones. They didn't have caravan hands - they were just families working together. He remembered the Cauchons and the songs they sang while they traveled. And their little daughter, Joan, swinging a stick around the whole trip after she learned Jaune's name.

It had been nice, and he missed it he realised.

"We should search for survivors." Shaking the memory off, "Maybe there'll be someone who managed to… Hide, or something."

"Or at the very least, we might recover more supplies." Lelianna offered quietly in a clearly opposed but resigned tone of voice. "At the very least, we can make better use of them than animals can."

"Or Darkspawn." Alistair offered helpfully, already kneeling to pull away some crates heaped around the crushed front of a cart to see if anyone was under there. Shaking his head he stood and shrugged, "Or, you know… Bandits."

"Those, too, yes." Lelianna sighed, taking a step to pass Jaune. "I only pray there is someone alive out here…"

"Help me…" A weak voice called out from up the road. They turned and watched a man in light, padded armor stagger around the furthest cart, holding his side and sucking in breath. He had dark skin and lighter hair, and Jaune could just make out a sort of tattoo framing his face when he spotted them, smiled tiredly and staggered toward them. "Please! I-I need help!"

"Speak of the devil…" Jaune sighed, a bad feeling crawling up his spine as Lelianna shot by him, hand already holding a bandage she'd drawn from a pouch on her thigh.

"Why would we speak of a devil? Such seems hardly prudent…" Morrigan asked, taking a step to follow the other two before she still and frowned. He tried to step past her but she blocked his path with an arm and murmured lowly, "Wait…"

"What-"

"Get down, you fools!" Morrigan suddenly bellowed, spinning on her heels as lightning built up around her staff and Lelianna turned, throwing herself against Alistair to bring them both down.

The lightning arced up and around them in a tall dome, crackling out to blow apart the closest tree limbs and blasting away chunks of the carts. He watched it snap down to blast the supposedly hurt man away when he snarled and rushed for Lelianna, drawing two long knives from around his waist, right where his 'wound' had been. And then snap down two more times, blasting two things apart as they shot at Morrigan - arrows, he realised, just before a dwarf exploded out of a crate right behind Morrigan, two long knives in his hands. He leapt at the witch but Jaune was closer and reached her first, grabbing her and throwing an arm around her, throwing his momentum to the side to send her stumbling away from the dwarf.

Instead, he landed on Jaune, coming down feet first onto his right side and bringing his knives down for his neck. They glanced off his Aura instead, though, and without the purchase they offered, the dwarf fell with a grunt. He tried to scramble up, blue eyes widening, but Jaune was quicker.

"Go to sleep, go to sleep!" Jaune snapped, belting a boot across his jaw with enough force he saw blood and what he swore was a tooth go with it.

Three more suddenly appeared from the woods, all dressed in leather and cloth armor. Having decided their arrows weren't worth much against them, apparently, they rushed him while Morrigan joined him. Before Jaune could say anything, though, her staff swept forward and a ball of fire so hot part of it burnt white roared to life, shooting out to catch a lithely built woman as she leapt to try and dodge it. He froze, watching her fall, coming apart as her body melted from the blast of fire.

"Arc!" Morrigan barked, wacking her staff against the back of his head, "Focus or we die!"

"Right…" He nodded, rushing to meet the other two.

They both braced as he came to meet them but, rather than slow down, he kept charging and brought his shield around. The closest bandit, and the largest, ducked to the side as Jaune reached him. But Jaune swept his shield around to follow him, priming his Gravity Dust and blasting him away with it. The first man slammed into a cart hard enough he went limp and fell, and Jaune left him there and turned. The second, blinking in surprise, backed up when Jaune turned to meet him next. Distracted, he couldn't dodge the white-hot fireball that slammed into his back. This time, the man survived long enough to scream, turning and collapsing a step away, rolling in the grass while Jaune choked on the smell of burnt hair and skin and leather.

It only distracted him for a second…

But that would end up being enough.

"Agh!" He turned and looked up the road as Lelianna fell, clutching a black arrow in her leg before a second whistled into Alistair's shoulder, shattering on his armor.

