Inquisition Agents

Chapter 3: Gaia

After talking with sister Leliana, they took the rest of the day to get ready. The plan was to head to Vintiver as soon as the sun rose the next morning. Oerik took advantage of those hours to establish a nice relationship with the only merchant left in Haven, called Seggrit. He asked the dwarf for some supplies in case he found any during his travels, specially obsidian. The dwarf also got on well with Flissa, the woman in charge of the tavern.

Due to the long trip, the Inquisition lent them horses. The animals looked quite aged but that was all the Inquisition could get so far with the resources at hand. Taking back the supplies from Vintiver was critical, so sister Leliana wanted them to travel as fast as possible.

Once on the road, Keaton was all the way in full plate. He took sister Leliana's piece of advice very seriously. On the other hand, Malan was always with his hood over his head, so his pointy ears were hidden. Also, he used his magic staff as he needed it to walk. He told the group not to tell anyone he was an elf, and not to mention anything about being a mage. The war had already taken too much, too many people. As a result, the villages that suffered the most would probably not be very welcoming of either mages or templars. Keaton and Oerik agreed to keep both facts in secret.

After a couple of days, they were about to reach Lothering. It was the first town touched by the last Blight. The place hadn't fully recovered yet from the dark spawns - so the agents could tell just by seeing the surroundings. There were barely no crops on the fields, and those that grew didn't look healthy. It seemed that the Blight had rotten within the ground itself. The silence was filled by crow cries when they heard the horses.

After some minutes, they saw the first people in miles. There was a child crying next to the corpse of an animal. The body was so wrecked it was hard to tell it was a dog at first sight. Two men and a woman were discussing, clearly affected. There were four more dead animals around the old farm: three cows and a horse. The stench of the corpses was so great it made Oerik have heaves. When the woman saw the agents approaching, she called their attention and talked to them almost begging.

- You look like you know how to fight, don't you?

She looked specially at Keaton. The warrior just nodded.

- You have to help us, please! Recently we've been under attack by the wolves from the woods. There's always been some animal losses during the hunting season, but never so furious and within such short a period of time. We're running out of livestock, and worst: we're afraid they're going to hunt us next! They're like demons!

The woman was almost crying in desperation.

- Demons? - Malan asked, interested in the matter.

- Yes... We only saw them from inside the house, but my husband says they're bigger than before... And that their eyes glow red in the dark!

The woman was so scared her body started to shake nervously. The agents look each other, all seemed to agree on helping those people.

- This might be related with sister Leliana's letter. I think there's magic involved somehow in all this. - the elf told to his comrades softly in order to avoid being heard by the woman.

- We could have a look but you have to understand we would be risking our lives... - Oerik said.

The woman understood clearly what the dwarf meant with that.

- We can pay you one sovereign to share between you if you get rid of the wolves, that's all we can afford.

Oerik nodded and noted down on his map the location where the animals were seen by the last time. He also asked the woman to take care and feed their horses during their investigation in the woods. After a farewell, the Inquisition agents headed south into the forest on foot.