Hi everyone! Thank you for all your follows and favourites recently. This is mostly just a filler chapter, I'm still studying for my finals and I did this while I was procrastinating (Oops!) Anyway, enjoy!

Eira gasped as her visions from her beast blood woke her up. They were terrifying to her, but she could never block them out. She often wondered how Aela dealt with it, and the frequent insomnia.

Looking around with caution she thought that she was in an unfamiliar place, then she remembered the events of the previous day.

'I'm not in Skyrim anymore; this is Kirkwall' she thought in sleepy confusion.

Looking around, she noticed that Bethany and Marian were still asleep. Listening, it seemed that Leandra was sleeping too and there were no other sounds as far as she could hear. Eira quietly got up and dressed in a unenchanted apprentice mage robe before rolling up her bedroll and entering the main room.

There was still the dull brown scent of ale in the air from the previous night. Eira recalled the argument that Marian, Leandra and Gamlen had last night about her. Marian seemed very angry at her uncle for taking her money, as she also would be if it were Eira.

'Perhaps if I make myself useful, Gamlen will see that I'm not a burden on him', she reflected, as she thought on what she could do while everyone else was asleep.

Eira walked back to her backpack and took out her supply of alchemy ingredients and an old mortar and pestle that she took from a rogue mage's cave. Settling back in the main room she began mixing a mild hangover remedy taught to her by Arcadia – charred skeever hide, wheat and blue mountain flowers, mixed with water and gently heated with a controlled flame spell to release the effect. Eira noticed that her supplies would need to be replenished soon, and she wondered what ingredients could be found in Kirkwall.

As the potion finished brewing, the front door opened. There stood a grey haired lanky man; his eyes were bloodshot and he was clutching his head in pain. He looked at Eira wearily and said, "I suppose you're the one that Marian took in last night."

"Aye, my name is Eira. I assume that you're Gamlen."

"Yes, that's me and keep it down! You're louder than a drunk celebrating group of mercenaries!"

Eira spoke softly, "Bethany said that you had been out last night. Here," she picked up the remedy, "this should help – it's a hangover potion; takes the edge off any aches and settles the stomach."

She noticed that Gamlen looked distrustful of this offering, and took a sip herself to show that it was safe to drink. "Go ahead, it's fine."

Gamlen gingerly reached out and took the bottle. He smelt the potion, before deeming it to be safe and downing the remedy. He grimaced at the taste.

"Maker! It tastes disgusting! Are you trying to..." He stopped talking when he realised the effect that the potion was taking on him. Soon the pounding headache he had was gone, and his stomach wasn't churning anymore.

"I take that to mean that it's working," Eira smiled as she packed up her alchemy kit before standing up. "Don't worry, potions almost never taste nice but they do work well. I'd have something to eat to take the taste away."

"Yes...hmm," Gamlen muttered distractedly as he walked into his and what Eira assumed was Leandra's room.

Eira shrugged at his behaviour, knowing that his pride would probably make him thank her anyway. She looked further around the room, and noticed a large dog asleep in the corner. It was around the same size as most dogs in Skyrim, but with shorter fur and much more muscular. 'Must be the family pet, I wonder why I didn't notice it before?' Eira thought as she sat and laid the fireplace ready to make breakfast, before looking for food.

Marian woke up to the smell of cooking meat from the main room and barking from her Mabari, Bruno. Yawning, she got up and put on a long tunic. Looking at the other bed she saw that Bethany was still awake, but Eira was already gone.

"Morning Bethany," she muttered at her sister.

"Morning sleepy-head," Bethany smirked back. "I was waiting until you got up."

"I can't help sleeping in...Yesterday was tiring with the nobles, and the mercenaries and Eira. Where is she anyway?" Marian huffed.

"I think she's helping Mother with the cooking. What do you think of her by the way?"

Marian sat down on her sister's bed as she thought about her answer. "She seems decent enough. Quite friendly, I wasn't expecting her to offer to help out around the house last night. But I've never heard of a mage using swords before..."

