How to Overwhelm a King

The sand under Aífe's naked toes felt hot, having been heated up by the sun for the better part of the day. Sweat was trickling down her back as she kept running, her feet sinking into the sand with each step. She heard heavy footfalls behind her, drawing closer and closer, and she increased her pace, nearly leaping with each step. The ground slowed her down, making each move more difficult than the last one.

A hand touched her back, just lightly, and nearly made her stumble – and then Fergus had overtaken her, his tall frame brushing past her closely. No matter how hard she tried, the distance between them was growing more and more and all she could do was watch him reach their imaginary goal with his long, powerful strides. His mabari shot past her, only minimally hindered by her own, who was snapping at his heels in evident irritation. Her own hound's legs were still too short and stubby to keep up with his fully-grown rival.

By the time Aífe finally reached her brother, coming to a halt with a skidding stop, he was grinning from ear to ear, hands in his hips as he watched her in undisguised glee. She was gasping for air and her little mabari was yapping wildly at his counterpart, jumping around him in an attempt to communicate his anger.

"Aw, look at that, Chase", Fergus cooed and crouched down to take his dog's head between his hands, giving it a good rub. Chase happily sat down, letting her tongue loll out as she completely ignored the whelp, who gave one final, indignant bark before he stamped off towards Aífe, squatting down at her heels. "They're all done. Shall we go in for the killing blow?", Fergus asked and Chase gave an enthusiastic bark, jumping to her feet again.

The young woman's eyes widened in terror as she quickly moved back, nearly falling over her hound, trying to get out of harms way. She was, unfortunately, a little too slow and before she could put enough distance between her and her brother, his hand settled on her head and tousled her hair. Even though she was fast enough to avoid more than a few seconds of contact, she could feel her hair stand on end. Her brother had the uncanny ability to make her hair look like a bird's nest within seconds, leaving devastation and chaos unlike anybody else.

She growled as she swatted her hair down, narrowing her eyes at him. "It was unfair! You're legs are longer! I was fast that time!", she defended herself, "And Fang held Chase back pretty long!" At that Fang gave a happy bark, wagging his tail proudly as he stood before his mistress. It lasted only for a moment, because then Chase had pushed him over with her muzzle and put a giant paw on his chest, making him wiggle and growl as he tried to free himself. "You're both bullies", Aífe accused and growled indignantly.

Fergus merely laughed, pulling his tunic over his head in a swift movement, which left him in only his breeches. He wiped the fabric over his chest to dry himself up a bit, the smug grin evident on his lips.

"A bit", he admitted and flashed her a wide smile – one which worked pretty well with Oriana, but did nothing to erase Aífe's urge to kick him. "I even gave you a head start this time, Aífe. What were you doing? Enjoying the scenery?" he inquired and tossed his tunic across his shoulder.

"Yes, yes, mock me if you must!", she said through gritted teeth. "You are faster than me. There, satisfied?" His smile widened as he stepped closer, but she quickly moved out of the way, hands defensively put on top of her head to keep him from making matters even worse.

"I was just going to give you a comfort-hug. Don't you think you are a bit paranoid?" he asked, clicking his tongue as he looked at her hands, still clamped defiantly on top of her head. She looked him over slowly, one eyebrow raised.

"My paranoia is not without reason – and I do not want a sweaty hug!" she replied then, wrinkling her nose as he laughed at her.

"That hurt my feelings", he sighed and put his hands over his heart, shaking his head with a quivering lower lip. "I shall ask Oriana whether she'll comfort me after this harsh, cruel treatment, sister…" At that he perked up, his gaze suddenly shifting to the right upper corner of his periphery, clearly not looking at anything, a grin appearing on his lips. "Heh heh", he uttered and Aífe felt the corners of her mouth drop into a frown as she bit down the laughter.

"Ewww!", she just said instead and gave his shoulder a shove, "You're incorrigible."

