If Xiumin thought anything strange about their new course of travel the following morning — west towards Redcliffe, and not towards the Circle Tower — he said nothing of it to Luhan. The templar kept waiting to be asked. He had a long and well-crafted excuse for why it was much safer to travel with known companions as far as possible before commandeering a fishing boat from Redcliffe to the next closest point of the northbound Imperial Highway. Several times after Xiumin just considered him curiously at a glance, Luhan almost volunteered this part of his plan, but the longer the mage refused to talk to him, the longer Luhan decided he would hold out. They walked most of the way side by side, but there was silence between them. Luhan found himself missing Xiumin’s usual sarcastic banter, although he saw no reason to mention this. 

More irritating than even this was how Xiumin was beginning to talk more to the others in their party. Sehun in particular had taken a partial liking to the mage, and Suho seemed to prefer him to just about anyone else. Luhan took offense to this. Sure Xiumin and his animal had been the first to pronounce the dwarf as harmless and not worth killing, but Luhan had agreed to this too! Only Kai seemed to find Luhan’s company tasteful, but his fellow shield warrior typically spent most of their journey with his mind closed off from anything except the threat of attack.

He was well to do so too, just as he and Luhan were both right in their decision to stick together. The first day out from Lothering saw two separate bandit attacks, although neither were of the same build or make-up as the last one which had caused them fright. At most it made them wary, and it also solidified Jongdae’s opinion that having two amongst them with no fighting skills to speak of was a terrible, terrible admission. 

“That’s it! I’m teaching you two how to fight!” He lined up Sehun with Suho, both looking equally as terrified when Jongdae held out two twigs for each of them.

Suho dropped one of his twigs before Jongdae could even let it go. Sehun held his apprehensively. “What are we doing with these?” he asked, eyes wide.

“I’m teaching you how to duel,” said the assassin.

“You’re what?” Sehun exclaimed.

Chanyeol was about as alarmed. “Uhmm… can someone tell me why it’s a good idea to have our friendly assassin teaching a criminal how to fight?”  His disdainful tone for both the stranger and the the dwarf came as a shock to no one.

“So you don’t have an objection to Sehun learning how to fight?” Baekhyun suggested.

“That wasn’t my point, Baekhyun.”

“No, but having him learn wouldn’t be such a bad idea,” Jongin interjected. “At the very least it’ll entertain us in the evenings, and why not teach the dwarf? Sehun needs someone of his own skill to practice with.” He shrugged his eyebrows like this was for a bit of fun, and Baekhyun grinned smugly. The assassin gave Jongin a very formal bow for acquiescing. 

Unfortunately they made no progress that night. Sehun was clumsy and weak-limbed. Suho remained uncoordinated and Luhan couldn’t decide if he was more terrified of the idea of eventually holding real daggers, or if it was just from Jongdae’s proximity. Either way it was entertaining, but just to keep things from getting worse, he kept Alistair far from the training sight and closer by him.

As he pet the dog behind the ears, Luhan glanced around for the mage. The sun had gone down only an hour ago, Baekhyun was arguing with Jongin about how best to roast deer meat for their supper, Chanyeol was scrutinizing the fight training from afar, and there was no one else for Luhan to talk to. Xiumin, however, was feigning sleep. He knew because he’d spent enough time with the mage both during the day and at night to know when Xiumin was truly asleep, so this meant he was doing it now just to get out of speaking. It was exhausting Luhan mentally, the sudden onslaught of the silent treatment. Luhan knew he’d been harsh on him after mage-bandit skirmish, but to be fair he’d been absolutely terrified! Spirit magic was something he’d never been trained to combat, and most of it was more powerful than for even the most skilled templar to withstand. 

In short, if Xiumin had wanted Luhan dead, he could have done it. And yet, Luhan was alive because of him. Gratitude towards a mage… Luhan didn’t know how to deal with those sorts of feelings. 

He abandoned Xiumin’s side long enough to roast meat for two, and when he plopped back down besides the napping man, juicy dripping skewers of deer between his fingers, and still the mage would not open his eyes or sit up.

“Xiumin, your dinner is getting cold,” he said as naturally as he could.

