Chapter 36
"Well, well, looky here! Volunteers!" exclaimed an ugly man with hideous tattoos. "Clap them in irons, boys! We'll see how much the Tevinters will pay for them."
"I told you walking right up to them wasn't a plan," Anders hissed from behind me. The slavers remained oblivious to that comment and didn't make any move towards us...yet. "Saying shit like that isn't the best way to talk yourself out of a situation, Anders."
"Where is Feynriel?" I asked demandingly.
The man with the ugly tattoos ignored my question and I heard footsteps from behind us. When I glanced back to see who was moving I saw that some of the other slavers had surrounded us and cut off the only way in or out of this clearing. There was no way to escape and when I looked back at the man with the hideous tattoos he had his lips twisted into a very disfigured and horrifying smile.
"So, who's first ?" he flashed his teeth at us with arms spread open in welcome.
"Shit..."
"You know what I love about the Undercity? Absolutely nothing," Varric groaned once we had finally made it to the sewers.
"Here we go again," I sighed.
"What?" he asked with raised shoulders. "It's not my fault this place is so crappy."
"Good one."
"Believe it or not, the pun actually wasn't intended."
"That is hard to believe," I heard Anders mutter from behind us.
"Just because I, unlike you, can make good jokes out of nothing doesn't mean I make them all the time."
"I haven't seen any proof to the contrary yet." A smile spread across Anders' face after he spoke.
"Hey, would you look at that! Blondie's actually smiling!" Varric exclaimed rather enthusiastically.
"Who cares?" Fenris interrupted, clearly annoyed. "We have a mage that needs to be saved from slavers...Unless you've finally come to your senses and realized that saving mages isn't worth the trouble and they all belong in the tower that is."
Anders didn't respond and just glared at Fenris through narrowed eyes.
"Something tells me that the slavers are that group over there," I said, interrupting their silent argument before it escalated and pointing to a small clearing that was on the far side of the sewers.
"So, if that is them, what's the plan then, Little Hawke," Varric asked, using the nickname he had come up with only because he knew it drove me insane.
"We go up to them and ask where they've taken Feynriel."
"That isn't exactly a plan..." Anders eyebrows furrowed in disapproval. "Looks like he doesn't like the idea of walking right up to them."
"I have to agree with the abomination on this one," Fenris added.
"And we should mark today in the calendar as 'the first, and probably last, time that Fenris and Anders have ever agreed on something'." I let my signature smirk fall on my lips before walking towards the slavers.
"And here was I hoping she wasn't actually serious with the whole 'walk right up and hope they don't kill us' plan," I faintly heard Varric mumble under his breath.
I smiled 'sweetly' at the slaver before answering his question, curtly with, "No one," before I turned to Fenris and said much more malicious and in character, "Make him talk."
A smile touched the corners of his mouth. "I can do that," he said in an amused voice before his lyrium tattoos glowed.
With lightning quick movements Fenris had closed the gap between him and the slaver that had spoken to us and rammed his fist through the man's chest. I heard him wheeze in pain before Fenris removed his hand and his lyrium tattoos stopped glowing. The man then doubled over in pain gurgling on...something...maybe blood, but I really didn't know.
"Andraste's great flaming ass!" the man exclaimed while gasping for air, "how did you do that? Never mind," he said quickly, interrupting his own question, "what do you want?"
"Feynriel, the half human, half elf mage, where is he?" I growled menacingly.
"I-I stashed the boy in a cave, a smuggler hideout along the coast. Tevinters will be there to finish the deal tonight."
"This is Kirkwall; there is a lot of fucking coast here. You're going to have to be more specific," I looked over at Fenris and jerked my head towards the man with the hideous tattoos as a signal for him to do that little trick of his again.
"The Wounded Coast!" he blurted out in panic, his voice tinged with his fear when he saw Fenris take a few steps towards him. "That's the coast I meant!"
Fenris looked at me questioningly and I gave him a 'back down' nod. Confusion flickered in his eyes as he did as I 'asked', but I gave him a subtle wink to put his mind at ease. "Let's give this man some false hope...and then rip it away just when he gets a hold of it. Kind of like what he did with Feynriel.
