"Aaah. Well, they're not so bad considering others I've seen in the past." Deidre closed her eyes, lashes curtaining them heavily as the staccato beats within her ribs slowly ebbed into a pace that was somewhat more normal. "At least they're trees... even when twisted and angry, they hold some natural beauty still. I don't think I've seen anything in your Forest yet that was truly ugly. Everything is organic... everything emits a sense of belonging. You don't find that in more 'civilized' areas where structures are forced to blend with the landscape. Humans haven't perfected that art yet....given man's inherent tendency to force everything to bend to his whims, I doubt our kind ever will."
She sighed -- the expulsion was one full of unvoiced relief. As exhausted as she looked, she didn't seem particularly frightful. While accustomed to running long distances, her present aches and pains didn't make that particular endeavor easy. Her earlier retreat had been more for other reasons than actual fear -- concerns at the time had little to do with what she was facing and more about her companion's capabilities. Despite living in the woods for several years, the man didn't seem all too used to the area's wilder territories. He breathed raggedly...she could hear him trying to recover from where she sat.
The Shemlen scholar's gaze remained shuttered until callused fingertips brushed over the high arch of her cheek, where blood kissed her dirt-streaked complexion. She rolled her head towards where the gesture seemed to have come from, her eyelids lifting and taking in the fatigue etched upon the lines of his face. By anyone's standards he could be considered handsome even when dirtied and after being tossed around by possessed creatures. Much like the environs which they call home, the Dalish more often than not exhibited an unearthly sort of beauty -- very much part of the world but at the same time above it.
While she didn't comment on how nice he was being at present, she did lift a hand to rest gently on his forearm while he rummaged into his pack. "I'll be fine," she said, in a tone meant to be more reassuring than anything else. "It was a fall, a few tumbles, and one well-placed hit across the stomach. We've a long ways to go yet and I think we should save what we have for the very dire emergencies. If there are Wild Sylvans shambling around, there's no telling what else we'll come across the closer we get to your clan."
She winked at him. "Besides, what if something happened to you? I'm going to need what you have to bring you back to life. I doubt your Keeper will ever forgive me if I didn't bring you back in one piece."
The cheeky expression faded, at that, replaced by something more serious. "I was told by your Keeper that you were meant to replace her after her death. Your position isn't exactly something that could be easily filled." Her hand fell away, her shoulders rolling forward instead as her arms hugged her knees to her chest. "I know as a Shem, I'm not particularly trustworthy in the eyes of your brethren, but I swear on my soul that I consider myself a historian above all else. If the Keeper dies and so does her First, what then? The past exists so that the future generations can have something to learn from... if that's gone, we'll only be dooming ourselves to recreate the world's greatest mistakes."
The young woman inclined her head at him, a smile hooking upwards delicately at the corner of her mouth. "Would it surprise you to hear that I think Arlathan was one of them?" she asked. "A great center of knowledge and culture lost before anyone outside of elves can truly appreciate it. Your people were immortal then, those days. Could you imagine if you learned from a long-lived Keeper who had come from that time? The things you could know, the things you could teach those who would listen?"