Yay! Finally got on my lazy butt and wrote! There's something about writing in Fenris's point of view that just makes me giggle.

By the way, I realized that I've been spelling Marethari's name wrong. I feel horrible. Could you ever forgive me? *puppy dog eyes*

Fenris: Don't do it. There is no such thing as forgiveness.

Jerk. He's just angry because of the events in this chapter.

Fenris: DON'T TALK ABOUT IT.

Hehe.

TO THE DISCLAIMER!

Telum: Libby doesn't own Dragon Age or Fenris. She does own Maerwen an I.

WHOO!

Chapter 5

Fenris POV

I stared in sick fascination as Telum healed herself. The blood that poured from her stomach and thigh stained my clothes and bed from where I carried her. The blood red glow emitting from her made the blood pools glisten eerily whilst lighting the room.

During the battle, her focus and tact surprised me into thinking she could hold her own, but I was clearly wrong. I even had to carry her to the mansion, which made my heart beat faster.

I need to stop thinking like a adolescent girl.

A whimper drew me into the present, and I looked at Telum. The graceful lines of lyrium started to dim on the bare skin of her stomach, thighs, face, and neck. I realized then how much of her tanned skin was showing, which showed how hypocritical she was upon our first encounter. You show your scars too easily, U.

The glow was nearly gone, which didn't seem like a very good thing. I started to panic, thinking she was dying, and made a quick decision. I hurried over to the side of the bed, throwing my gauntlet onto the floor. The blue lines of lyrium flared to life on my hand and I took a deep breath. I reached down and touched the blood soaked hand on her toned stomach. The two lyriums reacted violently, making my hand thread with hers. I gasped and tried to pull away as Telum's eyes shot open, the ice blue of her eyes going whiter. Every wound seemed to stitch closed immediately with the combined powers of the lyrium. Though, the reaction caused side effects. Telum's memories invaded my mind. At least I think they were hers.

A play seemed to start in his mind a loom in front of a young girl, about 5 years old. She had platinum blonde hair and the bluest eyes I have ever seen. That's how I knew it was a young Telum. She was smiling happily at woman that seemed to be her mother. Another memory showed her looking proudly at an Orlesian noblewoman spinning in front of an intricate, full length mirror, a look of pure joy on her perfect face.

In the next memory, she was older, about 7 years. She was walking through the Market District, ogling at the colorful fabrics while holding onto her mother's hand. The older woman had grey running through her long hair and smile lines had formed around her perfectly curved lips. The look of wonder on the child's face made the woman laugh and hold the girl closer.

The next memory was the most gruesome. She was about 9 years old, walking through the corridors of a darkened mansion. She was looking around, as if she was looking for someone. Suddenly a hand reached out and grabbed her. A cloth was smashed against her face and she passed out. She was taken to a cavern and was tested on. As in, raw lyrium was injected into her wrists multiple times. The swirling lines on her skin were formed because of those inoculations.

"...ris. Fen..." a voice called from far away.

Every day, a group of hooded men would come into the girl's room and say, "You'll be beautiful," and would take her out by her now strawberry blonde hair. Faint lines were just forming on her face at the time. Over time, her hair grew so long that it dragged across the ground, a bright rose red. All better to pull her with.

"Fenris..." the voice called again, closer.

The designs got thicker on her face and she was starving. The blood mages dragged her out of her room one day, she was too weak to resist, and threw her into the back of a carriage. She was taken to a copse of trees where none other than Keeper Marethari stood waiting.

"Fenris!" Telum's voice called, pleading and thick with emotion.

I shot away from the bed, breathing hard. I looked up at Telum's stony gaze.

"How much did you see?" she asked stiffly, containing her emotions. Her tattoos glowed faintly, betraying her anger.

"I..." I said lamely. The rush of memories still fresh in my brain.

"How. Much," she growled, leaping forward to pin me to the ground. Her tunic lay open, exposing the skin on her stomach and upper chest.

She seemed to realize this and jumped away with cat-like grace. She sighed and searched through the small pouches on her discarded belt. She stood and held a small sewing kit in her hand. She took off her tunic, leaving her in only her slitted trousers and breastband. I hissed in a breath in looked away.

"What, never seen a half-naked woman before?" she said, smirking.

I turned sharply to retort, but her tattoos caught my eyes once again. The lines traveled down her neck to her collarbone, curving out to wrap around her biceps. They spiraled down her arms, branching off in different directions, but joining together to circulate around her slender fingers. From her collarbone tattoos, more branched down to swirl around her shapely chest down to curve around her navel, only to shoot back up. Even more appeared to arc around her hipbones. They traveled under the thin band that separated her hips from her thighs. Her trousers showed the skin on the outside of her legs, ending above her knees. On that were more of the breathtaking tattoos.

"My eyes are up here," she scolded.

I shot my eyes up where she looked down at me from my sitting position on the ground. I scrambled up, slightly embarrassed.

She sat on the bench in the room and began to sew up the hole in her tunic, "So?"

I blinked and then realized what she was asking, "Your childhood, the abduction, and...Marethari."

Her face twisted into an unreadable expression, but she glowed faintly at the name, "My mother was a seamstress in Orlais. A really good one, at that. I was aiming to become like her when I was taken at the lovely age of 9 by a coven of blood mages. I was a test subject for 2 years until they dubbed me a lost cause and sold me to Marethari. She thought she was some kind of savior. Only made it a hell when I didn't tell her what happened to me. Thus, I've been living with a clan who thought I was the cause of all their downfalls for 12 years," she angrily pulled the thread, "the only refuge I had was that cave, where I learned the powers of lyrium," she wiggled her fingers as if it was a ghost tale and not her life story, "Then, Marethari just had to get her precious pet back, and sent you guys. You know the rest."

