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greykestrelwrites · 9 years

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We’ll Bleed For This Cause (eleven)

Chapter Title: Coughing Blood

Fandom: Dragon Age (Origins)

Summary: Their cause isn’t an easy one, and at the end of the day they trudge back to camp beaten and bloody but never broken. A series of inter-connected one-shots based off the thirteen different injuries the characters in Dragon Age: Origins can acquire.

Rating: Teen (descriptions of injuries)

Characters: Elissa Cousland, Alistair, Zevran

Notes: Also on AO3 and fanfiction.net

Chapters: first | previous | next

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“I hate this,” Elissa groaned, butting her forehead against the side of Alistair’s leg. Once again she’d managed to draw the short straw when it came to who’s turn it was to have a moderately serious injury, and once again Alistair had volunteered to sit by her while she dealt poorly with the fallout of said injury. Not that she’d call it an injury, not in the traditional sense anyway. She hadn’t been stabbed, or punched, or shot even. Instead she’s simply inhaled at the wrong time.

It all started with their trip into Denerim. For some reason or other every time they stepped foot into the city someone was trying to kill them. And by kill them she meant kill them, as in, Elissa or members of her party specifically. It was an interesting change from the random bandit shakedowns or darkspawn they usually encountered.

The first time they ran into some thugs in a back ally. The thugs had talked themselves up but in the end it was Elissa and her companions who came out victorious, as usual. Not that back ally thugs were much of a threat or challenge after some of the crazy battles they had fought on the road.

The second time it was personal, sort of. A wannabe hero and his buddies had somehow figured out, and by ‘figured out’ Elissa meant guessed, that she and Alistair were Grey Wardens and they wanted the bounty on their head. That had ended very quickly too.

Third time wasn’t really their charm however, when some old assassin ‘friends’ of Zevran’s had cornered them in a side street. After establishing that Zevran wasn’t going to leave with them the assassins had, to the surprise of no one, attacked them.

Being the sneaky assassins they were, however, their opponents had brought more than just traditional weapons to the fight.

Elissa had just dealt with her current opponent and turned around to face the next, recognising him as the leader. She lunged forward to attack only to have the assassin throw a fine powder into her face before he darted off to the other side of their impromptu battlefield, leaving Elissa stunned and disoriented. It was only afterwards that they found out it was a little more than just your average dirty fighting trick.

Elissa had been coughing, trying to get whatever it was she had inhaled out of her lungs and throat when Zevran suddenly dumped a bucket of water over her head.

“Hey!” both she and Alistair had shouted at the same time. “What was that for?” Elissa asked before Alistair could jump in and throttle Zevran, which it looked like he wanted to.

“We don’t need anyone else inhaling that,” Zevran replied. “Or in your case, any more.”

“Inhaling what? A bit of dust? Dirt?” Elissa brushed some of her now sopping wet hair out of her face.

“That was an assassin’s weapon,” Zevran explained as he returned the bucket to the nearby well, “designed to get into the lungs and throat. It works fast and is fatal if not treated promptly and properly.”

“Oh.” And now not only did Elissa look like a drowned rat, she looked like a very pale drowned rat.

“You know how to treat it though, being an assassin and all?” Alistair asked, having dropped back into an intimidating arms-crossed-over-chest pose.

Zevran mimicked his pose, managing to look just as intimidating while standing almost a head shorter Alistair. “Yes. I do.”

“As nice as all this male posturing is, can we perhaps do something about the potentially fatal powder I just inhaled?” Elissa kicked Alistair’s ankle for emphasis, knowing if she could get him to back down Zevran would too.

Eventually they had decided it would be best to get back to camp to begin her treatment with the magical assistance of Wynne. It was half way back to the camp was when Elissa started coughing up blood. They weren’t too worried about that until they reached the camp and found out that Wynne had left on an errand with Leliana and the pair wouldn’t be back until the following afternoon.

Which brought them to where they were now, with Elissa suffering though the non-magical remedy for her predicament because no one trusted Morrigan with healing magic unless it was a last resort.

“I can’t breathe,” Elissa said into the side of Alistair’s leg. “I feel like I’m going to die.”

