Don't own the characters which obviously is the norm here. Not native English speaker either which probably shows. And of course, comments are welcome..
-o-
Gates of Kirkwall. While most of the traffic to and from the busy city went through the docks, the land routes were still well used. Hundreds of people went through every day during the daylight hours that the gates were open, and one person had been there everyday watching them pass for almost a week now. During his guard he had already revealed couple smuggling operations, and apprehended minor slave traders. Aveline had even suggested she should be paying him for his vigilance and as usual, Fenris hadn't been able to tell if she was joking or not. After all that wasn't his reason for staying there day after day. No, he was waiting the return of his friend from the Deeproads. A friend he didn't even know he had before he surprised himself by being furious for being left behind when they started their foolish expedition. She even had chosen to take that abomination with her, of all people.
At first he had decided he had already been too long in one place, and that it was as good a chance to leave as any. But this and that had held him back and weeks went by, and then the news of the return of Bartrands expedition came. Fenris was not one to ask around openly but he found out soon enough that Varric and Hawke sisters were not with them. While they were not by far the only losses the expedition had suffered, talking with Bodahn confirmed his suspicions that they had more probably gotten separated from the main group at some point. He already knew that they were hard to kill after all. Talking with Bartrand didn't seem to be possible however, and no one else didn't seem to know when they had last seen them. So the next surprise to himself had been the decision to wait their return at the city gates. As it dragged on Isabela had done rather poor comparison of him to a pet which waits for it's master. His swift and angry retribution had caught the pirate by surprise, making her swear she'd never joke about Fenris again, a promise she'll hardly be able to keep all that long.
The next day after he had taken his place in the shadows of the grates, where he could easily see everything but hardly be seen himself, he started to wonder how he had ended up in a position like that. He had wanted to be free and fought for it more than he wanted to remember. Now he was tied to this city, city of chains of all places, with bonds way stronger than even the lyrium infused submission had been. He had something he could scarcely call home, he did services here and there that could pass as a job and most importantly, there were people he seemed to consider friends. Isabela escaping only with scrapes after equating him now to his older self was a proof that he had been way too soft, not to mention his wait for the return of Hawke. But was this actually just the freedom he had been looking for. Something he would never have found if he hadn't stumbled upon that ragtag group of opportunistic adventurers. How had it been that he managed to hire them to help him, and subsequently ended up helping them in their various endeavors...
