A/N- POV Changes between Fox and Fenris. Indicated by a horizontal divider.

Chapter 6

Deflowering the Deep Roads

"Are you ready?" Hawke had his hand on Fox's shoulder, trying to calm her nerves. She could deal with the darkness, she could even deal with the small spaces. She was used to those. Many years surviving on the streets of Vyrantium had hardened her for that. She was able to adjust her eyes to the dark in an instant, hide in the smallest crack between two walls. That was what she was trained for. To kill without being seen; to listen without ever being heard. That was who she was and what she was used to. The one thing she couldn't handle, however, was the thought of a giant rock ceiling crashing down on top of her at any moment. Hawke and Varric had tried to soothe this fear when they pressured her into giving up why she was so wary of going on the expedition. Hawke had reassured her that the dwarves were the best masons in all of Thedas; Varric decided to try to tell her that there have been very few cave ins reported in the Deep Roads. That was what got her shaking this time. Very Few. Those were still good enough odds to scare the crap out of her. Then she thought back to her training in Antiva. Use your fear as power instead of a weakness. Do not let it consume you. Rule it before it can rule you. Fox breathed in deeply and let these words pass through her mind. She remembered when they were taught to her. She focused on that moment. Crashing of the tide against the cliff. The feeling of rocks digging into her bare, bleeding feet. The smell of salt and the sound of the ocean birds that surrounded her. The knives slicing into her hands as she held the blade tight; and the feeling of wind against her face as she- "Fox?" She snapped out of her daze and looked at the scruffy mage still staring at her with his bright blue eyes. Her hands had stopped shaking and she felt her body relax. She subconsciously curled her fingers over her palm. Even though they were gloved, she could still feel the scars. It was a constant reminder of what happened. They represented her strength, her perseverance. They had been a reward after a year of hard work, proving that she was able to overcome anything that was placed in front of her.

Fox took another deep breathe and nodded her head once. "I'm ready."

The week leading up to the Deep Roads had gone by quicker than Fox could comprehend. It was filled with drinking, gambling and constant practice to keep her skills up. Fenris had practiced with her on a few occasions. He had defeated her time and time again. The last time they sparred, she did win. Even though Fenris said that it was because she was getting better, Fox couldn't help but think that he had let her win. Something had softened within him since the trip to the Bone Pit, but for the life of her Fox couldn't remember what it was.

Fenris remembered though. Often he rubbed his right hand, the feeling of her touch still on his mind. He hadn't allowed himself to be touched out of pure affection in- as long as he could remember. What Danarius did couldn't of been called affection if the Maker himself declared it so. That was just need. Lust. Pure filth. Just another way for Fenris to feel like an object. Getting used and then tossed back into his pathetic little corner of Danarius' room, where he was forced to watch and protect the man that had just filled him with his filth. But this, a simple touch on the hand had meant the world to Fenris. A symbol that he could be cared for in some way other than as a valuable member of a pack of misfits. Sure, they had touched a lot more than that at the Bone Pit, but that was an accident. This was something else entirely. This was on purpose, done by her own will, not the force of gravity. And he had allowed it. Now Fenris found himself outside a cave leading into the dark depths of the world. When Fox had started panicking, he wanted to go over and comfort her- but he didn't know how. So he just stood there as Varric and Hawke did what he should had been doing. A fire lit up in his eyes when he saw Hawke touch her. He knew that Hawke wasn't interested in Fox, he cared for that blood mage, but something about Hawke touching his Fox was unnerving. He wanted to run over there and push him off of his Fox. He had no right to show such affection to his woman. When Hawke's hand released from his Fox's shoulder, he released the tension built up in him, but he swore to himself that he would break the mages hand off if he touched his woman again. Wait… what was he saying? He looked away from his three companions and put his hand on his head. He had no right to call her 'his'. Especially not from one touch of affection when she was drunk. No, he had to keep these thoughts out of his head. He had to forget the warmth of her palm through her thin gloves. He had to focus on the task ahead of him. He needed to be clear headed so he could fight and protect the group… No… he needed to protect her. He heard a whistle and looked over to see Varric, Hawke and his Fox putting on their packs getting ready to follow Bartrand and his hirelings into the Deep Roads.

