"Wow."

"I know. You should see me when I haven't just woken up." Hawke responded unthinkingly to the warm voice before she had opened her eyes. The soft candlelight illuminating the small room was gentle enough that her eyes weren't dazzled and she quickly focused on the woman sat on the bed opposite her.

The woman was grinning broadly at her response and it lit up her golden brown eyes, highlighting cheekbones and dark hair that rippled with her movement, casually held back by from her face with a blue headscarf. Hawke drew her attention back to her surroundings. The woman was sat on the only bed in the room, Riona herself was in some kind of chair, not a particularly comfy one, as the crick in her neck proved when she tried to sit up straighter.

She grabbed hastily at the blanket that slipped from her with the motion and grinned in relief when she kept her modesty intact. Then she remembered why she was waking up naked in an unfamiliar room. Just her luck. Didn't it always turn out to be a dream when it should be real and always real when she really hoped it was a dream.

"Oh, no need to be shy, gorgeous. Someone had to throw a blanket over you when you turned. I hope you don't think I would let any of my crew sully that."

Still properly awakening from her sleep, Riona was struck by the last conscious thought she'd had. It seemed their curse was repeating, when she had foolishly thought that her time as an animal had ended. She was wrong. And apparently this woman knew about it.

"What time is it?" Hawke queried, more cautiously now, not engaging in the innuendo laden comment from the woman, that she had technically started with her first comment.

"Almost midnight now. You've been asleep since late afternoon."

"Well, that certainly made it more pleasant than yesterday. Wait, have you been sat watching me all the time?"

"Hmm, I wish. I just happened to look in on you at the right time. I brought you dinner."

That comment seemed to encourage Riona's stomach to add its opinion to the conversation, and she apologetically laughed as she took the offered bread and meat. "Thanks, maybe there's a problem with not eating for a day at a time."

"How do you know you're not eating, as a bird I mean? They're pretty good at looking after themselves."

"Maker don't make me picture myself eating something…like that. I'm trying to eat actual food here."

"There's always a few rats on the docks." The woman continued with a smirk and Riona held up her hand, intent only on making her stop.

"I take it you're Varric's friend? Isabela?" Riona didn't think she could get used to waking up with other people she'd never met knowing things about her. Having had whole conversations about her.

"Captain Isabela. I hope Varric didn't sell me short on that."

"I don't think Varric did you justice in many ways. And we're at sea? We've left Minrathous?"

"You're definitely at sea. Your hooded friend wouldn't tell me what exactly it is we're running from, other than a magister."

"You shouldn't underestimate that magister." She warned though her mind was already thinking of Fenris, wondering how he was coping with this.

"Captain! Captain we have a problem!" A shout echoed from beyond the room and both Riona and Isabela twisted simultaneously to look toward the door. Isabela was on her feet and pulling it open before Riona even considered moving, and a then there was a panicked looking man framed in the doorway.

"The wolf, captain. It's savage! We got it locked in a room but it near tore off Hakan's arm." Riona made to stand and go to Fenris before being reminded all too intensely of her nudity behind the blanket, that she had managed to continue holding up to her chin. The shipmate at the door caught sight of her at the movement and she wasn't fond of the way his eye immediately took in the loosely draped blanket she was hurriedly refitting around herself.

Isabela stepped neatly into his line of vision, cutting off his view. "Sounds like you shouldn't unlock that door then. We'll be there soon enough." She shut the door on him before he could answer back, or indulge his wandering eyes, and then the captain turned once more to Riona and pointed to the space next to her. "Your bag of is there if you have spare clothes, but I have some that might suit you better, unless you're particularly fond of dwarf length breeches?"

Riona nodded exaggeratedly, making her way to the chest that Isabela had gestured towards and realised as she opened the drawer that this must be the Captain's quarters. It made sense, from her scant experience with ships, she hadn't known many cabins to have an actual bed. She took the first items she saw, figuring that Isabela was close enough in build to herself that she wouldn't need to be picky, and hurriedly dressed herself in a loose, navy blouse and tight breeches.

Riona stood to see the captain had politely, and unexpectedly, averted her gaze, then gestured for her to lead the way. She needed to get to Fenris, find some way to calm him down if he was hurting people, or himself.

She had asked Isabela to go ahead because she was unfamiliar with the layout of the ship, but the guidance turned out to be unnecessary. The sounds of people fussing and chattering led them easily down the narrow, swaying corridor, to a small crowd gathered around a door with a large barrel shoved in front. Clearly the door wasn't made to be locked from the outside.

Riona stepped forwards, pushing her way through the small throng of excited people and began pointedly heaving at the barrel. A couple of people stepped forwards, though whether to help or hinder she wasn't sure, as a voice called out from the gathered men and those who had been moving stopped sharply.