"Now...c-can I go?" the tattooed man asked, boldly.
"Sure," I said charmingly before unsheathing my sword and running it through his chest. "And by that I meant 'no'." I finished my sentence while still sounding as charming as ever, and the man's eyes widened in surprise before his life was finally snuffed out like a candle.
Ripping out my sword from his disgusting corpse and letting it crash to the floor, I quickly unsheathed my other sword and got ready to kill the other slavers that had gathered around us. "One step closer to finding him. Now we have an actual location, thank the Maker."
"So, he's at the Wounded Coast, huh?" I said nonchalantly while ridding my blades of the blood that had splashed on them. "I wonder if the Injured Cliff's are around there too, or maybe the Limping Hills. They all certainly sound like better places than Massive-Head-Trauma Bay, though."
"Yeah, well wherever you go becomes another addition to the Bloody Springs," Varric added, joining in my joke while motioning to the bodies that littered the ground all around us.
The blood that had spilled from their veins covered this clearing's ground with pools of crimson red that shimmered eerily in the moonlight coming from some of the vents above. The poor lighting did make the pools of blood look deeper than they actually were.
"Hmmm," I said with a smirk, "that sounds like good place to go on a honeymoon."
Varric chuckled at first with a smile that brought out his dimples and brightened his eyes. "Only you would find a place like that suitable for a honeymoon, Little Hawke."
"You're not going to give up on that, are you?"
"Ah, come on," Varric teased. "You know you like it," his smile broadened with each word.
"Only because a...friend calls me something similar." I sheathed my swords and turned so that I was looking directly at him with a smile on my lips to compliment his own. "It does have a nice ring to it, doesn't it?"
"Exactly!" he exclaimed before laughing uncontrollably.
I simply hummed in amusement in honor of his enthusiasm towards me finally agreeing to the nickname. The nickname I knew he had already decided on calling me by even if I hadn't agreed.
Varric, who was now content at the moment, walked over to a nearby crate and sat down. Pulling out a rag from his jacket he began to wipe the blood off of his boots. He seemed to take the whole act of doing so very seriously because he would make slow and deliberate movements that also had certain patterns to them. Forcing myself to look away was the only way to keep from laughing at the sight.
My eyes then came to rest on Anders. He was standing in the middle of the clearing on one of the few non-blood covered areas. His eyes were shut and he was lightly tapping his fingers along his staff in some sort of rhythm. In the pale moonlight I could just make out that there was a little bit of blood splattered on his robes and that there was a trail of it running down his face. At first I was worried that he may have been hurt, but my worry turned to relief when he opened his eyes and noticed I was looking at him. When he turned his head towards me I couldn't see any wounds, so I simply nodded towards Varric on the crate, a small smile touching my lips.
Anders looked over at the dwarf and didn't even try to hide his smile. He found the sight almost as funny as I did. He looked back at me and the tension that was on his face just melted. He looked much more relaxed, which also made me a little less tense as well seeing as I had gotten lost in his eyes once again. "I can't blame him for what Justice did. Even though he may say they are one, they both have different opinions and feelings even if some of them are sometimes the same."
"If you too are done making eyes at each other," Fenris' snarl was unmistakably more 'snarlier' than usual, "then I suggest we make for the Wounded Coast before the Tevinters sail away with your mage."
"Sorry," I said with as much sarcasm as I could muster, "I thought that being such a broody buzz kill must get tiring after awhile and I thought that you might need a break to catch your strength in order to keep that façade going." I rolled my eyes as obviously as I could, hoping that he would notice it and realize how much I hated him at the moment for saying that.
"Wait, what?" Varric looked up from his boots. "We're leaving already? But I haven't even finished getting the blood of my boots!"
"Well, seeing as the 'Bloody Springs' follow Luna wherever she goes, I imagine that you'll end up with more blood on them soon," Anders said charmingly. "Might as well clean it all off at once rather than after every fight she gets into."
"Hey, it's not like I go looking for a fight..." I said in my 'cute little whining girl' voice.
"I haven't seen any proof to the contrary yet," Anders joked, repeating what he had said to Varric a little while ago.