“Oh don’t be so dramatic,” Alistair said, gently massaging the back of her neck with one hand. “Zevran said you’d be fine. It’s just going to be hard without the magic, not fatal.”

“Uuuggghhh.” There was a sympathetic squeeze on the back of her neck that made Elissa smile. The smile quickly faded however when she was overcome by another coughing fit. She quickly pushed Alistair’s hand away and rolled to her side, raising herself up on one elbow so she could spit out a glob of blood onto the grass. The lingering coppery taste in her mouth made her gag and she spat once more on the ground before flopping back down on her back next to Alistair.

“Don’t look at me,” she groaned, reaching up to turn his head away but he caught her hand before she could.

“I’ve seen all kinds of battles, most of them with you. I think I can handle you hacking up a little of blood- even though it is a tad unsettling.”

“A lady does not spit!”

Alistair laughed. “And who told you that?”

“My mother.” She coughed again, followed by a wheezing breath in. “A lady does not lie down either, unless it’s on a bed or chaise lounge.”

“It sound’s like there are a lot of things a lady should not do. How stifling.”

“It wasn’t so bad. I also think she was mostly joking.” She sighed lightly, but that brought on another coughing fit. She pulled her hand from Alistair’s and rolled to her side to once again spit on the ground. This was followed by another groan as she turned back to Alistair and curled in on herself, hiding her face from view.

“Are you alright?” Alistair asked. For a moment the only response he got was wheezing breathing and he worried she might have passed out, but her answer came eventually.

“Not really.”

A small smile quirked at Alistair’s lips, but was tempered by his sympathy for the state Elissa found herself in. He couldn’t imagine it would be comfortable.

“Can you do me a favor?” Elissa asked suddenly.

“Anything.”

“Unbraid my hair for me?” Her body was wracked with another wet sounding cough. “I’d do it myself but…” she half raised and arm before letting it fall back down to her side as explanation.

“Of course.”

At his acceptance Elissa slow sat up, moving slightly she was sitting in front of him and he could easily access her hair.

When Alistair looked at her hair he was reminded, not for the first time, just how intricately she appeared to style it. “Umm… I’m no Leliana but I’ll give it a shot.”

“It’s easier to take out than it is to put up, I promise.”

“If you say. Just don’t blame me if this goes wrong,” Alistair said, before finally setting to work on her hair. Despite his worry he worked easily to slowly take down each braid before removing the tie at the end and unraveling it with careful fingers. Not once did he catch his fingers in her hair when she had to lurch away from him to hack up some more blood either.

Thankfully it wasn’t that much longer until Zevran made his way over with the remedy. In his hands was a small bowl of steaming hot water, brewed with elfroot and some other herbs or plants- Elissa hadn’t really been paying much attention. Zevran seemed to know what he was doing regardless, so she had stayed out of his way while he worked on her cure.

He crouched down in front of her and handed over the bowl. “Breathe it in, don’t drink it,” he instructed. Both he and Alistair watched as she curled over the bowl sitting in her lap and breathed in deeply. Elissa’s breath out was a soft sigh.

“That did nothing,” she said, glancing up at Zevran from under her loose hair.

Zevran just rolled his eyes, noting the small smile she had been trying to hide. “It takes a little longer than that for the remedy to kick in.” He patted her cheek before standing up. “Just keep breathing it in, and let me know when it starts to go cold, I’ll heat up some more.”

As Zevran made his way back to the center of camp Alistair shuffled along the ground so he was sitting next to Elissa. He gave the concoction a tentative sniff, much to Elissa’s amusement. “At least it doesn’t smell terrible,” he said.

“Small comfort,” she managed to say before another coughing fit struck. Alistair grabbed the bowl before she could upend it in her lap. “Thanks,” she said when the coughing had subsided and he handed the bowl back to her.

“Maker knows we don’t need you scalding your legs on top of this.”

Elissa laughed carefully, trying to not aggravate her lungs any more. “Very true.” She bent back over the bowl, taking deep, even breathes. “It’s probably going to be a long night for me,” she told him after some companionable silence. “You don’t have to stay you know?”

“Bah, nonsense.” He brushed off her offer for him to leave, having not even considered it. “I’ve got nothing better to do. Besides, you’re the only one next to Oghren who isn’t going to punch me or set me on fire if I talk to them. I can go and see how long Shale can stand me if you really want me too.”

