A dark glower had instantly appeared on Feri's face at the comments of the onlookers in the tent. A scathing remark had already come to mind when Rannon retorted on her behalf. It was certainly witty enough, but she still retained a sour glare towards the Knights. By the looks of some of them, they'd not even seen a real battle. She'd come across many a man in her time who thought he was big and powerful for having fought a small contingent of bandits here and there in their life. Just a handful of Darkspawn would turn them on their heels - as such, Feri didn't think most of them would be able to cope against a hardened soldier like Rannon. Still... she wasn't overly fussed on his plan. But with such stubbornness, the young rogue had no choice but to comply.

Face changing from a scowl to a grateful smile towards Rannon, Feri replied quietly, to ensure nobody would overhear. Most had lost interest after the first bout of jeers anyhow. "Alright, you can have it your way. I'll sniff around town, see what I can find out. Even if the guards haven't come across Darkspawn, they must have heard something from Ostagar already - and that should be enough to put anyone on edge." Her smile grew as Gideon plonked down on his haunches beside her, almost as if following Rannon's orders that the two should team up. "Gideon should keep me safe - just make sure you look after yourself too. I wouldn't put it past some of these knightly bastards to play dirty." Ever after having only known Rannon for such little time, Feri felt a pang of worry at thought of him in a tourney. Likely no more dangerous than Ostagar, or even the Kokari wilds that the trio had just traipsed through... but it was still very different. And he was very alone in that arena. Even the audience would likely feel cool towards him, preferring to favour their locals over a complete stranger, fresh out of the wilderness.

"I'll get us some decent quarters - just make sure you're in one piece when we meet up." She added jokingly, wanting to part on a lighter note with a grin. The Mabari at her side barked, seemingly eager to get their investigation started. And so they did - Feri and Gideon parted ways from Rannon at the tent entrance, and began to walk the town.

As it was when they entered, Feri found most of the streets to be quiet, but pleasantly so. Excited talking of the tourney could be heard coming from houses and side-streets, but that was no good to the young rogue. She wasn't quite so bold as to ask any of the wandering housewives or beggars for information on the Bann or Darkspawn. Even outside of a tourney tent, Feri stood out quite a bit due to her smaller-than-usual stature. She'd easily stick in the minds of people (Especially with a Mabari almost as tall as she was trotting alongside), and the last thing she or Rannon needed was rumours flying around town of strangers asking odd questions. 

"Guess I'll have to stick to the shadows on this one. Do Mabari's have a stealth mode, Giddy?" She asked the dog quietly with a smile as they crept into a shadowy alley. Gideon issued a minuscule bark in response, ears pointed and alert. Stifling a laugh at the dog's response, Feri began to ponder where would be the best place to pick up rumours. The inn, for sure - but it would be pointless going there now. Most people would be at the tourney, and she'd probably be able to pick up some news later when she booked a room. Rooms. Booked some rooms. So that left either the home of the Bann (Servants of any lord, no matter how small and unknown they were, loved to gossip about their employers.) or the guard house. With one of their major issues being that they couldn't get in to the Bann's manor, Feri decided that it would have to be some eavesdropping outside a guard's window. Hopefully it was a short window...

As it happened, Feri couldn't find a window proper for her height. It was bound to happen, but she had been hopeful nonetheless. To deal with this, the young rogue found a comfortably dark alley by the large stone building that acted as guard headquarters. It was surprisingly large, for a town this big - which made it all the more odd that so little guards were put on the perimeters of the town. Even if they weren't aware of the Blight, you'd expect at least some protection from the Kokari wilds. They were called "wild" for a good reason. 

"Alright boy, unless you have more hidden talents, I'm going to have to leave you down here." The rogue said to Gideon as she prepared to climb up the rough stone walls; the only windows that were covered well enough on this side were on the third floor. Much too high for a half-dwarf and her pup. As for the pup, he sat down as if guarding the alleyway they stood in. Feri could swear he looked unhappy about not being able to join her, however. Thanks to the rough stones, she was able to scale the walls easily enough without earning too many scrapes on her fingers, and as she reached the sill of an open window, clung there as she heard voices drifting through. One voice in particular dominated the room, and it was both very loud, and very angry.

