Run, rabbit, run (open)

The Frostback mountains were getting quiet again.  When the Inquisition was active, there were too damn many people intruding, wrecking her peace and quiet, but now things were returning to normal.  Solitude was the norm, travellers crossing her path were rare, and she didn’t feel the need to use precious magical energy to make her appearance more palatable just in case another person happened so see her.

It was a quiet afternoon.  Ivirna took some time to sit and rest, her hare Greymaulkin by her side.  In an instant the animal froze, lifted up to his hind legs, sniffed the air and dashed away.  Ivirna knew enough about the animal’s behavior to think that it looks less like her was running away from something, but toward something.

Damn hare, probably going to get himself killed.  She sprang to her feet and dashed off after him, all the while aware that she was trying to catch something faster, quieter, and better than hiding than she was.

Morrigan could never seem to stay in one place; though anyone who had noticed that the Kocari Wilds remained untouched by the hordes of darkspawn driving Fereldens people into a corner, well... they'd be smart to avoid the Wilds. The witch had already received one group of refugees and she had no real desire to bring more into the fold.

She protected her people; her boy and his husband, her daughter (though with Asha living with Lana, she was typically protected well enough). And of course, the Chasind. She'd never figured out if she was Chasind, and Flemeth wasn't talking.

So the mystery would remain, but she'd treat the Chasind with the same respect they treated her while she lived in the Wilds. They left her offerings, freshly killed meat. She suspected it was due to the fact she often took the form of a high dragon...

She'd think about that later. The Frostback Mountains were familiar, only due to her time with the Inquisition. The form of a black cat slinked through the trees, each step carefully placed, blue eyes wandering with curiosity. She wanted to see how the Inquisition had left the mountains.

People so often ruined natural wonders, after all.

Ivirna breathed a sigh of relief to see her animal companion hadn’t gone very far before stopping suddenly.  For a moment, Ivirna had feared he caught the scent of a mate, and if that had been the case, the damn beast could have run for miles before giving up the chase.  Of course, it wasn’t the right time of year, but with so much strange and twisted things going on in the world, that didn’t sound so odd after all.

As she approached she first saw that Greymaulkin was still on the alert: up on his hind legs, ears erect, eyes staring intensely.  Next, she saw what he was staring at: a black cat up in the trees.

“Stupid hare, cats eat things like you.”

This cat seemed different, though.  Not a bobcat, or a wildcat like she was used to seeing the mountains.  After so many years she knew the plants and animals so well that it was easy to spot anything out of the ordinary.

“Or it might not be a cat after all, but at any rate, lot of things would think you’d make a nice meal.”  She reached down to pet the hare’s back to comfort him, but he flinched away and nervously thumped on of his hind feet.

Morrigan paused in the trees, staring down at the other woman with the typical bored gaze of a cat who had things better to do. The hare thumped his feet. In moments, the cat bounded from the trees as if on the hunt— As soon as she stood before the hare, the cat was gone, and the witch sat in its place, reaching out a hand to the startled animal, as she let her gaze wander over the strange woman in front of her. Morrigan did not reach to pet the animal, simply offered her hand out to it. If it moved to let her, she'd stroke its ears gently.

She'd always cared more for animals than people. But that was what happened when you grew up wild.

Hello. Flat, no smile. She was trespassing and she knew it. But she was here to see how the mountains fared with the mass exodus of humankind from its peaks after the Inquisition was felled.

The hare was not startled to see the cat transform into a woman.  He hesitated for a moment when she stretched out her hand, but then leaned it to give it a friendly sniff.

Ivirna was equally unfazed to see that her suspicions about the cat were correct.  However, she was a bit upset that she had been seen by another person in her natural form, being spotted before she had the chance to cast her glamour and make herself look more palatable.  Too late now, no need to go to the effort if she wasn’t going to fool anyone.

“You know, I normally consider all outsiders to be a threat, but Greymaulkin seems to trust you, and I’ve known him to be a good judge of character.” 

Morrigan tilted her head to the side, and then she smiled a fey grin. Ivirna, right? Hag of the Frostbacks? Morrigan, Witch of the Kocari Wilds. She held out a hand towards the other woman. Whether Ivirna took it or not, she'd shrug and state: Flemeth says it's been a while.

Ivirna chuckled softly before taking Morrigan’s outstretched hand.  “Not who I was expecting, but I can’t say I’m surprised either.  Now, did you seek me out, or is this meeting simply an odd coincidence?”

She took a moment to study Morrigan, trying to see if she could detect anything that reminded her of Flemeth, maybe a certain glint in her eye or some nuance in her body language, but there was nothing she could pin down.

Flemeth wanted to check Skyhold for clues. She stated, as if that was obvious. She believes that's where the Veil was torn down. Morrigan doesn't bother stating where she got this information; Flemeth had coexisted with Mythal for centuries. There were things that she'd just know.

Did the Inquisition leave your mountains in ruin? She inquired, seriously.

Though she didn’t see anything that reminded her of Flemeth, Ivirna still felt comfortable enough to speak in a more familiar manner.

They made quite a mess of the place, stomping down paths where few feet had tread before, frightening away the animals, and taking as many resources as they pleased.  I never got a moments peace, and if I don’t stop myself I could rant about it for hours.”. She paused for a moment just to contemplate her surrounding and appreciate the fact that she didn’t hear soldier traveling though her mountains or smell campfires in the distance.  The land is healing, but scars remain.  That much is to be expected, the whole damn world is scarred.” scarred, marred, and spiraling into utter devastation.  What a time to be alive.

Morrigan listened, nodding. They take, take, take and never give back. I know it all too well. She's quiet for a moment, listening. And for the time she heard nothing traveling through the forest, no harsh footfalls.

Mother believes the Sylvas have re-claimed Skyhold. Is there truth? Given where Skyhold rested on the mountains, Ivirna might not travel there often. And she suspected that at least an ancient organization of elves would leave the mountain better than those before them.

”i’ve made a point of avoiding Skyhold, she answered with bitterness in her voice.  It still felt like a fresh wound from her mountains went almost overnight from unpeopled and still to the hub of an international organization.  ”But it sounds likely.  I’ve seen the slightest signs of life in the area, which could only be made by people with an uncanny ability to remain undetected.  These certainly aren’t are gangs of scavengers trying to pick off the scraps left by the inquisition.