Sisters of Tevinter

Giants and Lotus

      "I'm going down there!" Bull clapped Krem across the shoulders and started running down the trail down to the shore, his massive frame blurred by fog. 

       Solas emerged from the adjacent tent and glanced at Jor with a weary smile. He looked intrigued at least. Jor was starting to grin, the knowledge of what just happened sinking in. "That was a Vinsomer! A storm dragon!" 

         The mage nodded. People were shouting, waking the heavy sleepers in various degrees of awe and terror. The ones who had missed it were clamoring for details, Dane was barking at the top of his canine lungs to join the hubbub. 

         Burning with curiosity and ducking all the noise, Jor threw her coat over her shoulders and started to trot down the trail to follow the Iron Bull, tying her scarf around her neck. 

           The qunari was still thundering along the shore, boots splashing in tidepools. Jor, fleet and small, caught up to his side. Out of breath, she smiled slightly as she saw him still beaming like a child. "Fan of dragons?"

           "Oh, you have no idea," Bull puffed, laughing. 

           Jor jogged beside him in the damp dawn air, the ocean lapping at her boots and felt rather good about everything despite the ache in her lungs. The shore swept gently in a shallow crescent and suddenly the water swirled with dark red pigment. 

           The behemoth corpse of the giant lay in the receding foam of another wave, its head nearly severed from its massive shoulders. Jor tucked her scarf over her nose with a grimace from the smell, clambering over the abandoned trunk of its oaken weapon. 

            "You don't think she'll come back, do you?" Bull asked eagerly, shading his eye and scanning the clouds. 

           "Not while we're around. The Vinsomer prefer isolation to all else." Jor paced along the giant's side, natural stone and layers of blistered hide crossed its ribcage. She'd never seen a giant so close before, only from a distance in the mountains of the Hinterlands. She felt so small, the creature was so alien, it was exhilarating. The tusks are ivory! Jor grinned beneath her scarf, running an awed hand over the smooth curve of bone in the sand. "Amazing," she murmured. 

            Bull sighed heavily, looking disappointed, but still smiling slightly. "I'd love to kill a dragon." 

            "Kill?" Jor looked up.

            "Well yeah." He glanced at her. "Isn't that the greatest challenge?"

           "Oh, so it's an honor thing." Jor nodded and crouched beside the giant's corpse, drawing her dirks to carefully carve out a chunk of leather. The hide was tough. Perhaps it could be used for armor, or it could be resistant to magic. She wondered how the mineral deposits were sustained on the creature's skin.

             "Nope. It's a fun thing." Bull grinned back up at the sky. "God, I'd love to kill a dragon."

             Qunari and adrenaline highs. Noted. Jor furrowed her brow and continued her work. 

            "Hey, how d'you know about Vinsomer anyway?"

            "Oh. Just stories mostly. But I studied Ferelden Frostback hatchlings for a long time." The scholar jerked her face out of the way of a spurt of blood as she dug out a large chunk of stone and skin, dipping it into the surf to wash away the blood. The underside was soft and gooey, green in color, as if some kind of algae grew inside the beast. Fascinating. 

            "That sounds like fun," Bull was saying, nodding approvingly. "Ever wrestle a dragonling? Are they strong?" 

             Jor winced, her spine itching with remembered pain. "...Yes." She rose. "They are very strong."