#Mor Av'in as a puppy

[ryuchanwings]

Companion Rayne- Meeting a Life long friend, Part 3

Cheering someone up after such a serious tragedy was really, really hard, and not something Rayne had ever attempted before.   She’d begun by sitting next to him at the fire after getting her food, holding out a biscuit in offering as she’d noticed he didn’t have one.  “Hi.  I’m Rayne!  I’m glad to see you’re awake.”  She said, flashing him a small, but friendly smile.  “You’ve been sleeping with my mom and me in our Araval.  She’s been looking after you.  You’ve been asleep for a while, aren’t you hungry?  We were pretty worried about you, you know.  I was with the others when they found you.  I’m not a full-blown hunter yet, but I have really sharp eyes, and I’m a pretty good shot.”   She rambled for a couple minutes before she realized he was just staring at her.  Not saying anything, not smiling or frowning, but just... staring.  She blinked before blushing, setting the biscuit on a piece of cloth next to his leg before turning back to her stew, taking her own bread and tearing off a piece before using it to scoop a bit of the thick stew onto it.  “Sorry.”  She said.  “I talk a lot, I know.”  There wasn’t a lot she could say.  She was sad for him, but to say too much would be kinda crass, like she was assuming she knew what he went through, and she would never, EVER know.  “... Sorry.”  She said again, leaning over slightly to touch her shoulder against his arm before moving back to her own personal space and working on eating her stew with the improvised starch spoon.   She was pleased that after a few more moments, he did begin to move, tearing off a piece of his own biscuit and copying her action, making her smile into her bowl.  He hadn’t given up yet.  And she wasn’t giving up either. ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Over the next couple of weeks, Rayne tried her hardest to get some sort of reaction from Taerel, hoping that the first one she got would be a positive one rather than angry at her for being an underfoot pest.  She sang some rather silly songs one day, until the Craftmaster chased her off to ‘Go be useful and pick some herbs if you’ve got time to be an annoying warbler’.  She told him about a few of her more interesting dreams, though he didn’t seem to notice.  He would talk, but that was mostly only to the grown ups, and only when he was asked a question.   She tried anything she could think of, offering to brush his hair, showing him the Halla (with permission), showing him her mother’s Hart (A beautiful rust-furred doe named Holly), taking him to where she shot practice arrows, purposefully falling into the river when she was trying to catch fish, having a few spectacularly clumsy moments (At least one of which wasn’t planned and wound up with her sprawled upside down and covered in dirty laundry and a rather foul-smelling herbal paste, that resulted in her doing nothing the next few days but replacing what she’d destroyed), and a couple other things, but nothing worked so far.  She was getting a little worried.  He was being allowed to stay until he decided what he wanted to do, but she was worried he might choose to leave, at this rate. Another week brought about another hunting trip, and Rayne heaved a heavy sigh as she walked by Aralith, the man chuckling at her sorrow.  Well, more like finding it amusing that his protege seemed to have a rather large crush on their guest.  “He’ll be alright eventually, Rayne.”  He told her, patting her shoulder.  “Those kinds of scars never entirely close, but the pain dulls with time.” “I just want to see him get better.”  She mumbled, kicking at a rock with her boot.   It was at this moment that they heard a sound which tore through the air and chilled the blood- an enraged roar of a bear, followed by snarling.  The elves knocked their arrows and immediately sought higher ground, heading towards the source of the noise.  Bears were a threat to the Halla, and the clan if they were mad, and the meat and hide was valuable.   They crested the side of a ridge and looked down the cliff, seeing a large brown bear fighting with a Mabari female.  There were a few small, bloody patches of fur scattered around, enough left of one corpse to indicate a fluffy puppy.  The battle was fierce, and the bear seemed to be winning, though there was so much blood it was hard to tell for sure.   Rayne and Aralith raised their bows as the bears jaws clamped on the Mabari’s throat, frothy bright blood gushing around his muzzle, just before their arrows flew, embedding themselves in his eye sockets, blinding him.  The bear dropped it’s prize, giving a howling, enraged roar as the other hunters shot it as well, until finally the beast lay dead.   Cautiously, they made their way down, Rayne feeling a throbbing across her lower back.  Her scars remembered the bear that had attacked her as a youth, and she didn’t care to repeat the experience.  She looked at the dead Mabari with some sorrow, as well as the dead puppies.  Mabari were fierce and awesome dogs, it was a shame that- One of her ears twitched ad she turned her head towards the small den at the base of the cliff.  She’d heard a sound... a whimper?  A whine?  She approached while the adults got to work on harvesting the bear, they didn’t wish to linger too long.  She crouched down and peered into the cave, then fished around in her belt pouch for some of her traveling rations, selecting her prize of a bit of cheese.  “Hi baby.”  She cooed softly, holding out her hand.  “The bear’s gone now.  C’mere sweetie, I won’t hurt you...” There was a snuffle-snorting, a soft, quizzical noise, before the fluffiest, pudgiest puppy she’d ever seen plodded out on tiny, stubby legs, with huge paws.  Dark gray and white with blue puppy eyes, he stared at her before taking the cheese, his tail slowly beginning to wag.  He came fully out of the cave, snuffling at her, licking her skin and attacking her leathers with his tiny puppy teeth, giving a ‘fierce’ growl.   She giggled and picked him up; it was love at first sight.   Aralith sighed when he saw what she was bringing over.  “Rayne-” “Please, Aralith!”  She begged, cutting him off.  “He came to me, he picked me! If we leave him here, he’ll die!  I can take care of him, I can!” “He’d be your responisbility, Rayne.  If he grows into a beast, you’ll have to end him yourself.” “He won’t!  But if he does, I’ll take care of it.”  She said hastily as he gave her a sharp look.  “He’ll be a great hunting dog and a protector!  He’s a Mabari, right?” Aralith gave the puppy a dubious look.  That was a shaggier Mabari than he’d ever seen, but he shrugged.  “Ask your mother when you get home.” “YYYYYES!”  She cried as she gave him a big hug, making the puppy groan slightly, tongue poking out of it’s mouth.   ~~~~~~~~~~~ After getting her mother’s permission to keep him, Rayne set about cleaning him up, chattering at him all the while.  “You’ve got really big paws.”  She said, “And you eat a ton.  Like, where do you put it all?”  She mumbled.  “Well, you are kinda heavy...  Maybe I should name you fatty.”  The puppy barked at her.   Once he was clean and dry, she had... an idea.  She got up and began seeking out the young mage.   He was sitting in the grass by the river, and she made her way over to sit by him, before plopping her squirmy bundle of puppy in his lap.  “Here, meet my new partner.”  She said, watching surprise cross his face as he looked down at the puppy, which began nosing him immediately and licking everything he could reach, including his face.   “... What’s his name?”  She brightened as he spoke, his voice a bit hoarse from disuse.   “Puppy for now, I haven’t decided on his actual name.”  She said with pride.   “... Rayne, wasn’t it?”  He said after a couple moments of petting the happily panting puffball. “Yeah.” He looked at her again as he hugged the puppy closer, giving her the most... fragile looking of smiles, and her heart pounded in her chest, breath catching briefly.  “Thank you.”  He said   “I’m Taerel.”  ((The end!  @taerellavellan , I hope you like this as much as I liked writing it!))

#The end! #Taerel Lavellan #Rayne Lavellan #ryuchanwings #Mor Av'in as a puppy #before he gets his name #dragon age inquisition #Companion #inquisitor