Elissa smiled again, making Alistair smile. “No. You can just stay here then if you can’t stay out of trouble.”

“Fantastic. You keep on breathing and I’ll just keep on watching you breathe, and yes, I did just realise how creepy that sounded but I assure you I meant it in the most non-creepy way possible.”

Elissa couldn’t help but chuckle quietly.

#dragon age #dragon age: origins #alistair theirin #zevran arainai #Cousland #Elissa Odele Cousland #fanfiction

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greykestrelwrites · 9 years

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A Change of Pace (Between Rocks and Hard Places)

Chapter One: Letters Fandom: Dragon Age (Inquisition) Summary: When Evelyn Trevelyan’s family writes to her after Corypheus’ defeat asking her to come back home for a visit she can hardly say no. With Evelyn the youngest of six children however, Trevelyan family reunions are not for the faint of heart. With her partner, Cullen, and close friends, Dorian and Bull, coming along for the trip she was sure it was going to be an enjoyable and relaxing vacation from Skyhold and the duties of the Inquisitor. She couldn’t have been more mistaken. From the moment they arrive things begin going wrong and Evelyn’s attempts to fix them just have her digging a deeper and deeper hole for herself. Within two days of arriving she finds herself dealing with an over-protective family she hasn’t informed about her relationship with Cullen, an old admirer from before she left for the conclave, and two unexpected marriage proposals. With everything a complete disaster Evelyn has to find a way to set things right without stepping on any toes, but nothing can ever go smoothly where the Trevelyan’s are concerned. Written for the Dragon Age Big Bang 2015. Rating: G Characters: Evelyn Trevelyan, Cullen Rutherford, Dorian Pavus, Iron Bull, the Trevelyan Family Notes: Also on AO3 and fanfiction.net. There should be accompanying artwork, being a big bang, but my artist has not been in contact with me since before our post date :( Hopefully that changes soon and everything is a-okay. Chapters: next

The letter Evelyn received could be described as nothing short of huge. As she pulled multiple sheets of paper from the envelope the thickness reminded her of the contracts and reports Josephine was always insisting she read. The contracts and documents she usually was able to get through five pages of before Josephine took pity on her and handed over an abridged version she’d penned for herself earlier. This letter, however, Evelyn knew she would read every single word inked onto the pages, probably more than once.

Upon closer inspection Evelyn found it wasn’t just one enormous letter, it was actually multiple lengthy letters. With a smile she curled her legs underneath her and shuffled further up her gaudy Orlesian bed so she could lean against the headboard. Carefully she began separating the letters out from one another on the bedspread before her, the smile never leaving her face as she took note of familiar penmanship and names. When the entire contents of the package were laid before her she was able to count nine individual letters and a number of children’s pictures. Evelyn hesitated, unsure of which to pick up first.

She was spared from making a decision when she heard a loud steady knock at the door to her room.

“Come in,” she called, glancing over to the stairs as she waited for her visitor to make themselves known. Evelyn couldn’t help the small sigh when she finally saw Cullen’s golden hair though the stair’s banister. “I thought I told you that you don’t have to knock?” she said as he reached the top of the stairs.

Cullen had the decency to look a little sheepish as he replied. “I know, I know. I just want to be polite. I’d hate to barge in.” As he walked towards the bed he finally noticed the abundance of paper spread across its surface. “Uh, what’s all this? Am I interrupting?”

“You’re not interrupting,” she chided softly. She shuffled over on the bed and patted the empty space. “Sit, I was just about to begin reading the letters from my family.” Evelyn smiled as she said the word ‘family’, a soft and fond quirk of her lips as her eyes darted back to the parchment.

“These are all from your family?” Cullen asked, unable to keep all of the surprise out of his voice. He began to strip himself of his plate armor, placing the pieces down gently to the side of the bed. “I must say that’s a lot of writing.”

Evelyn laughed. “It is. By the looks of things most of my family had something to share. These are from mother and father,” she gestured to two of the letters sitting side by side, “these from my brothers and sisters,” she waved her hand towards the largest group of letters, “and it looks like these last few are from my nieces and nephews.” She picked up one of the children’s drawings, a crude rendition of a woman with long black hair holding a bow, and held it up next to herself so Cullen could see. “I think this is supposed to be me.”

