#rika aeducan

[dread-coyote]

Morrigan & Rika Aeducan ❤️🐦‍⬛

[breadedsinner]

For Rita

"Sodding, blasted, nug-thumping..." Rika Aeducan squeaked over the crunch of snow against her boots. Her braids hung over her face as she kept her gaze parallel to the ground, watching her own, sluggish progress. The bitter breezes that wafted her hair turned to a strong curl of ice-laden whips against her pale face. Her braids betrayed her and smacked her cheeks. "Ow!" she cried out, little voice lost to the howls of wind. "Stupid, horrendous, of all the..."

"What's wrong, dear?" said Alistair, trotting alongside her.

  His words barely reached the exiled dwarven princess, muffled by the wispy winds. But the pain made her crank her neck and look up ahead, where snow gave way to stone. A bridge merged from the empty valley of snow, frosted rocky giant guiding the path. Further still, the peaks of mountains cut through blankets of white fog. With every new step, slow as they were, outlines of tents and makeshift shops in the plaza just outside the gates appeared. Rika gulped, the image of the entrance to Orzammar already projected in her mind. Menacing slabs of stone; once warm with the fires of familiarity, now made cold and distant things with time.

"Rika?" The junior Warden peeped. "Rika, what's wrong?"

"I..." the exile gasped, a puff of white air exuding from her cracked lips. The words jumped in the back of her throat, cheeks and eyes clouded with heat. "I hate this!" she finally declared with a fitful stamp against the snow. "These horrible conditions! This... what is this... weather! It's awful!"

Alistair cocked his head, curious. "But... aren't you from here? How can you hate it so much?"

Morrigan's mouth cracked so dramatically, the Wardens could hear her sneer across the way. "She's from BENEATH the mountain, you dunder-headed oaf, where there's lava and heat. If the dwarves inhabited the space ABOVE the mountains, do you not think we would have already encountered them?"

"All right, point taken," Alistair scoffed. "Not that I was asking you in the first place."

"Tis not my fault your fundamentals are so lacking..."

"Oh, another jab at my intelligence? That's new."

"Would you both shut up!?" exclaimed Rika, another stomp in the snow. Her voice so loud and cracked, it broke the swirl of winds, and her two companions stared, eyes wide. The dwarf felt their blank stares on her and shuddered, eyes back on the ground. "I just... I don't want to be back here. I want to leave."

The junior Warden shrugged. "But... we can't leave. We have to bring the treaties to the dwarves and get their support..."

"Then do it without me, I want to leave!" In a snap, Rika flung herself around and began to walk the way she came. Alistair grabbed her shoulders before she took another step.

"Rika... Rika, love, please listen," he said with a low and steady voice, his large palms clasped over both her shoulders as he bent down to face her. "We have to do this."

The exiled dwarf kept her head down, sniffling. "They won't let me back in, anyway. It'd be best if I just go back to camp now."

"But you're a Warden now. They have to let you in. What you were won't matter, I promise."

"But I don't..." Rika sucked in all the water and flush she could, pushing it down with heavy gulps. "I don't want to go back. It hurts too much."

"Rika, please," Alistair said softly with a nudge of his thumb. "I don't want to force you, please don't think that. But we can't do this without you. I can't do this without you." When he saw the dwarf slowly teeter her eyes up, he smiled. "Tell you what. Anyone tries to give you the business, I'll... give them the business right back!"

Rika snorted, though it was chortled with sucked in tears. "The... the business, is it?"

"Yes!" he exclaimed with puffed chest and forced pride. "The business!"

The dwarf's pale face turned red, puffed lips shook as her sobs turned into weak laugher. She rubbed her eyes with her forearm and shook the last of the tears from her head. "Okay, okay, I think... I think I can do this. Let's just do it quick."

"Right! The sooner we start, the sooner we'll finish! We'll be back at camp feasting on my lamb-paste stew before you know it!"

"Sounds like a plan... you'll be by my side the whole time, right?"

"Without your supervision, he'd walk himself into a nug farm and none would be the wiser," called Morrigan.

"Yes, yes, brilliant commentary from the sidelines," said Alistair, his adoring gaze never leaving Rika.

The exiled princess slipped her hands against Alistair's armored chest and kissed him. Morrigan watched the sloppy display of affection for a moment before rolling her eyes and walking to the plaza to wait by herself.