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Summary: Among the ruins and shadows of the old temple, Aerie finds the light of friendship. And perhaps, something more.

For Ant_Agony at the Baldur's Gate Gift Exchange 2023.

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Hands of an Ogre, Heart of Gold


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So heavy and wearying on the shoulders, Aerie thought grudgingly of Valygar.

Through the desolate corridors of this shadowy temple, she strained with all her paltry might to support his utterly drained frame.

With each drudging step disturbing the dust thick across the stone floors, Aerie raised a silent prayer to Baervan. May the legion of shades that had ambushed them earlier possessed none of the mind to singly pursue this pair. Unwittingly they had been separated from the others when they beat a hasty and chaotic retreat.

With every breath heavy and echoing against the ancient ashlar walls, Valygar weakened from the shadows' debilitating touch. His arm, slung around the slighter elf's shoulders, weighed down on her like an iron yoke, even as his legs struggled to walk of their own bent.

After what seemed like an eternity of wandering through the gloom where the passages snaked on without even a corner to shelter themselves, she finally spied a crumbling arch leading into an alcove. Another prayer to Baervan was whispered in desperation as she peeked into the entryway. Aerie almost cried for joy at finding it empty, dusty with disuse but otherwise bare and free of filth and debris.

Heaving from the effort, she gingerly lowered Valygar to the floor. Oh, what a terrible state he was in now – pale, drenched with cold sweat, his breathing coming in labored rasps. By what will he possessed to summon the last of his strength to drag her away to safety while fighting off the creatures, Arie could only guess and marvel at.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled. "I still don't have the skill to restore anyone fully. I- I could – try."

Valygar opened one eye. "Don't. Save your strength instead. A little rest is all I need."

A little rest? From the looks of him, they might even have to camp here for the night. Night? Or day? With the sunless gloom spread over the forest and this place, it was getting harder to tell the difference. And besides, there was no telling if the shadows might return, and no telling if the others could find them in time for Jaheira to help with his condition. Aerie fidgeted, clenching at the folds of her cloak.

Oh, if only she were as strong as Minsc, then she could at least drag Valygar through the corridors, somehow re-trace their steps through the winding lanes until they find their companions.

Indeed, even pull him along like that stubborn old circus bear who wouldn't budge until Uncle Quayle figured out the beast's fondness for cake. Arie glanced at Valygar, biting her lip to suppress a grin. No, this one doesn't look like he'd care for cake at all.

With nothing else to do but wait, she let her sight wander across the vaulted ceiling above them, the cracks and crenellations casting their shadows from the faint magelight hovering above her palm.

If only she weren't walking so timidly behind Minsc, but in front of the Rashemi like a brave witch she ought to have been, then it should have been him with Valygar now. Someone who can support the other with his own strength. Aerie sighed and smiled. Good and kind Minsc, as hale and durable like an ogre but with none of the monster's savageness.

An ogre. Oddly, a memory flitted through her mind, the remembrance of that fateful day in the circus, seemingly ages ago.

She had been an ogre herself, at least only as an illusion. Maybe it would've been better if she had been polymorphed into a true ogre! Then she might have broken the chains herself without begging strangers to risk themselves with retrieving the key. Then she could have done more, be doing more in every battle than cowering behind the others like a sniveling, pathetic-

No!

Her hands clenched of their own, and dimly she became aware of her breathing, now chafing and gasping. What is it with this place- so vast and endless yet suffocating like the cage she had known?

"Aerie?" Valygar stirred, his groan and movement catching her attention."Is something the matter? Are you hurt?"

How is he still able to muster the kindness to ask despite his own miserable condition? Aerie sighed and rubbed at her eyes with the base of her palm.

"I- I think I'm all right. I just- I wish I could do something useful that could help us right now."

"You're doing just fine."

Oh, enough with the patronizing! She rounded on him. "I'm not fine! We both almost died and I'm not strong enough to carry you out of here and into safety. Against those creatures, I don't have enough spells. Oh, Baervan what can I do? We are doomed!"

Doomed. If Jaheira were here, she would scold her again for sounding so hopeless and not unlike one of their former companions at the Gate. An elf, just like Aerie, but as the others recounted- an elf more experienced in the world, more skilled in the Art. Unlike her. An elf who had returned home and regained a place among The People again. Unlike her. An elf who likewise endured imprisonment and torture, yet was blessed by the gods to emerge from those horrors still possessing a body fair, whole, and complete. Unlike her.

Aerie tugged at her hair as if doing so would pull her back from the void threatening to overwhelm her spirit.

