Her stomach churns lightly, and she frowns at him, pretty face distorted with confusion.
He was crying but he also looked a little angry—so it wasn’t like the crying she did when she tripped and fell, knees scuffed up and mama racing around the corner to scoop her close and kiss her cheeks dry. She tilts her head to the side, small ears perking and then swiveling amongst the fluff of her mane and forelock. When he mentions killing her dad, she can’t decide whether to laugh or run away. Dad couldn’t be killed. She knew that. Her chest puffs up a little and her face turns a little sharper.
“You shouldn’t lie. Mama told me that’s really bad.”
She sticks her nose out, peering down at him.
“Daddy can’t be killed. He’s the best fighter around—in all of Beqanna. In the whole universe!”
Her thin voice gets a little higher at the end but she can’t deny the small tendrils of fear that she feels in the pit of her stomach—because what if he was right? What if he would kill her daddy? She frowns again and turns her head over her shoulder to look back to where Vulgaris would likely be patrolling. She looks back and her brow is furrowed, pretty lip pressed together into a thin line.
“But okay…” her voice trails off as she looks back to him. “We have to be quiet though. He’ll find me.”
He always found her. Whenever they were playing hide and seek. Whenever she snuck off in the middle of the night. He was always there, peering down at her with those laughing eyes and the loving smile. He always knew how to find her. It didn’t matter how well she hid or how fast she ran.
But she needed to be really quiet now.
She couldn’t hurt him.
He beckons her closer and there’s something about him that looks sad, that looks a little broken, and she forgets her fear. She just hears Leliana’s voice ringing in her ears, urging her to be kind, to listen when others needed to talk, to be there when others wouldn’t. So she doesn’t run. Her ears flicker and she takes a step to him, leaning her mahogany and ink muzzle down to wipe at the tear that ran down his cheek, just like Leliana always did to her. “You seem sad,” she says quietly, whispering to him. Hesitantly, she leans down and curls up next to him. “Do you have to go? I thought we were going to be friends.”