AN: Hello! Is there anybody still here? Thank you everybody who's been reading/favouriting/reviewing my story, you guys are the best! I feel overwhelm.
I have no excuse in no updating for like eternity! This chapter though, it's a silly chapter stemmed from one of my sketch (on deviantArt web) which I received wonderful comments (you know who you are!) that can be a story. So here we are! Anyway, I feel obliged to warn you that it's unbeta'd so if you spot anything unforgivable wrong, weird or not even a decent language, please kindly notify me. I'll try my best to correct all the errors.
Hope you enjoy! xx


Chapter 4

Like a Halla

"Told ya darling. That ridiculous side fringe of yours is going to be in a way somedays." Isabela playfully chided her younger friend as she brushed now alarmingly shorten fringe of the redhead rogue.

"But I like it! And it comes in handy when I pickpocket or steal from the stalls. I can hide my face behind it." Ena exclaimed and swatted the pirate's hand away.

"Such an amateur act, that. I knew a guy once who could take every coin out of your pockets just by smiling at you." Interjected Varric, shaking his head. "But that's a lesson for another time. Now, ladies, kindly delight me what with this, uh, dashing look." The Dwarf continued with his quill and parchment at the ready. Ena huffed and crossed her arms. "All the usuals, Varric. A duel, daggers and Isabela's dirty trick."

"Isabela's dirty trick? Is that something about sex? It's always about sex with Isabela." Merrill's voice rang through as she entered Varric's suite, surprisingly with the white hair, lyrium marked elf in tow who scowled and grunted . "Shut up Witch." Merrill shot him a fierce glare but kept walking in to join the rogue trio at the table. Fenris followed but stopped short as he spotted the young rogue whose front part of her hair oddly cut short nearly to the roots. "What happened to your hair?" The elf inquired, his brows furrowed slightly with bemusement. Ena's cheeks flushed with embarrassment and tried to hide it by covering with her hand even though it was too late. She heard the dark skin pirate chuckled so she kicked her fellow rogue under the table. Isabela kicked back and wiggled her eyebrows at the red-headed girl.

"The tale is about to begin, Elf." Varric chimed in helpfully as Fenris sat down beside him. Varric beckoned the young girl to continue but the other rogue beat her to it. Isabela recounted how they started their routine head-to-head at the Wounded Coast. "Because Aveline threatened us that if we ever had a duel in the city again, she will lock us up in the Chantry instead of the Barracks and have Isabela wear a Chantry robe." Ena clarified, everybody bursted into laughter even Fenris let out a deep chuckle which was gone almost immediately.

"Joking aside, the Wounded Coast is a perfect place for the duel and I feel more relax when I'm nearer to the sea. Not that Big Girl's threat carries much weight." Isabela broke in. "And if there are some ill-lucked buggers like Raiders step in, that's a bonus." The Pirate smirked then continued her account of the event, with massive embellishment, naturally. The Rivaini rogue was narrating her deadly stunt when Ena finally interjected her. "And that's when you kicked the sand into my face and jumped at me. Good thing that I'm quicker, I managed to avoided your blades, missing my face by a hair's breadth. Literally slice off my hair. End of story."

"You should let me adding a little more plot twists before you killed my joys." The Pirate Queen grumbled and sat back deep in her chair. The redhead girl just shrugged at her. The sound of Varric's scrawling faded and the dwarf said to his hireling-turn-friend. "So Flash, seems like you need another blade work, ain't it?" Ena frowned and patted softly on her shortening hair. She always loved that hairstyle, at the moment it seemed everything looked odd without peeking through her fringe.

"Or we can go shopping for a hat!" Isabela squealed with excitement.

"There's a lovely hat shop in Hightown, right? I'd love to go there too!" Merrill echoed and clapped her hands merrily. Then the Dalish elf halted and tilted her head to one side as if suddenly think of something, her eyes widen in a few seconds later and blurted out. "Oh I forgot! I know a potion that can grow your hair over a night!" She turned to the red hair rogue. "I can brew it in a very short time. Do you want to try Ena?"

Ena contemplated the elf's offer then nodded her head. "All right, why not?" She smiled at the Dalish elf who beamed with pleasure. Despite her clumsiness and babble, Merrill was a very good herbalist and she always like the Dalish mage. Fenris who had been listening silently, suddenly went rigid and asked the rogue in a tight voice. "Do you trust her? It could be dangerous." The petite redhead shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly. "It's just a potion Fenris. What's the worst can happen?" Fenris shook his head in disbelief and muttered something in Tevene while Varric's chortling. "Famous last words kid!" The Dwarf added while Merrill squealed and babbled away to Ena about her potion.

"I'll go to that hat shop anyway." Isabela resolved.

….

Morning came with the chirping of birds, Ena woke up groggily, perhaps it was a side effect of Merrill's potion, the girl mused. The rogue tried to get out of bed but found her legs tangled with something she reckoned it to be a blanket so she sleepily pulled the fabric away. However Ena still struggled to get up, finally rolled out of the bed and thumped on the floor.

