"So close to West Hills, and yet so far..." Baekhyun hummed to himself, only Jongin and Xiumin for an audience.

They were only half a day's walk out of Redcliffe, following the winding road around the lake. Unfortunately, some of Chanyeol's packed bags had slipped off the mule, balancing dangerously, and everyone had to halt while Chanyeol, Luhan, Suho, Jongdae, Kris and even Alistair tried to fix it. The hound of course didn't do much other than spook the animal every time it got close. Sehun just observed them from afar.

"Do you think they need any more hands helping?" said the mage, who was observing the number of men crowded around the mule with mild disdain. 

"How many warriors does it take to pack a mule?" said Baekhyun with a little laugh. 

"Too many," Xiumin replied, one eyebrow raised.

They'd stopped on a particularly lovely hilltop on the road which had a great view of the lake to the north east, and the hills and mountains to the west. "And what a shame we couldn't visit Redcliffe Castle. Look, Jongin. Look at it! It's so pretty from here. Couldn't we have stayed just one more day and gone for a visit?"

"Why ever would we?" said the warrior.

"What? But, why not? I always wanted to see inside, and here we had a lordling with us. Could have taken him to meet the Arl of Redcliffe, and then I might have had a peak inside."

He pouted, truly upset at the lost opportunity. Jongin, however, just shook his head.

"The idea is that people don't know or find out who Sehun is. Why would we want to announce such a thing in the biggest arling this part of Ferelden?" 

Baekhyun sighed. "I guess you're right... Still though..."

"Who even wants to see the inside of that place anyway? Two years ago it was overrun with zombies. They say the place is haunted." Jongin shivered.

"Aww, but that's the best part! So many cool things happened in these parts during the Blight. I would've liked to see some of its uhm... history?"

"You mean you'd have liked to scour the dungeons for old zombie parts?" Xiumin suddenly joked, and Baekhyun liked him all the more. 

"Mmm, yes. Bones. Although I would've thought that was more your forte, blood mage?" he teased back. The mage smirked and crossed his arms, ignoring him after that in favor of watching the still ongoing commotion of setting the mule's supply packs. Baekhyun reasoned that for an apostate, Xiumin was surprisingly easy going, and not more than a little scary. He might have hidden magic, but Baekhyun had seen true blood mages in action, and depending on their gifts and inclinations, bears were scarier. A truly horrendous sorcerer though... now that was something to fear. 

"Did you ever meet a darkspawn, Xiumin? I've heard there are mean little grunts and hurlocks and alphas, but a darkspawn emissary? I bet those would be scary."

"Why do you ask?" asked Xiumin.

"Oh, I don't know. Just thinking about magic. Think they use their taint as the source for their magic? I mean, real mages draw power from the Fade, but the darkspawn are already kind of dead, aren't they? Man, I wish I'd been here during the Blight to see some action!"

Xiumin looked subdued, and started to say, "I wouldn't know-" but Jongin suddenly cut them both off.

"Baekhyun, you talk like the Blight was some big adventure to witness. So you weren't here for it? Well, I was. It was awful, and only two years ago. I wish... well, would you mind not talking about it?"

Neither Baekhyun nor Xiumin were quite prepared for his outburst. It hadn't even occurred to him that Jongin would not like talking about it, but then he was a Ferelden from West Hills and had obviously lived through much. 

"I'm sorry, I didn't..."

"That's fine," Jongin interrupted him, less vocal though now than just a second previous, like he already felt bad for lashing out at the elf.

Baekhyun decided not to push him. Instead, while the warriors finally hurrahed at their packing success, he took advantage of the moment and whispered stealthily to Xiumin, "Were you here during the Blight?"

Without looking at him, Xiumin quickly said, "No. I was in Orlais."

"What, you too?" Baekhyun exclaimed, almost forgetting that he wasn't supposed to be talking about this in front of Jongin, or perhaps in front of Luhan too. Xiumin narrowed his eyes as if in warning, and Baekhyun quickly hushed and nodded his understanding. "I take it Luhan doesn't know?"

"No. Why should he?"

"Oh. Oh, no reason. Just curious." Baekhyun averted his eyes, scratched his head and wondered... "Just... Orlais, huh? Wow, you sure get around for an apostate. Have to hand it to you there."

"And you sure get around for an elf. Where were you born anyways. The Exalted Plains?" 

Immediately, Baekhyun's blood ran cold. "What?! Why do you say that?" 

