Hawke really hated spiders. And it wasn't because a gigantic spider demon was the last thing she remembered looming over her, although that was definitely high on her list of Worst Imagery Ever. No, this secret fear started long before even the Blight tore her family apart. They'd kept a farm in Lothering, and one day, at the tender (albeit no less reckless age) of ten, Hawke had gone and accidentally locked herself in the barn. With a giant spider. Just seeing one still makes her skin crawl like she's a little girl again, huddled in the dark between bales of hay, trying desperately to hold her breath. Seeing one skitter out from the corner of her eye now wasn't exactly what Hawke had anticipated when she set off to explore, but the sound of a rift opening? Not something she could really ignore.
It felt familiar to leap to the defense of someone before really taking any stock of the situation. Jerking the staff from her back, Hawke swung her arms up, a wall of flame igniting between Evelyn and her not-so-friendly opponents. The sight of those twisted, hairy, beady-eyed little monsters out in broad daylight was a consolation of sorts, something painfully familiar in a strange new world. Even if they made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. Bastards.
"Look at you!" By now, it was impossible not to confirm the Inquisitor's identity for all she cut an imposing figure. The rift helped, too. Hawke couldn't help but grin, sending a fireball at a spider attempting to skitter around the barrier she'd made. "Already battling evil—and it's not even lunch yet. How do you do it?" Maybe this place wasn't so bad after all. No, scratch all that, it was fucking awful. She was gritting her teeth more than smiling at this point, making sure to give the nasties a wide berth. It wouldn't do for anyone to realize she was actually debilitated by these things.