I forgot to put this in the first chapter so here it goes. I own nothing Bioware owns it all. I am new to this and any critics would be appreciated. Thank you to those who have put this on there watch list and those who are reading.
The Deep Roads were not what Leigh had expected. She knew it would be dark, but not this dark. After Varric's brother left them down here to die she wanted nothing more than to see the sun again. They had made camp and it was her watch. A figure moved out of the corner of her eye and was coming toward her. She tensed and began drawing her daggers.
"Nice night isn't it?" Instantly she relaxed hearing Anders voice.
"If you could call it night. I have lost track of time down here." He gave her a sad smile. "I want to thank you for coming with us."
"I promised myself I would never come down here again, but how could I turn such a pretty girl down when she asked me so nicely." Leigh felt her checks get hot as the blood rushed to them.
"I am glad I left Bethany home for this. If I never see a darkspawn or a demon again it will be too soon. Now I know why my father always was so serious when it came to training my sister. He wanted her to be safe."
"Bethany told me your father was also an apostate. I admire him for never getting caught. I myself escaped seven times."
"Seven? Wow you would think they would have given you points for trying after three."
"You'd think, but the last time they were going to put me to death. If it hadn't been for the Wardens I would be tranquil or dead." She wasn't sure if it was the fire light or shadows, but she could have sworn he had a small smirk on his face.
"I feel there is a story behind that. My father told me how he escaped. I never thought he was telling me the truth til I found those letters he wrote. I still can't believe a Templar helped him get away. The man went so far as to pay for both of my parents to get to Ferelden."
"My most spectacular escape was swimming across lake Calenhad. It took them over a month to find me." Leigh chuckled a bit. "Unfortunately they always found me." The bitterness returned to his voice. "I envy your sister having someone who could teach her away from the Circle."
"My father never wanted any of us to be born mages because of the what that would mean for us. When Beth started to show signs of it...well I guess that was the beginning of the end. Carver started acting out. My parents were worried all the time and then there was me trying desperately to protect everything."
"You put too much on yourself Leigh. You take care of everyone and leave nothing for yourself. It is not healthy."
"Your one to talk. Helping people for nothing, being a tireless advocate for mages, and not to mention running around with us, you do a lot too."
"Running around with all of you has been fun, well up til now. I had forgotten how good it feels to be fighting along side good people."
"I can't remember a time when I had this many people around me that I called friend. I always had to be careful on who I trusted." Leigh absentmindedly played with the amulet she always wore. A sad look crossed over her face, thinking about her past. "I made the mistake of falling for a man and it ended rather badly. He tried to take both my father and sister away. I hide my sister, but my father was...he did not have much time left."
"Most people do not understand the plight of mages, they just think we are all out to control the world. If that man had truly loved you he would not have hurt you like that." A dark laugh left her lips and hot angry tears threatened to break from her eyes.
"I am not sure Templars are capable of love." Leigh felt Anders stiffen next to her. She knew how much he hated the Chantry's little lap dogs. "I never meant to care for him the way I did. I started out using him to see if they knew about my family. I thought he was different, I thought wrong. I was young and stupid, falling for the fairytale of a noble knight. Now I see them and all I can think is...Oh Maker here I go again. You don't need to hear this. I am just rambling again. You really should go try to get some sleep we have another long march into Maker knows what." She did not look up into his eyes, but he could hear the anger and pain in her voice. Her long fingers continued to twist and play with her amulet.
"That amulet, I have never seen anything like it before. May I?" Leigh nodded and lifted it off over her head. It was a silver disk with a blood red stone set in the middle of it. Strange markings adorn the front and a small inscription was engraved on the back. He could feel intense magic coming off of it. It felt warm in his hands. Anders turned it over to read the inscription. "To have compassion is to have life. Never forget." He looked into her eyes questioning the meaning of the words.
"If you don't live a life with compassion you are better off not living at all. It is to remind me of who I am and where I came from. My father use to tell me out of all the spirits in the fade Compassion was the strongest. It made demons quake in it's wake. He said there was no greater feeling than that of having love for your fellow men, whether they were elf, dwarf, mage, or even Qunari. If you could find it in your heart to be open minded you would live a full life."
