The Lion with the Raven Wings Chapter 4

In a world where soulmates recognize each other on their marks, two souls find each other due to a common course.

Cullen joined the Inquisition because he wanted to help, to redeem himself. Not in his wildest dreams, he would have ever imagined he would meet his soulmate. Raven just wanted to prevent further bloodshed, not be the Herald of Andraste nor meet her soulmate in the middle of a war.

Can they help become each other the best version of themselves and prevail together, or will they both shatter at their own insecurities?

A Soulmate AU

________________

If you have missed the previous chapter,s you can find it  here

——

The first time he witnessed her dismounting far away from the others, he thought nothing of it. The second time he didn't pay it any attention. The third time he found it odd. The fourth time he believed that it had something to with her companions, especially with the Qunari. This theory proved wrong when he saw the two of them animated talking in the tavern.

After that, he kept wondering what motivated her to mount and dismount away from the others. Then he noticed that she gave the stable a wide berth.

From then on, he kept observing her interactions meticulously, searching for the cause of this strange behavior.

He had the epiphany one day as he was grooming Maximilian, his own horse, outside the stables. He planned to bring him to the fields behind Haven later to let him roam.

He saw Raven out of the corner of his eyes, leaving Harrit's station. She bid the men at the forge farewell. She then turned towards him.

A smile began to form on her face when she saw him. But before it was the smile he was used to from her, it froze. Her face turned white. She took a step backward, fear evident on her face.

This was the exact moment Cullen realized she was afraid of horses. And it probably didn't help that Max was a big black stallion. He took Max reins and led him into the stable. 

Cullen made sure his horse was taken care of as quickly as possible, but since Max didn't like any of the stable boys, Cullen had to do all the work. Usually, he savored to do it, but not today.

Raven was long gone when he left the stables. While he was walking to her cabin, he was formulating a plan on how to help her. So that she at least could be near a horse or at least in the nearer vicinity of one.

He had a solid plan, at least Cullen thought he did when he reached Ravens cabin. He knocked on her door.

He didn't have to wait long till she opened her door. Her face was still pale, and she wouldn't meet his eyes. She seemed as she was ashamed.

"Can I come in?" Cullen asked. She nodded and stepped aside to let him in. 

After a moment of uncomfortable silence, "I am sorry you had to see me like ..." "I am sorry to intrude on you like..." they both started at the same time.

They both fell silent immediately. Cullen cleared his throat. "If it's okay with you, I would like to begin." She nodded, embarrassed.

"First of all, it is okay to be afraid of something. This is nothing to be ashamed of." She opened her mouth, but he cut her off with a shake of his head.

"I am not finished. I got to know you a little bit in the last few weeks, and I've come to the conclusion: You had a bad experience with horses. And I would like to rectify that. I know you love animals, and I think it pains you to be afraid of them. So I want to help you if you want to that is. I am not pressuring you, but I think you would benefit hugely if you could overcome your fear. Be it to ride one or be near one without the need to run immediately." He looked her directly in the eye. "I won't think less of you if this fear proves too great to overcome, but I believe you can. All I ask is you try."

The next day, Raven met Cullen at the gate of Haven, and they went to the fields together. As they drew nearer, she saw horses running around the paddock, grazing. 

She was still some distance from them apart, but her fear seized her. She froze. 

Cullen stopped beside her and pointed at something in the middle of the herd.

"Do you see the foals? Their age ranges from a few weeks old to short of a year." The little ones chased each other, weaving through the adult horses, using them as obstacles.

Two ran at breakneck speed next to each other. Suddenly they bumped into each other so that both went tumbling down to the ground. Raven moved instinctively closer, ready to help if the need arose.

But both sprung up, shook their fur, and continued racing.

Cullen led her to a pasture a little further. A lonely chestnut brown horse was grazing there.

"This is Mara," Cullen explained.  Mara padded towards him when she heard his voice. "She knows I always have a carrot for her."

He sat his backpack on the ground. Then he closed the remaining feet to the enclosure and climbed over the fence. Mara greeted him by nosing at him.

"She is a sneaky one." Cullen laughed. "Always hungry." 

He pulled a carrot from his pocket and presented it to Mara on his flat palm. She immediately snitched it up and started munching.

He beckoned Raven to come nearer to the fence.

"She won't hurt you. First of all, there is a fence between you and her. Second, she is very friendly. My sister used her to teach a lot of children how to ride. Third, my sister trained her personally, and my sister is an excellent horse trainer. And last I am here, and I promise if she acts out, I will throw myself between you."

She nodded. Her fear was strong as ever, but Cullen was right: Mara didn't seem to be dangerous. She let Cullen scratch her neck and muzzle. And Cullen was here. And the few weeks she had known him, she learned that he always tried his hardest to keep the promises he gave.

