Feredir Lithônion's Story

Trees, trees everywhere. That was the most significant thing to be said about their current surroundings. The girl took a step over an unearthed root as they continued their trek, and it had seemed like they had been hiking through the forest for ages. Artimes had heard that the forest had been large, but man had the awful habit of always exaggerating about the massive size of things. Whether it be landmarks, their power or other things their stories never seemed to be true to size. This forest, however; was not the case. In fact, it was possible the stories the leader of Chasseur de tresor had heard may have under estimated the massive size of the place.

They had been trekking the forest for nearly a week now. Nothing seemed to change, trees, more trees, maybe a rock, but beyond the rock there was a tree. The girl had never been more sick of being surrounded by trees, this amount of wilderness was unheard of in other parts of Fereldan. A lot of the country tended to be rocky with foliage, but not dense the way this forest was. It wouldn’t have been as irritating though, if not for the god awful humidity that accompanied them. Artimes had her hair pulled up in a ponytail, but the sweat that slicked her entire body was leaving giant stains along the fabric that pressed against her skin, and even though her armor was light it was doing nothing but making her feel hotter and sweatier than she already was.

Artimes paused for a moment, leaning against a tree, because they were not in short supply, and she slung the pack she was carrying off her back to produce a map of the area. The ruins they were in search for should have been somewhere near their current position, the compass that she kept attached to a cord around her neck had never led her astray before. On the map of the Brecilian Forest was a black X marked in nearly the center of the forest, there destination for the particular job at hand. Well, she wasn’t the best at determining direction, her strength mostly lied in winning people over and fighting, she left a lot of the boring stuff to Elaris on their trips. But even she knew that they should have been able to have the ruins in their sights by now. Unless what they were chasing didn’t exist in the first place, that had happened once or twice. Getting sent by a noble who was confident the stories their nannies told them as a child were the real deal only to lead the group to an empty field or a cliff side to no where.

She wiped her forehead with the back of her hand, looking to her teammates as she refolded the map and placed it back in the pack. “Alright kids, look alive, these ruins should be around here if they exist.”

She threw the pack back over her shoulders and began moving forward again. Chasseur de tresor was made up of capable people, if the ruins did exist she knew that they would be able to find it without fail. Elaris and Fer were both elves, and according to the information they received this place was ripe with elfish things, the ruins they were looking for were elven, and if there was one thing that motivated Elaris, it was elf history. She doubted he wouldn’t stop looking until they had tried every way possible to locate the ruins. Daven, who was not an elf, probably wouldn’t stop either, but that was because he was more stubborn than motivated by finding elf history.

She took another step over a tree root, but this time misjudged its height and the girl’s toe caught the root sending her toppling forward. As she fell though, an odd looking stone outcrop caught her eye. The trees had previously blocked her view of it, but from the ground it was clear as day. When Artimes hit the ground she was already moving towards the unusual landscape. There was a small pillar on the outcrop, it was craved to have four distinct sides and was covered in what she recognized as the ancient elven scripts that El was constantly studying. She turned to wave frantically at the group, motioning to the pillar. “Look! Elf stuff! The temple we’re looking for has got to be close!”

She couldn’t read elven, at all, nor did she ever want to learn, but with Elaris and Feredir translating the small pillar could lead to a clue to the location of the ruins. She squatted to look closer at the carved symbols, her fingers tracing over the stone. The stone was icy cold, and a drastic change from the hot and sweltering air around them, and she wondered what was making it so cold. Perhaps the answer would be in the inscription of the stone. She took her hand away from the stone and stood, looking around the area for any sign of a temple, but the forest was still too dense to see a far distance. She turned to Feredir, the elf was Dalish and had spent nearly his whole life living in nature and the trees.

“Fer, can you check the surroundings from the treetops? Any sign of a manmade structure would be nice. El you can read this right? Can you see if it has any clues to point us in the right direction? Dav, let’s go scout the surrounding area for any more elf stuff.” She motioned for the warrior to follow her as she began trekking down the slight slope to the right of the outcrop. Hopefully there would be more signs of the ancient elves that used to live in the forest, or better yet, a path to the ruin they were searching for.

This forest was a strange thing to say the least. He could feel the age in the air around them, pressing inwards like the trees themselves were alive and watching them. Perhaps they were, if the legends were to be true. Though undoubtedly rare, the possessed tree, or Sylvans as they were more commonly known were fascinating to him. He had to wonder what would cause a spirit to wish to take over the body of a tree? Without first locating one willing to diverge to him its secrets the mysterious nature of these beings would have to remain just that. A mystery.

