Our Story

Talc furthers her schemes

(Talc's POV)

"And It was quite the mess of eggs that day."

Varric roared with laughter as I regaled the small group huddled around the campfire with the story of how we had celebrated Melina's last birthday with an egg fight that had involved a bunch of our friends.

Cassandra looked horrified as I had to make up the part about how we acquired the eggs. No Walmarts in this world. I took a few artistic liberties and added an epic tale about raiding chicken coops and battling monstrous hens.

No doubt she was considering the number of laws we had broken and the food we had wasted. Solas smirked every now and then, hiding his face behind his intertwined fingers as he sat leaning in towards the fire.

"Ha! I like your style, Sunshine!" Varric roared slapping my back hard as he let out a full-bodied laugh.

"Don't encourage that criminal, Varric." Cassandra huffed, "For once, Id like to hear a story where someone did not deserve to be carted off to jail." she growled, though a smile tugged playfully on her lips.

"Ha! Have I got a story for you then!" Varric grinned wide at her.

She scoffed and rolled her eyes. I sat down as Varric launched into a story that sounded very much like, "so a priest, an elf, and I walked into this bar..."

I looked up wondering where Melina had run off to. No doubt she was with her horse.

That's good, I thought. She needs something to calm her down so she'll stop seeing enemies everywhere. Hopefully, the horse will work some magic and she'll stop seeing an enemy in me and everyone else in the party.

I also prayed it would put her in better mood and stop The Nightmare from ever happening again. There was a knot in my stomach that was growing just thinking about it.

Halfway through Varric story, she materialized out of the darkness from where the horses had been tethered. I sighed. It looked like it would take more than a horse to fix this mess. Her shoulders were slumped just a bit. She walked up to the campfire stiffly. The crackling fire illuminated her face and her lips were pressed into a thin, hard line. The light in her eyes seemed to have gone out.

"Did we already decide guard shifts for tonight?" She asked flatly. I looked over at her. I dared to hope she was ready to put her anger at me behind her.

She avoided my eyes and turned to Cassandra.

I suddenly wanted to punch her in the face.

She had ignored me all day. She really was going to keep this insanity up. I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from scowling. Just looking at her burned me up.

"Guard shifts have already been chosen. You can rest tonight, Herald." Cassandra assured her.

"Thanks. Goodnight everyone." Ayla clipped and quickly turned around towards the tent.

I wasn't looking forward to sharing a tent with her. I'd rather sleep on the dirt. In fact. I'd definitely do that. I couldn't believe how willing she was to put us in so much danger. Part of me was enraged. The other half was secretly afraid of waking up next to a corpse...

"Well. Im going to bed." Varric groaned.

"Yes, do that. Be sure not to slack off when you're shift comes for guard duty." Cassandra warned him, "I found you sleeping on the job last night. We're lucky we weren't all slaughtered in our sleep."

Varric looked stunned, "Sleeping!? How dare you. Don't you know a dwarven stealth trance when you see one? I was clearly lulling our enemies into a false sense of security, luring them close to finish them off."