Cullen glanced at the drawing as he removed the last piece of his armor and snorted. “That’s quite the portrait,” he said. He sat down on the edge of the bed and took the drawing from her hands, looking over it with a small smile of his own. “And who, exactly, created this?”

“Uh…” Evelyn glanced at the back of the piece of parchment, pushing it up slightly with one finger so she could see the name scrawled on the back. “That would be my niece, Norah. She’s, um, six years old now I think.” Evelyn flopped back onto her abundant pillows. “Maker, her and her brother were four years old when I left to assist at the conclave. It’s been so long, I’m surprised she remembered enough about me to draw that.” She took back the picture when Cullen handed it to her and placed it off to the side. She waited until Cullen pulled his legs up onto the bed and made himself comfortable before she told him, “I don’t know who’s to read first.”

Cullen chuckled. “You certainly are spoilt for choice.” He gave the letters a quick once over. “Well, who is most likely to include the most important or urgent information in their letter?”

“Definitely my mother,” Evelyn said without hesitation. She reached for the letter farthest away on the bed. It consisted of two sheets, double sided, covered in small, perfectly legible, cursive writing. In all her life Evelyn had never come across anyone with neater handwriting than her mother, and she was sure many a scribe would make a deal with a demon just to be able pen words with the effortless grace Anissa Trevelyan could.

Letter in hand, Evelyn sat back against the headboard and leaned into Cullen’s side. Cullen draped an arm over her shoulders and pulled her in closer. Evelyn let out a deep breath. “Okay, here we go.” She cleared her throat. “’My dearest daughter Evelyn. Word has reached us here in Ostwick that your endeavor to protect Thedas from forces that would see it harm has come to fruition. The Free Marches saw little, if any, of the struggles and danger those countries further south did, but I am sure we would have without your efforts to prevent it. Admittedly we don’t know as much as we would like about this breach and the effect it had on Ferelden and Orlais aside from your few and far between letters-‘” Evelyn stopped reading with a grimace. “That’s certainly an admonishment.”

“At least you did write,” Cullen said.

“Mmm, yes, I remember you have a problem with that,” Evelyn replied with a smile. “’-most other information came to us through the Teryn and the few people travelling to Ostwick from the south. I am sure, however, that you will be able to provide us with a full and detailed account when you visit home in the coming months.’ Wait, visit home?”

“You weren’t planning on going back home?” Cullen asked.

“No, I was, it’s just that it’s a bit presumptuous. Not to mention there’s still so many things that need to be done here and-“

“Evelyn,” Cullen interrupted with a smile, “you’re allowed to take some time off. I daresay Leliana and Josephine would hardly argue against it.”

“And what about you, Commander?” Evelyn turned her head slightly so she could look him in the eye. “Would you argue against it?”

Cullen laughed. “Not if it meant I got to spend more time with you.”

“Good answer,” Evelyn said, placing a quick kiss on his chin. “I digress though, where was I?” She took a moment to skim though the letter and find where she’d left off. “Ah, ‘Your father has included a formal invitation to you, not that you aren’t welcome at any time, and any members of your Inquisition that you wish to bring with you. You father has it all outlined in his letter so I shall stop stealing all his glory, you know how your father mopes when I do, and instead inform you of all you have missed while away.’”

“A ‘formal invitation’?”

“That’s just my father being my father. It’s a joke. Probably.”

Still, Evelyn reached for her father’s letter to see just what this formal invitation said. She read over it quickly before laughing quietly and handing the parchment to Cullen. “Here. It’s hardly serious, he just wants me to come home,” she said.

“And when exactly will you be going home?”

“Soon. Like you said I’ll have to speak to Leliana and Josephine, work out travel arrangements, make sure everyone here is sorted before I leave, plan for-“

“Are you scared to go home?” Cullen asked suddenly, a small smile on his face.

“No,” Evelyn said, trying to sound suitable affronted by the idea. “No, I just- maybe I’m a little worried about what everyone might think. That’s not unreasonable is it?"

