Kingdom of Ferelden. Somewhere in the South

Julien ate his own apple fast. Devouring the fruit with a few hearty bites as they made their way through the forest. The Warden judged that their progress was good. And even though it wasn't unopposed the fact that the number of Darkspawn they met was enough for the two of them to handle, so far, was a good sign in Julien's books. If they were to stumble upon the Horde they would've done so already. Or at least that was what he told to motivate himself. And so far it was working.

"It was about time." Julien agreed as the trees got sparser. "Less chance of those abominations sneaking up on us." By the time they got to the clearing he was starting to feel just tired enough to not oppose the decision to make camp. And immediately set out into the woods to gather material for traps.

Of course, that was easier said than done. Usually he would carry some basic trap material with his supplies. But as with most of his equipment it was lost at Ostagar. So Julien was relegated to simply gathering sticks, twigs and rocks. While also somehow figuring a way to turn these materials into something actually capable of protecting or at least alerting them. How he would do that in the current conditions was still an unknown factor to him. If he were to be honest with himself, he was starting to doubt that he would be able to achieve something worthwhile without the proper material like metal shards, springs and mechanisms.

Still, he at least had to try. And with a sigh he stood up from where he had thrown the assembled material to have another look around the clearing. Maybe the previous occupants had left something useful? Not likely but it was worth a try. And so he gave the abandoned campsite a few more rounds. Julien was on the verge of giving up when a slight metallic glint on a bush by the edge of the clearing. Approaching carefully he cautiously brushed the leaves aside to reveal small necklace stuck on the foliage. The former duelist quickly snatched the trinket and brought it closer to study it.

The jewel was simple. The pendant had a small engraving depicting a crescent moon and a thin while the chain looked thin and fragile. The metal was silver in color but Julien wasn't sure if it was true silver. And of course, he realized bitterly as he pocketed the jewel, it was useless to his current needs. On the bright side, maybe he would be able to get a few coins out of it if they returned to civilization. Goal that would be much easier if he could fashion at least a few traps to protect them while they rested.

"I would have better luck getting us dinner." Julien mumbled to himself. "But I doubt Wystellia would fare much better in my position..." And it was then that growls interrupted his line of thought.

Drawing his sword and turning to face this new threat, the Warden groaned internally as two Darkspawn emerged from the woods. As if they hadn't had enough trouble for a day already.

"C'mon you ugly bitches!" Julien taunted. "Come and get me!" He frankly didn't knew if the Darkspawn could actually understand what he had said. But the hurlock armed with mace and shield charged at him. Julien waited a bit before making his own move, preferring to jump aside at the last possible moment and then backstab the Spawn before it could turn around. The beast howled in pain and anger as the sword slashed at his upper back while the Warden was forced to pay attention to his second foe, a genlock armed with a maul.

The wild swings of the smaller Darkspawn forced the Warden to give ground before he could finish the wounded foe. And soon enough the two Darkspawn were advancing together against the Warden. Julien found himself at a disadvantage, specially now that he lacked his shortsword and the convenient support of his mage companion. He decided to act before the Spawn could truly start attacking together and lunged at the hurlock, who was somewhat closer to him. The beast raised its shield to protect against an obvious overhead swing, leaving his lower body open to a well placed kick on the shin. The blow was enough to break the balance of the hurlock and Julien pressed his advantage, stabbing straight at the now unprotected face of the hurlock.

Unfortunately for Julien, the short time in which he had managed to kill the larger Darkspawn was enough for the genlock to close in. And the Warden saw himself almost getting his leg smashed by a maul blow. Julien was once again forced into the defensive as his enemy's weapon had more reach than his.

Casting a quick glance backwards, Julien tried to guide his retreat towards the trees. In the hopes that the enclosed space would constrain the effectiveness of his enemy. That part wasn't as hard as the rest. Considering that Julien could easily stay just out of reach of his enemy and lure him towards the treeline while he kept taunting the genlock.

As he got closer, Julien gave one last backwards jump that put right with his back towards a tree. The genlock realized that and the Warden could swear that the beast smiled as it charged again howling with the maul raised over its head. Once again Julien waited a few moments for his enemy to get closer before dodging. Leaving the tree shaking as it bore the full brunt of the blow.

Before the genlock could recuperate Julien was already on the offensive. And with a quick blow that buried his sword on the Spawn's head, Julien won the small skirmish.

Controlling his breath as he pulled his sword out of the foe, the Warden nervously surveyed the area. There could me more Darkspawn lurking at the ready at this very moment. And even if not, the fact that their campsite was already discovered once meant that Julien himself would get little sleep this night.

