Let's get down to business to defeat the Hu... uh, demons.

[issala]

WHO: Kas & OPEN
WHAT: Kas returns to Skyhold with a scout team.
WHEN: Today
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: Proud teen cockiness all over the place.

1.

He may have mud in places he didn't even know he had, but the qunari teen holds his head high when he passes the massive gates to Skyhold with the rest of his team, easily picked out by the bumps in his hood where his horns were. New, still shiny knives on his back and a well-cared bow and quiver joining them as well made him look even more official. (He might be muddy, but those weapons were flawless.)

He had made it; he had survived, and he had carried out his mission... and he was so utterly proud of it. Kas felt like he had made a difference, no matter how small, and it gave him more determination to continue. He was worth something. He wasn't just a pickpocket and rogue on the streets, desperate to live.

It wasn't a surprise, then, how the boy walked cockily off to the barracks like he was king of the castle. Never mind that he slipped in the stairs. Nobody saw that, right?

"Mud fucking sucks," he mutters, brushing off the leathers with a sigh.

Qunari

One of the first things he had to do when he returned was to check on the other qunari and make sure they were all alive and not murdered by Ben-Hassrath or fallen out in that swamp... mire... thing.

"Gorse...? Korrin?"

2.

Later that day, the teen is out of his scout uniform and back in the somewhat over-sized clothing, carefully mended and cleaned. Hanging out by the stables, he was drinking hot tea and just enjoying life without shame and guilt - maybe for the first time in his life since he left the kith.

It hadn't been easy, but he had already seen a lot of bad things in his life. This was not so different.

One of the horses in the stables snorted near one of his pointed ears, and Kas reaches up to pet the soft muzzle. "I made it," he confesses softly to the animal with an unguarded smile on his face. "They won't kick me out now, right?"

Comments

*swoons*

[el_tybs]

What didn't he do at the Mire? Sam huffs and takes a moment to think on that, chewing the inside of his lip. "Hm. Well there were a number of times where I had to take care of disposing of ashes. I was sent out with a group to track something down... we brought it back here actually."

Sam's eyes dart towards the far end of the stables for a moment at that before he crosses his arms. Demon-people? The Rifters? "Yeah, right near the end a rift opened up and started dropping people on us. Krem fished out this one guy," he says while bending over to hold a hand up to about his thighs, "that's about this tall. Says he's a Hobbit."

[issala]

He looks curious, listening to Sam and leaning forward a bit. "Really? Was it a powerful artifact or something?" As far as the boy knew, the Mire was old and surely old creepy places had hidden magical objects in it?

The description of the Rifters makes Kas' skin crawl and he shudders. As far as he was concerned (as he hadn't met any) they were just demons with weird forms. When Sam mentions the tiny one, however, the teen finds himself smiling. Okay, a tiny demon like that didn't seem too scary.

"A hobbit, huh? Looks even smaller than a dwarf."

[el_tybs]

"Ugh. I wish. Either of those would've been easier to deal with." Sam makes a face, bobbing his head side to side a bit before sighing. "Possessed dead horse."

Just talking about the Hobbit has a smile coming to the Mage's face, nodding at what Kas said. "Yeah, but he seems pretty tough considering. He should be around here somewhere."

[issala]

"What."

Possessed. Dead. Horse.

Okay.

He makes a disgusted face and quickly looks around to make sure he wasn't sitting anywhere near it. Animals were kind of freaky enough without being dead, too.

"The hobbit's around, too? Great, m'gonna have to find another place to hang out."

[el_tybs]

Sam tries not to laugh at Kas' expression, considering that's probably what he had looked like when he first saw the creature. "They keep it away from the other animals. It's over by the wall in that corner there." Actually wasn't that where he had found Kas practicing that one time?

"He's not right, right here, no," he clarifies. "He's roaming around Skyhold. Says his name is Samwise, or Sam for short. Just so you know."

[issala]

Ew, ew, ew. That's just. Ew. He's never training over there again.

...and at the same time, the teen can't help being totally curious about this creature, grey-blue eyes glancing at the corner but not really daring to go over there alone.

Instead, he rolls his eyes a bit when Sam tells him the tiny demon's name. "That's gonna be confusing," Kas mutters with mild annoyance. It wasn't as if he was going to go talk to it, though. Blight, he doesn't even want to be near those weird people.

[el_tybs]

"Would you like to go see it?" he offers, seeing Kas' eyes dart in the direction he had indicated. It still grosses him out too, but he's getting used to it. Kind of a sad beast once you got past the dead part.

"Oh, believe me, it is. I probably sound like I'm talking in the third person." Not that he blames Wise, but he's sure that some misunderstandings were going to come up.

[issala]

He hesitates at that, chewing slightly on his lower lip. He wanted to see it, but what if he got scared in front of Sam? "I guess?" Getting up, he brushes hay off his pants and straightens up with a sigh.

