faderift | you don't own the green pines

WHO: Merrill and open!
WHAT: An open log.
WHEN: Justinian 20th - mid-Solace
WHERE: Skyhold and the surrounding area
NOTES: Some talk of violence, injuries, death.

late justinian through early solace | healing tents
[ Justice is dead, but he nearly took many others with them -- Merrill included. She's in a bad way for a few days, especially after; her cheekbone is broke, her ribs mostly intact but her internal organs badly bruised, along with various and sundry scrapes, cuts, bite marks, bruises, and burns.

Still, she's a decent patient. She stays put in the tents, at least, though they can't quite get her to stop talking when she's feeling well enough to sit up and do so. Visitors are allowed at the discretion of the healers, but Merrill isn't going to turn anyone (or anything) away. ]

early solace | around skyhold
[ When she's allowed to leave the healing tents, it's not full-time. They don't want her going down to the Warden camp to sleep, but she's allowed to wander Skyhold as long as she's careful. As a result, Merrill mostly relaxes -- visits with friends or with potential new friends, sits in the garden, watches the birds.

She likes to go visit the griffons, when she can, though she has to be careful. They're less good about watching for injuries. ]

early-mid solace | camp shady fucker
[ When she's allowed to move more, when she's more patched up between a combination of time and magic, Merrill gets to work. Sleeping in a tent isn't new, but the events at Weisshaupt have shaken her. If they need to get out, she wants to be able to move quickly.

She starts to gather supplies. Wood, mostly, but any who know much about the Dalish may recognize what begins to take shape or the plans that Merrill checks every once in a while: an aravel. ]

wildcard
[ you know what to do ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Lexa isn't sure she is allowed to be here. Her occasional presence at Skyhold is allowed (if discreetly monitored), but giving her leave to wander courtyards and the library isn't quite the same as granting access to rare and precious creatures, battle mounts, that have not been seen in Thedas in four hundred years.

That's not to say that it stops her. Just that she takes her time observing the makeshift roost before she enters, and that once inside she is on alert, a subtle tension at the sound of footsteps in anticipation of questioning.

She's not sure what she makes of the hatchlings, which seem a lot messier and fluffier and louder and all-around less majestic than the giant noble beasts in the stories and her mind. The Avvar may be disconnected, but even they have tales of the Blight and the Wardens who fight against it, heroes of old flying about on griffons. It's a bit of a let down. But they are interesting to watch, though she is careful to keep her hands safely folded behind her back, never straying too near the cage even if she is eyeing them from fairly close. She's careful to keep the hem of her coat back, too, not willing to risk it or the sash/cape dangling from her shoulder. ]

[ If they didn't want people to visit the griffons, they shouldn't have put them in the stables. At least, that's Merrill's line of thought, or it would be if she knew that there were concerns about visiting the griffons in the first place. They're creatures of legend, creatures only just recovered -- why stop people from seeing them if everyone is safe about it?

As for her, she tries to visit them as much as she can. Sometimes there are others there when she arrives, sometimes other people show up, but she's always ready to not be alone with the little fluffy predators. Lexa is a face she hasn't seen in some time, though, and there's a little gasp and then a delighted smile. ]

I wasn't sure if you were still around!

[ Some of the hatchlings stir up a fuss at her presence and the sound of her voice -- they've learned she often comes with scratches and, when Maja allows it, treats. ]

[ Lexa notices Merrill's approach before the hatchlings do, and there's a very subtle tension in her frame. It's not personal; there is no one in Skyhold and very few people anywhere else to whom she wouldn't have the same reaction. She turns her head after a moment, slow enough not to seem startled or surprised. There's something regal and stern about her posture different from the anticipation of fighting a dragon or the cower-y meekness she put in when they first met. It seems more natural.

She doesn't quite smile, but she does incline her head in a shallow nod of acknowledgment and recognition. She's a little nonplussed by the breadth of Merrill's smile, unsure what she's done to earn it, but her tone is mild and polite. ]

I come and go. It is not a long trip from my hold. [ She glances aside at the clamoring hatchlings. ] They seem to know you.

[ Different, yes. There are rumors, ones Merrill has only half paid any attention to, but Merrill knows Lexa as a dragon slayer and a woman who let her sit next to her in a strange place. Even if those actions were for information, they weren't things she had to do. ]

I imagine no one realized there was a hold near here. I certainly hope they would have spoken to you, otherwise; I imagine all the activity must be changing things.

[ The Dalish know how that go -- new activity in old hunting grounds changes the behaviors of the animals, makes them more wary and more difficult to catch. The reintroduction of griffons likely won't help anything either, but they were supposed to be here.

Laughing slightly, Merrill offers a hand to scratch whichever of the hatchlings get to her first. ]

I was one of the ones who was led to them in Weisshaupt, who helped get them out. I had Ghostface, Burp, and Slobbaface's [ yes, she knows re: those names ] leads in my hands for a lot of it.

you don't own the green pines

griffons for the 45th time i couldn't resist sorry

all griffons all the time

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