A/N: I wish I owned everything, but alas I don't. Ellea is mine. Everything else is due to the broken heart DAI left me with.

Chapter One: Fennec

Fen'harel was traveling through the Hinterlands when her heard her laugh travel through the trees. His heart raced and a lump began for form in his throat as he swallowed hard and followed the sweet sound. He stopped on the outskirts of the grove and saw Ellea with her back to him and Sera, just over her shoulder, slightly facing him. Staying hidden in the trees, he watched the women throwing a ball made of twine around. Then he heard it. The sound simultaneously broke his heart and pulled at his chest. A small child's laugh. He stalked closer and saw where the sound was coming from. Between Sera and Ellea was a small, raven haired girl, no more than three. Her black hair was pulled back in a ribbon in a failed attempt to keep her curls out of her face, most of the hair had fallen loose. When the little girl ran full force back to her mother, the lump in his throat moved down to his chest. Small chin, high cheekbones, face pink with excitement, like her mother. Her big, thoughtful eyes, her small button like nose, her full lips. She had his freckles, his brow, and his ears, everything else was Ellea. He dropped to his knees, fists balled up in the grass on either side of him.

"Aye, who's that?" Sera saw the drastic movement out of the corner of her eye. She reached for her bow out of instinct before she remembered she'd left it with Cullen at the camp not far behind her. Ellea scooped up the child in her arms and sharply turned around to follow Sera's gaze. She didn't see anything at first, but then he stood up from the spot Sera had been eyeing. Her already big eyes widen at the sight of him.

"Fenne, go to aunt Sera. She'll take you back to camp." She set the child on her feet on the ground next to her.

"Mamma?" Fenne looked up at her mother with the same wide eyes looking just as puzzled.

"It's okay, Fenne, just go to Sera." She looked back at the other women as Fenne ran as fast as her tiny legs could go. "Give us a moment, Sera." Sera huffed out a curse. Something that sounded a lot like 'this arse' to Fen'harel and Ellea replied with a sternness in her voice, "Sera, please!" With that, Sera held Fenne's hand and they walked down the hill behind them.

Ellea moved closer to where Fen'harel and neither one of them said anything. His eyes looked hard, with a hint of sadness behind them. After staring at each other for what felt like hours, he finally broke the silence.

"Why didn't you tell me?" His face was about to break the cool look he was trying so hard to maintain.

"Sol- Fen'harel," her face tightened, "are you kidding me? I spent a year calling to you. I spent two more looking for you. You did everything in your power to push me away and stay hidden." Her voice never faltered, but she could feel her eyes beginning to dampen. She paused to regain control of her body. "You're the one who used the well to stop me. You're the one who forced me to stop. You wouldn't even explain to me what I saw. I'd been trying so hard to comprehend everything, on my own I might add, with nothing but silence from you. I saw you and Flemeth. I know what happened. You knew that I knew and you still shut me out. I called out to you every night in my dreams and then you used the well against me!" She was losing control and had to stop every urge in her body to reach out and slap him.

"Vhenan, I'm so sor-"

"No, you don't get to call me that and you damn sure don't get to feel sorry." Her voice cracked and tears spread down her cheeks. He reached his hand up and wiped the tears from her face. "Fen'harel, please don't," her voice no more than a whisper, but she did not move.

He pulled his hand away at the sight of her hurt face. He wanted to pull her close, to hold her, to feel her lips against his again. Then he saw something over her shoulder that made him want to vomit. Cullen was standing there, at the top of the hill, with the child in his arm. His child. Ellea could see the look in his eyes and turned around. Fen'harel grabbed her arm and brought her attention back to him.

"Are you with him now?" The words spit out of his mouth like they were a disease. "Is he playing father to my child?"

"Cullen is a good man, great even." Her face was getting hot with anger. "He cares about us and he loves us." She looked down at her feet, crushing her fingers into her palms so hard, she thought they might break. "I love him," Fen'harel winced at the sound of it, "and Fennec does too."

His eyes and face softened at the sound of her name. He placed his fingers under Ellea's chin and raised her head to look up at him. "You named her Fennec?"

"She's my-," she closed her eyes and corrected herself, "our little fox and I wanted to give her something to remind her of you." Ellea opened her blue eyes and they locked with his. "She's just like you. Stubborn and proud. She's also wild and full of so much energy, I'm afraid she might burst. She certainly doesn't get that from me." A smiled twitched on the corner of his mouth. "Do you want to meet her?"

A small, shy 'yes' was all it took. Ellea walked over to Cullen and took Fennec into her own arms. Before walking back to him, she placed her hand on Cullen's cheek. He responded with a knowing nod and headed back down the hill to Sera. Every step she took towards him made his heart pound harder in his chest. Fennec had her head resting on her mother's shoulder and at the sight of them together, he thought his legs were going to give out from underneath him.

"Fenne, I want you to meet a very special friend of ours. His name is Fen'harel." Fennec's eyes grew large at the sound of his name. The same eyes as her mother, Fen'harel noted. Crystal blue water with a lavender line around them, like a pond surrounded by flowers. They were just as mesmerizing too. The girls eyes curiously looked from the stranger to her mother and back at the stranger. Once she made her decision, she pushed off of her mother and into his arms. He had a second to catch her before she would have fallen to the ground. He held her with one arm around her as she straddled his side. He looked slightly panicked at Ellea and her eyes were sparkling with laughter as a small giggle escaped her lips. His attention was brought back to Fennec as she traced her chubby fingers over his jaw line down to his chin.

"Momma said daddy's name is Fen-ral." A smile tugged on his lips at the sound of her trying to say his name. Fennec traced around the smile with her fingers and her eyes narrowed. "Are you daddy?" His throat tightened at the question and he looked sheepishly at Ellea trying to scan her face for how she wanted him to respond. She nodded, her eyes looking sad and tired.

"Yes, ma da'len. I am and I'm sorry it's taken me so long to find you." He pushed the hair out of her face and tucked it behind her ear. The tears he'd been trying for so long to hold back started to fall from his eyes. Fennec looked at him puzzled while her fingers played around his cheeks. She leaned in and kissed his tears. Something her mother obviously did for her when she was crying.

"Shh, no cry." Her voice was soft and sweet as she nuzzled her head between his shoulder and neck. "No cry, ma 'enan." He looked back at Ellea, who had tears on her cheeks. She took his free hand into hers.

"I will never keep her from you, Fen'harel. She is yours as much as she is mine."