Dragon Age A Qunari's Fade Dream

I do not own Dragon Age, just the game.

This was an old kinkmeme prompt I decided to try. First time doing a Dragon Age fic. This is Part One, of Two Parts. Enjoy!

* * *

Even though in the Fade a person's physiological functions were greatly limited, the Warden still felt as though she should have been perspiring by now. Her body felt weak..yet she didn't show physical signs of her wariness. Maybe, she thought, that was a good thing. She couldn't have let her companions see the weakness in her limbs - her eyes, besides...it was hard enough to convince Alistair to leave the Fade on his own accord, and to imagine that scenario being any more difficult and lengthily would mean defeat. The thought of the simple minded Alistair made her smirk, one that wasn't meant to be condescending, but obviously was. The man was too innocent in one too many areas, especially for someone that was as good a warrior as he was. The thick brown lashes covering her eyes lowered. What was he doing now? she wondered. Hopefully the virginal templar was back in his body like Dog was.

_Dog_, who by the way, was much easier to convince than the templar. She'd have to remember to give him a large mabari treat when she saw the faithful pooch. If she saw the pooch...

At first the Fade had been beautiful, even the first time she'd gone into it for her Harrowing it was beautiful, but now it was starting to look bleak. Not just bleak...but hopelessly bleak. Everything felt _stuck_ in the Fade - timeless - as if nothing was moving. No wind, no sense of direction ot time. Again the nagging fear of being in the Fade for longer than her mortal body could stand was creeping along her chest. For all she knew, they had been here for years...or seconds. It was a terrifying notion.

With a shallow inhale she reminded herself that worrying would do no good. Action was what would get her out...and Sten.

Sten was still here, stuck like she was. The last one left. She knew the stoic Qunari was just beyond the portal before her. In a way she had hoped she would save him for last. Like the best for last, only it was the hardest for last as well. It wasn't that she didn't want to save Sten; far from it. She really liked the emotionless giant for some reason. Perhaps it was that he made her work for something as small as a verbal response. Though she was afraid she was going to have to work harder than she'd want to with him this time. Sten was hard to argue with. He was stubborn...well, perhaps there was a better word for him, but she did have time to think of one now. She was nervous he would be the hardest to convince to leave, and if he was then what could she do to get him out?

The flickering mottled colors of the Fade portal mocked her from a few feet away. She couldn't stand before the door any longer, time could very well have been running out as she stood mulling about, debating the past, present and future. Sten was the future, he was going to leave with her, that she was sure of.

She coiled the Fade energy deep into her gut and felt her form change rapidly. The Fade Spirit consumed her, and with her taking over it's image and it's powers she slide through the portal ignoring the small urge to flee. The portal, like the Fade felt slick when she passed through it. A tingle here and a tingle there was all that was different than the others she'd passed through, and now with a whirling sound, she saw the dream of Sten.

* * *

It was a good dream, he concluded. Sten stood, his Beresaad brothers sitting around a purple camp fire; another sign that the real world was not here. He didn't know where here was necessarily, but it didn't really matter he determined. Knowing would not alter this dream..this nightmare maybe. It was calming though. The chatter amongst his brethren was such as he remembered. Yet some of it sounded abnormal, as if something was filling in the gaps of his memory. Sten didn't remember them being as crass as they were...or as...simple-minded.

Everything was shifting, like he was staring at a painting that only changed in short intervals. Beautiful it was, but not as refined as a few of the paintings the Warden had given him. Nor as interpretive as some of the works he'd seen at the Redcliff castle. Still, the world he currently stood in was just as mysterious and for the first time since he'd found himself here, he didn't want to leave. The imaginary companions, the fake fire and the constantly changing void unsettled him at first, now it was a great comfort - a feeling of familiarity compared to the soggy bleak land of Ferelden. He wouldn't verbalize it but he would not deny it to himself that he missed his briny coasts. The smell he missed most of all and the more he thought about it the more he thought he could smell the faintest hint of the sea. Not just any sea, but his sea.

He shut his eyes for a brief moment, his lips thinned and his nose inhaled deeply. The scent was there, but still it was not right. It was an imitation.

When he opened his eyes he saw the shady form of the Warden. She had come a few times already, yet this form was better than the previous ones. More similarar, in that her eyes looked as determined as they normally did, and she was the right height for once. The others had been taller and broader, trying to coax him with genetic similarities he supposed. It was laughable. This world, however fake, was at least more interesting than fending off Morrigan's pursuits...He was thankful this world hadn't tried to assumed the witches form yet, just to bother him outright.

He grumbled, the sound billowing from his chest up like a warriors threat. He was getting frustrated by the constant changing Wardens. This one seemed tired...much more real than the perky things this realm had thrown at him. They had been tempting yes, but not that tempting. He frowned as the short woman walked up to him, preparing for another predictable conversation or lack there of.

