Off to Denerim - Starting Out

It was early morning, the dew still on the leaves and a sweet smell of clean air from a gentle rainfall the night before. Birds called and animals rustled through the bushes. It was going to be a pleasant day. Or as pleasant as it could be when traveling with a whole bunch of other people.

A yawn and stretch preceded her lazy walk back towards the cottage, figuring the others would be getting up now if not sooner.

The first person she noticed was Aayugara. She smiled at him as she got closer, "You're out early this morning. Did you sleep well?"

Aayugara looked up at Nygozy. "Oh yeah, it was fantastic," he replied. "The stew was great as well, Drake said you made it." As he said this, he picked up his helmet and stood.

"Yes. I do most of the cooking for the camp. It is something I never did much where I come from but after coming top side I found it interesting, and fun." She smiled, "I am glad that you like it and that you slept well."

She watched as he got up, "Everyone should be up soon. Want to help with the horses?"

"Sure," Aayugara replied as he put on his helmet. "I haven't had much practice with horses though, just to warn you."

Morning had come and Marcus awoke in the stables where he had slept the night. He yawned and brushed the hay off his thick brown hair. "Right...another day of discovery and Darkspawn, yes." He said and stood up, then pulled his shirt and leather vest over his head and back onto himself. Slinging Durbans along his back he cleared his throat and checked the horses to see if they were alright. Nothing injured or broken, all of them were fit and healthy. Pleased, he pat one on the muzzle gently. "Good boy."

"DEATH TO ALL HUMANS!!!!" Lithawen yelled through crackles of pure malice, standing on top of a pile of dead bodies. Kalera was standing to the side, staring at her in confusion.

"Did you have to kill them?" The healer asked, looking worried.

Lithawen turned to her friend and rolled her eyes. "Yeah. Well they were good targets." she climbed down from the pile. "Though I have to admite, the smell of scorching skin was possibly the most disgusting thing in the world."

Kalera patted Lith's cheek and smiled to her friend. "Just wake up now, before you become a real psycho killer."

Lithawen groaned, snuggling into Arlathan's warm side. Or at least she thought it was her horse's side, smelled different though. Smelled more like a light pine covering the dirty city. She opened her two tone eyes and looked at Sinjan, his arm was draped across her waist and she was cuddled up to him. Now irate from waking up next to a man (who would want to do such a thing!?) Lith sat up, picked Sinjan's arm up off her and dropped it uncaringly.

"Stupid human," she grumbled to herself as she got dressed. She noticed her horse wasn't actually present in the cabin, he must have gone outside during the night; he never did like to stay in houses overnight.

Stretching out her arms and legs there were loud cracks from the Arcane Warrior's joints. Other than feeling a little stiff from sleeping next to someone else, she felt refreshed and better than ever. Moving to what remained of her personal possessions, Lithawen rummaged through her pack, pulling out a mana potion. Taking down the whole bottle she felt that her body perked up, and energy flowed through her veins.

Flump ... yawn, "Wha?"

Sinjan looked up all bleary eyed while trying to figure out what exactly had just happened. He'd been asleep, nice and cozy against a warm body that smelled really nice. Wait. Oh. It was Lithawen. So why was his arm now feeling like someone dropped it? He took noticed of the area and the empty spot beside himself then realized she must have dropped his arm.

With another yawn the half-elf got up, stretching his limbs as he did so. Time to get everything worked on and ready to go. This time he could refrain from having Torture carry anything. The dog was only used like a pack animal when it was convenient. It didn't mean he would always accept it, especially if horses were close by. The animal was as contrary as a cat.

He heard voices and rumaging outside so grabbed the packs left in that room, as Nygozy and Drake tended to take theirs with them, except some supplies. The go for boy, that was him. The noble did not mind this as it was a relief to not have someone constantly wanting to fetch stuff for him. He did his job and the others did theirs.