The walk had been quiet, mostly. Her other companions did not hear the small scrambling noises of mice and the dripping of water off the stalactites into pools beneath them. But she did. Every sound was new and unfamiliar to her. She hated it. It took a long time to adjust to the sound of scuffling feet and the occasional cough. She needed to put these sounds at the back of her mind, so she could tune in to anything that was unusual. This part of her training in Antiva had saved her more times than she could count. She had no idea how much she didn't know until she was faced with things that she was not accustomed to. She had prayed to the Maker every day of her training to help her get through it. To show that she was worthy of learning these secrets. The Maker had answered her prayers after the longest year of her life. She had been focusing on the surrounding area when she slammed into Hawke. They had come to an abrupt stop. Looking ahead of them, she saw what she had feared. A damn cave in. Bartrand was furious. Hawke, naturally, had told him that we would scout out the area to find a way around it. On our scouting we also had to look for the merchant dwarf's son, Sandal. He had wandered off and no one could find him so Hawke told Bodahn that he would keep an eye out for the young lad. And so, they were off.

Hawke and the others had been traversing through the Deep Roads looking for another way for about a half hour. They had found Sandal and were given Hawke asked him how he killed all the darkspawn and all he said was "Enchantment!" He then asked how he froze the ogre and he told him "Not enchantment!" He then proceeded to give Hawke a rune and went back to camp. That boy was either very smart, or extremely stupid.

A small group of darkspawn had come across their path a little while in. Within a few minutes the darkspawn were burning on the floor, thanks to Hawke's firestorm spell. The smell was the worst thing Fenris had ever encountered. Well, a close second to fish. As they continued walking, he had noticed Varric staring at him. When he noticed the dwarf,

Varric slowed his pace down allowing Fox and Hawke to be out of earshot so he could talk to Fenris. "So, Broody."

"So, dwarf."

"What's a- what's up with you and Pup?"

Fenris looked down at the short beardless dwarf and raised an eyebrow. "Whatever do you mean?"

Varric rolled his eyes and gestured towards his Fox. Fenris' eyes followed the direction of his hand and they landed on the woman that he had been thinking about non stop. He felt his gaze soften as he watched her run about, checking every little nook and cranny of the area that they were traveling in. He had noticed she tended to do that, saying she was checking for deposits or loots. But Fenris had a feeling that it was just to calm her nerves, knowing where everything was and made sure nothing could suddenly jump out at them.

"That. Right there. You looking at Pup like she was in her small clothes. Come on, Broody. I won't tell anyone."

Fenris scoffed at him. He was not looking at her like that… was he? No. The dwarf was lying… then again he never really lied when it wasn't their life on the line… No, no! It was ridiculous. He quickly turned his attention back to Varric before the dwarf had a chance to point out any other demeaning attributes of the elf. "I haven't the foggiest idea what you mean, dwarf."

Varric let out a low chuckle, shaking his head slowly. "How in the world did you survive for three years on your own being such a terrible liar? It's almost as bad as your armor."

Fenris crossed his arms, narrowing his emerald green eyes at his companion. "And what is wrong with my armor?"

Varric shrugged and scratched his face. "Well, nothing really. Not if you plan on being a porcupine in your spare time."

"Now I really have no idea what you are talking about. What is a… pour-que-pine?"

Varric opened his mouth to respond, but instead of reciting a lesson of spiked animals and their comparisons to a certain elf, he shifted his eyes around the cavern curiously. "Hey, this is a nice conversation and all… but has it become too quite?" They looked up to see that the others had traveled far ahead of them and they could hear the clash of battle and a blood thirsty roar. Varric took out Bianca, a smirk on his face. "Time for a little fun, sweetheart."

Fox had stood in the way of the dragon's attempt to getting at Hawke. He let out a more threatening energy than she did so the dragon tried going straight for the mage at first. Big mistake. Fox leapt in front of Hawke and slashed her blades into the dragon's face when it had went to bite at Hawke. The dragon threw itself back and roared in protest, it's scales shimmering in the torch light.

"Thanks, Fox. But where in the Maker's name are Fenris and Varric?"