Alistair knelt and Jaune saw him drag the woman behind him, putting her out of sight of the archer and turning to fight the armored man who came from the front, rushing past where the 'wounded' man had been standing before. He turned and followed the line of the shot to a tall, horned man standing at the far end of the destroyed caravan, right behind a pair of women keeping Sten from reaching the horned man. At least, not without letting one of them get at Bodahn and Sandal, huddling behind the greatsword wielder. When one of the bandit women tried to take advantage of a missed swing, Sten caught the long sword as it came up and stepped in, snapping the pommel forward and into her unprotected face. She staggered back, stunned, and the Qunari brought his sword down to as much cut as crush her down. The other woman screamed something, but Sten ignored her and rushed the archer, instead.

"Jaune!" He heard Morrigan shout, tearing his attention back to her as the dwarf wrestled with her, clambering on her back with an arm around her throat. He rushed for her, but the other man, the one he'd sent flying, got in his way first, one arm hanging broken at his side.

"Move!" Jaune bellowed, swinging his sword between them warningly and forcing his enemy back a step, onto the road and closer to Morrigan. Then Morrigan stumbled and fell, and Jaune saw the Dwarf's knife come up, his other hand yanking her head up by her hair so he could bring it down towards her throat-

And Jaune roared, bringing his new sword up and down in a powerful hack, all his energy roaring through him. The bandit blocked the strike, but with his Aura rushing through him, it hit like a cannon. His knife shattered at the grip, its bindings coming apart while Jaune's sword cracked. But, even cracked, it still cut down through his shoulder and into his collar easily. Wheezing, the man sank, and Jaune let the sword, stuck in bone, go and turned.

His Dust hurled him forward and into the dwarf, bowling him off of the downed witch before his knife could reach her. They fell in a heap, but even then the dwarf managed to twist and thrust a knife into his stomach. Ignoring it, he bashed the man across the face and reached behind his waist, yanking his shortened sword free and bringing it up.

And then down, right for his heart as the dwarf's bright green eyes widened and Jaune screamed.

"Why?!"

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Jaune watched Zevran, because apparently that was his name, carefully whittling a thick stick he'd found among the wood they'd gathered for the night's fires. Bodahn was further back, with his two carts pulled up in a sort of barrier behind them while he, his son and Sten went through the supplies they'd gathered from the sacked caravan. They couldn't carry it all, of course - Bodahn just didn't have space - but they'd found a ton of preserved food, textiles, and a book Bodahn said told him who the merchandise was for. Which was someone who lived just outside Orzammar, so the dwarf was going to deliver what they could carry.

'Better than nothing,' he'd said.

"You know…" The assassin sighed, "If you have something to say to me, you could simply say it, my friend."

"We aren't friends." Jaune growled, turning as Morrigan settled down beside him and shoved one of the salted meats into his hands. "And I'm trying to figure out why you're here. Not even tied up."

"I believe that would be for the recipe for the poison your red-haired beauty is suffering from…" The assassin sighed, spinning his knife and eyeing Jaune darkly. "And information on his eminence, Loghain, of course."

"Mhm…"

"If you are going to be a problem-"

"Alistair wanted to speak to you, assassin." Morrigan grunted, staring the assassin down until he stood, sighed, and turned to go and find him. With him gone, the witch offered Jaune a knife to cut his meat with and leaned forward to add wood to the fire while he ate a bit. Easing back, she sighed and flicked him a look. "Well. Have you gotten over yourself yet?"

"Morrigan, I'm not in the mood to-"

"You're right." Morrigan cut him off, "That was rude of me. Forgive me, I… Well, I suppose I'm a bit shaken."

"You?" He scoffed, cutting away a hunk of what looked like raw salt and pitching it into the fire."Shaken? And here I thought nothing could shake you…"

"I have been in fights before, Arc, and I have killed as well." Morrigan explained quietly, watching the fire and taking a long, deep breath. "But… I have never needed to be rescued before. And recognizing that, had you not been there, I would now be dead? That has me quite shaken, yes."

"I guess that makes sense, yeah…"

"I know you have killed, too."

"Morrigan…"

She turned to face him, sharp, bright eyes glinting in the darkness. For a moment, he just held her gaze, unwilling to be the one to blink. Eventually, she did, turning back to the fire and shaking her head, "I am terrible at this…"

"What even is this?"

"A thank you." She snapped hotly, before she seemed to… Deflate, a bit. "And an… An apology, I suppose."

"For what…?"

"...Have you never simply killed someone in a fight?"

