It's a Long Way Outta Hell

[Ser Airich Landry]

It had been a long night travelling, and Airich was emmotionally destroyed. Everything that he had heard about how the battles against the darkspawn were going were all positive. He arrived at Ostagar expecting to come back the way he arrived in high spirits after warding the land of the darkspawn. His face was long like the road he was travelling, and all he could feel inside of his chest was a strong sense of failure. His good friend King Cailin was dead, and thrown aside like trash. He deserved better, and just as quickly as anger began to build inside him it made him think of the great signal fire. He could still see the fire even after he had fled the battlefield, and this made him think what happened to Loghain's troops. He was tired, hungry, and losing his strength. Fortunately for him he could see a town approaching in site, his eyes rose with a little sense of gratitude.

"Thank the Maker."

He murmured as he made his way across the stone bridge, and into the refugee part of Lothering. People were clammering for there stuff, packing, praying, and making plans on where to go with the ever approaching darkspawn. Ser Airich knew he could not linger in this town for long, but he needed food and drink first. He made his way noticing all the chaos in the town as he walked into the towns bar. He made his way up to the bartender.

"What can I get you?"

"Food, any kind, and something to drink. I've been travelling on foot for days."

The bartender figured he was one of the few fleeing knights from the battle of Ostagar. The bartender had servants packing stuff as well, but was still open trying to make as much coin as he could before leaving. He called over one of the waitresses to fetch some ale, and some mead for the knight. Airich took a seat on one of the barstools as he hung his head in exhaustion.

[Tag:Anyone]

[Zita Aurum Valdemar]

Zita had been fighting on the outskirts of the stand at Ostagar. She had seen the carnage, entire armies being ripped limb from limb by Ogres and Hurlocks alike. She had been pestered into leaving by one Genlock Emissary in particular. He seemed to have a specific dislike for her, something she'd never seen in any Darkspawn she'd come to battle in the short time since the news of the Blight hit.

She was traveling somewhere-anywhere to get away from the advancing army of Darkspawn. She had lost what she liked to refer to as her "merry band of idiots" in the frey of the battle. Cain and his mage had traveled too far ahead of her and she lost sight of them. She had been severely injured, but not enough to impair her from escaping. Once she had ventured far enough away to stop safely, she bandaged herself up, nursing a burn on her right shoulder and a deep cut on her left upper-arm. The rest of the scratches and scrapes she didn't care to bandage, there had not been much time for her to make her way toward Lothering.

Zita spied many people packing what little belongings they had to escape the horde while they still could, and she made her way to the only bar in the small refugee town. She slumped her way up to the barkeep and asked for spirits, she cared not what kind, and bandages if he could spare them. Zita had enough food to last her until the next nearest town. She dared a glance to her left and saw what appeared to be a knight standing beside her.

"You look as though you've escaped from the very same battle as I have," Zita said wearily, "Do you plan to travel on to Redcliffe after refreshing your supplies here perchance?"

Zita was feeling incredibly vulnerable at this point, wanting some one, specifically a man, to travel with. Safety in numbers, no? And after she was denied any form of commitment from Cain, she was hungry for any form of attention that she could get, from simple conversation to in-depth probing of her past.

What I need is a fucking drink...

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[Ser Airich Landry]

"You look as though you've escaped from the very same battle as I have," Zita said wearily, "Do you plan to travel on to Redcliffe after refreshing your supplies here perchance?"

He looked up, and to his right to see a beautiful slender form of the woman speaking to him. He looked over the woman, she didn't wear much for armor, but figured she'd discarded it in her escape of the battle. She very dark hair, and beautiful stunning green eyes. She, like him, was alone and left scattered much like the army. He pondered her question as he really hadn't given much thought to what he planned to do beyond eat, but he wouldn't admit to not thinking beyond his stomach.

"Yes, I do indeed plan to head for Redcliffe before nightfall. You are right in your assessment of my activities. I was at the battle of Ostagar. Everything..."

He paused it wasn't time to try and figure out where things went wrong. The pause was broken as his drink was placed in front of him. He took the bottle, and taking a long drink having had nothing to drink in two days. He set the bottle down as he would have preferred water, but wasn't going to get picky at a time like this. He wiped his mouth with his sleeve as he looked back at the woman.

"My name is Ser Airich Landry a knight in the service of Teryn Cousland of Highever, and yourself?"

His initial plan was most likely going to be returning to Highever, but Redcliffe was closer. They could probably acquire some horses, and maybe some other vital items such as tents, food, medical supplies. The road to Highever from Redcliffe was a long one, but he would need to report back to Teryn Cousland as soon as possible. He would need to know of the King's death. His arm pushed back his blue cloak with its yellow emblem of Highever on the back as he extended his hand out toward the woman. He worked hard to not get lost in her eyes as he hadn't seen any woman with such stunning eyes before.