"What did I tell you fools about following your orders?! This isn't some piss-ridden bandit ambush that we're keeping quiet, you morons, this is important!" Already, Feri's ears were pricking up. This definitely sounded like a conversation she wasn't meant to be hearing, and so she risked a peek over the windowsill, nails digging in further to the wall as she stretched. In the room were two fairly young looking guards, looking quite scared at the boisterous man before them. Said man was much older, taller, and muscular than the pair, and the patronising sneer on his face made it quite clear that he thought they were very much beneath him. At a glance, his armour and what was clearly his office told Feri he was a Guard-Captain... but there were also many valuable items about his person and room that were well above his paycheck. Strange indeed.

"We... we're sorry sir." One of the younger ones stammered out, eyes glued to his superior's chest plate to avoid looking him in the eyes. "B- but my sister was there sir! I couldn't just lie to my mother, she misses her-" His words were quickly cut short with a vicious, back-handed slap across the face, and he staggered at the force of it. Grabbing the young man by the shirt, the Guard-Captain pulled him close and up so the much shorter man was now nose-to-nose with him.

"Now listen here, [i]worm[/i]. I couldn't give a shit if you sister was raped by an Ogre and then strung up by her tits. You mention what happened at Ostagar in this land again, and I'll make you and your mother wish she'd never pushed you out of her gash! The same goes for you, Fernley!" The Guard-Captain barked, and the other young man jumped at the sound of his name. Loosening his grip, the berated guard slumped to the floor, and then scrambled back to his feet. A raised red mark sat on his cheek, accompanied by angry, bleeding grazes from the gauntleted hand that had struck him. "As far as the people are aware, the Darkspawn are not an issue. They never have been, and if any word goes around that they are, make sure everyone knows they are just rumours. Foul lies, spread by rogue mages, or Grey Wardens. Anything that'll keep the citizens quiet and subservient. Is that understood?" His tone was quiet now, but dangerously so. Even Feri felt a shiver run up her spine as he talked; this fellow was dangerous, that much was clear.

"Yes sir." Fernley and his battered friend complied in a subdued tone, and the Guard-Captain calmly walked back to his desk, sitting down as he dismissed them. Feri's grip on the stone began to slip beneath sweaty hands.

"Oh, and one more thing." The guards paused at the door fearfully. "If any survivors from Ostagar come through here, they're to be detained and executed. Bann's orders - we don't have any time for deserters. If you do as you're told Marius, I may be kind enough to spare your sister from this. As long as she can keep her mouth shut too." Marius' bottom lip quivered, and he nodded stiffly as he and Fernley left the room.

As the door swung shut, Feri ducked back down from the window and began a shaky descent to the floor. Her foot missed a stone about three feet from the bottom, and she fell to the ground, landing firmly on her rump beside Gideon. Ignoring the rogue's groans of pain, Gideon licked her face happily, glad to see she was back. 

"C'mon, Giddy." She muttered, standing up and rubbing her rump tenderly. "Let's go find a room."


[hr][hr]

Drumming her fingers on the stained table top absent-mindedly, Feri glanced up hopefully as the door to the Inn swung open again. Unfortunately, it wasn't Rannon. She and Gideon had been sat in the quiet corner spot for a good few hours now, even after Feri had done some additional recon after her spying of the guard tower. Marius and Fernley had been spotted on the streets, and the former was now wearing a full-face helmet. Probably to avoid people asking questions about the scuff on his cheek... or to hide tears. He had been fairly young and green after all, with not a hair on his chin. As for rumours, there was a disappointing lack of them outside of the tourney. The merchant's market had a few decent stories from Denerim, with one fellow mentioning something about King Cailan being late back from Ostagar. But that was no news to her, and nobody else seemed to think of the worst possible conclusion that could be. She had risked a small conversation with the merchants, working war and battles into the conversation as subtly as she could before asking about Ostagar. All they could say was that a large amount of soldiers and Grey Wardens had gone to fight a small amount of Darkspawn, and that they're only be delayed due to bad weather, or the Chasind natives. A question about Lothering gave her even less information; that they hadn't visited there in a good few months, and that they'd heard rumours of it being attacked by rogue mages. Another man corrected him by saying it was the Chasind, and another jumped into the conversation by saying it had been razed to the ground by either Qunari or dragons. All this did was annoy the young rogue, who knew it would be far too dangerous for her to correct them. And so, since then, she and Gideon had been sat at the local Inn, waiting for Rannon to come back.

"If he died today, I'll kill him." Feri muttered into her pint of ale, earning a quiet whine from Gideon as he placed his head on her lap. She scratched his ears comfortingly, glad at least that Gideon was with her. Even being unable to talk, he was fine company. And she was fairly sure she'd have been refused the two rooms from the nearly-packed inn if he hadn't sat at her side and glared at the innkeep.

[@POOHEAD189]