"Sten?"

Hmm, it spoke like the real one too. The others spoke with seductive deep voices, heavy with euphemism. He felt as though...perhaps this one wasn't an imitation, or it was a very good one. If it was his leader he didn't want to seem insubordinate.

He leveled his shoulders, straightening up to his full height, and uncrossed his thick arms to leave them at his sides. The Warden had his respect and if the telltale scar on her chin was really then he figured she wasn't just another apparition - still, he kept his guard up.

"Kadan.", he responded with an even voice. She smiled, a small one, not her norm, yet it was familiar and it was enjoyable. He remained lax in his expression, watching her, noticing how little she changed. Another sign that told him she was not made from this realm.

"Good to see you remember me." Again she smiled, this one a bit more like the ones he normally saw on her. He felt as though he should have been surprised to see her here, yet deep down he realized it should have been expected. She was, after all, a Grey Warden. He remained stoic - unwavering as she nodded to him lightly. He acknowledged her with a motion of his eyes as she took a few more steps to him.

"This isn't real, Sten", her voice, he noted, help some desperation. Had the others been in their own dreams...their own wishful worlds? If so then he figured she had already expected him to wish to stay - which he indeed did.

"I know." He looked back at his brethren, they looked to him, calling out to him, like they did before the slaughter. He frowned deeply at this, knowing what she was going to ask of him and wanting nothing more than to deny her such request. It would be dishonorable...but it would be easy and he would enjoy spending the rest of his timeless days here in familiar company.

* * *

"You know?"

She eyed him. He looked sullen, something she wouldn't expect to see on him...let alone emotion at all. If he knew this was all fake then why was he still here. She took a few more steps closer, rounding a corner to see a group of Qunari around a purple blazing center. She'd never seen a Qunari besides Sten...did they all really look like that? behave like this? She had heard that many of them had horns, yet she saw none.

When she looked back at Sten he was staring straight at her, the look was chilling. It said everything yet nothing all at once.

"Of course I do, isn't it obvious? Everything here is a poor imitation, including you." He sounded angry...something she almost felt proud of for noticing. Wait...her? She creased her brow in confusion. He knew she was real, right? Of course he did.

She heard him grumble. It was hard to gauge his tone since he never used body language or facial expressions. She was about to speak when he continued, staring at the Qunari to his right. "...Yet the familiarity is comforting. My Brethren are not those that I remember but they resemble them, and that is enough."

The wrinkle of his deep brow told her he was expressing sadness. Even though Sten was a man of few expression, she noted that when he did show them, they hit her harder than she cared to explain. It was like seeing a mountain bear showing sympathy. It was so foreign that the moment was almost savored. Yet in this case it was more empathized. If Sten was upset then she surly must be wrecked...right?

_"Who is The Sten talking to now?"_, one of the Qunari spoke, but the voice was like that of a human man...not like the deep rumble of Sten's voice. It didn't look or sound right.

"Be quite." Sten growled to the Qunari, who proceeded to jostle to another Beresaad brethren, remarking on Sten's behavior. They acted odd. Out of place.

She stared at them, not recognizing their faces but feeling a sense of familiarity. "Are they-", she started to question but Sten spoke, grunted actually before staring straight at her, answering her near unspoken question.

"Yes, they ar-..were my brethren of the Beresaad..."

"Are all Qunari like this..?", she rounded to the left, a few feet closer to the group around the fire. She would have gotten closer had Sten not stepped forward, partitioning a barrier with his chest in one stride. Maker, he was large. She knew she should have been flustered, but yet again the Fade limited her bodily functions - a good thing right now she determined. Despite her status Sten was the only one that managed to intimidate her, though she reasoned that it was his immense height, or at least she told herself that's all it was. She could only imagine how small an elf or even a dwarf would feel under his gaze; like a mouse she reckoned.

"No...", she couldn't tell if he was responding to her distance to his 'brethren' or to her question. "...do not judge them too harshly, they were not like this when alive." His voice was still deep but hollow like an empty cave. This was turning out to be much different than she had expected. No convincing, as of yet...but maybe that would have seemed simpler than what Sten was currently showing her. Convincing an unaware Qunari may have been hard, but convincing him of abandoning something he knew and excepted sounded much more difficult. It made her shiver against the air free Fade. Did he know that's where they were; the Fade?

She looked back at the group of Qunari, they were an odd bunch. She almost felt ashamed to see them this way and not the way they were when they were alive. Sten turned to the fire - the hazy fire. Just as she was sure it was sucking him in, it tried to do the same to her, just like the empty horizon in the distance. Everything tried to reel her in and refuse to spit her back out. She wondered if it was like this for Sten, or if he was just beyond that type of lull, surly the Fade wasn't beyond anyone.