[Zita Aurum Valdemar]

Zita placed her hand in Airich's delicately, unable to break eye contact. Her eyes narrowed slightly as she responded, an outward sign of the strain her thought process was placing upon her. She was trying desperately to figure out why she'd opened an immediate bond of what seemed to be trust with this man.

"My name is Zita Valdemar," she replied, her voice was somewhat distracted as she stared back at him with similar intent to what he showed. "I'm a mercenary."

Truth be told, she did not wish to travel to Redcliffe, but she could think of no closer option, and it would only truly serve as a proper pit stop before continuing on to... wherever. She didn't care where she went any longer. There was no place that she thought of as home any more than the tent she'd slept in since she was 17.

Zita wanted so badly at this point to break down and cry. The stress of the past few days weighed very heavily on her, and all she really wanted was to get some proper sleep.

The barkeep presented her with a very large bottle of what appeared to be rum and some bandages. She took a heavy taught from the bottle and looked back at Airich.

"You look as though you need some water, ser, and in that case should not be drinking anything this barkeep gives you," she said as she unclipped her flask from her belt and handed it to him. She turned to place her new bottle of rum into her pack, and slung the pack over her uninjured shoulder. It held what was left of her gold, a small bit of food and her small two man tent. She had lost her heavy axe in the heat of the battle, and was now armed with only the dagger strapped to her thigh. That was something she had to pick up in Redcliffe. She wondered idly if the smithy there was still the incredibly talented Owen.

"Well Airich," Zita said, careful not to break eye contact, "by the looks of this place, it seems to me that once you've finished your drink we should be on our way." She was not a fan of the abrupt nature of their pairing, but necessity demanded it.

[Ser Airich Landry]

"My name is Zita Valdemar," she replied, her voice was somewhat distracted as she stared back at him with similar intent to what he showed. "I'm a mercenary."

He nodded as he was not fond of mercenaries, but most were not quite so mannered as this woman was. She appeared to be as exhausted as he was, and injured to. Her arm had to be throbbing in serious pain, but most likely at this point adrenaline toppled by exhaustion was most likely numbing the pain in her arm some.

"It's good to meet you." He said with a broken smile pushing back his own problems. Somehow things seemed to be looking up. He knew now that he had to discover what had exactly happened at Ostagar.

"You look as though you need some water, ser, and in that case should not be drinking anything this barkeep gives you," she said as she unclipped her flask from her belt and handed it to him.

He took the flask chugging down the water as if it were the last water in the world. He removed it from his lips as suddenly he felt much better. His food was placed before him at the same time as he picked up, and began eating viciously. The feeling that swept his body was as if he was stomach was thanking him. All he needed now was sleep, but that would come. He knew they had to get back to moving soon, but his thought process was interrupted.

"Well Airich," Zita said, careful not to break eye contact, "by the looks of this place, it seems to me that once you've finished your drink we should be on our way."

He nodded as he had half finished his mead, he looked around. He noticed an old man with his family they to were scrambling to gather their belongings. Airich approached them with the rest of the mead.

"You look hungry, sir. You all could use some food before travelling." he said with a full smile handing the rest of the mead to them. The old man seperated the food amongst himself, his wife, and his two kids. Airich made his way back over to Zita.

"I agree. We should get moving before it gets too much later. Redcliffe is probably a good two days away on foot. I'm sure we'll be able to re-supply, and find out the state of the country from there." He hadn't quite revealed to her in what capacity he was involved in the battle, and frankly he was still confused as to what was happening. He believed that perhaps Queen Anora, and Arl Eamon would rally the remaining army against the darkspawn. Going to Redcliffe he could seek out a family friend in Bann Teagan to see what the plan was. He had no clue as to the chaos that had swept the land of Ferelden since the battle. Certainly the next few days would be a drastic change for him.

He grabbed his pack from the ground next to the bar, and slinging it over his shoulder hiding the crest of Highever on his bright blue cloak. He opened the door awaiting for the lady to step through. At least he wouldn't be travelling alone, and he couldn't really ask for any better company.

[Zita Aurum Valdemar]

Zita was taken aback. She'd never seen such a show of kindness in all of her life, then again she'd never personally known a true noble either. She stared at him wide-eyed for a moment as he held open the door of the tavern for her. She was touched by his kindness, though she wasn't sure how deep it truly ran.

