Eyes closed the Karashok gently swayed with the breeze. Face slack and body relaxed he appeared to be sleeping. The mage beside him knew better but many a child had come over to poke him. Each poke was worthy of one eyelid creeping open to stare down at the offender. This usually caused an explosion of giggles before the tiny humans scampered off to cluster with their co-conspirators, murmuring in excitement and pointing. Merely heaving a great sigh at their antics he closed his eye and went back to his meditations.
They had been waiting for days now without any sign of the Alistair’s return. The first day of waiting had been one full of panic and screaming but the humans had quickly acclimated to their presence and the adults passed by with nary a look, content to ignore them. The children were fascinated though and had been coming for days now to watch them, some left small chains of flowers or other trinkets they had found. A collection of shiny rocks and stray ribbons littered the ground at the Qunari’s feet.
The humans of the Keep were more wary of them, an eye always watching. At least these humans were not complete fools and knew something dangerous when they saw it unlike the others.
A jab to his shin had him glaring down once more. The small ones were robed differently today, running about in white vestments. The Karashok though this was a strange thing to put on children, already he could see a number of them with dirty handprint and grass stains plastered across the white cloth.
Sinking down to his most basic senses he felt the approaching party before he heard them. Next to him the mage tensed and shifted to stare down the road. The Karashok kept his place, no movement visible. The smell of the horses and sweaty humans drifted to him. Fighting down the urge to scrunch his nose he slit open his eyes to observe them. On seeing the armor and robes they were garbed in he stood at attention.
Not the Alistair but the humans’ mage-guards with the required mages in tow. Taking in the armor and the horses again he wondered if this was the same party he had spied in the woods a nearly fortnight ago. So their destination was the Wardens. Did they come to quell the rising Blight as well?
Frowning at the number of mages packed together he glanced over at his own mage. It stood in place looking over at him, questioning. Furrowing his brow he stared at the other, he was not so different from his brothers and yet he was a mage. He still needed to think of how he would deal with it. For now he shook his head. Ignore them. Remain where you are.