Chapter Text

Pharen awoke the following morning alone, but to the intense smell of blood and gore. Panicked, she rose, wild-eyed, to meet Fen'Harel's grin not five feet away from her. "Morning, vhenan," he said. She raised an eyebrow to his blood-soaked clothes and the two nearly-unrecognizable carcasses at his feet. "Did you do that, Fen?" His grin grew wider. "Would you believe me if I said I may have gotten a little overzealous in my hunt?" He crawled over to her, pressing a gentle kiss to her forehead, before retreating back to his work on skinning his kill.

Still half asleep, she smiled back, and moved to sit next to him on the ground. She produced a small knife from one of her boots, and began to assist his skinning. She could see the teeth marks in the animal's side, and gently grazed her hand over one of the larger marks. She realized then that this was a halla – one that Andruil herself had warned him against hunting. Pharen dropped her knife in surprise. "You do realize this is a halla, correct?" She frowned at him, and he retained his seemingly ever-present grin.

"Of course I do, da'enansal. I am fairly certain I know what animals are what in this realm." Fen'harel had apparently caught her meaning, however, and his grin faded. Shaking his head, and resting a gentle hand on her thigh, he met her gaze evenly. "She will not come for me, ma sa'lath. She can threaten all she likes, but she will not best me simply because I took one of her dear creatures." Pharen nodded once in acknowledgement, before questioning him again. "What if she does come for you? What if you get hurt and I can't get to you? What if she injures me and I get you killed-?"

He silences her with a finger pressed to her lips, and shakes his head. "Vhenan, please, do not worry. She will not bring either of us harm. I promise. I have always looked after you, why would I not now, when you have been declared my heart?" An uneasy silence filled their area, and Fen'Harel felt his hackles raise along his neck. Getting to his feet and shifting to his wolf form, he trotted to the very edge of the wards, inspecting them to ensure they were, in fact, safe from harm. It was after inspecting the final ward against the forest that he found a problem that was punctuated by a shrill laugh ahead of him.

Growling and pressing himself down to the forest floor, he launched himself toward the elf that had been hiding there. He was too slow. "Has your pet stolen all of your strength, oh mighty Fen'Harel?" Andruil jeered from behind him. He turned, quickly, to realize in horror she had one of her arrows pointed straight at Pharen's chest. Snarling, he launched himself once more, this time connecting with Andruil's shoulder, and managed to knock her off-balance. Fen'Harel allowed his beastial form to tear at her, brutally mangling her arms and legs and attempting to tear at her throat.

He couldn't get to it, and he saw a glow emanate from around her weakened form. "Forgetting something?" Andruil sneered before launching a ball of highly-concentrated energy at his chest, forcing him against the trees behind them. He barely heard Pharen's scream as he landed, followed by Andruil giggling madly in glee, before he sent a larger, more uncontrolled energy ball at Andruil, which threw her against the boulder to her side, but not before one of the arrows had been loosed from her bow, impaling Pharen's inner thigh.

Fen'Harel bounded over to Andruil, ensuring she was in fact unconscious, before sprinting to Pharen, transforming into his elvhen form. His blue glow emanated around her near-fatal injury, though he could feel something off about the wound. He looked up as the scream tore through Pharen's throat, her fists balling at her sides, and her entire body tensing, causing the arrow to sink more into Pharen's flesh. Growling, and tearing off a part of his robe, he tied a tourniquet around her leg, attempting to ensure whatever the arrow was infused with did not travel further. That also meant he did not have much time before it reached her heart.

Dragging Pharen onto his back and transforming once more to his wolf form, he bounded off into the woods, headed straight for the nearest eluvian. Once it had been reached, he murmured Mythal's password to ensure his entrance into her temple. Padding through it, sprinting to Mythal on the other side, and changing back to his elvhen form once more, he lay Pharen down at her feet in the courtyard. Not a word was spoken as she set to work on removing Andruil's arrow, and removing the curse with it.

Black tendrils began to seep out of Pharen's eyes, from her mouth, a literal lightning storm brewed, her own magic and Fen'Harel's augmenting its power. The lightning lashed out against the people trying to save her, causing burn marks against the other elvhen's skin. Mythal kept to her work, and would only toss out directions, for him to talk to her, to keep her conscious, to keep her from screaming, to hold her down as she worked.

