Gathering Away

Lithawen looked over her shoulder to glare at him. He was perhaps right not to trust her. She had let the matter drop in this case, and her strange and twisted view of honor and pride didn't allow for her to turn on the family now that they were deemed not worthy of an early grave by her hands. "Fine by me. Just don't let my hips distract you too much. You might run into a tree." She swayed her hips as she walked towards the forest, away from the farm and family. Tempted to yet again step on the ground bound bodies. And as she got to the edge of the tree lines the spell faded and the farmers started to stir.

She waved in and out of the trees, her hands trailing across the aged bark. No longer seeming angry or even irritated. The life around her bringing her calm. "The deer is this way," she sung. "Fire away. Take the life of that innocent. And revel in the act, as you feel yourself play the part of a God. And know it's mother will cry and curse you tonight."

Sinjan rolled his eyes as she walked away, trying to entice him with the sway of her hips. He turned to the family and shook his head, "I am sorry for this. We will not come this way again."

Torture trotted past Lithawen to where he could see the deer and smacked his lips. The dog stopped and sniffed the air curiously in wonder.

The Knight followed Lithawen and rolled his eyes when she started up about snuffing out the life of a deer when all the while she was ready to snuff other lives out without provication. Her hatred was too deep to reason with and he knew he would be unable to cope with that and wondered how Nygozy would.

He looked at the deer and smirked, "I can't hunt well." He looked at Torture and the dog almost seemed to be laughing at him, "Oh shut up you."

Lithawen snorted a bit. "You are a worthless city boy." she taunted as she moved closer to him. "I've already have offered my way. Even got dirty because of it. Now it's your turn to do some work." with a chuckle she flicked his nose. "The worst you can do is scare it away."

He brushed a hand over his face from her flicking his nose and took out a knife from a pouch, "If you insist." He said as he aimed.

Torture continued to sniff the air, looking determined as he did so. He glanced at the deer then sniffed Lithawen's leg and went back to sniffing the air. The mabari seemed genuinely confused until Sinjan aimed his knife at the deer. That was when something dawned on the dog and he barked, jumped up and pushed Sinjan over. He then ran towards the deer, barking at it, pouncing from side to side as if he were trying to herd the animal away from the others.

"Oomph!" The Knight went down in almost a heap and he yelled, "Dammit you mangy mongrel! What in the world is your problem?" He asked angrily as he got up off his back, sat up then stood to stride madly towards the dog, forgetting that Lithawen was behind him as he was ready to strangle the animal. It hadn't been enough that this irritating woman was poking at his nerves but this beast had to do it as well.

A smirk crossed her lips as Lithawen watched Sinjan as he pulled out his knife. Finally the stubborn man will listen to her. A good change, maybe this will be the start of a habit that benefited her.

She glared down at Torture as the dog sniffed her leg. "You better not be planning to mark me." she growled. And then the Mabari attacked Sinjan! Oh that was a riot!

Lithawen held her sides, laughing. "The giant rat attacked you!" she breathed between giggles. Oh that was great. Maybe now that he was tackled he would get off of his high horse. "You look like such a fool."

Sinjan looking "like a fool," however, was probably the least of their concern at the moment. As Torture leaped through the underbrush and lunged at the deer, herding it this way and that, a piercing shriek filled the small clearing the deer was corralled in by Torture. It was whinny and overly dramatic, like a petulant child, as it cried out, "Oh Maker, it's gnawing my leg off! It's gonna kill me!"

If they had tried to search, neither Sinjan not Lithawen would have found any such human body calling out anywhere close to them. In fact, the sounds seemed to be coming from where the deer and Torture were facing off right before them.

"Oh Maker," it lamented again, "What did I do to deserve this! Was it the tree thing!? I swear I'll never do it again! I don't want rabies! I like my arm attached, right where it is and someone get this gigantic creature off of meee!" The voice spoke quickly in a panic, but also sounded strangely comical and made stranger by the fact that Torture wasn't even actually attacking anything. The deer bucked and ran in circles like a chicken with its head cut off despite the fact that the mabari wasn't even really bounding after it anymore. It was a strange sight made stranger by the realization that the words spoken were coinciding exactly with the movement of the deer's mouth.

