Vengeance, Wrath and Fury

Anders had just locked up the clinic, intent on sleeping for once. After a day full of injured miners from the bone pit, children that insisted on playing in places they shouldn’t then getting hurt, and his weekly run at the Rose to keep them happy, Anders was knackered.

He was halfway undressed for bed when he heard the knock on his door. He considered telling them to go away, but he knew he couldn’t turn someone away if they’d made the trip to his clinic. He pulled his coat back on and cracked the door open only to find Fenris there, with his hand behind his back, looking oddly ill at ease.

“Fenris, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing…I have, something for you.”

“It couldn’t wait until morning?”

“No, I… I did not know what to do with it until then. Are you going to let me in or not?”

Anders let him in and shut the door behind him, sitting on the closest examination table wearily. 

“So what couldn’t wait until tomorrow?”

Fenris pulled his hand from behind his back and produced a basket. “I found it in the wine cellar earlier today, it seems to be a stray.”

“Fenris, you actually brought me a cat?”

“Yes… you are always going on about them, I figured you would know what to do with it.”

“Well it’s a she and yes, I can take care of her, but down here I fear she may wind up in someone’s stew rather than as a pet.”

“I thought that was a tale Varric told to warn me off of eating in taverns here.”

“No, people down here are desperate Fenris. You get to a point where meat is meat and you don’t care where it came from. I can’t keep her here, she won’t be safe. Why didn’t you leave her in the wine cellar?”

“She’s small… I thought perhaps she was a rat at first and I caught her … then realized it was a kitten.”

“I see… well for tonight she should be fine. Tomorrow may I come by and show you how to care for her? She can catch rats in your cellar and she’ll be safer there than here.”

“But she is a gift to you.”

“The I will just have to visit more often, if that will be alright. I think we can stand each other long enough to check on this little one.”

“That would be… acceptable. I will see you tomorrow then.”

Fenris left him with the kitten that had discovered his pauldrons and was happily climbing his shoulders and batting at his feathers.

“Enough out of you missy, my feathers are not your plaything.” Anders took the kitten to his room and held her while he got out of his coat and pauldrons. Once they were out of the kitten’s reach he stretched out and let her wander over his chest, finding a spot to sleep in. 

He smiled as he watched her fight sleep and finally close her eyes… with him doing the same, a small smile on his face while he dreamed of kittens and green eyed grumpy elves.