Valygar righted himself, grunting with the effort. Some color returned to his face and his breathing no longer rasped, but he was certainly still far from a complete recovery.

"You fret much over spells when you don't need the Weave and its capricious power to prove yourself capable."

Is this going to be one of his Magic Talks again? Aerie fought the urge to sulk.

How could she forget that one night by the campfire when everyone had retired earlier than usual – worn out by the endless trekking and wearied by Jaheira's nagging that they rest before sundown so they could resume the trail before godswake. That one night when Aerie and Valygar were assigned watch duty, and she had been looking forward to the rare hours of uninterrupted peace to prepare her spells.

That one night when suddenly without prompting, Valygar sat next to her, the abrupt warmth and weight of his presence so overwhelming yet strangely assuring and comforting.

That very moment so inexplicably discomfiting, when Aerie had found her throat suddenly dry, eyes desperately glued to the runes which had traitorously dissolved into a mass of incomprehensible swirls all over the pages of the spell book.

That very moment when she had finally drawn the courage to look up only to have found him gazing down at her so intently.

"Y-yes, Valygar?" she had breathlessly asked.

"Aerie," he had said, so gently, drawing breath deep like his own voice, drawing breath to say what so clearly required a thought long suppressed.

And what had followed-

Aerie exhaled, recalling everything with abashed disappointment.

- Was a lecture about the corrupting nature of magic, the mood so dampened a wonder the campfire didn't fizzle out on its own.

He had been forthcoming about the reasons for his hatred of magic which he blamed for the downfall of his family. It was a frightening thing, true, and yet magic cannot be as completely wicked as he believed it, right?

In response, Aerie had shared with him her own experiences. Of the terrible confinement in the slavers' cage, of her wings once beautiful and glorious but then rotted into disease and nothingness. And of how Quayle came and freed her, first from the cage, and then from despair as the kindly old gnome showed her the boundless wonders and possibilities afforded by magic.

Yet despite her account and assurances, Valygar remained obstinately resolute in his view.

Aerie furrowed her brows and willed her mind back to the present. "I understand what you mean, and it was a terrible thing that happened to your family. But you cannot think so little of even us who only wish to do good but have nothing else to use but our magic."

"Little? Of you?" Valygar said, genuinely surprised. "You misunderstand. I don't think little of you at all. If I did, I wouldn't even try to warn you. Should I stand back and do nothing while you succumb to the same curse which ruined my mother?"

So much anguish in his words and in his eyes, Aerie noted with mirrored sadness. In them, she felt the same grief as Quayle expressed when long ago the latter evidently seemed hopeless at Aerie's despair from the loss of her wings. That genuine fear of losing someone frail but precious, while overwhelmed with the hopelessness of being unable to save them.

Perhaps a sentiment borne from attachment, the same she had begun to feel for all of their companions. Even for him. Despite his grumpy magic-hating ways!

"I- I thank you for worrying over me," she said. "Though, I'm not sure why you care so much at all."

"Because if someone as true-hearted as yourself were to give up and fall, then what hope is there for the rest of us still in the dark? It may not show so easily, Aerie, but were such to happen, it would utterly crush your friends' spirits-," he said, then hesitated before exhaling.

"-And mine," Valygar added, with a smile. A smile restrained, yet true.

Astonished at his words, Aerie blinked, her breath suddenly caught in her chest. A feeling, warm and bracing ebbed through her. She clasped her fingers and brought them to her lips, thoughts racing, not with despair but with an urgent hope.

If only she were strong enough now. Not to be worthy of his regard, but to be able to help them survive the horrors besetting them now. And why? So that even with how bleak and broken everything seemed now, perhaps someday they might all put things to right, and even find a life of peace and happiness.

And maybe even see that rare smile of his, again. Aerie clasped at her cheeks, feeling the odd fluster.

His rare smile- one as rare as an ogre with a girlish voice?

Forgetting herself, Aerie giggled and cast an apologetic grin at the ranger who could only raise a befuddled brow.

Wait- an ogre…

And then the thought snapped her into realization. Magic to be as strong as an ogre!

Hastily, Arie made for Valygar's pack and without warning, tore up its knots and dug into his things.

"What are you doing?" he snapped, delightfully flustered at seeing a woman rooting through his stuff.

Too preoccupied to respond, Aerie could only shush at him. Where is it? An artifact scavenged from one of the many strange foes they had encountered in the Planar Sphere, one that their party leader gifted to Valygar in appreciation for his aid.

She found the item, still crusty and dusty as the day they chanced upon it, and held it up to the ranger.