"That I am", he answered happily and started to move towards the sea, looking out at the waves that were softly swashing over the beach. Aífe moved with him, her eyes on the spray against the rocks and the white foam left in the wake of each wave. She only stopped when the water reached her feet, washing around her toes. Chase finally let Fang go and went searching for the origin of the scent that had caught her interest, while the puppy rolled to his feet and watched her for a moment, before he stood up to trot over to his mistress. He regarded the water for a moment and then proceeded to snap at it, trying to put it in its place – because who did it think it was to so daringly close in on his human again and again? It proved to be a most formidable enemy and he followed it back towards the sea, still trying to bury his teeth in it. He gave a surprised yelp when a wave hit him out of nowhere, turning tail to run back towards Aífe, seeking refuge.

"You are moving good, though, Aífe. You are fast, we just have to work on your stamina. You tire much too quickly. We can try swimming tomorrow, it strengthens your whole body and you can concentrate on breathing", Fergus told her, growing serious again as he turned to her, chuckling as he saw her bend down to pick up Fang with some difficulties. He squirmed in her hands until he could finally rest his head against her shoulder, sighing contently as he reached the safety of her arms.

"I am still slower than you and I am slower than Roland. I am much, much slower than Ser Aedan", she sighed and stroked softly over Fang's back.

"When we train without armor, yes. You will always be slower than most men when it comes to running, it is simply the way it is. But as soon as we have our armor on, you can use your quickness. Your leather armor does not weigh you down – and you still have your flexibility. Don't let this pull you down, you are growing better with each day, you have a knack for fighting with two blades and if you keep it up, you'll be better than me soon enough. So let me have my little triumphs whilst I still can, hm?", Fergus said and his eyes grew soft as he watched her, putting a hand on her shoulder with a grin.

She looked at him for a long moment, a smile tugging at her lips. "While I don't really believe you, I appreciate the sentiment. So you'll have today's triumph, alright", she granted him and he chuckled, but turned around swiftly as he caught movement behind them. It was one of the servants of the castle and he seemed to be out of breath.

"My lord! My lady!", he greeted them out of breath, bending forward to brace his hands against his knees. "Your father sent me, you are to return to the castle. The king will arrive earlier than planned and should reach Highever within the next few hours", he informed them. When Fang heard the foreign voice, his ears perked up and he gave a sharp bark, eyes still half-closed.

"Blast it, I thought he would only arrive tomorrow!" Fergus said and started to jog towards the place where they had put down the training weapons they had taken and their boots. He pulled his on quickly, uttering a loud whistle. Within moments Chase was at his side, barking happily as she followed him. "We need to hurry; Mama will have a fit if we are not presentable by the time he gets here."

It was not far to the castle, but the way up was steep and it took some time to master it and move through the cliff-lines. By the time they were close, they were both breathing heavily and Aífe felt her arms go limp with the weight of Fang, who only now started to wake fully, his limps twitching as he finally opened his eyes and looked around.

"Care to try and beat me one more time?" Fergus suddenly enquired, grinning widely at her, "I'll even give you a head-start so you have a chance. However tiny it might be."

Aífe knew it would be stupid to accept, because he would win again. From their position to the big gate there were nearly 200m and while she might have had a slim chance in a lesser distance, he would easily overtake her again until she reached the castle entrance and then she would be grumpy again. She would feel like a snail, feel as if growing roots and the occasional continental drift could overtake her. She set Fang down slowly and looked at Fergus over her shoulder. She would be stupid to let herself be embarrassed two times on the same day in the same day…

"I'll show you tiny!", she shouted and took off in a run, sprinting with wide steps. It was much easier to run here, no sand to weigh you down, no hot grains nearly igniting your very flesh. As she drew closer to the gate, she thought she might actually have a chance. There was the faint sound of feet hitting the hard earth behind her, but it was still far enough away to make her hope just a little bit. She doubled her efforts, her muscles pumping with each move and she could almost taste victory as she watched the gates getting bigger and bigger. Only faintly she registered Fang's frantic barks as he tried to keep up with her, little legs thrown out in front of him with as much energy as he could muster.

