Mesaraih jutted out his lower lip and blew a lock of hair on his forehead upwards. He tapped the beat to the last tavern song he had heard against the rusty iron bars of his cage. He thought for the hundredth time how foolish it had been of him to leave his nickname's initials carved onto the nobleman's corpse. He had wanted it to be a mark of fame, his first stepping stone to be a truly renowned assassin. Instead, it turned out to be the last mistake of an assassin that had maybe tried too reach too high, too soon. Maybe.<br/><br/>Because also for the hundredth time, he thought that there might still be a way to escape. It didn't seem likely. Mesaraih didn't even have a plan, or an idea, of how he could do it. He'd probably have to rely on luck to get out of his predicament. And if he didn't, he'd get eaten by darkspawn. That, or get lucky enough to have them ignore him, think it too much trouble to get him out of the cage. He snorted at the thought of counting himself lucky to starve to death with no one except marching darkspawn to keep him company.<br/><br/>"Hey, you old oaf! Do they really pay you enough to be hauling one lonely prisoner on a nearly week-long journey down here? Do you always get these kinds of lowly tasks assigned to you? And why doesn't that twat of a kid come deliver me to the darkspawn himself? I'd think he would at least want to be the one to do it if what he's going for is revenge, you know?"<br/><br/>The burly man who drove the carriage grunted audibly, even over the noise of the horse's hooves and the rattle of the cage. Mesaraih sighed. This guy was just no fun to banter with.<br/><br/>Another hour passed, at least as far as Mesaraih could tell. Time had started to get fuzzy inside the cage. The big man grunted and stopped the horses, chewing on something loudly. He swung around in his affronting orange shirt and breeches and roughly brought the cage down from the carriage. They had veered off the Imperial Highway slightly, taking a side road that seemed confusingly abandoned but used a lot recently. Mesaraih blinked as he took in the surroundings. There were other people inside cages in a small encircling that looked like an old campground.<br/><br/>"So, uh... do you have anything to say about this, at least?" Mesaraih asked the burgeoning meat sack of a man.<br/><br/>To his surprise, the man spoke up. "The boss man looked it up in them books. Apparently some kind of traditional dump site for nasty individuals like yerself every time a blight comes 'round here. Thought that was actually pretty innerestin'..." he trailed off, almost seeming to be embarrassed by having talked too much. Mesaraih didn't blame him. His raspy voice was rather unpleasant.<br/><br/>"Lovely," he responded tartly. The man placed a loaf of bread and a slab of cheese inside the cage, as well as a glass of water.<br/><br/>"Boss man said he wanted you alive still when the darkspawn pass on through," he whispered with a shrug.<br/><br/>"How nice of him. Tell him I've never been more impressed with a backstabber's manners in my life."<br/><br/>The man made a face like he wanted to smile, but it only looked like he shat himself. Without saying another word, he turned around and hopped back onto his horses. He rode off at a canter, the horses visibly less strained without the weight of the cage and a man on their carriage. Mesaraih started to feel nostalgic. He'd miss the horses. They had been decent company on the ride to his death sentence.<br/><br/>He looked down at the food just as his stomach growled. He bit off a piece of the cheese, concentrating on blocking his mind from noticing the bits of green that were growing on its sides.<br/><br/>With his mouthful, he took another sweep of the cages around him. It looked like all the prisoners were either dead or sleeping. It was hard to tell.<br/><br/>"Hey! Anyone still alive out there? Maybe have some brilliant escape plan?"