"What do you think you're doing lass?"

Riona didn't reply, as she braced her feet to put more weight behind the barrel.

"There's a wild wolf in there, girl. Do you understand me? It's vicious."

"He's not. I need to get to him." She replied, giving him her best attempt at a withering stare.

"You're a fool, girl."

"Then rid yourself of this fool by letting me in there." She snapped back and after she sensed some silent conference happening behind her, finally someone stepped forward and between them the barrel was shifted from the doorway. Riona also registered that Isabela had stayed back during all of this, observing but not commanding her men either way.

She hadn't heard a sound from the other side of the door throughout all of this and she was worried exactly what Fenris might have done to himself in there. Without taking any longer to think about it, she slipped the door open and edged through the small gap.

She barely managed to pull it closed again, when a snarl and a snap of teeth had her spinning to face the open room. A shape uncurled from the corner of the room and launched itself in a flurry of white, a tempest released.

Then his fangs latched onto her forearm and Riona yelled out in surprise as much as pain, both hitting her as sharply as the other. Even as she cried out, the wolf twisted and leapt away. His teeth pulled free but not without dragging harshly across her skin, leaving a gouge that rapidly filled with dark red blood.

She slapped her other hand to the wound, scrabbling at once to stem the bleeding and squeeze away the pain. She felt fear, her own stupidity burning at her as she looked up and saw the eyes of a wolf looking back at her. She had fooled herself into forgetting the cruel trickery of Danarius' curse, the nature of the wolf, a creature known for its savagery in ancient and modern tales alike. Fenris may be trapped in there, but he was not in control.

Blood pumped in her ears, it trickled between her fingers, and Riona tried to plan what to do next. She could only take it slowly, show him she meant no harm and as she lifted her eyes the shout she intended for the crowd certainly still gathered outside died in her throat. The wolf had returned to the corner he had started in, now his ears were laid back, his tail curled tightly around him and his whole demeanour radiating misery as his head hung low, eyes down.

Riona glanced briefly at her forearm, decided that was a mistake and tried to ignore the warm wetness on the hand firmly pressing down on her other hand. Without the use of her hand, she used the door to push herself unsteadily upright. She felt vibrations from the other side and as she focused on them the sound of shouts and banging filtered through her senses, probably due to her lack of response. In a voice meant to carry through the wood, while not startling the cowering creature in the corner, she gently called for them to hush, also answering their queries as to whether she was still alive or not.

The noise died down as she spoke, and she walked towards the wolf. Fenris wouldn't look at her. She stepped closer and he hung his head lower, letting out a low whine.

"Fenris, look at me." She asked, a sentence she had already been used to repeating. His ears twitched. He didn't look. "I know you're in there. Something of you is in there, and I know you're sorry. But I'm fine." Her arm throbbed as if affronted at her lie but she winced the pain away and took another step.

The sensible part of her told her to run, that she had willingly locked herself in a room with a huge, wild wolf. The other part of her, that had never been rational, seemed uncharacteristically quiet but determined and she took the last step across the small room to kneel in front of him. He would be able to sense her fear, but she hoped he—Fenris, would also sense her connection to him, her devotion to his true nature that would always keep her at his side.

She didn't move, she simply sat in front of him, quietly whispering words of acceptance, approval, that he hadn't hurt her badly, she would be fine, she didn't blame him. Finally, hesitantly, Fenris raised his head, enough that his eyes met hers, that she reached out to him, one hand still clamped on her arm, the other hand guided with certainty to that spot behind his ears that her mabari back in Kirkwall loved so much.

The white ears twitched and perked to their forwards position and his body language opened out once more, calming down under her practiced fingers and finally the great tail gave one heavy thump against the floor to show his appreciation of her attentions. When she was sure Fenris, or the wolf, was soothed enough she pushed herself to her feet, walked unsteadily to the door of the room and pushed it open. She had to lean more weight than she liked on the doorframe once she reached it, hoping that Fenris wouldn't see the drained slump of her shoulders, as she called for someone to come and bring a healer's bag, possibly a health potion if they had any on board.

Then she returned to the wolf's side, confident that he was calm, whether it was her presence specifically or just someone who knew what they were doing she wasn't sure, she didn't want to dwell on what either meant to her. When someone did arrive with bandages she had to fend off his concerns that Fenris was perfectly safe now, even as the nervous healer seemed intent to treat Hawke from the opposite side of the room until she coaxed him over, privately amused by the similarities in dealing with skittish men and cowering wolves.

The next evening Riona woke alone in the room. She found her clothes laid out again ready for her and pulled them on before heading up to the deck. Though clouds blocked what little light came from the stars and moon that night, she found Isabela stood at the prow, staring intently out over the choppy blackness where the water must be. Riona pulled her cloak tighter around herself. Despite not turning to look at who approached, the captain spoke first.