She stepped through the door into the damp outdoors and started to walk toward the Imperial Highway. Unwittingly ignoring the man who walked with her, she began to think through the possible greetings that she would receive at Redcliffe. Would the people there recognize her? Would they taunt her the way that they used to when they were children? The possibility of recognition made her incredibly anxious, so she decided against continuing on that line of thought and busied herself with studying Airich.

Airich was tall and handsome, and evidently a nobleman as well, though she'd never much cared for that trait. Nobles had a history of lying and cheating and dirty politics, and she honestly wanted nothing to do with that; she was just a means for them to dispatch their enemies without getting their hands dirty.

Zita was incredibly unsure of what to say, they had both supposedly sustained heavy losses as far as the battle went, and she couldn't very well go about carelessly asking 'what brought you to this part of town?', so instead she looked at her companion, allowing him to walk slightly ahead of her in her shy state. All she could hope for at this point was that they could avoid any fighting until she could buy a suitable weapon. She wasn't a very sneaky person, which put backstabbing out of the scenario. Her muscular stature inhibited her from moving too stealthily.

"I've never been to Highever," Zita said sheepishly. "What is it like there?"

[Ser Airich Landry]

They had made their way onto the Imperial Highway, and he had taken a few steps ahead of her. He walked ahead just in case they got attacked he could hold back any attackers. He wasn't worried about her attacking him from behind as she was only packing a small dagger nothing strong enough to penetrate the armor under his cloak. His thoughts were broken when she spoke.

"Well it's a beautiful place, even more so than Denerim. Honestly...it's probably the nicest scenery in all of Ferelden. The only other place as nice in Highever is Amaranthine." He said as he took in the fresh air. The winds were blowing, trees were rustling, and he could hear animals shuffling around behind the tree line.

He looked on the horizon as the sun was close to setting. It would be dark soon, and the Imperial Highway had no lamps. He looked back at Zita as he spoke "It's getting dark we'll need to find a place to make camp, and start a fire."

He wasn't particularly hungry anymore, but then he thought of her she hadn't eaten since he met with her. "Are you hungry?" He knew he could get some hunting done before the sun went down. He set his equipment down beside him as he knelt down to pull a shortbow of the pack, and a few arrows. Then it hit him like a ton of bricks. "I'm sorry, did you want me to re-bandage your injury? I know trying to bandage yourself is pretty difficult, and tends to leave the bandages loose."

[Zita Aurum Valdemar]

Zita brushed her hair behind her ear and smiled at him. His mind seemed to be wandering nearly as much as hers was. His absent-mindedness was slightly charming, though she knew the reason behind it. She was not overly hungry, however her wounds could use proper bandaging.

She surveyed the land for a moment, the crisp air, the leaves on the trees, the dew forming on the grass and she got a vague sense of what seemed to be deja-vu. Everything was eerily familiar, as though she'd walked this road before. Looking up at Airich and meeting his eyes, Zita spoke softly, something that she did not often do.

"I should be fine until morning," the tone of her voice surprised her, a soft cooing that she was not sure had come from her. Was this peace? Trust? Security? Who was this man who commanded such faith of this once stone-cold woman? Granted, Cain had paved the way so far as helping her resolve her feelings about her past, but this was different, this was strange. Had she sustained a head injury in the battle at Ostagar? These thoughts flitted across her mind, though she paid no real attention to them as she continued on. "I could use some help with these bandages though. Perhaps we should set up camp first?"

Zita turned and marveled at the sunset for just a moment. Her whole life she'd always thoroughly enjoyed the marvels of nature; the stars in the sky, the hum of the night air, sun sets and sun rises. She took a deep breath and moved toward the tree line at the side of the highway, moving to search for a suitable camp site for the night.

[Ser Airich Landry]

He nodded as they continued walking until coming to a fairly decent clearing in the tree line to set up camp. She had set her pack down as he grabbed the stakes from it, and began placing them in the ground. The only sound that could be heard was the wind in the trees as they were both very quiet. The idea of travelling with a companion sounded like a good idea but he was leary of a mercenary, and she was most likely didn't trust him. Either way they both knew they needed each other to safely make it to Redcliffe without harm.

"So tell me about yourself? How did you come to be a mercenary?" he asked as he could no longer take the silence of the area. The wind was irritating him, and with their movement they most likely scared away the animals in the area. So it was a good thing that they had ate some food in Lothering. He was almost done with the tent, and was rather surprised they hadn't seen any other travellers on the Imperial Highway. He wondered if people were avoiding it for some reason that he couldn't imagine as the Darkspawn hadn't made it this far north yet.