Fox didn't have time to go and find them as the dragon recovered from it's surprise injury. Hawke had run back into the entrance of the room, keeping as far of a distance as his magic would allow. The dragon considered Fox his new target as pay back for the wound on his nose. The dragon flew upwards, Fox attempting to keep track of him using his shadow. She had miscalculated by a few feet as the dragon came crashing down, flinging her off to the side with the force of the landing. She slid across the stone floor and attempted to get back up again when the dragon started charging towards her. She saw a look from Hawke from the corner of her eye as he gave her a hand signal. The dragon was almost on top of her before she pushed off the ground with one leg and sprang to the left, rolling on the ground to evade the fireball that slammed into the dragon. Maker am I glad Hawke made me learn the signals. The dragon flung it's head towards the direction that the blast had come from. It had spotted Hawke again. Fox sprang up and ran towards the dragon to get its attention back. She threw a combustion bomb at the dragon's side and it exploded upon contact. The dragon let out another roar as some of it's scales flew off, revealing pink skin. Fox got an idea, but she only had two bombs left. The left side was obviously this dragon's weaker side. The scales penetrated easier than the ones on the right. Hawke had obviously seen this as well as he gave her a signal to turn the dragon's left side towards him. Fox nodded her head and ran in front of the dragon as it blew a trail of fire behind her. A pain shot through her leg and she almost fumbled. She ignored it the best she could, throwing another combustion bomb at the right side of the dragon's head to try and get him to turn as she reached the other side of it.

Fenris picked up his pace when he saw Hawke standing in an entrance to a room. Beyond him was his Fox throwing a bomb at the dragon's head. He cringed as the dragon whipped around to face her and attempted to swipe at the evading rogue. Hawke spotted him and Varric and yelled at the dwarf to shoot at it's left side and for Fenris to go out and help Fox. Fenris didn't even hear the order under he was already half way there. He heard a bolt fly past his head and saw it stick into the pink flesh of the dragon that was slightly revealed. A fireball past him next, slamming into the same spot as he ran to his Fox. She caught sight of him and a sign of relief was shown in her eyes. She nodded to the dragon and Fenris understood. He saw the dragon turning towards Hawke and Varric so he ran up to it's side, jumping in the air and striking the dragon's right side scales. It barely penetrated, but it was enough to bring it back around to face them.

In a few seconds, it was over. Varric had shot another bolt after three more fireballs left the mage's staff. The dragon laid dead at their feet, but his Fox was now limping.

Fenris approached her, restraining the temptation to touch her shoulder. "Are you alright?"

His Fox turned to look at him and let out a deep breath that she had been holding when the dragon was going down. "I'm alright, mostly. My calf got charred a little bit but with an injury kit and a poultice, it should heal fine."

The calf was a hard place to reach if you were to clean it yourself, so Fenris said something that surprised both of them. "Would you like me to take a look at it?" His Fox was hesitant and he didn't understand why. Why would she deny him in such a manner? It irritated him beyond his own comprehension. The thought that she wished someone else to tend to her, the thought that anyone else was allowed to tend to her, was a putrid thought that made his stomach churn.

Before she could even answer him, Fox found herself on the ground, in front of a kneeling Fenris as he rummaged through his pack. She was surprised at his offer, to say the least. But that wasn't why she was hesitant. It was the same reason why she never took off her gloves, even while she slept. She had secrets that she did not care to reveal to anyone. In the back of her mind she was screaming at herself for allowing him to do this. She was fighting the urge to thrash, run, kick- anything to make it so he didn't do this. But she kept telling herself that he was going to see them eventually, whether she liked it or not. Fenris sat down in front of her and motioned for her to put her leg on his lap. He slid off her partially burned boot easily as some of the material stuck to her leg. The bottom of her pants were fine since they were inside the boot, but half of a foot from the top of it up was burned. Fenris asked if Fox would mind if he cut the burnt part of her pants off. She replied that she would do it later at camp when she had her sewing kit with her so she could put a patch there. He nodded and began to ravel up her pants leg. She instinctively reached out and grabbed his hand for him to stop, despite the pain in her own hand. Fenris looked up at her with a expression of both shock and… pain? He was hurt that she would attempt to stop him? Fox mumbled an "I'm sorry, go on" and took her hand away. He stared at her for a moment before continuing. Varric and Hawke had wandered over to them and sat around the two, watching and waiting. Fox wanted to scream at them to go away but she suppressed it. They all let out a gasp when Fenris had finished rolling up her pants to her knee.