She took a step forward, and when nothing terrible happened, she took another. 

"Can you give me the backpack?" She swallowed hard. Then she took a deep breath. She bent down to pick the bag up. Then she crossed slowly the area which divided her from the fence.

She realized that when she looked directly at Cullen, it was easier to go nearer the horse. Finally, she stood right before the fence.

Mara stretched her neck towards her and regarded her with a curious look. Then she bent her head towards her.

Raven stood stock still when Mara sniffed at her hair. And then she felt soft lips tickling her cheek. This triggered not fear as Raven would have expected. Instead, it caused a delighted giggle from her.

Mara's lips were very ticklish. Raven knew at that moment that maybe she wouldn't be able to trust all horses, but in time this horse could be her friend, and she knew she had Cullen to thank for that.

@rachelleofalltrades @darlingrutherford @kemvee

The Lion with the Raven Wings Chapter 3

In a world where soulmates recognize each other on their marks, two souls find each other due to a common course.

Cullen joined the Inquisition because he wanted to help, to redeem himself. Not in his wildest dreams, he would have ever imagined he would meet his soulmate. Raven just wanted to prevent further bloodshed, not be the Herald of Andraste nor meet her soulmate in the middle of a war.

Can they help become each other the best version of themselves and prevail together, or will they both shatter at their own insecurities?

A Soulmate AU

________________

If you have missed the previous chapter,s you can find it  here

——

Cullen was the first to arrive at the war room the next morning. The next ones to appear were Leliana and Josephine. They were quietly whispering to each other. Then Cassandra barged into the room.

The last to arrive was the Herald. Her face was bare again. The others looked at her, stunned, except Leliana, of course. The spymaster knew probably already about the uniqueness of clan Lavelan. While asking, "Do I have something on my face?" Raven ran her hand over her face to check for dirt or food residue.  

"No, Herald, it's just that ... your face...?" Josephine tried to politely ask the question of, "Where is your vallaslin?" Cassandra blurted out. "Oh, that..." And then she told them the same story she had told him the evening before.

After she had enlightened them about the history of her clan, they continued with the meeting. It was decided that Raven would meet mother Giselle in the Hinterlands. Cassandra, Varric, and Solas would accompany her to the Hinterlands. Soon after the meeting had ended, they set off to their destination.

Cullen, hours later, was watching the recruits fight. He walked from one group to another: correcting and criticizing and sometimes demonstrating how to do it better.

Rylen, his second in command, stood beside him.   "The recruits show great promise." "They are not a hopeless case." Cullen agreed. "But most of them have a long way ahead of themselves, till they are ready for a real fight."

They began to strategize how to train their soldiers best when suddenly a strange weight landed on Cullen's shoulder. He turned his head to the right and looked into the amber-colored eyes of an owl.

"Maker's breath!" Cullen exclaimed. The tawny owl hooted back as if to greet him. Cullen tried to dislocate the owl through moving his shoulder back and forth. When tath didn't work, He tried shooing it away with his left hand.

But the owl seemed not to care. Instead, it snuggled closer to Cullen's ear. The sound it gave off at the moment reminded Cullen of a purring cat but with owl sounds. 'What a strange owl.', he thought.

There was one more thing he could try to get the owl of his shoulder. Carefully he placed both his hands on the plumage at its side. When it didn't react negatively, he gently grasped the owl and equally gently lifted it from his shoulder.

The owl hooted protestingly but didn't do more than that. Cullen set it down on a nearby tree branch where he hoped it would stay or fly off to somewhere else. Fly off it did, but not in the intended direction.

It landed on his shoulder, again, this time on his left. Rylen, who had watched the scene with a bright smile on his face, burst out laughing.

Cullen turned his irritation from the animal, which abused him as a seat to his second in command. Then Cullen took note of the absence of the sound of clashing swords and bashing shields.

With the promise of punishment in his eyes, he turned towards his soldiers.  He seized up every last one of them, daring them to move the corner of their mouths upwards.

Nobody moved a muscle; nobody wanted to be at the receiving end of the commander's ire.  

"Continue the training!" he finally barked. The owl hooted soothingly at him.

Raven and her companions were pretty busy. They met with Mother Giselle, spoke with Master Dennet, liberated a fort from bandits.

Cullen got the news that they would be arriving back at camp soon a week later. The past week he and the owl had come to an understanding. The owl was allowed to reside on his shoulder during the day. She - Adan had told him that the owl was female - would mostly rest there and was off hunting in the night, when she didn't sit next to him on his cot. If she, in return, delivered messages for him.

