DAI: The Majority of Hands (on its feet!)

by: Shadow Chaser

Author's Notes:

Bog Unicorn. Nuff said. Also, human female mage – aka Lady Trevelyan. Yes, she has a first name, no I am not using her first name. She can be your Lady Trevelyan or mine. She's also romancing Cullen at this point, but it's a really slow burn of a pairing (aka, they're both a bit oblivious).

Fair Warning: Major spoilers for picking a side in the Mage-Templar War (post-In Your Heart Shall Burn questline) and onwards. You have been warned.

Story:

It had hands for its feet.

At least two tactile hands for its front feet and was absently picking at the tufts of hay it stood upon, the fingers twining through the rough coarse strands like someone playing with the hay. Trevelyan could not help but stare at the feet at the newest member of Skyhold's stables. "So..." she started, then stopped, swallowing a bit uncomfortably before gathering her meager courage up again, "um...what's his...uh, its name again?"

"Tiddles Majoris," Leliana said in a simple cooing tone as if nothing was amiss, absently stroking the stumpy elephantine noise of the...

"What is it again?"

"A war nug, or a nuggalope," this time Trevelyan heard the proud smug tone in Leliana's voice as she absently scratched the end of the snuffling noise, eliciting a wuffing sneeze from the creature.

Trevelyan was still so mesmerized – and mildly horrified - by the fact that the creature had hands for its feet that she forgot to nod. She loved odd creatures, loved taking care of the menagerie that she had at the Ostwick Circle until it fell, but this...for some odd reason, she could not comprehend the fact that it had human-like hands for its feet. And...she blinked. The war nug...it was actually making a knot out of the bits and pieces of hay, all the while absently squeaking and purring – of all things – at Leliana's touch.

"I honestly did not expect this when I agreed to let you send your scouts, Leliana," she said faintly and saw her friend only smile in response.

"Well, you have a couple of dracolisks, and mind you, Soggy, your bog unicorn is perhaps the weirdest thing-"

"Soggy was a horse, is a horse...is an undead horse..." Trevelyan finished lamely before the familiar snorting sound of her bog unicorn outside the stables snapped her out of her reverie.

She turned in time to see Solas gently pulling on Soggy's reins, having taken him out along with of Vivienne's dracolisks as the war nug was settled into its new home in the stables. The plan had been more for the dracolisks' benefit than Soggy's, based on Leliana's findings that the dracolisk considered the smaller nugs their prey species. One could only imagine how a dracolisk would react to a war nug, nuggalope, of all things.

Hence why Solas was bringing in Soggy first. The smell of the war nug would permeate through Soggy's dead skin for a while, then they would see what the dracolisks would do. The other ones in Vivienne's care were nibbling on the remains of the goats outside of the castle walls, their unique hooves giving them the ability to almost stand vertical to the steep cliffs that surrounded Skyhold. Vivienne herself was watching over them, one of the rare times in which she had actually agreed to such an outlandish plan. Trevelyan suspected it was due to Leliana's cajoling and probably a few threats from her. Schmooples II and Boulette had learned almost the hard way when they had wandered into the stables a few weeks ago and were nearly eaten by Vivienne's dracolisk. They had only escaped to Soggy's part of the stables with the bog unicorn only looking at them before nudging them into hay piles to hide.

Apparently the dracolisk was not too happy as food was sprayed into Soggy's part of the stables during dinner time. She and Solas knew the best since they were sprayed with maggots and half-chewed meat. Cullen had walked in in the middle of that and walked straight out without a second glance, laughing so hard that she had felt somewhat embarrassed, but glad that at least he was having a good laugh at her expense – she had been worried about him since he had not even smiled since receiving news about his former friend and ex-Templar Samson. The fact that he had returned with towels for the two of them at least made her feel a little happier.

"Come on Soggy," Solas said gently and Trevelyan glanced over to see that her bog unicorn had all but stopped dead at the entrance. His eyeless sockets were focused on the war nug before he suddenly shook his head in a violent manner. Solas, not expecting such a movement stumbled before bracing himself against one of the wooden pillars on the stable and looked at Soggy with a small frown on his face.

"Soggy?" Trevelyan took a step forward as her bog unicorn still shook its head, a few snorts issuing from its nose.

"Huh...if I had to guess, your bog unicorn is saying the equivalent of no, no, no, no, no, no, no..." Solas commented, letting go of Soggy's halter as the bog unicorn stood there, shaking its head.

Trevelyan could only shake her head and rub her eyes. Soggy might have liked Leliana's nugs but apparently like her, could not quite comprehend the fact that there were nuggalopes, war nugs in existence. She felt a little more than pleased that she was not the only one who thought the fact that there were mounts with human-like hands was odd – even though it was her bog unicorn thinking along the same lines.

"Well...this is going to be interesting," Leliana made a small sound of disappointment as Trevelyan turned to look at her.

"What," she could feel the barest pit of dread filling her.

"I have four more different war nugs coming soon..." her friend only gave her a sheepish smile.

Trevelyan suddenly had the urge to shake her head just like Soggy was doing. No, no, no, no, no...

~END~