The mage didn't stir.

“Not hungry?” Luhan started a conversation with himself. “Fine, I guess I’m hungry enough. I can eat more.”  He devoured the first skewer very, very slowly, his lips probably more than he needed to, just so Xiumin would be forced to hear him. “Okay, now for the second one.” He had four in his hand to start with, but Xiumin might not know that.

The mage didn't move a muscle or even open his eyes. Luhan leaned over to check if he was even breathing, but he had no cause for alarm. 

“Okay, now for your portion since you don’t seem to want it.” Luhan waited a moment out of consideration. “No? I guess I’ll eat them too. Breakfast was a long time ago.” 

Except Luhan didn’t want to eat another skewer. He'd lied; he was actually pretty full but since Xiumin wasn’t calling his bluff, he didn’t know what to do.

“You know what. I’ll feed the dog. Alistair only ate a whole nug earlier. I’m sure he’s still hungry now.” The hound picked up his head expectantly. 

“In fact, I’m sure that nug was all bone and no meat. Look at Alistair. He’s practically salivating for a real meal. He’s skin and bones, poor creature. Whatever were you feeding him before?”

To Luhan’s immense glee, Xiumin finally sighed long and hard and lifted himself to a seated position. 

“Oh, so you are hungry?” He tried not to pretend anything was amiss. 

“No… I’m not. But I’m not letting you spoil my dog. Alistair is not skinny. In fact, he’s getting fat.”

Luhan smiled and waved one of the skewers dangerously close to the hound’s sniffing nose. 

“Give me that!” said Xiumin exasperated. He tugged the skewer away and began eating it himself, not looking in Luhan’s direction. That he had to acknowledge Luhan to get the final skewer out of his hand made the templar’s heart sigh in relief. Petulant, grouchy Xiumin was always a fun sight. He’d missed it too much.

“Thank you,” said the mage a few minutes later.

Luhan blinked at him, although Xiumin wasn’t looking. “For what?”

“Dinner. Thank you.”

“Oh. You’re welcome… It was no trouble.”

“Yeah,” said Xiumin, obviously still not in a mood to talk. 

Luhan let him stay quiet. The others had finished their very inexpert weapons training. Suho was shaking all over from the exertion and Sehun had broken out into a very smelly sweat. Baekhyun wouldn’t sit anywhere closer to the boy when they took their spots around the fire to eat. He ended up between Jongin and Chanyeol, the latter still glowering at Jongdae as if he suspected him of maliciously trying to arm dwarves for some grand underhanded plot. It could be true anyway.

“Thank you,” whispered Luhan to Xiumin while the others conversed loudly about the road conditions and the projected weather.

For the first time all evening Xiumin turned his head to actually look at him. “For what?” he whispered back, almost harshly.

Luhan sighed. “Oh, I don’t know. For eating so well, for raising such a good, nice doggy…” Luhan pet the beast that was sitting between them. “For saving my life…”

Xiumin didn’t respond. He turned his head sharply forward and only grunted after a few moments had passed. 

“Wouldn’t want to add you to my conscious,” he admitted several minutes after that, gruffly, and without an ounce of personal feeling. “However would I sleep at night?”

“Seems like you sleep well enough,” said Luhan. “At night anyways. This early evening fake nap though was rather useless.”

He didn’t respond, but then Luhan didn’t expect him too. At least they’d exchanged a few words prior. 

On the afternoon of the next day, Baekhyun noticed something new along the muddy edges of the road: bear tracks.

“You’re sure about that?” Jongin questioned him. 

Baekhyun nearly rolled his eyes, but he held it together. Pointing across the road he said, “Of course. Look, diagonally from there to there. They’re lost in the middle between where the road is half stone, but beside each tree line there are fresh tracks. Several bears by the looks of it, and quite recently too.”

“Any chance we’ll encounter them?”

“I’d count on it,” said Baekhyun. “If they’re at least halfway out of range they might not attack, but if they see us, they’ll attack. Best warn the others.” 

