Tiny Hands
A/N: The story was inspired by a picture of a wickedly talented digital artist, Tamarandom ( art/TINY-HANDS-562115123).
Skyhold shrouded into silent darkness. It was far after midnight, even the sounds of rip-roaring at the Herald's Rest ceased. Everybody slept the dream of the just. Only a few candle lit I the library in this peaceful hour.
Dorian read at his spot, enjoying the solace of the library. Nobody was there, just him. Even the rotunda, which always breathed the greenish-bluish light of veilfire, was pitch dark. At last he could read his book in peace.
During daytime a placid time for being lost in reading was almost impossible. The library was always busy, filled with rushing messengers or incompetent archivists who tried to arrange this sad excuse for literary and scientific collection. And that Tranquil woman, Helisma. She has always made his skin crawl with her vacuous visage and that monotone voice, without any nuance of emotion. She and her kind was a blatant example of the barbarism of the South toward mages.
He sipped from the fine and velvety Orlesian brandy on his round table. It was the gift of amatus from his personal wine cellar. It was so hard to purchase these kind of delicate things nowadays. At the Herald's Rest they only served flagrantly watered swills. Maybe it was good enough for these Southeners without any sense of gusto. But for a man like him it was an outrage against good taste.
He noticed some stirring nearby and a few seconds after a clashing voice of a collapsing book tower. He took down the book and turned to the direction of these sounds.
A nug.
Supposedly one of Leliana's pets. Maybe Schmooples II. Who the hell would name his or her pet Schmooples? Who the hell would keep a nug as a pet, anyway? He asked from himself as glared the little creature. He never liked these tiny little somethings with their disproportionately long body and pink, hairless skin. And those tiny feet, it made him shudder. They looked like as a love-child of a rabbit and an aardvark.
"Hello ugly, little thing! Shoo!" He said and returned to his reading.
But nothing happened. Not a sound of those tiny feet. He felt it's beady eyes on his skin, watching him. He turned to it again and saw it standing at the exact point as a few minutes ago. It stared at him and scratched the base of its leporine ears with its rear foot. "I said shoo!" And he dismissed it with an elegant gesture as turned back to his book once again.
No sound of any movement again, just the voice of the breakaway paper. Dorian glanced to the nug again which chewed the pages of one of the fallen and opened books with great delight. It wasn't a big waste, stated Dorian in himself. It was a volume of the Malefica Imperio, trite propaganda. He was even grateful to the little creature. He would have destroyed it anyway.
"You know little thing, you are what you eat. And this kind of junk food would cause indigestion." The nug took a short glance at him, waggling its nose under those long whiskers as it gnawed the scraps of paper. "Your call." And with an annoyed sigh returned to his book again, trying to ignore those munching voices.
Eventually these pesky sounds ceased and the library shrouded into shooting silence. Dorian could read in peace again. He sipped from the delicate brandy, hoping that nobody will disturb his solitude this time. He shifted until he nestled comfortably and began to read the chapter for the third time that night.
It was a pleasant state of calamity. He almost fell asleep in his comfy armchair, feeling that the fine nectar made him fuzzy, when a strange sensation shivered down his legs, followed by scratching sounds. He took a peek down from his book, and his glance met with that ugly, pink thing. The nug pestered his delicate leather boot with its tiny feet.
In his first reaction he jumped to his feet with a girlish scream. He battled for breath and stared that thing looking at him, with those stupid, beady eyes. After a few minutes, when he made sure that nobody has woken up to this disgraceful scene, he tried to regain some of his dignity. He took the nug by its loose neck skin and lifted to his head.
"You, exasperating… ugly, little… something." He hissed, but the nug just stared him with that muzzy expression on its face. And a moment later it licked his cheek.
IT. LICKED. HIM.
It was more than enough to banish the animal from the library. So he took it to the Spymaster's office, holding it in his hands as far as he could from himself, hopefully out of reach. Next to Leliana's desk, he found a wooden crate, so he could left this trouble-maker there.
As he took the steps downward, with a handkerchief tried to clean his hands from the traces of the nug. But with every wipe his hands seemed more and more slimy. As he reached the bottom of the stairs, looked up from his hands and saw something brown sitting on his comfy, velveteen armchair. In the dim light he couldn't recognize what it was, just when he reached his snug.
Another nug.
This one's skin was chocolate brown, like the ones they saw at the Emerald Graves. He knew that the Spymaster kept more than one of these annoying beasties. She even wanted to foist one on him and amatus. He could barely avoid to hurt Leliana's feelings with the refusal. He couldn't imagine that a woman who leads a spy network webbing whole Thedas, how could take pleasure in these ugly and brassy things.
It stared at him, sitting on the cushion, with that stupid expression on its face, resembling to an idiotic smile. Dorian without hesitation tugged it under his armpit and put it next to the other one in the crate.
As he descended the stairs and tried to clean his hand from the slime again, which somehow seemed paler and smaller by every wipe. When he reached the library looked to his peaceful spot.
He saw two NUGS, chewing the book, he just read.
"How many beasties this woman has?" He asked the poetic question. As they noticed him, they ambled to him and cottoned up to his legs, covering his boots with mucus. Dorian felt that the muscles around his eyes and mouth begin to twitch. He will never able to clean this out from the delicate leather. He will definitely have a deep conversation with Leliana about proper pet keeping as soon as possible.
Without hesitation he grabbed these two little beasties by their neck which just smiled to him stupidly and once again visited the Spymaster's desk, leaving them there in that more and more crowded crate. And when he went back to his place, another group of nugs waited for him. He took them to the rookery too, but when he returned more was there.
After a few rounds between his armchair and Leliana's place, the library filled with these tiny beasties. It no was no matter how many he brought back to the Spymaster, it just became more and more. They grazed the books and tomes, sniffed and nuzzled everything with those moist little noses. Or they just pestered him with mounting on him with those tiny little feet or cuddled up to him, leaving their scent on his delicate garments.
And as he resignedly looked down his hand covered with their mucus, it became pink and tiny.
He had tiny little nug hands…
He startled from his nightmare with a choking scream. He swam in cold sweat, battled for air. Amatus next to him tried to sweep the dream away from his eyes as sat on to him.
"What happened?" He asked in sleepy and weak voice.
But Dorian just stared his hands in spasm with bloodshed eyes, with a dreadful expression on his face. And with husky voice he could only mutter two words.
"TINY HANDS!"