"Sten, if you know this isn't real then you need to understand that you can't stay here." He didn't look at her, his brethren were looking at him, dead emotionless eyes.

"I understand..", she heard him rumble, in turn she breathed a sigh, feeling relief set in and then vanish as he finished after a small pause, "...but I do not see why I should leave just because I see through it's lies." He still didn't look at her. She had seen Alistair look off at his sister this way...and even Dog had a similar flicker in his eyes. Maybe the Fade was tricking Sten, but in a different way. Reasoning with him instead of luring him.

"Sten.", no response.

"Sten...", he barely moved.

"Sten!", she heard a grumble but nothing more, and her patience was running out. The dullness of the Fade, the weakness in her limbs...the sleepy sensations that were growing behind her eyes were adding to her bubbling anger. If she stayed here any longer she may never leave, but she was not leaving without him.

Only when he began to walk closer to the camp fire did she spring into action. There was no way she was going to stand by and watch the Fade win.

In the Fade the Qunari's skin felt too soft under her hand, or maybe it was like this and she just didn't know till now. She'd grabbed his thick wrist, not even able to touch her fingers to her thumb around the massive limb. He dragged her with him, closer to the fire.

"Maker's breath Sten! _Stop_.", she heard him growl in protest, a faded noise that seemed to reverberate off everything it touched. She herself felt a rumble in her throat. "That's an order Sten!"

He only slowed in his journey to the bustling flames. One of the Qunari brethren mocked the two of them, its empty eyes staring past them, then the apparition started to speak to an invisible companion - something about weakness and frail little bones. She felt frantic all of a sudden, as if in a matter of moments the large hulking Qunari would just walked through the flame and fall down before his clan, ready to treat her like the shifting lyrium veins. Like nothing at all...

"What about the Blight? You promised...swore!", still nothing. The burning in her arms increased as she tried her hardest to pull him to a halt. Her mana was bone dry, yet a lyrium vein stood a few feet away, mocking her. If she recharged he would already be with the other Qunari by the time she could cast a petrify spell on him. Why she felt as though he would be lost if he got past the fire she didn't know, but the paranoid sensation didn't falter - it grew.

"Wh-What about me? What about the Qun? Asala!" She started spitting out things that came to her mind, Asala was likely still on his body where they all lay asleep...or decaying. She shook her head from the morbid thoughts, hopping quickly before him, releasing his wrist for hopefully a better advantage. She stretched her arms to grab at his forearms, trying to push him back. His chest collided against her, pushing her backwards closer to the camp fire flame. She felt no heat from its proximity, knowing she wouldn't but still fearing how close she was. It symbolized a terrifying probability.

Her breath caught in her throat and quickly she jumped up the big brute, right before the flames hit the back of her calves - her arms hooked around his neck and with a breath stuck in her throat she shoved her lips on top his massive ones. Before he could act she parted her lips to take his lower lip between her teeth, giving him a good tough bite. If anything she hoped the action would shock him to the point that he'd stop, but Maker did she feel something against his mouth. Was it sensations? Physically? or was the Fade playing tricks on her - surly in the Fade your body didn't-...as she thought that, her belly twisted in that familiar way - the way it twisted when she got to looking at Sten in the real campfire light when she thought no one was looking.

He hadn't pushed her away yet, or tossed her into the purple flames...that was good wasn't it?

* * *

It was unexpected...he'd thought she was the real Warden yet now he was proven wrong. The first one that came to him had gotten farther than this... the others though he managed to keep back with a good ten-foot distance. He almost felt bad for the thoughts that ran through his mind. It would lack honor to take advantage of the powerful woman's image...yet for all he knew he was stuck here for eternity, and this could be the last time this place...the Fade, gave him such a treat - and a treat it was.

It'd gotten all her physical attributes right, even that little nick on her chin he admired in the right light. When she bit him he growled not because of the action itself but because of the pain it caused. It was the first physical feeling her could remember since coming to this place, and that pain molded into a pleasurable throb in mere seconds that caused him to stop completely in his tracks. The little mage apparition even felt the right weight - hanging to him like there was no ground underneath her.

The little vibrating muffled moan against his lips he felt, along with the small fingers grabbing at the stiff muscles in the back of his neck. For the moment he forgot his brethren, his long dead clan staring at him with hollow eyes and blank expressions - surly this creature currently cannibalizing his lower lip was something he should give in to. He was a man, even if he was a Qunari first.

Her hips in his hands were small, nothing like a Qunari female, yet despite the sheer size difference he did indeed feel the pull in his abdomen and that tightening of something much lower. Could he do this...? Would he be able to face the Warden again if she did indeed find him a way out of this place. Was it even the Fade... or was that also a trick? Would he be able to follow her command if he allowed himself to give in to this nymph assuming her skin?