Jongin went to consult Luhan, not that Baekhyun expected otherwise. Jongin seemed to do that a lot; Baekhyun didn’t know how he’d ever manage to separate those two stalwart warriors when their time on the road together came to an end. When they’d started out, Jongin went to Chanyeol whenever he wanted to discuss plans, routes, defensive tactics, etc. Then he’d learned the two-handed barracks-only warrior knew only how to swing a sword — not that there was anything wrong with that — but Chanyeol knew next to nothing about the outdoors or anything resembling complex tactics. He couldn’t tell the difference between a wolf’s step or a nug’s unless the animals were up close, and he almost couldn’t even remember which direction was west when they were heading into the setting sun. At least with Luhan Jongin probably felt more like a warrior. They could do all kinds of complicated... sword stuff together, and sound intelligent about it. Before he came around, Baekhyun was the most knowledgable person to converse with. Stupid templar.

Baekhyun huffed and considered Chanyeol again. Not exactly unintelligent, and he was something of a reader, so Baekhyun gave him... some credit for that. Chanyeol had an impressive collection of requisition lists, wanted posters and bounties. It was stirring literature. In fact, he’d probably go nuts if they found some bears to kill, because someone in Redcliffe had requested five pelts to make a rug, and Chanyeol was always happy to make a little coin. 

“Bears!” 

Baekhyun heard the tall warrior cry happily from somewhere behind. Jongin had evidently informed the rest of the party. In the meantime, Baekhyun continued examining the tracks for a number count. He crouched over in the dirt, fingers skimming the displaced mud. The prognosis wasn’t too good: three adults and one or two claw marks that might have belonged to two separate cubs before their tracks were covered up by a larger step. 

The animals were vicious creatures, more savage than most, this breed of Ferelden bear. Baekhyun may have papers documenting him as a City elf but he’d had encounters with bear packs before. His time spent with the Dalish as a teenager had been quite instructive, and most often the Dalish elves preferred to avoid and circumvent these beasts unless they absolutely couldn’t help it. At best, bears were a nuisance.

“Alright everyone!” he chipperly called out to the party. “Eyes open and mouths shut. Hey, maybe they’ll have moved on from the road and are happily lumbering through the forests, but then again… maybe they’re just hanging out waiting for their evening meal.”

“Excited, are we?” asked Jongdae with a grin.

“Ever excited to meet bears!” Baekhyun laughed with him. 

The dwarf — and maybe someday Baekhyun would learn to call him by name — was looking particularly less cheerful. In fact he looked a little pale, and Baekhyun didn’t blame him. He’d been absolutely useless in the last few bandit skirmishes, usually hiding behind a horse or just by himself in a little ball on the road. The last posture was rather easy for him; he didn’t have far to go. 

“How’s your fighting coming along?” Baekhyun asked just to . 

“It .” Chanyeol answered on Suho’s behalf. The dwarf surprisingly nodded in agreement. 

“Oh well. Good luck then,” said Baekhyun, while he readjusted the bow across his back. He would be ready at least. 

As they started moving again, Baekhyun registered the templar and the mage actually conversing at the rear of the caravan. That alone was pretty unusual now, and yet they seemed to be in agreement about something for a change. Baekhyun guessed it had something to do with the spare staff he’d seen Luhan sneak onto the saddle horse, although Xiumin was definitely not allowed to use it, yet.

Baekhyun shook his head and scoffed. The sooner Luhan let the mage do what he was actually good at doing, magic, the safer they’d all be. But at least it seemed the templar had come up with a contingency plan. They’d all have been dead had Xiumin not saved them before. 

They heard the bears before they saw them, because of course they couldn’t avoid them. It wouldn’t be an adventure if they had, Baekhyun silently grieved. Really, it was just going to slow them down and tire everybody out. How pesky. 

At least that was how Baekhyun liked to think, to motivate himself. He quickly dived out of the line of attack and let the warriors rush forward. Jongin of course ran first, shield before him, flanked by Chanyeol and Jongdae. Baekhyun let fly the first of his arrows before settling in a good distance away where he had a cleaner shot in between those fighting. Luhan arrived last and in perfect time to block a particularly vicious paw swipe that Chanyeol wasn’t quick enough to avoid. They’d had the misfortune to startle two of the adult bears and one of the cubs. The second cub was still beyond the tree line, Alistair nipping at it to keep it in line, but while Baekhyun fired off arrow after arrow into the tough hides of the two forward-most bears, he couldn’t help worrying about the location of the third one he’d counted among the tracks. Maybe, he'd just been wrong?

