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Chapter 64 - A mistake
Fenris bared his teeth, 'blood of the Hawke?' He mouthed to Makatza who did her canine version of a shrug. It was spitting with rain and she was feeling uneasy about being out in the first place, he quickly looked around the corner and counted the amount of dwarves he could see. 'Eight,' he said holding up his fingers in case he was talking too quietly. 'Add however many more in the house,' he swears. It wasn't great odds. Makatza shakes her head and motions for him to follow her she wanted to run. 'I cannot just leave them in the house, who knows what other traps they will set,' he says pointedly.
'Fenris, come on!' Makatza growled lightly her ears pricking up in case they heard her. 'Please, let's get the others,' she whines quietly begging him to understand. He sighs and nods, somehow he knew what she was trying to convey. They began to run from the house and that's when the real trouble started, a couple of the dwarves had heard a bit of a commotion as they disagreed and gone to investigate.
'Blood of the Hawke!' One screamed and fired an arrow at them.
It skittered across the cobbles and Fenris swore as the others began to pour out the mansion and alley. 'Run!' He says as he grabs her by the collar and encourages her to run through the streets. Fenris wasn't far behind her though he was pretty sure she would be able to run faster but was refusing to. They manage to make it into Low town before Makatza pauses in an alcove panting, he inhales deeply pressing himself against the wall as he breathes heavily. He wasn't tired just yet but he was worried. The Carta seemed to be everywhere he looked, there were scouts on the roofs and he was pretty sure that they were being herded. 'Katza, we need to be careful,' he says softly. 'We need to get to the Hanged Man as quickly as possible. The quickest route is down there but there is a good chance it's a trap,' he sighs.
Makatza sniffs the air and nods, she can smell a lot chemicals and other things that made her fur stand on end. Her inner wolf wouldn't be any good here no matter how much she was saying otherwise, the last thing they needed was an angry wolf roaming about. She looked over a railing and saw a large drop, it was about ten foot. There was a large canvas covered stall to the side that she could use to break her fall, she woofed at him lightly and nodded with her head at the jump.
'Hmm. I will go first though,' he says simply as he swings his leg over the railing. The plan was to lower himself down and drop the last fourish feet and then wait for her to jump down hopefully not break anything. They were a little interrupted by a flurry of crossbow bolts that rained down from a rooftop opposite, Fenris abandons his plan for a controlled fall and simply lets go. Makatza doesn't hesitate to jump after him rolling across the canvas and landing roughly as it collapsed under her.
She yelped in pain, 'ow! Shit that hurt!' She swore as she got to her feet limping a little but ignoring it as she looked over at Fenris who had managed to avoid impaling himself on his sword. They looked at each other and then continued to run, though Makatza swore with every step. They skidded around a corner and came face to face with three heavily armoured dwarves who had been waiting for them.
'Where is the blood of the Hawke!?' One demanded.
Fenris snarled back at him, 'I do not know what you are talking about,' he allows his markings to light up.
'We saw you! You had the blood of the Hawke. Now she is gone! Where is she?!' He says dismissively. Fenris jerks a little, ''she?'' He looked at Makatza, they were after her. For some reason they wanted Makatza. 'She is the key. She will bring about the new master! We must have the blood of the Hawke!'
'I will not let you touch her,' Fenris says simply as he draws his sword. Makatza snaps and snarls at the dwarves as her mind races, they are after me? Blood of the Hawke? Mother was a Hawke but she's not Malcolm's full sister, she's a half sister... so would my blood even work? Do we try to explain that to them? Or would they just go after Garrett instead? I don't want that. Fenris is hit with an arrow almost immediately being deemed the greater threat. He swears heavily as it struck him in the upper arm, almost in the joint of his shoulder. Makatza howled loudly and leapt the few feet between them biting the one that shot him across his throat. He was heavily padded and armoured but she scratched and tore at his clothing until she could smell skin and then she bore down with her jaws and tore at the soft flesh. He struggled under her grip but there wasn't much he could do as she let her inner wild destroy the person who had hurt her mate. Fenris charged at the other two taking one out with a swing of his sword and clipping the other enough to knock him to the floor and cripple him. Seeing that Makatza was dealing with the other one he grabbed the dying dwarf. 'What the fuck do you mean, blood of the Hawke?'
'She is the key!' He gurgles, he had lost and arm and Fenris' blade had collided with his lung. 'She is needed by the master... he shall be free!' He says before his chest fills with blood and he begins to have a fit as his brain is deprived of oxygen. Fenris sneers and crushes his throat, not that he deserved the mercy.
Makatza spat out some blood as she walks away from the dwarf who had died a few minutes ago, she looks at Fenris, her eyes swirling with amber until settling to their usual colours. She whimpers lightly as the rain gets heavier and there's a slight rumble in the sky, she licks his hand from the blood that dripped from his arm. 'Come, the pub is not far and we should be able to make it without any more trouble,' he says softly. He winces as he runs and holds his shoulder, the bolt was scratching at the bone and it hurt like the blazes, Makatza's healing mana didn't really work at long range when she was in her wolf form. They got to the Hanged Man without any more instances and Makatza ignored everyone as she loped through the crowd towards the bar. She stands on her hind legs putting her paws on the counter and barks at Johnny who freezes in place.
'Uh... nice doggy?' She rolls her eyes and barks pawing at an empty bottle of rum that was on the bar, he looks at it and then looks at Fenris who was making his way to the stairs. 'You want rum?' She barks and nods, then turns her head and growls at the man next to her who was reaching to grab her collar. She bares her teeth and snarls at him until he backs away and then turns back to Johnny and wags her tail as he puts a full bottle on the table. She gently picks it up and woofs at him with her mouth full before loping through the bar and up the stairs. 'Fucking crazy,' Johnny laughs with a patron. 'I swear that dog knows everything you're sayin'. Aye, it's Fenris', though it's only with him sometimes.'