It was not without its benefits though, this long trek. He had been allowed a great opportunity for learning here. Even though they were moving far with every passing day, the nights in the ancient forest allowed him to encounter new places in the Fade, all new spirits he had never met before in all his nightly journeys greeted him openly in this strange place. He had to wonder how those disconnected from the true awareness of the Fade and the beings within it were able to function, it seemed like such a cold and empty existence to him. Though he was well aware that as a people, the remaining Dalish were distrustful of spirits in general, some going out of their way to avoid all magic concerning them, he found them to be all to pleasant company. They were simple things, entirely devoted to their nature and unable to change themselves, some would view it as a lack of personality or ambition, but to Elaris it was the simplest form of expression oneself, to be utterly devoted to one lone aspect at the cost of all others.

And yet the further in they traveled, the fewer spirits he encountered, the more disjointed the isles in the Fade would become, resulting in him oftentimes having to forge his own path to travel onward in his wanderings. Perhaps it was the presence of so many Elven ruins in the area that drove the spirits away, they might find the ancient Elves as distasteful as the Elves found spirits. Yet that didn't explain why there would be so open towards himself, unless they had purged that part of themselves long ago.

It was a rather refreshing place all in all as far as he was concerned. It had a feeling of rightness about it, as though this is where a true Elf should belong, deep in the heart of nature, away from the destruction of degradation that humanity brought down upon the world. He had at times wondered what it must have been like all those years ago before mankind was spawn into the world from wherever they had come from, it must surely have been a wonderful world for the immortal Elves. Now only the dim echos of the lost world remained, and here they were, pillaging the pieces. At least they did some good to keep the memories hidden within safe.

"Alright kids, look alive, these ruins should be around here if they exist." Of course Artemis would be the one to remind them to keep looking, whilst remaining doubtful. He had never encountered a human quite like her in all his life, to be so experienced in the finding of ruins yet to be so cynical of their whereabouts could only confuse him of her nature. He didn't however feel the need to point out they had been going in the right direction, or so the spirits had informed him. Though he was fairly certain that they were beginning to go around in circles at this point.

He was fairly surprised when Artemis managed to trip over something, usually she had the sense to step over things before she encountered the ground the hard way. But he was more surprised when she suddenly bolted up and ran into the undergrowth, forcing him to give chase after her, else he would end up losing her in the forest. He was this time pleasantly surprised to see a clearly artificial slab on stone in the middle of the forest, evidently a sign they were looking for.

He hurried over to it, just a few steps behind Artemis. He could hardly contain his excitement at this find, even though it was only a pillar and a small one at that. It was the inscriptions that truly caught his eye, it would take a moment for him to decipher their meanings and context. It was one of the greatest parts of trying to understand the ancient Elvish script was the fact you also had to try to decipher what they were written about as well as what they were saying, and not to mention that one could change the other. Quickly the outside world fell away as he devoted his attention to the rock before him.

The glyphs on the pillar were small, which was strange considering entire poems could be written on a singular glyph. It was possible that this was a number of clues to figuring out the true purpose of the stone itself, though he had never encountered this to be the case before. Circling around the pillar, trying to read the swirling characters in every different direction, as they did not always run right to left as the human script did. Yet this proved just as frustrating. Sometimes some sounds would fit together into a correct sequence of words, but then it would swiftly turn into gibberish. He took a step back, deep in thought of what exactly the puzzle here was, it was clear he was missing something. Perhaps it was the stone itself, it felt unusually cold to the touch. as if it were crafted out of snow-touched marble. And there was something else, a strange feeling that didn't quite feel right to him.

It took another few minutes of him trying to piece the fragments together, pacing around the pillar as he searched for whatever he was missing, when the realisation of why he felt so uneasy clicked into the place. This area was very heavy with the feeling of the Veil, it explained why the Spirits ignored this place, because for them the world felt as dull and mutilated as the Fade did for him. It was the stone itself that was causing this feeling, it was acting as an anchor for the Veil to hold onto the world, making it worryingly strong here. And yet there were parts of the stone that felt... Out of touch. As though they had been enchanted differently from the majority of the stone around it. He ran his fingers across the smooth stone and was pleased to find that some segments of different glyphs were colder than the rest of the stone they were carved into. It wasn't that the glyphs themselves made up the last piece of the puzzle, but rather it was fragmented and hidden inside the mixtures of unrelated sounds, that was why they had made no sense when read conventionally. It took him a few minutes to locate which sections were parts of the fragmented glyph and a few minutes more of rolling it around in his head before it suddenly clicked into place. It was the last section of a long hidden map to tell those clever enough to discover the clues what to look for to find the ancient temple. Elated he stepped back and announced his findings to the group.