Aside from the red skin that made up the burn, there was something else odd about Fox's leg. It had something inside of it. Fox resisted the temptation to get up and runaway from them. Where would she go? She was in the damn Deep Roads! The scar around the object was relatively new, showing that it had recently been put there only a few years prior. Fenris slowly worked on cleaning the burn, his eyes lingering on the thing protruding inside her skin. Varric and Hawke had kept silent. She didn't know what was worse, the thought of them being disgusted by it, or this unnerving silence. She knew what it was. It was a quarter part of her prize. It was the reward she had received when her training in Antiva had completed. She only used it in a few situations, but it had proven to be worthy of all the pain that she had endured during that year. Fenris finished wrapping her calf and rolled down her pants leg. He gave her the poultice that he had taken out and got up. She downed the poultice quickly before putting on her partially charred boot. Hawke and Varric stood up with her and they never spoke a word. The four formed an awkward circle/square and just stared at each other, everyone but Fox.

Varric let out a sigh and shook his head. "Alright, since no one else is going to ask- Pup, what the hell was that?" The three stared at her, looking for some sort of answer.

Fox sighed and rubbed her temples with her gloved hands. "That… was something done to me in Antiva." She turned around wanting walk away from the conversation until someone grabbed onto her arm. She was spun back around to face the group and she saw the one who had grabbed her to be Fenris. Fox was stunned by the intensity in his eyes as he let go and backed away, resuming the place he was standing in just a moment before. He lowered his gaze when he spoke. His voice quivered with a seething anger for what he had seen. An anger for what she had been keeping from him.

"Fox, what happened in Antiva?"

She didn't want to tell them, not now. Not when Fenris was just starting to open up to her. Not when the others had just started to accept her fully. But she couldn't lie. She didn't want to lie to her new friends.

Hawke looked at her now with softened eyes. "You can trust us, Fox. If you don't want us to tell anyone else, we won't. But I think you need to explain that thing in your leg."

Fox thought for a moment and then nodded slowly. She gestured for them to sit on the stairs with her so she could share part of the story that she had never told anyone. It's not that she couldn't, she just really didn't want to. Fox didn't want the judgmental stares and whispers behind her back. But something told her she could trust these three.

She sat down on the cold hard steps and looked at the three men. "Alright, then let me just say this now, promise me that you will not change your opinion of me. Promise me that you will not breathe a word of this to anyone unless I say it's alright. Promise me that you won't… you won't judge me." The three nodded their heads and promised. Fox let out a deep breath and brought her thoughts together.

"After I had left Seheron, unwillingly, I was dropped off in Antiva. Antiva is a beautiful place but it's filled with assassins- and Antivans. The people were absolute trash, save a few. I found myself fighting everyone with a weapon during my first year. It wasn't on purpose, I just didn't know the etiquette was so… different there. I apparently hit all the wrong buttons. Well, after my first year there I had finally been able to settle in. I stayed at an apartment above the local whore house. It was given to me by a friend that I had made years ago back in Vyrantium. When I saw him again in Antiva, he said that he wasn't able to show me 'the ropes' as it were, but he would at least try to help me. Zevran, was his name, and we had often had talks about how we got where we were. He turned into a brother figure for me during the year that I had seen him. Zevran had convinced the Crows to give me odd jobs once in awhile that they felt themselves too petty for. After a year, Zevran left taking up a job in Ferelden."

Varric held up his hand for her to stop. "Wait- wait. You knew the Crow assassin that tried to kill the Hero of Ferelden? Didn't she take mercy on him and asked him to join them?"

She rolled her eyes and nodded her head. "Yes, and he never stopped talking about it in his damn letters. I love him like a brother but he never knew when to shut up. I didn't know a person could ramble on in a letter before I received my first one from him. Anyway. As I was saying. After Zevran left I was completely on my own then. The Crows still gave me jobs. One of the jobs was to find and kill a man named Jaiden Naphtali. When I reached his home in Selemy, I found him sitting on his front porch. He was waiting for me. Jaiden surprised me then by throwing his weapons at me and said he was unarmed. I was still cautious because daggers could be hidden anywhere. He motioned for me to sit down so for some odd reason I did. We talked about nothing and everything. He wasn't too old but he wasn't exactly young. He knew things that I couldn't have ever dreamed to know. I didn't ask him why he thought the Crows were after him, it was a personal contract. But he gave me an offer I could not turn down. He offered to train me. I knew just by talking to him for what seemed like hours, he could teach me things that I would never have dreamed of. He said that the training came with a price and laughed when I told him I barely had a copper to my name.