"If we move quickly and now we can get to the cave in less than an hour," Fenris put a whole lot of stress on the word 'now'. "Something must have pissed him off."
"Then lead on and set the pace," was my calm response that no longer had my words dripping with sarcasm. "We'll follow."
He just gave a soft grunt before turning around and jogging up the stairs. The word 'jogging' should be used lightly though, he was just barely moving slower than sprinting.
Varric and Anders followed him without hesitation and I brought up the rear. "This isn't exactly the 'romantic, moonlit walk along the coast' the leaflet was advertising was it? I can't imagine one of the 'exciting' activities listed on it was 'enjoy the scenery as you save an apostate mage'." My own willpower was almost not enough to keep from laughing at that thought. "Don't need my friends thinking I'm crazier than they already think I am. After all, I did tell them I was insane once."
Reaching the cave the slaver had talked about was rather difficult. The rain had turned everything into mud and we were all were slipping and sliding as we 'jogged' all the way there. I crashed more than a few times to the ground as my feet slid out from underneath me and I was now covered in mud. "I don't know how those three have kept themselves from laughing at me and how much of a klutz I can be."
Even though the big storm that had blown through here was long gone, another one had taken its place and chilled us to the bones with its freezing drizzle of rain. The water was even colder than what had fallen during the first storm which was amazing to me.
"I'm glad that I'm in the rear, otherwise they would all see me shivering uncontrollably and offer some way of keeping warm. Damn them and their kindness sometimes." I just suffered quietly in the cold as I kept my eyes and ears open for any sign of trouble. "I am not going to lose any of them. Ever. I have already failed so many people. I will not fail them."
"How you doing back there, Little Hawke?" Varric called over his shoulder as we started to descend down the final hill...I hoped.
"Fine—whoa!" just then the mud gave way beneath my feet and I fell forward. I tried to brace myself with my hands and was able to keep my face out of the mud, but not without one of my wrists giving up on me with a sickening crack. "Ow... No..." I ended up whimpering innocently.
Warm hands were suddenly helping me up and holding my arm with the broken wrist very still. I looked up and saw Anders holding me steady with a goofy smile and mud on his cheek, in his hair, and on his robes that were no doubt from me in his attempt to help me up and keep me on my feet. "Karl said the Fade was burning inside him like the sun. He certainly radiates heat like the sun, that's for sure."
"I didn't know you were such a klutz, Luna," He said sultrily as he started to help me down the hill. Fenris and Varric were already waiting at the bottom.
"I just don't get along with—" I slipped again and Anders had to grab my waist and pull me close to him to keep me from falling. It was very awkward. Our bodies were really close together, but I couldn't complain about being cold for the moment...I didn't let the moment last too long though because Maker knows the dirty scenarios Varric's already coming up with and the many ways Fenris is already planning on killing Anders.
"MUD! I do NOT get along with all this fucking MUD!" I gritted out through my teeth as we finally made it to the front of the cave.
Anders only chuckled before taking a look at my wrist. "I'm going to have to set the bone back into place." Looking deep into my eyes he added, "It may hurt a bit."
"'A bit' is an understatement, my friend," I replied thoughtfully. "Don't tell me when you're going to put it back into place."
"Uh, why?"
"Because if I know when you're going to do it I'll tense up and it'll hurt a whole lot more."
"There's actually some logic there," Varric remarked.
"Well, I'm not stupid, that's for sure...right?" I asked.
"If you need to ask," was the bitter response from Fenris.
Glaring at the broody son of a bitch, I opened my mouth to say a very impolite comeback that involved his stupidity but—
SNAP!
—I was force to clamp my mouth shut in an attempt to shut out the pain from my wrist.
Anders had picked the best moment to reset the bone, although I would have loved to see the look on Fenris' face when I told him off.
"Yup," I said carefully, "that was an understatement."
Anders gave a half-hearted laugh before healing the bone. "Ok, I am NOT going to get hurt in this cave. I am not going to get hurt in this cave. I am not going to get hurt in this cave..."
"Did any of us bring torches, cause I can't see a damn thing down that cave," Varric mentioned, worry edging his voice.
