faderift | [Open] [I can move mountains, move mountains.. ]

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[Open] [I can move mountains, move mountains.. ]

WHO: Bethany Hawke and You
WHAT: Exploring the Inquisition
WHEN: The next few days of Wintermarch
WHERE: The garden, the tavern, the courtyard, the library.
NOTES: Content warnings, OOC notes, links to other relevant posts, etc.

The first thing Bethany did after arriving at Skyhold?

A bath. A beautiful, long hot bath where she soaked with nice soap and some sort of fancy oil and just ... cleansed herself from about a week's worth of sand and dirt. After that though, well.

Bethany used to be the sort of person who would keep to the edges to not be noticed. Kept herself hidden, to keep herself from being taken to a Circle. Her family went through such risks to keep her free - keeping her head down seemed to be a small sacrifice to make.

Now, nine years - almost ten! - years a Warden and she still observed quietly from the background. Yet now, she would step forward. Move more boldly, with more confidence and a great deal more poise. She also, as she had been apt to do even in her days in Kirkwall, stopped to help people.

So there you will find her, all around Skyhold, quietly soaking up everything, or chatting happily with someone as she helps them carry firewood or food out to the hungry troops training in the yard. The first thing you will know is that smile - dimples and bright, and completely unfeigned. Who knows, maybe it's just pointing at you.

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Humans don't have clans the way the Dalish do. Still, Hawke had been like a Keeper of sorts, with her friends and family all congregating around her. Seeing them again is like coming home, in a way, even with all the other friends they've made in the meantime.

Merrill laughs -- yes, all limbs accounted for -- and returns the second hug. Then it's her turn to lean back, to see if Bethany is all there, if she's changed in other ways.

"Oh, good! Then I haven't just somehow missed you." A pause, then- "I showed up around a month ago, I think."

It was like a family - a different sort of family than the Wardens. Marian, and all the people she brought together? It was sort of a symbol of everyone coming together to bring people together. Wardens came together, for the greater good -- and Bethany had always found it a little harder to have the bonds she had within that second year of Kirkwall.

There were precious few Bethany would call as good as family. The Kirkwall gang? Always, always family.

Bethany was all there - a few years older, and she looked a bit tired around the edges, but she was all there. She beamed at the elf, then took her by the arm. "No, you haven't gone wandering off and missed me calling out to you a half a dozen times. Come on, I want to steal you for breakfast and hear all about this month here."

Older and tired, but that's to be expected, really. She'd just traveled to Skyhold and there were demons coming out of random holes in the Veil; that would make anyone tired. Besides, Merrill could only imagine the worry she must have felt regarding her sister -- Merrill worried too, but she hadn't grown up with Marian Hawke the way Bethany had. It was worry, and it was family, but it perhaps wasn't quite the same.

Or maybe it was, and she was overthinking things. It wouldn't be the first time.

"Oh, good! I did spend my entire first day by myself here getting lost while trying to find the library, after all." And then mostly spent the rest of the month getting lost trying to find other places, but she's more than happy to tell Bethany about it. About the other elves that came with her from Kirkwall too, and any other dozens of things she happens to think of. Arm-in-arm, she leans against her friend a little, pleased at the closeness.

"I don't suppose the Wardens have found any griffons yet?"

Bethany was worried - about Marian, about Carver, about Aveline back home. She was even worried about Sebastian -- yes, yes silly for her to have a crush on the Chantry Stick but how could she not? -- but where her heart went was always her siblings, and then the Kirkwall gang. She would never say that they were any less worried about Marian than she - they all loved her in their own way.

They were all Bethany's family, all Marian's family, all Carver's family too.

"Oh Merrill, not really?" Bethany's voice is filled a quiet amusement, and a worried look. Still, she seemed to be faring better here than when they had taken her to the alienage, so that was a good sign.

A laugh bubbled out of her, "Not yet, but I've been looking for you."

Family, friends, even the rivalries that existed within the group -- they were all still tied together by shared history, shared bonds that became bonds of their own. Without Hawke, maybe those bonds would strengthen further -- not that it made the loss of her any less.

"I met a lot of very nice people, though! So that was all right." So yes, really, but it all worked out for the best. She's always been so awkward about people, as far as she's concerned, but she has friends even aside from the Kirkwall gang or the alienage elves now. It's nice. It's different, but very nice.

So is the news that Bethany was looking for her, and Merrill laughs a little herself, just pleased to be in her company. "Well, here I am!"

Without Marian, they would grow closer. Even if it was only in worry for her. Yet the bonds of friendship would carry them forward, into whatever this uncertain future was. At least, that is what Bethany believed.

