Summary: I've decided to provide a summary of the prior chapter at the start of each new one to refresh my reader's memories. I always have to go skim through prior chapters to remind myself what happened with a story, especially when it's been awhile since an update. Eh, I'm an old lady like Lucy. The old Grey Warden ain't what she used to be.
In the last chapter the party took on a broodmother and learned what becomes of the fairer sex in the Deep Roads, killed Branka, and destroyed the Anvil, and crowned Bhelin King of Orzammar. Lucy called dibbs on the bathroom first when they got back to the Warden compound. Why that all took so many words to write a chapter ago, I have no idea. :)
The Dragon-ish-y Lady
Leaving the underground city of Orzammar into a brilliant day was like emerging from the womb. I blinked in the bright sunlight, squinted and walked blindly for a few minutes. Oghren had it even worse; he looked positively peaked.
"Am I going to fall into the sky?" He clung to a stone pillar.
"Did you ever fall into the ceiling in Orzammar?" I said dryly. Science education is abysmal in this world! I thought. Then I reminded myself this wasn't earth and they were sort of in the middle ages. I should give them a break.
"No, of course not." He looked at me quizzically. "The stone holds us in place."
"Have you never lifted both feet off the floor, like jumping up?" I tried to reason with him.
"Well, sure."
"You weren't in contact with the stone then, right? Why didn't you go drifting up to the ceiling?"
He grunted and let go of the stone pillar. "Okay, if it isn't the stone what is it, Miss Smarty-pants?"
"There's a force that pulls us back to earth, er... the ground, when we try to escape it. It's called..." – I am an evil, evil person – "suction."
~o~o~o~
We walked south, around Lake Calenhad, until we reached Redcliffe Village where we planned to restock and pay our respects to the new Arl, Teagan. I got progressively more nervous as we came closer, wondering how I would deal with Teagan when we met.
One night as I laid in Riordan's arms he finally commented on my edginess. "What's bothering you, Lucy?"
"Oh. Well... Teagan and I were..." Why was this so hard to explain? I flailed my hands looking for the right word.
"Lovers?" Riordan supplied.
"Yes." I turned over so I could look at him as I spoke. I thought of how complicated my sex-drive had made everything. "Then I killed his brother, as you already know. I feel horribly guilty about that." If I ever went back to earth, I was going to write a mini-series based on this. The sex, the violence, the angst, it was all there!
"Hmmm, yes that does complicate things." He looked at me curiously. "Do you care for him?"
I thought about it a moment. "Yes, I did – I do – certainly, as a friend and lover. But I knew we couldn't be anything more than that. I told him, not that I think he really listened to me." I sighed. "I suspect he's going to want to resume our prior relationship and, of course, I can't."
"Why not? If I might ask."
"I killed his brother. I can't think of anything else when I see him." I could still see Teagan's grief when he heard his brother was dead; even though they had been fighting and divided about the succession, I had abruptly ended a lifetime of shared experiences between the pair.
"Ah, I see. Any other reasons?"
I smiled weakly. My involvement with Riordan, Zevran and Loghain was already impossibly complex. "It has gotten a little too complicated, Danny. I tend to get very attached." I wondered if he would understand what I meant by that.
He looked at me intently. "This doesn't have to be complicated, Lucy. In fact, it shouldn't be complicated. I have enjoyed our time together but I'm going to be dead in the not-distant future. Having you with me brings me comfort and I can forget sometimes. If I need to stand aside for someone else, I will, of course."
I fought back the tears stinging at the back of my eyes and slugged him in the shoulder. "No, I don't want that, idiot." I turned over, not wanting him to see what was in my eyes. He didn't understand what I had meant; perhaps I didn't want him to.
"Lucy," he said softly, running his hand down my arm, "just tell me what it is."
"You were right, that day outside of Orzammar. You said nobody would understand me like another Grey Warden. We live on the knife-edge of existence, especially during a Blight." I turned over and ran my hand along his jaw. It teetered on my tongue, words that would make our sacrifice all that much more painful to contemplate. It would be selfish of me to tell him I loved him. So I kept it to myself. "You were right. That's all."
~o~o~o~
As it turns out, my worries were groundless. Teagan wasn't going to want to rekindle our relationship, he had found someone else. I was delighted for him, until I found out who it was: Kaitlyn.