"Anyone who talks about the other guy is gonna say he's a rifter demon thing, so I don't think it's gonna be that confusing." He then says, looking quite sure of it. "You're still the real Sam."

[el_tybs]

Honestly he wouldn't blame you if you did Kas. He was very reluctant to go near the thing at the beginning. "If you don't want to you don't have to. Just offering since it might come as less of surprise if you know about it."

Rifter demon? Is that what people believed these people to be? Well it kind of made sense since demons did come out of them. Being called 'the real Sam' does make him smile and give a soft chuckle though. "Well thanks for your vote of confidence on that. At least no one can confuse us on looks."

[issala]

"No, I... I want to." He had to show just how awesomely brave he was, after all. Just let him brace himself for this undead horse thing. Moving forward, he looks back at Sam to make sure the man came with him.

"Well, you're the Sam I know so that's all that matters." He shrugs again, getting closer to the back stall. His eyes widen as he sees the sword first, sticking... sticking out of the beast's head?

"...ewww."

[el_tybs]

Sam tilts his head and smiles, seeing that Kas was making sure he was following along. He is, though just a couple feet behind him since Kas had gotten a head start on him.

Ew is right. No matter how many times he sees it himself it's still disturbing. It was worse when it tried to rub it's face on you. "They nicknamed it the 'bog unicorn'. Kind of fitting."

[issala]

The rest of the horse isn't much better, and he finds himself backing away a bit, hotting Sam's chest and trying to not just out of his skin at that. It really was a corpse horse!

"The bog unicorn?" Okay, he has to admit that's pretty good. It kind of looked like a horn, after all. "Why is the sword still in it? Isn't that kind of mean?"

As mean as you could be to something already dead, that was.

[el_tybs]

"Well it is dead... But I'm guessing it's hard to get out since it's probably fused with the skull at this point. Not worth working it up either trying to get it out either." At least those were his guesses.

Reaching up slowly, Sam pats Kas on the shoulder, hoping to settle him down a bit. "Well you've seen it. We don't have to stay."

[issala]

"That's the grossest thing I've ever seen." It's so disgusting and freaky, yet he's undoubtedly fascinated, wondering if trying to pet it would get his hand bit off, or if it would steal his soul. "Who's gonna ride that thing?"

He shudders at the very thought and backs off a bit. Not... not that he's scared or anything, mind you.

"Yeah... I've seen enough."

[el_tybs]

Of course you aren't, Kas. You're a man right?

Sam nods at that and turns to walk away, back towards the stalls with the actual living animals. "Don't know. At the moment I think they're just studying it. If they do plan on using it... well good luck to that person."

[issala]

Damn right he is!

Kas is quick to follow along, looking back now and then to make sure the corpse-horse wasn't somehow following them and waiting to eat them up.

Disgusting and awesome.

"Whoever rides it is gonna fall off when the skin detaches from the flesh and takes the saddle along..."

[el_tybs]

"That's... actually kind of gross to think about." Sam makes a face at the idea, but it's laced with a smile and a bit of his tongue sticking out when he looks down at Kas.

"Though I don't think that's going to happen. It's a lot sturdier then it looks. The skin is more like tough leather now so that wouldn't easily happen."

[issala]

The teen scoffs, giving Sam a shrug. "Whatever. Still gross. The Inquisition is weird for keeping it." His riding skills may be shit, but damn if he didn't prefer a living, breathing horse. Or his damned feet, if he had to choose between that and the dead thing.

He returns to the entrance of the stable and takes a nice big breath of fresh air. Between dead things and horse shit, that was more than needed.

[el_tybs]

"The Inquisition is definitely weird and interesting, yes," he chuckles, watching as Kas breathes deep. Sam could only imagine how the youth would've acted if he had actually been there when they first saw the horse.

"So where have you been? I see you're wearing the scouting gear proudly."

[issala]

He brightens up at the question, pleased to deviate from the topic of dead horses. "I was on my first mission! It went great, and we even got attacked by bandits once!"

Kas puffs up proudly, grinning at Sam. "I killed one!"

[el_tybs]

Normally people didn't get excited about being attacked by bandits, but for Kas it probably had been an exciting opportunity to prove himself.

"Get'em with your bow or with the daggers?"

[issala]

It had been frightening and he might have panicked a bit, but it was his first kill of a bad person while fighting for the Inquisition and his amount of pride just couldn't be measured.

"Got him with my bow! Right in the chest!" Kas had missed every single other shot, though. Hitting moving targets was far more difficult than a dummy, after all.

[el_tybs]

"Sounds like all that practice paid off. Still teaching yourself?"

[issala]

He shakes his head at that, rubbing the back of his head.

"Nah, I go to scout training, now. But it helped, I wasn't the worst in the class!" Some poor human was, and... well, there were many of them and few qunari. It evened out easier.

[el_tybs]

"Scout training, huh?" Sam smiles at that, glad to hear that Kas is doing things with the other scouts rather then trying to do everything on his own.

"Maybe when I get back you can show me some of the things you've learned."