"Oh, no reason. I'm just thinking you talk like a city elf most of the time. But every now and then... your accent slips." Then he winked and wandered off to talk to Luhan, and fortunately everybody was too occupied in that moment to notice how pale Baekhyun's face must have turned, and how he stood frozen to the ground a few seconds longer than necessary. Then he shook himself of his brief sense of panic and endeavored to never tell anyone that Xiumin was not born and raised in any part of Thedas not part of the Korcari Wilds. If Xiumin thought they had an agreement for mutual silence, then Baekhyun for once would obey. In any case, he prided himself that no one would have any cause to be suspicious of his origins. Lots of elves might have wandered off from their homelands for any number of reasons and Baekhyun couldn't be thought of too differently from those kinds, could he?

He looked around cautiously anyways, but he caught only the qunari staring at him inappropriately. Baekhyun glared at him, making the man wince and turn away. There, that was better. No attention on Baekhyun now. 

The more he thought about it though, the more he was absolutely certain Xiumin had be Ferelden-born, and probably in the south. Why then did his accent sound most of the time like a world-class mixture of over a dozen different nationalities, unless he was just as well-traveled as Baekhyun himself. 

Unfortunately, they did not get as far as Jongin would have liked before the sun fell in the sky and a low fog obscured even their moonlit vision. It was eerily dark now with a lake in the near distance, mountains on the other side, even though they couldn't see them anymore. Visibility dropped so bad that Jongin called for a halt at their nearest convenience. They made camp beside a small creek, Suho set up a cooking place, preparing the freshest ingredients they'd carried out of Redcliffe, and despite the weather the party seemed in good spirits.

Now that they had an open space to practice, Jongdae pulled Sehun up to continue their dueling training. The boy still wasn't very good but he could at least kind of spar with the assassin. He was also better at keeping his balance every time he misjudged an attack or defense, and Jongdae proclaimed he was already loads better, as opposed to when he'd just fall over on his . Once everyone had eaten, Jongdae dragged Suho up too and used a complicated sort of push-pull effect on Chanyeol by suggesting Kris the qunari would be a better two-handed instructor for Suho. It successfully bruised the human warrior's ego so much that Chanyeol insisted he was a way better trainer, and therefore Kris was off the hook. 

Luhan hadn't spoken much to the mercenary since he was hired. All day Luhan had been silently fretting about life in general, and the qunari was a fairly silent companion. He asked no questions except what he needed to and so far all that entailed was to ask if he should carry a few rucksacks of supplies, lead the pack horse by the reins, and keep a lookout for anything suspicious. He was taller than the rest, and so this much made sense.

"Were there many attacks between Lothering and Redcliffe?" Kris asked Luhan while the others sat around or mock-dueled with one another. The two of them plus Xiumin, Alistair, and Baekhyun - who was writing again in his journal - all sat around the fire.

"Several, actually. A lot of bandits on the road in those parts, and some large animals. Have you traveled that road before?" Luhan replied.

"I haven't," said the qunari sparingly as he stared into the dirt. Luhan thought one of the oddest things about the man was how he never looked people in the eye when he spoke. It didn't seem like he was necessarily avoiding eye contact; more so because he probably didn't know how to interact with people, and so he maintained a stiff posture. 

"What brought you to Redcliffe then?" Luhan asked.

"I travel where I need. I came down last week with a merchant caravan from Orzammar. And now, it seems like I return." 

"So this road is already familiar to you? Anything you can tell us?" 

"It is..." the qunari pursed his lips, brows furrowed, "predictably full of bandits, as you must already know. And also..."

"Also?" Luhan prodded. Xiumin too was listening in.

"Also, how shall I say this? About four days' journey north from where we are now, we heard a shrieking. A noise. Just once... But it was loud, and high above us in the mountains or air. Like from a dragon in flight..."

They never got to finish that discussion. Not when those sparring came to an end and they all fell down around the fireplace with sore, weakened arms. Luhan did not want to frighten anyone more than necessary, especially Sehun. He would tell Jongin later what the qunari warned of, but in the meantime he and Xiumin exchanged meaningful looks, and even Baekhyun had paused in his writing when Kris mentioned the word dragon. 

"Well, that is exciting," said Luhan without an ounce of real enthusiasm later that night after they'd laid down their pallets. 

"I take it, you're no dragon hunter," said Xiumin. 