"Another new person? How many is that now?" He asked as he strode towards Nygozy, avoiding Lithawen as she seemed to be drinking down some mana potion. In his experience it was never good to get in the way of a mage drinking mana, especially when they already have a fiery attitude towards you.

"Sure, I haven't had much practice with horses though, just to warn you."

"Another new person? How many is that now?"

A shrug showed her lack of worry in the matter, "They will listen to me so there is nothing to worry about. Just keep your hand back from the big, white with grey dapple. Snow has a bad attitude sometimes. Just like his boss who likes to count how many people there are in a group. I believe the count is twenty two."

Nygozy chuckled as Sinjan gave her a groan of grumpiness, "I believe I saw your horse go into the stables, Lithawen. He seems to have taken a shine to Drake's mare."

She started off to the barn, "I'm going to have to break everyone up into groups. It will be easier that way. How would you like to lead one to watch for bandits, Lithawen?"

With a poke of the foot, Nygozy stepped into the barn, not waiting for the Dalish's answer. She'd either answer or go off and if she went off she wouldn't have a group to lead, "Morning Marcus. How are our hoofed friends and yourself doing this morning?"

It was about time that the little dwarf put her in a place of leadership. Now the question on her mind was should she just leave now, taking no one with her? Or should she wait for her to get assigned people to follow her?

Fancying a mare, pff. Typical Arlathan. Or rather typical of a man. Taking a shine to women so quickly.

The Dalish finished her Lyrium potion and rummaged around the food suplise, looking for something that wasn't meat or anything coming from an animal. A pear. Good enough to hold her over for now. She could find something along the way to eat.

"You know, you snore." The mage teased as she Sinjan as she walked up next to him. "Though the fact your so warm may make up for that."

Flying birds announced someone's arrival, and soon Calliara appeared from the woods with a white owl on her arm and stroking the bird's feathers gently. Now bathed, her long white hair seemed to glow lightly with the dawn light, still a bit wet.

Seeing some of her new companions already awake, the Dalish gently smiled and bowed her head. She was only wearing the blue and silver dress she usually wore under her leather armor, but no leather pants and no boots, walking with bare feet to feel the still wet grass.

''Good morning. It seems we'll have a nice day to travel''

The owl hooted quietly and Calli smirked. ''Yes, yes. Go ahead, lethallin. Thank you''

She watched as the owl left, and then shrugged and looked at Nygozy, Aayugara, and the rest. ''Sorry, Nygozy. I don't usually sleep so much so I went for a walk... I'll be ready in a couple of minutes''

As Marcus was tending to the horses, Nygozy and several others showed up at the stable. He offered an over the top bow to them. "Ah, my dear Warden-Commander. Our hoofed heroic horses are hardly bothered by my slightly harrowing presence. I slept the sleep that sleepers only wish they could sleep, twas quite peaceful." He said in his usual garbled dialect that bordered on redundancy and lunacy.

He bowed towards Calliara, offering a smile. "Try not to take too long, fair one. We've much road to cover and little time to cover it, eh?" He said with a glance to their leader.

Kai had been up in a tree, watching as everyone prepared to leave this morning. The assassin had no desire to go down where all of the others were. His location gave him enough of a view of the barn that he didn't need to be down there to see them all. He watched nyfozy closely as she talked with the others, he listened closely and he thought that he'd heard her say something about going into groups.

Kai could hear Durbans as he spoke to Nygozy "Ah, my dear Warden-Commander. Our hoofed heroic horses are hardly bothered by my slightly harrowing presence. I slept the sleep that sleepers only wish they could sleep, twas quite peaceful." He shook his head and sighed. What was the point in saying all of that? Saying 'Good moring Warden-commander. The horses and I are fine, and I slept well' was more than enough to simply get the point accross without the foolishness of all the extra words.

Kai's attention turned to his brother. He wondered where he'd gone off to, Kyon hadn't been seen since they had all talked with Caliara. Kai still wasn't too happy about Kyon's actions when they met, trying to impersonate him was a stupid and pointless thing to do.