“Evelyn, judging by this,” Cullen gestured to the letters strewn across the bed, “your family seems the loving and accepting sort. Perhaps it’s okay to be a little worried, but no more than that. I’m sure they’ll simply be happy to see you.”

“You’re right,” she said. Then, nodding to herself, said again, “Of course you’re right. I’m being silly.” She took her father’s letter back from Cullen and placed it down on the bed once more. “Let’s forget about the details for now and keep reading. It can be something like an informal introduction to my family for you.”

“I can’t think of anything better to do with my night,” Cullen replied.

The pair snuggled back up together as Evelyn looked back to her mothers letter.

“’It has been much the same since your departure, but my how the grandchildren, nieces and nephews to you, have grown...’”

#dragon age: inquisition #trevelyan #cullen rutherford #dragon age big bang #evelyn sophia trevelyan #fanfiction

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greykestrelwrites · 9 years

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DABB Complete and Edited

I did it, ladies and gents. My Dragon Age Big Bang fic is officially completed and is also my longest ever fanfic!

Look at that! Look at all those words!

Anyway, I’m working on uploading it now but still waiting on my artist’s art piece but I will reblog the master post here when everything is up and linked to :D

#greykestrel writes fanfic

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greykestrelwrites · 9 years

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Dragon Age BB Update

13,663/10,000

So I’m a lazy piece of shit and still haven’t completed a full draft of my story. There are some parts that are pretty much 100% done but others that aren’t even written, oops. Going to come down to the wire for me but I’ve always been like that XD

Bad news is i’m about 98% sure my artist is no longer participating. I’ve yet to hear officially but yeah, hasn’t been any contact from them which has kinda made it a bit hard to continue to be excited about the project. I will continue, however, to try and get it done by the deadline and hopefully a new artist is found. If you know any cool artists who be willing to help out send them over to dragonagebb.tumblr.com so they can contact the mods!

#greykestrel writes fanfic

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greykestrelwrites · 9 years

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Dragon Age BB Update

10,000/10,000 !!!!!!

I did it! Yay! Story is about seventy-five percent finished and needs a lot of editing but I have enough to submit my rough draft now.

#dragon age big bang #greykestrel writes fanfic

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greykestrelwrites · 9 years

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Dragon Age BB Update

7,976/10,000

Writing this thing like I used to write my university essays- at the last minute.

Got the very end scene down, the start is mostly done, just fleshing out all the middle bits now. I’ll definitely have enough to submit it on Thursday but no way is it going to be 100% done. At lest the whole plan is down though, because up until yesterday the was a whole section in the middle that was just ???

#dragon age big bang #greykestrel writes fanfic

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greykestrelwrites · 9 years

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Dragon Age BB Update

6,626/10,000

So only a couple of days until the rough draft is due and i’m (quickly does some maths) 3,374 words from the min 10,000. I feel like my story will be at least a few thousand over 10k but I have the whole thing mapped out now so even if I don’t get it all written my artist will at least have the outlines for the remaining scenes.

Today I’m going to try and hit that min of 10k. I’ll check back in when I hit it so keep and eye out XD

#dragon age big bang #greykestrel writes fanfic

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greykestrelwrites · 9 years

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Yo followers

There are 19 of you now. I have no idea where you all came from, but it makes me happy to see you <3 <3

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greykestrelwrites · 9 years

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Dragon Age BB Update

6,000 and something/10,000

So writing slowed down a bit since I started my substitute teaching work but I’m still getting bits and pieces done when I’m looking after the quieter classes (of which there aren’t to many unfortunately). Focusing less on good writing at the moment and more about just getting the basics down so I can go back and add all the flowery descriptions and such later.

#dragon age big bang #greykestrel writes fanfic

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greykestrelwrites · 9 years

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Dragon Age BB Update

4,165/10,000

Did it! Hit my goal of 4k by Wednesday. Well, if i'm honest it's now 23 mins into Thursday but whatever, it's still Wednesday in most of the world. I have no work until Tuesday too so hopefully I can maybe get to 10k over the weekend. No promises, but I am on a roll again so it's very possible :D

#dragon age big bang #greykestrel writes fanfic

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greykestrelwrites · 9 years

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Dragon Age BB Update

1,543/10,000

Didn't get a lot of writing done last few days. I've been busy trying to find casual teaching work (since I missed the period when school were advertising full time jobs) and good news is I have an informal interview on Tuesday at my old high school which is a pretty good indication that I could be working there very soon!

