I wanna get sick from you...[open]

[Nuala Ladonna Kaeson]

Nuala was walking the streets of Redcliffe in her hooded silken cape, hiding underneath the decadent red of the garment. She did not like to be obvious, she did not like to draw attention to herself, she was simply trying to re-stock her kitchen and herbal remedies before returning home.

She stumbled momentarily and looked around suspiciously; she'd been nervous ever since the fires in her home town. She was twitchy and she was sure that in her secrecy often drew a little bit too much attention to herself for her own comfort.

Chuckling to herself a moment, Nuala cared not for the people surrounding her, nor even the people in all of Thedas. Not a single soul had managed to stir any sort of emotion in her. She was cold-hearted.

She was soul-less.

She was an uncaring mass of tissue.

Nuala thought again of the fires that had consumed her town and her family and she began to laugh.

Those fuckers thought they could get rid of me...

She realized that she was drawing attention to herself, and went about her business, walking away from Redcliffe into the dim evening light. Nuala spied a strange looking animal, something between a nug and a cat, something she'd never seen before. The creature hopped it's way into the forest surrounding the town of Redcliffe and she couldn't help but to follow it.

She followed the 'nat', as she called it, through the forest for some time into a thicket.

This is not where I had planned on ending up...

The thicket housed a camp, a camp full of... people... Nuala made a disgusted noise, one that came from the bowels of her soul, a gutteral noise that spoke volumes unto itself. And there she stood, in the center of a strange camp, hating the very essence that was it's inhabitants, and waiting for someone to dare make a move.

[kent]

Should Ezekiel Pike have been thankful for his fortune the past few days, leading from his late arrival to Ostagar that more than likely spared his life to his bit of Maker-tinged luck in waking just before having his head bashed in by a handful of utterly charming bastards looking to earn coin for capturing an apostate, he certainly had an odd way of displaying his gratitude. The past few days had been filled with far too much killing of good people by darkspawn for his taste, and whatever vigor he'd felt in slaying stragglers from the disaster at Ostagar days before had long since run out. He was running low on energy, on patience, on supplies, and he couldn't remember eating anything in the past two weeks that could truly be labeled as food. Hence his approach of Redcliffe to attempt and remedy all those ills and shortcomings.

In all honesty, taking the time to set up a place to sleep outside of the city might have been foolish, but night was quickly descending upon the canopy of trees over his head, and having to fight for a room at an inn within the village was not on his to-do list for this evening. Similarly, he'd fallen in with a handful of other refugees of Ostagar who had been in the same situation as the apostate- they had arrived too late and were forced to flee before even casting their eyes on the battlefield. Setting up a very hastily thrown-together camp with the fires of the city in view in the distance, they planned to spend the night . Though he'd made no indication, Ezekiel had decided he didn't really like any of them and planned to leave before sunrise to get as far away from their bad breath as possible.

For now, however, he was merely left to sit by the fire, shoveling something that tasted between dwarf butt (not that he'd tasted dwarf butt mind you) and a rock thrown into some kind of broth. Travel rations were always so tasty. As he was enjoying this delicious meal, hiding his cringes from the man who had prepared this fine meal, Ezekiel suddenly came to realize that there was a presence almost directly in front of him who hadn't been there just a few moments before. Turning his eyes up from his bowl towards the presence, his eyes fell upon what happened to be an attractive woman in a dress. Or would have been attractive had her expression not indicated she wished to bite a nail in two. Leaning back and scratching at his neck, Ezekiel merely stared at her for a few moments before he decided to speak.

"Well, this is unbelievably awkward. Should I expect you to entertain me beyond standing there and scowling the whole night through?" In all honesty, he didn't know where in Maker's name she'd come from or why she was here, and actually didn't care that much.

......Alright, so he did. He just didn't care to vocalize his questions quite yet.

[Nuala Ladonna Kaeson]

Nuala continued to take in the situation around her, all the mercenaries off fornicating with women from Maker knows where. Yet one man sat by the fire, eating his food.

"Well, this is unbelievably awkward. Should I expect you to entertain me beyond standing there and scowling the whole night through?" was all the man said.

A loud burst of laughter flew forth from Nuala, this man amused her, and he was the only one there not surrounding himself with what she was sure to be whores. She was filled with the urge to take the respectable man with her, away from this... mess, and set the rest on fire, and she would have, had she not known that they would all escape. You can't lock people in a forest.

