"So, what pranks did you guys play?" Cullen asked as they walked. It had been nagging him the more he was trying to ignore the way the earth was wrong.
Solona stumbled, eyes wide. "Pardon?"
"The pranks? You mentioned them."
"Oh. Right. Of course." Solona glanced up at him. "Um, one is that, um, you remember the whiskey you guys brought in for celebration? We snuck out one night and poured all the salt into it."
Cullen stopped to glare at her. "That was you?"
"Us. Us. All of us. The apprentices." She chewed on her lip to keep from smiling. Cullen stammered, trying to tell her how much they had destroyed that party. Until he realized that no mages were allowed- drunk mages were troublesome and dangerous- and suddenly realized maybe he knew why they did it. "And we would sneak around at night and steal your things. Not yours. Templars. Like your sashes. Or helmets. And we'd stick them somewhere else for you guys to find."
"I never found my helmet."
"You didn't?" she said, perhaps a little too sweetly.
"Did you take my helmet?" Cullen rounded on her, not sure why he was smiling so much.
"No," she said, and he tried to keep the smile on his face. "I asked Anders to steal it for me. In return I convinced Neria to forgive him. Or talk to him, at least. They had been in an arguement over him leaving, I believe."
"I never found my helmet."
"It was on the statue on third level. By now everybody probably thinks the statue has a helmet."
Cullen tried to think of something not stupid to say to that. "Why didn't you?"
"Because Anders was better than I at the sneaking and stealing thing. And you were very protective of your helmet. I got your sash before."
"You took that?" His face went red. Not because he got yelled at for misplacing his sash, but because he had used it for special quick clean ups. Cullen tried to quickly come up with how many times he had lost his three sashes and when each one was and-
Solona screamed and Cullen's head shot down to see the hand twisting around her ankle. It pulled at her boots and she clung to him for balance. He felt his world narrow to her as her entire body began to crackle and lightning shot across her body until the creature- darkspawn gave a how and let go. He quickly pushed her behind him, drawing his blade with his other hand.
"Maker help us," he whispered.
He jumped to see the darkspawn clawing out of the earth freeze solid, mid roar as it reached for him. "You're sword would maybe be more helpful than the Maker right now," Solona all but hissed at him, looking terrified when he glanced back at her. Her hands glowed with magic and she spun around as more of the darkspawn fumbled from the earth. Cullen stomped on the frozen one, taking small enjoyment from the way it shattered, before swinging his blade at the hurlock that charged him, dropping the bag in the process. Cullen was surprised at his strength. He was pushed back.
Summoning what he could he pushed back, letting the hurlock's balde slide off his own, swinging around to meet the armor across the monster's back. Cullen bit back a curse. He was uncontrolled without the hindrance of his armor. His swings felt funny, his movements sloppy. Cullen grunted when the monster kicked his chest with a roar, sending him toppling backwards. Only years of discipline had him holding onto his blade.
Cullen looked up and tried to get his claymore up. The large blade was not made for blocking. It was an offensive weapon. That was why he wore heavy armor. He would never be quick enough with the large blade to efficiently block anything. Cullen feared for his life. Feared that the last thing he would see would be the slobbering, drooling mess of a darkspawns face. But then the darkspawn stumbled as the earth shook and formed around him. Not on him, but hovering just above his skin as armor.
Cullen saw Solona in his side vision, gasping for air as she held her arms out in front of her, eyes shut and concentrating. The darkspawns blade slid across the earth and rock that shielded him, howling in rage when it was not a mortal blow. Cullen responded by swinging his blade, catching the darkspawns arm and making it unusable. The monster just howled even louder. Twisting his wrists and the blade Cullen swung at the hideous head and gave a sigh of relief when the darkspawn stopped twitching.
He glanced around seeing two charging him, waving their blades wildly, and Solona running from one, and the mage Darkspawn keeping tabs on her more than him. He raised his blade, hoping Solona could keep ahead of the evil monsters. Maker help him, he did not know what he would do if she wasn't able to.
Throwing his now armored shoulder into the nearest one, Cullen used his blade to swing at the second. Both yowled, and a third came at him. A short stout one charged and Cullen punted him away, turning back to the first that had regained his footing. His blade whirled between the two. The genlock was rolling on the ground, screaming and reaching for his own blade. Cullen swung, the head of one of the hurlocks flying from his neck. The second jammed his blade between some of the earth. Gritting his teeth Cullen screamed when the monster pulled his blade out.
He rounded on the last one, stumbling as he was pushed back. The monster was relentless. Striking away at the earth, chipping away at it. Cullen heard Solona gave a scream- a roar?- and he knew he needed to get at her. Ignoring the wounds, and common sense, Cullen charged the monster as he struck at him. Simply barreling into the hurlock they crashed and fell to the ground with grunts and roars. He struggled with the monster, beating him with his fist, trying so very hard to not let the blood splatter on him. Still, it was difficult and he wrestled the monsters own blade. Tossing it aside he reached for his claymore and turned to Solona.
She stood over the darkspawn, looking a complete mess, holding the staff of the monster mage. Most were fried with, his guess, lightning. It seemed a personal favorite of hers. As he neared he realized she wasn't just stiff- she was so tense she was shaking like a leaf on a windy day. He set his sword aside, slowly reaching around to grasp her arms. She jumped, spinning to stare up at him with wild eyes. "Shh, my dear. It's done now."
She dropped the staff as if it burned her skin. "I- I-They're dead."
