Clipped Wings

Hey guys^^

This is my first fan fic, like, ever so I apologise if it is lacking in quality. This is a DragonAge fan fic, this is how I interpreted the story. Some parts are different than what they are in the game, but there are spoilers in this fan fic nonetheless so you have been warned. May contain fowl language and the occasional bit of gore. Enjoy!

''Mamma?'' whimpered the girl in the wrought iron cage, 'I'm scared.'' The woman who at this point was perched next to the girl in the cage beside her threw her arms through the cold, metallic barrier and she then wrapped them around her daughter, drawing her as close as the bars would allow. ''It's going to be alright'', whispered the mother in a desperate attempt to comfort not only her four year old daughter, but in an attempt to try to calm herself. She never thought that it would end like this; she never thought that her own daughter would have to bear witness to her brutal demise, but here she was. She could only hope that her daughter would be spared from harm by her captors and her betrayers. The sensation of her daughter's light breathing forced a tear out of hiding. It was then that the door to the room that they were in swung open with a thunderous slam. It was if hells doors had just opened. A woman with hair as white as pure winters snow and a contrastingly youthful, sour face and two tanks of men came storming into the room. ''Why hello there Matilta.'' Purred the white haired woman with a smile of pure poison. ''And how are we feeling today?'' The mother looked up at the woman, cursed and then spat at her, 'Get away from me'' she shrieked. The woman smirked at the mother as she heard this and then ordered her lackeys to open the young girl's cage. Before the mother knew it, she could see her daughter being dragged towards a furnace in the room. She begged and begged for them to stop, but it was no use. It was then that she decided to use her magic, god forbid she had promised to never use it again but this she thought was a dire situation. After a few seconds, the cage's padlock had been telepathically thrown off of the hinge and on to the ground. It was hot to the touch. The mother threw open the cage door and practically hurled her towards the two men in a desperate bid for her daughter's safety; she was like a pouncing tiger. She threw a bolt of lightning towards the soldier's faces, paralysing them both momentarily, and she then pulled her precious child from the monstrous grasp of the men. She tensed her shoulders and turned to the white haired woman only to be met by a foot. She was thrown back with a tremendous force into an intense heat. It was then that she realised that the furnace door had been left open. She caught a glimpse of her child's horrified face as she jolted upright. She reached her arm towards her child, but as she done so, a stone door was thrown in her face. It was then that the screams began.

Anette Amell awoke from her nightmare with a gasp. ''Oh maker, why do you always decide to show me that?'' she whispered with her head tilted towards the ceiling. She cupped her face in her hands and sighed. She peered across the apprentice dorm room to notice that most of her fellow apprentices were awake, and huddled into a corner- gossiping. Anette trudged out of her bed and wandered over innocently toward the pack of cackling Hyenas, for as you see-listening in on the conversations of others was something that she classed as a hobby. She grabbed a nearby tome named 'Entropy-a beginners guide', sat down near enough to the women to hear their voices, but far away enough so as not to arouse their suspicion and she began to feign the act of reading. After about ten minutes of drabble, Anette began to sink deeper and deeper into the dark, bottomless abyss of boredom, there was nothing that to her seemed interesting of exciting. She began to ponder what life outside this god-forsaken spire was like nowadays, she wondered what other people her age would be doing, she wondered what it would feel like to have an ice cold wind blowing on her face for she couldn't even remember how it felt- a few years in the circle tower does that to you, you see. Just as she was beginning to fall into a deep state of contemplation, the door to the female dorms flew open and a meek, timid 'boy' came jogging in. 'Anette!'' he shouted across the dorms as he nervously twiddled his thumbs. Anette looked up from the book to see her friend and partner-in-crime, Jowan screaming the place down. She rubbed her eyes and paced towards him. 'Will you stop screaming goddamit?'' she groaned as she walked towards Jowan, ''Do you have any idea what time this is!'' ''I'm sorry Anette.'' He mumbled. 'But I really need your help with something-urgently.'' Anette raised an eyebrow, but she knew Jowan well enough to know that anything along the lines of what he had just said translated to 'Hey Anette, guess what? I've fucked up a spell and now it's trying to bite me and if the templars find out they'll bite me'', or something like that. She grimaced and agreed to help him, for he was her best friend after all.