As he finished setting the tent he knew the next thing he'd need to do was gather up some sticks for a fire. He also knew his female companion was a stubborn and hard headed woman. He looked back at Zita as he spoke "Let me fix your bandages before I go picking up sticks." All the excitement that came with setting up camp. He walked over to her unwrapping her bandages as he suspected they were rather loose. He began re-wrapping fresh bandages around her as he listened to her story.

[Zita Aurum Valdemar]

Her story was not one that Zita had expressed to anybody, let alone a complete stranger, but at the same time it was mostly because nobody had bothered to ask. She explained to Airich that she was born to a group of traveling bards and how she was sent to live in Redcliffe to be trained as a Warrior in order to protect her rather weak family when the time came. In an effort to hide her damaged nature, she omitted the fact that the children there used to taunt her mercilessly for being abandoned.

She told him about how her family was killed and she had needed to find a way to make money to sustain her lifestyle. She went into little detail about what she needed to do to survive, but did indulge him in the fact that her work was suffering; yet again she found herself explaining that not many people saw fit to hire such a small woman to do their dirty work.

"Though what led me to Ostagar was pure coincidence. I'd heard tell of the beginnings of a new Blight and wanted to go investigate in the Korcari Wilds," she explained matter-of-factly. "I gathered a small troupe of men whom I ended up losing in the frey." She'd gone into far more detail than she'd intended to, but wasn't embarrassed at all by it. It was an odd story, to be sure, but nothing to be ashamed of.

She looked up at him and smiled slightly as he finished re-bandaging her wounds, grateful for the help he offered. Standing slowly, she went to help him gather tinder and wood for a fire for the night. They made sure to stay within earshot--any forest was a dangerous one at a dark enough time.

"So," Zita said brushing her hair away from her face once more, "what about you? How was life in Highever?" She was genuinely curious, not having grown up in such a place.

[Ser Airich Landry]

He finished tying the bandages around her wounds as he stepped back looking at his handy work. He smiled as she had asked him about life in Highever. He took a seat on the ground looking up at the dying light of the sky as he looked back at her. “Well...life was pretty good for me. I spent my days getting schooled to read, to fight, to ride, and just about anything a knight would need.”

He sighed putting his hand on his sword as a part of him wishes he had perished defending his king at Ostagar. He looked back at this woman he had only known for an afternoon, and she was a mercenary. She didn't seem quite what he had expected a mercenary to be like, but she was fun to be around. “I learned hunting, and fishing at my father's request. A lot was expected of me, but we lived in the best possible situations.”

He never starved or had to worry about food. The most he ever worried about was when his father would go out on patrol's. He had known Cailin as a prince, and was good friends with him. He now faced a reality where his friend was no longer around. He wouldn't be like his father, and serve fighting alongside a great Theirin leader as he had. “With all that's happened I really don't know whats in store for my future anymore.”

Then he thought about their plans of heading to Redcliffe, and he could at least spend time with more good friends in the Guerrin's. He knew there wasn't much left to get done before the end of the night. He stood back up looking at “At least I have good company...i'll take watch while you get some sleep. I got plenty on the way to Lothering. In two days time we'll be eating a feast in Redcliffe.” he said with a smile crossing his face. He tried not to be all sad about what had happened. Things like this happened, and time for mourning would come later.

[Zita Aurum Valdemar]

Zita smiled back at the good Ser, happy to have a friendly and open companion on the road. She listened intently as Airich told her of his past and all of the priveledges that he'd been afforded because of his noble blood. She was slightly jealous, seeing as she had grown up under such strange circumstance, though she was simply curious, she'd never personally known a noble. She was appreciative of not only his kindness, but the chance to learn more about the lives the nobles led.

Zita had an insatiable thirst for knowledge that she'd given up on long ago, choosing instead to drown it in spirits and wine. She'd wanted to learn about everything, and instead she chose to dumb herself down, to be a typical mercenary, or would be, if she could get work.

"With all that's happened, I really don't know what's in store for my future anymore."

Looking up at Airich, Zita sympathized with this statement. "I don't think anybody does anymore." She herself was completely confused. She thought mindlessly about the path that brought her here, her travels with Celyn and Cain and the battle itself. She felt a twinge of anxiety when she realized that she could very well have led those men to their deaths. The thought consumed her mind and caused her to almost completely shut down, she barely heard Airich's next words.

"At least I have good company...I'll take watch while you get some sleep. I got plenty on the way to Lothering. In two days time we'll be eating a feast in Redcliffe."

She smiled back at him, glad for the chance to catch some sleep, but consumed with the guilt of possibly leading two men to their deaths. In the end, she fell into a very light and fitful sleep, full of dreams of the battle at Ostagar.