Kingdom of Ferelden: Camp, somewhere in the south...

Since Julien hadn't protested to her proposal and left, Wystellia was content to carry on with her own personal quest to find actual sustenance that didn't leave a raw sourness in her mouth. When Julien had vanished into the woodwork, she went off in the other direction, now wishing she had her bow and arrows which would have made hunting much easier. The mage pushed some branches out of her way as she kept moving east, making notes of the landmarks in the area so she didn't lose track of where she was, as well as where she was coming from. After five minutes, she noticed the footprints of a small animal. It was likely a squirrel or a fox, possibly a rabbit.

Her eyes went upwards into the trees surrounding her.

Nothing up there...

Wystellia looked around and heard something in the distance. She ran ahead, staff raised and ready to fire. She saw the ass of a white rabbit scamper off. Unlike most, she didn't hesitate. She didn't see the middle ground to second guess herself. In the moment, she needed to eat, she needed to survive and in order to keep going, the rabbit needed to die. It wasn't cute or a pet, no, it was sustenance. She fired an icy beam at it but missed. "Damn." She kept jogging, feeling her breath shorten already. Wystellia fired again and slipped on the ground, landing on her face. Her first thought was, 'Well at least Julien isn't here to witness this.' as she raised her head to see the thing duck into a small hole.

Her chin scraped against the ground and she pushed herself up and saw her skinned knees and dirty legs. "What a mess." She sighed and got up, not bothering to heal herself until she was victorious. The woman quickly hurried over to the hole at the base of a tree and pointed her staff at the opening. "Come on out or I'll roast you all, not that it's necessary..." She backed up and looked to see other holes in the ground and realized they were small underground tunnels for the creatures to travel safely. She envied them and began to climb the tree, hoping that the higher vantage point would give her a good place to shoot down anything that emerged from the holes.

Five minutes later, a fox poked its head out and she fired at it. She killed it with several small arcane bursts and jumped down from where she was. That was how life worked, it seemed. You got lucky and other times, you didn't. Surprised worked out but sometimes it was just down to chance. Wystellia picked up the limp creature and began to head back toward the campsite, wondering if Julie would have returned by now or not. She was ready to get some shut eye and the sun hadn't even set yet. When she got back, she set the dead fox by the fire pit where she had put her previous collection of brush for the fire's fuel. 'I won't worry yet.' She told herself and went back out.

Now her eyes were on the look out for berries and herbs.

After traveling a bit more north, she found a bush filled with raspberries and collected as much as she could carry in her bag and then headed back. When she returned the second time, she saw Julien had made his way back but it appeared as though he had come across a fight of some sort. Her eyes looked over him. "Guess I missed the fun." She said as she went over and started the fire with her staff and nudged the fox with her foot until it laid on the fire so its fur could burn off during the cooking process. "I harvested some berries for tomorrow's breakfast." She told him as she turned her attention back toward him.

"Do you need to be healed?" She asked him, now wishing she had found some kind of nest with eggs or some water source for them. For now, they were in better shape than she thought they'd be. Wystellia stepped away from the smoke of the fire. It didn't feel like anyone was watching them but they needed to be careful, Julien's return was evidence of that. At least they had food and could make more progress tomorrow. The girl was already planning on sleeping in a bed tomorrow night and being able to wash the dirt off of her. Though she was also aware that they may need to do some jobs around the next area and try to make some coin or else they'd have to find things to barter with.

Being a Grey Warden hardly meant getting things for free.

Kingdom of Ferelden. Somewhere in the south

"Nah." Julien replied dismissively as Wystellia started the fire. "Found a couple of lost travelers in the forest. Just had to give them the right directions." He joked as he approached the fire for warmth. "Not far from here." He continued, this time more seriously. "We should stay alert and ready to move during the night. I can stay on watch first today" He offered as he sat down close to the fire. "And no, I don't need healing."

Just by sitting down and letting his body relax a little Julien felt as if a heavy weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Still, he realized with a defeated sigh, relaxing completely wasn't an option. There were Darkspawn nearby and they couldn't afford to let their guard down. The duelist groaned unhappily at the thought of a bad night of half sleep. But when the other option was essentially suicidal there was little that could be done.

On the bright side at least he wasn't suicidal. Though there was still a long way to go for Julien to believe that their quest had tangible chances of success.

"You know that I wouldn't mind skinning the fox before you threw it on the fire." Julien said evenly as he stared at their dinner. "But then again, I hadn't had much luck with the traps either." He sighed. "I need actual materials. Like ropes, springs and metal. Maybe once we find a town." Julien paused as he scanned the treeline for any potential threats. "Speaking of which, did you find anything that we could barter or sell?"