"Ah... engaged?" I said, trying to recover from the surprise, "That's wonderful, I'm happy for you both." I darted a worried look at Alistair. He looked rather pale, but he bore the news stoically. I silently cursed Teagan for choosing her; he was the one who had suggested she would be a good match for Alistair. I wondered if there might be some measure of vindictiveness in his choice. I didn't want to believe that. Teagan had always been so honorable in his dealings with us. I kissed him and his fiancé on the cheek and smiled at them both. I sneaked a peek at Riordan and he sent me a little smile.
"Please, come in!" Teagan was as gracious as ever. He showed us to our rooms and gave us time to rest and clean up from our travels.
A little before dinner was to be served there was a knock at my door. I put down the book I was reading and opened the door to find Teagan.
"Do you have a few minutes to talk, Lucy?" he asked. He looked a little uncomfortable, but he was the same earnest gentleman he'd always been. I couldn't believe he'd do anything intentionally hurtful to Alistair.
"Of course. Please come in." I gestured him in and closed the door behind him.
He went to the decanter in my room and poured a drink for himself. "Care to join me?"
"I suppose so. The spirits in Orzammar are terrible. Somehow I always thought dwarves would be better brew masters. They were in the lore of my world anyway."
Teagan chuckled and handed me a glass with brandy and a little water mixed in. "I wanted to explain about Kaitlyn."
"There's nothing to explain, Teagan. I am very happy you've found someone." I clinked my glass against his. "Congratulations. Alistair might be a little disappointed but I don't think their relationship had gone very far."
Teagan sighed. "I did...do love you, Lucy, but I finally realized what you were telling me all those times. I kept hoping things would change. I was very depressed after you left and, well, Kaitlyn was a great comfort."
"I'm glad for you, Teagan. You needed someone after losing your brother. It's time for you to start your own family." I eyed him up and down with a big grin. "Past time! You'd better get cracking on that procreation business, especially now you're an Arl."
Teagan smiled at me. "Should you change your mind, Lucy..."
I smiled. "I won't forget our time together but it's time to move on, for both of us."
Teagan's eyebrows rose. "Oh? Is there someone new in your life?"
I pondered whether I should say anything or not. "Riordan."
"The Grey Warden from Orlais? Is it serious?"
"Serious? Teagan, I'm expecting to be dead in the not-too-distant future." I turned away and walked to the window. "Riordan expects to die too. What sort of future could we possibly have, our ashes scattered together? That's pretty much what I expect from my future." I laughed darkly.
Teagan just looked at me a moment. His eyes looked sad. "Maybe it won't work out that way, Lucy. Maybe you'll both survive. Then what?"
"Then there will be two very surprised Grey Wardens in the world." I sighed and threw up my hands. "I don't let my thoughts stray too far into the future. I'm still taking it as it comes. I'm just grateful that we can find some comfort in one another. It helps me to forget and he makes me stronger to face what is ahead."
Teagan joined me at the window and put his hand on my jaw and then folded me into a hug. It went on a little longer than it should, until I cleared my throat.
"Sorry," he said, letting go of me. "I was remembering... everything, actually. If you want to share a room with Riordan, please feel free."
I nodded my thanks. "It won't offend Isolde? Is she even here?"
He laughed, "No, I'm relieved to say she's not. I gave her my home in Denerim and she is living there."
I judged it was harmless enough to mention it. "You know, she tried to poison me once." I laughed. "It is rather funny, in retrospect, although I thought I was going to die that day."
Teagan's mouth dropped open. "That day... when you asked her about the tea? It was then, wasn't it?"
I nodded. "Fortunately Zevran had an antidote, but I was pretty sick for a while."
"Maker's breath, why didn't you tell me? I would have thrown her into the dungeon."
I sighed. "At the time I thought she'd be useful if she were just really frightened of me. I confronted her about the poisoning and told her I'd better not find out she was bad mouthing me to your brother, or I'd retaliate."
"Ah, that explains her change of attitude after that day." Teagan laughed heartily. "She got a lot nicer to everyone, even the servants."
I grinned. "Good! I was hoping some good came of that."