"Awkward indeed. I am not here to entertain you, however should you be entertained by something that I do or imply, do feel free to laugh." She liked him. He was funny, though she was wary of any man who would surround himself with this filth.

She surveyed the situation a moment more, and decided to explain herself.

"I was actually just on my way home from Redcliffe, and got... distracted. Would you mind directing me away from this vulgar display of iniquity?[/b]" she half expected this man to want to get away from this situation himself, and thought it best to extend hospitality to him. "If you've been waiting for a time to escape, ser, this is it.[/b]" That was about as much of an invitation he was going to get out of her, and she was sure he understood.

She stood and waited for direction, eager to leave.

[Averice Roman]

[/i] children. His back was turned to the main camp as he huddled close to his campfire and cared little of what was happening...

...Until laughter rang out from behind him. Averice glanced behind to see a woman standing in the middle of the camp speaking to a man near the campfire. He raised an eyebrow as he took note of her clothing from a distance. She looked a little disarrayed and he arose, soon finding himself joining the main camp and heading to her to better study her. What had piqued his curiosity so with this woman? He looked at her from head to toe, catching the last of her words.

"And why would one want to escape?" He asked, curious. What was she planning? He was now suspicious of the woman standing before him. "Are darkspawn heading this way?" Averice knew it was bad but he was silently praying his words was true. He was itching for a fight and the thought of fighting darkspawn seemed promising. However, at the same time, the woman's words were curious to say the least. As if she planned to slaughter all who were here. Averice could care less if she did kill everyone single person in the camp, though she'd be hard pressed to kill him. He wouldn't go down without a fight much less make himself an easy target for her.

At the thought, he gripped his longsword on his left hip, tensing slightly as if expecting an attack any given moment.[/size][/ul]

[Nuala Ladonna Kaeson]

Nuala looked at this newcomer for a moment, and decided it would probably be best to tell him the truth behind her words. She looked around the disgusting scene once more, at the people off in the trees, fucking near-perfect strangers and smiled at him. He was not as funny as the other one, but he'd been off on his own, away from the squalor.

"I might tell you why one would want to escape, stranger, what with all the disgusting displays of dirty, smelly people having sex just beyond, all the children and thieves and I'm sure a murderer or two," Nuala paused a moment, letting her words sink into the man's head while looking around a little bit for the Nat that she'd followed here. Skampy little things were always leading her strange places and then disappearing. If she ever did get her hands on one she'd probably spit roast it and eat it. "But I'd be far more interested in why one would want to stay in such a disgusting place with so many disgusting people, eating what I'm sure is disgusting food. Pray tell, ser, why would one want to stay here when there are so many other options available to you?"

Darkspawn. There was a word she'd not heard recently. Though being such a shut in, she was not likely to have heard anything about what was going on in Ferelden, even though it probably would concern her once the Hoarde reached her little home.

[kent]

Ezekiel quirked not one, but both eyebrows when the woman exploded into laughter. Ah, if only all women found his comments so amusing. Nonetheless, her quick shift from her look of disdain for the entirety of the Maker's creation to clear amusement and apparent appreciation for Ezekiel's presence came off as......odd. And why in the world had some young lady in a dress wandered into a camp filled with men only interested in fucking any breast-possessing creature they could get their hands on? In all, Ezekiel's mind set off a few warning signals. However, in his experience with women, odd rarely equaled dangerous. In fact, oddity came over as a bit refreshing. That said, there was certainly a fine line between odd and crazy, and crazy certainly equaled dangerous.

"Awkward indeed. I am not here to entertain you, however should you be entertained by something that I do or imply, do feel free to laugh."

"I'm thrilled to know I have permission." He responded, those questions as to why exactly she was here returning to the forefront of his mind. Taking a moment to study her as her eyes turned away for a moment again, Ezekiel found no signs that she was anything particularly abnormal aside from her parading around the forest in a nice dress and her apparent tendency to wander into strangers' camps. She also looked quite young- most likely not even as old as Ezekiel himself. Perhaps she had mental problems. He could only speculate. At least she distracted him from his meal.

"I was actually just on my way home from Redcliffe, and got... distracted. Would you mind directing me away from this vulgar display of iniquity?"

"Of course." He jabbed a finger out and waved it in a circle all around him, pointing in every direction possible. "You'll find the exit in that direction." Maybe he was being a bit too much trouble, but he had to get his amusement in somewhere during this little excursion. Her mention of 'escape' actually seemed tempting, but before Ezekiel could actually stand and attempt to usher her back towards the path leading out of Redcliffe (which he believed wasn't terribly far), one of the other campers made his presence known from the other side of the fire, turning Ezekiel's eyes towards him. He didn't know this fellow's name any better than the rest, but at least he wasn't making love to every feminine creature in sight. That earned him a point.