Behind the fighting, Sehun stood on the ground holding onto his two daggers with unsteady hands. He didn’t join the fighting, but he at least looked ready to defend himself, Baekhyun was pleased to note. Suho wasn’t even trying to fight. Instead he held the reigns of their two horses and Baekhyun sighed. If they hadn’t lost their other two horses to wolves in the Brecelian Forest, they might have ridden all this way and then they’d be in Redcliffe already, possibly even West Hills and Baekhyun would be free again to head off into the sunset, contract fulfilled. 

And yet here they were fighting bears. There was a lot of blood spray against the ground but no bodies yet, and no limbs either, thank somebody's Maker. Jongdae was a speedy fighter and dodged every attack, the shield warriors held their ground, right sword arms swinging, Chanyeol did a lot of damage, and yet the bears were a menace, giant furry swarms of gnashing teeth and razor sharp claws. The nearest of the cubs even meandered into the fray and took a fancy to Jongin’s unprotected right side. Before Baekhyun could even fit the next arrow to his bow to deter it, however, the cub froze — shards of ice blasting all around. 

“Alright!” Baekhyun cried. “That’s what I’m talking about it!”

He spared the mage one triumphant glance, checked on Luhan’s reaction — the templar appeared to have condoned this possibility — and went back into the fray. With magic now on their side, the bears would weaken a whole lot sooner. 

“Oh yeah, take that!” cried Chanyeol when the largest one went down. “You are so going to look great as a rug!” That left one adult, and one and a half cubs to be added to Chanyeol’s carpet pile, but Baekhyun was still concerned about the one he couldn’t see.

“Jongin!” he yelled above the fray. The warrior didn’t stop but Baekhyun knew he could hear him anyway. “There should have been three adults! Where’s the last one?”

“Maybe it’s wandered off!?” shouted Luhan in response. “I’d be happy with that!” The templar was red and flustered and had a gash across his forehead. 

The cub went down next, and Baekhyun would have felt sorry except it had taken too great a liking to Jongin. Now though the larger bear fought even harder. She was nearly down and the second cub along with her, when Baekhyun heard a shout from behind: Suho freaking out, Sehun shrieking in terror, and Blast it all! There was the third one. 

“Oh, sod it! I knew we were missing one!” Baekhyun yelled at the sight of the rogue bear bowling terribly fast towards the basically armor-less noble kid. He aimed an arrow and nearly got it between the eyes except Suho decided at that moment to try to be helpful. He shouted to draw its attention and the bear swerved instinctively. “Blast!” 

Chanyeol was rushing backwards now, but he was too slow. That left only Baekhyun and Xiumin, and right now the elf was entirely grateful for the mage’s existence. Unfortunately they still weren’t enough. Sehun was backing into the trees almost crying, and the bear turned towards him again. Not a single one of Baekhyun’s arrows or Xiumin’s spells were deterring it completely. Sehun was probably going to die if something wasn’t done about it, and then Baekhyun's contract would die with him. He wasn't getting paid to deliver a dead, bear-malled body to West Hills, and if that was too mercenary a thought, Baekhyun secretly liked the kid, noble born bastard human or not. He didn't want to see him get dead. 

He kept firing arrows, knowing he would soon reach his limit when suddenly there was a bloodcurdling scream, and Baekhyun couldn’t see Sehun anymore. Everyone in the fray stopped to panic, and Baekhyun’s blood ran cold. 

Noooo… please, no. He’d pray to the Maker, to Andraste, even the old gods if that wasn’t the sound of their charge going down. He heard Chanyeol cursing even louder, and then Jongin was rushing past him in a blur, only Luhan and Jongdae left behind to dispatch the second bear from which they couldn’t yet turn their backs. 