She rushed back to her bedside to retrieve her staff. Her staff was different to most o the other ones that were paraded through the tower; she brought it with her to the tower from the place she once called home. It was hr mothers and it was the only thing left of her. It was a retractable scythe like staff which was crafted from silverite and it was at least a head or two longer than she was, and it had two elegant-looking blades attached to one end, one blade being larger than the other. It certainatley gave the templars and their weapons a run for their money. At times she wondered why she was even allowed to keep it as even without its magic, it was a formidable weapon and everyone in the circle knew that she was skilled at wielding it. She grabbed the leather garter which she usually concealed it in and wrapped it around her thigh; she allowed the material of her slip hide both the garter and her staff. She rushed back to Jowan and told him that she was ready. He responded by reminding her that she was still wearing her sleeping clothes and that he didn't want to hear the templars rant on about how she shouldn't prance around the tower in her underwear. She responded by stating that it's better than wearing nothing, which silenced him. The two paced down the spiralling hallway, receiving many strange looks as they went. Anette could almost feel the burning gaze of the templars on the back of her neck as they walked. They passed a templar who went by the name of Cullen; he seemed to have a hard time focusing as Anette walked past him-which of course was pointed out to her by Jowan. They eventually came to the male dorm rooms, Jowan looked around him in a nervous manner for templars or anyone that would reprimand him. Once he had confirmed that the coast was clear, he opened the door. That was when the chaos was revealed.

The men had confined themselves to the bathing area and had erected a barrier of beds, tables and chairs and they weren't exactly pleased to see who Jowan had dragged to the rescue. ''You brought her?'' she heard one of them exclaim, ''She's worse than that thing over there!'' muttered another. Although not all of the comments were negative, some were suggestive, some were even pleasant, but most were along the lines of 'Can you please just kill that bloody thing?' Anette looked across the room and could see what was causing the fully grown men behind her to cower in fear. A huge arachnid skeleton, wrapped in a black, mist like substance was glaring at her from across the room. It shrieked at her, and began to advance. Anette reached to her garter and pulled out her staff, which at this point was retracted and looked like a plain, metal tube. She pushed down on a part of the tube and swung it towards the creature, with this, it extended to its full size and monstrosity. She pointed the staff towards the charging creature and focused. The next thing she knew, the beast was knocked over and stunned, she swung at the creature with as much force as she could muster and 'splat', the beast's heat parted with its body and flew across the room, leaving a trail of crimson in its midst. How it could bleed was beyond Anette, but the thing that she wondered the most was how it managed o get there in the first place. She turned to Jowan and asked him about the creature's origins, much to her surprise; it was him who had summoned it. ''I didn't mean for this to happen!'' he whined as he timidly began to twiddle his thumbs, ''This was all an accident, I swear!'' ''You idiot...'' she grimaced. ''How did it happen? You can't even tell the difference between the top and the hilt of a staff and yet you manage to summon that...Thing! What did you do?'' Jowan could see the frustration in his friends eyes, and was taken aback by it. ''I honestly didn't mean harm, I found a strange book in the library and I read it, there were some spells in the book that I've never heard of before, curiosity got the better of me and I tried a few of them, I know it was stupid, but I can't go back to change the past. What's done is done. He sighed. ''I'm sorry, honest! ''Whined Jowan. Anette could feel herself beginning to boil over and she could explode she was that angry, but the presence of others in the room was what restrained her from kicking Jowan out of a nearby window. The sound of the dorm door opening was what made Anette's mind think about other things. Knight- Commander Greigor, Cullen and two other templars marched into the room. The Knight –Commander looked around the room; his eyes almost immediately met the bloodied spider skeleton in the corner, his eyes then met the blood-splattered, scythe-brandishing female who was standing in the middle of the room. He also noticed the terrified mages hiding behind an odd-looking barrier. ''Ah Amell, terrorising your fellow mages in your undies I see.'' He sighed. This was enough t cause Cullen's face to chance from blush-pink to bright red, to cause Jowan to mutter the words 'Oh no...'' and to cause Anette to revolt. ''At least I'm wearing something...' she smirked as she began to chuckle malevolently. At this point, Cullens face was like a tomato and it was a wonder that steam wasn't blowing out of his ears. ''So what happened here?'' he grouned. Anette was silent for a few seconds, looking at the face of her friend, then she began to chirp,''A little beastie got in the dorms, I killed it.''. She pointed to the remains of the creature from before. Greigor scowled. ''Anyway'' he said as he applied emphasis to the word, ''Amell, bid farewell to your friends. It's time for your Harrowing.''