"Your father was a wise man, Leigh." He handed back her amulet.
"I miss him so much. You know you remind me of him sometimes. I guess it is a mage thing." Leigh could have sworn she saw a slight blush start to burn on his cheeks. "I...I never got to apologies for what happened between us. I did not mean to kiss you...I mean I did, but..." A finger gently hushed her.
"You don't have to apologies to me. If I had not wanted you to kiss me I would have stopped you. Maker knows I have tried to talk sense to you about wanting anything to do with me. You deserve to be happy and safe, not hunted and hated."
"I am not afraid of that or Justice for that matter."
"You should be." Again he shook his head bitterly. "You are so stubborn."
"I'm not and I refuse to let him be a wall that you try to put between us. He does not scare me and neither do you." She rose off the rocky ground and started to walk away.
"Where are you going?"
"To wake the others we need to move on. I want to get home and sitting here is not getting us anywhere." Leaving him to his thoughts she went to wake Fenris and Varric. Once all of them were up they started their long march again. Leigh took point followed closely by Fenris. Varric and Anders stayed further back.
"What did you say to her Blondie to light that fire in her eyes? I have never seen her like this." Anders sighed at the dwarf Varric. "Come on spill."
"It is nothing. She is just...Andraste's knicker weasels! She does not see how dangerous it is to be associated with an apostate. It could get her killed and she doesn't even bat an eye. I don't want to see her hurt. Leigh deserves better." Varric laughed and slapped his hand on Anders' back.
"Her sister is an apostate, so is Merill and you think she is afraid of hanging around you. What she really should be afraid of is getting your melancholy attitude, Blondie."
"I am not melancholy!" His voice echoed through the cavern much louder than he wanted it to. He cringed when Leigh turned around and stared at him. "Maker's breath, now see what you did Varric."
"You did it yourself Blondie." Anders stopped dead and let the others walk on ahead. He heard a rumble before Fenris yelled. He saw the elf push Leigh out of the way as the rock creature rolled over Varric and Fenris. It headed straight for him, with nowhere to run all Anders could do was wait for it to reach him. Justice tried to burst forward, but was too late the rock wraith was upon him before he could raise his staff.
OoO
The force of Fenris' shove sent Hawke flying into the wall. It knocked the wind out of her, making it hard for her to move. Through pain teared eyes she watched her friends be barreled over by a creature made of large rocks. It's last victim was Anders. A burning rage welled up in her as she willed her body to move. With her companions now taken out of the picture the rock wraith and it's minions turned their attentions to her. Leigh's side ached and she found it hard to breath, but the sight of her friends laying there defenseless was all needed to spark her into action. She ran at the creature, both daggers bared not caring if she could kill the thing or not. She had to get to Anders and wake him up, at that point she would even welcome dealing with Justice.
The rock wraith made a move for her hitting dead air. She had disappeared only to reappear next to her fallen mage. Her father always said her magic was the ability to move unseen, unnoticed til it was too late and you found yourself on the business end of her daggers. "Anders, wake up! Please, please wake up!" Leigh's voice was bordering on hysterical as she gently smacked his cheeks. Blood was flowing slowly from his head. At least he was still breathing, albeit raggedly. "I am not losing any of you to this monster. Anders please." When her pleas went unanswered she knew she had to try another approach. "Alright Justice I know you are in there. I don't care if you hate me, but if you don't help all of us are dead. Are you going to let this demon win? Get up!" Nothing happened and the last of the hope she had left dropped back into her stomach like chunk of ice. A loud rumble sounded behind her and she threw herself in a defensive position in front of Anders. "I will not die down here and neither will my friends. Come and get me." "Maker please, help me. I can't lose them. I won't!" The last thing she remembered was a bright light before she was knocked out. Everything fell away and she no longer cared if she did not wake up.