Teagan smiled at me again. "I'd better go. Dinner will be ready soon. See you there." He picked up my hand and kissed it gently with one last long look into my eyes.
I watched him leave, remembering everything we had shared. I sighed, knowing I would feel a tug of longing every time I saw him. I had a feeling he would too.
~o~o~o~
We didn't stay long. Just one more day; long enough to reprovision and get our laundry done. Then we headed off toward the Korcari Wilds. I had finally gotten Alistair and Riordan to agree that we should handle Morrigan's problem with her mother. I knew it was going to be an uphill battle to win that argument so I'd been preparing for it. I talked it over with Riordan for several nights. I found him very amenable to my suggestions when I whispered them into his ear and nibbled on his earlobe.
Once I had Riordan's agreement, Alistair would almost certainly fall into line. Although it was Morrigan, and he still didn't like her at all, so it took some convincing. In the end he agreed, but only if we went to Ostagar and looked around for Duncan's remains. I felt a chill thinking about seeing Ostagar again. There were so many memories there of my first days in Thedas. I wondered if we might find remnants of our friends. I thought perhaps I could find Bendrick's staff. That thought brought a flood of memories back to me and I quietly contemplated them as we trudged south.
Before we got to Flemeth's house I had nearly perfected a new shapeshifter form: tigress. The first time I got it to work Morrigan looked very impressed.
"'Tis a majestic animal! Look at those enormous paws, I bet you can creep soundlessly when you want. You did this from memory?"
I chuffled (a sound tigers make as a greeting or to show contentment). I thought it would serve as 'yes'. I held up a paw and showed her my claws, popping them out of my foot to display them.
Morrigan laughed delightedly. "Look at those fearsome weapons! Lucy, I must learn this form from you. The only problem is, your color is ridiculous! What beast would be such a bright color and with those outrageous stripes?"
I snarled and changed back to explain. "The tiger is actually perfectly camouflaged in the jungles it is native to. Most animals can't differentiate between orange and green. The dark stripes break up the form of the animal. It's fine camouflage for them in the jungle."
That evening I showed our companions what I could do. They were quite impressed. Sten in particular seemed taken with it.
"That is a nimr; an animal sacred to the Qunari. You would be slain instantly if anyone knew you were a mage disguising yourself as a nimr." Despite his disapproving words he looked excited to see a nimr in person. I had a feeling he'd probably never seen a live one.
I roared at him and a big grin grew on his face and he roared back. We carried on roaring at one another until Liam started barking in fury at both of us. I quieted down after that, not wishing to start a fight with my mabari, and padded over to the firepit and lay down, absorbing the warmth of the fire on my belly. Now I understood all those hours my cat luxuriated in sunshine, following the sun beams as they moved across the floor during the day. The heat was wonderful.
Zevran sat beside me and pulled my head into his lap and scratched my neck. I chuffled contentedly. He bent down next to me and whispered in my ear. "What would it take to convince you to spend the night with me like this? These nights are awfully cold and you, cara, are very warm."
I grabbed Zevran's face between my paws, nails retracted of course, and licked him on the face. He lit up with such delight like I'd never seen. I wondered if perhaps he'd never had a pet to bond to. Maybe, after this were all over, I would get Zevran a pet. What would he like: a cat, a dog, perhaps a bird? I caught myself thinking of the future again and pulled myself back. Don't go there, I warned myself.
He grabbed my head and tried to wrestle me away from his face, but I was stronger than he was like this. I kept licking at his face until he started to laugh. "Stop! Stop! Lucy!" he said between licks. "You've slimed me quite enough."
I chuffled and gave him one last lick for good measure. When he got up to go to his tent, I bit the back of his shirt and dragged him to ours. It was a bit crowded, a tiger sleeping between the two men, but it certainly was warm. The next day I was loathe to switch out of my tiger form, as it was comfortable and very warm, I loved being furry, but I remembered what happened to me when I was a horse for such a long time and I had no desire to start eating butterflies, or something even worse.
~o~o~o~
Morrigan stopped us a few miles away from her mother's hut.
"I should go no further, lest she possess me and take over my body." She looked uncharacteristically nervous.
I thought it might be a good time to ask some tactical questions. "So, what is likely to happen if we fight your mom? What sort of magic will she use?" It wouldn't hurt to be prepared.
