She didn't remember getting home. All she remembered was foul tasting ale and really crummy cards. But she awoke in her palette with her boots and bodice removed. She yawned and grimaced still tasting the ale upon her tongue. She clumsily removed herself from the bed, careful of Rascal and Bethany, both still sleeping. She put on her bodice but only carried the boots so as to stay quiet along the hard wood floors.
She found Hawke bent over his desk, head slumped down. Jennifer placed a hand on his shoulder, peering around his arm. "Everything, peachy?" She smiled hesitantly.
Hawke smirked. "Nothing to worry about, just a little money troubles, but if I didn't have those I would be up in Hightown." He chuckled. He ruffled Jennifer's hair and stood up straight, at least a foot taller than Jennifer. "An expedition I'm trying to fund isn't going anywhere, I need fifty sovereigns but I don't know exactly how I'm supposed to get that much."
Jennifer looked up at him through her tasseled bangs and smirked. "Just keep doing what you are doing. I'll help where I can." Jennifer squeezed her feet into her boots and smoothed down her bodice. "I'm ready when you are."
They quietly made their way out of the house, Jennifer walked beside Hawke, peering at him periodically. Has the weight of the whole family on his shoulders. And here I am just mooching like some teenager. Well I am a teenager, but here I'm considered an adult, dammit! She shifted from her reprimanding thoughts when they arrived at Fenris' mansion. Hawke pounded on the door and him and Jennifer waited. And waited. Till Fenris' opened the door with messy hair his large sword and no shirt.
Jennifer blushed deeply turning away and rocking on her feet. Heel. Foot. Toe. Foot. Heel. Holy crap! Put on a shirt!
Hawke tapped her shoulder and she shrieked, jumping into the air. "Whoa, now. Calm down! What's gotten into you?" Hawke quirked a brow and blinked with wide ice blue eyes.
"Me? What? Nothing! N-nothing. I erm… was keeping a look out, since Fenris' is worried about Danarius." She itched her head nervously, but Hawke only shrugged as Fenris walked around him, fully clothed.
"I thank you for taking an interest in my well-being. It is appreciated." Fenris stated.
Jennifer chuckled nervously and smiled before spinning on her heel, a dark blush creeping up her neck as she walked ahead.
-ooo-
Jennifer rolled her eyes for the third time as they walked through the docks. Jennifer was looking forward to having the sounds of waves drown out the sound of Anders and Fenris', bickering…. Constantly.
Fenris got a wicked glint in his eye and stepped closer to Jennifer. She didn't notice till his words rang out, clear and true. "Did I hear right? You are… an abomination?"
Both hawke and Anders turned towards him, looking incredulously at him. "Why don't you shout? I don't think everyone heard you!" Anders replied venomously as he looked pointedly at Jennifer.
"Do you see yourself as harmless then? An abomination who would never harm anyone?" Jennifer turned around with a slight frown on her face.
"Like ripping someone's heart out of his chest?" Anders folded his arms as he walked.
"I did that at the behest of NO demon." Fenris declared. Wait…demon? What do demons have to do with Anders?
Jennifer looked at Anders intently, he looked back and something in his eyes shifted, almost as if a door was being closed in her face. He turned to Fenris. "So we agree that it doesn't take a demon for someone to be a vicious killer. Good."
She frowned again before walking closer to Anders. She looped her arm through his as she narrowly escaped a pile of fish innards. He blinked ather, and she smiled in return. "Sorry. I didn't want to slip and fall."
Anders only smiled, though it didn't quite reach his eyes as his smiles usually did. "I don't mind. It's not every day a pretty girl drapes herself around me. I think I might like it actually."
Jennifer playfully smacked him on the arm. "I'm not draping!"
Ander's laughed, his eyes becoming a little more unguarded. "So out of everything I just said, you complain about me thinking you are draping?" Holy crap balls! He's flirting with me too? Jennifer bit her lip.
"Maybe." She replied.