Lithawen's taunts did not get past Sinjan as he went towards the dog. He growled, wanting to go back and just slap the woman for all the crud he'd had to go through but he continued on towards the dog, "Shut up, wench! You forget he knocked you down earlier." There. Cruddy comeback but a comeback nonetheless.

Then voices came from the bush in the general direction of the deer. His feet felt like stone when he heard the petulant voice and he looked all over for whoever held it. It took him a few moments to realize that it was indeed coming from ... the deer? It was the deer?

With a short chortle he walked over to Torture, put a hand on the dog's withers to hopefully calm him. Torture did stop jumping but he was panting, tongue hanging from his lips as he dutifully watched the deer. The animal was smarter than the both of them.

"Hello." Sinjan said as he walked towards the "deer" and put out a hand, "Are you a shape shifter? My name is Sinjan. I've seen people with your skills before. Don't worry. As long as you don't try to attack us Torture will not attack you because he knows what you are. Please pretty deer, no one wants to hurt you."

The deer stood stock still as Sinjan approached and watching him warily like (quite aptly) a deer caught in the headlights. He spoke and the deer looked around slightly, unmoving and using only its eyes. It then promptly fell to the ground in a crumpled heap like a sack of potatoes.

"It killed me!" The deer cried out again. "The man is talking to a deer! Why is the man talking to a deer!" The animal kicked its cervine legs about wildly, as though trying to fend off an attacker. It then took a great shuddering gasp and picked its head up to look about.

"...Oh....ooooh, he's talking to a deer...," the voice said then, as though an important bit of information had just 'clicked.' "That makes sense."

The deer got back to its feet then and backed away slightly. "Keep the bear away from me," it said warily, looking pointedly at Torture, before a burst of light filled the clearing, blinding everyone for a split second before it faded away to nothing. In the place of deer now stood a young woman, brown hair managed in a messy plait and with an dingy eye patch covering her right eye. She was glad in some torn variation of a mage's robe and a mottled branch lay some inches away from her. She was seated on the ground, her attention diverted now to her legs as she inspected them for dog bites.

"Your mongrel bit me," she whimpered, poking at a scratch on her leg that looked more like it came from a low tree branch, rather than a dog's teeth or nails. She sighed and pet the mabari placatingly on the head. "It's okay; I forgive you. I am benevolent that way."

It was only after petting Torture that the woman seemed to remember that there were two other people in the clearing with her, and she blinked up at them owlishly with her one eye. "Oh, hello there." Her face slowly split into a wide smile. "Fancy meeting you here."

Lithawen followed Sinjan to the deer. Ignoring his lame retort, more interested in the talking animal. She watched as it ran around in circles, crying about some imaginary wounds the rat had inflicted upon her. And it was defiantly a her, even when shifted a voice does not change. Well rather she had never heard of a shape shifter being able to talk while in the form of an animal. And now she could clearly feel the magic aura around the deer, having missed it before because of her occupied attention.

The Shape Shifter continued to wail about. Failing her legs in the air and complaining. An annoyance that grated on Lithawen's nerves. She glared at the deer. And after shielding her eyes she glared at the woman. "A wildes woman." she assessed. "An apostate who's obviously gone mad."

Her odd eyes scanned the woman. A mage, obviously. An uninjured, rather raggedly clothed, and slightly insane mage. She would have to watch out for her, the actions of the mentally unsound were never predictable. Though this mage would be a challenge, the Keeper was confidant in her ability to win a fight against her.

The Knight looked at the deer with surprise, wondering what in the world was going on but when she changed he shielded his eyes from the glare even if it did not work. Torture put his paws over his eyes and whined then looked back up with a doggy grin.

Next thing he knew there was a young woman, a Human maid, lying on the ground whimpering and acting as if Torture had bit her. Of all the things this confused him. The woman was mad, crazy as a squirrel after nuts.

