Off To Market - Outside Orzammar

Drake smiled and chuckled, loving that Calli added to his song and that Durbans went further with his own. He decided to try another one but with a little more bold.

A dragon has come to our village today.
We've asked him to leave, but he won't go away.
Now he's talked to our king and they worked out a deal.
No homes will he burn and no crops will he steal.

Now there is but one catch, we dislike it a bunch.
Twice a year he invites him a virgin to lunch.
Well, we've no other choice, so the deal we'll respect.
But we can't help but wonder and pause to reflect.

Do virgins taste better than those who are not?
Are they salty, or sweeter, more juicy or what?
Do you savor them slowly? Gulp them down on the spot?
Do virgins taste better than those who are not?

Now we'd like to be shed you, and many have tried.
But no one can get through your thick scaly hide.
We hope that some day, some brave knight will come by.
'Cause we can't wait around 'til you're too fat to fly.

Now you have such good taste in your women for sure,
They always are pretty, they always are pure.
But your notion of dining, it makes us all flinch,
For your favorite entree is barbecued wench.

Now we've found a solution, it works out so neat,
If you insist on nothing but virgins to eat.
No more will our number ever grow small,
We'll simply make sure there's no virgins at all!

Calliara hummed softly with Durban's song, noticing some kind of melancholy in him due to his song, but when he was done she gave him a sincere applause, smiling. And she had to laugh again with Drake's song, although a little blush lit up her cheeks. She hesitated for a moment, fearing that they would think it was not very ladyllike but...

A man walked into the chandler's shop some candles for to buy,
He looked around the chandler's shop but no one did he spy.
So he turned upon his heels and to the door he sped

When he heard the sound of a KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK up above his head.
When he heard the sound of a KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK up above his head.

Well this young man was a bold young man so up the stairs he sped,
And very surprised was he to find the chandler's wife in bed;
And with her was a fine young man of most incredible size,
And they were having a KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK right before his eyes.
And they were having a KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK right before his eyes.

When the fun was over and done and the lady raised her head,
She was quite surprised to find him standing by the bed
"If you would keep my secret sir, if you would be so kind,
You may drop in for a KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK whenever you feel inclined."

So, many a day and many a night when the chandler wasn't home,
Down to the chandler shop, for candles he would roam.
But nary a one she gave to him, but gave to him instead,
Just a little bit more of the KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK to light his way to bed.

So, all you married men take heed, whenever you go to town,
If you must leave your woman alone, be sure to tie her down.
Or, if you would be kind to her, just lay her right down on the floor,
And give her so much of that KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK she doesn't want any more.

Marcus seemed pleased that at the very least, Calliara was enjoying his music. He had finished his carving but didn't reveal it to his companions just yet. Instead he placed it into his saddlebag and kept silent for the remainder of the trip. Nothing needed to be said, he was swimming in the memories of the Darkspawn invasion of West Hill, which robbed him of his family and friends. His sisters had been dragged off for some nefarious purpose by the Darkspawn and he shuddered at the memory.

Combing his fingers through his sandy brown hair, he kept his hawk-like gaze focused on the world around them, looking for trouble and thinking of ways to prevent it.

The singing was a nice change to traveling and Drake took some pleasure in even the knowledge that they had a bard in their group. He'd missed Lelianna, except for her chasing him, or trying to.

The camp was coming closer quickly. This made Drake stop his singing and let out a breath of air, "Time to get down to work." He said as they got to the corral. He got off Sinjan's horse and got working on removing the tack and then wiping him down, "Let's wipe down the horses and mule then get to work on the tents."

Calliara got off Assan with her purchases and her new belongings, and stroked the mare's mane. ''Assan. Go with the horses''

The white mare sniffed her hair and then nuzzled her Master's chest and hands, then did as she was told. The Dalish smiled softly and then turned to follow Drake and Durbans but...