Morrigan's nervousness intensified. "Well, she is, as I am; a shapeshifter. She will shift into some shape or another and fight you."
I nodded. "Well, that's a start. What sort of shape exactly?"
"Oh, you know..." Morrigan scuffed at the ground with the toe of her boot. "... giant spider, bear, perhaps a wolf..." her voice dropped low and she hurried past the next one "...dragon, unpleasantly large rodent, a giant snake..."
I blinked a moment processing what she said. "'Scuse me, did you say dragon?" My eyes glared at her. I'd already passed up one dragon, not wishing to fight one and find out – oops! – we lost that one. Oh dear, no Grey Wardens left in Thedas.
"Dragon-ish, dragon might be phrasing it too strongly." Morrigan harrumphed at me. "What? The mighty Grey Wardens can't slay an old, dragon-ish-y mage? Sten is right, the legends are overrated!"
"Morrigan!" I was fuming now. "What if we fail? There won't be any Grey Wardens left in Ferelden and you, your mom, and everyone else, are going to very inconvenienced. Last I checked, our priority here was to fighting the Blight."
Morrigan's eyes got a crafty look that made my skin twitch. "Flemeth told you, did she not, that you would solve the Blight? You can hardly do that if you die fighting her, right? You're guaranteed success."
I narrowed my eyes at her. "Yeah... if your mom is such an amazing seer, then surely she knows we're coming to kill her, right?"
Morrigan put her hands on her hips, her impatience with me obviously growing. "She's a seer, not omnipotent! Besides, I've laid wards. She cannot see anything about me or the people I am with." She huffed, blowing an errant strand of hair out of her eyes. "Are you such a coward that you will back down on your word to me?"
My mouth gaped open. "Coward? I am not a coward." Right! Keep telling yourself that, someday you might believe it. "I am... managing our risks as any prudent person would!" I threw up my hands and sighed. "Very well, we'll do this, but just exactly how do we fight a dragon?"
"You have two spells you know, ice and water. You can create a jet of cool water, should anyone catch on fire, with your silly bathing spell."
"Ha! Not so silly when you're on fire, I warrant." I waggled my finger at her. Silly spell, indeed!
She ignored my outburst. "Of course, you also know the ice spell that makes up part of your bathing spell. I suggest using that to slow her down and also extinguish fires. Then Wynne and you can heal anyone who is damaged." She bit her thumb, thinking. "'Tis a shame I haven't taught you a force field spell. It would be useful should she pick someone up in her mouth."
My voice went high and squeaky. "Pick someone up in her mouth? And bite them in two I presume?"
Morrigan scoffed. "No, of course not. You all wear armor. I doubt she can bite through that very effectively."
"You doubt? That's very reassuring." I paced nervously. I'd never been out of combat actually just casting spells like Wynne and Morrigan. "Shouldn't I have a robe and a staff if I'm going to play the part of a mage?"
Morrigan frowned at me. "You're not playing a part, Lucy, you are a mage. It's time you started to do something useful with this gift rather than being a pack animal and an over-sized bed warmer."
I started to say something defensively but then realized she'd just complimented me in a very left-handed manner.
"A robe with sufficient enchantments and a staff would be useful," she continued. "What do we have available?"
I rifled through the cart with our belongings and showed her what we had. None of it looked promising. I started sneezing and pulled out a robe. It's last owner must have been a darkspawn.
"Darkspawn trash." She bit her lip. "We're of a size, you could wear my robe and I suppose my staff would work for you." She got a fierce look in her eye. "Mind you, don't you get it scorched!"
I rolled my eyes. "I'll ask your mom to exempt me from her wrath. But I thank you, I'll wear your robe and wield your staff. Perhaps your mom is nearsighted and she'll think I'm you." I snickered at the thought.
"You really, really don't want that to happen, Lucy. Fortunately even if she were blind she could smell the other-world stink about you."
"Stink? Well thanks. Gosh, you sure know how to make me feel good." I raised an armpit and sniffed. If I had a stink, it wasn't there. I'd have to ask Riordan about it. I followed Morrigan into her tent and we switched clothes and came out to talk to the others.
Oghren looked absolutely befuddled. "Lucy?" he looked at Morrigan. "You changed your hair?"