"Well, I figured that since I brought...drug the two friends of ours that can glow blue that we wouldn't need any torches." I knew that was a very, very stupid thing to say...but the looks on Fenris' and Anders' faces as they glared at me...priceless! Even Varric couldn't stop laughing. He was practically rolling around in the mud he found it so damn funny.
"You know what?" Anders said, "For that you get to heal the rest of your wrist on your own."
"Fine by me. I certainly don't expect Garrett to do it. The poor bastard can't even close a scratch," I remarked bluntly as I walked over to an old barrel that must have fallen off a caravan.
Once I reached I kicked it hard and shattered it into the many curved pieces of that were locked together with metal bands. I picked up one of the pieces with my good arm (well wrist I guess) and snapped it in half. I then moved over to a boulder and sat down. "Sorry, armor, but I need to steal your sleeves." Cutting off the sleeves, and the only thing that was keeping me from freezing to death in the frigid rain, I put the two pieces of wood on the top and bottom of my arm with one of the sleeves keeping the wood off of my skin. Next, I took the other sleeve and wrapped the wood together tightly in a makeshift brace.
"Humph, that'll do," I said finally as I inspected my work. That's when I noticed Varric, Fenris, and Anders had been watching me very intently. "What? Are we actually going to go in the cave, or stand here waiting all day?"
Fenris opened his mouth to say something, but Varric gave him a 'discreet' elbow to the side and kept him from saying anything. "Good choice."
"Well...we could make a torch out of shit that's just lying around," Varric suggested.
I shook my head at that idea "I could barely make this half-assed brace and you think we can make a torch? Maddening."
"Hey, it was just a suggestion, no need to get snappy."
"Sorry," I replied. The pain from my wrist had doubled since I put it in the brace, going from 'slight throb' to 'screaming pain' in minutes.
Just then, a bright light appeared over our head and made everything visible. "In case you guys have forgotten, I am a mage. Making little balls of light to see by was one of the first things we learn in the Circle."
"Don't you mean abomination," Fenris spat at him.
"I was a mage long before Justice."
"You mean Vengeance." Most people would have stated that as a question. Fenris, on the other hand, stated it as a fact and...maybe he was right.
"Fucking hell!" I breathed out loudly. What I said was directed at three things: Fenris, Anders, and the ridiculous amount of pain that was resonating from my wrist, which I kept under tight wraps so that Anders didn't feel bad. I couldn't even lift my arm without hurting myself. "This is going to make fighting a bitch." "We're moving. Now!" and with that said I moved towards the mouth of the cave and started to walk down into its depths.
"I don't think you going down there first is the best idea right now. You know, having a broken wrist and all," Varric mention calmly as they followed me.
"Would you rather I walked behind you and took you all out when I fall?"
"Notice how she says 'when' and not 'if'," Fenris remarked.
"Still, hawks with a broken wing don't fly all that well." Varric was worried for me. We could all hear it, but of course he would deny it when we got back to Kirkwall. He needs to make people think that he's all business when in truth he's just a big softie.
"Who says that a hawk needs both wings for a fight though? I still have one operational arm. That's all I need."
"I guess," was all he muttered in response.
The rocky surface of the tunnel we were descending was very slick, but I was able to find better footing here then out in the mud. "Note for future reference: rock equals easier to stay standing on when wet then mud."
We were out of the rain for the moment though and that was a very good thing. But this place reminded me too much of my past and I found myself jumping at the slightest noises, and at one point I stopped suddenly when I thought I heard that same noise that drove me insane all those years ago. Only a hard elbow in the back from Fenris kept me going "and the promise to Olivia. I won't let anything bad happen to Feynriel."
Anders little floating light thingy made traversing the cave much easier and we were able to tell that quite a few people were ahead of us. Yet we encountered no resistance which was odd. The first thing slavers always did was leave behind small bands to take care of anyone that might have stumbled on their operation, and there was no doubt that they had heard by now that someone was looking for the mage they had purchased. "Perhaps my luck's improving?"
I ran down that last flight of stairs that had actually been carved into a rock and continued running forward, carelessly, into any danger that may be waiting. I hoped that in doing this we would stumble upon the slavers sooner rather than later, and be able to kill them all off before they did something stupid like...I don't know, kill Feynriel maybe.