Torture backed off from accepting the pets as he did not know the person and seemed wary of her actions. The dog was careful, keeping his body away from her now as if he'd previous experience with apostates. Well, that was true Sinjan remembered as Morrigan was an apostate and there was need for wariness with that woman.

"Yes." He smiled keeping his hand out to her, "Fancy meeting you. I am Sinjan. The dog is Torture and the woman is Lithawen. Did you need some help?"

Margaid got to her feet with an exuberant bounce and dusted herself off, looking at each Sinjan and Lithawen in turn, before facing Torture and promptly began to introduce herself.

"Greetings," She grinned at the mabari, before quickly glancing (almost nervously) at Lithawen and Sinjan. "I," she paused, seemingly for effect, "Am Margaid the Maleficar! The Magnificent! The...m...m...Mountebank?"

The young red-clad woman seemed to have difficulty meeting the gazes of the other two humans in the glade. She twirled on heel to bend down to retrieve her branch, favoring her scratched leg, and used it as much for a walking stick as she did for casting magic. Turning back to face them, finally looking the two humans in the eyes, smiling magnanimously, she answered Sinjan's question.

"Oh, no, no. Don't worry about me. I'm fine. No harm done. You might not believe me, but I'm very much used to being attacked by bears. Happens all the time. It's practically a past-time of mine. Bear-victimization, that is. I think bear hides are resistant to magic, but that's just between you an me, you know what I'm sayin'?" She moved in closer and whispered the last part between the two of them conspiratorially, making sure that Torture or any 'other' passing bears wouldn't hear her.

"Lithawen, Dalish Keeper and Grey Warden." She said to the girl. After all she could introduce herself. And the stupid human didn't even do it right! She deserved more glammer when being announced by someone as lowly as him. "And this is my Man servant, whats-his-face, and his giant rat." she snickered.

Walking forward she watched the Maleficar carefully. Her eyes trained on her every movement, down to the tiniest breath. The difference between a Maleficar and Appostate was Blood Magic. And if this woman will openly admit to being a Blood Mage then she must be confidant in her skills. Not someone to take lightly that is for sure.

But as the Keeper circled the other mage, she could find no reason to be overly cautious. The woman was raving mad! Probably so mad she no longer knew how to cast a proper spell other than shape shifting. And few were as dangerous at that as the Asha'belannar. This one was just in the shape of a deer. Not very scary in comparison to a demon. But still she would keep her eyes on the woman. "Perhaps your precious Hero will find some use for her. Maybe if she can turn into an ox she can tow a cart." she smirked to Sinjan.

Margaid the Maleficar. Well, how cute that sounded from this crazy little ... wait. She said maleficar. That was bad. Wasn't it? That was very bad and Alistair would be very upset about ... but, he wasn't there.

Sinjan looked about, shaking his head and breathing out with frustration. What would Nygozy do about this? He wasn't sure. It was unprecedented to have anything to do with a blood mage. Blood mages made blood boil and did rude things to bodies and all that stuff. Ok, so he hadn't seen it himself but the others had.

His lips became dry and he licked them trying to think of what to do next when Lithawen spoke up and he turned his head to glare at her, "I am NOT your man servant, wench!" He snapped, not able to come up with a better come back, as per usual, "And Torture is not my dog. He is Nygozy's. Not to mention, if you didn't want to be working for the 'precious Hero' then you should have stayed back in whatever lovely Orlesian Warden Inn they give to you so you can put up your dainty toes?"

The Knight turned back to Margaid and sighed, "We are going back to our camp. You should come with us so our leader can speak with you." He said, not sure if he wanted her to come with them but also not wanting to leave her out where she could cause trouble.

Torture trotted ahead going towards camp, turned and barked at them to follow.

