I awoke the next morning feeling a great deal better than I thought I would. The evening at Fenris' was just what I had needed, a moment to speak with my newest companion to get to know him better. I laid in bed contemplating what I should do with the day, and I realized that I hadn't had a chance to spend some time with my family since I'd been trying to get in on the expedition. So I got dressed in my simple clothes and went to round them up. I spent the morning with Mother, Beth, and Cookie, running some simple errands around Kirkwall. It was nice to have some time with my family, Mother seemed happier in times like these. The morning passed by quickly,and Mother and Beth had some simple things to do at home, most of which involved mending small clothes and shirts. So I decided to head off to the Hanged Man to visit with Varric. I strapped on my equipment and was heading out the door when I heard Cookie whine and huff behind me. I felt bad for the lack of attention the poor thing had been receiving lately so I patted my leg, inviting him to come along. He trotted eagerly ahead of me, bounding through the streets of Lowtown. I giggled at his puppylike behavior knowing that it was good for him to be free for a little while, and making a mental note to take him out to the coast and let him run for awhile. I thought I'd see if Varric would like to come with us this afternoon, heaven knows it would be good for all of us to have a nice little break for the afternoon. The look on Varric's face when I strolled through the door of the Hanged Man with a full grown Mabari in tow was priceless.
"Maker Hawke, are you sure he's going to fit in here!" At this Cookie wagged his nubbed tail erratically and barked spinning in a circle, scaring most of the regular's out of thier early morning stupor. I had to chuckle at his eagerness to be out of the house.
"Of course Varric! I'm pretty sure most of the guys in here think their seeing things anyway. So it doesn't really matter." I beamed at him, and he chuckled lightly offering me the chair opposite him. I sat down and Cookie flopped leisurely at my feet huffing.
"So whats on the agenda today Hawke? I've got a few leads but most of them are just rumors at this point, and we still need to see if we can track down that Grey Warden. And speaking of which did you get a chance to spend some more time with that elf Fenris we picked up the other day? He seems like a volitile, yet useful, character to have around."
"I have a deal for you Varric, agree and I shall answer all of your questions." He raised an eyebrow at my statement.
"And what is this deal you speak of Hawke, I am intriuged."
"Well Varric, Maker knows I need a break, and I know with all the Merchant Guild affairs you could too; and Cookie (and here Varric stopped me by interrupting)...
"Wait wait wait Hawke...you named a Mabari Cookie! Why in the makers name did you name him Cookie?" I had to stifle a chuckle at his amazement.
"Well Varric, lets go. Get Bianca and your coat, and I will tell you the story as we walk. Cookie needs to get out and run, and you obviously want to hear the story, so lets go." He laughed at my bluntness but gathered Bianca and we headed for the door. We through Kirkwall, reaching the gates to the city in no time. As we reached the outskirts Varric nudged me, urging me to begin my tale. I sighed a breath, and shooed Cookie on ahead to run as I began.
"Well, my family lived in Lothering for quite some time, hiding from the Templars trying to make a living best we could. Well a few months before the Battle at Ostigar and the rumors of the Blight were just that, rumors, our small town had a sweep of strange thefts going on. Little old ladies in the town used to bake cookies for the lower class poorer people of Lothering, and they would put them on their windowsills to cool. Well it seemed that someone was stealing the cookies while they were cooling. Well, come to find out it was a stray mabari pup, we have no idea where he came from, he just showed up in Lothering and was stealing the cookies from the windowsills. No one could catch the little thing outright. He was too quick and outsmarted them when they tried, until one day my siblings and I were in the woods plaing one of our silly games. We had outgrown the age of games, being in our early to mid teens at the time, but we still played them from time to time. It was the little bit of freedoms we afforded ourselves. We we're in a clearing in the woods when all the sudden, a little ball of bones and fur came streaking through the woods and straight into my arms. He was wiggling and yapping, and licking my face. He was absolutely overjoyed to find me, and I had to confess that I was just as happy to have him there. Its a strange feeling when a Mabari picks his master, it doesn't just affect the dog, it affects the human just as strongly. Its an almost instantaneous bond. Needless to say, the family wasn't too thrilled to have an extra mouth to feed, but we all loved him from the minute he chose us. He had been with us for nearly a week before the subject of a name came up. My family and I were sitting in the living area of our small home, when the little pup came bounding in and my father spoke up asking if I had chosen a name for him yet. I looked at him and simply said Cookie. My family laughed and my father asked why I had chosen Cookie as a name for such a powerful war dog. All I had to do was remind them of the missing cookies, and the whole family was in stitches they were laughing so hard. Its been his name since then." when I finished my tale and looked over at Varric, he was gazing at me with a look of disbelief.