"Take one more step and the boy dies!" came a throaty warning to the right of me.
Not wanting to risk anything anymore I froze to the spot and turned to look at who had spoken.
It was a red haired man that had some scrawny blonde haired kid on his knees with a knife to his neck. My blood boiled and by then my friends had also frozen behind me. The kid accidently gasped as the knife cut his neck just enough for a small trickle of blood to ooze in a thin line down his pale skin. Panic flashed through his fear ridden eyes but thankfully he didn't do anything stupid.
"Shit! What do I do! What do I do!" I couldn't come up with anything in the short seconds I allowed myself, so in a last ditch effort I turned to Varric and growled, "Tell this dirt bag who we are!"
A small glimmer of mischief flickered in his eyes before it quickly vanished and he completely saved the day...well, night technically. "If I were you I wouldn't be threatening the Viscount's son."
"What!" The red haired man looked absolutely stunned.
"Oh, you just heard that there was some mage flesh cheap and you didn't even think to ask where they had gotten it?" Varric cleared his throat, dramatically. "You, for instance, didn't even know that the boy you had bought and the one you now hold a knife to is, in all actuality, the Viscount's love child he had with his elven mistress. The boy he had sworn to protect even if it meant to raise the entire Free Marches?" His voice elevated during his story and the red haired man looked down, ashamedly, and slowly lowered the knife from Feynriel's throat.
"I seek no war with the Free Marches," the knife was gone and the red haired man turned away from him and towards us. "Here was the price on his head," he said as he tossed a coin purse to me, "take it in a peace offering when you return the lad to his father."
"That's quite the generous offer," I said, regretting it almost instantly because it might cause him to reconsider the whole deal.
The slavers said nothing more, and with a nod from the red haired slaver that had struck a deal with us, the slavers started packing up their supplies. They had left Feynriel on top of the ledge and he was still bound with rope. "It looks like they think they've already done plenty of good enough for one day and don't have to untie the person they just tried to buy. Gotta love slavers. They make the best friends."
As they moved towards another exit out of this cave I backed up next to Anders and hissed, "Please tell me you know how to conjure a firestorm."
"I'm not just a healer. I sometimes have to get the coterie off my back by force," was his whispered response. He was smart enough to know when not to draw attention to one's self. A skill he undoubtedly learned while fleeing templars on his many escape attempts.
"Good. On my signal cast it at that tunnel that they're heading for."
I heard Anders slowly and subtly grab his staff from his back and ready it for the spell. The slavers were moving in one large group and were almost at the beginning of the tunnel. "Large groups make easy targets, dumb asses." Calculating the distance and the time it would take for the spell to take effect, I realized that it would probably be best if I got all of the slavers' attention and Maker did I have a way of getting people to pay attention to me.
A small smile touched my lips as I let out a piercing whistle and called out to them. "Hey! There's something I forgot to tell you guys!"
All of the slavers turned back towards us and I could see the puzzled looks from them and from Fenris and Varric, who had no idea what I was doing. The red haired man moved forward through the group so that he could see me better. "Oh?" he said with raised eyebrows, "and what might that be?"
The small smile turned into a noticeable and wicked grin, "Slavers don't get to live!"
Right on cue the air above them started to rain down fire. Their screams and cries of shock and surprise quickly changed tune and became those of unbearable pain and agony as they roasted alive. Some of them tried running away from the fire, either towards us or towards the tunnel, but they were always stopped by a fireball that erupted just as they almost started to get away. In a sick and weird way it was a little beautiful. Seeing people that have committed horrible crimes finally get what was coming to them is oddly peaceful. "Yeah, payback's a bitch."
"Did you really think that was wise?" came the meek voice of Feynriel. "I mean, what if some of them managed to get past the flames, or they had guessed what you were getting at...or what if he casted the spell incorrectly." Feynriel was apparently more skilled than implied at first. He had managed to get free of the rope that held him and was now standing right next to us. "He probably burned through the ropes with a spell. Mages always take the easy way out."
