Jennifer sat on the bridge that resided within her favorite park. The air smelled of honeysuckle and freshly tended grass. The weather worn wood was warm against her backside while the air drifted coolly along her bare shoulders. She sighed, nowhere felt as welcoming as her special spot. She tilted her head back to let her lightly freckled face absorb the golden rays of the sun.
A car honked and she turned her face and shielded her eyes with her hands as she peered at the silver sedan waiting just off the walkway. She sighed again, this one of annoyance as she gathered her pencils and art book and padded her way, barefoot to the car. She opened the door, "Hey, Mom."
"Sorry it took me so long, the track meet ran late, but most the girls got ranking places so we're off to the preliminaries!" She smiled, her mother was always so proud of her students. She was a great coach.
"That's great! And I didn't mind you taking long. I like sitting outside." She traced the pentagram tattoo on the topside of her wrist in habit.
Her mom noticed this and frowned, but shifted the car into gear and pulled out of the parking lot. They drove along the back roads of the suburban neighborhood, the drive twisting towards and away from the river that lead out into the bay. Jennifer watched the cattails and reeds bend gently in the breeze as the car zoomed past. Clouds had gathered overhead and turned a deep blue-grey signaling the coming of rain, and soon enough, tell-tale drops of water sprinkled the windshield as they continued on.
It became darker quickly and Jennifer looked back and forth at the clouds in the sky. "It's getting nasty out, Mom, don't drive too fast."
"Remember I'm the one that taught you to drive." Her mother grimaced.
"Remember that I almost didn't pass my driver's test." Was Jennifer's reply.
The rain came thicker and louder, sheets of it pelting the car and blurring the lines of the road though the wipers were on full speed. "Maybe you should pull over. I can barely see a thing, did you remember your glasses?"
"Yep! There in my bag though, would you grab them for me?" Jennifer sighed and rolled her eyes as she reached into the back seat to grab the backpack her mother used to carry her things to work. The bag was just out of reach, she pulled at her seat belt but still was unable to grab it. Irritated she unbuckled her seat belt and pushed with her feet finally reaching for the bag. Unknowingly to her, her mother had turned and asked, "Did ya get it?"
Jennifer grunted as she returned to her seat looking down at her bag, when she looked up red lights blared at her, "Mom, lo-" She could get the words out before the car slammed into the car before them and Jennifer fell into unconsciousness.
-ooo-
Garret Hawke stretched in his chair at the table in Varric's suite. His cards were trash, a dead hand. He folded his hands and tossed them forward. "Nothing!" He sat back with a grimace for a moment before standing to leave, "I'm calling it a night, my luck has seemed to have run dry."
Varric chuckled. "Good thing that's the only time your lucks run out, Hawke, otherwise you'd be face down off the cliffs of the Wounded Coast!"
"Ha! Ha! Your wit astounds." He replied with a grimace and turned to leave before calling over his shoulder, "Are you coming, sister?"
Bethany stood and smiled, handing her cards back to Varric, "I was never one for card games. Good night, everyone." She exclaimed with a cheerful wave as she followed behind Hawke. They made their way back to Uncle Gamlen's hovel in silence. Hawke trumped up the stairs and smiled as he heard Bethany's light bounce behind him. Just as he reached for the door however, the joyous aura around his beloved sister died as sounds of his mother screaming flooded their ears.
He burst through the door, the strained hinges splintering the wood, sword in hand a fierce battle cry on his lips that died quickly after at the scene before him. His mother, Leandra, knelt next to a prone figure in the center of the room. Leandra's hands hovered over the body before hesitantly placing them on the shoulder of a young woman. "Oh Bethany, come quick, I think she's hurt!"
Bethany pushed past Hawke, whose tall and broad frame blocked the broken doorway, and knelt beside the unconscious woman. "Maker… What happened?!" Bethany slid her hands along the woman's body, a light green energy pulsating from her fingertips.
Leandra stood making her way towards the small washroom. "I have no idea, one moment I was thinking about Carver and your father and the next she appeared at my feet!" She yelled from the other room as she gathered a clay basin and rags.
Blood soaked the woman's clothes from numerous scratches along the woman's body her clothes were shredded and a deep seeping wound capped her head. She moaned pathetically as Bethany continued to heal her as best as she way able.