"Definitely not!" He choked and laughed at the same time. Luhan was sure Xiumin would try to , but their party had already turned silent as each person went to sleep, and so Luhan only caught one lilting smile from the mage before Xiumin rolled over and laid his head down. There were still about two hands' width of space between them, something Luhan was eager to fill in. However, he was starting to feel a little overwhelmed by his dependence on the mage, and a little too addicted to his proximity. He decided it would be good discipline if he left some space between them. After all, Xiumin would probably be gone one morning and Luhan should get used to that thought before it came. 

Sleeping wasn't nearly so comfortable this way though. He tossed and rolled around, no doubt drawing Chanyeol's attention who was sitting up for first watch. The warrior had out his notebook with the requisitions and supplies lists, and he every few seconds he marked something down with a coal pointer as a way to stay awake. When the fire got low he added another log to the pile, and the crackling this made caused Luhan to shift uncomfortably again. He was almost determined to just roll closer to the mage when he heard something suspicious. Chanyeol too stopped what he was doing and looked up alarmed. 

At first Luhan wondered if it was the gray creature, but when he trained his ears he made out the sounds of not one pair of footsteps creeping softly beyond the bend in the road, but several... and all so lightly that they had to be traveling in stealth. 

"Xiumin, wake up, now." Luhan almost slapped the mage in the head. 

Chanyeol was already one step ahead, drawing his sword as he kicked Baekhyun and Jongin beside him. The qunari woke instantly at the sound of Luhan's whisper. 

"What's wrong?" came Sehun's frightened voice. 

"Someone is coming," Chanyeol hissed. "Everyone up now!"

The warriors sprang instantly to action, Jongdae right beside them, and Luhan thought how touching it was that both Xiumin and Suho made a beeline towards Sehun to drag the boy back behind the defenders. 

Right away Luhan knew this couldn't be good. It was the middle of the night, not the typical hour for bandit attacks, and visibility due to the fog made every shadow cast longer on the ground. Their only advantage was the firelight from their own camp. It lit up the immediate surroundings, but it also lit up them as well. Luhan already cursed the results that might have when he was proven right just a second later: an arrow flew over his head but struck safely into the curved round of Jongin's shield. 

"Attack!" cried the warrior as he and Luhan lunged forward, shields up and swords bared. Perhaps ten attackers rushed out of the fog. Luhan did not have time to count them, but as he surged into the battle he knew only that this seemed like a highly organized, premeditated assault. Beyond thought, Luhan only knew that he had to fight, and this time when a blast of magical light crashed over their heads from somewhere behind, Luhan was not frightened he might end up dead from magic, he was relieved that he had a mage fighting on their side.

Sehun kept his head down. One of these days he figured he hoped he would be able to rise up and fight alongside the warriors, but Sehun wasn't stupid. With an upbringing that gave him no training but in how to read books and texts, he knew how these kinds of fights went. The brave rallied to action, the weak died. He would not add himself to the list of overly courageous but lacking sword fighters who ended up dead for their troubles. He bit his lower lip and scampered behind a lakeside rock, pretending he wasn't grateful that Suho was with him. Another smart one, Sehun dared to think. Neither of them were good yet with their weapons and they wouldn't pretend that they were, not in the middle of a battle. 

"Weapons out, but don't try to attack unless someone gets to you first!" Xiumin whispered to them in a crouch, before he too snuck over to the pack hourse and pulled out the staff Luhan never let him carry, unless it was absolutely essential. "I won't go far. Keep your eyes open, you two. Even from behind!"

"Got it, got it." Sehun scowled, but even as he spoke Suho was checking their rear. A few trees between them and the lake but it was open ground over than that. He could just make out the lakeshore through the mist. Most of the fighting was on the other side of the road, and so they were pretty well hidden unless...

"Are they bandits? Or, are they here for me?" Sehun dared to ask, even if he didn't think Suho knew the answer. 

"I don't know, but not a lot of things make sense to me. Who all you people are and why you're on the road, I do not ask. I just don't want to die."

Sehun snorted, but not because he was offended.

"Yeah, well nothing makes sense to me that much either, but somebody kind of wants me dead for a stupid reason. Don't you want to go home? That's all I want to do." 

Sehun flinched when an extra loud blast of magic struck somewhere that sounded deadly. He heard Chanyeol roaring cheerfully, and Baekhyun actually laughing before he too shrieked and started cursing. Suho was peaking out just beside the boulder but he didn't make a peep and so Sehun tried not to worry. Instead, Sehun concentrated on not panicking. He and Suho seemed to make good non-panicking buddies, however surface level that was.