"I'm glad. I always worried about you being by yourself." Especially with her tendency to get lost. Merrill was a strong mage with strong Dalish beliefs and a good heart -- even if it was in the absolutely worst place. That she had people she could depend on? Was everything Bethany could hope for.

She got another hug for that, "Good! We can go hunting for griffons now together then, hm?"

She had learned Kirkwall eventually, and she was perfectly able to defend herself -- but being alone wasn't something she was that used to. She had been secluded growing up, yes, but the clan had still been there. After that, it had been Hawke and the others -- now, the alienage elves and the Inquisition, and some of the former groups overlapped.

"Oh, yes! Who knows, they could be hiding in the mountains! I mean, no one knew this was here, did they?"

A little kindling of hope was triggered at even that idea -- that there could be griffons, as secreted away as Skyhold had been, just out of sight behind a mountaintop.

Merrill wasn't good at being alone, something that Bethany understood all too well. She had Carver with her, always, and Marian watching out after both of them. Her parents watching over them, the small village of Lothering where everyone knew everyone, if not all their business. Then the Kirkwall gang, and of course, Nathaniel and the Grey Wardens. Being alone ... was not something Bethany ever wanted to be.

"No ... they really didn't." She looked around, her brown eyes quiet and thoughtful. So somewhere out there, there could be griffons again. There was always hope -- that she could not give up on, even when she had given up so many other girlish ideals. Hope always survived.

That Merrill was here was proof of that. "Of course they'll just be babies. We'd have to find a way to raise them, and then learn how to ride them all over again."

They're not alone now, at least. Even less so, perhaps, since the quarters are a bit cramped.

"Do you think there are still books about how to raise griffons? There had to be someone who wrote that sort of thing down, right?" If not at Skyhold, then surely somewhere else. Perhaps Bethany, being a Warden, could find such a document. "Otherwise I imagine we just try to mimic what birds and cats do for their babies. I'm not so sure about the riding, though; I imagine they're a bit more willful than the Inquisition's horses."

No, they are not. As Bethany can attest to, as she is now sleeping in the loft of the barn until Blackwall returns. She's actually looking forward to meeting this mysterious Warden -- she's heard so much of him in old Warden journals. He was instrumental in bringing so many of the newer Wardens in, in the last few years.

She bit her lip, thinking about it. "There must be - perhaps in Weisshupt? Although I am not sure we can send out for those volumes right now." Considering that all the Wardens here were 'outlaws'. "Oh naturally, but that's why we train them from babies to trust us."

Please do not leap out of the loft and jump on Blackwall, Bethany. Only do, because that would be amazing.

"Someday, though!" They'd figure it out -- not that Merrill really knew much about the state of Warden anything, but if Bethany said they couldn't right now, she believed her. "Do we have to separate them from their parents to do that? I mean, I wouldn't want them to be sad when they're just little."

Oh Merill -- you know she will do a much politer variation of that. Mostly because she wants to see what the older Warden is made of.

"Someday, yes. In fact, there's no reason why we shouldn't start researching with what we have." She beamed, before she frowned, "Honestly if we can find full sized, adult griffons, it would be our job to keep them safe. Perhaps see if they can be trained to fly with us."

You can politely jump on people! Probably.

"I wonder if we could ask the scouts to keep an eye out for signs of them! I mean, they have to look for signs of other things." And, after all, the griffons could help. Even adult sized ones. "Maybe they'd like friendly faces. We could feed them, at least; even if they wouldn't let us ride them or fly with us, they would be nice to see."

If anyone could find a way, it would be Bethany and Merrill. They will politely scare the smallclothes off of Blackwall.

"We could - scouts always like finding new and interesting things, don't they?" Warden scouts always liked finding new things in the Deep Roads. Kept things from getting boring, they said. "Oh, that would be delightful - can you imagine petting a griffon?"

The poor man.

"I would think so!" After all, they're scouts. That's their job. "And oh, yes- feathers and fur, thick and soft... Like petting a rather sturdy cloud!"

That's certainly one way to put it, Merrill.

He will not know what to do with all this adorableness.

"...A rather sturdy cloud that we'll have to be careful with, because they will peck us." She frowned. "This is going to take a lot more research than what we have available."

"Or slash us with their talons!" Merrill, please sound less excited.

"We'll figure something out. We always do."

"Merrill we don't want them to slash us with their talons." Is Bethany's gentle reminder, even as she grinned a little at her friend's excitement.

She looked over at the smaller woman, before she nodded her head firmly. "We always do, don't we?"

"Well- no. But they could slash bad people with their talons!" And besides, if they're slashing them with their talons, that means they're around to slash with their talons.

But more than that, at the moment, is that Bethany believes her. Optimism, even now; it's always such a rare thing, something Merrill has tried to cling to. It's better when people feel the same, and she smiles back. "And then Varric will tell a story about it."

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