The Missing Chapter,
Part 3
Ahh, Part Three. Thank you my faithful readers for allowing me to continue posting this tale. There's nothing juicy yet but the sex and violence are just around the bend. But this story takes our adventure a bit further. I hope you don't get sea-sick…!
Quite some time later, I was in our cabin, reading a book in the dim lamplight, when she walked in with her cheeks flushed and her shirt loosely stitched. She was all but hanging out of her bodice and I could clearly see the red dragon that curled around her right breast. The head, according to what she told me once when we were drunk, was poised, mouth open, right above her nipple. I'd never seen it before now. Not the, ah, head of it but now, I was seeing a lot more than I had any right to see, that's for damn sure.
She came over to me and leaned against my hammock, almost jostling me out of it. I gripped her shoulder to stop it from swaying as I waited for her to speak. She was grinning like a fool, her fingers running through her wild, black hair. "Hm. Maybe I shouldn't tell you about it…" she teased with a giggle.
I smiled and shook my head. Should I let her spill the details or not? How much would she reveal? "Go ahead and talk about it if you like, Sweetness. I'm all ears. Besides, I have to tell the tale someday!" I drew a deep breath and waited as she fixed me with those depthless eyes that let me see into her soul.
"Okay… It was like this: He was good with his hands, he knew how to use what the Maker gave him and otherwise he was dumb as a prostitute in Darktown. Conversation is something I find exciting and wonderful and why can't I have a man who is as good at conversing as he is at lovemaking? Oh, Varric… There are times I really wish you were interested in me. You're like one-stop shopping at one of those stalls where you have everything you need. Anyhow, I'm off to bed. Unless it's a quickie, I doubt I'll be lying with Frisk again." Wait, wait, wait a minute! She said I was "one stop shopping!" I like that, actually. That meant I was the whole package. Smart, funny, great with intelligent conversation and…good in bed. Though whether that was true or not was hard to say, having never had sex with myself. In my line of work, the ladies don't offer up formal critiques of your skills. Even if you're awful, they'll tell you that you rocked their world. Yes, it's very sad.
We slept in our hammocks that night, swaying along with the ship and alone in our dreams. In the bowels of a freighter, it's hard to tell night from day. And the ship creaks and groans constantly. There's no such thing as silence so light sleepers beware: Even the nicest wooden ships are a bother to sleep in. You just have to sleep when exhaustion claims you and you wake when you have to use the head or when you're hungry and you find ways to pass the time in between. The young elf I met was fond of cards and didn't mind losing so we played for pebbles and a few coppers when he improved. By mid-day on the second day, I walked up onto the main deck where the captain stood, his eyes on the horizon before us. I followed his gaze, shadowing my eyes against the western sun. It was high but just beyond it was a line of angry darkness. "That looks ominous…" I remarked.
The captain, his accented flavored with Orlesian spice, nodded. "More than you know, my friend. That storm is the reason we will not make Jader when I planned. Already, the prevailing winds push against us. My fear is that, to the southeast, there is a collection of rocky islands that form the delta from Lake Calenhad and we may be headed right for them. We are just west of those but unless we hit the channel as perfectly as we did coming, we will be at the rocks' mercy. My plan is to travel east, back to Kirkwall, to await the storm and then head back out again. I have a private berth so that should not be a problem."
Practical as all dwarves are, I asked, "And if we don't make it?"
The captain sighed and looked back up into the threatening sky. "I…don't want to dwell on what will happen. It will be bad, that is all I can say."
"Among the flotsam, I take it?" I suggested gravely.
The captain shrugged. "It is what it is. Anything you like, though, pack it up so that if the worst happens, it won't catch you by surprise. Tie it all together and just…be ready."
I was tempted to tie myself to something and then decided that swimming might be better than floating upside down or sinking. So I found Bianca and made sure she was bagged and prepared. Then I set about getting our gear ready for the worst. It was during some of those breaks in the day that I found Hawke's absences difficult to bear. She was with Frisk , no doubt, and I needed her so that I could make sure she was ready for anything. Just as I was beginning to grumble, with a sensation of fear unlike any I'd ever felt twisting in my gut like poison, I saw her. She waved to me as I approached. "You minx! I've been looking for you but, I guess you were…"
She grinned and shook her head as she interrupted. "…helping Lady Salide deal with her pending divorce. She's agonizing over it but knows it's the best thing for her. Her husband is a right bastard! Once we reach Jader, she plans to appeal to Chantry and the local magistrate for dissolution of the marriage." I winced as she utterly dashed all my suspicions, leaving me feeling guilty. "You look pale, frightened… Is everything all right?"