"Oh for Pete's sake, Oghren, I'm Lucy! We just switched clothes!" Did we all really look alike to Oghren and he just distinguished us by our clothes?
Riordan was trying hard not to stare at my chest as he spoke. "Are you trying to fool her mother? Because you two really don't look anything alike."
Zevran made no such attempt to avert his eyes from my mostly bared chest. "Are we all switching clothes, then?"
Even Leliana was staring intently at my chest. I looked down thinking to see that I'd spilled something on myself or perhaps a boob had fallen out, but no, everything was exactly as it should be. Then when I looked over at Alistair and saw him staring as well I wavered between irritation and amusement. I settled on amusement and burst out laughing. "Oh come on! I think everyone has seen the girls before. Urn of Sacred ashes... do we remember that? Well, except for Oghren. Oghren, meet the girls." I gestured at my chest.
Riordan laughed. "Well, now that you've gotten that off your chest, perhaps you could explain why you and Morrigan swapped clothes."
I squinted at Riordan. "Very funny, wise-guy. Look, we switched clothes because Morrigan can't go with us and she pointed out it might be better if I were to do what I can as a mage, rather than as a fighter. My fire quenching abilities might be useful."
Alistair folded his arms. "And why is that?"
I sensed growing opposition. "Well, you see, it seems that Morrigan's mum is likely to become a dragon-ish-y creature that breathes fire and such." I looked over at Morrigan and she nodded.
"I would suggest avoiding her tail, I've seen her knock down trees with it," Morrigan added helpfully. "Small trees, though."
I grimaced at that new information. "Her mouth is kind of bad too. Fire tends to come out of it. But hey! That's why I'm dressed like this with one of these." I brandished Morrigan's staff and squirted a fat stream of water out of my free hand.
Wynne snorted. "That puts my mind to rest."
"I look at it like this, we're going to be fighting the biggest-ass dragon in existence someday soon. This is a warm-up! We're going to learn a lot today." If we don't all die.
Riordan nodded. "I suppose that's one way to look at it. Well, let's go. We have a dragon-ish-y thing to kill."
"Um, Danny, can I talk to you privately for a moment." I walked over to him and we walked off a bit from the others. "I think you shouldn't go..."
"Lucy! What? Of course I'm going," he glared at me.
"Look, there's only three of us left. If something should happen to Alistair and I then who will kill the archdemon?"
"If I come with you, the odds are better we all survive this." Riordan's eyes looked determined and his jaw set stubbornly.
I decided to try my own set of tactics. My bottom lip trembled and I made my eyes look sad. "Danny... it's too risky for us all to go."
"Then you stay behind." He smiled at me. "That face won't work."
"I can't, Danny. I'm going to have to extinguish fires and help Wynne heal." I gave up on the sad orphan look. "Alistair has to attract her attention and be the hard, uncrunchable object she wastes her time with while all of us squishier folks actually kill her."
"No, Lucy. I am going. We are a team. You are actually right about one thing, fighting this dragon will be a good test for the archdemon." He smiled. "Besides, I want to look at you in that robe every minute I can." He growled playfully. "You're such a luscious apostate."
I threw up my hands. "I give up. I just have a bad feeling about this."
He laughed. "Don't be so gloomy, Lucy. Everything will turn out all right. And when it does, you're going to need to get your own robe and staff and I'm going to borrow Alistair's templar armor. Then I'm going to hunt you down!"
I couldn't help but laugh. "Oh god, I hope you're right."
He pulled me close for a quick kiss, his eyes crinkling at the sides. "Of course I am, apostate."
~o~o~o~
I think Morrigan had been right, Flemeth didn't know we were coming. She tried to hide it, but I think she was surprised, and seeing me dressed in her daughter's clothes confused her.
"This changes all," she cursed. "You have zigged, instead of zagging. What was once to be is now not to be. All I have foreseen is amiss, you foolish woman! By being here now you are risking everything."
"Right," I said, dryly, my voice dripping with sarcasm. "Of course you'd say that."
"What have you done with my daughter," she asked me suspiciously.
"She's fine, we just swapped outfits for the day." I watched Flemeth's wrinkles draw into a frown. "Look, I'll be frank with you. She knows you're going to try to possess her and we've come to kill you on her behalf." I kept my tone matter-of-fact. "Alistair..." I hissed quietly, "a preemptive strike might be useful."