Makatza leaves the crowd behind and follows Fenris' scent into Varric's rooms. She finds him at the table, she gives him the rum before running into Isabela's room and pulling out the secret stash of clothing that she had hidden behind the dresser. She shifts and after the dizziness passes pulls on a pair of knickers, trakkies and a strap top before going back to Fenris, albeit a little wobbly. She went to Varric's wash stand and splashed a load of water on her face and used the towel to remove the blood from her mouth. 'Fuck!' She snapped as she sat down in the chair next to Fenris. He was removing parts of his armour so that he could get at the bolt. 'Fenris, are you okay?' She asks in concern as she turns her attention to his wound.
'It stings,' he admits but now that she was human her mana was helping, it was dimmed as she was recovering from her shift but it was enough to take the edge off. She looks at him with worry and insists on helping him, she makes him move to the sofa so she can get to his shoulder easily. 'You should be more concerned with any wounds that you have, I know you hurt your front paw,' he says as he grabs her hand and sees her wince. 'Are you delaying your own healing?'
'I might be,' she says simply as she places her other hand on the bolt and pulls it out quickly.
'Venhedis! Woman!' He hisses as he leans back on the sofa. 'There was no need!' He snaps, stressed out that the Carta seemed to be hunting her and in pain. 'Why are you delaying your own healing?' He snaps again as he pushes her hand away from his wound and instead uses a cloth to stop the bleeding. 'You need to heal!'
'It's just a couple of sprained fingers! I did most the healing but I have to choose on healing your arrow wound or being able to flex my hand, I know what's more important at this moment,' Makatza said back to him bluntly. 'Now don't be so silly and let me heal you.'
'If you do not have the mana-'
'Nope! Not leeching off of you for a couple of seconds of pain in my fingers. That's like siphoning mana from you because I have a headache,' she snarls in annoyance. 'Sit still,' she says as she pulls the cloth away.
'Makatza-'
'Fenris! I'm healing you whether you like it or not!' She growls at him. 'I'm feeling tense enough because that damn rain won't stop so will you drop the subject and let me heal you before it becomes infected or something,' Katza says simply, she won the dispute as he didn't like the idea of her being unsettled.
'I still think you should heal your hand and simply used my lyrium to heal me,' he mutters as she gets up and grabs the rum. She pours a little over his wound and he swears, 'you are determined to make me suffer tonight.'
He sighed heavily as he leaned back and allowed her to sort out his injury, she was done within a few moments and she smiled, 'see, done and you're all better.' She stuck out her tongue and began to drink from the bottle only stopping when Fenris takes it from her. 'If I'm drunk I won't care about the storm,' she reasons.
'You'll also be an easier target though thankfully they don't seem to know that you have two forms,' he says as he takes a sip. Makatza sighs and sinks into the sofa and lies her head on his thighs, he places a hand on her stomach and leans one on the sofa arm. 'Do you have any idea what the Carta want with you?'
'Nope. Blood of the Hawke. My mother is only a half sister to Malcolm so I'm like a fourth, or something. Maybe they're trying to get a ransom?' Fenris disagrees as the dwarf he interrogated demanded that she was the key and that she would set their master free. 'What the hell is that supposed to mean? I'll set him free? I can't set anyone free! Do you think that they know I'm a Eternal Spirit?' She says in panic.
Fenris shushes her as she tries to get up, 'no... no... this has something to do with Garrett,' he mutters. 'Something to do with being a Hawke,' he sighs as he rubs his eyes. 'They must know you are his cousin and think that you are the easier target.'
'Shows how much they know,' Makatza grumbles.
Fenris chuckles, 'yes indeed. A deadly mistake on their part,' he says amused as he begins to stroke her hair. 'I do not think I have ever been so worried about you.'
'Why?' Makatza said sitting up. 'They're just some crazy dwarves,' she says shrugging a shoulder.
'Exactly, they seemed insane and intent on finding you,' he says as he passes over the rum. 'I do not like the idea that you have been targeted,' he sighs.
'Ha! Wait until the Imperium figures out that I'm back. We're lucky we killed all those slavers that were after you that time,' she says it in a joking way but with the way his face tenses it's clear that he hadn't thought about it in a while and wasn't happy about it. 'Fenris, I'll be fine,' she assures. 'Everyone we know would protect me, especially you. Try not to think about it,' she says softly. She leans forward and kisses him to which he only sort of returns in his pout about what was going on. The doors slam open making Makatza jump and slop rum down the both of them. 'Fuck!' She swears as she glares at Garrett who was looking at her in relief. 'What the hell happened to you?' She asks as she sees that he's in less than great condition.
'We have a problem, the Carta-'
'The Carta are after me, yes we know,' Makatza says dryly.
'Also... we may have blown a hole in your house,' he directs at Fenris who sighs and simply slides more into the sofa. Garrett comes in after shouting down into the bar that he had found them, he sits in a chair and Makatza starts to assess his wounds not that she could do a lot about them just now. 'We didn't mean to. Isabela and Varric came to the house after hearing rumours about the Carta, then we went to yours and got attacked on the way there and they were insane, screaming about Katza, then when we got to yours the door and windows were all open and we sort of rushed in and set off a couple of traps on the left wing... so now you kinda have a gap... in between a couple of rooms...and the street..' he says slowly as Fenris raises a brow at him.
He looks at Makatza and points at her cousin, 'you see why I wanted to clear the rooms? I cannot trust your cousin not to make my life difficult,' he sighs. 'Damn Hawkes...'