But he was certainly a jumpy kind of fellow, it seemed.

Raising a hand towards both the female and the other camper once they indulged themselves in a debate on escaping the camp, Ezekiel spoke up. "Let's try to keep the paranoia to a reasonable level, please. What could be suspicious about a young woman wandering aimlessly into a camp and asking a stranger to escape with her?" He said, standing and throwing the other man a grin. "She does have a point. As....tasty as this piss-and-rock soup might be, the smell and gruff moans coming from the trees make me want to injure small, cuddly animals."

Tossing aside his absolutely delicious dinner, Ezekiel began trotting over to his things, heaving them back onto his shoulders and suddenly remembering how tired he was. He was too young for this. And he was also most likely the most ignorant man in the world right now. She could have been trying to lure an unsuspecting soul into an ambush. She could have wanted to isolate a man and attempt to rob him. Thousands of scenarios passed through his head. Secrets she could be hiding.

But Ezekiel carried some secrets of his own.

Turning his gaze towards the paranoid man, Ezekiel wondered if he was going to regret what he was about to say. "I had planned to abandon you all before dawn, anyway. Why don't you come along? If she wishes to throttle us I would at least prefer to have a potential tattle-tale in tow." A particularly loud moan broke through the relative calm of the evening. "......And I doubt either of us would get much sleep if we stayed."

[Averice Roman]

[/i]

"Hmm. Children alone would cause one to flee. The sex didn't bother him and neither did the smell. That was one thing Averice had gotten used to living on the streets of Denerim. Yes, certainly there was a thief or two, maybe more and as far as Averice could tell he was the only murderer. He was almost tempted to tell her as much to see what sort of reaction he'd get but refrained, deciding it wouldn't be worth it. He did like his secrets after all.

"But I'd be far more interested in why one would want to stay in such a disgusting place with so many disgusting people, eating what I'm sure is disgusting food. Pray tell, ser, why would one want to stay here when there are so many other options available to you?"

That was a good question. Why in the hell was he staying here? Was he that bored? Or rather was he hoping of one the peasants would attack him? "Indeed. Why would want to stay here?" He even begun questioning why in the hell he helped them in the first place. Averice was a loner but every now and then did like the company of others. Was he honestly that desperate for human contact? If that was the case, Redcliffe wasn't that far away and he could get better company for the night for a good price.

"Let's try to keep the paranoia to a reasonable level, please. What could be suspicious about a young woman wandering aimlessly into a camp and asking a stranger to escape with her?"

...He seriously didn't ask that aloud did he? Please let him have heard wrong. When the words sunk in and it appeared he did share that thought aloud, Averice gave him a stare that said as much. "Lots and where the hell do I begin with it?" Besides, Averice wasn't paranoid...just cautious. VERY cautious.

"She does have a point. As....tasty as this piss-and-rock soup might be, the smell and gruff moans coming from the trees make me want to injure small, cuddly animals."

Yes, Averice had already made that agreement in his mind and speech earlier. Averice had avoided eating the soup they dished out and maybe that was for the best. It seemed whoever ate the soup was out in the woods mating with just about every living thing in the damned world. As far as cute, small, cuddly animals went, if the man was to hurt a cat, Averice would happily jump in. He hated cats almost as much as he hated children. Averice simply shook his head.

"I had planned to abandon you all before dawn, anyway. Why don't you come along? If she wishes to throttle us I would at least prefer to have a potential tattle-tale in tow."

And he was going with her and offered him a place amongst them. Averice heavily considered the decision that now laid before him and scratched his chin in though. It was then loud moan broke the silence and Averice sighed angrily.

"......And I doubt either of us would get much sleep if we stayed."

Well, that made up his mind and sealed the deal. Averice shrugged and headed back to his campfire, grabbing his pack then returned to the others. "I've nothing better to do and I prefer a quiet evening." He motioned for either to one to lead the way.[/size][/ul]

[Nuala Ladonna Kaeson]

Nuala was already walking away, she cared not for the jumpy man nor for anything that he had to say. She was aware that the one she liked was going to invite him, and she was sure that he'd had ulterior motives, though she did not know what they were. She did not have any use for anybody, and did not want their company unless they were at the very least funny. She walked at a relatively slow pace, waiting for the funny one to catch up to her as she looked around some more for that elusive Nat...