"You know, your eyes look exactly the same. Which is crazy, hawk's eyes are nothing like human eyes but still. The colour, the intensity, it's captivating."

"Fenris' are the same. It's how I knew." Riona couldn't help the warmth in her voice and Isabela smirked knowingly.

"I noticed that too. He's a bit more difficult to get on with than you but he's a good man. I told him he'd hurt someone and I've never seen someone so guilty over a scratch. He tried to go straight to Hakan to apologise, before I stopped him."

"Why did you do that?"

"It might surprise you to know I have some experience in secrets. The less who know the better and only those few who were on deck yesterday know that you didn't bring a wolf when you boarded. I saw to it they're sworn to silence on what they think they know. On pain of something much worse than death."

"And you didn't tell him…?" Riona held up her forearm, a fresh bandage on display after she had cleaned the wound with a healing salve, a thing she'd never come across before and apparently a Rivaini recipe. She had made a mental note to ask Isabela for instructions on how to recreate it, seeming like something that might come in useful, wherever they ended up going next.

"Pfft, he was already guilty enough about Hakan, I wasn't going to deal with him if I made it worse. How is it?"

"I'll heal. It's better he doesn't know until I can explain it to him myself." Riona thought she caught the captain give her a sideways glance but with the dim light it was hard to pick up movement and when she glanced over Isabela was looking over the water again.

"Is he…safe now?" She seemed hesitant and Riona tried to give her a reassuring smile, the effect lost in the darkness of the night.

"A…wolf doesn't like being trapped in a small room. Especially not one that's swaying from side to side." The cold air was causing her forearm to ache under the bandage, she wondered if it had hurt as much during the day, despite her not being able to recall any memory at all from the daylight hours.

"I guess animals don't understand the concept of getting their sea legs. What's he doing now?" There was something in Isabela's voice as she asked after Fenris, not concern for him but fear of him. Fear just like he had always experienced in his life as nothing more than the living weapon of an already alarming magister.

"He's asleep." She knew Isabela was more concerned about the possible threat to the rest of her crew, as a good captain should be, and this was no answer but Riona was fairly confident that when she was needed, she could draw his mind out, at least enough to calm the wolf. She pushed on, before Isabela tried to extract any promise she didn't yet know if she could keep. "So where are you taking us?"

"Plan B."

"I wasn't aware we had one." Riona hesitated, was this something Fenris had come up with and again she was left out of the loop?

"You didn't, Varric did." Isabela replied easily. "We decided on a fallback location to meet up if things went…awry."

"My plans have a habit of doing that." The captain chuckled and didn't respond. Instead something ahead of them caught her attention. Riona followed her gaze to a massive black shape emerging from the darkness ahead, an outline of a coast. There, she caught sight of a light, a lantern being covered and uncovered in what had to be a specific sequence.

Riona had no chance of making any sense of it and instead watched the focus on Isabela's face, as she lightly bit her bottom lip. Doing this she caught the moment that the slight crease appeared between the captain's brows.

"What is it?" She asked immediately and Isabela turned her frown onto Riona.

"A complication. That's all he's said." Both their eyes turned back to the dark mass of land ahead, seeking a further message that only one of them could decipher. "Flaming arse Varric, you'd better not have forgotten these codes…" She cut off as the light flashed again.

Another pause and then she turned back to Riona once more. "He has company."

"Behind him? Because if they're letting him signal this is a very friendly hostage situation." Riona knew her glibness wasn't hiding her anxiety bu it was one way of dealing with it. She stared hard into the darkness, seeking any sign of what lay ahead. "Can we go to land there?"

Isabela took a deep breath, and said with a grim tone, "Only Varric knew those sequences. He's ready to be picked up."

She didn't say more as she gave the ship's wheel a slight turn, changing their course by a couple of degrees. Sailing onwards into the unknown blackness.

Riona twitched nervously at Isabela's side, letting the Captain do what she thought was best and not at all reassured that this was a sensible situation to be sailing straight into. Still, Hawke knew that Minrathous was not easy to get onto, never mind away from when there was a powerful magister on their tail. Varric had made it seem simple and now it was him in trouble on their behalf.

"You must be very loyal to Varric." She remarked.

"No more than you, sweet thing." Isabela smirked, taking in the way her partner stood up straighter, her mind set on returning the favour to their rescuer.

"You owe him?" It wasn't a question, it seemed Varric hadn't been exaggerating the way he collected favours. An even trade for whatever he might need in the future. She couldn't help but imagine what things he might have helped this captain with to win her loyalty but it wasn't her place to ask. Isabela had been good enough to ask few questions about their highly intriguing situation. The captain merely hummed in assent, while Riona realised that crags were becoming distinct on the cliffs ahead.