"I don't have a home to go to anymore," said the dwarf as he flinched again at another clash of swords. "So, this is kind of it for me."

Sehun wanted to press him, but it was not obviously the time for chatter. Jongin was yelling even more erratically, and he could have sworn he heard Luhan directing Xiumin to cover their flanks, Alistair growling wildly, Jongdae cackling evily, and Chanyeol urging everyone on but crying, "Come on! If we kill them, we get their stuff!" An attacker cried out after that, a blood piercing shriek that made Sehun's teeth chatter, followed by, "Nice! Well done, Kris!" 

Suho was counting bodies. "That's at least half of them down! Three more have fled, or tried to... Stone's Dust, but Baekhyun is bleeding now from the shoulder!" He ducked as another arrow flew in their direction. Sehun worked on breathing slowly, and didn't dare poke his head out. 

"Someone take out that archer!" Luhan roared. The command was followed by something that sounded like ice striking and then shattering, and Luhan whooped. 

"Last arrow he'll ever send," said the mage smugly. 

Sehun tried also not to smile. He liked that Xiumin was a part of the team, whatever that meant. Now that he wasn't just being dragged all over the country side in chains. It gave Sehun hope that the mage might be able to actually do something with his life, since Luhan was no longer adamant about keeping him a prisoner. It wasn't a perfect parallel, but it gave Sehun a little bit of hope for himself. One of these days, maybe if they kept on traveling, he wouldn't have to go home. Wouldn't have to become an arl. Fanciful notions of following in Jongdae's footsteps and becoming the most feared assassin in Thedas. It made him laugh though, the silly thought of that. 

Then Suho put an end to his boundless imagination. "Hush!" he whispered harshly. Sehun almost choked on his tongue. 

"What is it?"

"I... I don't know. I just thought I heard something." The dwarf was looking towards the lakeside with narrowed eyes into the fog. "Perhaps it was nothing..."

But Sehun had already learned there was no such thing as nothing, not in these days and not on this road.

"I don't like nothing. Let's move."

The dwarf nodded in agreement and they crawled around the boulder to survey the slowly dwindling battle scene. Baekhyun was sitting up on the grass, Xiumin kneeling by his side applying pressure to his shoulder. Kris stood a little before them with his sword arm out, cautiously looking around. Sehun was in time to see Jongdae throwing a blade into the shin of a retreating attacker; the man went down with a yelp, and Luhan and Jongin panted heavily between a pile of strewn out bodies. Neither Chanyeol nor Alistair were in the clearing, but he heard the sounds of the tall warrior's shouts just out of eyeshot, a cataclysm of what was only two swords striking against each other. And then there was one. 

"Jongdae! Drag that one over here!" Jongin suddenly yelled at the assassin, who was hovering over his downed attacked. 

"What? Oh I was just going to put him out of his misery first?" he said, while simultaneously whipping the dagger out from his flesh. The man cried and whimpered, but shut up when Jongdae brandished the bloodied weapon in front of his nose. Then he began lugging it closer to the fireside. Jongin issued other instructions for Kris to doublecheck that all others were either dead or immobile. Luhan, he told to clean up his face - the templar had a shallow gash on his cheek - and then Jongin knelt beside Baekhyun and Xiumin just as Sehun and Suho joined them. 

"Is it bad? How deep?"

Xiumin did not remove his palm from the elf's shoulder. "Not bad. I think I can heal this."

"What do you mean it's not bad? It hurts!" Baekhyun immediately contradicted him. The mage only laughed, and still without moving he looked about and tossed his head towards Suho. 

"Do you know what elfroot looks like?" The dwarf nodded. "Good. Take a torch and go down by the lake. I think I saw some of it growing there in small patches. Alistair will go with you." 

Sure enough, the mabari hound was already trotting back towards the fire alongside Chanyeol and when he heard his master's words he veered right off towards the lake. Suho scrambled to follow. All eyes were on Baekhyun's grimacing face and scowls until Jongdae finally dumped the wounded man next to Jongin and huffed in annoyance. 

"Okay. He's alive and here. Happy now?"

Chanyeol looked confused. "Uhm, why exactly aren't we killing him? I... didn't spare the last guy. Was I supposed to?"