"And I've never heard of magic being born to every person before," Bethany said worriedly. "What if she's from Tevinter? That's the sort of place where they'd teach that magic is from the Maker."

"I think she might be telling the truth about where she thinks she comes from. Remember her reaction to Varric? They'd have dwarves in Tevinter, but she said that she'd never seen one before. But Isabela had never heard of this 'Skyrim' and I assume that she would know most places, even if they were obscure."

"We should keep an eye on her anyway, just in case," Bethany said.

Hawke thought for a moment, "Hmm, agreed. We don't really know what she's capable of." Marian stood up. "Still, I'm hungry and it sounds like breakfast is about ready."

"Hi Marian; is this your dog?"

Marian and Bethany stared at the sight of Eira lying on the ground with Bruno standing on top of her trying to reach a sausage that Eira was holding just out of his reach.

"Yep, that's Bruno. Sorry about him, he's fairly greedy. Bruno, stop that!"

The Mabari whined as he got off Eira and walked to stand near Marian. Eira stood up and after looking and sniffing at it, offered the sausage to the dog.

"Go ahead Bruno; I think you already got your slobber on it anyway."

Bruno barked happily at the strange woman, before devouring the sausage.

Eira looked up at Marian and Bethany. "Your uncle came back earlier, he's in there," she pointed at the smaller side door.

"Good to know," Marian said as she took the pan from Eira and started to cook. She turned towards her dog as he started to whine again, "Don't think you're getting this lot Bruno. You've already had a sausage. Bethany, can you feed Bruno for me? It'll keep him quiet."

"Sure," Bethany walked towards a cupboard where they stored Bruno's food.

"Mum, Uncle! Breakfast's ready," Marian yelled at the door. She turned towards Eira, "Can you get the plates out? They're in there," she indicated towards another cupboard.

"Of course," Eira said as walked over and took out the wooden plates. As she did so, Leandra and Gamlen emerged from their room.

"Good morning girls, how did you sleep?" Leandra greeted.

"The usual, same old dreams and temptations," Bethany sighed as she filled Bruno's bowl.

"Well, as long as you're alright. That's all that matters," Leandra said worriedly as she sat down at the table with Gamlen as Marian put out the sausages and a loaf of bread. "It smells wonderful, Marian."

"You shouldn't thank me. Eira got it started," Marian said, "At least until a little 'sausage incident' with Bruno."

"So that's where my food goes!" Gamlen exclaimed. "Dratted mutt..."

"Thank you Eira, it's very kind of you to cook for us." Leandra smiled.

"It's no problem at all, milady. At home, I usually cooked for myself and any guests I might have. It's something I like doing." 'Damn! I still used milady, even after she told me not to.' Luckily, the word seemed to go unnoticed.

Gamlen coughed embarrassed, "And I should thank you too, that potion you gave me really helped and I was... less than courteous to you last night."

'Wow, Gamlen apologising. That's a first' Marian thought as Eira nodded to him in appreciation.

Breakfast was a fairly simple affair with the Hawkes. After breakfast, the conversation eventually turned to the day's work.

"So, what are you planning to do today girls?"

"I've called a meeting with everyone at the Hanged Man to meet Eira. She's agreed to help us out with the Deep Roads expedition, so we need to get some extra coin together. We'll probably look out for any odd jobs that need doing – maybe Aveline has something. I'll take Bruno with me too." The Mabari perked up from his food at this, "It'll do him good to go outside."

"I'll come along to the Hanged Man with Marian, and then I'll probably come home. What about you Mother?"

"Not much, I thought I might stay at home today; just doing some tidying." Leandra turned towards Gamlen, "How did it get so dirty in here?"

"Well, I've been busy. Cleaning hasn't exactly been a high priority recently."

The Hawke siblings sighed as they returned to their food.

Thanks for reading! I'm always looking to improve, so send me reviews saying if you liked it/it sucks/somethings spelt wrong/etc.