09-20-2018, 07:04 PM
Vulgaris
He’s never been much of a parent and, truth be told, he only knows the name of one of his children to date. The thought has wormed its way into his head and he finds himself idly tracing the sharp edges of his shame in his free time. As the winter subsides, however, he finds himself pacing along the borders uncomfortably. The scales along his face have already shed in favor of the new year’s skin but his shoulders still hold tight to the dried husk trying to free itself. The iridescent scales shimmer in the setting sun while he drags his side along a gnarled tree, itching himself free of a little more winter skin. A rough sigh escapes him and it is almost a growl by the sound of it.
He glances back toward the heart of Loess, watching its residents mill about until the dark of night sweeps over them. Leliana hasn’t come to kiss his face this time and he grows concerned. Perhaps she is too tired, he tells himself to ease his troubled mind. Carrying their child took so much out of her some days and he didn’t want to keep her from her rest – a fact he’d told her a hundred times when she came to wish him good night. But all he got in response from her was a sweet laugh and a shake of her beautiful head.
He lifts his head at the sound of his name and his legs are hurrying forward without conscious thought. Her voice had been so at ease but his heart is in his throat all the same. Vulgaris finds her curled up with contractions working through her every muscle but he trusts that she’ll be alright. He lowers his head and presses his lips to her temple when their daughter arrives in a bundle of legs and a scrawny torso. For a moment, he is scared to look at her, scared to know the face of the baby he’s waited so patiently for. But Leliana cannot wait a second longer to greet the newborn girl and the sound of first breaths reaches his ears.
If he had thought he loved her before, he was a fool.
Vulgaris turns to stare at the little thing as she climbs up all clumsy and in awe of the world around her. She’s got the same color as her mother but he can see her own scales glimmering beneath the moon now. On her, it seems less like a curse and more like a treasure. Adna is blinking with eyes that mirror his own and he wonders how he could ever think he knew the depths of love before this moment. Before he would have set the world on fire just the watch the flames light up Leliana’s eyes but now he understands why his father tried to put everything back together.
“I love you, Leliana. I love you so much,” he mutters as he leans down to Adna’s height. “You are my sun and my rain – everything I need.”
He moves so slowly, as if one wrong step and their daughter will shatter. It feels like centuries crawl past before he touches his face to hers. The feeling of her tiny breath against his nose makes him smile and close his eyes. What a strange mirror they form, him with his scars and his angry teeth while Adna is perfect and soft around all her edges. Leliana and their child are the culmination of all that is right in the world, he thinks. Perfection given form.