A very happy and excited puppy ran towards them, barking. Calliara smiled wide and kneeled on the ground to pick him up and hug Fenrir, purring soothing things to him. Then she stood up again and smiled at Durbans and Drake, with the happy puppy in her arms, her guitar on her back with her bow and the carving in her bag. ''I am sorry... Let's go. How many tents we have?''

Suddenly she froze, and her smile faded away as her eyes turned to a cold, ice stare, and slowly left Fenrir on the ground. She growled something low to him, and the puppy whined and ran to hid himself under the roots of a big tree. Calliara stood up again and draw her bow with two arrows.

''Gentlemen. We have darkspawn close to us''. She announced calmly, her voice plain. Warden senses tingling and that

Just when everything seemed to be going so well, Marcus heard the screaming Darkspawn headed towards them. Hopping off of his horse he loosed Durbans from his back. "What the...? I thought the Blight was over!" He growled. Then he looked up at the plateau and saw the Dwarf that had invited him to camp. Chagrined, he saw the Emissary firing at her and he charged at the Hurlock with all of his might, slamming his body into the creature and the two went tumbling down.

"Don't be sorry. Puppies need attention and ..." His eyes turned as he heard the explosion and he hissed while noticing where it had been aimed, "Ny."

His swords were out and the fighter off into battle, slashing every Darkspawn in his vicinity, maddened by the fact that the creatures had come there. Why now? What was going on?

"What the...? I thought the Blight was over!"

"That's what we all thought." He yelled at Durbans as the man finished taking out the emissary, "But this is one huge attack force. There's more than normal!" Drake looked about quickly, seeing the others set upon by the monsters as well.

They had to do something but what? There were a lot of Darkspawn to fight at one time which it did not look good. Suddenly he flicked the gate open and whistled so the horses would stampede south. Snow would lead them, he knew that. Sinjan's horse had common sense. He would lead them out of danger until they were retrieved by the people from the camp.

As the horses took off he protected their flanks.

"Grab Fenrir and make for the plateau!" He yelled to Calliara, "Durbans and I will do our best to get everyone up there!"

As Drake called to Calliara to lead the young mabari and the others to the plateau, a Hurlock crept in an almost uncharacteristically careful manner towards where Fenrir was hiding, though it seemed conflicted in deciding between attacking Calliara and the dog. In a moment, though, it turned instead to the white-haired elf, raising its sword to strike her from the back.

As the Hurlock raises its jagged blade, there was a flash of silver in the evening light, at the edge of the trees. The bushes flew apart as a vaguely horse-sized, silver deer-like creature burst from the foliage, and reared at the human-darkspawn, crying out with a loud, bugled warning. It thrust at the Hurlock with its massive and intricately carved horns, and a moment later an arrow flew from where it had come from in the bushes, embedding itself square in between the Hurlock's eyes.

The deer-creature then carefully backed up, standing protectively over the roots where Fenrir was hiding, thrusting its horns and kicking its feet at any darkspawn that came near, its white fur almost aglow in the setting sun.

From the bushes, another arrow loosed, sticking in an attacking genlock's arm before another joined it in the side of it's skull, felling the darkspawn where it stood, despite its struggles to get up.

Sinjan's voice could just be heard over the din, "GET UP TO THE PLATEAU! WE'RE BEING OVERWHELMED!"

"Grab Fenrir and make for the plateau!" He yelled to Calliara, "Durbans and I will do our best to get everyone up there!"

''I can't take him...!''. Calliara began explaining, firing two arrows that killed instantly another hurlock by piercing deeply its eyes. Then the glorious halla appeared and the Dalish almost froze. Almost. With a quick movement she fired another arrow to a darkspawn who was trying to attack one of her companions, she couldn't see who.

Calliara turned to see the halla, in a strange calm moment between arrow and arrow, and bowed her head politely. ''Ma serannas, daughter of Ghilan'nain. And ma serannas to your master as well. Please protect my puppy''

"GET UP TO THE PLATEAU! WE'RE BEING OVERWHELMED!"