OoO
Varric woke in a pile of rubble. Everything hurt, but he was alive. A low gravelly groan from his left told him Fenris was still in the land of the living too. "This is why I am glad I was born top side. I really hate this place. You alright?" Fenris hissed as he tried to move his broken arm.
"Could be worse. Where are the others?" Varric turned and looked around the cavern all he could see was rocks of varying size strewn like tossed pebbles. He eased himself off the rubble he had been sitting on top of.
"Hawke! Anders!" Only silence answered him. "This is not funny you two. Come on out." Varric and Fenris looked at each other then moved to find their missing companions. "If they are hiding I am going to kill them."
"I will help you." Further down the cavern they found Anders. It took all of Fenris' self control not to kick the mage. He let Varric tend to Anders while he continued the search for Hawke. "Hawke!" A groan then a flash of blue light told the elf Anders was at least awake and able to heal. The throbbing in his arm made him want to scream, but he had to find Hawke. A glint of red caught his eye. He made his way slowly over to the shining object only to find a amulet. Anders and Varric joined him as he stared quizzically at the necklace.
"That's Leigh's," Anders started looking around them frantic to find their leader. "she has to be around here somewhere." The three men spread out beginning their search again, Anders cast a light spell on some of the larger rocks around them to illuminate the cavern. His heart began to pound in his chest as the feeling of dread rose. He had to find her, she had to be alive there was no other option. He could not lose her, not now. "Please, let her be alright. Maker, she has to be alright."
"Over here, I found her." Varric's voice boomed from a distance. Both Anders and Fenris broke into a full out run. There in front of of the dwarf was the very still form of Leigh Hawke. Her face was covered in bruises and dirt, but the rest of her looked unharmed. The mage fell to his knees right next to her. Before he could do anything her body moved up, dagger drawn. Fenris was faster, he stopped her from slitting Anders throat with his good arm.
"It's us Hawke." Her eyes were spinning around wildly in her head. The low gravel of the voice made her pause. Her vision became clearer finally seeing the concerned faces of the three men around her.
"Fenris? What the hell happened?"
"We were about to ask you the same question. How is the name of the Maker did you kill that thing?"
"I didn't do it. I think...," Her eyes shifted to Anders. She knew Fenris did not know about his extra passenger and with the way he felt about mages she was not about to mention it either. "I think Anders might have come to enough to stop it. I saw a bright light then I passed out." She ran her hand over her neck and panicked. "Where is my amulet? Oh Maker, I can't lose that. It's the last thing I have left of my father." She tried to stand and fell over into the waiting arms of all three men.
"Is this it Hawke?" She looked up at Fenris as he held the chain in his metal encased hands.
"Yes, thank you. I don't know what I would do if I lost this." He slipped it into her hands so she could return it to the rightful place on her neck. "Are the rest of you alright?"
"Other than our pride and Fenris' arm we are just fine." Varric smiled at her and she returned his. The tight feeling in her chest started to subside. Dread made way for relief, her friends were standing in front of her more of less unharmed. After Anders healed Fenris' arm and made sure they all were up to the trek, he sat down next to Hawke.
"See why I hate the Deep Roads?"
"I am starting to share that feeling. Thank you and please thank Justice for us too. I tried to wake you up, but I couldn't. I was desperate enough to try to get Justice to show himself."
"Your welcome." Inside him Justice squirmed. "I did not stop that creature. I was uncontentious with you. There is something going one here that does not sit well with me." Anders stuffed his own doubt down chalking it up to they were damn lucky to be alive.
"Hey Hawke, come take a look at what that thing was guarding!" She made her way to the back end of the cavern and had to stop her eyes from popping out of her skull. A pile of treasure was tucked off into a corner. "Now this makes it almost worth it." Hawke clapped Varric on the back, giving him a warm smile. It was indeed worth it. There was enough there to have them all set of the rest of their lives. As much as she wanted to put Bartand's head on a pike for leaving them to die, she could not be more pleased on how it has turned out. Life for once was looking brighter. She could not wait to get home and share this with her family. She finally could keep her promise to her father and take care of her family. Finally she could have a future without fear of it all being ripped away.