Isabela's Penance
Ch. 1: Blame it on the Wine
One minute she had been sitting at the Hanged Man, drinking a goblet of red wine Varric had thoughtfully paid for from his tab. Of course she had too much to drink! Who wouldn't when someone else was buying?
Isabela stood up, giggling about the hand of Wicked Grace she had just won, when she felt her knees buckle and she hit the floor with a thud, striking her head on the edge of the fireplace that the group had been sitting near.
She sat up, rubbing the knob on the back of her skull, groaning, "Sodding OUCH!"
When she looked around, however, she shuddered involuntarily: the Hanged Man was gone, her friends were gone, the game was gone and, the worst part, her drink was gone! She was surrounded by an eerie wood with a dense mist and she raised herself into a crouch so she could get a better handle of where she was.
She jumped when she heard the question, "Have you come to visit Mother?"
Spinning around, Isabela saw a woman…or at least she thought it was a woman. The face, arms and torso looked like a woman. Everything below that incorporated three tiers of sagging, brown nippled breasts, bulging sacks of flesh and a mass of purple, coiling tentacles slithering among the folds of skin.
"Excuse me, I think I am in the wrong place," Isabela stated. As she said this she rubbed the back of her head again, reassuring herself that her daggers were still in their sheaths on her back.
"No one comes to see Mother," the thing said mournfully, "She misses the security of her nest and the pulsing of her young in their pods before bursting forth. The Children were her joy but are no more."
Isabela began to back up slowly, "Well, that sounds like a stinky kettle of fish, but I have to be going." Quickly turning, ready to bolt, she was suddenly grabbed by a large fleshy tentacle around her ankles and hoisted into the air where she dangled like a hooked fish.
"Mother was not finished. You should be punished…" the thing stated, giving Isabela a harsh shake.
"What's the worst that could happen?" Isabela hissed.
"Well, no one could show up to rescue you! That would be bad," replied a third voice that was quite familiar. Isabella tilted her head toward the sound and saw a lanky figure with feathered pauldrons haloed in a pale blue light. He struck the massive beast with his staff and it disintegrated, dropping Isabela on the ground. Again she struck her head.
Sitting up, about to accost Anders, Isabela was once again in the Hanged Man, her friends crowded around her looking worried.
"Are you alright, Rivaini?" Varric asked, trying to support her back and keep her upright.
"I saw Anders…" Isabela whispered, tears threatening to well up before she tamped them down again.
"What?" Varric prodded.
"Nothing," she replied, shaking slightly as she numbed herself to the loss, "I hit my head is all."
This story was written as part of the Cheeky Monkeys of Dragon Age "Consequences Challenge" that was organized by Perahn. The stipulations of the challenge were as follows: the story must be between 400 to 500 words long and you must utilize two Dragon Age characters, one place and one question that are provided at random from the other participants in the challenge.
My required parameters were:
The Broodmother (Perahn)
Isabela (Saga Svanhildr)
The Fade (Hatsepsut)
"What's the worst that could happen?" (ShebasDawn)
As always, I love my writers' board! They help me to grow and challenge me to do better. You guys are the best!
