The Youth of the Dalish: A Dragon Age Fan-Fiction Story

The Couple

He steeped out of the staircase and into the room where the stench of rotten flesh was stronger than ever. To his left and right, there were torches emitting a green light which he knew were not regular torches as he could feel the impure and unnatural magic that came from them. Below those torches, thick black metal bars made what looked like cells. Inside the rooms, was a wooden cot. Unlike the ones would find at a Dalish camp, these had no vines on top of them. One might just mistake them for a plane piece of wood.

He kept walking forward, unable to not help to stare dumbly at the barred chambers. When his face turned forth, he couldn't believe what his eyes saw; a rectangular wooden table with two people sitting on it. He couldn't quite see them as the green blaze did not give him sight of their faces. With bow at the ready, he crept towards them. As he closed in, he was able to tell one of them was a woman as her black long hair cascaded forward, covering half of her pale face. The other person he thought it to be a man. He had his squared back to Juli.

His bow did not warn him of any danger, but one can ever be too careful.

"Honey, you made it." The woman said with a wide smile.

He wanted his bow to tell him that this was the witch playing some kind of trick on him. Yet, no warning came from his magical arc. Dumbstruck by what he was seeing, he tried to keep his mind straight.

He wanted to point his bow at the woman that looked like Mother. But she was so identical to Mother; her long black hair, the thin body, and her soft eyes. His mind didn't want to believe it, but this was indeed Mother. "Who are you?" He tried his best to sound tough, but once again his twelve-year-old body didn't allow his speech such cadence—making his question sound like a plead rather than the hard question he tried to articulate.

The woman swung her head backwards, black trails fell on her back. She extended a limber hand over the edge of the wooden table. "It's me, Cathy."

Her bony hands were identical to Mother's. This is Mother. He took her hand, "We have to go Mother." He asked as he was already trying to pull her away from this eerie and evil place.

Her face softened, as it always did for her beloved son—outlined with nothing but tenderness. "Where? I have everything I need here." She gestured to the man that sat across from her. Juli followed her hand motion and almost his whole body staggered backwards as he was shocked by what his eyes showed him.

"But you're..." he couldn't mouth the words as he was looking at Father.

"Dead?" Father smiled widely. The tanned skin of his cheeks inflated by the smile. "Did you really think that witch could beat me?" He cocked his head, gesturing at the far end of wall.

He hadn't notice it before, but there was someone chained to the wall. At first he thought it was Mother, however, that thought was swept away by the purple contrast of the woman's skin. She was naked. Purple skin bearing every part of her. Her head hung. Her body was covered with bruises and tiny trickles of blood.

Father extended out a hand. "You have nothing to worry about, little hunter."

He turned to look at Father. Dumbfounded by everything, he couldn't help it and extended out his hand. He could finally be with Mother and Father. Maybe living here wouldn't be so bad as long as Mother and Father were with him. Perhaps the whole clan could live down here, away from the danger and harassment of Thedas. Away from Templars. Happy and away from the dangers of the world. His fingers could feel the warmth that radiated from Father's skin. Finally after all, I could, after all of this, be with Father...forever and ever. At last their fingers touched one another, two puzzle pieces that were meant to be coming together.