"It would appear I have deduced the location of the temples entra...." It was then he looked around and saw he was alone at the pillar. As he had been engrossed studying the pillar the others had vanished off into the forest, presumably to try to locate the entrance under their own skills. He was at a loss at what to do, right now it seemed the best cause of action was to wait here for the time being. If the others did not return he could head off to the temples entrance, now he knew the right way he was confident he could make his way inside.

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The walls of oak, the evergreen canopy above that let in the sun's light sporadically leaving patterns upon the skin, the soft grass beneath their feet, Feredir loved it all. This was how one was supposed to live; out in the wild and untamed. It was quiet of voices but there were societies thriving here. Mostly colonies of insects but every once in a while they happened upon animals that darted away from them upon realizing they had ventured too close to the group. There was just such beauty and life here that a city made by humans could never accomplish regardless of the multitude of bodies and the fancy objects they used to adorn everything. Human cities were made of dead wood or stones that didn't carry the same song and vitality of the open nature. They walled themselves up in tombs and called it home. It was dreary and closed off. Feredir was certain that if he tried to live in a regular human city, he'd kill himself from the sheer magnitude of loss. He couldn't understand how the city elves were able to suppress their natures enough to endure it.

The young elf extend a hand and let his long elegant fingers caress the bark of the trees he passed by as he followed Artemis and Elaris. They always took up the front and he the rear with Daven in the middle or beside him. It was just the way of the things. He preferred distance and his ears could help with detecting anything that may come up behind him and if something did rush them, Daven could help him get distance before he loosed his arrows on whatever dared interfere with his troupe. It just worked. Ah, that was an interesting though. Who would have thought that he would let his life rest in the hands of a human companion? His family would be flabbergasted if they knew!

Though Feredir loved trekking through the wilderness, he was more eager to find their prize than anything. It was Elvish history they were after! The prospect made his body shiver in anticipation, an army of ants crawling his skin. He had learned so much by traveling around with Chasseur de tresor. His elders would be so proud that he was part of what helped to gather up their heritage. This information would be passed down to all the Dalish clans so they to could learn and keep the customs thriving. He couldn't always help with deciphering it, but that was Elaris's specialty and he loved to pester the older elf into teaching more and telling him everything he had read and discovered. No one could say Feredir wasn't an eager student.

“Alright kids, look alive, these ruins should be around here if they exist.” Feredir's delicately pointed ears wiggled when he heard Artemis's call out to them and a grin played on his lips. They were so much closer to finding the artifacts! His grey eyes narrowed as he started to scan the trees and the ground as they continued walking. He pushed his silvery bangs behind his ears though that proved useless as the strands fell forward again. He was about to pick up the pace and start scanning the surrounding areas when he picked up the sound of Artemis's tumble and looked over at her.

“Look! Elf stuff! The temple we’re looking for has got to be close!”

Feredir gasped and rushed to her side. A sparkle entered his eyes then and his lips broke into grin. "Beautiful. It is a good thing you fell for it," he answered. At the woman's instructions, he gave a nod and a salute. "I am on it!" he called and rushed to one of the trees closest and practically ran up the thick bark. He was quick and nimble. Climbing trees had always been something he excelled at thanks to how he lived and his archery training. Feredir got to the top of the tree with little effort and leaned back to settle his position and squinted his eyes. Now some of the trees and its foliage were getting in the way. They covered up angles that he couldn't see. Feredir found that he had to traverse between the trees to ensure he got every nook and cranny of the floor.

The Dalish elf had to travel a bit of distance before something caught his attention. He dropped to the ground and walked over to the glint of something in the ground and squatted beside it. He dug at the dirt with his hand and around the round object. When he uncovered most of it, his eyes widened. A foci! The entrance had to be somewhere around here for sure. He stood then and placed his thumb and middle finger in his mouth and whistled for his companions to come and check out the site. Maybe Elaris found something to!