I blinked stupidly and absorbed all of the information I had just received.

"Why are you telling me this?" I choked out.

She was silent, "I don't know,"she tied the knot on the stitching and put the materials back into the sewing kit, "You're the first person I've ever told. I've told you this in confidence. You seem trustworthy to me," she paused, staring intently into the burning embers in the fireplace, "Don't betray my certainty."

She stood up and shrugged on her tunic, adding all of the accessories on her outfit. She picked up her bow and strung it over her shoulder. I sudden impulse to know more about this woman washed over me and I reached out a hand, "Wait."

She stopped and turned.

I froze and said, "Er...Isabela and Hawke are probably still going at it. How about you stay here tonight," I rushed my words, "I'll stay in a different room, of course. There are plenty. So, you know..."

I was acting like a teenage boy with raging hormones right now. I mentally kicked myself.

Telum chuckled and said, "Of course. You're probably right."

I scoffed, "Probably? You wound me."

Oh, so now I was cracking jokes? Why does this woman have such an effect on me?

She smiled, "Lead the way."

I showed her to one of the tidier rooms in the house and told her that there was relatively clean water in the kitchen. She thanked me and I took that as my cue to leave.

I can't believe the way I was acting. As if I was 14 instead of 29. I paced the blood stained room and sighed. Sitting down heavily onto the bench, I grabbed an empty bottle of wine and stared at the discolored glass. I sighed once more and went downstairs to grab a few bottles at random. I really think I have a drinking problem. No, scratch that, Isabela has a drinking problem. I chuckled to myself and climbed the steps to see Telum standing there, looking at the intricate tapestries decorating the walls in a pair of loose brown pants and a billowy white shirt.

"I told my story," she looked at me with amusement, "time to tell yours."

I sighed and trudged to my room, Telum in tow. I popped open a bottle and sat down. She sat next to me and grabbed a bottle of her own.

I smirked and exhaled, "Well, as an escaped Tevinter slave with lyrium markings on your skin, you naturally get hunted..."

And thus I told her everything. About Denarius, Hadriana, Varania, and Hawke, and she listened closely to every word

"Fenris?" she asked after a comfortable silence.

I looked at her, the room spinning slightly after the two bottles I had already drank.

"What do you think would happen if the two lyriums...touched?"

My eyes widened and she threw up her hands in front of her face, as if to ward off any weird thoughts I was having.

"No! Not like that! But if we were to..uh...hold...hands?" she looked down and fiddled with the bottle in her hands.

"Well, the last time, I saw your memories," I replied.

She finished the last of the alcohol and set it at her feet. She turned and stuck her hand out at me as if to shake my hand.

"You've seen me half naked and nearly bleeding to death, but we haven't properly been introduced. I am Telum Adrhoniel, the beautiful and magnificent Dalish and Orlesian archer."

I laughed, "Fenris, lyrium branded Tevinter warrior," I shook her hand and gasped and the searing warmth of it.

She looked at me sharply, then her eyes glazed over. I knew she was seeing into my mind by the way her fingers knitted with mine. Her pupils receded into the ice blue irises and her lids lowered. Long, dark lashes fanned over her high cheekbones. I shook my head violently. Something was seriously wrong with my mind.

As if on cue, a stab went through my skull. Then another. I sucked in a breath as Telum's memories bombarded my own.

She was about 13 since the last memory and was glowering at her scars. She was sitting in a small tent, looking at the patterns running along her arms and hands. She felt rage every time she looked at them, and covered them up as much as she could. High necked tunics and long pants and gloves were a daily outfit for the girl. But this was a new kind of rage, it was blind anger. She grabbed a small knife and was poised to strike one of the lyrium veins when her had burst into life. She illuminated the entire tent with a red glow. She yelped and shook her hand as if that would extinguish the light. She panicked and passed out.

A girl and Telum sat in the middle of a field of wildflowers, the girl waving her hands dramatically as she told a tale. She had short, brown hair and pale green eyes alight with imagination. Telum looked the happiest I had ever seen her. They looked at the sky and started walking, but the nearer they went to the camp, the more the girl's face changed. It became mean and scornful. She pushed Telum away and started off into the safety of a group of girls. Telum sighed and wandered off through the forest.

Then there were flashes of faces. Callous and snide looks followed her and Marithari's face of disappointment and regret. She suffered through the camp, taking punishments in silence.

I jerked back to reality and saw Telum looking at me curiously.

"You saw Maerwen?" she whispered.

I nodded and she sighed, "She was my only friend, and yet she was like the rest of them. At least she tried to help me."

"Hawke is a good woman. Reckless and unpredictable, but comical and persuasive. She would never do that to a person," I paused and quietly said, "She's someone you can trust."

Telum smiled sadly, "At least there are some right people in the world."

I looked into her eyes and realized something.

Did I just pour out my life story to a woman I just met this afternoon!?

Oh.

Fenris: Don't say anything.

...

Fenris: DON'T-

TELUM AND FENRIS, SITTIN' IN A TREE. K-I-S-S-I-N-G!

Telum: *facepalm* Oh, lord.

Fenris: *seethes to the max*

Telum: Aaaaand explosion.

Fenris: *storms out of the room in a fit of fire-y anger*

Well I'm gonna go hide in a closet until he comes back. UNTIL NEXT TIME.

-Libby c: