"Oh, oh that is a whole load of ass I did not need this early in the morning." The voice came from behind him and Fenris whirled around into a crouch to face the new threat. Only realising his mistake when it felt like his head kept spinning after his body came to a stop, he had to throw out his hands on either side of him to stay upright.

"What do you want?" He growled and the dwarf he was facing held up a hand between them, covering his view of Fenris.

He took a breath and tried to quickly assess his surroundings. The dwarf seemed non-violent but it was possible that was a façade. They were somewhere in the lower class part of town, he couldn't see beyond the walls enclosing the small street they were in to figure out where exactly. He was nude, which was easily remedied after he worked out what was going on, although—

"Could we possibly see about putting some clothes on, then I'll do all this again." The dwarf protested. He took a step towards Fenris but immediately halted when Fenris leapt backwards, perhaps a little unsteady but covering it as well as he could so that he could keep his eyes on this stranger. The dwarf certainly wasn't from these parts, he couldn't have magic and his accent was foreign. As far as posing a threat, he had some kind of weapon on his back but he wasn't making any moves to reach for it and it looked to Fenris like an unwieldy thing, difficult to access in a hurry. Of course any man familiar with his weapon was confident he had it with his reach at the smallest trip of a situation.

"Okay, woah. I really am starting from the beginning again, aren't I. Look, I'm Varric, I'm a friend. And I would really appreciate you putting anything on." He still held out one hand placatingly in front of himself before using it to gesture at a pile of things next to Fenris, who begrudgingly snatched the pair of trousers and pulled them on roughly.

"I don't have friends."

"I wish Hawke could have told me you would be so prickly."

"You know Hawke?" Fenris clenched his fist while his eyes darted around the small space, half expecting to see her appear, perhaps held there against her will. Quickly he spotted the hawk perched on the top of the small wall, eyeing him impudently, much like she had as he chased her wild through flight through the streets most of the previous day. Only, he couldn't remember catching up.

"We have been acquainted, yes. Don't panic, your woman is fine…was fine? …Your bird? This is going to take getting used to." The dwarf rubbed his fingers over his brow, a gesture possibly borne out of exasperation. Fenris couldn't understand any of it.

"Was?"

"Is! Is." The dwarf hurried to make the correction and Fenris' sceptical frown deepened.

"You still haven't told me what you want." He demanded and the dwarf focused on him keenly. Fenris rubbed his own head in irritation, a throbbing in his temple drawing his ire while the lyrium under his skin felt…unsettled.

"I want the same thing you do. We're getting you out of here, and to have any hope of that we need to get moving." The dwarf was shifting and looking around him nervously, much like Fenris, as the muted sounds of Minrathous grew around them. He gestured back to the obscured road behind himself but Fenris didn't move at all.

"And Hawke?"

"Is the hawk, yes." Varric explained impatiently and Fenris narrowed his eyes.

"What do you know?" He demanded and he saw the dwarf visibly sigh.

"Alright, fine. You asked. But will you just listen, believe me and then get moving?" The dwarf suggested and Fenris grunted, making sure to convey neither confirmation nor disagreement. With an exaggerated eye roll Varric continued, "I figured that would be too much to ask."

When Fenris only exaggerated his impatient look, for the benefit of this evasive dwarf, he received a quick look up and down before the dwarf began to speak quickly. "First, Hawke is fine. Though we haven't figured out the details, it looks like she turns into a hawk when you turn back into an elf."

"Back into an elf?"

"That was the other side of Danarius' curse. You just spent the last night as a wolf."

Fenris tensed. This Varric knew about Danarius, a detail that immediately betrayed their weakness and Fenris grew defensive, trying to rationalise that if the dwarf had spoken to Hawke, there was the source of his information. His story certainly made sense, Fenris riled bitterly at Danarius' choice of a animal for himself.

"I was a wolf?" Varric nodded. "And I don't remember it?" At this, Varric smiled at some private joke but shifted to a more serious expression.

"I wanted to ask you about that. You remember nothing at all?"

"No." It was a sensation he was all too familiar with. It was just more time that Danarius was able to take away from him.

"Hmm, neither could she. But I don't know whether that means there's none of you at all in the wolf, or her in the bird." Now Varric gave Fenris another appraising look, and Fenris took the opportunity to return it. His initial judgements still seemed to hold true - the dwarf seemed sincere, at least, in what he was saying. "So, now you know about as much as we were able to figure out, other than the fact you need to get out of town because I highly doubt Danarius is ready to let you walk away just like that."

"And you figured this out…?"

"About 10 minutes ago, actually. It's a bit hard to miss when your house guest turns into a bird and her wolf becomes an elf. Which is, well… Other than the actual curse, I don't know anything about the two of you, I don't know who she is and I didn't expect you to be an elf or a—" He paused and Fenris narrowed his eyes, silently daring Varric to say what he was thinking, "—a slave."

"I wouldn't expect you to understand." Not that Fenris did, himself.

"I don't, but I know she was very open in her feelings for you."

"Was she?" His question came out sounding harsh to his ears, scathing, when he was wondering exactly what she had said to the dwarf, how she had phrased it. He recalled, like her voice was burning in his ears, when she had announced her love for him in front of Danarius. He had half thought it to be a ploy, a taunt to goad Danarius even further but in his heart he knew it was true, just as he had longed to tell her he felt the same. But the opportunity had been torn away. If he assumed correctly about this curse, he would never see her face to tell her, ever again.

The enormity of everything began to press in on him but he had to push it away, setting his eyes on the dwarf once more, and the hawk perched on the wall behind, her head tilted expectantly. He knew they had to move on, quickly. Fenris was both gratified and unsettled that Varric seemed to know instinctively just what to say, and to skip on the unnecessary details, in order to make Fenris set off.

And so Fenris finally grabbed the shirt also lying on the floor. He assumed from the warmth still in the material that it was the same one Hawke had been wearing only moments earlier. As he pulled it on he allowed himself a moment to take in the scent of her, surprisingly more familiar than he had previously realised and equally reassuring in the way it enveloped him. He was unnerved by the fact that his markings prickled against the material, the lyrium feeling active under his skin like it hadn't since it had first been put there, since his earliest memories began.

Meanwhile, Varric already knew something about their connection to Danarius, whether he understood the significance of the markings he was unashamedly ogling was uncertain, but other people would certainly recognise them and their presence would remain in their minds, not something Fenris wanted if he was to pass undetected through the streets.

"Do you have anything with a hood, and longer sleeves?" He asked, unrolling the sleeves of the shirt he wore, still leaving a good few inches above his wrist uncovered.

"Isn't that going to make you more noticeable?"

"Many people have reason to hide their identities in these streets, and there are many more who cover their face than those that wear Danarius' lyrium markings."

"Lyrium markings?" Varric repeated incredulously but at Fenris' expression he said no more, gesturing instead. "In the bag, there's a cloak."

Fenris' attention turned to the bag lying on the ground as he wondered about the state of their situation. He didn't know what Danarius was thinking and that was an unsettling thought, both as someone on the run from him, and as someone who had been privy to most of his thoughts for as long as he could remember. The man was dangerous, he could have any number of people looking out for them by now, and surely at least half of Minrathous would be able to recognise him. With the bag slung over his shoulder and the hood of the cloak arranged to cover his conspicuous hair, he regretted that Hawke's plan of sneaking out had been disrupted by his reappearance.

"You know what we're going to do?"

"We're meeting my friend at the docks." Fenris imagined another rebuke concerning the fact he had no friends to take his side but he quelled it, realising that their speed was a greater concern than arguing.

"And Hawke?"

"Well, if she's anything like you were—" As they both turned to look at her, the hawk let out a chirp and then smoothly glided towards Fenris, who instinctively held up his arm for her to land on. Varric chuckled, his theory proven, "—she'll be fairly easy to bring along."

Fenris winced as the thin layers of cloth offered his skin little protection from her claws but he could do little about it now. She seemed quite content to travel with him, or on him, and he supposed he was more grateful about that than any small discomfort it caused him. He nodded to Varric and the dwarf pulled aside the covering onto the main street.

The street was occupied by only a few early risers but that now meant they had less cover in which to hide. Every one of the people up and about would surely notice the strange party of a hooded man, a dwarf and a hawk.

The way in which Danarius had dismissed him the previous day sent a chill through Fenris as he mused over his master's intent. Every sideways glance they attracted he tried not to draw back from, wondering if this person would be tempted by whatever price might be on their heads, if they identified who he was under the hood.

He shuffled closer to the dwarf and spoke under his breath. "You have heard no word on…my master?" He chose not to speak Danarius' name, a fear that if it were even overheard it might draw attention to them, Varric gave him a strange look but replied to the question.

"I have no idea what's going on here, you know more than I do about that man."