"Maker's Breath Hawke, if anyone else had told me that tale I would have told them they were spinning a whopper." And at this he laughed, and it wasn't just one of his usual chuckles, it was one of his rare from the depth of him laughs. I joined in and we both laughed until we were breathless, enjoying the comfortable company of friends.
"So that is how our powerful four-legged friend received his name huh? I have to say that its a perfect name for such a perfect example of his species. I mean, can you imagine telling your buddies that you had the piss scared out of you by a dog named Cookie!" And here he began laughing again, most likely imagining the look on someones face as they explained that tale.
"I have a feeling Hawke, that I will never be hard pressed for a story while you're around."
"I think you may be right Varric. Since the moment I've set foot in Kirkwall I seem to be a magnet for bizarre things." We sat down on a rock while Cookie bounded around, barking at small animals and birds. I could tell he was happy to be out and running, and I made a mental note to be sure to bring him out to run more often. I sighed enjoying the sunlight, and heard Varric do the same next to me. We sat in a companionable silence for a time, just enjoying being away from the havok of the city.
"So Hawke, what now? Our little band of Merry Men is growing by the second, and people are basically beating down your door to receive your help. You have taken Kirkwall by storm, keep on going like this and even the Viscount will be bowing at your feet asking what he can do for you." I laughed at Varric's statement.
"Oh Varric, you really can spin a tale can't you. I highly doubt anyone will be looking for me once their troubles dry out, then I will be forgotten. Another Ferelden refugee unworthy of their time." Varric looked at me in disbelief at this one.
"Hawke, I really can't believe you don't see how much this city needs you. Kirkwall is a shit hole, full of delusions of grandeur, petty theives, swords for hire, and smugglers. Not a single soul had a decent sense of right and wrong who was willing to do something about it existed in Kirkwall before you arrived. You can do a great deal of good here Hawke, and don't you let anyone else tell you differently." While Varric had been talking Cookie had come over and laid his large head in my lap, almost as if he was backing up what Varric had been saying.
"Thank you Varric. You are a good friend, and what would I do without my trusty dwarven sidekick."
"I'm pretty sure you would shrivel up in a ball and die Hawke." I bumped his shoulder with my own playfully.
"You're probably right Varric." He chuckled at this. "But we should probably be heading back to Kirkwall, see if we can find us a Grey Warden."
We headed off back to Kirkwall, chatting about bits and pieces of various things. Talking about our new companion, speculating on his past and exotricities. We arrived in the city gates about late afternoon and decided we would head back to the Hanged Man for a bit of lunch before we began our Grey Warden search. With Cookie bounding ahead of us we headed out to Lowtown, but the minute we reached the door of the Hanged Man we knew something different was amiss. We stepped inside to see a small group of people by the bar, a woman in the center of it. We gave each other a small look of interest and edged closer to the little group to see if we could find out what was going on. As we inched closer I was able to get a better look at the woman in the middle of the group. She was a dark skinned beauty, long chesnut hair tied back by a blue head scarf, gold jewelry about her face, neck, and arms. She wore a tight corseted linen shirt, and thigh high leather boots, she seemed to forgo pants all together. Just by looking at her I could tell that even though she didn't exactly look it she was a force to be reckoned with. As we stopped just outside the group of people we could just catch what was going on. A man spoke up first.
"Isabella, you owe us." The woman then spoke, and I noticed she had more of a gravelly voice than I would have expected, with an almost honeylike sweet undertone, which if taken wrong I could tell it would turn deadly in an instant.
"Well Lucky, how about this. Seeing as the information you gave me was worthless, I'll cut you a deal. I got nothing out of our "partnership" so you get nothing out of it either. That was no one loses." She went to take a swig of whatever was in the mug in her hand, but Lucky aparantly wasn't having any of that. He grabbed her arm and she turned her head to look at him.
"Me and my men WILL get our money you coniving bitch whore." I couldn't see Isabella's face, as she was turned to look at the man named Lucky, but I could feel the tension in the air, and when I heard her next words I knew that Lucky was about to be very, very unlucky.