Fen'Harel felt his heart sinking as he watched Pharen struggle under their care. It seemed several hours had passed when Mythal finally called for Abelas to carry Pharen to a temporary quarter where she may rest. Fen'Harel opened his mouth to protest, but was shot down at Mythal's glare. Her aura was visibly pulsing around her. Not good, he thought. He watched Abelas carry Pharen away, and when they were out of sight, Mythal placed a stern hand at his shoulder. "Fen'Harel, my old friend, why put her in danger like that?" His head shot up in surprise. "How did you know what happened?"

Mythal's eyes hardened before answering him, "I see all. Small pieces are scattered about of me; you, of all people, should know that." Fen'Harel dropped his gaze from hers, before answering. "I love her, Mythal. I am uncertain I will be able to stand it when she is gone from this time, if this is how I react when she is simply injured." He hung his head in shame. Mythal gave a small smile before pressing a hand under his chin, lifting his eyes to meet her own. "There is always a way, Dread Wolf. You have but to will it." Mythal dropped her hand before walking away from a very confused wolf, who turned and padded to her sentinel.

Abelas pointed the direction in which a room was keeping the Dread Wolf's heart. Following the walkway, he opened a large dragonbone door at the end, revealing Pharen laying on a makeshift bed inside. Closing the door behind him, he crawled in bed next to her and gathered her into his arms. "Ir abelas, vhenan," he said softly against the shell of her ear. It was then that he realized just how much he loved her, and how true his words had been when he called her vhenan and da'enansal.

Laying there curled up against her, a single tear dropped down onto Pharen's cheek, but it was not she who cried; the wolf, ever at her back, had failed her, and the guilt was gnawing at him. He had failed to protect her, and it had frightened him when Andruil had her bow aimed at her chest. He knew he would do anything to protect her – even lock the gods away. But for now, he had to figure out how he could keep her here.

Mythal had said where there was a will, there was a way. The will was most certainly there – but what was the way? Fen'Harel awoke lying on his back, with Pharen's head lying on his chest, softly snoring. Smiling and pressing a kiss to the crown of her head, he began to stroke her hair. She mumbled something in her sleep, but he only understood the word solas. His heart sank. Perhaps he hadn't won her over after all? Against his better judgment, he slipped back into the Beyond, and used his power in her hand as an anchor to pull him to her, wherever she was in her world.

He saw his future-self in her dream, standing over her, chastising her for being too naïve, for not being more open minded, that she was not always right about everything. Fen'Harel watched, curious, as the dream faded away into a campsite, a presumably Dalish campsite, where two elven children were chasing another, smaller, child around the fire. The young one's hair was cut at odd angles – perhaps a hahren had been attempting to cut the da'len's hair at some point and it grew back that way?

His curiosity began to slip into anger when the two older children began teasing and taunting the youngest. How her hair was a different color, how she was so much lighter skinned than the rest, and how she was the worst hunter and she would never amount to anything. He growled low when halla feces and mud began to be thrown at her, causing her to topple off-balance and fall, face-first, into the mud. Reaching an apex of power much faster than normal, the wolf in him snarled and he bounded over to her, shielding her from the other elven children.

The white wolf threw his head back and howled, the very Fade shaken with his anger, his normal crystal-blue eyes had changed to a blood red in his wrath, all six of them coming into plain view. The children screamed, shouting to their elders about she called the Dread Wolf to us! Satisfied they would not return, he morphed into his dreadlocked form, and held a hand for her to grab. The child below him was no longer a child, however; it was his vhenan.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean for them to come find me. I've had nightmares like this since I was that age…" Pharen trailed off, but he could feel a sense of truth, even though it was her dream. "Would it help you to know I was a terrible hunter too, when I began?" Pharen raised her eyebrows at his admission, and a disbelieving grin began to make its way on her features. "You're a wolf, vhenan. How were you a bad hunter? You're an apex predator!"

Hanging his head, he told her when he had tried hunting a rabbit for the first time, many centuries ago, and had not been fast enough to catch it. When the rabbit had finally been within his grasp, Fen'Harel had lunged, and fell face-first into a river. "I watched as a wolf pup sprang from the thicket and surprised the rabbit, clawing at its throat, thereby killing it. The pup had looked at me triumphantly, almost. I had been bested by a pup!"

Fen'Harel threw his hands up in the air, exaggerating his point. "Though that wolf pup did teach me something I have tried to amount to – be cunning. Your prey would never see you coming." That wolfish grin made an appearance once more, causing a slight giggle from Pharen. "Come, I know you do not wish to be here. I wanted to ensure…you were safe, ma vhenan." He cupped her cheek, and leaned his forehead against hers, eliciting a contented sigh from her. "Though since now I know you are safe, it is probably best that we wake up."