He growled into the soft lips and slippery tongue that had started to work it's way between his teeth. He was weak here..and that thought made him angry, despite the firm arousal he felt.

For an indecisive instant he brought the frail thing closer to him, almost violently before letting out a loud roar and tossing her back to the side of the purple flames. If he had known she was real he would have been much more gentle, but his rational mind told him she was nothing more than a dirty little trick - even if she was a pleasant one. His eyes darkened a moment, thinking of what he could have done to her without feeling worry over holding back any of his strength. Again he grumbled and shook his head to the side, trying to keep his vision off the Warden's image and his emotionless brethren. He caught the sight of them looking at the fallen temptation, whispering incoherently to each other.

"Your lies are tempting..." He stared down at the shifting ground, his feet seeming to be standing on top a reflection on water. "I will enjoy my brethren's company as long as it is given to me. _You_, whatever _you_ are, despite a good impression - are not welcomed."

He saw the small shift out the corner of his eye, the flimsy robes over the unclothed thighs made his teeth click together. She had yet to fade away like the others.

"Leave!" He growled as intimidatingly as he could muster at the broken looking thing before walking forward yet again. Though he tried not to let himself stare at the Warden's image too long he still felt a small worry in the back of his head - She sure did look real, yet her actions spoke better than her looks. He sneered, feeling the muscles in his face tense up.

A tightening on his ankle made him look down. The apparition was persistent... if it was indeed an apparition. He frowned, stopping despite his better judgment as the hands on his ankles made their way up to his calf, his knee and his thigh. He held in a breath as one hand came around to his inner thigh, surly if she was the real Warden she could feel his muscles under her hands tenses and ripple. For a moment that thought shamed him.

"You are not real."

He said it more to himself, almost entirely to himself. Even though he was starting to think again that she may have been the real thing - that was something he wasn't sure he wanted. He had thrown her backwards...that surly wasn't something you did to a commander, no matter how unwanted her actions may have been. Then she spoke, and then he had no doubt it was truly her. The angry tone in her voice was something he'd heard no where else before...though that meant that it was her that bit his mouth, not an apparition of this place. He felt his lower body quiver despite his want to remain stoic.

"How dare you! Can you not tell me from a wench Fade demon?" Her words were jumbled and hard. He saw her grab at the material of his trousers, felt the material tighten around his thigh as she lifted herself up. He stood still, a mixture a feelings bombarding him as the look in her eyes changed from anger to embarrassment - no doubt he had hurt her confidence by turning down her advances; by throwing her backwards like a little girl's doll. He hadn't held back any strength that time...he secretly wondered if she felt pain here...she must have - it hurt when she sunk her teeth into his lip.

He stared down at her, still as stone, trying to show as much respect as he could despite what he had done. She remained perturbed, peering around the both of them and landing her gaze on the fire and no doubt staring hatefully at the Qunari around it. He set his mouth firmly, pushing his tongue to the back of his teeth feeling the little Warden ready to spit out more words.

"I know this place...it tricks you. It uses what it can to keep you here." He was slightly surprised at her softer tone of voice, his brows pushed together waiting for her next string of syllables. "I..yo-you...I had to do something to keep you back from the..._fire_..and...", she trailed off looking away from the fire and peeking up at him. He smirked, slightly. Yes he'd known she was more interested in talking with him than he figured she should have been. At first he'd chocked it up to being a race she didn't see often...or ever seen at all - yet she kept talking with him; looking at him.

She didn't speak any more, only making a few little awkward noises, as if she was hoping he'd say something.

"Forgive me Kadan...the _Fade_ has brought you here before under..._different..._circumstances."

He didn't look at her face after he spoke, feeling as though she didn't want him to anyways. Instead he looked over at the form of his closest brethren. The Qunari turned to look at him, tossing something in it's hand into the fire. The flame crackled with colors of red and blue. He felt a heaviness in his chest that he thought was emotion until he turned to see a delicate hand against his leather carapace. He felt a frown fall on his face as he turned to see the magling looking up at him with a almost unreadable expression on her face.

"Are you not going to come with me?", her voice was soft, foreign and laced with something he didn't care to think about. No, he didn't want to go, yet her little act of intimacy was itching at his mind. If he refused to go what would she do to persuade him? Would she kiss him again, bite him, or something different? He suppressed a tilt of his mouth as he glanced to the fire yet again. Despite his lack of conversation, Sten was not stupid as some would think. He figured if he denied her offer of freedom she would more than likely be left with nothing but to do something drastic - at that thought he did let a little smirk form along his mouth.

"My mind is _no _different Kadan."

* * *

Hook, Line and Sinker...how can you resist the bait when it Sten?


End file.

Dragon Age, Fantasy, Romance