The steps behind her grew closer, but she could almost touch the gates now and knew that this time he had given her too much of a head-start and she would definitely win this time. Not willing to take any chances, she did not slow down in the least as she whooshed through the opened gate, grabbing the corner of the wall to cut the corner as narrow as possible – and all but detonated against something hard. The impact knocked the breath out of her and the faint thought that there should not be a wall here, she knew as much, shot through her head. There was a sound of metallic clattering and she nearly managed to regain her footing without going down, but then Fang barreled right into her, knocking one foot out from under her. That was all it took to send her down with a yelp, hands outstretched to catch her fall. She landed hard and groaned as she felt her knee impact with something cold and rough and she hardly was able to catch her fall. Maker, everything was so… so… golden.

Aífe blinked, willing the stars to kindly remove themselves from her vision, and blinked some more as she realized the cold metal underneath her. Slowly and very tenderly she moved her hand. More metal. She blinked again and the world came back into focus – just as her face fell.

"Uh…", she uttered and looked at the man underneath her, who looked like he was still trying to make the world stop spinning. She flinched and quickly sat up, eliciting a pained moan from him as she put too much pressure on his leg. Placing her hands on his chest, she tried to move up again, searching for somewhere – anywhere – she could put her feet so she didn't hurt him even more. It took a while for her to actually register that she did not know the man, which was strange, because she knew almost every soldier in Highever. It took even longer until it sunk in, that this stranger was wearing a golden armor. Very good and expensive golden armor. Stopping for a minute, she narrowed her eyes and looked him over. Long, blond hair. Striking blue eyes, albeit a bit unfocused at the moment. And one very recognizable banner on his chest.

"Pup," she heard her father's voice, somewhere between horror, amusement and anger, "How about you get up and let us see how much damage you did to our king?" It was less a suggestions than an order and she scrambled to pick herself up, finally succeeding with her father's help as he grasped her elbow and steadied her.

Immediately afterwards he bent down to aid the king, taking his hand while one of the royal guards took the other one and together they pulled him up. He seemed a bit unsteady at first, but quickly regained his footing and rubbed the back of his head with a faint hiss.

When Aífe turned around, she saw the guards, most of them with their weapons in their hands, advancing on her with quick steps. Three of them had arrows trained on her. Only when her father moved in front of her, shielding her with his body, they faltered a bit.

"Your Majesty, I am afraid you have met my daughter, Aífe. Aífe – this is his Majesty, king Cailan", Bryce Cousland said, looking at the guards as he put a hand on her shoulder. They still seemed on edge, their eyes fixed on her. She had to admit they might truly believe her a danger – she had just barreled into the king like a magical fire ball out of nowhere, only with less flame and probably slightly more devastation.

"Step back, men – I am unharmed," Cailan finally managed, squinting at her through half-closed eyes. When she felt her father push her forward a step, she quickly crossed her arms in front of her chest, bowing deeply.

"Your Majesty, I cannot tell you how sorry I am. I apologize profoundly. I hope you are not hurt? Can I do something for you? Do you need me to fetch our healer? I am so sorry! If there is anything I can do for you, please let me know. I can bring you to the great hall immediately, if you will allow me to," she said and bowed even deeper.

When she heard a very familiar, not-quite threatening growl that was at times interrupted by high-pitched yelps in between, she flinched and slowly looked up, only to find Fang propped on his hind-legs, trying to wrestle Cailan down into submission by taking the piece of metal covering his thigh between his jaws and pulling fervently on it.

"Fang!" she hissed under her breath, sharply pointing to the ground beside her, "Stopitnow!" The whelp perked his ears and let the metal slip from his muzzle, forepaws still resting on the king's thigh as he looked at his mistress, cocking his head to the side as he tried to make out what she had just said.

"I take it this is your mabari?" Cailan said slowly, looking down at the little dog and Aífe felt a deep blush creeping up her neck.

