Use the words water, race, and falter for your Warden and their love interest.
Special thanks to @happywitch416 and @darkspawntaxcollectors for your assistance. Written for @dadrunkwriting. Also tagging @saltlordofold because this is relevant to that ask you sent me about them.
Companion By Circumstance
Zevran Arainai & Female Tabris/Warden
Tags: Newfound Relationship
Part of Battle Cry Series
Summary: Zevran goes in search of Tabris and finds more than he bargained for.
“Have you come to kill me at last?”
Hollow laughter echoed in response, distinct and recognizable, not that anyone ever followed during late nights when she disappeared from camp. The assassin, newest addition to their group, stepped out of a bush at her back, hood pulled away from his face. A quick glance over her shoulder, she kept her bare chest facing away, considering briefly to sink into the docile river waters at her waist.
Her clothes tied like a basket in one of the trees, her blades amoung them. Clever man, this assassin.
“You are more rogue than you let on, mio amica.”
“You didn’t answer my question,” she said with slow ease into the water. Let him think her shy as her fingers scraped the riverbed to pry up a sturdy rock to hurl. Either with her aim true or the distraction enough for her to race and grab her swords from off the shoreline, the rock hard-pressed into her palm was her only chance of leaving this encounter alive. “Is this where you finish your contract, assassin?”
“It would be the opportune moment, no? Though I doubt you are defenseless, even now.” When she, at last, turned to face him, moonlight caught the edge of his self-assured smile, eyes hooded with shadows from the forest trees. “I merely noted the length of your absence, Warden, and came in search. But ah, I have found you breathing and can return with my curiosity sated.”
“And you expect me to believe that your goodwill led you to seek me out?” A snort echoed her sentiment. No one noted her disappearances, and if they did, it came without care. She commanded them, but they were no friends, only companions by circumstance. “Surely you don’t think me as naive as you do weak.”
“My dear Warden,” he said with a sweeping bow, “I made the mistake of underestimating you once. I will not do so again.”
Thankful for the night to hide the heat developing in her face, she sunk lower into the water to drift closer toward shore, her makeshift weapon firm in her hand. Why leave him alive when his presence alarmed her in such a way? Why take that chance after he handed over the contract information?
Weakness, to see herself in his face and the point of his ears. To consider circumstance and make him the very offer she wished Duncan made her: freedom. And yet he lingered, and now he stood there, no doubt with his blades at ready to take her down.
“At any rate, it seems I have intruded upon your private moment,” Zevran said, his voice breaking the stifling tension between them. Her grip tightened on the rock in response, a shiver caressing down her spine. “I shall leave you to it.”
He took a step toward the deeper part of the forest, toward the road and their camp. Erenya’s eyes followed him until the darkness swallowed him whole. She called out, “You really don’t mean to kill me?”
“I keep my promises, Warden,” the woods responded, sounding faint and in time with the soft crunch of a leaf in the distance.
Eventually, she rose from the river and dried herself off before donning her nightclothes. When she returned to camp, Zevran waited for her by the low fire with a small smile on his face. She plopped the mossy rock into his hand, causing him to laugh.
“You are indeed a formidable force, Warden.”
“Erenya,” she corrected, her gaze falling to the embers at their feet. Her heart gave a solid single thud at the wide smile her name produced on his face, his eyes alight with a mixture of flames and moonlight. Her composure faltered, and she returned the smile without restraint, having gained a new friend.
