The Elf, The Dwarf, and the Stars
Chapter 1: A Hole, a Chance, and a Fire
Athelya was taking a casual stroll the forests of the "New Elvish Promise", the parcel of land granted to the Hero of Ferelden's clan upon the Hero of Ferelden… hero-ing.
Never thought old Laeronna would've been that special, Athelya mused to herself as she watched. Certainly never thought she'd be the kind to run off with a shem from Orlais… but they were pretty together. Matching red hair and all that. I miss her sometimes though… and Tamlen… time is never kind to our people, is -
Her musings were unfortunately quickly cut off by her foot not finding ground where it expected it. She slipped, fell, and screamed. The fall lasted a few seconds before she arrived unceremoniously at the ground. Just as she was dusting herself off, she found herself face to face with a small, round person.
"Ah! Ma dar Durgen'len o elgar?!"
"Uh… I don't speak elvish, I'm afraid," the young dwarven woman said, standing back. She offered Athelya a hand. "But I'm friendly… promise!"
"Oh, uh… sorry," Athelya responded, slowly accepting the hand up. "I was a bit shocked… I just asked if you were… never mind."
"Ah, well, I would ask whatcha were saying… but I know that the language's a touchy subject. Say, what are ya doing out here?" Looking down on her, Athelya saw that this dwarf couldn't be too much older than her, relatively, and that she had the most pockets of any dwarf Athelya had ever seen. Then again… this was the first one.
"Uh… what are you doing… up here?" Athelya asked. "Isn't this a little… close to the sky for you?"
"Oh, right, that! Well, uh, it's a long story," the dwarf said. "Best over some food, if you have the time."
"I… don't know if I do," Athelya responded. "I was on a scouting mission, and -" her ears perked up. "Wait, a second."
The dwarf nodded.
Athelya crept closer towards one edge of the small space the two were in, noting that it seemed to be some sort of natural formation, a hole in the dirt, eroded away by some long-gone water. Eventually, pressing her ear to the soil, she heard what she feared.
"Is there a tunnel, entrance to this place, not above ground?" She asked.
"Yeah," the dwarf responded, pointing behind the two of them. "That's how I got here. Had to collapse it a ways in though, darkspawn and all that."
"You – you know what, never mind! We need to get in that tunnel, multiple someones are running and if they run across the hole like I did -"
"They'll fall in," the dwarf caught up. "You go ahead, I've got sensitive equipment I've gotta grab!"
Athelya bolted for the tunnel as the dwarf woman picked up her equipment in a rush, before running with her stumpy legs. She just reached the entrance to the tunnel as three figures came crashing down into the cavern a second or two after each other.
Two of the figures were first revealed as large and armored. Then details resolved into warped flesh and bones, and the elf was already drawing her bow. The third figure stood up slower than the first two, rising to a height slightly shorter than them.
"Halt!" The redheaded human shouted, slamming a staff into the ground. The two hurlocks did indeed stop in their tracks. Athelya took a shot with her bow at the one on the right, aiming right for its neck. With its paralyzed state, the shot was easy and the darkspawn was felled; but by the time she was grabbing another arrow, the other hurlock had come back to its senses and swung its sword at the mage, who just barely managed to block it with her staff.
"A little help here?" She asked, a little note of pleading in her voice.
"You brought them here!" Athelya responded, nocking her arrow.
"I know I've got it – there it is!" The dwarf woman shouted, throwing something from a bag she had been rummaging through. Athelya managed to catch a glimpse of it midflight, tracking it to its impact point on the hurlock – the creature burst into flames, and fell to the ground writhing. The mage stabbed it through the neck with her staff, and the flames died out with the creature. The dwarf dusted off her hands. "Oooh, thanks for the warning, elf girl! They totally would've wrecked my equipment otherwise!"
"Uh… no problem," Athelya said, keeping her bow raised, pointed at the mage. "So, shem, who are you, why are you in elvhen land, and why are you walking around with darkspawn?"
"Hey, hey, no need for that," the mage said. "Uh, first question first, I'm Isabella, second question second, I'm here because I was chasing darkspawn… didn't realize I crossed into the promise… third, well, uh, like I said, I was chasing them… got a little separated from my friends, though."
"And why should I believe you, apostate?" Athelya asked.
"Hey… don't act like I had a choice in the matter," Isabella said. "Thanks to that Anders fellow up in Kirkwall, my options were get murdered by Templars, or sneak out the back with my friends. I haven't been fighting the Templars… just trying to let the people see that mages can be useful to them, that we're not monsters."
"That remains to be seen, shem," Athelya responded, lowering her bow.
"Uhh, could we cool it with the racism, please?" The dwarf asked.
"You're in elvhen land too, dwarf," Athelya said. "And you never did answer why."
"Short answer, I wanted to study the stars! And, uh, I don't have good maps of the surface… I thought the elves didn't have land?" The dwarf woman breached the topic uneasily, clearly not wanting to offend.
"The Hero of Ferelden gave it to us," Athelya said. "I trust you know of her?"
"Oh, Laeronna? Yeah, she was down in Orzammar for a bit! Actually… okay, the still abbreviated version is that I was friends with a girl named Dagna who wanted to study magic… and while she would read about magic, I read about the stars… I thought they'd be really cool to study, and maybe I could learn something from them! Thanks to Laeronna, Dagna left to go to a Circle and follow her dream! So I figured, hey, I could too! Took me a while to find the surface, but now I finally have! I'm Regneta, by the way," Regneta smiled.
"Right…" Athelya said, glancing at Isabella uneasily.
"I heard of her," Isabella said. "Dagna of Orzammar… she left the Circle before the war."
"Oh, that's good to hear!" Regneta said. "Uh… could I ask what, specifically, the war's about? I've… been in the Deep Roads for a while."
"If we tell you, you tell us why a dwarf isn't afraid of falling into the sky?" Athelya asked.
"Deal!" Regneta smiled. "And I'll cook dinner!"
A/N: An idea inspired by a Reddit post. Not sure how long this will go for, just, as long as my motivation keeps, I suppose. Could be a couple chapters or could hit the events of Inquisition (and give me motivation to actually go back and finish all my 100 side quests and like 2 main story quests). See y'all in the next one (probably-maybe)! - JStar14H