"I used to be a Warden. But before that, I hunted monsters."
Sylvie looked up at him in surprise. "Me too."
"Really?" Davrin cocked his head, just as taken aback.
"Yeah." She tried not to smirk when he raised his eyebrows, clearly impressed.
"How long for?"
"A couple of years," she said, shrugging. "I finally killed the last one on my list. And I tried to go back home but…" Sylvie trailed off, embarrassed at how much she'd overshared.
He gave her a knowing smile. "Didn't feel the same?"
"Yeah—exactly." Sylvie couldn't stop her face from brightening. "How'd you know?"
"It's why I joined the Wardens," he explained.
Huh. "That makes sense. Killing darkspawn's a good job for a monster hunter, I guess; those things are bloody everywhere." She paused to wait for Davrin to empty one of Tal's snares, his giant fingers making surprisingly quick work of setting up a new one.
"Why'd you leave?" she asked as they started to walk again.
Davrin smiled for some reason and then pointed down to his right knee with a grimace. Sylvie had noticed it seemed stiff at times. He walked with an awkward gait on occasion. Especially at the end of a long day at the saloon.
…How the hell did she know that?
"One of the damn things hunted me. Forced me into early retirement," he said with a good-natured chuckle.
"Shit. Abelas." / Sorry. /
"Ma nuvenin." / As you wish. /
He smirked along with his reply, and Sylvie returned it. She definitely knew what it was like not wanting people to feel sorry for you. So she graciously switched topics.
"So how did you end up with sweetie pie Assan?"
Davrin laughed. "Sylvie. That griffon's a damn menace," he said, rolling his eyes.
"How dare you! I'll not hear another bad word about my sweet baby boy." She put her hands on her hips, and he just scoffed, so she added, "And from his father no less."
"He came along with the retirement. Sort of a rehabilitation thing. For both of us." He gave her a suspicious glance when she remained silent. "What? No teasing? No snide remark?"
She rolled her eyes. "Davrin, that's wayyyyy too bloody cute to tease even you about." He laughed and used his shirt to wipe the sweat off his brow again, and then snickered when he caught her staring.
Great.
But when Sylvie looked up after taking another swig from her canteen, she could have sworn she caught him doing the same bloody thing to her.
He even blushed.
Davrin's tromping around was at least good for flushing out the hares, and she added three more to her belt before he decided to yap again.
"What's the worst monster you've ever killed?" he asked.
"The man who owned me."
Sylvie winced when the words came out of her before she could stop them, and she regretted it instantly. Bracing herself for the awkward, stilted silence that was sure to follow. Davrin appeared at a loss for words, and she couldn't bear to look at his face. Not when he must either think she was insane, or even worse…
…something to pity.
🐍 Read the full story on AO3
My cowboy-in-crime @sunny374940 & I have a special offering for today's @datvcompanionweeks Davrin Week prompt: Monsters!
We've posted 2 new minisodes for our unhinged Cowboy AU, featuring:
READ ON AO3 | Minisode: Sylvie Comes to Town
Directed by Sunny ☀️
🦊 Sylvie's arrival to town/reunion with her long-lost cousin, Tal.
READ ON AO3 | Minisode: Sylvie Goes Hunting With Dav
Directed by Fern 🌿
🐍 The first-ever fic I've written for Sylvie, where she goes hunting with retired Warden (and current saloon-owner) Dav. AKA 'that bloody hulking giant of an elf' (Sylvie's words).
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This is a Tal & Sylvie appreciation post. (AKA Bravmi & Halu).
That's it. That's the post.🥲💕
When @sunny374940 & I first started writing our silly Cowboy AU fic, I had just started playing DAI and made my Inky Sylvie in DATV because the DAI character creator made me want to cry actual tears. I had a pretty fleshed out backstory for her, but little did I know that it was about to get even better.
Because on a whim, Sunny and I decided that since we were planning to include both Sunny's Inky and fire mage Taliesin along with my Inky rogue Sylvie in our 'cast' for Yeehaw Peepaw!, and they both shared a last name...maybe we should just make them be related.
So they became cousins.
...Just like that!
But y'all, their story has evolved sooooooo much since then, in a way I don't think either Sunny or I expected. And we'll be dropping more lore on them soon (as soon as tomorrow actually lmao including the full version of this WIP of Sylvie hunting with Dav for Davrin week since he's her cross-game bae!!)
👉 Psst! It's posted on tumblr now, & you can read on AO3 below!!
Sylvie Comes to Town Directed by Sunny ☀️
Sylvie Goes Hunting With Dav Directed by Fern 🌿
But I finally played more of Sylvie's save tonight and got this photo of her and I just couldn't believe how flippin' RELATED they look. Despite both Sunny & I creating them completely separately from each other.
They have that good ol' Lavellan glare.
...and MURDER in those gorgeous green eyes. 🙂↕️🗡️
Tal grew up with Sylvie and her younger sister Mira after his parents passed and their Mama & Baba took him in. So while he's Sylvie's cousin by blood, he's really more like her brother.
Sylvie was captured by Minrathous slavers while hunting when she was 8. 6-year-old Mira was killed during the resulting skirmish.
Sylvie survived by battling to the death in underground slave fighting rings in a grotesque deal to keep the unsavory paws of her evil 'master' off of her. So she really learned how to handle a blade in her time in the kitchen and that ring. And she made damn sure she remembered the face of every single elf she was forced to kill to stay alive.
So when she got the opportunity to escape one night on a trip back from a fight? She took it. And she killed her shem captors one by one in those moonlit woods using that blade of hers and the hunting skills her Bravmi taught her all those years ago. Back when they were just kids hunting rabbits.
Only now, she was hunting wolves in shem clothing.
After her bloody escape at 16, Sylvie slowly made her way down her Arya Stark hit list one evil asshole slaver at a time. Exacting revenge on every last human responsible for her sister Mira's death.
And Tal? Well, Tal's story is for him and Sunny to tell.
But let's just say it cost him…
…a lot.
When Sylvie locates her clan, she finds both of her parents dead and her beloved cousin-brother missing.
And she spirals.
And it's bad.
She joins up with a group of shem-hating extremists.
Because of course she does.
Life has been so bloody unfair to Sylvie, and if you trace the string of each and every little evil that's been done to her, you'll find a human at the end of it.
And while killing slavers and freeing elves is all well and good, the price eventually became more than Sylvie was willing to pay. When one of her team members kills a small human child, she realizes that maybe revenge isn't all that it's cracked up to be.
So she attempts to locate her beloved, long-lost cousin.
Because of course she does.
And when she eventually finds him in Lavendel, around 5 years before the start of our story…
It's a fucking tear-jerker y'all.
👉 You can read on AO3 here!
STAY TUNED FOR MORE OF THE LAVELLANS!
Tags below for visibility & just to say HOWDY! I love all of y'all! 💚