"I... I am afraid so, your Majesty. I am sorry. I am really so sorry!", she apologized again, pointing to her side again stiffly. Fang cocked his head to the other side, then let himself fall back to all fours and walked over to her, sitting down next to her as he looked up at her expectantly. He obviously didn't quite understand why they aborted their attack on the intruder.

Aífe looked up slowly, seeing that Ser Gilmore had grown red from suppressed laughter. He stood further away from them, probably thinking it better to keep his distance in case he would not be able to hold back the chuckles. Her father still stood behind her, his gaze on her with an expression that could only be desperation with a hint of amusement – and her mother had already moved towards Cailan, looking him over carefully to make sure he had not taken any permanent damage from meeting Aífe. "Would you like to sit down?", her mother asked and gestured towards the castle. "Your men can settle in and rest while I will arrange for somebody to look after you, your Majesty", she said with a smile, although she shot Aífe a sideways glance that prophesized impending doom. Cailan answered her with a smile and shook his head, a hand still held against the back of his head.

Aífe ducked her head again, unsure what to do. She had just tackled the king and thrown him to the ground, coming out of nowhere. With a start she realized, that she still wore the simple tunic and the breeches she always wore for training, and that they were probably stained with dust and sweat and full of sand. And she was pretty sure Fang had drooled on her shoulder, on top of making her tunic soaking wet at her chest after she picked him up out of the water. Even greater horror brought the realization, that her hair looked as though a flock of birds had tried to use it as a nest and then abandoned it in favor of something architecturally more worthy, courtesy of Fergus. Strands had slipped out of her bun, falling into her face, and she could practically feel how askew the bun itself hung by now. Quickly she moved a hand to try and smoothen her hair a bit, but knew at the same time it was in vain. She looked like a walking scarecrow. Farmers all around Ferelden would pay cows and pigs and probably offer their firstborn just to have her protect their fields. No bird would go anywhere near her.

"You are an exceptionally overwhelming woman, my lady – quite literally so", the King then said with an amiable chuckle, letting his hand finally sink from his head. She searched his gaze for anger, but found no trace of it. "I am not hurt, don't fret. I luckily had armor to protect myself from your onslaught, you just knocked the breath out of me. You, on the other hand, had no such luck. Perhaps we should worry more about you than me?" he said then and looked at her legs. She followed the path of his gaze and only now noticed that she had indeed skinned her knee quite deeply. Blood was starting to accumulate and run down her legs, slowly dripping into her boot.

"It is nothing, your Majesty, and it is utterly my own fault. Please forgive me," she replied and bowed again, begging for somebody to just step in and make the awkwardness go away. Where was Fergus, when she actually needed him for once? Had he just slipped away and abandoned her? And why was her father just looking at her like that? Did nobody bear a trace of mercy?

"There is nothing to forgive, I have gotten far worse greetings from far less beautiful women, mind you," Cailan said and turned to his guards, sharply ordering them to put away their weapons. Aífe felt a frown slip onto her face and had to fight to keep her face neutral. Surely he was mocking her. She had a dog's drool on her shoulder. And that was probably the nicest thing that could be said about her appearance at the moment.

"Will you at least let me bring you to the great hall, so you can sit down, your Majesty?", Aífe suggested, the blush deepening as she tried to figure out whether he had truly meant his words or just teased her even more.

"Nonsense, I did not come to harm. You, however, should get your wound looked at, Lady Aífe. I trust I will see you at dinner?" he said and she registered well enough, that she just had been ordered to look after her skinned knee. She nodded quickly and stole a quick glance at her mother, whose frown had deepened more and more the longer she looked at her daughter.

"Of course, your Majesty", she assured him quickly and bowed again.

"That is good to know. I will make sure to keep far away from corners, then", Cailan said and her face felt so hot that she could hardly resist the urge to put a cool hand to her cheeks to try and dissipate some of the heat. He was obviously amused by her embarrassment and looked at her father, a good-natured grin on his face. "I see now what is meant when they say you have your hands full with your daughter, the infamous Cousland spitfire", he chuckled and she winced. She was not that bad. There had only been the incident in the tavern, with the drunk guy. And her declination of Bann Vaughan's rather harsh proposal (Which had been, admittedly, equally harsh). And there was that one tournament in Denerim, where she had accidently broken a knight's leg. And maybe the time at the court, where she had stumbled upon the stables and stayed for too long watching the horses, making her father form a search party. She winced. They had promised not to tell anybody that.

