A Princess, a Knight, and an Assassin Walk Into a Tavern...

Chapter 3 Feelings of a Ship Clarity

Hawke left with the Captain, and Clarity released a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. Distance was probably a good thing for now, she told herself. When it was clear that the Commander wouldn't let tollie sleep in West's bed, no matter how much the girl obviously wanted to, Clarity had asked for the key. This might be her last chance to sleep in a bed for some time, and she wasn't going to waste it. As she opened the door she was greeted by a medium small room, with a built in bed - big enough for two and then some, she noted – another desk, a mirror, and a set of built in drawers. It wasn't untidy, and actually seemed to be relatively clean. But the bed was in disarray and there were a couple shirts she would have to toss in a drawer. After a sniff to the sheets – they smelled like what she assumed the Captain smelled like, but were not objectionable – she was met with another decision: what to do about her leg? She was sleeping in a new place, and they could be interrupted at any moment, which means she should leave it on but.... Her prosthetic would absolutely shred the sheets, and this might be her last chance to take it off – in privacy with the ability to stretch, rub, and reprotect it, for the forseeable future.
In the end she took off her own shirt to wrap around the metal part of her prosthetic, and loosened the buckles, without taking it off. Damn this leg, she thought, she could've been sound asleep a good 20 minutes ago without it. She just sighed. There was no use cursing it, though she couldn't seem to stop doing just that. Clarity then drew her daggers, one in each hand, gingerly laid down her prosthetic where it would do the least damage, and let her mind go numb. The last thing she saw before she drifted off was a wide grinning mouth, and black hair that never layed flat.
She heard the Commander leave a good deal before dawn, and obviously Tollie had heard as well, because there was soon a soft knock at the door. "Come in." Clarity said. And Tollie entered looking very unsure and shy. After a moment of Tollie just taking in the room Clarity brought her back to reality with a gentle, "Yes?"
"Oh! Um, well, I was thinking we could share the bed. The day bed is fine and all...but it's right by the window, and the Captain's cloak isn't sufficiently warm, and I don't want to be alone out there..." Clarity spared her the job of having to come up with excuses.
She simply sidled over to make room for the girl and said, "You take the side nearest the wall." As the girl climbed over she sheathed one of her daggers, and readjusted her prosthetic so there wouldn't be any accidental injuries. The girl looked curious as to why she had 3 swords in the bed with her, but said nothing and simply snuggled under the covers, pulling them up to her nose, took a deep inhale and laid still.
An hour or so later Clarity rose for the day, and not wanting to wake the princess, stepped out of the room before she began sheathing weapons, and trying to undo the knot she had tied her shirt in around her sharp prosthetic. She tightened the buckels holding on her prosthetic, and pulled her shirt on. She then had to amuse herself for the next 8 hours, telling herself she was not waiting for hawke, but that is most certainly what she was doing.
She loved and was frustrated by the open ocean. With her new thoughts of freedom she pondered briefly becoming a pirate. Always food, always a bed, a need for her muscles, and no pity from the crew, she would like that. But the limited company, the lack of need for her particular skills, the way the curved piece of her "leg" couldn't get traction against the rocking waves, and the fact that if she went overboard she would just die, kept her from making the decision to do it.
She was in this particular vein of thought, staring over the rails at the horizon, when she heard Hawke approach. "If the question is 'have I met the crew member with the actual peg leg?',"She began, "then the answer is 'Yes.' And he's very ...nice." Hawke leaned beside her and chuckled good naturedly. "Though I can't put my finger on why, but I doubt that he lost his leg to a crocodile. Maybe it's the fact that he was rutting with a dwarf when it happened...but maybe he just likes to brag." At that Hawke laughed out loud. A sound she was finding she liked more and more. She only brought it up, because that had been Hawke's first question to her this morning, despite the fact that there were other more pressing things happening around them. He slept off the ship, because he had been out late and up early dispatching his men to the mountains, and hadn't arrived back until 10. Something Clarity didn't like that she didn't like.
"I heard that one too. It's too good a story not to be true in my opinion." A long pause, "But it also makes a man wonder, every missing limb has a story... so what's yours?" He asked light heartedly, but there was also a serious note to his voice. As if he wasn't sure if he had gone too far.
Clarity was quiet for a long moment. It...wasn't much of a story. It was just very raw, that's why she didn't tell it. And not very good for polite conversation, but here they were on a pirate's ship, so maybe that didn't matter. "well..." It was Clarity's turn to rub the back of her neck. "It's not as good of a story as a crocodile." She said, but he nodded for her to continue. "A group of us were...well we had been hired in Antiva to cut out a rival merchant for a client. It was a straight forward enough thing, and should've been simple. The merchant, however, was extremely paranoid, and had booby trapped his house as well as hiring two Qunari body guards. One of the guards...reminded me of someone. He was the spitting image of...well...anyway, I stumbled, when I should have pounced. I set off a trap that drove spikes into my feet, and the Qunari's maul...caught...my leg. Then when I was on the ground caught it a second time, and a third. Nothing left of my bones but powder, that's what the healer said, so they had to take it off. My crew got on the ship, and left me in the house." Clarity tried for a laugh, to lighten it up, but failed miserably. 

Hawke reached over to pat her hand, but stopped when he got close enough that she flinched. He opened his mouth to speak when their escort from the night before came up, "Alright ye two. Enough of that. Chore time!" And he plopped a bucket of what must be cleaning water, a scrub brush, and a pile of rope in front of that. "Burly, you're on deck duty. I want to see me face in them by the time yer done. And you swrds-fer-legs, yer on mending duty." He said pointing to the ropes. " Top deck with the princess, get a move on!"
Hawke rolled his eyes and grinned at her before picking up the pail and heading toward the lowest deck. He gave her one last wave as he headed down the stairs. Clarity smiled to herself and went to find the princess.

From their vantage point they could see the entire ship. Clarity could see Hawke strip off his shirt as he began to work on hands and knees scrubbing the lower deck, and see a lot of it she did. She couldn't stop herself from watching his muscles ripple and contract. Not that the princess was paying any mind to her lack of propriety. Her eyes were firmly yet wistfully on West as he steered the ship and talked with is men.