Chapter Text
"May I just ask again, dear cousin, why you absolutely insisted on dragging me to this Maker-forsaken frozen tundra?" Dorian's voice was muffled by the heavy woolen scarf he had wrapped over his nose and mouth, but his horse was close enough to Celeste's that she could still make out what he was saying. She turned to him, flashing a grin as his eyes narrowed petulantly.
"Well Dorian, I know how much you love to travel. And besides, I couldn't very well leave you behind if I was planning on bringing Bull out here. That wouldn't be very kind of me." As if on cue, the massive qunari appeared at Celeste's right side, eyebrows waggling ridiculously and leaning an elbow on the antlers of the red hart he favored for travelling.
Dorian rolled his eyes and turned back to the front, gathering the reigns tighter in his gloved hands. "I don't know how you southerners stand this. I'm wearing three layers of socks and I still can't feel my toes."
"Ah, you poor Vint," Bull said with a self-righteous smirk. "What's the matter? Not enough slaves around to rub your footsies? Are your poor little toesies cold?"
Even though most of Dorian's face was obscured by his scarf, Celeste could clearly see his outrage in the tilt of his eyebrows and the furious spark of lightning at his fingertips.
"I'll have you know," he hissed through the fabric, "that my footsies are freezing, thank you!"
There was a sudden outburst of laughter from behind them, where Cassandra had been riding in silence for some time. Sensing that he was now thoroughly outnumbered (as usual), Dorian huffed and shook his head, spurring his horse on a little faster. Celeste followed with a grin, her favorite Orlesian courser easily matching the pace of the smaller Imperial gelding that Dorian usually chose.
The cobblestones of the newly-rebuilt bridge clattered beneath the hooves of their mounts, filling the companionable silence that was peppered with quiet laughs and repeated mutterings of "I hate you all" from Dorian.
Celeste hummed to herself, reveling in the crisp air of the Emprise. This excursion was her first since the defeat of Corypheus. They'd had a few weeks to stop and take a breath at Skyhold, while Josephine worried herself silly over planning the celebrations and visits from dignitaries. During that time, Celeste had quickly grown restless from the lack of travel. Her legs longed for the stretch and burn of jogging up a hillside, and her skin felt like it was crawling sometimes from her lack of using magic around Skyhold.
Cullen had certainly done his best to keep her occupied, but even he seemed to still have work to do around the hold. Reports came in every day about straggling groups of Venatori and small clusters of Red Templars that he could swiftly dispatch troops to deal with. Now that the Inquisition's forces had grown to such great strength, a huge load had been taken off of Celeste's shoulders. Her main focus now, besides rebuilding settlements and determining the future of the Inquisition, was to eliminate what few rifts now remained scattered across the continent. This had been deemed her most important task, and she'd been eager to get on the road.
It was proving to be even more interesting than she'd expected, what with massive Pride demons apparently congregating in the Emprise, huge lingering clusters of red lyrium, and the ferocious packs of massive wolves that hounded their every step. Coupled with Bull's incessant comments about 'titsicles', Celeste was quickly tiring of life on the road. While she enjoyed the exercise and finally having the time to explore the farthest reaches of Ferelden and Orlais, she longed to be back in Cullen's arms in her luxurious bed in Skyhold. But she was enjoying the burn of frosty air in her lungs, and the companionship of her friends made it all the better.
"What is that big building up there?" Bull said from somewhere behind her, and she turned to see where he was pointing. Her eyes followed his finger to the distant horizon on their left. Try as she might, she couldn't make out much by way of detail about the structure, but it looked massive and most likely worth checking out.
"Let's head that way," Celeste said, and the rest of the party nodded and fell in behind her. She spurred her horse into a trot, squinting her eyes against the bracing wind. As they rode towards the large structure Bull had spotted, Cassandra pointed out a flash of green far off to their right. Celeste made a mental note of it and kept going, furrowing her brow as they reached the base of the mysterious building.
As she dismounted, a feeling of unease settled over her, and she could tell by the wary grabbing of weapons that her companions felt it as well. "Keep your eyes sharp," she said quietly, pulling her staff from over her shoulder. They slowly treaded around the base of the wall, taking care not to slip as the ground beneath them sloped downwards. When they reached what appeared to be the entrance to a cave, Celeste looked around at her companions. Without another word, Bull nodded and took his place directly behind her, with Cassandra taking her right side and Dorian taking her left. As quietly as she could, Celeste stepped cautiously forwards, easing through the tunnel until she saw light and snow not too far ahead. When she took her first footstep back into the light, her staff ignited and every hair on her body stood on end. A low, threatening rumble echoed through the air, and suddenly Celeste realized why she had heard what sounded like distant thunder on her previous travels in the Emprise.
A massive dragon sprawled on the ground before them, growling in deep slumber. It was, without a doubt, the biggest dragon they had thus far encountered - and by far the most terrifying.
"Well holy shit," came a loud whisper from Bull. "Look at that beauty." The entire cavernous space seemed to reflect the orange glow of the dragon's head, as though its very skin were made of embers. Celeste quickly tried to think back to all of the other dragons they'd taken down, and what strategies hadn't nearly gotten the whole team killed in the process.
Cassandra's voice was soft, strained in her efforts not to wake the slumbering beast ahead of them. "That's a Ravager. Ready your fire potions, Inquisitor. She will not go down easily."
"Do they ever go down easily?" Celeste muttered, feeling the tips of her fingers starting to ice over. With a quick glance to her companions and a nod of confirmation, she let off a massive burst of energy, focusing a swirl of snow and frost over as much of the dragon as she could manage. Bull and Cassandra, quite familiar with the dragon-killing routine by now, quickly took up their usual positions attacking the creature's legs, while Dorian went to setting barriers around the warriors.