"Maker's balls!" Ena groaned and kicked her legs furiously to get rid of the accursed object. But the unfamiliar texture that touched her skin caused the rogue to looked down at her legs. The red-headed girl was shocked by the sight of her legs entwined with a mass of long red hair instead of a blanket. Slowly, she reached out to pulled the tress of hair away from her legs. She gave it a couple of tug, a pull at her head confirmed that this is definitely her own hair. She traced her eyes along the length of her long red hair from the lock in her hand and the rest that flowed over the floor. Without hesitation, Ena quickly grabbed a knife from under a pillow and started hacking her excessed hair forcefully. Half an hour passed, every inch of her floor was covered with scattered logs of bright red hair. Ena sighed with relief, tucked the knife away and got up to start her day, in more normal fashion. Just when she finally cleared up the floor, something out of ordinary was detected. "Shit. This can't be good." The rogue cursed inwardly. Her hair grew back immediately at an alarming speed in front of her very eyes . It also seemed to be longer than before. The girl stifled a scream that threatened to escape her mouth. After she could finally calm herself and considered the most logical resolution. Ena gathered a massive mass of her hair into a massive bundle, she needed to visit the Alienage.

….

When she knocked on Merrill's door and the elven mage answered, the thought of that the Dalish elf would greet her horror or terrified expression dissipated when Merrill greeted with a bright, joyful smile. "Good Morning Ena! I see your hair has grown back! That's wonderful!"
"It does not just 'grown back' Merrill. I have a hair monster on my head!" The rogue hissed and dropped the pile of her hair down furiously. It pooled around her ankles like a red stream of river.

"But you look very lovely with long hair." The mage cooed and reached out her hand to brush the hair gently.

"Long?! You called the hair that can stretch across the Waking Sea long?" The redhead girl asked incredulously, her fists clenched. "And this fucking long hair nearly breaks my neck!" Ena shouted furiously. "What more wonderful is, I cut it. And it grew back!" The fuming rogue continued her tirade. Merrill was taken aback, the elves around the square startled and looked at them with wary glance. "Sorry, Merrill." She mumbled an apology. Merrill nodded and sent a reassuring glance that there was no danger comes from this human to her fellow elves, they carried on what they had been doing.

"Is there anything you can do Merrill? I tried cutting it but didn't work." The red-hair rogue pleaded. But to her dismay, Merrill shook her head. "No. Sorry Ena. It's a potion not a spell, I can't reverse it." The rogue sighed, her shoulders slumped in disappointment. "Maybe we should go get some help." The mage suggested. A moment passed, the rogue made up her mind-it was not as if she had so much choices-then gathered her hair up in her arms. "Obviously. Help me carrying this blight, would you?." Ena plopped a large bundle of her hair into Merrill's waiting arms. "I don't want to tumble down the stairs because of my own bloody hair again." She muttered.

During the rather difficult walk, they both settled that the Hanged Man was to be their destination. Going to Hawke's estate in Hightown was out of question after the tenth time they nearly toppled down the stairs and broke their collective necks in the process. It was fortunate for Ena and Merrill that the Hanged Man in the morning hours was relatively quiet. They managed to slip pass the bar without any accident or attracted any unwanted attention and head towards Varric's suite on the upper floor. Ena practically kicked the door opened and stormed into the dwarf's residential quarter. The sudden intrusion jolted Varric out of his sleep.

"By the Stone!" Varric cried out, blindingly reached for his beloved crossbow which sat gracefully on the mantle, far from his reach.

"Enough of your beauty sleep Varric! This is emergency!" The familiar voice of his favourite redhead (though he would never said this in front of Aveline as he liked living, very much) rang through. The dwarf tried to shake off his slumber. When his vision became clear, even though following Hawke around granted him many incredible experiences, but this scene before was still something to behold. "Now this I have to hear." Varric said expectantly while Ena dropped a bundle of her long red hair to the floor unceremoniously with a soft thud, the action was echoed by the Dalish standing beside her.

….

"What did I tell you kid? Famous last words." The Dwarf shook his head slowly, but Ena could detect a sound of humour in his voice. She scowled at him which encouraged Varric to go for a full fit of laugher. They were sitting down at Varric's long table waiting for their mages-in-residence to show up, after Varric sent out his messenger to fetch them. Isabela joined her fellow rogues just a moment later.

"Come now, stop frowning. We already have our Broody Elf doing that. Enough for a lifetime, I'd say." Varric chuckled while ruffling her too-long hair. Isabela flashed her a grin from across the table. "At least you will have a very clean floor." The dark skin rogue added. Ena shot her glance at the Pirate annoyingly. "This is you fault!" the redheaded rogue scoffed.

"Oh is that it? Did I stuff Merrill's potion down your throat then?" Isabela retorted right away. At the mention of her name, Merrill who kept quiet for the most part of the conversation, spoke up meekly. "I've been thinking. Maybe the effect in human is different. I thought it would be all right because we've been doing this all the time. And there was one winter that-"

"Wait. What do you mean 'in human'? Is this the potion only for an elf?" Ena interrupted the elf's babbling. The Dalish Elf shook her head. "No, it's a potion for Halla. Some Winters, the climate was so harsh we had to feed them this potion. It helps speed up the growth of their fur to keep them warm and produce more fur for our clothes." Merrill rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly.

