A Bond Forged in Fire Part 2: A Simple Gesture Morrigan was in a terse mood.
Of course, Morrigan was rarely not in a terse mood, but now she was in a worse one than usual. Their leader had been dragging her, Leliana, and Alistair all over this damned village of Redcliffe doing stupid, time-wasting things like helping every random citizen with a problem and even giving away a great deal of their gold! Wasn’t there a Blight to be fighting rather than bothering with this city which was obviously not under attack by darkspawn? Morrigan had been casting glares all day at Taiyama and voicing her disapproval whenever she could but he never seemed to take the hint. Worse still, whenever she would vehemently disapprove—such as when Taiyama wanted to give ten sovereigns to a girl whose family sword they had given to him—he would turn to her and give her such puppy dog eyes, pleading for her to let him give the money to them, that she couldn’t protest further.
Just like that damned dog of his. Morrigan thought, wondering if the Warden even realized that he used such tactics.
Now Taiyama walked up a large hill, heading to a plateau with a large windmill and a couple of Redcliffe knights scattered about it with the intention of speaking to Ser Perth. On his way up, a flash of white caught the corner of his right eye. His natural curiosity flaring up, Taiyama walked off the path much to his comrades’ surprise.
It was one of the most beautiful flowers he had ever seen. White as snow on the edges but with a reddish-pink center, the flower stood tall and (to Taiyama’s imagination) proud above all other grasses, weeds, and such around it.
…Wait a minute… Taiyama thought.
I think I’ve heard this flower described to me before. But where…? Did I learn about it at the Mage’s Tower sometime? Maybe afterward? What was the name again? Ander’s glaze? No, that’s silly. Um… Andra…Andra-something something. Oh, wait! Andraste’s Grace! That was when realization truly hit. Leliana, in one of their many talks around the fire at camp, had mentioned her mother who always kept some of Andraste’s Grace with her clothes. Taiyama carefully plucked the flower from the ground, muttering an apology to it as he did so.
“Hey, Taiyama, what on earth are you doing?” Alistair asked.
“Oh! Sorry, I just, um, found something. I’m coming.” Taiyama responded, standing up with the flower hidden behind his back. He walked back to the path and looked at Leliana, who had just finished reminiscing about a time she tried to ride a windmill. “Um, Leliana, I…”
“Yes?” Leliana asked, looking to Taiyama. She tried to get a look at whatever he was hiding behind his back but couldn’t quite see it.
“Um…well… The thing is… Y-You’re probably wondering why I ran over there, right?” Taiyama began, probing his brain for some way he could say this.
“Well, yes, of course. Did you find something?”
“Ah… W-Well, I… The thing is… Well, it was…uh…um…I mean…” Taiyama stuttered out, then paused a moment to try and collect his thoughts. Failing at that, he simply showed the flower to Leliana. “Here!”
Leliana’s eyebrows shot up so fast that one might think they were going to fly right off her head. “Flowers…? For me…?” She accepted the gift and admired them for a moment. “Oh, they’re beautiful, Taiyama.”
Taiyama stared at the ground, suddenly finding his feet very interesting to look at apparently, though he couldn’t hide a smile at her response. “Um...you might want to smell them…”
“Huh? Well, all right…”
Leliana took one whiff of the flowers and her eyes widened. Memories flooded into her mind. Memories of Mother brushing her hair, Mother giving her simple tasks to do when Leliana insisted that mother let her help serve Lady Cecily, of laughing and playing together, of sadness and grief at her death, of her mother's solemn and peaceful visage as she lay on the funeral pyre—all those times, her mother had smelled just like this beautiful flower.
A small gasp escaped Leliana’s lips. “These were… These were her favorite… Oh, I haven’t seen these in such a long time! They smell just like Mother used to!” She took another long smell of the flowers and smiled widely. “Thank you, Taiyama... Thank you so much for remembering.”
Taiyama met her eyes and smiled. “So, do I get a reward or something?” he asked, his tone implying that he was obviously joking—deflecting awkwardness with humor was something he had learned by watching Alistair.
Leliana giggled. “Of course,” she replied then gave Taiyama a light kiss on the cheek.
You would think her lips were coated some sort of paralyzing neurotoxin the way I froze up after that. I just stood there for a time as my face and ears gradually turned a deep red and I felt the oddest sensation in my stomach. At the time, I didn’t truly realize what that feeling meant. “Oh, now, see, you’ve gone and broken him,” Alistair remarked, and then made a long, drawn-out, overly theatrical sigh. “Now I’m going to have to lead this intrepid band of misfits to fight the Blight. Guess Ferelden’s really doomed, then. Pity.”
“Um! I…I…I…” Taiyama stuttered. He pointed over at Ser Perth in the distance. “I’m going to go talk to Ser Perth!” He stated then ran off in that direction, much to Alistair’s and Leliana’s amusement and laughter.
Once they were done, however, they followed after Taiyama at a leisurely walking pace, giving Leliana time to admire her gift some more.
He really is one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met. Author's Note: Well, this one's pretty short but I don't have much to add. I think I need to stop writing so late at night, my work suffers for it. I don't think this one is as good as the others. What do you think? Better? Worse? The same? Apathy?
Also, yes, doormat!Taiyama does have puppy dog eyes. I needed to come up a way in my head for him to realistically be able to persuade as many people as he does (I focus a lot on my characters' coerce skills) and since this Taiyama doesn't' have the charisma Taiyama post-Circle Tower does, one weapon in his arsenal is his puppy dog eyes.
Near the end there, you can see Taiyama pulling off the classic Cullen strategy of romance. I want to line Taiyama and Cullen side-by-side, have their love interests kiss them at the same time, and see who runs away the fastest. My bet's on Taiyama. He's a wiry little elf, he is.
Modifié par Taiyama, 07 février 2010 - 08:07 .
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I make stupid typos/mistakes in my work all the time, and sometimes I wait a day or two after finishing so I can look back at it with fresh eyes and better catch mistakes. Some always slip through though, and when I finally notice them or someone points them out, I have a head-desk moment. But that's the price of being too stubborn for using a beta reader.