"That I have, your majesty. Nobody can tell my fierce girl anything these days, not even to walk in a pace suited for a less catastrophic person, Maker bless her heart", her father sighed deeply and looked at her, shaking his head.

"I'm not that bad", Aífe voiced faintly, pressing her lips together when she felt both her mother and her father look at her with raised eyebrows. Alright. Maybe she was not in the position to make a good case for herself right now. She felt Cailan's gaze on her even more, so she cleared her throat, taking a step back, careful not to let Fang get in between her feet again.

"If you will excuse me, your Majesty, we did not expect you to arrive so early, I just came from my training and I am afraid I am less than properly dressed. I apologize again for my behavior and assure you, that it will not occur again", she said and tried to slip back into formality. It was easy to wield formality like a shield, once you had it in your hand. It also made it possible to not address what specifically she meant. Knocking him on his back. Standing in front of him with a drool-soaked tunic. Putting both her feet in her mouth.

"Oh, I don't know – I had hoped I could ask you to come to the next Landsmeet with me, so I can have you meet some of the Banns", the king said and did not even try to hide his grin. Aífe pressed her lips together. She was no weapon of mass destruction! If she tried, she could be quite charming. All she needed was a fair warning. And she hardly ever crashed into the kings. Which, admittedly, was probably due to the low population density of kings over Ferelden.

When her father stepped forward with a chuckle, putting an arm around her shoulders, she felt relief, finally able to melt into the background a bit. They were all staring and she honestly did not know how to respond to the king. 'Why, yes, my king. Just point me the direction and I will wreak havoc among your enemies. Give the word and I'll invade Orlais and make them regret the day, they ever thought of conquering Ferelden. Just make sure that I get enough cookies to keep my weight up'. That wouldn't really work now, would it?

"That would be quite harsh measurements, don't you think, your Majesty?", Bryce Cousland chuckled and squeezed her shoulder softly. "You should probably give them another chance before you doom them all." Aífe sniffed. Well, that had been helpful. You run into a king once, just once, and that was what you got for it.

She looked up when she heard the king laugh loudly and met his gaze, mirth twinkling in his eyes. "I apologize, Lady Aífe, I should not tease you so. You may take your leave now, I will see you at dinner", he finally allowed her and she felt the urge to dash off before more comments were unleashed upon her. Alas, that would not do. "Go, pup. Have Nan take a look at your knee and… take a bath, will you?", her father quietly said to her, one corner of his mouth dipped up as he looked her over. "Oh, what will I do with you, Aífe?" he murmured then and shook his head with a laugh, releasing her.

"Just don't send me to Orlais", Aífe said and his eyebrow shot up in confusion, but she already bowed towards the king, stepping back quickly to take one of the short-cuts towards the kitchen. When she turned around and quickly walked away, almost half jogging now, she could feel several gazes on her and wrinkled her nose. Fang followed close behind, taking the stairs one at a time with frustrated huffs. At least she had not broken the king…

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A little glimpse of the chaos that Aífe Cousland can spread - and my point on how she could have met Cailan, because I think it very, very unlikely that a Cousland would not know the king or Teagan or Eamon or anybody of such importance. (Lucky Teagen for NOT being chosen for thise piece. Maybe he'll be lucky enough to not encounter Aife in another short fic... LOL But I cannot guarantee that, because there are just too many ideas). Well, I hope you liked it and didn't find it too stupid/farfetched/unfitting - and hopefully could laugh at least a tiny little bit. Let me know what you think or if you'd like to hear more about Aife Cousland and how she drives her parents to frustration. =)

Again, a big thank you, BeautifulApparition! =) Thanks for reading through it and giving me feedback.