Flemeth laughed. "His templar training will do him no good against me, foolish woman!" Her voice grew sly and cajoling, "Look, Morrigan wants me dead. Take my grimoire and give it to her, tell her I am slain."
"No, sorry. I don't wish to risk finding out Morrigan is not Morrigan when we need her."
"Very well. It is a dance poor Flemeth knows well. Let us see if she remembers the steps. Come! She will earn what she takes. I will have it no other way." She walked leisurely to the side of her building, upon a little hillock, and then she glowed white and turned into a big ass dragon.
"Dragon-ish-y..." I muttered, "my ass."
Alistair bellowed and run up the hillock to meet her and Riordan followed behind as did Sten and Oghren. Wynne, Zevran, Leliana and I arrayed ourselves in a large semi-circle around the rise. Zevran was a fair shot and it would be too crowded with another meleer. We had discussed that staying spread apart would reduce the number of people getting hit by flames. Almost immediately she lashed out with her tail; Riordan jumped over it neatly but it crashed into Sten. His massive bulk kept him upright; however, he did stagger with the blow.
Alistair battered her with his shield and got her angry. She spit a gout of fire at him which he partly deflected with his shield, but I could see it was burning him. I cast a thick stream of icy water at him and the steam rising from his armor told me I had been successful.
The battle was chaotic. Riordan did get swiped by the tail and was thrown further than I could have imagined. Wynne immediately healed his wounds and he was on his feet again. I hoped he would stay at the midsection of the dragon this time. Alistair took the brunt of the assault and Flemeth even did snatch him up in her enormous jaws and whipped him around, tossing him up into the air like a playful puppy with its toy. I was terrified she'd swallow him whole, or snap him in half, but eventually she flung him away and turned on Riordan.
"Oh god, no." I whispered. He was wearing only leather armor. Surely he couldn't survive that sort of assault. I watched in horror as Flemeth drew in a deep breath and expelled another column of flame. He did a quick somersault under the flame and landed safely far from her breath. Oghren was not so lucky, but I quenched him before his beard was barely scorched.
It wasn't long before Flemeth realized the source of her problem was me. I was putting out her breaths just as soon as they landed. She turned to me, her enormous mouth gaping open, just feet in front of me. The mouth of a big-ass dragon is a terrible thing to have in front of you. First of all, their dental hygiene leaves much to be desired. There are bits of meat putrefying between their teeth, and there is a terrible sulfurous smell, not to mention the waves of scorching heat. Elissa's instincts took over and I dove to the side as her mouth snapped at the spot where I had stood a moment before. I rolled and gained my feet quickly. Sweet Maker, I implored the guy rumored to have long ago left the building, if we can just survive this I will devote myself to your cause. I will join the Chantry and abstain from sex. I promise!
Flemeth's mouth darted down to where I was now standing. If she took me head first, it would just be a head snap and a swallow and I would be sliding down her throat like a raw oyster. I dove again, but this time she anticipated my movement and she caught me by a leg, one of her immense fangs impaling my thigh as she whipped her head back and forth, trying to break my spine. I clung for dear life to another one of her fangs so I wouldn't be shaken to death, but the wound in my leg was bad and I was bleeding profusely; perhaps she had bitten into an artery. I began to feel everything dim about me and my hands were starting to slip off the fang.
My last sight was of Riordan's face, a mask of fury and rage, holding his dagger between his teeth like a pirate as he clung to Flemeth's whipping neck with his knees. I could see him struggling to lift something on the back of her head, a scale located right over where her brain might be.
"Hang on, Lucy!" he shouted at me. "DO NOT LET GO!"
I clung to her fang by my hands and arms, with the last of my strength.
Riordan took the dagger out of his mouth, holding the scale open somehow with his knees, and plunged it downward.
Good luck with that, I thought. Could he drive a dagger through a dragon's skull? Then I could think nothing more as the blackness overtook me and my hands let go of the tooth.
~o~o~o~
My thanks for the reviews! They're like little presents my dear readers send me and I treasure each one. My thanks too to my wonderful beta-reader, Biff McLaughlin, who knows better than me the ways of wily punctuation mark.