Anders laughed again, a sound that was as nice as a cup of hot chocolate on a cold winter day. The tensioned drained from him completely and she smiled again at Fenris' grumbling. That should teach him to be such a turd. But she soon broke away, not wanting to give either man the wrong impression.
They soon boarded the small ferry that lead to the gallows. Macha had said to speak with a Hugh or a Wilmod, they were Keran's closest friends. They stepped into the Gallows and Fenris paused. "I've heard about the Circle of Magi outside of the Imperium." He gazed at the large bronze statue. "But I've never been in one. Are you certain it's wise for us to come here, considering who we're with."
Hawke smirked. "I don't think the Templars will be surprised to see another mage here, do you?" He gestured around the Gallows courtyard.
"Hmm," Fenris tapped his chin. "Maybe not."
"I'll try to look sufficiently meek and oppressed." Anders stated as he folded his arms and glared at Fenris.
"You're not helping." Hawke declared with a grimace. Jennifer elbowed Anders in the side.
"This seems more like a prison." Fenris turned back towards Hawke. "I wonder if it is more effective than the Circle I know."
"From what I can see, the Circle can't control mages anyway." Hawke replied.
"Freedom is a noble ideal. But I see no oppression here, I see fear and danger." He dismissed the conversation with a wave of his hand. "But enough, I'm sure we came here for a reason."
Hawke stepped away and turned to a blonde Templar walking through. The Templar pointed them to the other side of the courtyard. There stood three Templar recruits, and women and two men.
"Do you know a recruit named Keran?" Hawke asked between the three. "His sister is looking for him."
"We cannot speak to you, messere." The woman said quietly as she folded her arms.
"To the Void with that!" A young man declared angrily. "Keran and the others are missing."
"But our orders!" The third whined.
The young man stepped forward. "The knights aren't doing anything to find them, maybe it's time to ask for outside help."
"Why must you keep silent about Keran." Hawke asked, looking between the three.
"Knight-Commander gives you an order, and you obey." The young male Templar looked at Hawke sternly. "They told us not to breath a word about Keran and the others."
"You can trust me. I'm only trying to keep Keran safe." Hawke clapped the young Templar on the shoulder.
"I hear Knight-Commander Meredith has some new initiation you have to go through." The whiney Templar looked over, folding his arms. I'm beginning to think this Knight-Commander is mean and loopy. "If you are not strong enough, or fervent enough in belief, you don't make it out alive."
"And you actually believe that?" The woman recruit countered.
"Recruits are going missing." Hugh replied, looking at the woman sternly.
"Wilmod came back." She shrugged.
"What?" The young man blinked in surprise.
"He did. I saw him this morning." She nodded.
"Wilmod told me he was going outside Kirkwall. 'Clear his head,' he said."
"Why didn't you tell us this." The young recruit turned towards the woman.
"Knight-Captain Cullen ordered it. Right before he chased after Wilmod." She replied defensively. She then turned to Hawke. "That wasn't too long ago. If you hurry you may catch them on the road."
They left the Gallows hurrying along to catch this Cullen and Wilmod just outside the city of Kirkwall. As they briskly made their way through the city, Jennifer looked at Anders and frowned in though. Hawke shouldn't have asked him to come along. He's a mage, and the Templars might try to hurt him… She was deeper in concentrated thought than she realized. Before she realized, she stepped onto the sandy slopes of the Wounded Coast. Wounded Coast, that seems like a silly thing to call a place, kind of depressing when you think about it as well.
The air was dry and the breeze kicked up dirt into the air, the veered towards the mountains, hitting rocky but grassy terrain. Anders stopped to pick herbs when they rested for a break. Jennifer stood next to him watching him work. "Are these for your potions?" She asked. She had tasted one before, just out of curiosity, and it tasted vile.
"Some, most are for salves in the clinic. See, this here," He pointed to a tall plant with fat rubbery leaves that came to a point. "That's elfroot. It's a base component in all my selves, it's an antiseptic and it stings like the dickens in raw form." He named a few more plants he had harvested before they continued on their way, picking through the brush and rocks, till they heard shouting.
AN: So now where going to get to some juicy bits. -evil laughter-