Author's Note: A short piece, written for a prompt on the Dragon Age Writer's Corner forum here on FanFiction:
{Rain, from the POV of someone whose never experienced rain before. ~Amell/Aeducan/Brosca/Surana~}
Of course, I had to be different and picked none of those. But even so, I hope you enjoy!
"By the Stone," Oghren says as they step through the Gates of Orzammar, and Dagna has to agree. She'd heard about the sky, but seeing it…that was something else entirely. And to think, she'd felt so confident – "Oh I'll just go to the Circle by myself, how scary could the surface be?" she'd said. Well, now she knew. After seeing this she was glad she had decided to take the Grey Wardens up on their offer to travel with them for a time. 'Just until she got used to the surface,' they'd said. She wondered if that was ever going to happen.
They were three days out of Orzammar when the sky…changed. She'd sort of gotten used to it changing colors twice a cycle, although she still wasn't sure if she believed Warden Alistair's story about Thedas spinning like a top so that a different part of it was facing the big light in the sky…wouldn't they fall off? Anyway, she knew now that the color changing was what the surfacers meant when they talked about 'day' and 'night', but she wasn't sure what this was….it should be the middle of the 'day' still, but it was getting dark. Dagna looked around at her traveling companions, and they didn't seem too concerned. A couple of them glanced up from time to time, but they didn't seem worried. Oghren was steadfastly staring at the ground, so he was no help. She supposed she was just going to have to ask.
"Warden Alistair?" she said as she caught up to the big blond warden.
"Dagna, I've told you to just call me Alistair," he said with a smile.
"That doesn't seem right, Warden Alistair. We're taught to respect the Grey Wardens, you know. Anyway, I was wondering, what's happening to the sky?"
Alistair looked up and then looked back down at her with a puzzled expression on his face. "You mean the clouds?"
"Those are clouds? You said the puffy white things were clouds!" she exclaimed.
"They are…there are a lot of different kinds of clouds. The ones I showed you yesterday were…let's see if I can remember this…cumulus clouds. Those are the puffy white ones," Alistair said.
"Well, what are those?" Dagna asked, pointing at the huge mass of grey overhead.
"Those are…ugh, I know this," Alistair said.
"Cumulo-nimbus," Wynne supplied from behind them.
"Thank you, Wynne," Alistair said. Dagna darted a glance at the older woman, who was watching with a bit of a smile quirking her lips.
"Right…cumulo-nimbus clouds. Those are the ones that hold rain," Alistair said.
"Rain?" Dagna asked.
"You don't know what rain is?" Alistair said, looking at her with wide eyes.
"She came outside for the first time just a few days ago, of course she doesn't know what rain is," Wynne said.
"Right…well, rain is water that falls from the sky," Alistair said.
Dagna couldn't help it, she laughed. Just how gullible did they think she was?
"Right, tell me another one. Come on, what is it?" she asked.
"No, that's really what rain is. That's what the clouds are too, for that matter. They're water….well, water vapor. You know how up in the Frostbacks your breath would fog? That's what clouds are," Alistair said as he took Dagna's arm to guide her around a pothole in the road.
"Ooookay," Dagna said, not sure if she believed him, but she'd play along for now. "But how does it get up there?" she asked, and was pleased to see Alistair look nonplussed. Hah, she had him there. Soon she'd tell him that this was all a joke on the newly-arrived-at-the-surface-dwarf.
"Maker's Breath I wish I'd paid more attention when they talked about this at the Chantry," Alistair muttered, then sighed. "Ok, you know how when you boil water for tea it steams?" he asked.
"Yeah," Dagna answered, wondering what that had to do with anything.
"Well, that steam is what happens to water when it gets warm enough. The sun will do that, too, if it shines on the water long enough. The water turns to steam, kinda, and rises, and then it forms clouds," he finished. Dagna looked at him doubtfully and then flicked a glance at Wynne, who was following the conversation with interest.
"He's simplifying a bit, but he has the basic idea right," she said with a nod.
"Well, ok, but what is rain?" Dagna asked.
"Well, eventually there is too much water up there, and then it falls down again," Alistair said.
"Ok, now I know you're lying," Dagna said with a sniff.
"I am not!" Alistair protested, which just confirmed his guilt, as far as Dagna was concerned. Her older brother used to do that all the time – lie through his teeth and then act all indignant when Dagna called him on it.
"Oh you totally are. I know your type, and I'm too smart to fall for your tricks," she said, and then turned and walked back to where the big Qunari was walking rear guard. He wouldn't be much of a conversationalist, but she'd prefer that over being lied to.
About fifteen minutes later she felt water hit her head and looked around in irritation.
"Who just flicked water at me?" she asked.
"The sky, Dagna. You just got rained on," Alistair called from the front of the column.
"This again?" she said, and then frowned as some more water hit her head. She looked around, but she didn't see anyone who could have done it, and since she could see both of Alistair's hands she knew it wasn't him. A third drop hit her on the nose, and this time she had to admit, it definitely came from…up. She looked up just in time for another drop to hit her in the eye.
"Ok, fine, you win. Water falls from the sky," she said. "But why?"
"What do you mean, why?" Alistair asked.
"Just what I said. Why does it do that?" Dagna asked, shaking her head as another drop fell on her. She was not amused by this cold and wet sprinkling from the sky. She noticed that everyone else was more or less ignoring the water, though, so this must be a fairly regular occurrence. The prospect of this happening all the time filled her with more than a little dread. There had to be some reason for this.
"Dagna, I don't know why it rains any more than I know why the sky is blue!" Alistair exclaimed.
"Why is the sky blue, anyway?" Dagna asked.
"Maker's Breath, what did I start?" Alistair said, dropping his head into his hand as they walked along through the light rain.
"Alistair, an inquisitive mind is a gift of the Maker, and I know they taught you this in the Chantry," Wynne said.
"I bet they taught it to you in the Tower, too, so how about you explain it?" Alistair said.
"Oh but you're doing so well!" Wynne said mockingly, which made Dagna stifle a laugh.
"You're a bad person. I hate you," Alistair muttered in Wynne's general direction, which made Dagna giggle.
"Ok, look," he finally said. "Water falls out of the sky as rain…or snow – yeah, the stuff that was on the side of the road in the Frostbacks; that stuff fell from the sky too – anyway, water falls out of the sky and then soaks into the ground, watering all the plants. It collects in streams like the ones we've been crossing. The streams come together into rivers and then the water pools in lakes and…stuff. The sun shines on the lakes and makes the water turn to steam, then it forms into clouds and it happens all over again. No, I don't know why it does that," Alistair finished as Dagna opened her mouth to ask that very question.
"Child, if it didn't, the plants wouldn't grow, and there would be no life, and we wouldn't be here to ask such questions," Wynne said.
Dagna huffed. That was the same type of "that's just the way it is" answer that her father always liked to give her, and as far as she was concerned, it wasn't good enough. She had been put off when she asked how lyrium made magic work, and now she was going to the Tower to find out. Well, while she was there she would find out how this rain thing worked, too, she thought, wiping another errant drop from her face.