Captured [Book one]

I wish I could...

The inquisitor should be on her way back, with whatever she would have found by the alter of Mythal. I hoped she had found a way to defeat Corypheus' dragon. If anything, it had sounded so disgusting when Lavellan had described it to me. Like one of those red lyrium mutated soldiers. If I even could call them that. I mean, those things looked like drunk men from London at night, thinking 'hamburger' when looking at you. Literally! Hamburger! They had lost all their humanity, and now was a bunch of humanoids, gurgling and hissing while thinking about what part of you they wanted to chew on. Cannibals. No, that would not be correct, they are barely human. So that means, Corypheus' dragon was barely dragon. More a monster.

"Stupid flying dinosaur" I groaned, hiding my face in my hands, rubbing the skin lightly. "And you..." I growled, looking down at my stomach. "... stop making me puke my insides out"

"Sister, stop blaming it" I snapped my head to see Renine, my brother, lean on to the door frame, his thumbs hooked in his belt and a grin across his lips. His cherry red hair was messy and wet, sticking out like he had been electrocuted a hundred times over. "How would you like taking a ride with me?"

"Sure" I smiled, following Renine out of my room, through the gardens and along the battlements.

"You know, I was hoping you'd decided to stay" My brother said after a while, his back facing me. I dropped my head, biting back some extremely bitter tears of remorse and anger. It angered me that they constantly nagged me about it. But there was the feeling of happiness as well. They obviously liked me.

"I just can't" I mumbled, hoping my brother would understand why. And for some odd reason I was sure Renine would express his disappointment. But he did not. He kept quiet as we approached the stable.

"Ah, Renine and Elise, you going out for a ride?" Master Dennet, the stable master, questioned, his eyes studying us from under his graying, bushy brows. "I have a bog and a hart that needs a ride"

"I will have the hart" I blurted out. I was not riding something that was taken out of a horror movie, because the Bog Unicorns are scary. Mumified horses possessed with some form of a spirit. Plus it had a giant sword pierced through its head. No thank you, I keep to the familiar stuff that is less proned to eat me.

"I will have the Bog, I guess" Renine moaned, looking at me sideways. I looked back at him, backing up with my hands in front of me.

"Oh no, I am not swapping" I refused, looking pleadingly at Dennet, who choked a laugh.

"Renine, let her have the hart" Dennet chuckled, leading us to the mounts. I sighed with relief as Renine went in the Bog's stall.

The ride was fairly quiet as we had our mounts carve through knee deep snow, glittering in a golden light from the after noon sun. The river glittered and birds flew high above our heads, chirping in a jolly tune. The beauty of it all made my heart break from just thinking about leaving it all behind. Like it meant nothing. Although it mean a lot.

"Stupid rift" I growled under my breath, cursing the one thing having me debate my values of staying or leaving. If I left, I would leave the one man I loved. If I stayed, my friends and family would never know what happened to me. They would only know I was happy. But was the price of happiness worth leaving my family behind? My friends?

"Seems like you are debating yourself" Renine pointed out beside me.

"What made you stay?" I questioned, my fingers playing with a few strands of hair between my fingers.

"Beside my wife?" Renine asked, scratching his chin.

"You stayed, because of your wife?" I asked, shocked. Renine had been quite the womanizer back in London. A new woman every weekend after partying till he was unable to stand. The way Renine had changed completely. Like he had blossomed after meeting his wife. It was like black against white. "What is she like?"