Title: Abrupt

Summary: Elion is five when he first encounters magic.

Genre(s): drama, family, general.

Warning(s) for: possible inaccuracies of the Dragon Age setting.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Dragon Age series. I do, however, own Elion and Eliora.

Note(s): I wrote this like a year or two ago. Why didn't I post it then before Dragon Age 2 came out and everyone was still in love with Origins? Well, for one, I didn't have an account. Reason two is that I was kind of shy/scared of sharing my writing with anybody back then (and still am, to be perfectly honest. I wish I could write better [/whines]). So. Um, yeah. Any reviews would be much appreciated?

Last Edited: August 21, 2012


Elion is five when he first encounters magic.

The first mage he ever meets is his three-year-old ("Nu-uh. I'mma three n' a half.") sister.

Eliora is her name and she is tiny, even for an elf.

It is hot one day and he and Eliora and cousin Kallian are all sitting underneath the Great Big Tree. Elion feels all sticky and icky and wishes that he had something cold to drink. Cousin Kallian agrees with him and asks him what he had for breakfast. Elion doesn't remember. He thinks Mama served him porridge in the morning but he isn't really sure. He turns to his sister to ask is she remembers what Mama served them for breakfast and–

Something cold hits his cheek.

Elion blinks. He wipes at his cheek and looks at the white powder sticking to his hand. It looks a little bit like snow but that can't be right because it's too hot outside and it shouldn't be snowing today or tomorrow or the day after that or the day after that.

Elion hears a giggle and looks over to his sister. He blinks again and stares at her because Eliora, Eliora is, she's–

Specks of white, shining powder swirl over her hands before forming into spheres of pure white slush. His sister is making snowballs. His sister can make snow.

He is giddy and awed by the revelation and is filled with the sudden desire to play. He knows cousin Kallian feels it too because she gets up and waves her hands over her head and says bet'cha can't hit me and runs and runs. Elion follows her example as soon as he hears his sister giggle again.

They play for hours.

When it is getting dark, Elion and Eliora say bye-bye to cousin Kallian and head home. During dinner, Elion decides to share with Mama and Papa that his little sister can create snow and Eliora chooses to tell Mama and Papa all about how much fun she'd had hitting Elion and cousin Kallian with her snowballs. Papa and Mama look a little bit pale after they're finished with their story and then Papa asks them to repeat it. So they do. The table is quiet for a little while again before Mama asks where they were playing ("'round the Great Big Tree.") and if anyone saw them ("I dunno.") and if anyone got hurt ("Snowball hitted me on the face, does that count?") and Elion answers each and every one of her questions.

He does not know why Mama looks so upset after he's finished talking.

The next day, men in shiny, hard-looking clothing with giant, weirdly shaped knives strapped onto their backs (Templars, people will later whisper in hushed voices and Elion will wonder what the word means) arrive on their doorstep. They want to talk and Mama tells Elion to take Eliora outside and go play with his sister. Elion doesn't want to, though, because Mama and Papa look a little bit scared of the men and Mama and Papa are never scared of anything so the men must be really bad and though the men are really big and really shiny, Elion thinks he can probably take them on because he's been practicing how to fight with cousin Darrian and cousin Darrian's the best fighter in the whole entire Alienage.

Eliora tugs on his sleeve, however, and asks him if he wants to play tag or hide-and-go-seek. Elion says both because she is his sister and he likes to see her happy and she is happy whenever they play games. She's even happier whenever she wins the games, which is always because Elion doesn't mind losing games to his sister as long as she keeps on smiling.

Later, when they've finished three games of tag and five games of hide-and-go-seek, Papa finds them sitting underneath the Great Big Tree. Papa is trying to smile at them but Elion can tell he is sad. Papa tells Elion and Eliora that it's time to go back home and offers Eliora a piggyback ride, which Eliora gleefully accepts. Elion doesn't mind that he's not getting a piggyback ride home because first of all he's a big boy now and big boys don't need piggyback rides and second of all because Papa looks sad and tired and Elion would much rather make Papa smile than ask him for a piggyback ride.

Once they finally near home, Papa puts Eliora down onto the ground. Elion sees that Mama and the shiny men are also outside of the house and they look like they've been waiting for them. Mama also looks sad and Elion wonders why Mama and Papa are trying to smile when all they look like they want to do is cry.

Mama crouches down and hugs Eliora and whispers something in her ear. Elion does not know what she says but he does not like it because Eliora starts to look confused. Eliora looks from Mama to the shiny men and Elion does not know what is going on but he knows that whatever it is he does not like it.

The shiny men move forward and Mama stops hugging Eliora and takes a step back from her. Eliora still looks confused and Elion wishes that they both knew what was going on because something feels very wrong about this moment. One of the shiny men says something but Elion doesn't notice because one of the other shiny men is picking Eliora up and hoisting her over their shoulders and is giving her a piggyback ride and that isn't right because he isn't Papa and they're all leaving now and the shiny men are taking his sister. Elion gets ready to run after them and ask where are they taking his sister but Papa picks him up and hugs him tight in his arms and does not let Elion chase after the shiny men who are taking his sister away.

She never does come back.