"And your friend at the docks? They have a ship?"

"That she does, and a promise to get me out of whatever trouble I get myself into while I'm in town." Fenris gave him a steady look from under the hood but the dwarf smiled and shrugged amicably. "Her words, not mine. It's nice to have someone ready to take my back, no questions asked."

"What you are taking on with us might be more than either of you bargained for." Fenris intoned warningly and was once again taken aback when Varric simply chuckled.

"You know, there's just something about the two of you." He looked at the bird on Fenris' arm and she only chirped in response, wings slightly raised to steady herself as they walked. "You make quite the unlikely pair."

"That's what my master thought." Fenris muttered and Varric frowned.

"Elf, he's not your master anymore." Varric said the words as if they were simple. To Fenris they were anything but.

To not have a master.

He couldn't comprehend what that might mean. Surely no master meant no shackles, that he was free. But this could not be called freedom. Skulking through the streets he knew well, running in fear for his life. When he had dared to imagine a type of freedom, only after Hawke opened his mind to the possibility, it had been a long way removed from this.

As he had been thinking, his feet had unconsciously continued to trail the dwarf down the street. After all, following was something he knew very well how to do. He snapped back to the realisation that he could not let his guard drop, even as he scouted their surroundings for potential threats at all times, he had to think for himself where they were going. He was not a shadow anymore. Or even if he didn't know exactly where they were going, he must stay one step ahead of everyone else around him.

They found themselves emerging from the end of the street into a crowd around the wharves. As the market stalls and early fishing boats came in, so the slaves arrived to buy their master's breakfasts or wares. The swift change in volume of people startled the hawk on his arm and she dug her claws into his flesh before springing straight into the air. Fenris couldn't do anything to stop her and could only watch as she spiralled agitatedly a couple of times, coming to rest on the crossbar of a nearby boat's mast.

He looked around swiftly to see a few of the surrounding heads upturned, watching the oddity of the bird, but none of them seemed to connect it back to him. He relaxed slightly into the anonymity of the crowd.

"Your friend?" He turned to Varric, eyebrows raised expectantly for the next direction.

"Get out to the ships, you'll have to lead us Elf, as you're the only one tall enough to see in this blighted crowd." Varric's voice was muffled as he was jostled by many elves in a hurry to get on with their masters' assignments.

"I'm not often accused of that." Fenris replied wryly and only caught Varric muttering something about a poor sense of timing and birds of a feather.

Nevertheless they made their way beyond the crowds onto the relatively less crowded walkways between the moored boats. It was here that Varric revealed he didn't actually know where the boat he was looking for was, or what it looked like.

"I thought you arrived on it?" Fenris turned on him, keeping his voice as low as his anger allowed.

"I didn't say that, only that she was my friend, and she has a boat."

"Which you haven't seen."

"Not exactly. But I did arrange that she would arrive a couple of days ago, which is when I thought I might be ready to leave."

"Dwarf, are you telling me you don't even know if she is here at all?"

"She gave me her word. And she owes me."

"The word of your friend isn't something I'm willing to stake Hawke's life on."

"Look, we just need to have a scout around. The ship's called The Siren's Call."

"And your friend?"

"It's…probably best we don't go calling her name out around the docks."

"Dwarf, you're giving me very little reason to follow you."

"And you know, Elf, that Hawke agreed this was our best chance at getting you out of the city. She's going to be a little confused when she doesn't wake up on a ship being carried out of Danarius' reach."

Fenris stopped completely still, staring at the dwarf before him, not trying to conceal the contempt in his eyes. He opened his mouth to say something, to let out the helpless anger he felt at the comment but Varric beat him to it.

"No, I'm sorry. That was uncalled for. But you have to admit, there's no other option. You'll just have to trust me."

"I can't do that." He said stubbornly but he saw a brief flicker of something cross Varric's face and he felt moved to continue. "I can't trust you, but Hawke did. And I trust her." He saw the winning smile spread across the dwarf's face as he turned away to look up at the masts above them.

"I'm glad. Now we'd better keep looking. If we're lucky, she's changed the black sails for something that'll blend in better."

"I hope you're joking?" Fenris managed to lighten his tone as Varric looked around at the harboured ships and chose a jetty, seemingly at random, to walk down.

"Just trust me elf."

"Say that one more time." He muttered at the wide back of the unrepentant dwarf.