This seemed to happen to her quite often, seeing a strange animal she'd never seen before and being led into odd and uncomfortable situations, though she'd never come out with companions before. More often than not, she'd end up having to fight her way out of a group of angry and aroused mercenaries for fear of getting raped and possibly killed. It wasn't to say that she didn't like sex, on the contrary, it was one of the things in life that she rather enjoyed, but she didn't like having it forced upon her by the disgusting and smelly underbelly of society. She had standards.

"What is your name, funny man? I do not wish to continue on without a name to call you by.[/b]" She paused and thought a moment before continuing. "And for the record, ser, I do not wish to harm you in any way, but I can't promise that we won't come across hostile territories. You say there are Darkspawn about?[/b]"

Quiet evening indeed, two more hours of walking and they would be at her humble abode. It was in amongst many many trees through the forest that naturally surrounded Redcliffe. A place that not many often traveled. She preferred it that way, living in a place where the dregs of society could not touch her, and if they did she had the power to make them go away.

[kent]

What fine companions Ezekiel suddenly had in tow. A strange camp-invading young woman and a slightly less strange man who disliked children more than smelly, pleasure-crazed men with scraggly beards. Apparently, at least, judging solely by his comments. As he made sure he'd gathered up what few belongings he hadn't been forced to abandon while shoving fireballs down darkspawn throats, Ezekiel stole a glance towards the thankfully near-impossible to view orgy going on beyond the camp. Of course, none of the fools had moved an inch since the female had arrived. He was surprised they didn't attempt to include her in their evening's excursion. He made a mental note- should he need to attain an upper hand on a typical, amoral mercenary, he should send in every well-endowed young lady he could track down as a vanguard and immensely effective diversion.

Turning back to see the young lady had already turned away from the camp and was stalking through the shrubbery, Ezekiel thought to pull his hood back over his head, but decided the more he could see while traveling with these two, the better. He shoved it back down around his neck a moment later and stole along behind the female, wondering why her head never seemed to remain still, her gaze apparently moving from shadow to shadow in search of.....something as she moved along. Giving a slight shake of his head and wondering how quirky a single human being could be, Ezekiel stole a pair of glances towards her form and her interesting traveling outfit, planning to speak before she spoke for him.

"'Funny man'? Wonderful." He only considered the consequences of telling two complete strangers his name for a moment, decidedly doubting that either were close friends with Templars. Not that Ezekiel had been the most secretive man lately when it came to his title of apostate. Recent events made sure of that. Perhaps it was time to stop worrying about Templars so much with the darkspawn running rampant. "Ezekiel. If you suffer from a lazy tongue, Zeke works just as well." was his answer after a short pause. "And yours?"

Ezekiel waited a moment for her response, glancing towards the other man with a sarcastic 'See? I told you she was perfectly innocent' look on his face as she explained that she did not wish to harm them. So comforting. Hostile territories sounded wonderful, as well.

"You say there are Darkspawn about?"

Her final question brought his gaze up from his own feet as he stepped over roots well-hidden by the darkness. Had word of Ostagar not yet reached these regions? "'About' is not quite the word for the situation...." The mage studied her expression for a moment, a look of slight surprise at the question crossing his features. Putting two and two together, he returned her question with one of his own. ".......You don't get out much, do you?"

[Nuala Ladonna Kaeson]

Nuala laughed heartily at Ezekiel once more. To say that she didn't get out much was quite the understatement. She continued allowing her eyes to flit off to the sides of their path, searching in vain for the Nat she'd lost long ago.

"My name is Nuala Kaeson, and no, I'm somewhat of a shut in[/color]," she answered both of his questions with a wide smile on her face. Ezekiel was a trusting man, and she admired that.

"Zeke, what fun that is to say![/color]" she exclaimed, genuinely amused by this. "Zeke, Zeke, Zeke...[/color]" she allowed her voice to trail off as she took note of the fact that the jumpy one was straggling behind. That was going to get on her nerves. If there was anything she hated more than Circle Mages, it was stragglers.

Nuala assumed from Ezekiel's tone that there was a Blight. Nuala chose not to aknowledge this, she didn't really care, figuring that she could just pick up and move farther north if she really needed to. She watched Ezekiel closely, taking in his mannerisms. He didn't seem to distrust her as much as the jumpy one, who still had not introduced himself. She hadn't much cared for him in the beginning, and she was disliking him more and more as time went on. At this point, she was simply waiting with bated breath until the jumpy, nameless man spoke again. She wanted to know if he did have an amusing side to him.

