The Grey Wardens' Leader

1.4 - I've Grown

Control by Halsey
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   Avril poked at the dying fire with a twig, her knees pulled to her chest. The tears fell from her eyes like a waterfall ever since they made it to camp. Nobody knew why, and nobody dared to ask. Any time that any of them got within two feet of her she practically bit their head off.

   She took a swig from a whiskey bottle, her face twisting in disgust before tossing the rest of the bottle into the fire pit. It was wasteful, as the rest of the group might've wanted the nearly full bottle of whiskey, but in that moment, she didn't care.

   The Dalish girl looked over at her friends sitting on the other side of the small fire, keeping their distance,"I shouldn't have taken my anger out on you..."

"Our latest expedition hit a little too close to home...I remember him beating on me so hard one time that I wondered if I would be alive when he was done. It's hard, living like that. You wake up every morning bitter and hateful, but still broken and naive. Maybe today will be the day he stops, you think. But it never is. It isn't over until you can get out."

   Avril cleared her throat, trying to prevent the tears from running down her cheeks. She slowly stood up and stretched,"I can't say that I would've done any different than Zathrian did, I would want the shoe on the other foot. They deserve to suffer for once."

   She sighed and mumbled,"I'm going to bathe in the creek..."

   The young elven woman walked over to the slow running body of water, stripping herself of her clothes. She stepped in slowly. The cool water took over her body as her breath hitched. She took her hair down and dunked herself underwater. Upon resurfacing, she took a deep breath and wiped the excess water from her face.

   The dried blood all over her skin would take some time to clean, one cut on her forearm especially aching to be cleansed.

"I didn't know of your...troubles. I'm sorry that I never made you feel safe enough to tell me."

   Avril rubbed her shoulders, trying to get the crusty maroon substance off of her,"It isn't that...Alistair, I trust you immensely. But sometimes, all you want, more than anything, is to forget what's happened to you. All I've ever yearned for was to erase those memories from my mind."

"Care to join me?", she looked up at him, water droplets falling from her forehead onto her eyelashes.

"Oh! I-I uh-", the blond man felt his face heating up as a deep crimson blush crept onto his cheeks.

   Avril laughed softly and wrung out her hair. It had become less white and more blonde on their adventures together, something he had noticed in these past few weeks. She shrugged and scrubbed at the bloody cut on her forearm,"It was just a suggestion, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

   She leaned against the edge of the bank, looking up at him as he spoke,"I guess that I just wanted it to be special, and not like...this, but I'm just now realizing that it is special...because I'm with you. Being near you makes me crazy, but I can't imagine my life without you. Not ever. Maybe this is too fast...I don't know, but I know what I feel."

"You want to spend the night together? Are you sure?"

Alistair nodded and sat down on the river bank,"Like I said, I wanted to wait for the perfect time, the perfect place, but when will it be perfect? If things were, we wouldn't have even met. We sorta...stumbled into each other, and despite it being the least perfect time, I found myself falling for you in between all the fighting and everything else."