[Closed] The Wrong Road

[wontforgetyou]

WHO: Kallian, Adelaide, Hermione, Ruby, Eirlys and Merrick with special guest appearances by Anders and Norrington
WHAT: Gathering supplies. What could possibly go wrong?
WHEN: Backdated to the beginning of Cloudreach
WHERE: The Hinterlands
NOTES: Warnings for demons, violence, injury and mages being outed, will be updated as needed.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to travel to the Hinterlands in search of supplies and rare herbs. Royal elfroot, in particular, is something that would be more than welcome, although extra supplies of regular elfroot, and blood lotus wouldn't go amiss. The air is warmer than it has been, carrying with it the promise of spring and renewal, and the journey there is easy, allowing for pleasant time spent enjoying a break from winter. The Hinterlands still aren't without their dangers - rebels and outlaws, packs of mabari and thin and hungry bears just waking from hibernation. You never know what you might find...

Comments

[dalishious]

Unfortunately, someone is. Merrick has had his eye on the ram for a while, watching from the shadows and waiting for the perfect time to strike. Shortly after the girl scrambles backwards he emerges, sliding silently towards the beast before he can stab it in the side of the neck with his dagger.

His other dagger comes around and he slits the ram's throat with it, quick and clean. It all happens in a matter of seconds, and afterward he glances at the girl as if noticing her for the first time.

"Help me drag this back."

[bookish_lioness]

Now that she knows she isn't about to be eaten, Hermione looks over the ram, having never seen one this up close before. She's actually about to smile at it, perhaps even work up the nerve to pet it, when someone else appears and-... oh. Oh.

Eyes widening despite the fact that she'd really rather not look, Hermione watches as the defenseless animal is slain right before her eyes. She wants to cry out, to ask how dare he do something like that when it hadn't even been attacking, but well... she supposes that the people here can't really get their clothes at Harrod's or pick up their neatly packaged meat products from the market. It's a grisly truth that she'd just never had to think too hard about.

Blinking up at the elf in question, she fights back the bile threatening to rise in her throat as she slowly forces herself up to her feet. "Sorry, I-... I don't know that I can. I've never seen anyone... kill an animal before." She's watched people die, but she'd never been asked to help handle the corpses afterwards.

[dalishious]

Merrick just stares at her with a mixture of bewilderment and disdain, standing plainly before her as if he isn't covered in blood with an animal's corpse at his feet.

Honestly, he doesn't get it. He'd killed and skinned his first animal when he was ten, and now hunting is so ingrained in him that he can't imagine life without it. He supposes this is just something he'll have to file away as another instance of 'shem bullshit'.

"So you'd rather starve?" he replies, his tone unkind.

[bookish_lioness]

Hermione pales a little under her gaze, knowing that she's likely considered odd at best for being squeamish about this. She hadn't been in Thedas for a full minute before watching a demon get taken down, but this.... That poor ram had been innocent, she wants to argue, but she swallows it back as she slowly looks down at the dead animal on the ground.

"I-... I suppose it would be a waste, now that it's dead," she admits reluctantly, though she makes no move to actually touch the dead body. "We just don't hunt, where I'm from. Well, I don't. It's... complicated, I suppose, and I'm sure you don't care, just... give me a minute to collect myself."

She just needs to make sure she isn't going to be sick all over the ram's fur, since that really would be a waste.

[dalishious]

As Hermione speaks Merrick sheathes his blades and kicks the ram onto its side. He's not as irritated as he could be; the weather is much nicer than it has been, the mission is an easy one, and he welcomes any opportunity to get away from Skyhold these days.

Still, when he straightens up and looks over at the human, he doesn't exactly ooze understanding.

"I'll just wait here," he scoffs, folding his arms over his chest.

[bookish_lioness]

She actually winces when he kicks at the ram, needing a moment to glance away. It's dead, it's not coming back, and if she doesn't help get it back to camp where someone can make use of it, then it would have died for nothing. Besides, she'd been terrified of the ram a few moments earlier, so she would have actually been grateful if Merrick had done what he'd done and it had been a wolf, for instance. Maybe.

"Are you all right with me using magic?" she asks, having learned long ago that not all elves are mages, or even tolerant of mages. "I can't physically carry it, and it wouldn't be fair to make you do all the work." Especially since she's not sure she can touch it while it's still warm.

[dalishious]

Well, he can't carry it either, that's why they'd be dragging it, but whatever. Merrick just sighs, quite done with this.

"Fine, I don't care," he tells her. Whatever gets the meat to camp the fastest.

[bookish_lioness]

Rather than continue to be stunned, Hermione decides that she stands the chance of being more productive about this whole thing if she gives in to her irritation over his attitude, so she does just that. "If you're annoyed, you could at least give me the time to recover. You did startle me, after all."

Managing not to huff, she gets out her wand and hopes that all of her practicing with it means that she'll be able to do a simple levitation charm without further humiliating herself. After murmuring out the spell and breathing a sigh of relief as the ram gently lifts a few inches off the ground and seems to follow her wand, she spares just enough of her concentration to say, "If it had been a dangerous animal, then I'd definitely have been remiss not to thank you. So thank you."

[dalishious]

His response to her thanks is a shrug, but that's just typical Merrick, really. So is his general prickly attitude. It's best if she doesn't take it personally, or they're not going to have a great time working together.

Shit, does he appreciate her levitating that ram, though. The wand is a bit of a curiosity, and he can't help but mention it despite himself.

"You don't use a staff?"

[bookish_lioness]

Hermione does take it personally, but she doesn't lash out at him. She doesn't know him or his circumstances. He could simply be having a bad day or a bad... however long he's had that attitude. Besides, yelling at him now will just make the ram's body collapse on the floor, and she feels bad enough for the poor animal without disrespecting the body like that.

Debating for a moment over how much she should tell him, she explains, "No, though I think I should at least acquire one to practice with, at some point. In my world, we use wands. They're compact and easy to hide, which is convenient when most of the world doesn't know that magic exists."

[dalishious]

She's going to feel way worse when they get to camp and he skins it and cuts it apart. Still a little ways yet, though.

Merrick is a little surprised to hear of a world that doesn't know what magic is; it's such an inextricable part of Thedosian culture as a whole that he doesn't even think about it.

Damn it, he's really curious now.

"What's a wand?"

[bookish_lioness]

She'll feel too queasy to sit and witness the skinning, but at least she won't feel awful about it. It is better to use the poor thing to a productive end than to just let it rot, after all. Seeing as how she isn't a vegetarian and has worn leather on more than one occasion, it would be hypocritical of her to say otherwise, especially given the lack of convenient processed food and synthetic material here in Thedas.

"The stick in my hand," she remarks, voice a bit dry. She hates when people call it a stick, but it's the easiest way to describe it to someone who otherwise has no way of knowing what it is. "From what I can tell, it seems like my wand works sort of like a miniature version of a staff. They're both points of magical foci that help witches-... that is, mages to direct their magic, right?"