"They are, dearest, they are." He kissed the top of her head, tasting the salt of sweat on her brow. "They can't hurt you."
"I don't want to stay here."
"We aren't going to." Cullen picked up his sword, finding the pack he had dropped during the fight, and lead her south. She stumbled blindly beside him. Cullen could only be thankful when she stopped shaking. He'd have to worry about the rest when they got somewhere safer.
When they did make camp the sun had already set. Cullen re wrapped his side where he had been stabbed and sliced before reaching for his mage. Solona curled up against him, hands fisted and twisting in his shirt. She was tired, fear and horror the only thing keeping her awake and wide eyed. Cullen cooked something quick and easy for her to eat. She kept what little she ate down. Cullen hadn't thought about what an actual fight would do to her.
Normal people weren't up for fighting monsters.
Cullen wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into his lap and rocking. He wasn't sure what to do here. He was trained to fight abominations. He was grown to face monsters. Not Darkspawn, but monsters none the less. Special Templars with 'something special' as a Mother had put it, weren't sent to Circles. Because that was the most dangerous place to be. Cullen hadn't thought he had anything special.
But he just slew monsters with relative ease.
Had there been more, he'd of had a problem. He wasn't prepared for a large battle. Solona definitely was not. He needed to get them somewhere safe now. Traveling wasn't going to work anymore. And just picking a direction and going would get them killed sooner than later. He kissed her temple again, wishing he had thought this far ahead back when this first happened. When he had panicked and fled.
Some small part of him wondered how this would have been different had he stayed. What would have happened? All he could see was a dead and twisted Solona. Perhaps he was too narrowed minded. He leaned back and stared into the fire. He wasn't going to get any sleep that night. And Solona- he hoped she would.
He ended dozing off some time into the night. He woke to Solona pulling out of his arms, and he instinctively tightened his grip. "Feeling better?" he asked, pushing her hair away as he looked into her eyes.
"You were hurt, weren't you? I... I am so sorry. I should have healed you last night. Instead I slept on your wound." She frowned, pulling at his shirt. "Let me see it. Please. I can make it better."
Cullen blushed as she pushed his shirt up into his face, effectively hiding it. He reached up gingerly- stiff and sore and tender- and pulled his shirt over his head. He felt awkward, shirtless before her. His hair was a mess, he was covered in grime and dirt. He was tired. He was a- blushing like a virgin as she gently ran her hands over his bandages, peeling them off.
"I'm so sorry," she said, using a very professional voice. Her hands were cold, and he sucked in his gut when he realized that. But she kept her hands on her work. Trailing fingers over his large gash. "You should have had me see to this earlier. I'm not much of a healer. Not compared to others. Anders, Senior Enchanter Wynne, they were amazing. This is going to scar now."
"It will not be lonely," Cullen said, trying to ignore her hands on his person. She wasn't doing anything indecent. But darn if he couldn't stop wondering about her hands.
"That does not make it better." She pressed her hands to his wound and he hissed. Then he felt the draw of her magic, pulling and teasing his senses before the stinging of flesh being stitched together, cold healing magic spreading through his body. He had heard some people praise healing magic. For some it was a rejuvenating and refreshing. It always was painful for Cullen, the few times he had it used on him before. He wondered if it was because he was a Templar, or just simply a personal thing.
He let out the breath he had been holding raggedly, shivering as he felt his skin going back to normal. Then her hands warmed over his skin, traveling from his wound across the plains of his stomach, the light heat of fire magic dancing from her fingers. He sucked in air, not able to get enough. Warmth, internal and agonizing, spread down to his loins in a way that was inappropriate for what she was doing for him.
"Does that feel better? I know my hands are so cold," she said, laying her palm flat against him. Then she slowly pulled her her hand away, setting it with her other in her lap. He felt her magic disappear from his senses, and he missed it. And her hand. He instantly missed her hand. Instead of saying that- because that was so very dangerous- he pulled for his shirt. He quickly covered, avoiding her eyes that watched and seemed to appraise.
Did she like what she saw, he wondered. Did she enjoy touching him? He wanted to kiss her again. He wanted to drive away all the bad. He wanted to touch her. To run his fingers through her hair, to wash away the grime and dirt, to push away her fears. But, instead, he stammered out a shaky "We should- I mean we need to-"
"I'll make a quick breakfast," she said, standing up and moving to the bag. He noticed she shook again. Her magic, he realized. She was still so drained. Cullen knew he was going to have to push her hard. He wanted to get to a town. Not a villiage, a town. He smoothed his hair back, knowing it was a lost cause at this point, and went to clean his blade.
I didn't mention it here, and I didn't on LJ. I thought I should explain. In my little head canon Anders had a girlfriend in the Tower that was sort of special. She died during her Harrowing and that bitchy Templar Rylock was there. She'd been on his case before and since his gf died with her around, he came to obvious conclusions. But because he's Awakening Anders and not DA2 Anders he doesn't believe he can do anything/doesn't really want to risk himself. He meets Karl as a Grey Warden (personally, my Grey Wardens often send him back to the Tower for messaging when he annoys him/her). For clarification, if anybody has been wondering about my mentioning of Anders.
Anyway, this chapter was hard to write. I haven't done a fight scene, and one limited to one characters point of view, in forever. I blame that. I used to love writing fight scenes. Don't know what happened. Either way its done now. Hope you guys enjoyed it. The smut is coming (if you can't tell- Cullen is getting a little antsy). Which means we're nearing the end.
Reviews are appreciated.