A/N-My thanks to Scarlet, that Sandal person, and LilithiaRW for taking the time to review; Nezumi, you should feel special! and I wanna squeeze him too ugh he's too good to be true. To the first guest, my Lavellan is actually a two-handed warrior, that'll come up later, and to Shadre, haha some of it actually was planned but mostly it was luck. I should also mention that this is the first chapter in which we see the actual extent of Cole's feelings for Lavellan so I hope I did it justice. As always, thanks for reading and please review :)

Disclaimer: Dragon Age belongs to Bioware. You guys know the rest.

Chapter Four: Earth

Chapter Track: Earth -Sleeping at Last

Sindarel was gone. She was gone and Cole felt so afraid. Why had she volunteered to stay behind as everyone else escaped? Why had no one asked him his opinion? He would have argued against it, talked her out of it, or at least convinced her that he should go with her. She had faced Corypheus and fired the trebuchet that brought an avalanche down on Haven before he had realized she was not among the people marching through the bitter snow away from their old homes. He told himself that he was an idiot, so blinded by his need to help others that he'd forgotten to look for her, the one who should have mattered most.

"We have to go back!" he yelled, the angriest he'd ever been. In that moment he could scarcely recall the rage that had led to him killing Seeker Lambert so many months ago. Cullen looked at him with a rather weary expression on his face and shook his head. No.

"There's nothing to go back to. If she truly is the Herald of Andraste, she'll find her way to us. Just hold onto faith."

Cole wanted to punch him, wanted to hurt instead of heal, and Iron Bull saw and stayed his hand. He twisted Cole's arms behind his back but he could not stop the flow of vitriol that spilled from the boy's lips.

"She's your friend! She needs us, we need to help her!"

Cullen looked quite pained by this, but he still said nothing. Cole hated that nothing almost as much as he hated the fact that he'd left Sindarel behind to fend for herself. He was too furious, too scared to feel that Cullen was worried for their friend almost as much as he was. Iron Bull had realized, however, and pulled the boy away from the rest of the steadily-moving group to calm him down.

"Yelling at him won't help. You need to think about what you're doing."

"Thinking, thoughtless, thankless, they put her in chains and tell her the breach was her fault. She tried to help and they still left her behind!"

His voice was nearly a screech as he reached the end of the thought, and he knew that this time it was his. Iron Bull let out a melancholy sort of sigh and called for Solas. The elf moved away from the mustachioed stranger he'd been talking to and began to speak with the Qunari instead. Cole was not listening to their discussion but he caught snippets of it here and there nonetheless.

"...can't calm him down."

"Letting go of him might be a good start."

"...don't understand...if she doesn't come back-"

"...doubt won't help him. But maybe I can."

Iron Bull released him without a warning then and he fell to the frosty ground, arms limp at his sides. Cole's anger was gone and it had burned away every other emotion with it. He was helpless, lost, and fighting the Inquisition hadn't gotten him anywhere. He couldn't protect her.

"Cole, focus on me. Listen to my voice."

The boy looked up, blue eyes peering into gray, but there was no life in him. He tasted that the sight worried his friends and he still made no attempts to change.

"You can read the minds of others, can sense their presence without looking. Search for her Cole. You'll find her."

It was hard to find the strength to do what Solas was asking him to, but Cole struggled and battled and at last he could feel it. He could feel her. He wasn't sure where, wasn't sure what she was thinking, but she was alive. And very far. He could feel her coming nearer with every step.

"She's okay," he muttered, more to himself than to anyone else, "She's okay."

"She is?" Iron Bull asked, and he sounded amazed. Relieved, deliriously happy, but amazed.

"Yes. And she's coming closer."

Iron Bull's hands shook as he rubbed the back of his head and Cole realized for the first time how important she was to them all. It wasn't just him that had been frightened.

"Someone needs to tell Cullen." the Qunari said softly, and he left them. Solas fastened his staff to his back and offered Cole a hand to help him stand up. He was back on his feet without realizing it, but then again he wasn't noticing much anymore. His thoughts were with Sindarel as she struggled against...something. That part wasn't very clear. He was still a little scared but he felt hopeful. He had never attempted to find someone's mind from this great a distance, however, and was worried about how tenuous the connection might be.

"Let's keep moving." Solas told him, and he nodded silently. Together they rejoined the throng and trooped along, both lost in their own thoughts, until they reached a dip in the mountains. The rocky walls rose up in such a way that they blocked the blizzard from blowing through. Solas told him they were stopping and he sat right down where he was, ignoring the people who walked around him, glaring as they went. They'd forget him eventually. They always did.

When she was close enough he stood up and wandered out of the canyon, well-aware of the fact that Solas was watching him, but uncaring. He could just barely make her out through the snow as she collapsed to her knees. Cole gathered her up in his arms, as light as a feather, and she wrapped her right arm around his neck, wound shaking fingers through his hair.

I knew you'd find me, she thought and he marveled that she was actively speaking to him through their mental connection. He supposed she had to, as worn out as she was. There'd be trouble if he didn't get her within two feet of a fire, fast.

When they returned to the camp there was an uproar and someone pulled her out of his clutches and onto a cot. She was separated from him, torn away, but his mind was still connected to hers. She was falling asleep despite the noise around her and she was still thinking of him. That realization made him feel a warm, heady rush that had nothing to do with the flickering flames he was standing beside. It was familiar, but not. Almost as if he'd been feeling it through a haze of something else before. He didn't like knowing that, didn't like what it entailed.

It was then that he felt his whole world shift.