She had gone so far as in bringing him his quill or other little things if he needed them. His soldiers sometimes looked strange at him, but they were mostly used to it by now.

He was walking through the gate when he saw the group with the Herald arrive back at Haven. The owl sat on his shoulder, dozing, having just got a share of his meat.

Raven dismounted a bit apart from the others, patted her halla on the neck before she walked towards him. She was a few feet away from him when her facial expression changed from delighted to sour.

"You traitor," she hissed. "I was worried about you. I thought you were hurt, or I don't know dead. No word, nothing, and here you are. Standing as nothing had happened, not a care in the world."

That Cullen was confused would be the biggest understatement at the moment. When she called him a little bitch, he had enough.

"Herald, may I ask what I did to upset you?" he asked evenly.

She looked confused. Then her mouth formed a wordless o as she just realized something before she went beet red.

"My apologies, Cullen, I wasn't talking to you. I was talking to her."

She pointed to his right shoulder, the shoulder where an innocent-looking owl was sitting.

Understanding dawned upon him. "She is yours," he concluded.

"As far as one can be the owner of this stubborn owl," Raven answered, then she turned back to the owl.

"Snowy, can you please get my satchel. I know you don't want to. You have a gorgeous man who tends to you, but if you do that, we can think about shared custody. Deal?" She appealed to the owl. It seemed to work because Snowy spread her wings and vanished into the forest.

"I am sorry if she was a handful. I try to encourage her to leave you alone.", she apologized. "She wasn't a bother. She was, surprisingly, good company...for an owl."

Raven gifted him a bright smile at his words, then waved goodbye.

"So, you made a new friend, Curly," Varric said from behind him.

@rachelleofalltrades @darlingrutherford @kemvee

The Lion with the Raven Wings Chapter 2

In a world where soulmates recognize each other on their marks, two souls find each other due to a common course.

Cullen joined the Inquisition because he wanted to help, to redeem himself. Not in his wildest dreams, he would have ever imagined he would meet his soulmate. Raven just wanted to prevent further bloodshed, not be the Herald of Andraste nor meet her soulmate in the middle of a war.

Can they help become each other the best version of themselves and prevail together, or will they both shatter at their own insecurities?

A Soulmate AU

________________

If you have missed the previous chapter,s you can find it  here

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Chapter 2

Raven had been in lots of strange situations. But waking up in chains and with a pounding head was a new one even for her. The first she did, she turned her focus inwards to check herself for injuries. When she was satisfied that nothing was wrong besides the headache, she slowly sat up. She was not surprised to see that somebody had taken her staff, but she was surprised to see a mark on her left hand, which gave off electric sparks.

"Good, you are awake.", someone said from outside her cell. A woman in a cloak came up to the cell bars.  She opened the cell doors and motioned for Raven to stand up. She led her to the adjourning room, where she sat down at a table.

The Lion with the Raven Wings Chapter 1

In a world where soulmates recognize each other on their marks, two souls find each other due to a common course.

Cullen joined the Inquisition because he wanted to help, to redeem himself. Not in his wildest dreams, he would have ever imagined he would meet his soulmate. Raven just wanted to prevent further bloodshed, not be the Herald of Andraste nor meet her soulmate in the middle of a war.

Can they help become each other the best version of themselves and prevail together, or will they both shatter at their own insecurities?

A Soulmate AU

________________

If you have missed the previous chapter, you can find it  here

________________

Chapter 1

A loud explosion roused Cullen from his sleep. In under five minutes, he was strapped in full armor and raced with sword and shield in hand out of his tent. The second he left his tent, he was confronted with a glowing green hole in the sky. At first, it didn't register that the temple of sacred ashes wasn't part of the landscape anymore.

The Lion with Raven Wings

In a world where soulmates recognize each other on their marks, two souls find each other due to a common course.

Cullen joined the Inquisition because he wanted to help, to redeem himself. Not in his wildest dreams, he would have ever imagined he would meet his soulmate. Raven just wanted to prevent further bloodshed, not be the Herald of Andraste nor meet her soulmate in the middle of a war.

Can they help become each other the best version of themselves and prevail together, or will they both shatter at their own insecurities?

A Soulmate AU

------------------------------

Prolog

The legend says that a princess fell deeply in love with a commoner. The king was strictly against this union, so he imprisoned the commoner and sentenced him to death. She cried, pleaded, and begged that he should spare her love.

Unknown to them was that her lover was a mage. One night when she finally could sneak to the dungeon to see him. He performed a ritual that bound them together forever. He vanished the next day, but with the promise that she would find him again and recognize him on the mark, he would bear, which would be identical to hers.

They were said to be the first soulmates.