"You kept it all this time and didn't even use it?" Aerie said, disbelieving at the man's absurdly impractical stubbornness.

Valygar squinted at the Hands of Takkok being waggled at him like a pair of soiled breeches, and certainly would have spat on the ground if he hadn't been looking so obviously dehydrated.

"I would rather use my bare fists against the denizens of the hells than soil my hands with foul enchantments."

Yet conveniently slumming in his family's enchanted heirloom armor and wagging around his magical katana, Aerie inwardly pointed out with a barely suppressed eyeroll. She huffed and proceeded to slip one hand into the gauntlet.

"And what do you think you're doing?" Valygar snapped, still possessing the vigor to admonish despite his condition.

"I need to see if I can attune to this thing-" Aerie murmured, her voice trailing as she lent her mind to focusing on the gauntlet.

It worked! A vitalizing energy hummed through her arm. Encouraged by the unexpected success, Aerie donned the other gauntlet and paused to wiggle her fingers. She turned to face the ranger.

"What?" Valygar sputtered. "I do not like the way you are looking at me."

"Oh shush it, you," Aerie hissed, impatient now. "These should give me the strength to help you up, enough for us to walk back together and find our friends." Oh, hopefully they would all be fine and not worrying too much about them. Especially poor dear Minsc and sweet Boo who might be fretting and fussing over them.

With the ease of handling a rag doll but with more care, Aerie hoisted the ranger up her shoulders just as before. "Can you move your legs, at least?"

"I can try," Valygar said, unsure but determined.

A few steps proved otherwise.

Aerie sighed. "A piggyback ride?"

"You can try," Valygar said, unsure but willing.

But not all the strength-enhancing magic in the realms could counteract the fact that she was too short while his legs were too long.

Only one way to do this, then.

"Don't you try," Valygar warned, sure and unwilling.

"Then try to trust me," Aerie said with an oddly daring grin.

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During the years of traveling with the circus, Aerie herself had watched a number of plays. Often, those where the brave hero and his beautiful lady ended up marrying, culminating to a happy ending where the groom swept up his wife in his arms to carry her over the threshold of their simple cottage home, or grand castle.

Well, how they're going about now certainly might not be something romantic enough for a play.

She glanced at Valygar, biting her lip to keep from giggling at the sight of the ranger.

Valygar- adorably flustered with his arms circled around her neck and shoulders as she bore him like a blushing bride in her magically-fortified arms.

Through the corridors presently and thankfully clear of any foes, the pair marched carefully, even solemnly. Valygar guided her on which way to turn, his memory astonishingly accurate for being able to retrace their steps despite his earlier state.

Aerie exhaled, suddenly overcome with an odd wish. If only these passageways were a little longer and farther.

Or ended into a welcoming doorway adorned with roses and ivy and lilies similar to the ones in those plays-

She tripped over a broken statue. Valygar twitched and tightened his embrace. Mercifully, Aerie quickly regained her foothold. But that brief moment of him trusting enough to hold on to her when he thought they might fall-

Valygar coughed as if to admonish his bearer to be more careful. Aerie mumbled a bashful apology and carried on. Not long and familiar voices floated through the corridor, just beyond the next corner.

"I fear for those two, especially with her so easily spooked at the slightest trouble-"

"Oh, Jaheira, go easy this time. Aerie's got magic, and Valygar's got a really sharp sword. I'm sure they're doing great by themselves. Maybe even better than we are now. Because we're out of rations. And I'm still hungry."

"Minsc and Boo are hungry as well! But how can Minsc eat beef jerky and Boo nibble on nuts if our dearest Witch is out there in grave danger! No, we must set out and save her and friend Valygar this instant!"

Their friends are here, and they're all right! Aerie's heart sang with relief.

Valygar cleared his throat, tapped at her shoulder and whispered, "If you could put me down now, I believe I can continue on my own feet from this point."

Disappointed yet complying, Aerie gently lowered and helped him stand, his arm still wound around her shoulder for support. They nodded at each other in quiet acknowledgment.

Though Valygar took his first tentative steps, still he leaned on her.

And yet-

So light and lifting on the heart, Aerie thought gladly of Valygar.

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Not-So-Shadowy Scribblings:

Written for the Baldur's Gate Gift Exchange 2023 and humbly offered to Ant_Agony who requested either of the following prompts: (1) Valygar interacting romantically with any of the female companions, bonus points if with a mage due to his prejudice against magic; or (2) Aerie finding any of the companions becoming very special and dear to her (other than Haer'dalis).

Why not BOTH and with each other, then? ^_^

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