They kept walking as the early morning fog lifted from around the boats, fishing dinghies and schooners came into dock with their catch while others left with the changing tide. All the while, they could find no sign of the Siren's Call and Fenris was feeling increasingly on edge. Even with increasing numbers of people on the waterfront market, Varric and Fenris were some of the few on the wharves themselves and every moment felt more and more likely that they were going to be spotted.

"Varric, if we don't find your friend soon, we need to find a different plan of escape."

"She'll be here, we still haven't tried the far end."

"Minrathous is an island. We could circle the whole docks looking for her and still be here this evening."

"I know that. That's why I told her the East dock. Easiest turnaround to the open sea that way, too." Varric was unremittingly cheerfully and Fenris scowled up at the sky, checking that Hawke, as she had been doing for the rest of the morning, was still flitting between ships, keeping her eye on their progress.

While he was still looking up he didn't notice that the dwarf beside him had stopped, so when a hand clapped on his back with no warning, he jumped away with a snarl and a prickling flare of lyrium across his skin. Varric immediately put his hands up, as if in surrender, a look of fear on his face that Fenris was all too familiar with, although he was not used to the feeling of guilt that also arose in him, as he quickly willed the veins of light to cool down.

"That's one way of telling people you don't like to be touched." Varric said in a strange voice, struggling to sound lighthearted.

"My apologies, I…" He glanced down and hissed in horror himself. All the effort Danarius had usually gone to in making sure the marking were on full display had apparently been pointless, as the still fading light shone easily through the rough cloak Fenris was wearing. He could almost feel people's attentions being drawn to him, the anxious shiver across his skin growing, not entirely due to the irritation of his accursed lyrium.

"Don't need to explain it elf. What I was saying was that we don't need to worry any longer." He paused for dramatic effect and appeared to sigh when Fenris only growled at him to hurry up. "There she is." The dwarf gestured ahead of them to a fine looking ship, as far as Fenris could recognise quality in boats. It was certainly…afloat.

"Then let's get on it."

"I think we need permission from the captain before you board."

"Move it, dwarf." Fenris gritted his teeth, trying to surreptitiously look over his shoulder while also chivvying his companion forwards.

"Alright fine, I'll just have to vouch for you," He gave a sideways glance at Fenris and raised a brow, "if you don't make that too difficult for me."

Fenris said nothing and strode towards the tall ship. As he drew near he heard a voice from beyond his view, apparently up on the deck. Glancing upwards, his feet came to a stop. Of course.

The very ship he approached was the one Hawke had decided to perch on, and from the sounds of it, she had managed to draw the attention, and cooing, of those on board. Then Varric took his place beside him and hollered out to the crew.

"Ahoy there. Dwarf on the wharf." He chuckled and looked to Fenris for his reaction to the rhyme, only to be disappointed. A scuffle came from above and then a figure with waves of dark hair and more than a flash of gold appeared, hanging over the ledge above their heads.

"Varric! You took your time." A pause as Fenris saw her eyes flick over himself and then, in a more serious voice, "The capstans in a tangle again."

"No, you've got to… oh nugshit, I don't remember. He's fine, Isabela, I'm good." He shouted back up and then with a turn to Fenris he said under his breath, "Emergency code."

"Subtle."

"She came up with it," He replied and Fenris would almost have said he sounded like he was sulking. It was a brief moment however, in the next the gangplank rolled from the bulwarks of the ship and they stepped aboard.

"So you did make it back in one piece then?" The jewelled woman said to Varric, giving him a glance as if counting his limbs and quickly turned to Fenris, to give him a much longer look. "Isabela, Captain of the Siren's Call, and you are?"

Fenris was still watching her warily, glancing around at the few people on the deck who seemed to have readily gone back to their work. He was familiar with the posture of people appearing busy while listening eagerly for new gossip.

"He's a friend." Varric spoke before Fenris could. "And a refugee we're helping. He and his …friend." Isabela raised her eyebrows at that, looking expectantly behind them as if someone else was about to follow them up the gangplank. Fenris stopped himself from turning to do the same, a hand clenched at his side. Hawke would never appear behind him, wrapping her arms around him suddenly, while he always knew it was her. Only her. Instead he dragged his mind to the present and looked up, along with Varric, to the bird above them.

Isabela followed their gaze and laughed. "She's yours? She's stunning. And clearly has good taste in ships." She added with a laugh, something throaty and loose, the kind of easy joy he had so rarely heard, before Hawke. He didn't question why Isabela had assumed the bird was a she, perhaps when you refer to boats as such, you start seeing everything that way.