"If you focus too much on 'what ifs' and 'maybes' you'll never get anything done, and besides, none of that stuff happened." I turned my head just enough to the side so that I could catch Anders' eyes out of the corner of my own. "Not to mention, I trust my friends and what they can do." I looked back at Feynriel and gave him a reassuring nod. "They've given me no reason to doubt them and I never will. I always know they've got my back."
"That's...a little comforting, but who sent you?" Fear ran through and was evident in his eyes. "Was it the templars?" his voice wavered a moment and I didn't blame the boy. The word 'templar' is the worst thing to be said around a mage whether they are in the Circle or not.
"Actually, your mother sent us."
Feynriel let out a huff of annoyance. "Hardly a difference," he said bitterly. "It was all 'I love you, I'll protect you,' then I have some bad dreams and it's 'off to the templars.'"
"You must understand her concern," I started calmly before dropping it. "But there must be a different solution other than the Circle..."
"What about the Dalish?" Anders piped up. "They could teach him."
"Because no Dalish mage has ever gone astray," Fenris responded rather coolly, given the conversation. I was surprised he didn't say more.
"That's who I was trying to get to in the first place before...things got complicated," Feynriel interrupted. "Would you let me go to them? I am as much Dalish as I am human."
"Are you sure?" I asked neutrally, testing how determined he was about this. "You'd be alone among the Dalish, more so than a Dalish would be in Kirkwall."
"Let's see: suffering from loneliness or suffering at the hands of the templars who strip you of all your freedoms and treat you worse than dogs," he offered up sarcastically. "I think I'll suffer loneliness."
I folded my arms casually, making sure that my arm with the broken wrist was on top, and gave him a teasing smile. "All right, smart ass, I suggest you get out of here. I'll tell the templars that your trail went cold or something like that."
"Perhaps you should leave the stories to the dwarf. It doesn't sound like you could come up with anything that can even resemble the genius behind 'the Viscount's love child from his elven mistress.'"
Varric laughed at that as the Feynriel moved towards the area of the cave we had come from, avoiding the tunnel that was littered with charcoaled corpses at the moment. "Squeamish pussy."
"He's lucky my wrist's broken. Otherwise, I would have slapped the magic out of him for saying that," I joked once Feynriel had disappeared.
"I don't exactly think you can slap that magic out of someone, Luna," Anders mentioned, lightly.
"You doubt that I could do it?"
"No, I know you could do it. I just feel sorry for whatever mage you decide to use as a test subject."
"Well," I replied, turning to face him, "don't piss me off and you've got nothing to worry about."
I started to make my way to the tunnel that Feynriel had avoided, accidently kicking up some of the ash from the flesh and clothes of the slavers.
"You sure you want to go through that tunnel? Who knows what's up there," Varric said.
"If we're lucky, it'll be a shortcut and we won't have to trudge through the rain as long as we did getting here."
"How do you know it's still raining?"
"See the water running down the edges of the tunnel, Varric?" I asked, pointing to the runoff scraping a path in the dirt, sand, and rock that hung loosely on the edges of the walls and floor. "That means it's still raining."
"Oh," he responded shortly.
Walking at a normal pace now we made our way past the bodies that had tried to run, we were now snaking our way through the burnt corpses of the main group. "Ah, the smell of burnt flesh," I said in a tone that mocked one of fascination. "It's quite exhilarating, no?"
"You worry me sometimes, Little Hawke," Varric teased.
"Geez, can't even take a joke anymore."
"Joking about death isn't a good thing to do," Fenris added.
"Only when it takes the lives of those that don't deserve to die yet," was my quick response.
"Hmmm, you do have a point there."
"Don't I always?" I asked.
"I guess," Fenris answered, "though sometimes it's hard to find."
"I like being illusive."
"You're mostly confusing."
I looked back at Fenris to give him one of my "you are so dead" glares only to be greeted by a very smug grin of his that stopped me in my tracks and made my blood boil. It was boiling not with anger, mind you, but with embarrassment. That stupid grin of his made me speechless. "Damn that elf. One moment he makes me hate him and the next he's smiling at me."
"Broody, I think you better start running," Varric warned.
"...Why?"
"Because something tells me that you're about to get slapped."
"But her wrist is broken," Fenris argued. "It would hurt her more than me."
