A Battered Old Journal, Chapter Four

Title: A Battered Old Journal, Chapter Four

Series: Dragon Age

Characters: OC: Mathis Hawke, OC: Tara, Varric Tethras, Cullen, F!Hawke, OC: Siegfried, Merrill, OC: Elena Hawke

Words: 494

Summary: The fourth entry in the journal, written on the thirteenth of August in 9:56 Dragon.

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The day my little sister was born was a day gone mad.

Not in a bad way, mind you. It’s just that the Gallows was full of people that day once word got out that the Champion’s child was coming. You couldn’t turn without bumping into anybody and after two hours of that the Senior Enchanters finally gave up on teaching classes.

It’s hard to keep the attention of a bunch of children who’re distracted not only by a good few hundred voices in the main courtyard but the fact that someone very important was being born. Not every day that there’s a child born between a First Enchanter and a Knight-Commander (never mind that they were unofficial ones) and we all knew it.

I remember Tara and I played in one of the smaller courtyards for most of that day, periodically breaking to watch the waiting crowd through the bars of the portcullis someone had lowered. After dinner though I made my way towards our rooms and sat on a low bench next to Varric and Auntie. That they both looked worried is what I recall the most from that day before Cullen came out with this great big smile on his face to say I had a sister.

Okay, so I lied – this day really was one gone mad in a bad way. I just didn’t know that until much later when Siegfried got around to the subject of childbirth and a healer’s place in it. Which, to note, was a subject I discovered I really hadn’t wanted to know about because that man has some terrifying stories.

It was impressive really that they kept the problems with Elena’s birth quiet when it got out that she was coming. Of course that got out because Mother was in the middle of class when the birth started and one stupid ninny went running to all her gossipy friends. Anyway, I won’t share exactly what went on because hearing the whole thing just makes everything worse. Anyone reading this also might never want to have children again after hearing it (I’m still a little iffy on that one and I know how to – mostly – fix the things that go wrong).

Siegfried’s basic explanation that he gave me a year ago was that a woman who’s done as much as Mother has in her life is going to have some difficulties in childbirth. That and her age as most women in their forties have already had all the children they will have. Those two things combined together almost made us lose them both if it weren’t for Siegfried’s skills.

We made it through all that madness, though, with everyone safe and me an unknowing ten year-old who was excited over his new sister. A little sister who is currently in need of a bedtime story it would seem judging by the sound of bare feet and giggles outside my door, so that’s all for now.