"She's not mine. She's free." He spoke while still looking at the hawk calmly preening feather on her back, both wings extended slightly to counter the swaying of the ship and the wind high up in the mast.

"Your friend, right. Well, do I get to see your face under that hood?"

"Perhaps when you're moving, Captain?" Varric spoke again in his place and Fenris found himself both frustrated and reassured by someone else taking the lead. However Isabela gave him a look and that was what drew Fenris' attention to the strange emphasis of the statement.

"You're not planning on coming with us?"

"There's something I need to do first. And you need to get out of here now. So you," He looked to the captain, "are going to pick me up from our Plan B two nights from now, because Andraste knows, I've had enough of this place."

"Aye aye." She replied with a grin, seemingly unfazed but Fenris was immediately on guard.

"What are you doing? Was this some plot to trap us?" He took a step backwards, a hand scrabbling behind him to find the edge.

"No, no!" Varric looked immediately remorseful and Fenris saw his wordless plea to Isabela for support. "Believe me buddy. We're on your side. My talent, one of my talents, is getting information from people, even when they don't realise they have it themselves." Fenris was intrigued enough by where this was going to pause in his retreat. "I'm going to do what I can to help you stay one step ahead of Danarius, by finding out what he's doing."

Fenris glanced at Isabela and decided that either she had an excellent poker face, or she didn't recognise the name Danarius. He wasn't sure which unsettled him more.

"Listen, elf. You need to help me and yourself by getting the void out of dodge."

Fenris privately agreed, but had many reservations about this …twist of events. It sounded like someone else was taking another huge risk for his sake, and he barely understood why Hawke would stand up for him, never mind someone who knew nothing more about him than that he was an escaped slave with a curse. He was lost in his bewilderment and most frustrated that he couldn't think of an argument for the dwarf.

"But…why?"

Varric gave him a sad look, leaving Fenris feeling like the dwarf understood more of his thoughts than he cared to imagine, and said, "Look, for the sake of speed, let's say I'm doing it for Hawke. Will you believe me then?" He was now moving towards Fenris, or rather to the top of the gangplank, waiting for Fenris to move aside.

Fenris slowly, begrudgingly, stepped away from the gangplank, allowing Varric passage from the ship. When the dwarf was halfway down the ramp he turned back. "Take care of yourself, Fenris, and you, behave yourself."

"Could you be doubting my character, Varric? I'm always on my best behaviour." Captain Isabela had something about her, a certain leisure as she casually leaned her hip against the side of the boat, that Fenris didn't know he would begin to understand.

"You and I have different measures of quality, then," Varric swiftly responded.

"Dwarf," He couldn't find the words, too many mixed feelings about being left here with company he was neither used to nor sure he could trust, by someone he had only just met and for no apparent reason seemed to have won his faith. "Varric. I am grateful for everything you've done for us."

"Thank me when I get you something useful. And have fun explaining everything important. I doubt I have to remind you, don't leave it too late." Varric gave a final wink to Isabela and then he turned and was heading back towards the thriving waterfront.

Isabela watched his retreating back for a moment with a still expression that seemed to sit oddly on her face, then suddenly she shot a wide grin to Fenris. With a twirl of hair and blue headscarf she was rousing the crew, a force of intent mastering the people around her. Fenris saw how they all fell into position before her, tying and heaving and doing whatever tasks were required to get the ship on its way.

He watched the smaller sail at the front of the boat fill and The Siren's Call slowly creeped from its moored position, edging ever closer to the open sea.

Fenris had never left Minrathous without Danarius. This moment, as they loosed the mooring lines connecting them to the island, marked the furthest he had ever been from his master.

His former master.

Upset by the mainsail being raised, Hawke drifted down to the deck level and landed on Fenris' reflexively raised arm. She clicked her beak at him and he smiled mirthlessly.

"I'm leaving him, Hawke. This is what you wanted." She turned her other eye on him and he nodded resolutely. "You'll see for yourself."

He looked once more at the bustle surrounding him, Isabela had taken position at the helm for the difficult task of steering the ship out of the docks while the rest of her crew were still busy crossing the deck, roping sails, doing what needed to be done. Fenris had no idea what he was meant to do, he was out of place on a ship, out of place without orders. The shore of Minrathous behind him still looked exceedingly close and he felt exposed to view. Thinking of concealment, Fenris made his way to the door that seemed to lead below decks.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you all had a good break, holiday, season of your choice, or perhaps just start to January! :)