Everybody groaned in unison.

….

"It's not a physical injury that I can heal nor I can sense any harm to your body. I'd say let's wait until the potion wear off. But do come to my clinic immediately if you notice something wrong." Stated Anders when he finished diagnose the redhead.

Ena muttered. "What could be more wrong than this."

"Maybe wait for a few days then try cut you hair to see if the potion still has its effect." Said the other mage, when Hawke saw the petite rogue still brooding so she added. "Let's see this way, it could be worse, if the potion didn't effect for just the hair on your head."

The rogue cringed as the mages bid their goodbye.

"I can help braid your hair Ena, so you can move around." Merrill offered, Isabela immediately jumped in to help. "I'll help too! This can be fun!" They both clapped their hands gleefully, ignored a dubious look from the red-haired rogue. "You girls' definition of fun is quite far from mine." Varric commented on Merrill and Isabela's fuss over a hairdo, Ena sighed and agreed. "My thought exactly." Varric chuckled and got back to his writing, then he stopped and spoke up to her. "I don't think you should let the Elf know about this. Who know how he'll react, he might think Daisy used blood magic on you." Merrill who was combing the petite rogue's hair paused and started to chime in. But the certain elf who they were talking about choose that immediate moment to pop into Varric's suite before anyone could say anything further. Fenris stopped short when he saw what was going on before his eyes. Everybody in the room went rigid, no one dare to speak or even move. However, instead of glowing blue, enraging or threatening to rip the heart out of poor Merrill, the tattooed elf just stared at the redhead silently.

The rogue took his silent as his disapproval, she huffed. "Don't you dare give me that 'I told you so' speech." The petite rogue glared at him sideway, arms crossing over her chest. Still no word from the elf, she fully looked at his face and saw that the elf's face bore a faraway look, his eyes in distance like he was somewhere else. To her worry, his face even went pale. Ena stood up and walked to the elf.

"Fenris, are you all right? You look like you saw a ghost. Do I look like a ghost?" The rogue asked nervously. But Fenris couldn't hear, he could only see; his eyes focused at the red hair which flowing over the girl's shoulders, in fact, it was flowing over her back, her legs and down to the floor - but in his head, there were flashes of long red hair in the bright sunshine, a cheery laugh filled the air. Warmth and a scent of spices. As abrupt as it came, the visions vanished. He felt suffocated. "I…I need to go." The elf uttered and disappeared from the room with everybody's eyes watched after him.

"Is Fenris really averse to long hair?" Asked Merrill to no one in particular.

….

It took a whole week until the potion wear off, after the first few days Ena tried cut it to a shoulder length, the hair grew back overnight but it did not grow overly long like in her first try. Merrill and Isabela all complained that they had nothing fun to do anymore. So the red-hair rogue told them to drink the Halla potion themselves. They both then stopped bothering her.

Varric paused polishing Bianca (those Void-taken slavers did spread a lot of blood-not that he wasn't happy about getting rid of them) when Ena, with her usual hairstyle, walked into his suite. The girl casually sank down on the chair opposite him and kicked her feet up on his table. "Hey, feet off the table, you little tinker!" Varric chided. "Watch your manner in front of the lady." The Dwarf stroked his half-polished crossbow lovingly. "Bianca's been living with you, in this very tavern, this long, I think manner is bollocks." The rogue gave him a flippant remark. "Language too, what should I do with you." Varric sighed, shaking his head. Ena quirked an eyebrow at him then they both laughed.

"So what's an urgent errand you want me to run for you, or spying on whom?" Asked the redhead. The Dwarf put his crossbow down onto the table gently. "Not an errand or spying this time. I have something to show you." Varric good-naturedly replied then pushed a pile of papers towards her. Ena put her feet down and reached for the papers. She started reading at the first few paragraphs. Brows knotted, she looked up at the dwarf. "What's this Varric?" But the dwarf waved his hand signalling her to continue reading. So she kept reading. It was a manuscript of his latest story; a story of some silly princess with massively long hair being locked up in the tower. Then there was some equally silly prince who used her hair as a ladder for climbing up to the princess. He saved her from the witch who captured her in that tower. Ena reached to the end of the story, needless to say, they lived happily ever after, just like Varric's other tales. She tossed the manuscript on the table.

"So?" Asked the dwarf who was looking at her expectantly.
"Bullshit, that what it is." Came her reply. "Why she had to wait for a prince to help her get out of the tower by climbing up her hair? She could simply tie the end of her locks to something to anchor it, then climb down herself." The rogue added.

Varric scoffed. "You have no imagination and very unromantic at that." He reached for the manuscript, packed it away and resumed cleaning Bianca. Ena snorted. "Well, I'm glad that my predicament can inspire you so." Retorted the girl, sarcastically.

"That's why I'm the greatest storyteller, Kiddo." The Dwarf grinned.


Well, I guess you know that Varric's story is actually you-know-what fairy tales. I just thought it'd be fun that Varric would romanticise this little chaos into a fairy tale. Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear from you ;)