Just when things seemed to be going favorably, the huge predator reared back and let out a horrendous scream. Celeste fell to her knees in shock, eyes screwed up from the pain of her eardrums bursting. Echoes of the screech rang throughout the stone arena, rendering her helpless for what seemed like an eternity. When she finally managed to stagger back to her feet, her eyes locked on to a smaller creature rushing in from the path they had come in on. As it grew closer, she let out a groan of exhaustion and summoned her strength to send a barrage of ice towards the dragonling, sighing in relief when it went down with a squeal.
But then, just as they had gotten back into the pattern of taking down the Ravager, it let out another furious screech, and this time no less than five dragonlings came barreling into the clearing. Orbs of fire and ice collided in the air around them, interspersed with flashes of lightning and sparking steel. Though her ears were still ringing, Celeste heard a strangled cry from Cassandra's direction. When she turned to throw up a barrier around the Seeker, Dorian screamed out, "I'm too pretty to die!"
"Bull, help Dorian!" Celeste snapped, tossing a healing potion to the qunari a few feet ahead of her. Her attention returned to Cassandra, but the warrior had fallen in the moments Celeste had spent ordering Bull around. She knew that she was running low on mana, but she was also painfully aware of the fact that, without Cassandra, they certainly wouldn't survive this fight. A brief glance over her shoulder confirmed that Bull was guarding Dorian while he caught his breath, so Celeste pooled all of the strength she could find and bathed Cassandra's crumpled form in vibrant green light. For a few moments, she thought that perhaps the revival spell hadn't worked, when the Seeker made no attempt to move. But then, to her great relief, Cassandra's head lifted slowly and her eyes blinked in confusion, widening when she realized where they were and what they were doing. After tossing her another health potion, Celeste dove behind a large boulder and took a second to summon her strength.
She could hear Cassandra’s enraged scream over the clash of scales and steel, and Bull was hollering joyously from the rush of battle adrenaline. Celeste looked down into her bag, trying to take a quick inventory of what potions she had left. The pack was too light for her tastes, and as she carefully shuffled what few bottles remained, she realized that they only had two health potions left. The dragon was already significantly weakened, but if it called more of its children, Celeste wasn’t sure that they would be able to make it out with their lives. She would have to focus on supporting the others, to keep them from sustaining any further injuries.
White light poured from her fingertips, bathing her companions in protective energy. Knowing that she had their backs seemed to invigorate them even further, as both of the warriors’ strikes increased in pace and fervor. When the dragon began to raise up onto its hind legs, panic shot through Celeste’s veins and she let out a cry of warning to the others. Bull’s concentration never faltered - as the beast took in a massive breath to roar, Bull’s greatsword arced through the air and lodged into one of the dragon’s hind legs. Crippled, it fell forward gracelessly, forelegs sprawled across the earth. The four companions all took the advantage, shooting off every high-powered attack they could manage.
Finally, with a last shuddering breath of flames, the beast grew still. Nobody spoke or even moved for a long minute, until the fiery glow of the dragon’s skin had grown dark and cold.
Bull was the first to break the silence.
“Tamassran’s tits, that was awesome!” In the span of a moment, he had wrapped a beefy arm around Dorian’s waist and hauled him onto his shoulder with a hearty laugh. Too exhausted to argue, the mage just grunted, muttered a half-hearted insult, and laid his head down to rest on one of Bull’s large horns. Cassandra’s eyes narrowed at the jovial qunari, as she sheathed her sword and slung her shield over her shoulder.
“Honestly, ‘awesome’ isn’t the word I’d use for that. But,” she said with a weary groan, rubbing a shoulder with her hand, “at least we are alive.” Celeste nodded in agreement, running a quick visual scan over everyone. She didn’t see any major wounds, but there was always the chance that something had occurred internally.
“Any injuries?” Bull and Cassandra both shook their heads, but Celeste didn’t miss the way that Cassandra was putting very little weight on her left leg. The warrior’s eyes met her own, and she realized that she’d been caught in her lie.
“It’s nothing, Inquisitor. I will just need to walk it off.”
“Here, Cass,” Celeste said with a firm but kind glance, as she pulled out one of the two remaining potions and tossed it to Cassandra. She downed it quickly, and shot a small, grateful smile back at the mage as she wiped a trickle of the potion from the corner of her mouth.
Dorian’s head lifted from Bull’s horn then, his eyes glazed with exhaustion. “I do think something managed to nab my shoulder, Celeste. Might as well take care of it now.” With a nod, she moved closer as Bull slowly kneeled in the snow, keeping an arm wrapped around Dorian’s legs so the mage wouldn’t lose his balance. She took a moment to calm her mind, and then allowed healing magic to emanate from her palms. The crease between Dorian’s brows instantly vanished, and he let out a small groan of relief as her hands passed slowly over his collarbones and shoulder blades. After a few moments of healing, Dorian nodded at Celeste and she let her magic rest.
“Better, Dorian?”
He responded with a yawn and a sleepy nod, nestling back against Bull’s horn as he stood up once more. Celeste looked around at the carnage around them. “I just need to pick up a few of these things,” she said as she strode towards the dragon’s corpse. “Some of this could be useful.” When she’d gathered the things that seemed most worth her time, and somehow managed to cram it all into the various pockets of her robes and satchel, she waved a hand toward her companions and they followed her back to their mounts up the hillside.