Into the Woods (a Dragon Age fanfiction)

The Winner Takes It All

Jennie could see the gleam of the Driazi's scales as they backed through the trees toward the clearing where she waited. They moved all-but-silently; in comparison with them the Chantry's well-trained soldiers sounded like rank amateurs, crackling their way through the forest. As the Driazi reached the clearing they scattered, diving into the underbrush on either side. The Chantry fighters followed, looking bewildered when they broke into the clearing and there was no one to fight. Jennie drew her bow, taking careful aim, and sent the arrow through the eyehole of the front Chantryite's helmet.

That was the signal for her team to go into action. Fenris's deep voice and Oghren's berserker howl echoed through the woods as they burst from cover. The startled Chantry fighters lost precious moments setting for the unexpected attack, which left an opening for Anders to freeze one with a well-targeted blast of ice, and Jennie to send an arrow into the kneecap of another. She gave a hurried glance in Anders's direction, hoping he wouldn't get carried away and use a fireball. He'd done that on Sundermount once, and it had taken all his efforts and Merrill's and Marethari's to get the resulting fire under control. He was totally focused on the scene below them, shooting blasts of energy whenever he thought he could hit someone without damaging Oghren. He was taking less care to avoid Fenris, and one of the energy blasts caught the elf square in the small of the back, causing him to fall to his knees and cry out in pain. A Chantry fighter raised a hand axe above Fenris's unprotected head; Jennie aimed an arrow and sent it through the man's arm. He dropped the axe, which narrowly missed Fenris's foot, and danced back, howling, as he tried to break the arrow in order to remove it from his arm. Jennie wished him luck; her arrows were specially made by a contact of Bodahn's with reinforced shafts that made them extremely hard to remove.

Fenris had recovered by now and was up on his feet. His sword sliced into the neck of the wounded Chantry fighter, taking care of any need to remove the arrow. Fenris glared in Anders's general direction before rejoining the fray. Three of the Chantry's men were down now, the last two standing back to back in the middle of the clearing as Oghren and Fenris faced off against them. Oghren screamed, spraying spit all over his Chantryite, before rushing the man. Unable to stand in the face of Oghren's rush, the man broke and ran, only to be caught by a paralysis spell from Anders and a final, well-aimed arrow from Jennie. Meanwhile, Fenris was stalking his man, who was warbling a nervous canticle in a high, thin voice. Jennie grinned. She was pretty sure the Maker couldn't hear you from here, if he could hear at all. At last the Chantryite tripped over a rock, falling flat on his back. It was ironic, Jennie thought, that Fenris should be dealing the man his final blow, since Fenris agreed with so many of the Chantry's precepts. Equally ironic that lyrium should be the way a faithful son of the Chantry should go. Perhaps he'd go out on a nice lyrium high.

On the ground, Fenris withdrew his dripping hand from the man's chest cavity. The giant beast they'd seen earlier had not reappeared, which surprised Jennie. She had expected it would show up when the blood and screaming started.

"Fenris!"

The elf turned, looking up at her with the wildness of battle in his green eyes.

"Do you hear that thing out there anywhere?"

He raised an eyebrow, turning to face the forest, his ears twitching. "Yes. It is coming closer."

She envied his self-possession; she was scared senseless.

Two of the Driazi emerged from the woods. They looked in the same direction Fenris was, nodding, with expressions of satisfaction on their broad, flat faces. Jennie could hear the pounding feet of the great beast now, moving ever nearer, until its big head poked through the trees, saliva dripping from its fangs.