On the fic though: Hit a snag when I couldn't quite figure out how to end off my big opening scene. I actually have this problem a lot, I feel like the scene or chapter isn't at a good ending point but to continue it feels like i'm dragging it on and to end it feels really abrupt. So I was stuck on that for a bit but decided to jump ahead to the next part and leave the first section to deal with later. Anyway, jumping ahead seems to have worked and I've got my writing groove back for now.

Hopefully the next few days I can get a bit more writing done. I'm gonna set a goal of 4k by Wednesday, let's see if I can hit it.

#dragon age big bang #greykestrel writes fanfic

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greykestrelwrites · 9 years

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Dragon Age BB Update

807/10,000 words

Started writing the other day and was quite surprised with how easy it was to write (though I doubt it will stay this easy forever). This is my second attempt, first idea got to about 900 words but I wasn't overly happy with it and decided to go with my second idea.

It's a post-Inquisition piece, looking like it will mostly be a fun fic, some drama but nothing too crazy. At this point I feel like it may end up longer than 10k, which is good because I don't have to worry about the word count, but I do worry about getting it all the way to an ending. I don't know, we'll see how it goes :)

#greykestrel writes fanfic #dragon age big bang

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greykestrelwrites · 9 years

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We'll Bleed For This Cause (ten)

Chapter Title: Crushed Arm

Fandom: Dragon Age (Origins)

Rating: Teen (descriptions of injuries)

Characters: Elissa Cousland, Zevran, Oghren, Wynne

Notes: Also on AO3 and fanfiction.net

Chapters: first | previous | next

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Since visiting Orzammar and finding Oghren, cave exploring had become a thing. It was, however, a thing that Elissa was not so keen on partaking in. Being the intrepid leaded of their rag-tag group came with responsibilities though, and those responsibilities included cave exploring. So here she was in the last place she’d ever choose to be: a dark, cramped, and probably unstable, system of tunnels under the ground.

She’d put Oghren in charge as they made their way through the tunnels, or put him charge as much as one can put someone that appears to be almost permanently intoxicated in charge. The more she thought about it ‘in charge’ probably wasn’t entirely correct. ‘Leading’ was probably better, but leading in the sense that he was leading them in the right direction, not leading like being in charge leading. Though, maybe it would have been better if he were in charge leading, because Elissa couldn’t even remember why they were in the caves. Getting something for someone who was too lazy or too scared to get it themselves most likely. Yes, Elissa thought, that sounds about right. Will teach you for jumping up to be the first person to help everyone.

A stone clattered down from the roof and Elissa barely managed to stop herself from jumping in fright, instead suppressing it to a rather violent flinch. From the corner of her eye she saw Zevran glance her way. He was the only one who was walking by her, with Wynne walking further ahead and just behind Oghren who was on point. When she thought about it she realized he had made a point of either walking by her side or just behind her for most of the time they were in the tunnels.

Elissa finally turned her head to look at him properly. “Is something wrong, Zevran?”

The assassin gave her a critical once over before turning her own question back on her. “I might ask you the same thing. I though Wardens liked underground, fighting the darkspawn in the deep roads.” His tone was casual but his eyes gave away the fact that he was still studying her closely. Unable to meet his gaze, Elissa focused once more on Oghren up ahead.

“No. Maybe. I don’t know. I don’t know nearly as much about being a Grey Warden as I should, but I guess that’s what happens when the only mentor for thousands of miles dies at Ostagar.” She chewed on her lip for a moment in indecision before finally adding what Zevran had guessed at. “I don’t-“ She flinched again as another stone clattered down a nearby wall. “-don’t like tunnels or caves.”

Another quick glance to her side showed Zevran with a very slight smile on his face. “Not an unusual fear,” he said, “many people are scared of small, dark spaces.”

“Not all small spaces,” Elissa amended quickly, “just underground ones.”

Zevran was quiet for a moment and Elissa glanced his way nervously, wondering if it was something she said that had provoked the extended silence. Zevran met her glance with raised eyebrows. “Yes?” he asked.