Jongin sighed, tore himself away from Baekhyun and shook his head. "No. Not all of them. I just wanted to see if these guys would talk?"

"They're not mere bandits, are they?" asked Luhan. 

"Don't seem like it," Jongin agreed. He kicked over the body until the man - almost a boy, although Sehun guessed him to be a little older than himself - lay on his back with his arms shaking terrified in front of his face, protecting himself. He had a sword wound on the side of his torso, a bashed in nose, and blood dripped from his leg where Jongdae had gouged him. Jongin knelt over him, peering down almost fondly. "Hey there. Want to talk?"

The man only trembled and Sehun almost felt bad for him. Except for the fact that his band had tried to murder them all while they slept.

"How about you talk, or you can join your brothers here, dead." 

"This is going to be useless," Chanyeol interjected. 

"Agreed," said Jongdae.

"I wasn't talking to either of you," Jongin whipped back just as fast. Holding a hand to the boy's chest, he glared up at the other warriors before peering back down again. His eyes leered and his voice was soft, dangerously coaxing. "Come on. You heard them, and you're as good as dead if you don't give up something worthwhile. Let's start with your name, hm?"

He actually looked kind of scary like this, Jongin, interrogating the man. Even Luhan seemed to look at him with eyes slightly more respectful. 

Finally, he started to mumble, and it came out something like "M-m-m-max." 

"Max?" Jongin verified. "Well, Max. Who's your clan? Tell me where you're from. Tell me why you're here?"

"No-no reason. Just... just raiding."

"Just raiding, are you sure?" 

The man looked about to panic for sure at Jongin's narrowed eyes, when Kris suddenly shouted. "I found something!" The qunari marched over to the fire from the bodies he had been inspecting, a dagger in his hand that held an extraordinarily elaborate designed hilt. There was even a marking on it, a symbol of which Jongin inspected in the firelight. Max's eyes widened in horror. Sehun had no idea what it was, but Jongin evidently recognized the coat of arms engraved upon it, and it wasn't good news.

Instantly he stood up and raged silently at the attacker, and Max cowed a little more under his tall presence. However, Jongin did nothing. He tossed the dagger to the side - Jongdae's eyes actually lit up at the beautifully crafted weapon - and then he looked at Chanyeol. 

"This is the Shim clan. Changmin and Yunho," he whispered, even though his words carried over all the listening party. 

Sehun's mouth dropped open. "My... my cousins sent them?"

"Yes." Jongin dropped his angered face, and instead it was with pity that he said, "I'm sorry. I should probably have told you already but-"

"I know. I already knew," Sehun confessed at once. He glanced once at Max who was looking at him strangely, and then back at Jongin. "They're trying to kill me, aren't they? Me and all of my half-brothers?"

Jongdae whistled. "Woo, these petty little rivalvies. How exciting."

But then suddenly, Suho started yelling from by the lake. Xiumin grabbed his staff just as Alistair barked, and even Sehun could barely resist running to the dwarf. However, Chanyeol caught him across the chest before he could investigate and he ran down after Xiumin. Sehun heard the dwarf mumbling something, and Alistair barked again. 

"I told Sehun, I thought I heard something!" He appeared through the fog again, torchlight lighting the way, and behind him came Xiumin, back to the fire as he scanned the area with his staff. Chanyeol was dragging a body, breathing loudly as he brought it down. The figure was dressed like all of the other attackers, but he was dead, and wounded by nothing like a sword or arrow. Sehun felt a lump collect in his throat as he stared down at the man's throat. Xiumin knelt closely to inspect it with Suho's torch, and Jongin paled, almost forgetting the captive entirely. Only Kris watched after Max. Everyone else, including the wounded Baekhyun was staring in shock at the dead body. Luhan actually cried out in shock.

The dead man had been strangled and left along the shore, where evidently he had been sneaking up on the party unawares. Or trying to. Around his neck were the distinct hand prints of his attacker who had bruised the skin a sickly, dark gray. 

4,295 words

Ta-da... By the way, I think we shall meet that creature next chapter. *hint hint*

I think I really enjoyed this chapter. Xiubaek's interactions in the beginning, what on earth is Baekhyun's past anyway? I should note that it does get hard to keep up with so many characters now, especially when they are all in one place. I have have a long list of notes I post to each chapter draft, and the last one reads: "Don't forget Alistair." Because I have written scenes before and then realized, Oh yeah- I have a dog too!

How about that Max guy, huh?