Calmly, she glanced at Durbans, who was doing a damn good job with the Emissary, and then at Drake before running to the plateau, firing arrow after arrow while running and sometimes drawing one of her swords to defend herself when she was overwhelmed and hadn't space to fire again.

And then the camp was errupted into a fight. Marcus wrestled with the Emissary, and finally got the drop on the mage, putting his foot to the back of the Hurlock and grabbing his arms from behind, and wrenching them off with all of his might. The Hurlock screamed and then died, and Marcus picked Durbans back up and went to Drake's side as they raced up the Plateau to rescue Nygozy. Marcus spotted an Ogre and grinned, then laughed. "Come, big lummox! Let us wrestle!" He happily charged towards the big Ogre and the two clashed into a battle of physical strength. Of course, the Ogre was several times stronger than Marcus, but Marcus was experienced at fighting Darkspawn without being a Warden.

They clashed, and after several grunts and groans and screams, the Ogre found itself tied up like a pretzel, and then Marcus lopped its head off with Durbans. He cackled. "Yes! That's my second Ogre."

"I can't take him...!''

Drake growled like an animal himself as Calliara said she could not take the pup, "To the pits with that ..." He mumbled to himself as the halla came from nowhere, fighting the Darkspawn as well. The animal was as majestic as he had remembered, and this one was spun of silkiness. Arrows came zipping from the foliage making him smile. So they had friends. Good.

"Come, big lummox! Let us wrestle!"

The fighter rushed under the halla's legs, "Fenrir here!" He called. Strangely enough the dog came out to him and he grabbed the pup, taking the small canine into his arm. A Hurlock cut into his hip but he slashed out with his free arm, chopping the Darkspawn's arm off then grunted as the arm and sword fell to the ground, "Come with me you two! Darkspawn are behind you. You'll be cornered. Come with me to the plateau!"

"Yes! That's my second Ogre."

He grunt laughed as he moved towards Durbans, slashing at more Darkspawn, "Good! Let's not make it your last! Get your hairy ass up that hillside!"

When she was a child, many Dalish from her Clan said she was the fastest girl they ever saw. Now, Calliara silently cursed them. It seemed she wasn't faster enough to take distance and have space to use her bow, so she had to draw her swords. Calli knew how to fight, and was an acceptable swords woman, but it wasn't her greatest skill. However, she tried her best, desperate to reach the plateau and help the others.

One huge hurlock tried to attack with a heavy mace, roaring furiously; Calliara simply inclined towards a side, avoiding, and stabbed him in the back, recovering her sword quickly while defending herself with the another. Two genlocks tried to overwhelm her as well, soon they were dead in the ground, one beheaded, the other one missing one leg and his stomach open and bleeding like a fountain.

Suddenly, Calliara felt something pulling her from her hair and she was almost thrown against a tree, hitting the back of her head roughly; she could even feel the skin cracking and her blood soaking her hair, but the Dalish growled at the Ogre that was in front of her. Absently, she thought she heard Fenrir's bark

The ogre tried to reach her with his huge arms, roaring thunderously, but Calliara leaned to the tree for a moment and then began to ran towards him. She was the fastest child of her Clan after all. She ran, avoiding one huge arm and amputating the other with her father's trustful right sword, rested a boot on the ogre's knee to jump, and then climbed the ogre up, avoiding his other hand, jumping and stabbing him to have support, amazingly fast, until she reached his head and pierced one eye with the left sword, and used the right one to cut his throat.

Even if she was fast, when the ogre was falling and dying she couldn't avoid being thrown away, and fell to the ground. PAIN. Horrible pain and sibilant breathing, which meant a broken rib or two, and maybe perforating the lung. She tried to breath, calmly, and the pain went worse. Ok, so she could breath, but not so deep. Great.




