"Just breathe, okay?"
"Whoof." She went flying through the air, breath rushing from her lungs as ribs splintered. Marian had always wanted to fly, and she admired dragons, even wanted to be one after seeing Flemeth turn into one. However, being sent flying by a dragon was not on her list of things she'd always wanted.
Marian lay on the gravel in the Bone Pit, gasping for breath. The high dragon that had killed most of the miners reared over her, filling her entire field of vision. She couldn't draw a full breath, couldn't move for the pain in her chest. So this is how I end. Crushed by a high dragon. At least it will be an amazing story for Varric to tell.
The smell of hot lyrium wafted past, Fenris in a full rage tearing back and forth with his sword, harrying at the dragon's legs and ankles. A loud twang followed by the dragon's shriek and it twistedQ to the side, one giant claw landing so close to her that it showered her with dust and grit. Sebastian let out a shout of triumph at the hit.
"Marian!"
Fenris's terrified snarl had her flipping her hand weakly in the air, showing that she was okay, if mostly immobile. A barrier sprang up over her, Anders hurdling her body to help herd the dragon further away from her prone form. Spiked vines whipped out of the ground, yanking it out of her field of vision while Merrill cried, "Hold on, Hawke!"
She felt a tug on her collar, "I gotcha, Tumbles, let me just get you outta the way before the dragon finishes you off."
Marian groaned at her loved and hated nickname, and the rocks that dug into her back as Varric dragged her out of the line of fire. She heard Aveline cursing and yelling at Fenris to look out for the dragon's tail, which was what had sent her flying and cracked Maker knew how many ribs.
"Here you go, Hawke. No danger of getting stepped on over here unless Aveline and Broody completely muck things up. Once the dragon's taken care of, Blondie'll get you patched up and you'll be okay. Just breathe, okay?"
She nodded and focused on breathing through the pain. It wasn't fair, though. Dragons were her thing, and here she was, guarding dirt on the far end of the quarry from the action. She wanted to make the scaly bastard pay for all the people it'd killed. Marian closed her eyes and let out a pained moan. All the people she'd hired…
So much of the time after the Qunari tore the city apart had been spent making sure the mine was considered a good place to work. Despite Hubert's complaining, Marian had made sure the wages were good, some of the highest for laborers in Kirkwall. Anders had helped her set up a medical clinic that the miners and their families could use, and afford. Most of her personal profit from the mine went into establishing pensions for spouses and children whose loved ones perished in the inevitable accidents, and Varric had gotten experts from Orzammar to come and advise on mine safety to prevent as many of those accidents as possible.
The Maker-damned dragon had killed almost all of her employees. Blighted Hubert would wail about the money lost, as if that was more important than the men and women who had died. The Kirkwallers and Fereldans, both humans and elves were far more important to her than a few more sovereigns to her name. Marian didn't even realize she was crying until she felt Varric pat her knee. "It's okay, Hawke, just let 'em out. I imagine a dragon tail to the chest isn't the most pleasant experience."
Despite the sharp pain that resulted, she let out a snort and flipped him off. Damn dwarf, making her laugh. Varric chortled in return. "If you can still give me the bird, you're gonna be fine. Don't worry, when I write about this, the dragon will go down before you're too injured to move."
A tremor ran through the ground when the dragon finally collapsed. Fenris was hovering over her seconds later. "Marian, it is done. Are you hurt badly?"
"She hasn't said a word and didn't get up, of course she's hurt badly. Move, I need to heal her." Anders shouldered Fenris aside, and started running his hands over her chest, noting her flinches and gasping breathing. Marian groaned as she felt her ribs moving back into place, the bones knitting back together and abused lung tissue rebuilding itself.
When he was done, Fenris shouldered in to help her up. "Thank you, Anders, Fenris."
"This dragon managed to horde an awful lot in a short amount of time," Merrill chirped from atop the corpse. "I don't think I could spend it all."
"It'll make you and Broody the two richest elves in the Free Marches, Daisy. You can use it for the alienage."
Coughing out some of the dust inhaled during the fight against the dragon, Marian croaked out, "My share is going to the miners' families. It's my fault they were here."
"Hawke." Aveline let out a frustrated growl, "You're the reason this Maker-forsaken mine is considered one of the best places to work in Kirkwall. Don't beat yourself up over something you had no control over."
Too late.