"Why is that-" She gave him a look and Jaune sighed and shrugged. For a few moments, he just watched the fire, until Morrigan leaned over to add another stick that broke a mostly-burned through limb and sent a spray of sparks flying. Watching them, wondering at how similar they looked to the light from they In Between, he said, "No. No, I haven't. I've… Only one. Only one person. I didn't have a choice then, either. A-And I've fought people, but…"

"Never like today."

"Not quite." He sighed, turning back to the fire, "I can still smell it…"

"...I could not use my lightning." Morrigan said, "Not when he was so close. I am sorry."

"It's…" 'Fine', he realised before he said it, would not be even remotely true. Instead, he said, "It is what it is, I guess."

"...These will not be the only people that we have to kill before this journey is done, Jaune." Morrigan warned him quietly, watching him from the corner of her eye in a way that reminded him a lot of Weiss, in spite of how she looked. "Darkspawn are not the only evils a war like this will bring about. And then there is Loghain…"

"Today surprised me." He argued quietly, feeling a bit… Defensive, suddenly. "It was an ambush. I won't freeze again."

"...Good." She nodded, "See that you do not. I would hate to see you die to some worthless bandit or thief because you couldn't stomach your duty."

"Thanks…?" Morrigan didn't do anything but nod and take the meat she'd given him, holding her hand out until he offered her the knife. He watched her cut at the meat, offering slices to him and setting her own aside on the top of a bit of wood waiting for the fire, until the silence started to feel awkward. To break it, he asked, "How is, uh, Lelianna?"

"Fine." Morrigan answered, "I mended the wound and administered the assassin's anti-toxin. She should be fine to travel tomorrow, presuming he is being honest."

"You think he isn't?"

"You think he is?"

"Well… No, not really." Cinder's infiltration of Beacon, and Ironwood's betrayal, had left him a lot more paranoid than he'd ever thought he'd been. And that was setting Ozpin's… Everything aside completely. IIgnoring all of that, he went on, "He tried to kill us, after all, and… Apparently is only on our side because he's afraid of the 'Crows'."

"As he should be."

"They're that bad…?"

"They did just kill a caravan to bait us."

"Supposedly," Jaune sighed, "that was just Albert's decision."

"Oh, yes." Morrigan drawled, her lips quirking up in a sort of ironic amusement. "And the assassin, Zevran himself? Completely innocent, of course. Especially when a somewhat irate Jaune Arc is staring him down, sword in hand. Completely unrelated, I'm sure."

"Yeah, I'm sure." He chuckled, taking another bit of meat she offered him and gnawing on it. It was actually pretty tasty, a lot like beef jerky back home although not beef, obviously. Pork, maybe. Ignoring it, he went on, "Did Alistair tell you what he wanted Zevran for, by the way?"

"Oh, no, he didn't want to see the assassin at all."

"But you said…"

"His presence was clearly bothering you." She shrugged, "So I made an excuse for him to go away."

"Oh." Jaune blinked, "Uh… Thanks. I appreciate it."

"I owed you." She nodded, "For saving my life."

He considered pointing out that chasing someone off for bothering him, even if he appreciated it, wasn't really equal to saving someone. Or that he didn't need to be paid back. But, like Weiss and Blake both, Morrigan struck him as someone that didn't like feeling indebted to anyone. Even if they didn't think she was at all. So he let it go, and let her keep cutting the meat for him, which he guessed was more of her showing her thanks - she was terrible at actually saying it, after all.

Like she'd said.

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Yes, the dwarf that attacked Morrigan is the same one. I made no mistakes regarding the dwarf. There are layers to all of this.

Anyway, as usual, I'm not confident about writing 'chaotic' scenes. It was an ambush attack, so I tried to make it completely chaotic - that's the best way to deal with a dangerous group after all, separate them and rush them - but I'm never CONFIDENT in these scenes.

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Splash :

Oh yeah, there will be SO MUCH trauma…

Although in fairness, it's just 'big monster' at that point, so one COULD argue it will be EASIER.

Dr Killinger :

I mean…

The more I write, the more naturally it comes. XD

Sly Sage :

I'm glad you're enjoying the story, lmao.

Tevinter Loyalist :

Yeah I have IDEAS for that lmao.

HMason :

Oh trust me, I remember the dark shit… Hell, as you can see, I'm making it worse.