Sticky and wet

She reached out in the darkness and her hand met something wet. And sticky.
Her thoughts were scrambled and hazy. Her head pounded and her limbs felt abnormally heavy.
Wet and sticky and warm. Where was it coming from? She slowly curled her fingers, the slight movement taking a monumental amount of effort. Her stomach. Her hand was lying on her stomach. So that must be where the wet and sticky… oh no. Something hard and wooden was protruding from her stomach. From what she could tell, it was a simple stick. A piece of wood.

“Solona! Solona, are you alright?” Alistair’s voice sounded muffled.

It was hard to speak. Just moving her lips to form the words seemed to take more energy than she was capable of mustering. Concentrate.
“A..Alistair?” Barely audible in the dark, every syllable tearing her midriff apart.
She could hear him coming closer, his warm hands finding her face in the dark.

“The cave collapsed. Are you-“ Alistair’s voice faltered midsentence when he tried to grab her hand and brushed her stomach. He probably felt the wetness and the stickiness as well. “-alright.” He finished the question, not expecting an answer.
“We have to get you out of here.”

“Alistair!” That was Morrigan. “Alistair! Is the Warden hurt?”

Solona blinked slowly. Morrigan sounded far away, as if she was talking from the other side of a wall. Good. That meant she got out of the cave safely.

“Yes. From what I can tell she landed on something sharp. There’s a lot of blood. But I can’t see how bad it is and I don’t dare light a torch in here. There isn’t much room. Morrigan, you have to get help.” Alistair shouted back. Ah. That meant that it was her own blood that was wet and sticky.

“I’ll be back shortly. Do not let her die Alistair or I will have your hide!”

“Oh. Sure. I’m fine by the way, thank you so much for asking. Just peachy!” Solona heard Alistair shift in the small space. “Hag.” He muttered.

She smiled. Those two got along like a house on fire. She was going to miss that when this was all over. One way or another.
“Alistair, is it bad?”

His hands were on hers again, gently probing, feeling while trying not to hurt her. It failed. It hurt like hell.

“No.”

He lied. She could hear it in his voice. There was an edge to the word.
“You’re a horrible liar.” She whispered, trying to chuckle but ending up coughing.
“Shit, that hurts.” Tears welled up in her eyes, streaming down her cheeks when she blinked them away.

“Just… try to lie still. Morrigan will be back soon. You’ll be fine, it’s not that bad. You’ll be fine.”
Gingerly, he lifted her head and maneuvered himself just so that she could put her head on his legs.
He started stroking her hair, a soft and soothing gesture.
“We’ll be fine.” He mumbled, probably more to himself than to her.

Solona relaxed, focusing on the feeling of Alistair’s fingers running through her head. It distracted her from the awful metallic taste in her mouth and her own ragged breathing. Somehow she was a bit disappointed that Alistair was still wearing his armor. The thought of lying here, listening to his heartbeat, was somehow comforting to her.

“Did I ever tell you about the time I had a crush on this servant girl?” When he spoke she could feel the rumble through his armor. “You don’t have to answer that. I already know that I never did.” He went on when he noticed that talking caused her quite some pain.
“You see, when I was training to become a Templar, there was a servant girl. Anya, I think her name was. I was absolutely smitten with her. Pretty little thing. Elven girl.” He chuckled. “Of course, I didn’t stand a chance. I was a typical teenage boy. You know, shy, stupid.”

Solona closed her eyes, trying to picture the girl in her mind. But the only image she could conjure up was of Alistair as a teenage boy. All elbows and knees, completely fawning over a girl. A zit here and there and his hair all over the place. Patchy beard as well probably.

“You’re laughing at me, aren’t you? I can tell.” Alistair moved in a slightly more comfortable position.
“And you should. It was a complete disaster. I couldn’t concentrate on my chores, completely fumbled up the Chant. Not that I was really invested in doing the Chant correctly anyway, but you know what I mean. I can’t sing a straight note to save my life and I couldn’t remember the words. In the end I just mumbled along and sang whatever was for dinner that night.”
He shook his head.
“But this girl. She was beautiful. Short, black hair. Dark skin. Gorgeous brown eyes. Softest skin you’ve ever laid your eyes on. I mean, I’m not trying to make you jealous or anything. You’re obviously very beautiful as well, even more so than her. It’s just that-”

“Alistair. It’s alright.” She chuckled. An unwise choice.
Solona groaned when pain shot through her abdomen again and she grabbed Alistair’s free hand.
“Keep talking.” She hissed through clenched teeth when the worst of the pain subsided.
She couldn’t see him, but she could hear him shakily taking a breath before continuing.

“Anyway. This girl. I was too shy to actually talk to her. But I did want to see her as much as possible. So I made her run errands for me. Fetch cheese mostly. I swear I must’ve gained at least twenty pounds those first few weeks, just from eating all that cheese.”
He gently squeezed her hand.
“But then, one day, she came up to me. Tray with cheese in hand. And while I’m stuffing my face with cheese, you know, to avoid actually talking with her, she suddenly starts talking to me. Do you know what she says to me? ‘You sure do eat a lot of cheese, don’t you?’.  And I just sit there. Staring at her. Cheeks puffed up and stuffed with dairy. But eventually I started talking to her. Made her laugh.”

It became harder to stay awake. A nap would be so nice right now. A nap to get away from the headache. She was so, so very tired.

 “Solona? Are you listening? Try to stay awake. They’ll be here soon. I can not do this without you. Please. Stay awa-“

“Alistair!” Wynne’s voice from outside. “I brought Shale. We’re going to get you out. Are you two still alright?”

“Finally someone thinks to ask me as well.” Alistair mumbled. “I’m doing great. I can’t say the same of my company though. You might want to hurry.”

“Hurry? Does it really think I’m just going to stay here and take my time? Does it think that I’m just standing here its entertainment?”
Stone rumbled and before they knew it light streamed into the cave.

“Wynne! You’re a sight for sore eyes.” Was the last thing Solona heard before blacking out.

~~

“Ugh.” Solona opened her eyes. The familiar buzz of magic still humming faintly through her body.
“I feel like something the mabari chewed on and threw up again.”

“Good morning to you too.” Alistair’s smiling face appeared above her.
“Feeling better?”

“Marginally.” She groaned as she sat up straight, inspecting her stomach for injuries. A small scar was all that remained of the wound.
“Thank you for staying with me and talking to me.” She smiled at Alistair.

“Oh, you know. I had nowhere else to go.” A lopsided smirk appeared on his lips as he shrugged.

“But you never told me how it ended.”

“How what ended?”

“Your fling with the servant girl.”

The smile disappeared briefly. “It never got as far as a fling, really.” He rubbed his neck and shrugged. “They saw us talking and she got fired the same day. Inappropriate behavior. I had at least a month’s worth of laundry duty. Never saw her again.”
When he looked back at Solona, the smile reappeared.
“I’m glad to have you back. I don’t know what I would’ve done without you.”

Solona grabbed his hand, just like before in the cave, and squeezed it.
“I’m glad to be back.”