Jaiden went on to explain that the price was to give up my freedom for a year and live by only his command. I agreed hesitantly. Later I found out that he ran a small group of people that he had trained in the same way he promised me. That's why the Crows wanted him dead. They saw him as a threat because he was able to do and teach things that they couldn't. After a year of the most brutal training in my life, he had deemed me worthy of receiving the thing that made his group so special. I just had to pass one final test."

Hawke interrupted now. "Wait, so you are now part of another guild?"

"No, not exactly. He said I wasn't obligated to stay with them but I would always be welcome. What had made the group special, however, will always stay with me."

"The thing in your leg?"

"I'm getting to that. So my final test was to stand at the edge of a cliff in Salle. We had moved around a lot during the training to stay away from the Crows. They were… not happy that they had lost a guild member and a hired contract. I remember standing at the very tip of that rocky cliff, my hands were clutching onto my blades. I was required to hold them by the blade. I needed to prove I could push myself through the pain. My feet were already cut up pretty bad from the sharp rocks. He gave me one final statement before I completed my test. He told me 'Use your fear as power instead of a weakness. Do not let it consume you. Rule it before it can rule you.' And so, I jumped. The cliff was as tall as two High Dragons. I was scared beyond belief, but I pushed myself past it. I was required to hold onto my blades, jump off the cliff and swim back to shore. Courage, bravery, and perseverance. After I had crawled my way onto the shore, still holding my blades, he smiled and told me it was time for my prize.

I went back to the small shack on the beach where two other members sat waiting for me. In their hands they held a Rune of Devastation and an Elemental Rune. Using some sort of skill I had never seen before, they cut the Devastation Rune in half and crushed the Elemental one into a fine powder, but they somehow still retained their affects. I was laid upon a table and they began to work on me. One of them cut into the wound on my hand and tore it open further, placing the powder inside. They did it with the other hand as well. The other person was a mage who was healing me the entire time it was happening so I wouldn't die from shock. After my hands were finished, they turned me over and cut open my calves. They placed one half of the Devastation Rune in each leg. I passed out from exhaustion when they were done. I woke up a week later in Rialto with a note telling me how to use them. At the end of the instructions, Jaiden said that if I wished to ever come back and join them, the runes would show me the way."

The three men looked at her with mouths gaping, even Fenris.

They were staring at her in an awkward silence until Varric, as always, broke it. "So he trained you and put Runes in you so you could… what? Not kill him? And I'm dying to know what the runes do exactly if they're-well- in you. "

Fox smiled and stood up and started walking up the stairs. "No, he didn't put the runes in me for that reason. But that is another story for some other time. As for what they do- well you will just have to wait and see when it happens, won't you?"

Varric sighed, his curiosity was not satisfied. They all walked up the stairs and saw the opening. "Well, this seems like the right way. Better go back and tell Bartrand. He'll be so pleased." They turned and walked back to camp.

After they told Bartrand they immediately set out for the path. In the middle of the walk, Bartrand decided it was a good time for a rest. They unpacked their bedrolls and set up a small fire.

Fox and Fenris were taking watch together while the others slept. This had been Varric and Hawke's idea. Of course. Fenris hadn't spoken to her since she explained what it was that was in her skin. He wanted to ask her why she would do that. Why she would work so hard just to get something put in her. In her skin. There was something she wasn't telling him and he didn't really care that she didn't want to talk about it. He wanted to know why his Fox would do such a thing to herself. He wanted to know why she would put herself through all that pain. Was it for power? No, Fox didn't seem the type. Was it for glory? No, she didn't even want to speak about it. What was it then? Why would she do that to her own body? Fenris got up from the rock he had been sitting on and straightened himself. He would get the answer from her. He walked over to the shadowed corner that his Fox had set herself up in. His Fox looked at him perplexed when she saw him hovering over her, but then realization dawned on her as she told him to take a seat.

"Yes, Fenris?"

"Why?" His voice was soft but harsh. His head was hung low between his knees as he sat.

"Why do you want to know?"

His head snapped up to her and he narrowed his eyes. "Because I just can't figure out why you would do such a thing! Why you would put yourself through so much pain for… what? I don't understand why!"