Julien took a moment to watch the treeline again. Whatever relaxation he had felt before was gone now and he suppressed a second groan. Their situation wouldn't get any better, and the faster he accepted it the easier it would be. Still, it would be nice to spend at least a couple nights in a warm bed without having to worry about Darkspawn lurking in the shadows and hunting their own food. Maybe when they gained some distance on the Horde they could treat themselves with a day off? Doubtful considering their circumstances.

In the remote chance they succeeded, the Kingdom of Ferelden would reward them greatly. In this case Julien decided that he would treat himself with a day or two of getting spoiled. Like he used to when he won a tourney back in the Free Marches. Surely nobody would mind too much if he slacked off a day or two in this case. But then again, prizes and rewards weren't the reason why he had joined the Order. And with the odds stacked against them it was better not to cultivate false hope.

"I almost forgot!" He exclaimed suddenly as he retrieved the pendant and extended a hand to show it to Wystellia. "I found this on a nearby bush right before the Darkspawn attacked. You think it may be worth something? I don't have much of an eye for jewelry but even if it's not valuable I think we could fool some village girl into overpaying." That was of course, if they even found a way out this damn woods back into civilization. But the Marcher Warden preferred not to voice this kind of thought. Wystellia probably had her own fair shares of worry.

Kingdom of Ferelden: Camp, somewhere in the south...

Taking shifts wasn't how she wanted to spend their first night. She wanted to sleep soundly all the way through and just deal with an attack if it came. But she knew given his most recent attack, they couldn't be so casual about the impending evening. "Alright, thankfully we don't have a lot to carry so we should be fine if we need to run." She just said. He then mentioned he could have skinned the fox but she saw no reason in him saying so, since it didn't matter now that it was already roasting. Wystellia gave a shrug as he said he needed the right things for traps. It was understandable. If she was more in tune with her ancestry, she probably could have made a trap out of wood and vines but since she wasn't, she couldn't help the situation and until they got better supplies, it seemed Julien couldn't either.

"No, I think some of the berries and maybe some herbs would go a long way. If I can find anything rare or hard to get to, I'm sure the people in the next town we hit, would be willing to pay for our labor if it means they have what they needed." She said. She saw no point in saying the fox's pelt could have been sold or traded, since it didn't matter now. There was no point in her mind, of poking holes in the past when you couldn't change it. It was, what it was. As the fire crackled and the daylight dwindled, Julien suddenly exclaimed, causing her to jump at the sudden outburst of excitement. "What...?"

The male then produced a pendant which he had found.

Wystellia took it and examined it. "The materials are pretty common, there's nothing really remarkable here..." She turned it over and felt an inscription. "It belonged to someone though but I can't tell what it's supposed to say." She looked at it closely before handing it back to Julien to hold onto since he found it. "Someone might be missing it and if they miss it enough, it could do us some good." She considered. Looking back at the fire, she was hungry for real food and knew with meat like this, you needed to make sure it was cooked all the way through. "Any leftover meat we have, we should bring." It was risky to carry raw meat in case another animal smelled it and tracked them down, but she didn't feel right wasting an animal.

Of course if Julien was strongly against bringing extra meat on the road, she would understand and leave it behind. But since they would need a lot of things to trade or even sell if they were lucky to find an interested buyer, they needed as much help as they could get. When the food was deemed safe, they cut off a few slices and ate it by the fire as the dark sky started to share some small stars with the two Grey Wardens. Finding answers was key. They needed to know what happened and what everyone else thought had happened. To her though, the plan worked. The beacon had been lit and yet there had been no reaction from Loghain. Why? She took another bite of the meat and chewed it, not sure how things looked anymore.

Plus they had to keep warning people about the Blight itself, as well as help those in need. A Grey Warden was someone who didn't just fight Darkspawn, they also protected people even if darkspawn weren't involved. And if they helped people, it was even more likely they'd be given some kind of reward. Wystellia finished her bit of meat and knew that she had enough, not wanting to make herself ill after coming out of such a battle. "Wake me up when you're ready to switch." She said and got up and walked over to the area where she collected a bunch of leaves which would serve as a bed for the night. Laying down on her back, she shifted and looked up at the stars, the small sliver of a moon providing hardly any light. Beside the fire was a stack of twigs and other things to help keep it going through out the night.

With a yawn, she closed her eyes and tried to catch any amount of sleep she could.

( You're welcome to skip us to the morning if you'd like. )