Daven stepped up onto a fallen tree and over it, his armor clattering and banging as the man moved. He stepped off the log and landed snapping the branches and twigs beneath his boots. The Chevalier wore most of his armor, except for those on his forearms and legs, forgoing them for light leather clothes. He stayed ever vigilant his eyes ever looking and searching for the next danger lurking in the these wood, it wasn't really needed as most likely Feredir would hear the threat coming first before he would, he took solace in that fact.

He took the moment of reprieve to take off his helm as Art took out her map, he hoped to god this wasn't one of those bulls**t jobs again, as he ran his hand through his hair before deciding to hang the helm on his hip and dropped his sack of supplies onto the forest floor. "I hope once we're done this job I won't have to see another damn forest for another month." he spoke under his breath as he pulled out a small piece of Druffalo jerky from his sack on his hip and began to eat it. He wasn't sure if he just hated this peaceful, humid forest or he missed the beauty and grandness of Val Royeaux as he took another bite of the jerky.

“Alright kids, look alive, these ruins should be around here if they exist.” Art folded the map back up, stashing it away in her bag and glanced at the group before she began to move again.

He chuckled to himself as Artemis than continued to proceed onward tell she misjudged her next step. His initial worry was for Art as he quickened his pace, yet she sprung right back up, letting Daven breath a sigh of relief as slowed down and followed the rest of the group hanging to the back and watching the rear.

It had been a couple years since that fateful party in Val Royeaux, that night changed his life when he saved Artemis from her would be assassins. Now years later here he was a member of the infamous Chasseur de tresor, now they were as much of his family to him as his own blood family. Artemis, Elaris even that bloody Feredir, a chuckle escaped his lips at that last bit, yet he'd lay down his life to protect each one of them. He smiled to himself as he came closer to where Artemis was standing as she was inspecting the Elvish Pillar.

"Dav, let’s go scout the surrounding area for any more elf stuff.” As soon as she spoke his name the Chevalier grabbed his helm from his hip and secured the leather strap before he drew his war hammer from its holster and he retrieved his shield from his back spinning it in his hands before gripping the handle tightly as he took up his position beside Artemis, "On you Arti, I got your back."

Artimes made her way quickly down the rocky slope. No doubt Elaris would have the pillar translated with little difficulty, the elf was the most intelligent people she had ever met. She had met a lot of different people over the last couple of years due to Chasseur de tresor, this included well known scholars and well educated noblemen and women, yet none of them held a candle to El. She may have been biased though, best friend bias made Elaris seem way cooler than he probably was, but she was fine with that.

"On you Arti, I got your back." She turned only slightly to look at Daven and give him a small smile. He was was definitely the strongest of the group, his brute strength added that much more to their power when fighting against monsters and his style of fighting covered a lot of the weakness Arti had because of how she fought. They were a good team, and together they had yet to fail in fighting an enemy. Of course though, that thought could jinx the whole thing. Goodbye life, hello monster belly. Monster belly might not have been a horrible option, it could be a nice place to rest for a bit, warm and damp, kinda like ending your life in perfect symmetry. You start off in a warm and damp cavern and you’re ending in a warm, damp cavern. That was poetic… or something.

She stopped as her feet touched a soft plush of grass and scanned the area. They hadn’t strayed too far from the outcrop, but air was completely different. It was calm, and Artimes could hear the sounds of the forest crescendo in volume the further they strayed from the stone pillar. It was weird, which usually meant some sort of weird curse of magic was keeping the wildlife away from the elven artifacts. It brought a grin to the girl’s face, dangerous magic usually meant dangerous beasts to fight. She turned to Dav and tilted her head to indicate that they were to head back. She doubted anything of value would be around.

“I think we got a big fight coming up, it’s gonna be awesome.” She started back towards the outcrop with a spring in her step and a grin on her lips. The best part about being a treasure hunter was that legendary treasure generally had legendary monsters guarding it. Arti loved getting into fights against bigger and badder things, she wanted to get stronger and the best way to do it was by fighting creatures that were bigger and stronger than she was. As they made their way back the eerie feeling suddenly seemed that much more prevalent. It raised goosebumps on her skin, but that only raised her excitement more.

She carefully scaled the slope that lead back to the outcrop though, the rocks were pretty loose and despite her eagerness to kill some rabid beast injuring herself or Daven could end up being a fatal mistake. She tested her steps carefully, it was a lot harder scaling the slope than it was going down it. It take too long to pull herself back up though, and as she did Elaris came into view looking both confused and hopeful. She hoisted herself all the way up before making her way to him.

“From the look on your face I take it you found something?”