She looked down at the rocky floor, almost looking sad; almost looking ashamed. But then her head rose and her eyes hardened to him. "What would you do if you were going to die? Not by the hands of another, not even from an illness that you could catch from someone. But because your own blood was spoiled? Jaiden sensed it when he first saw me. He sensed that I was dying. The runes give off enough power so I can't die by my filthy blood. They counteract what's within me. Fenris, if I didn't do this, I'd be dead right now."

"How? What is in your blood that has spoiled you? I don't understand."

She sighed and relaxed herself as she saw Fenris had stopped snapping at her. Her hand ran across the sand that piled up next to her. "I lied about my parents. My mother didn't die in childbirth. She died because she was poisoned. Slowly. The healer that she visited thought it was horrid that an elf and a human had mated. So every time my mother went to see her, she had her drink a cup of tea to 'help the process'. In the tea contained some sort of poison that slowly killed her from the inside. It took two months for it to take affect. She died when she was about to go in labor with me. At that point, the poison had seeped into my bloodstream. They didn't know it though. When my father found out after going to a different healer when I became very ill suddenly, he killed the healer that poisoned my mother. That's why he was murdered. For taking revenge. So the healer's family took revenge on him. Before he died, the healer that he took me to made some sort of potion that she injected into my bloodstream through an open wound. She said that it should slow down the process of the poison and for me to come back when I got sick for another dose. I never needed to go back again. The potion seemed to heal me completely, but I was wrong. Twenty-one years later, I fell ill again. I was saving up enough money for a pyre for myself when I took the job to kill Jaiden. It was just my luck that he knew what to do."

Fenris sat there completely silent and stoic. His thoughts were a completely different matter. She is very lucky indeed. I can't believe that she would have died if it weren't for this. But why is it she- He spoke the last thought. "Why is it you didn't just tell us that?"

She looked over at him and shrugged. "I didn't want to reveal too much of myself I suppose."

His eyebrows drew together and a crease in his forehead formed out of confusion. "But, you just told me. Even after I snapped at you."

She smiled lightly and got up. "Maybe I'm just a big softie for attractive white-haired elves with lyrium marks."

Then, Fox- no- His Fox, walked away. Leaving Fenris with wide eyes and his mouth open, gaping at what she said.

Three days had passed since that night. Three days and a lot of exploring mixed with a lot of problems. A day ago Bartrand took the idol and shut the door behind him, locking them within the Thaig. Fox was horrified at the idea of being locked down in the Deep Roads, never to be able to see the sky again. Hawke had kept his cool and told them that they would find a way out of this place. Varric just wanted to kill his brother. Fenris- Fenris hadn't said anything. He just wore a determined expression and walked silently among them. Fox had spoken to Fenris since the night she told him about her parents. They were short conversations about nothing in particular, but she always left them feeling satisfied. At least he was talking to her now.

They had just entered an old vault after refusing the offer of the hungry-profane-demon thing. Well, that's what Varric was calling it, even with Hawke constantly correcting him that it was a hunger demon in the form of a profane.

"Varric, what is this place?" Hawke strode alongside his friend, eyes wide and roaming.

"This is the vault. It's where the dwarves used to store their-"

A large rock wraith formed in front of their eyes. They all took a step back as it built up, never seeming to end. Then, just as soon as it had come, it disappeared. "Well, that was disappointing-" Varric was cut short when the rock wraith emerged out of the ground beside them. Fox and Fenris quickly jumped out in front to guard Varric while he loaded up Bianca and Hawke while he charged up a spell. The wraith threw a rock- how original- at them and quickly disappeared again. The four had evaded the sudden attack to now be staring at an empty vault. "Andraste's dimpled butt cheeks! What in the name of-" The rock wraith appeared in the center again and started to cluster together, building up energy. "Oh shit! Run!" The four followed Varric, when he yelled at them, behind a pillar.

Fox looked down at Varric as they caught their breaths from narrowly missing the energy attack. "Fucking aye, Varric! Whenever the damn rock thingy-"

Hawke looked at her annoyed. "Rock Wraith!"

"Whatever! Whenever the damn rock thingy disappears, don't talk! It seems to like your voice!"

"Duly noted, Pup! Now let's kick some rock thingy butt!"

