Mala Suledin Nadas

Chapter 6

Goes alongside Chapter 3 of "In Your Heart Shall Burn".

The way that Rihari took down those bandits. It was the definition of grace, her arm reached back and pulled an arrow from the sling, landing it on her bow with one fluid movement. She never messed up, it was always perfectly done. The sound the bow made as the arrow flung from the string excited him, reminding him of another time. The thrum of the string seemed to reverberate around inside of his skull. She shot two men down by the time he pulled his staff around.

The fight left him breathlessly amazed. He never realized how well she was with a bow before, but then again he only saw her shoot it once or twice during a battle back in Arlathan. He was watching her carefully as she wandered over to the fallen bandit leader. She rolled him over carefully, and searched his pockets. Her hand pulled from his pocket, a folded paper between her fingers.

She opened it carefully, he watched the way her face changed from victorious, to dark and melancholy. Finally, her face turned hard as she crumpled the note and dropped it on top of the man's body. The breeze caught the crumpled page and it rolled away from the mans body, getting caught on his dead hand. P

"Let's go." Rihari grumbled.

...

"..and when she smiled, the men actually looked afraid." Varric was telling a man sitting nearby. If anything Varric Tethras was good at exaggerating. "They didn't even know what hit them when she started hailing arrows down on them. Every shot was a fatal one. She single handedly took down at least ten of the men. It was amazing."

Solas was watching Rihari, barely listening to the story, he wandered if she felt anything. A connection of any kind. He had brought up griffons with her, hoping for a spark. She had no reaction. It saddened him deeply that they had gone extinct. He knew the fate of his own griffon, and that of Felaern, Rihari's griffon. She had said she named him after her brother, he wandered if he would ever meet him, but couldn't just ask.

Felaern was deeply depressed when Solas returned without Rihari. The poor animal was overcome with heart break. It took a lot of coaxing, but eventually he convinced him to fly with another. He refused to bond with him however, and often times refused to acknowledge the new rider's commands. A truly beautiful and loyal beast, until his last breath.

Felaern was shot down in a battle in the sky by June, who saw the beast and assumed the rider to be Rihari. Solas had been angry, knowing this intention, and had lashed out, diving into the battle. His own griffon was slain that day as well, stabbed through a fault in her armor. The blade severed an artery and the great beast bled out quickly, but she fought until her heart quit. An honorable death.

When the animal drew it's last breath and it's great spirit fled it's body, Solas felt the connection break. It was the feeling of loss, but it was so much more. It was like a feeling that he couldn't remember how to explain. It had broken his heart, and he never rode with another.

His attention snapped to the present, his eyes were still on her, yet she did not notice. Rihari rolled her eyes playfully, tugging a smile to his lips that he bit the inside of his lip to hide. She looked over to Cassandra who looked like she would explode if Varric continued to chatter on. The fued between the two was funny, but understandable.

"Varric, are you saying that she is a better shot than you?" Cassandra asked jokingly. Varric just slatted his eyes at her.

Solas was sipping on a tankard of water as he looked on with feigned disinterest. Rihari locked eyes with him, and a smile spread across her face, pulling at his heart strings. "Hey, do you want to get out of here?" He thought his heart might explode, yes of course he did! He wanted to leap with enthusiam, jump up and twirl her around and kiss her soft smile. He contained himself externally, the corners of his lips twitched into a half smile as he nodded.