Imenry was slightly confused by the way his eyes kept drifting away; landing on the ground, shooting to the sky above, looking anywhere but at her. She wondered if she’d somehow intimidated him, or made him nervous again and she tried to redirect her own gaze to put him more at ease. Perhaps it had been her intense study of his face that unnerved him, even if it was merely to get a better look at his tattoos. It wasn’t often that people liked to be stared at.
When he spoke she smiled back towards him, pleased to see that she hadn’t scared him away from conversation at least. But his next question almost made her laugh. She certainly wasn’t Orlesian, something that most Fereldans knew immediately upon meeting her. But she could forgive him that because it was doubtful he’d seen many humans at all, let alone any from Orlais (they certainly wouldn’t do anything as dirty as traipse through the forest). And though Orlais might claim the mountains that had made up her home, they’d certainly never bothered with them. The only people living that far south had been farmers and peasants, and beyond that was only her village.
“Not quite. I’m from a village in the peaks south of Orlais, but it wasn’t an Orlesian territory. More… like it’s own little world really. We had our own traditions, our own way of doing things. It’s probably hard to explain to someone who doesn’t even know most basic human traditions. But I guess we were more like your people than like typical humans.”
She was amused by that thought, but really it was true. She couldn’t go into details with Faer, she couldn’t go into details with anyone without putting herself in danger, at least not about certain things. So instead of speaking religion she spoke of daily life. “You see, I lived in the mountains. It was harsh there. There was always snow on the ground, even in summer. We couldn’t grow most crops, nor raise animals. So we took to hunting, trapping… scraping at the mountain’s resources for survival. Some hearty roots grow in the cold, and we ate a lot of those. Herbs we grew indoors, mostly for healing uses.” She smiled over at him, pleased to be able to share a little bit of this simple information with someone. “So we all had to be good at hunting and tracking. It was a pretty vital part of life there. I imagine it’s similar for your people?”