Lithawen glared at Sinjan, though could not help but laugh a bit. "You are simply brilliant." she teased and rolled her eyes. "Stop calling me wench." reaching up she flicked his ear. "Or I will be forced to keep poking, flicking, and any other annoying possible action till you stop. Or you could just 'poke' me and we can get all this sexual tension cleared up. Since you are obviously hot for me. I mean who wouldn't be." she laughed, brushing her hair over her shoulder in show. It was all sort of a joke. But only sort of.

"And I was never apart of an Inn or Tavern. Nor do I enjoy staying in such a place because the temptation to kill all the humans is there. And my superiors thought it was best to keep me either in a Keep or in a camp." she said with a shrug.

Lithawen stepped around the two and followed after Torture. "Keep moving mangy mutt."

Margaid looked between the two confusedly, going back and forth like a person viewing a tennis match as Sinjan and Lithawen had their little argument. She settled a hand to her chin and looked absently ahead as concentrated on the information they were giving her.

"So....wait. Have I got this straight? The red-haired one is Sinjan, who is Lithawen's 'man servant,' but not really, and that's Torture, the Sinjan's rat who is actually someone else's dog and the tiny one is Lithawen, who is a tavern wench with dainty toes but hates people and heroes and makes the body temperature of the red-haired on go up?"

She looked up them, from Sinjan to Lithawen, and blinked, as though silently asking whether or not she had all of her information correct. It was a lot to remember; Margaid had been hiding in the wilderness for over ten years now and, save for having to evade people and Templars, nothing ever really got that complicated or convoluted. It was pretty much just all eat, sleep, evade bears, eat again...

"Oh," She gasped suddenly, slamming her fist against her palm in realization, "I just have one question for both of you, otherwise I don't really care how wenchy you might be." She cast a quick, suspicious look at them before asking warily, "Are either of you...Templars...?"

Lithawen looked back as Margaid talked, summing up the situation in front of her. "Not exactly. But close enough," she said with a sigh, crossing her arms over her chest. She didn't want to have to explain the whole thing to her.

"I just told you I am a Dalish Keeper. A mage," Lithawen snapped. "I can not be a Templar and why would I travel with one?!" The woman was not only mad, but stupid as well!

Sinjan lifted his hand to cover his ear after Lithawen had flicked it. He gave her an angry look as if his ear was some kind of sacred object not to be messed with and sneered as she spoke. Then Margaid spoke and he had to consider what to tell the woman then shrugged, "The two of us are not Templars."

Ok, so he didn't tell her there was one ex-Templar he knew of but that didn't matter so much.

"Let's go." He let Torture continue ahead of them as he knew the dog could find his own way back home. There was no reason to believe the animal would not, "It's getting late and Nygozy should have food almost ready to eat."

Lithawen noticed Sinjan cover his ears. An act that she rarely saw a human do. Curiouser and curiouser. And as Margaid walked a head of them, Lithawen pulled roughly on his arm, reaching up to brush away hair to see. She rubbed them gently as she inspected the tips.

"So. You only act like an idiot human." She noted in a whisper with a smirk. "You're an interesting knight." she said tilting her head slightly as she brought her other hand up to rub the tip of the other ear.

"Your too tall. Too muscular. Half-elf?" she asked softly.

The instant reaction was to move away, even though he did shiver from the touch of her hand on his ear. His eyes moved to look at hers and she spoke, asking about him being a half-elf. The tiniest of growls came from his throat, snapping out bitterly at her, "Half-elf. What is it to you? Are you going to try to rag on me for my birthright too? Call me a half-man, a freak of nature or some other bestial derogatory that should make me cower to your feet begging forgiveness?"

Lithawen chuckled as she continued rubbing his ears, enjoying how he shivered at her touch. She hadn't had the pleasure of meeting many half-elves in her past, so she need to think about how she was suppose to react. Anger? No, she couldn't bring herself to be angry at another elf. Intrigued mostly.

"You hide the fact that your part of a superior race and choose the lesser to live among...." she muttered to herself mostly.

And finally her smirk turned into a smile. "Freak of Nature?" rolling her eyes she continued. "A freak of nature would be a half-qunari, elf."

