Guarded Love (COMPLETED)

The Fall

Her head bounced against Cullen's chest, Lana trying to stare ahead while he was clearly struggling to keep her up as he walked down the deep roads. The poker he purloined out of the fireplace rattled around in her fingers along with her cane, his hands too full with her waning body.

"Cullen," she whispered.

He must have been straining too hard to hear her. Reiss and Alistair scouted ahead, Ali trying to do some wardening though Lana often beat him on the location of darkspawn. They'd passed out of the derelict deep roads into what looked like a partial thaig. She should probably know what one it was after having to sit through a very long and very dull history lesson courtesy of the Shaperate, but Lana could barely remember the one she reclaimed from the darkspawn under Amaranthine.

On the plus side, there were no creepy ghosts of dwarves standing around, nor freaky pulsing balls that changed the color of the air. It was a rather typical thaig save the occasional carving of what looked an awful lot like elves. Lana tried to point it out, but Cullen wasn't exactly happy with her, Reiss wasn't for demon reasons, and Alistair, well... She wouldn't say he was mad, but he seemed wary. Her husband hefted her into his arms and kept carting her around like she was a little lap dog. Why did people keep treating her like she was a porcelain butterfly? One moment she was good enough to lead an army and take down the archdemon and the next she couldn't be trusted to pull out her own chair.

Flexing her fingers, the song reverberated through the back of her skull. Not the real one from the darkspawn skittering through the floors, they'd grown quiet once they entered the thaig. This was an imaginary one she never would have known by now if it hadn't have been for Corypheus.

"Cullen, stop," Lana ordered, her voice finally breaking through.

"What is it?" he paused, not lowering his arms. "Can you sense more of those screamers?"

"Shrieks," she sighed, "and no. It's clear. Put me down."

He shook his stubborn head and clung tighter to her skin. There were going to be bruises from where his fingers pushed in, as if he was afraid if he didn't grip with all his might she'd vanish. "We should keep up with them."

"They'll slow up," she tried to explain, needing to feel her legs on the ground and needing him to rest his arms. But no, not her 'I'll head butt my way through every problem I cross' husband. "For the Maker's sake, put me down before I fall down," she cursed.

Something of that must have finally reached through his thick skull as he tipped her legs towards the ground that felt miles away. Pain seared up her bones, but she managed to bury most of it behind a grunt. She could dip into her magic, but they had to be careful. With no idea what waited down a corner, Lana was only healing at the bare minimum. Slipping her cane in place, she managed to stand for 10 seconds while watching her husband try to massage exhausted biceps. Then the pain cried that standing wasn't happening anymore.

Hobbling backwards, her ass sunk against a shattered wall, Lana's head crumpling into her lap. Dust rained off the ceiling, a strange sight in an old thaig. Was something disturbing the roads above? Another storm perhaps?

"How long do you intend to be petulant for this time?" she spoke to her knees, too exhausted to lift her head.

"Me?" Cullen turned on her, "I am acting childish?"

"You've grunted, you've groaned, you've snapped, and I think you said perhaps a solitary owe after ramming your shin into a misplaced statue leg. That's it, the only sentence I've heard from your lips after you found me. Owe." She watched her fingers begin to tremble and tried to grip onto her thighs to hide it.