Fenrir was frightened, but being carried by the tall one was reassuring. However, they were running ad foul filthy things were trying to make bad-bad things to them! Where was his Mommy? And his Daddy? He missed them. He was so scared and he wanted to hide in Mommy's arms... And then the puppy smelled her, and then he saw her just when Mommy was running to a big ugly enormous thing and Fenrir cried out, scared for his Mommy. And then he saw her fall, and Mommy wasn't moving!

The halla felt the pup run from under her feet, and sparing only a moment to ensure that it was safe, was able to more freely battle the darkspawn around her. When the elven girl fell to the ground after impressively felling an ogre on her own, the silver creature dashed forward to stand protectively in front of her, kicking a Hurlock in the face with her hind hooves, crushing its face in.

A moment later, there was a flash of golden hair, and an elven man was at Calliara's side, a bow drawn taut in his hands. His blue eyes narrowed at a Genlock that was running for them, and an arrow quickly found its way between the monster's eyes. He glanced down at Calliara, and offered her a gentle smile, coming in great contrast to the chaos around them. He put up a hand to show that he was not going to harm her. "Shue shah tauthau toetoi thuet, lethallan. I mean you no harm. I wish to help. Can you ride a halla, sister?" He asked, turning for a brief moment to make sure there were no darkspawn about them. He cocked and loosed an arrow at a Shriek that was attempting to rise to its feet, killing it once and for all, before looking back at Calliara.

Drake came up beside the two and sneered at the handsome Elf quickly, feeling jealous but trying not to show it, "No time for mouting. Move!" He handed Fenrir to Calliara then took her free hand, slashing at anything that came near them as they moved. It was his own way of non-verbally telling the Elf she was his prey, in a different manner, but he could stay.

He nudged the halla to get her to move then kept them going at a fair pace, getting them to and up the path to the plateau.

"Shue shah tauthau toetoi thuet, lethallin. I mean you no harm. I wish to help. Can you ride a halla, sister?"

Elvish language. How sweet it was hearing it, after so many years living among humans...

Calliara stood up slowly, trying to breathe and ignoring the pain in her chest. ''Ma serannas, lethallin... I know how to... ride a halla, but I am... not worthy of it'' She managed to whisper, the sibilant sound from her chest present in her voice. ''We have... to get to the... plateau. Where is Durbans?'' She looked around, still confused and touching lightly the wound on her head and her hair soaked with her own blood. ''And Drake...?''

Suddenly she found Fenrir in her arms, and barely she was able to replace her swords with her bow at her back to keep the excited and happy puppy to her chest. Then Drake took her free hand and she let him guide her with the other Dalish and the halla.

Calliara tried hard to keep their pace without a moan, trying breathing lightly even if she felt asphyziated sometimes. She knew they had to hurry. She knew they didn't have time to stop. But finally she had to give up and admitted, with a hoarse voice and trying to give him the puppy again. ''Can't... breathe... Drake...! I... can't... run...! I... will... delay them... Leave me here!''

Marcus grunted, clearing the field of two more Darkspawn before he started regrouping with the others. He had sustained some wounds in the fighting, but nothing serious. He looked around for his companions, when his elven ears detected the laboured breathing of the fair one. He spun on his heels and ran towards the sound. ''We have... to get to the... plateau. Where is Durbans?' she had asked. Marcus' heart wrenched at such beauty being as suffered as it was. He stood over at her side as Drake came over to collect her. "I'll get to the Plataeu. I can scale it fairly easily... I just need cover from the Darkspawn. I'm no warden, so I'm not superhuman." He muttered and then gave Calliara the carving he was working on on their way back to camp, it was a woman in flowing robes, back straight and hands held defiantly at her sides, as if she were standing up against some unseen force in a sheer battle of will. He winked at her and then ran towards the plateau.

He started scaling it in darkness, hoping the Darkspawn didn't see him, grunting with effort as he climbed higher and higher to the fight that was above. In all likelihood, the Dwarf was probably alright, being the Warden who had taken down much stronger foes almost single handedly, but it didn't hurt to have help. He finally made it to the top to take a look around, and got Durbans ready.

