A Life's Worth

Their Nemesis Travels with Them

"So, let me get this straight," Alistair began as he tossed a stone across the pond where the group was currently passing through. "A woman came into your tent while Sten was silently threatening to kill me and Leliana, and she could read your mind?" He tossed another stone. "That this woman could see into the future? And she was sent to intimidate you from Loghain? Well, that's just creepy." He took some stones from Eloriel's hand, replenishing his ammo.

"Do you think I'm nuts?" Eloriel asked shyly.

Alistair looked into her pale blue eyes and grinned. "Oh, totally. I thought so ever since you hit your head on the pillar." He then reached up and poked her forehead. "I think that's where your ravings began."

Eloriel playfully punched him on the arm. "And you aren't crazy yourself?"

"Oh, we're all crazy," he said in a playful voice, one he'd use often as if he wasn't a grown man. "In our own little ways."

"Like Leliana has a sunny disposition," Eloriel started off, smiling.

"And Sten is superior and distant," Alistair added.

"Tamlasan is human."

"That Morrigan is evil," they said together, laughing.

"That your mind hasn't grown up with your body yet," Eloriel said giggling.

"Hey, at least I'm not wavering between being an adult and being a kid," he pointed his two index fingers and moved them closer to Eloriel as he said, "like someone I know."

"Oh come on, you barely know me."

"Yeah, perhaps," Alistair admitted, a small smile on his face. He looked sideways at Eloriel, his hazel eyes looking sincerely at her. "I'd like to get to know you better, Eloriel. Maybe sometime soon-"

"Which reminds me," Morrigan interrupted Alistair. She went in between the two, sitting lady-like as one could be on the side of a pond. "I have some questions, if you will indulge me."

"Maker, Morrigan! Go away. You just ruined everything," Alistair grunted, laying down and turning on his back.

"Shoot, I'm not going to like this, am I?" Eloriel asked rhetorically, smiling at the witch. "Well, you'll ask even if I say no, so go ahead."

"Your name, is it Eloriel? Or did you make it up?" Morrigan began.

"No, it's Eloriel." She wondered why Morrigan would ask her a question like that. Even if it weren't true, it wouldn't make much of a difference.

"Last name?"

"I have none."

"We shall skip that one then. For now."

Creators, what on earth is she getting at? Why is she even asking?

"Why were you talking to the mutt?"

"I hate you too," Alistair mumbled, plucking grass from the ground.

"Because I want to?" She smiled to herself. "It's rather nice."

"See? Eloriel has manners to everyone, not just a select few," Alistair said, giving Eloriel a smile before rolling back to the other side.

"Be quiet, mutt," Morrigan commanded.

"Make me."

Morrigan kicked Alistair on the back and he yelped in shock as she electrocuted his linen overshirt. Eloriel pulled Morrigan away from Alistair before she could go anything else, only to have herself partially shocked by her. Alistair flipped around and yanked on Morrigan's black hair, pulling it out from a bun. Morrigan whipped her head away causing Alistair's elbow and then fist to smack into Eloriel's forehead.

"Oh, I wish that could have ended you," Morrigan muttered to Alistair as Eloriel slumped over her.

"Maker! Are you blind? You shocked Eloriel and then I just elbowed her face!" Alistair shouted, trying to wake up the woman he helped to knock out.

"She shall be fine," Morrigan dismissed, shrugging which made the unconscious Eloriel to fall from her arm and onto the ground.

"Be careful you maniac!"

"I told you she will be fine!"

"Still!"

"Let us just find a place for her to rest," Morrigan suggested.

"Fine," he grumbled, picking the elf up in his arms. "But only because I want to, not that you said it."

"Whatever it is that keeps you going, Grey Warden."

"Maker, do you ever shut up?" Alistair groaned.

"Well do you?" Morrigan shot back.

"No, because people actually like hearing my voice," Alistair countered.

"You are either really stupid, really full of yourself, or both. Either way my ears want to fall off when I hear your stupid mouth"

"Well the same goes for you!"

"Alistair! Morrigan! You two should calm down!" Leliana spoke up, setting down her lute and rushing up to them. "You'll get Eloriel hurt!" Leliana cocked her head as she stopped. "How did she get hurt in the first place?"

"'Tis simple really, Alistair punched her into an unconscious state," Morrigan explained.

Leliana gasped, looking at Alistair as if he were a villain.

Alistair vigorously shook his head in denial. "It was Morrigan's magic! She shocked Eloriel!"

"Fools, trying to blame the other when they are both to blame. The problem is still present. Fix it," Sten lectured them, taking Eloriel from Alistair. He brought the elf over to where they were setting up the campfire and laid her down on one of the tents which had not been propped up yet.

"I shall make sure no harm comes looking for some trouble and spot her," Sten told them, sitting on a log nearby where she laid. "You two," he said, pointing at Morrigan and Alistair. "Need to have an agreement."

"No way!" Alistair yelled. "She'll try to kill me!"

"And I do not wish to die of a headache," Morrigan added.

"Oh?" Leliana asked. "So you want this to happen again? Maybe next time Eloriel will not survive. If Morrigan hadn't held back before-"

"Fiiine," Alistair mumbled.

"I have nothing else better to do," Morrigan agreed.

The two walked off relunctantly to the pond and as soon as they sat down, yelling and cursing was heard from miles out.

"You think they'll get along?" Eloriel asked sitting up.

"I don't know," Leliana told her with a sigh. "Maybe your plan was a waste of time after all."

"At least they will put aside their differences when around you," Sten added. "You are somewhat intelligent for a woman."

Eloriel smiled. "You know what? I'll take that as a compliment. Next time though? I'll be yelling in your face for an hour about how not to be rude and prejudiced towards a girl."

The three went silent as Morrigan transformed into a spider and chased a screaming Alistair around the pond.

I am stuck with the craziest people in all of Thedas...

Creators, help me.