"Oh Lucky, you poor sweet thing..." And with that all hell broke loose. She grabbed Lucky's hand and knocked him into the bar, bashing his head against it a few times, and promptly slumping him to the floor. Noticing their leader was in trouble Lucky's men bursted into action, one of the men grabbing Isabella around the waist pinning her arms to her sides. She threw her head back, smashing him in the face and he promptly dropped her. The minute she hit the floor she ducked narrowly missing the bottle another man had tried to swing at her face, instead hitting his comrade across the head knocking him cold. Isabella the proceeded to beat the living tar out of the remaining men, stopping short when Lucky finally picked himself off the floor reaching for his sword strapped to his back. He stopped abruptly however when he found himself staring down the sharp end of one of Isabella's daggers, she had drawn it at lightning speed and had it poised directly above his adams apple.
"So Lucky," her voice was pure honey and venom "tell me is this worth your life?" And we watched as Lucky and his men tucked their tails between their legs and ran for the door. I had to supress a chuckle as I watched Isabella nochalantly sheath her daggers, lean back against the bar, and down her discarded drink. I looked over at Varric and he shrugged his shoulders, and I nodded in the direction of the woman at the bar indicating that I was interested in finding out what had happened. Varric nodded and we headed over to introduce ourselves. We walked up to the woman Lucky had called Isabella, and just as I was about to speak to introduce us, she beat me to it.
"I haven't seen you around here before sweet thing. Welcome, but be sure you pay attention while your here. You're nothing but tits and ass around here, and the drunken locals wont hesitate to make a grab at both." I had to chuckle at her brazen words.
"I can tell you are speaking from experience..?" She laughed.
"After I broke a few of their fingers here and there they pretty much figured it out. But that aside, I am Isabella. Formerly Capitain Isabella, but that title doesn't hold much girth without the ship to back it up."
"I am Alice Hawke, this is Varric, and this is Cookie."
"You are Ferelden aren't you? You have that Ferelden look about you." Here I stopped for a second.
"Fereldens have a "look" about them...what do you mean?"
"Well I spent some time in Denerim awhile back, and people from that area just seem to carry a different air about them then people from other areas I've spent time in. I'll explain it to you in more detail sometime if you happen to be interested." Here she winked at me, Varric laughed at me, and Cookie barked...all of which cause me to turn bright red and wave my hand as though I was trying to bat the thought away. They both laughed a little harder. Isabella took that chance to continue.
"You know, you may just be the person I'm looking for to help me out with a little problem I have."
"You seem to be the kind of person that has a lot of little problems. But I'm always willing to help, what do you need?" She chuckled and continued.
"Someone from my past refuses to remain there. I've arrainged to meet him for a duel, if I win he leaves me alone. But I don't trust him to play along. He was always the type that doesn't play well with others, and I think he may bring along a few extra hands than necessary to our little duel. I need someone like you around to even the odds just in case." I looked over at Varric, and he shrugged, his way of saying it was up to me but he would watch my back if I agreed.
"So, you arranged a duel with a person from your past...is that the information you were having Lucky and his men durge up for you?"
"No, they were trying to track down a posession of mine I seemed to have misplaced. They failed to find it, so I failed to pay them for it. Its nothing to worry about, it will turn up sooner or later. This is way more important that a lost trinket of mine."
"I think we could manage making sure your "friend" plays fair, I shouldn't have a problem watching your back."
She chuckles and gave me a mischevious smile. "I bet you wouldn't.", and with that she winked at me agian...once again causing me to flush bright red, and Varric to howl in laughter at my expense for the second time in the span of one conversation. Isabella pushed off the bar and began to walk towards the door.
"I've arranged to meet Hayder in Hightown after dark, I'll meet you there it shouldn't be hard for you to find me." And with that she walked out the door. I sighed and looked sideways at Varric.
"Well, I guess I wasn't kidding when I said trouble has a way of finding me in this city. What do you think about this Varric?"
"Well Hawke, I think this may be a good way to get a few more connections, and if Isabella sticks around she may be a good person to have in a pinch. A pirate capitan, even an ex one, will have connections that will be worth something. Although we may want to see if Fenris will join us for this little excursion. It may turn bad at the drop of a hat and it would be good to have some back up."
"Alright Varric, you're the boss. Lets grab a quick bite and go round up Fenris before we have to meet Isabella. We can go straight from Fenris' mansion to the meeting point, lets get moving so we have time to drop off Cookie before heading to Hightown." And with that we went into business mode, so much for my relaxing day.