The feel of her fingers caressing his ears were overwhelming but Sinjan got himself under control, grabbed her wrists and held her there. He shivered, fighting off the attraction as he looked down at her face, still angry, "Both sides like to call theirs the superior race but all I see is people who enjoy having reason to hate. It is that hatred which rips everyone apart and ruins people, families ... lives. I don't care what race you are or are not ... it's a load of sodding crap."

Suddenly his eyes turned hard and he pulled her against himself, lowered his head and kissed her with passion. He pressed her against a tree and continued kissing her as if he were about to devour her then just as suddenly let her go, backed off and stared at her with frustration at himself for having forced himself on her.

Sinjan turned on his heel and followed the dog and maleficar with long, purposeful strides.

Lithawen cocked an eyebrow, looking up at him in disbelief. How could he be so naive, seeking a candy-land of happiness. And oh she would tell him what an idiot he was. She had a great come-back. Unfortunately it slipped away as he pulled her into his arms tightly, and kissing her passionately.

Bold move for the little knight. Lithawen returned the kiss, once she got over the initial shock. She put her hands up to his neck as he backed her up to the tree. Her grasp wasn't tight and he stepped back easily.

Leaning against the tree still, Lithawen smirked at Sinjan as he looked flustered and frustrated. She licked her lips with a chuckle, watching him turn and walk away. "Things just got a bit more interesting." she mused to herself, kicking off the tree and following behind everyone.

As soon as they got closer to camp Torture disappeared and Sinjan shook his head knowing that there would be trouble. He sighed and walked over to Margaid, "This is our camp. Our leader would probably like to see you soon."

He glanced back to see if Lithawen were following and seemed confused with the look on her face. She should be mad, not amused. He shook his head. This woman was going to drive him out of his mind.

Torture came back growling at him but when he did not move the dog grabbed his pants leg and started to pull towards the direction of Nygozy's cozy little hill was. He pulled his leg back and sighed.

"Nygozy wants to see us." He said to the women quietly.

Margaid suddenly looked uncertain, frightened, even, and cast a look about her nervously.

"Someone...wants to see me?" She asked, hunching over slightly and fingering her oak branch staff. "And there are more people over there...?"

The mage's breathing soon became shallow and quickened, and her nervous glances increased as she wrung her hands around her staff. She swayed slightly, in the grips of a nervous fit. In more than ten, maybe fifteen years, Margaid had had little to no human contact, always fleeing from human presence with the fear of being taken back to the Circle or worse (though she usually didn't want to imagine anything worse than the Circle). To be sure, she enjoyed watching people, often in animal form, and listened to them speak as often as she could to avoid forgetting her own language, but to actually come face to face with them...

She was trembling slightly, and froze much like she had as a deer not long before, ready to flee. Maybe talking with these two had been a bad idea. She had just been so happy to talk to someone that she hadn't considered the possibility that they weren't the only ones in the area. And this area was usually so nicely deserted, too...

The mage seemed to have forgotten that she could use magic to escape in her panic, but that was something typical of her. Her mouth opened once, twice, three times without sound before she could spit her words out with a nervous laugh.

"Uh...hey, um, yeah, it's been great and everything, but I think I should be going now..."

"Oh no. Don't worry. Nygozy is not a mean person. She only reacts towards people if they need to be given any trouble. I don't think you would have any problems at all." He looked at her with a smile, "Or would you rather that Lithawen went first and we can sit and talk? Maybe that will make you feel better."

He looked at Lithawen and almost jumped when Torture barked right beside him. That dog could make anyone nervous. A bark was returned and then Torture moved to Lithawen, pushing behind her legs to make her go towards where Nygozy probably was waiting around the corner and up the hillside.

"I think she wants you first." Sinjan didn't look at Lithawen as he leaned against a tree.

((Lithawen gets to go here after responding in this thread - https://dragonageafter.forumotion.com/dragon-rest-f8/of-assassins-and-oracles-t39.htm - unless she wants to really piss off the leader))