Varric's sigh echoed throughout the tunnel, "It's your pride on the line."
Fenris just snorted in disbelief at his remark.
"Silly elf," I teased, "I only broke ONE of my wrists. I still have one to slap you with if I had the desire to. I do not, but that's not the point."
"I'll keep that in mind."
The slippery tunnel we had been traversing was slowly starting to open up, and soon the wind threw the rain against us once more. "Great, even after all this time in this damn cave, it's still raining. At this rate I'm probably going to catch a cold. That's certainly not a good thing to have when living with a mage who can't even cast a minor healing spell."
I no longer had sleeves to cover my arms having to use them for my little makeshift brace which meant that I had nothing to shield my arms from the cold. Rain, even in a light drizzle, can turn your body to ice with the right amount of wind, and unfortunately for me the wind decided to overkill how much was needed to freeze me to the spot. This tunnel, which had originally been a shelter from the wind in rain, was now channeling the elements towards us making us cold and miserable and also making everything significantly more wet than before, which, in turn, made everything significantly more slick as well.
"Son of a—" I cried out as my foot slipped out from underneath me.
I waited for the crash and pain that would occur once I hit the rocky ground, but it never came. Instead, someone had caught me and held me up. It was Fenris that had kept me from getting hurt more than I already had been from earlier falls.
Looking back at him, I saw a smile tugging at his lips as he shook his head. "You are terrible at walking."
"Well, surfaces are slippery when wet."
Fenris only chuckled before he scooped me up in his arms and began to carry me.
I let out a startled shriek when he picked me up. "What the hell are you doing!"
"Carrying you," he joked. "I thought that would be obvious."
"No you are not going to carry me! Put me down now, Fenris, or so help me I will—"
"Don't worry, Luna. I'll put you down once we are out of this cave and over any hills that may be nearby." Fenris had a tight grip on me and I struggled, in vain, against him, trying to break free. "Though if you keep flailing around," he added, "I'll drop you, and I'm pretty sure that'll hurt quite a bit more than being carried." So, I stopped struggling. He was too strong anyways.
"Varric, help me out here, please."
"Sorry, Little Hawke. I'm with Broody on this one," came a swift reply. He was no doubt trying to keep himself from laughing.
I turned my head and looked over Fenris' shoulder. "Traitor," I hissed at him.
Varric held up his hands in a mock defense and ducked behind Anders in case I managed to throw something at him. Not that trying to use Anders as a shield worked very well since he sidestepped out of the way.
"Damn it, Fenris! Put me down!"
"You didn't seem to mind me carrying you last time," he said, trying to get me to calm down and let myself be carried, which of course wasn't going to happen.
"Last time I was bleeding to death and no idea what the fuck was going on!" I started to struggle against him again. "I. Don't. Want. To. Be. Carried!"
"Perhaps you should listen to her, Fenris," Anders said in a cold and steely tone that was an obvious challenge to Fenris, "and put her down like she wants."
Fenris stopped walking. Everything stopped, or so it seemed. It was like everything was holding its breath as the tension that had just asserted itself in the air dragged out the seconds. Then, with rigid movements, Fenris slowly set me back down on my feet and turned to face Anders.
The hatred was almost visibly burning between the two of them, but there was something else. Something that was in and behind their hate that I hadn't noticed before. Something that I was quite surprised to see. Jealousy. "Maker, you're kidding me right? There's no way that they are jealous, that they care about me like that. I'm just crazy and seeing things...I wish I was at least."
I tried to think of some way to break the hostility and the silence, but no matter how hard I tried, I could not come up with one. I knew, however, that if I did come up with something to say it wouldn't make a difference. Nor would anything I did change the situation. Anders and Fenris would always be at each other's throats for their different view and ideas on things...and for me I guess. "Everything always has to be complicated, doesn't it?"
"Hey," I finally said, putting a dent in the silence and interrupting the stare down between Fenris and Anders, "I just remembered that I have something else that needs to get done tonight. I'll see you guys later."
As soon as those words were out of my mouth, I bolted away from them. "Coward!" I chided myself as I ran through the rest of the tunnel.