The elf looked at Drake curiously as the man came over to him and Calliara, but then he smiled to himself, and nodded, standing up beside them. He whispered something to the halla, and the large silver animals seemed to nod, then raced ahead of him to run beside Calliara and Drake, keeping darkspawn away from them as best she could, to keep Calli safe.

The elf himself stayed back for a moment, shooting three of the darkspawn that were hurrying after them, before starting up the hill himself, following close behind the human, elf, and halla. As he followed, he frowned, unhappy with the state Calliara was in. However, he said nothing, not wanting to antagonize Drake, or slow them down any more than they were already going. He would have suggested that the white-haired elf ride the halla now, except that Drake had been right- that would take time, especially if she was to mount carefully, mindful of her injuries. Still, they could not just leave her here...

He looked up at the human man, Drake, a concerned look on his face. "Can you carry her, lethallin? Fa'hallen and I can cover you both, and ensure your safety, but she cannot continue to walk as she is." He placed his hand on the halla's- Fa'hallen's- back.

Drake had not initially noticed that Calliara was hurt so bad but once she started really huffing and puffing he put his sword away and turned to her, running a hand across her face and shaking his head slowly.

''Can't... breathe... Drake...! I... can't... run...! I... will... delay them... Leave me here!''

"No chance of leaving you. If I wouldn't leave the pup I'd be damned to sodding leave you." It was as he began picking her up when he heard the other Elf.

"Can you carry her, lethallin? Fa'hallen and I can cover you both, and ensure your safety, but she cannot continue to walk as she is."

Calliara was now in his arms and he smirked at the other man, "Of course. Don't you worry your pretty head." He started off right away, skirting the edges of the fight and following the halla.

"I'll get to the Plataeu. I can scale it fairly easily... I just need cover from the Darkspawn. I'm no warden, so I'm not superhuman."

"Toss a few off the trail while you're at it, willya?" He kicked a Hurlock that got two close and winced from the pain in his side but Drake was used to dealing with pain, holding it back until he could get healing. To have worked with the Legion of the Dead he had to do many difficult things or he would not have been accepted.

"No chance of leaving you. If I wouldn't leave the pup I'd be damned to sodding leave you."

''You crazy...!!'' She whispered breathlessly, trying to keep Fenrir to her chest wit one arm and wrapping the other one around Drake's neck, surprised when he picked her up. The man could notice she was very light in spite of her leather armor. ''You can't... fight while carrying... me! I am not... important, leave... me here, you stubborn... oaf!''

Of course he didn't listen. Men never did, actually. Fenrir barked excitedly, still a bit scared and she tried hard not to moan again with pain. Feeling a puppy jumping just on your broken ribs, and jumping yourself while the man is carrying you is running and kicking darkspawn wasn't very comfortable, but she didn't complain. Calliara didn't wanted Drake to be worried, and she knew they had to hurry, and that she was delaying them. And she was holding her new carving, which she barely could examine yet. She couldn't talk to her Dalish brother properly either, or the gorgeous halla. That could wait.

When Drake kicked one hurlock she noticed him wincing. Trying to breathe, with a blood trail on her lips and falling down her chin, Calliara wrapped her arm better around his neck and moved suddenly to kick by herself another darkspawn that was trying to attack them from Drake's wounded side, even if the movement made her pant lightly, breathless

ANYONE WITH CUT, STAB, MACE AND NON-KILLING WOUNDS - IT FEELS A GENTLE TINGLING OF MAGIC AND THEIR WOUNDS BEGINS TO HEAL. THEY BECOME SMALLER AND SMALLER UNTIL ONLY SCARS REMAIN BUT THERE IS STILL TENDER PAIN. THE PAIN IS MORE LIKE THE ACHE OF BRUISES. MORE EXTENSIVE WOUNDS ARE PARTIALLY HEALED.

Jezarine the healer has done a group healing.

You can go to this thread - https://dragonageafter.forumotion.com/dragon-rest-f8/of-assassins-and-oracles-t39.htm