Into the Woods (a Dragon Age fanfiction)

The Girl I Left Behind Me

Morrigan was studying Jennie's face intently. "We have met before, yes?"

Jennie nodded in response to Morrigan's frown of recognition. "Yes. In the Wilds. A long time ago."

"Very long. It is surprising to find you here, of all places. I would have imagined you to have perished in the Blight."

"Almost, but not quite."

"You have become more resourceful, then, since the first time I met you?" There was a small smile on Morrigan's face.

Jennie grinned in response. "I've had to, without you around to drag me out of the mud."

She vividly remembered the first time she'd seen the strange girl in the Wilds—Jennie had made a foolish misstep and had been caught in the mud, slowly being sucked further into the morass, when she looked up and saw a girl with raven-black hair leaning against a tree, calmly regarding her with exotic golden eyes. The girl had made a comment about fools who stepped in the mud deserving what they got, but when Jennie had asked, the girl got a long branch and between the two of them they managed to lever Jennie out of the mud. They had spent most of the afternoon hunting together. They'd seen each other once or twice more before Jennie's family had fled their village, but somehow had never gotten around to exchanging names. Jennie had wondered if perhaps the girl was some sort of spirit of the forest, appearing only occasionally to mortals. Now she knew.

"It never occurred to me when I met Asha'bellanar and she spoke of a daughter named Morrigan that she might mean you, although now I'm thinking it should have," Jennie said.

"Asha'bellanar? You met my mother?" Morrigan's already pale face whitened. "What did she say?"

"She spoke of you as a girl who thought she knew a lot more than she actually did," Anders put in.

"Apparently that is the case." Morrigan turned to look at Zev. "I was told my mother was dead."

Zev shrugged. "We spoke to an old woman in the Wilds, she turned into a dragon, we killed it—because we are awesomely skilled—and we harvested the bones and skin. You tell me, how does a person survive such a thing?"

"I don't know." Morrigan's gaze moved to Jennie. "Maybe you can tell me."

"I carried her in my pocket." Quickly, Jennie told the tale of meeting the old woman who was a dragon outside Lothering, of making a deal with her for their lives, and of setting her free from the amulet at the top of Sundermount.

"So Flemeth lives and is free to roam Thedas. It is worse than I had anticipated. We must hurry."

Fergus cleared his throat, joining the conversation for the first time. He looked pointedly at the horses and then at the densely hanging overgrowth before them. "I don't know how successful we'll be at hurrying."

"Nevertheless, we must." Morrigan looked coolly at the horses. "How valuable are they to you?"

"They carry things a lot better than I do," Varric said.

Morrigan snorted. "During the Blight, we carried all our belongings across Ferelden."

"Well, lah-di-dah," Isabela muttered under her breath.

"We could leave someone here with the horses," Fergus suggested.

"Unwise. The creatures who dwell in this place are more powerful than you may think—one warrior, even a skilled one, cannot hold them off."