#seramance

ordinary things that feel intimate | carrying and being carried | @dadrunkwriting | @kirblord

If the Boot Fits

Minor injuries are common among agents of the Inquisition. Rough terrain, poisonous plants, exposure to the elements, campfires, wild animals, enemy troops…there are countless ways to get hurt in pursuit of a more stable Thedas. Thanks to a pair of new boots, Sera has fallen prey to that most common of afflictions. Lucky for her, there are plenty of plinths and benches and steps scattered around the Emerald Graves, just waiting for a weary, travelling butt like hers to plonk down onto them. She unlaces the offending shoe, pulls it off, and turns it over.

There it is, covering the pad underneath her big toe.

The Iron Bull sucks in a hiss over his teeth. “Damn. That’s one fuck of a blister.”

Somehow the phrase “one fuck of a blister” doesn’t do it justice. It’s the size of a sovereign coin, the skin bulging out like a great, yellowish bubble, looking for all the world like it’d burst if she so much as breathed on it. Sera wrinkles her nose in disgust.

“Eurgh!” She stretches her leg out to its full length, as if to put distance between her and it. At least she can’t see it from this angle. “What do I do? Do I pop it?”

“No,” Bull says. “You don’t want that to get infected.”

“But I can’t walk on it!” she argues.

“Try walking on a stump.”

That, admittedly, shuts her up, but she folds her arms and scowls all the same. Her angry eyes fall on Dorian, the mage chosen to round out the party. “Can’t you fix it?”

He manages to tear his eyes away from the gross-out monstrosity on the sole of her foot. “As flattering as it is that you’d trust me to cast on you…I’m afraid I never was much good at healing,” he says. “Unless you plan on dying from it. I’m sure you’d make a lovely thrall for a spirit.”

“Eurgh!” She moves to whip him with her dirty sock, but he’s too far away.

The fourth member of the party steps forward. Nanna is silent, as usual, as she kneels and carefully spreads a poultice over the blister, hands so delicate that Sera wouldn’t know she was doing it if not for the feel of the wet goop on her skin. And, well, the fact that she’s watching Nanna work. She wipes the excess off on a clean cloth, and then takes a bandage from her pack, winding it around Sera’s foot. Nanna ties it with a perfect little knot.

“Thanks.” Sera might be blushing, and it might be painfully obvious, but she isn’t about to admit it to the others. She bends to pick up her boot, but Nanna catches her wrist. Looking up, Sera finds her shaking her head. “What’s up?”

Nanna frowns, and signs, boot on? Later foot hurt.

“I can’t just sit here!” Sera protests. “I have to get back to camp.”

Nanna should have thrown Sera over her shoulder. Hell, she should have just made Sera walk. It’s just a blister, after all, even if it is a bad one. Instead, Nanna puts one arm around Sera’s back, the other behind her knees, and lifts her in a bridal carry.

However red Sera was before, it’s nothing compared to how she looks now.

“Ha! Bet that was the plan all along, huh, Sera?” Bull laughs.

GUYS!!!!!!

I commissioned the lovely and incredible @star--nymph and she made me this lovely piece of my oc Ataashi'len Adaar and Sera 😍😍😍😍 I'm so happy they're beautiful thank you lovely!