I shook my head slowly. "Come with me, Hawk. I need to show you something…" We walked up to the main deck and stared over the bow. The line of storm clouds behind us was marching ever closer on our tail, faster than we could retreat from them. Ahead, was the rocky channel, islands looming in the distance. They were hard to see but becoming clearer on that distant horizon. The waves were shoving us toward the death trap ahead, relentless and strong. If the storm hit while were in the channel, we were all fucked. Even as close as we were to Kirkwall, everything depended on the storm. I explained this all to her and she was fine until I got to the "fucked" part.
As she stood there, absorbing the reality of what I'd said, lightening lit up the sky, followed by the distant echo of thunder. The sight of the eerie, golden sky-fire caused a chill to run down my spine. I took her hand and pulled her along with me as I all but ran across the deck to the hatch. Under our feet, the waves rolled, almost knocking us to our knees. "Let's go below, Sweetness. There's nothing we can do up here and I doubt even the Maker will be crazy enough to watch us in that storm."
"It's going to be bad, Varric. I know weather, I understand the elements and I believe that it's going to much worse than anyone can imagine," she said she climbed down the steps. I looked over at her, nodding gravely as she softly spoke. She was just as afraid as I was. Her fingers curled around my own and we went to our cabin to wait it out. But there would be no waiting it out. This monster was going to overtake us, destroying the ship and possibly killing us all in the process. Prayer was not a viable option as it rarely affected the actual outcome of a bad situation. Besides, I had to wonder how many lives had been lost over the ages due to poor planning and time lost due to prayer alone. The Maker can't do everything! So we sat down and planned for the worst.
The plan was simple, really. Everything we held dear was strapped to our bodies and since Hawke was a better swimmer than I was, she would carry our weapons. We carefully unhinged the door to our cabin and strapped the packs, double-packed in oiled leather, to the back of the wooden door. There was nothing of value and everything could be replaced, if expensively. Bianca was strapped to my back in her usual place but heavily padded and packaged against every foreseeable chance of water damage. Then, with the waves becoming more aggressive, we began the tedious process of waiting.
We were seated on the floor, trying to play cards when the word came that we needed to prepare for the worst. Ser Stuffed Crotch came to visit and looked at the empty door-way to our cabin with raised brows. "Ah, My Lady, would you come with me, please?" he said to Hawk. I frowned. Okay, I admit it; I was jealous. I saw it in his eyes, the lust there, the desire to die but not without one final lay with the prettiest woman on the ship. She got up and followed him and I watched warily. There was no way I was getting up off the floor with the waves beating on the ship the way they were. We were now actively rolling from side to side and up and down. I'd never been known to get motion-sick but damned if I wasn't feeling queasy now. I wonder if that was affecting Hawke's love-making?
She returned a short time later, looking pissed. "That asshole wanted to have sex with me! Can you believe that? Impossible and insane! I refused, of course. He wanted to go down with a bang. I told him that if I was going to die, it was going to be with my best friend in my arms and nobody else. Varric…" She crouched before me and our faces drew close. I touched her cheek with my fingers and our lips parted.
"Hawke, I've always wanted to tell you this but I never knew how. I…" Then the world exploded around us, slamming us into one another and ending anything else I was going to say or do. Water rushed in, wood blasted outward and a chest slammed into us. Ironically, it protected us from several large splinters that sought to pierce our flesh. My Hawk was many things but she was definitely not a healer. That chest saved our lives.
Our cabin filled quickly and I climbed atop the door we prepared, Hawke holding it in swiftly-rising waist-deep water. I could tell from the way she was standing that the deck was tilting under her and the ceiling lowered, pressing in on us. There was very little time to escape. She gripped my face and kissed me hard before shoving me out the door. "Find a way out! I'm going to help anyone I can. I love you, Varric. Please be safe!" Then she dove into the cold, dark water and disappeared down a hall that was swiftly being consumed by the sea. My worst dreams come true; I was terrified that we were going to die. This was the end.
Now was the time to pray.