Hawke groaned. "I swear you two are just trying to annoy the piss out of me." Fox and Varric grinned at Hawke before jumping out from behind the pillar with Fenris following them. Hawke stayed a distance away casting a cold spell at the center of the ring of rocks that just formed. Varric was a few feet ahead of Hawke and let out a hail of arrows to go crashing down on the surrounding profane that had popped out of no where. Hawke was switching his attention now from the profane to the rock wraith. Fenris and Fox dipped and jumped over the spinning rocks that hurdled themselves around the mass of energy in the middle. Whenever they reached the center and hit it with their weapons it made a loud cling sound and threw them backwards. They did about three more times before the wraith started forming up again. The four ran behind the pillar once more and waited for the rock wraith to release it's energy.

Fox looked over at Hawke, wiping the sweat from her forehead. "Hawke! This is getting extremely annoying and repetitive. Those damn little rock thingies are making it harder. It doesn't even seem like we're doing anything to the damn rock thingy."

Hawke nodded, ignoring the fact that she called it a "thingy" again and looked around the room as a blast of energy surged forth from the wraith. He apparently spotted what he needed to before ducking his head back in so it wouldn't be fried. "I've got an idea." The three companions listened intently to his plan and set out to execute it after the energy died down again. The rock wraith weakened once more and formed the circle of spinning rocks around it's center once again. Profane sprang up from the surrounding rock piles and went to attack them. Each one of them started attacking five of them each, drawing them in to following them when they backed up. Fox had her bow out now, something she missed using, and shot arrows at the profane instead of attacking them head on. Hawke was shooting small bursts of lightening at them. Varric was shooting bolts and Fenris was doing wide arced attacks from a distance so only the tip of his blade hit them. They backed up to the rock wraith as the profane ran at them. They waited until the profane were a few feet away from them as they stopped at the ring and Hawke shouted "now" as the profane lunged towards them. The four quickly jumped out of the way and covered their heads as the profane hit the ring of rocks around the energy, destroying it as well as themselves. A few of them bounced off the ring of rocks and smashed into the center, making it glow wickedly. As the last profane smashed into the energy, the center attempted to draw in more rocks to form it's body. Hawke sprang up and quickly let out a blast of cold, destroying it. The other three stood up and brushed themselves off as Hawke drank a lyrium poultice.

Varric went over and patted Hawke on the back. "Well, shit Hawke. I didn't think that would actually work. Good job"

Hawke rolled his eyes, attempting to look annoyed but the childish grin on his face gave him away. "You wound me when you think so little of my plans, Varric."

"Hey, I said you did a good job. Now don't you go stealing my lines on me."

"It was payback for the 'rock thingy' comments you and Fox were pulling on me."

Fox walked up to them, Fenris following closely behind. "Watch it Hawke, or Varric might write you out of your story."

Varric laughed and Hawke shrugged saying he never asked for a story in the first place.

"Alright, now let's go take a look around. Maybe we will find something in here. Hopefully something shaped like a key to open that door over there." Varric headed towards a pile of treasure, grinning from ear to ear as the light hit the shining pieces of gold.

The trek home was a long and boring one. They encountered maybe four groups of darkspawn, a handful of wraiths and one ogre. But the amount of gold that they would all get from this would be worth it. Hawke told them that since Bartrand had "given up" his share of what they were able to collect from the vault, he was going to split the earning's four ways. Varric had already been doing the calculations saying they would all get about 150 maybe 200 sovereigns each if he could find buyers for all of it. Fenris said he didn't want the money but they pushed it on him anyway saying that he needed to fix his house up a little bit. When they got to the surface, Fox was on the ground kissing it.

"Hah, Pup I don't think you want to be kissing that ground. This might be Hightown but scum still walk the streets."

Fox got up and shrugged. "I'm just happy we're out of that blighted hole." Varric laughed and agreed.

He turned to Hawke now, a thoughtful but curious demeanor sprang over him. "I wonder if Bartrand came back to the city already. You think I'd be that lucky?"

"Not really. Luck hasn't been our strong point so far. But I'm not really worried about Bartrand right now. I have to head home to tell my mother and brother the good news."

"You be safe Hawke. We're going to be rich."

Yes, I changed the battle with the Rock Wraith

Why?

Because in the game it WAS boring and repetitive.

And extremely easy to beat. But that dragon always seemed to give me an issue for some odd reason.

Anyway, Please Review.