Riona felt breath grow short as the cliffs grew rapidly closer and stretched above them, no obvious passage appearing through the rocky foreshore, making their course seem bound for collision. She took a nervous glance at Isabela but the Rivaini put all her attention into carefully guiding the prow across an apparently impossible route.

"Just because I like a heads up, how likely are we to crash and die?" Riona commented as the clouds across the sky briefly uncovered stars, providing enough traitorous light that Riona was forced to look at the rocks emerging from the water before them. Isabela raised an eyebrow.

"No chance. This is the Siren's Call, and what sirens specialise in is leading sailors onto the rocks."

"Right… and we're sailors." Riona found this wasn't particularly comforting.

"No. We're the siren." Isabela corrected. Not trusting herself to follow pirate logic, Riona tried to plan out the correct procedure when chunks of the ship were inevitably ripped out by the unwelcoming rocks. She followed the Captain's gaze as they continued to glide smoothly across the water, and out of nowhere a dark gash across the cliff face began to widen into an opening. It seemed almost large enough for the ship and then before Riona could think about it too hard, the rock canopy swallowed the light over their head and they were completely hidden within a pitch black cave.

"So— ISABELA!" She yelped and the captain chuckled from her side, their voices echoing on the walls apparently close around them.

"Hmhmm, just checking you're still there."

"Well, you found me. Now if you'll remove your hand from my arse, tell me what happens next?"

"Scared of the dark?"

"No but armed. With knives." She retorted but bumped her hip towards Isabela's once she'd located her, negating the bite of her words. She heard someone, one of the few crewmen who had also been moving around on the deck release the anchor and the chain rattled down to splash into the water. The Captain sighed.

"Now, we wait. Varric is coming."

"We can't see a thing. What about his friends up there."

"Let's hope he kept his torch." Riona huffed audibly, eliciting that easy laugh. "I know this coast but they aren't expecting anyone to be crazy enough to sail out of here."

"Oh excellent. Now I feel better."

"Exactly. We get a headstart, leave them flapping about on the cliffs like a one night stand, and they'll have lost us in the night before they manage to pull their pants up from around their ankles."

"I'll take your word on that one." Riona couldn't help but laugh at the imagery, "So how does Varric get to us?"

"I showed him the way, we're in an old smuggling cave with a passage at the top. But it might be smart if you wait below decks. In case he brings anyone after him."

"I can help."

"Do that by keeping your wolf happy if he wakes up, we don't need more complications. If you see Asanio on your way down, tell him to gather the men on deck." Again, Riona noticed the strange tone affecting Isabela's voice when she talked about the wolf, quite distinct from the way she spoke of Fenris.

Riona also didn't like the idea of hiding while other people fought her battles for her. But before she could protest more she felt Isabela take her arm, leading her confidently across the deck to the inside cabins. She opened the door and Riona's eyes startled at a lantern still lit in the corridor. Then she heard a voice from beyond the ship, echoing against the walls and bouncing around the cavern.

"Rivaini?"

"Varric!" Isabela and Riona replied together, Riona slightly perturbed by the surprise and relief also evident in the captain's voice, gone when she continued, "You're alone?"

"I almost wasn't here at all. Great flaming ass, you could have made that entrance easier to find."

Isabela pushed Riona through the door as she called back, quietly enough but it carried lyrically with the strange acoustics of the rocks. "A giant staircase would rather defeat the point of a secret escape route, wouldn't you say?"

Varric's reply was muffled by the door being pushed closed behind Riona and she tried only to think about the logic behind her exclusion, in case of unwanted company looking for her specifically. It was moments later, as she was almost at the door to Fenris' room that she heard the unmistakeable sound of the anchor chain ratcheting back up into place. Varric must be aboard. She pushed herself through the door, ignoring her curiosity and sank down to the floor. Fenris quickly padded over to her, lying alongside her legs and lifting his head into her lap. His green eyes raised to her face and he seemed to be watching her nervous jumping at the loud grinding of the chain, brows giving him a somehow disdainful expression.

"Oh quiet you. I'm allowed to worry." While she'd always been strong for Fenris, reassuring him she'd get him out, telling him she knew what she was doing with Danarius, she couldn't help but think of the powerful reminders she'd had that it wasn't really him there. Not completely.

She could let her walls down with him now more than ever and it made her wish she'd done so more to his face when she could. In the morning he wouldn't remember this night at all and she'd be the mindless animal when he needed her.

She curled up to bury her face in his fur, hiding from the dark thoughts that can't be chased away in the middle of the night.