Hawke, having finally come to his senses, blinked rapidly and stepped forward, "Will she be alright?"
Bethany shrugged as the light from her fingertips faded and she pulled her hands away. Leandra busied herself by washing the young woman's forehead, face and shoulders. "I don't know." Bethany replied a moment later. "I'm not as adept in healing as Anders, perhaps he should look over her."
Hawke nodded once before spinning abruptly on his heal and leaving the hovel. Bethany and her mother carefully stripped the woman and dressed her one of Bethany's few night dresses before carrying her to a small palette within Bethany and Leandra's room. Just as Leandra finished washing the woman's hair as best as she could, what little hair the girl had, it was closely cropped except for the long fringe in the front, Anders hurried into the room, laying his staff beside the palette, his fingers aglow.
"What happened?" He asked as he closed his eyes in concentration, assessing the injuries before actually healing.
Leandra explained as she had before and held the woman's hand in hers. "Will she be alright?"
Anders smiled. "Of course, Bethany did a fine job of healing." Leandra sighed with relief before Hawke cleared his throat and motioned to the other room at Anders and Bethany.
Bethany glanced back at the unconscious woman before turning to the two men.
"How can someone be summoned here? She wasn't even conscious. Do you think it was blood magic?" Hawke asked, looking past Anders and eyeing the girl with suspicion.
Anders shook his head with a slight frown. "I don't sense any blood magic, or any magic at all, for that matter. Bethany?" He turned slightly to look at her carefully.
She only shook her head. "I don't sense anything here, and it seems weird that she would be summoned here of all places." Hawke grunted in agreement before scratching his head in thought.
"I have to return to the clinic, but I will be back first thing tomorrow to gauge her. And let me know if there is any change." Anders smirked as he retrieved his staff. "Lady Amell, a pleasure as always."
Leandra tittered and batted at Ander's shoulder. "Flatterer."
Anders bowed and turned back into the room. "I'll see you to Darktown, can't have my favorite healer falling prey to the evil Templars." He wiggled his fingers eerily and Anders rolled his eyes, both leaving the dilapidated hovel.
Bethany giggled to herself before making her way to the clothes that laid in a pile on the floor. She knitted sweater was large and baggy, and the blue colored pants seemed strange, neither linen nor leather, they stopped at the knee and have four… no five pockets laid into the trousers. Very curious indeed.
Bethany and Leandra soon made their way to their own palettes, changing into their nightwear, Bethany was just falling into the fade and much welcomed rest as she head Garrett's heavy metal cladded steps come through the front door.
-ooo-
Jennifer dreamed of the sunshine, but the warmth of it was empty. Almost heat traveled along her body soothing the ache she didn't realize was there until it was gone. She groaned as she stretched along the feather soft grass and relaxed under the clear sky. She knew she was dreaming, she always knew when she was dreaming, but some dreams like this one were too nice to wake up from.
She rolled along inhaling the scent of slightly dampened earth. She smile widely as she lifted her hands and the earth rolled beneath her hands. In her dreams she could always control the earth. That was her element, her power. As a Wiccan she controlled the powers of Earth. Or so she practiced hoping that one day she could become like the earth.
"I can help you. I can help you become the dirt beneath your toes, the flowers along the field. I can give you the power to bring nature at your beck and call." Came a voice.
Jennifer rolled and jumped to her feet. She peered at the large grotesque figure standing above her.
"Who are you?! No one has ever spoken in my dreams before!"
"I am VANITY. I could give you all the power you ever want, show your mother how powerful you can be."
Scared witless, Jennifer fell back from the creature, shards coming from its joints like planes of glass….glass like Mother's windshield. The accident!
Jennifer awoke with a start gasping. She checked her body, patting along her arms and legs finally resting on her head, she had crashed through the windshield of her mother's car when they crashed… then she looked down at the thread bare blanket. Her eyes traveled from her legs to the night dress she was wearing, that's not a hospital gown. Her gaze then traveled to the room, this isn't a hospital. Then she peered beside her at the brunette sleeping next to her and she screamed…
AN: So I hope you like the first chapter. This is my first fanfic that I'm actually inspired to write so be gentle. :3