"Zeke, what is it that brought you to that camp? Where had you intended on going, out of curiosity?[/color]" Nuala was trying to make pleasant conversation to pass the time before they reached her home. She wondered idly if these men knew that she was leading them to her home, and what exactly it was that they intended to do when they finally got there.

[kent]

Ezekiel's surprised expression in response to the mention of darkspawn slowly disappeared and returned to the potential dangers of the darkening forest around him as she went on to give a name and explain herself. A shut-in. Probably most of the reason for all of the oddness. His remaining worries were somewhat lessened at her confession. Of course, she could be hiding a lie somewhere in those admittedly attractive features and be busy figuring out the best place to stab him. ""Zeke, what fun that is to say! Zeke, Zeke, Zeke..." ........Or perhaps she didn't possess the capacity to deceive. Nonetheless, it was amusing to think about. He had an amazing talent for falling in with the strangest people. Maybe it was a character flaw. Maybe he just liked feeling like the smartest person within several miles.

"For your information...." He belatedly answered, once again addressing the darkspawn. ".....regarding the darkspawn- I've...." Did he want to say 'killed'? If he mentioned killing them, he might be asked how, since he had no obvious blade on his person. ".....encountered dozens of them over the past few days." Though he was mostly sure word had reached Redcliffe about the king's complete and total defeat, Ezekiel was not going to be the messenger that got an arrow in his ass for bringing bad news. And, as he was assuming that Nuala was taking them back to Redcliffe, he left mention of Ostagar noticeably out of his story. "They overran an entire army only days ago. So, yes, you could say darkspawn were about......if you'd like to completely understate the situation."

A moment of pause broke his statements off from Nuala's next questions, which thankfully didn't set his mind racing with doubts about telling the truth, the near-truth, or a complete lie to conceal any important information about himself. "I had the great pleasure of running headlong into those noble gentlemen while fighting off some of those blighted creatures I've already mentioned. I sadly had no opportunity while we were fighting for our lives to interview them and discover that they were all more interested in fucking everything in sight instead of actually acting like human beings. Looking back, I don't know why they all didn't just take down a few darkspawn while they had the chance." Actually, Ezekiel managed to nauseate himself at the mention of 'taking down' darkspawn, and shook his head free of the thought.

"They were retreating to Redcliffe and, honestly, having a few more bodies to shield against darkspawn sounded like a decent deal at the time. Until the moaning started up....." Of course, Ezekiel had turned down the offer for a wench of his own when he discovered that all of the mercenaries seemed to be aiming to have at their own desired young lady while in the company of the other mercs doing the same thing. People never ceased to amaze him.

Especially not on this night.

[Nuala Ladonna Kaeson]

Nuala would have laughed at Ezekiel's last comment had she not seen that disgusting mess of a campsite first hand. She was very much sickened by such vulgar displays of miscreancy. There was no need for orgy's or things of the sort, and certainly no place for it in society, she believed.

"I never understood the need to show off one's sexual prowess in such a fashion.[/color]" Nuala blurted, lacking any form of social filter. "Honestly, how hard is it to pay a prostitute in comparison to adhering to the laws of attraction? Where is the chase? Where is the fun? Most of the allure that sex itself holds is in the seduction, don't you think?[/color]" She had literally no regard for the uncomfortable nature of the topic, having never really learned or cared what made people nervous. "T'would be the equivalent of a cat eating a mouse that was already dead." The analogy itself was almost enough to make her smile.

Nuala had a very simplistic and nigh childish way of looking at life as though it were a great game. There was fun to be had in everything and strangers, lest they be entertaining or smart enough to resist, were pawns to be manipulated and later disposed of.

And she was always winning.

This thought never ceased to amuse Nuala, always having the upper hand in any given situation, or so she liked to believe. Really, she was just a young girl with a sword and a grave fascination with fire that had murdered a whole town. A fresh face with the ability to convince people that she was harmless.

She busied herself with looking to the sides of the path for random herbs that often grew in the area, now that they were drawing closer to her home. She refused to pay money for things that she could get for free if she just kept an eye out for them. Nuala already had quite the stock of herbs in jars in her home, but was always on the lookout for more.

Nuala began to grow slightly nervous about the straggling man. She did not trust those who would not speak. In her search for more herbs, she stole several glances back at him, making sure he didn't try anything sneaky.