Not once did I slip or fall on the slick surface of the rock from the cave or the mud once I had gotten back on to the Wounded Coast. Nor did I feel the immense pain coming from my wrist caused by it being shaken as I ran. The wind and rain battered against me, but how freezing it was and how miserable it made me was ignored, too.
All that mattered was running. All that mattered to me right now was putting a great distance between myself and Fenris and Anders. "Hah, so much for harmless flirting!" My breath was coming out ragged now, and my sides and legs were screaming at me to stop or slow down. Their screaming was drowned out by the chaotic, out of tune chorus coming from my lungs as it sung about how I needed air.
So, I stopped. Gasping for breath, I leaned forward and braced myself with one arm against my knee. My hair and clothes were plastered to my skin from the rain, and everything finally caught up to me.
I groaned aloud and clutched my broken wrist to my stomach. The cold rain had a slight numbing affect, but my swollen, throbbing wrist wasn't going to be ignored. "Ok, so now I regret making fun of Anders. I could use a bit of healing."
Looking up, I couldn't help but laugh. There in front of me were the gates of Kirkwall. I had managed to run all the way 'home' under the worst conditions and still ended up coming to a place where you would favor living in the woods than that hell hole. This storm, which was getting worse by the minute, was actually a nice reprieve from the shit us refuges had to suffer day to day in Kirkwall, and I found that funny. "Trying to escape a storm only to end up in a place worse than the Void itself...is that irony or just sad?"
The rain started to pound down a lot harder than before, and that was when I decided to continue on my way to hell. I glanced casually over my shoulder, hoping that I could possibly tell whether or not my friends were behind me and all right, but the rain was falling too thickly for me to see anything in the distance.
"I hope they make it back alright...and without killing each other. Maker knows it will be difficult for those two."
With the rain chasing me all the way, I walked through Kirkwall's gates and into Lowtown, heading towards the hovel I had been forced to call home.
"So, the Little Hawke gains her eagle eyes at last," Varric mused after a bit. He had been left in a tunnel with two people that were always at each other's throats.
There had originally been one more person in their merry band of misfits that kept the peace, more or less, but when she realized something about the two who were always baying for the other's blood, she had smartly chosen to get the hell out of there. Varric didn't blame her for that. Jealousy was a dangerous thing even when you aren't feeling the emotion, but it's because of you.
"Why are you so infatuated with her surname?" Fenris asked, his voice sounding somewhere between disgust and bitterness.
"It's not every day that you end up with a friend whose last name is also a type of bird," Varric explained. "There are so many good jokes and scenarios to go along with it."
"Do I even want to know?"
Everyone's mood had gotten noticeably sourer now that Luna was gone. Well, everyone's mood except for Varric's. He was as happy and dirty minded as he always was, which explains his answer.
Varric cleared his throat and began to talk as if he was reciting something he had read. "Luna, with her eye, glowing like two silver moons, pressed her feather soft skin against his chest, and, with graceful movements as if she were flying, she reached with her talons towards his—"
"STOP!"
Anders voice was shaking with anger and seemed to shake all of Thedas with it. His voice also had a strange twist to it, similar to the way he had spoken when Varric first met him...when he had first seen him be possessed by Justice.
"Come on, Blondie," Varric teased, "there's nothing wrong with a little friend-fiction. I do it out of love."
"Just stop," was all Varric got.
No more conversation was struck between the three companions. They just walked on in silence towards Kirkwall, but not without on last remark from Varric.
"This is going to be a long, cold, wet, miserable walk back home. Especially since Little Hawke isn't here to make us laugh as she slips and falls in the mud," he chuckled quietly to himself. "You're going to have to tell me about that spell of yours, Blondie. You know, the one you used to make sure Little Hawke didn't hear us as we laughed our asses off as she fell on hers? I'm sure there are plenty of good stories to go with that one."
Only the rain spoke back to him as it steadily grew louder and clamored on any exposed surface.
~~.0.~~
I officially hate you school...you're taking away from my writing time -_- and do you care? No. *sigh* I apologize for the delay on postings. School is such a pain in the ass, but hopefully I have figured out a system that lets me get writing in and pass my classes.
Thank you for reading :) If anything's wrong or you have a suggestion, please tell me in a reviewy thingy.