The two warriors Baekhyun had joined on the excursion reached the third bear in a rush of steal against flesh, Jongin taunting loudly to make it to turn around, but Baekhyun didn’t have time to spare the animal. He rushed past the fallen dwarf as fast as his legs could go, searching the ground for Sehun, and finding… nothing. On the other side of the skirmish Xiumin was doing the same, frantically scouring the trees for the fallen boy and his eyes met with Baekhyun’s briefly before they both started to panic double-time. 

“Sehun!!” the mage yelled, once more staring out through the trees.

“Sehun!” he added his chant to Xiumin’s. Together they broke past the bear and the warriors — the templar and assassin finally joining in on the last wild beast. Instead of helping, Baekhyun and the mage dove through the tree line, searching the ground, scouring through foliage, rushing as fast as they dared to go so as not miss any possible clue of where the boy had gone.

“Sehun! Where are you!?” Baekhyun called again.

“Can you hear us?” Xiumin kept shouting. “Sehun?! Sehun! He wouldn’t run off on his own, surely?” he questioned Baekhyun.

“No sane person would run this far away into the woods! Least of all him,” he replied. “He’s got to be here!” 

“Could he have been taken?” 

“By who??” Baekhyun cried. “All we saw was a bear and Sehun, and then nothing!” 

They continued searching, terror building up with every lost and wasted second of time, wandering apart as far as they could all the while keeping sight of each other. Baekhyun wondered offhandedly if the templar would freak out, but to his mind, Xiumin couldn’t possibly use this opportunity to wander off. He seemed genuinely worried about the boy and Baekhyun was grateful to have him out here. 

A weak, low shout caused them to pause, steps freezing in place so that they didn’t disturb the sound echoing around them. They heard only the sounds of the battle beyond, the squawk of a few lone birds, and then... someone else breathing?

“To your left!” Xiumin shouted excitedly. “Is that him?!”

They found Sehun in a huddle almost beneath a log, his green tunic shirt nearly blending in with the grass around him. 

“Sehun! You cursed human, what are you doing hiding away there!” Baekhyun knew no other relief than to berate the boy who was shivering uncontrollably with tears spilling down his eyes. 

“Baekhyun, I don’t think he crawled here on his own,” said the mage with an eye to their immediate surroundings.

“e, I know that,” Baekhyun said more softly. “I’m just glad he’s here.”  He knelt by the boy while Xiumin turned frantically in a circle looking for whatever had brought him here. For all the fear in the boy’s expression, he seemed remarkably calm when Baekhyun touched his forehead. 

“We got you, it’s okay.” 

Sehun couldn’t speak. His words came out in a slurred stutter before he gave up completely. Only his eyes implored Baekhyun’s as if to say he was okay, and then he met Xiumin’s, and then two more bodies exploded in through the brush behind them as Jongin and Chanyeol appeared hovering over Baekhyun’s head. 

They didn’t ask questions, not when Baekhyun shook his head not to speak. Chanyeol lifted the startled boy into his arms and started walking away, and Baekhyun’s legs finally failed him, the adrenaline wearing off and he couldn’t manage to stand upright, he was so relieved to find Sehun alive. Xiumin leaned over to try to help him up, but Jongin got there first. Two strong arms beneath his arms that lifted him into the air and then held him while Baekhyun regained his center of gravity. He took one moment to lean back into Jongin’s armored chest and breathe a couple good times, and when he finally took a step forward to walk on his own, Jongin seemed hesitant to let him go. 

“Where’s Luhan?” Xiumin asked the warrior before Baekhyun could assure him he was fine.

“Back with the horses,” said Jongin succinctly. “I figure he figures you’re coming back, so unless you want to disappoint him, let’s go.”

The mage didn’t argue. The three of them followed in Chanyeol’s large wake back to the highway, and Baekhyun knew there’d be more questions than anyone had answers for when they finally sat down to talk this day out. 

3,907 words

Yay, epic bear fight! (As one of my beta's mentioned- fighting bears when you're still low level is basically as obnoxious as being stuck in the Fade- sorry, Origin-gamer problems. I f'ing hate the Fade.) Also, what the heck nagged Sehun?! ;)