“Oh, nothing.” Elissa offered him a small, if strained, smile. “Normally people have questions…”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Elissa shot him a confused look. “I, uh… not really?”

“Then I won’t push.”

Silence reigned again for a few moments before Elissa can’t help but speak up. “It’s not like it stems from any weird childhood trauma or anything. I just think it’s unsafe to be underground like this. I mean, what’s stopping all this rock from just tumbling down on our heads right now?” She narrowed her eyes when she heard Zevran’s quiet chuckles. “Don’t laugh! I’m serious. What if-“

“Ancestor’s tits!” Oghren exclaimed from a little further ahead.

Elissa couldn’t help the amused raising of her eyebrows at the expletive as she and Zevran caught up with the other two of their group. “What now?”

“Unless your fancy Warden powers allow you to walk though walls, that’s a problem.” Oghren jerked his head towards a build up of rocks right in the middle of their path where it looked like the roof had caved in.

Elissa was suddenly reminded of the fact that cave-ins were a definite possibility and felt her hands begin to become clammy once more. Despite talking about her fear, Zevran had effectively distracted her from the fact she was in the very place that provoked said fear, and she wondered if that had been his intention all along. “Um, maybe we should just go back?”

“What, and find another way around? I doubt it.” Oghren laughed loudly. “Even if we did find another path it would probably add hours to our time down here already.”

The thought of spending even longer down in the tunnels made Elissa grimace. “Then I guess we can’t do anything.” She looked to Oghren and waited for his affirmation but it never came. Instead, the dwarf was looking at the stack of rocks and boulders in a way that made Elissa suddenly more nervous. “Oghren…?”

“Better pray to your ancestors, or maker, or whatever it is you believe in Warden, because I might just be able to shift these,” Oghren said as he began clambering up the pile of rocks.

Wynne ‘hmm’-ed in a manner that suggested she didn’t think that was necessarily the best idea, and Elissa had to agree with her. “Um, Oghren,” Elissa said, taking a step forward and half-heartedly reaching out as If to stop him, “it’s fine, really. And I thought you were a warrior not a miner-“

“Ah-ha!” About half way up the rock pile that was blocking their path, Oghren stopped to prod at a rock about the size of his head with the butt of his axe. “This should do it.”

“Wait-!”

It was too late for Elissa’s warning however, as Oghren swiftly knocked the rock out of it’s place in the pile with a hit from his axe. It rolled down, cracking off other rocks in the pile before coming to rest at Elissa’s feet with no incident. Elissa let out a relived sigh.

“Huh,” Oghren said as he clambered back down. “I could have sworn that have done it.” No sooner had he finished his sentence that one of the rocks just above the one Oghren removed slipped from its place, clattering down the pile and to the ground. This stone was followed by another, and then another, and then before the group had time to realize what was about to happen, the entire pile of rocks collapsed and brought down even more of the tunnel roof with it.

In the chaos that was the roof collapsing around them, the small ball of magic Wynne had summoned up for them as a light disappeared. Elissa found herself in the dark trying to avoid getting hit on the head by one of the falling rocks as she stumbled back in what she thought was the direction they had come. She suffered no more than a few glancing blows for a moment but her luck didn’t hold for long. Unable to see, she stepped on a small, round, rock and felt her footing fly out from under her, sending her falling backwards to the ground in way that might have been comical if she wasn’t in immanent danger of injury.

The moment Elissa hit the ground she attempted to curl into a ball to protect herself from the rocks still falling. Then, almost a fast as it started, the rumble of the roof collapsing stopped, replaced by the sound of just a few small stones still rolling about. Tentatively, Elissa began to uncurl from the ball she was in. She breathed in, intending to call out for the others but instead found herself inhaling a heap of dirt and dust which just left her coughing and spluttering instead.

In the end it was Oghren who got the first words out. “Woo-boy. That was not what I expected.”

“Are you trying to kill us all you stupid dwarf?” Elissa heard Zevran say from somewhere off to her right.

“Wynne,” Elissa finally managed to get out, “can we have some light?”

“One moment,” came Wynne’s weary voice, before a moment later a ball of magic light shimmered into existence above them.

The first thing Elissa noticed was that if they thought they couldn’t get past the original cave in there was even less hope of doing so now. The second was that with the amount of rock that had fallen she was surprised all of them were still alive. The third was that they may have all been alive but they were certainly not uninjured.

Oghren appeared to be fine, aside from being covered in so much dirt and dust Elissa guessed it would take him at least a week to get it all out of his beard. Zevran had a few small cuts, but most noticeable was the sizable dent in the armor over his right shoulder. He appeared to be moving his right arm without too much difficulty though, so Elissa surmised it was probably just badly bruised at worse. Wynne seemed to have caught a rock to the head if the slight trickle of blood was any indication, but even she was slowly getting to her feet. Elissa was about to do the same when she finally realized that she couldn’t quite move her left arm.

Trying not to panic, Elissa glanced down at her arm and found that she couldn’t actually see it because it was covered by a couple of large rocks. Tentatively she wiggled her fingers and found that, despite being stuck, it was in perfect working order. Still, Elissa wasn’t all too keen on being pinned to the ground by her arm and began wriggling it around in an attempt to loosen up a bit of space so she could pull it out from under the rocks. Zevran was the first to notice her plight and crouched down beside her.

“I would suggest you wait a moment and let us help you,” he said as he tried to get a better look at just how stuck her arm was.

Elissa ignored his warning and continued to twist and tug her arm, feeling her heart rate slowly starting to increase the longer she was pinned. “No, it’s fine, I’ve got this.”

“The elf has a point there, Warden. Might want to be caref-“

“I said I’ve got it!” Elissa said sharply, cutting Oghren off. “I can feel it moving now…” She rolled slightly and placed her right hand on one of the larger rocks pinning her before giving her arm another strong tug. However, instead of her arm slipping out from under the stones, the precarious positions the rocks were in, that had allowed her arm to remain trapped but uninjured, shifted. The largest of the rocks slipped down and landed heavily on her arm with a crunch, leaving Elissa to suck in a pained breath.

Zevran and Oghren jumped into action quickly, between the two of them managing to start lifting the rocks off her arm. Wynne took up the space Zevran had been occupying when she knelt down by Elissa’s side. “And to think your leg had finally healed,” the older woman said.

“Sorry,” Elissa said, wincing as Zevran and Oghren finally removed the rock that had fallen down onto her arm.

“Don’t apologize to me,” Wynne said as she began an inspection on Elissa’s arm, thankfully without touching it. “You’re the one who keeps getting herself into these situations.”

“I don’t mean to. This isn’t exactly enjoyable,” Elissa replied.

“Wiggle your fingers please,” Wynne said. Elissa complied, and while the pain wasn’t terrible it was definitely there. Wynne then began her poking and prodding, which was quite painful, before giving her prognosis. “Well, it’s not as bad as what you did to your leg, but I doubt you’ll be using it for a while.”

“So it’s not broken?”

“At most I’d think it’s fractured, but I’ll be able to get a better idea once we’re back at camp. You’ll be fine until we get back, just make sure you don’t move it too much. In fact,” Wynne quickly helped Elissa to sit up and gently moved her arm so it rested diagonally across her chest, “if you hold it like this you’ll be in the least amount of pain and are less likely to worsen it.”

Carefully Wynne got back to her feet, relying on her staff for support a little too much in Elissa’s opinion. She just hoped that Wynne hadn’t been hit in the head too hard, but there wasn’t much they could do about it now. When they got back to camp though, Elissa was going to insist Wynne look after herself before helping anyone else. She could probably enlist Alistair and Leliana’s help with that too, they both liked and cared about Wynne. Still, they needed to actually get back to camp before that could happen.

Elissa spent a few moments trying to get up off the ground with the use of just one arm but eventually Zevran took pity on her, placing his hands under her armpits and hoisting her back to her feet with ease. “Thanks,” she said, as they began following Oghren and Wynne back towards the entrance of tunnel system. “And by the way, that is why I don’t like small underground spaces.”

Zevran laughed quietly. “After today? I think I might just agree with you.”

#dragon age #dragon age: origins #cousland #elissa odele cousland #zevran arainai #oghren #wynne #fanfiction

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