Just Keep Your Head Above Water (Cinza, Open)

[Iggy]

The first thing Iggy noticed was the motion, the motion of the ocean beneath one's feet, the constant buck and pitch of the small waves that lapped against the Denerim harbor. The constant wiggling threatened to throw the boy off balance at first, but he learned to move with the movement, to rock with the boat slightly, shifting his weight and his center of gravity, doing a little jig and loving every moment of it. He'd been hesitant about the concept of boats at first, but any place where you had to dance a little bit just to keep upright, couldn't be all bad! The balancing wasn't too tricky, Iggy was good at balancing, used to putting his feet down on queer slopes and narrow outcrops, where a misstep didn't mean you looked like a fool, you looked like a smear.

The bubbly beserker grinned and sidled his way through the press of bodies. Not an awful lot of crewmen, but everyone seemed to be above decks. They'd paused their conversations and given him queer looks at first, but soon decided he was worth ignoring, stranger things had apparently crawled aboard Captain Mariana's boat, they tended to sort themselves out eventually.

Iggy scanned heads (alright, perhaps not heads, but general shoulder areas, until he caught sight of the ashen skin giant his new Captain had told him to find first thing. One didn't really 'find' the quartermaster, one discovered him as one would discover a mountain or an ocean. He seemed less a man and more a force of nature, scowling and silent more often than not, with a face hewn from granite, and bellowing out with a bone shaking roar whenever the fancy struck him. Not finding the quartermaster would always be 'your' fault, a flaw on your part, the kossith as inconspicuous as a smoldering volcano. Iggy liked him already.

The boy bounced forward, all spunk and vigor and joy, and presented himself before the horn giant with the rather nasty whip anchored to his waist. He gave a salute to the man's... general chest region, and craned his neck, staring up at the man with a goofy grin pasted to his features, "Hot damn, there sure is a lot of you, messer! Probably have ta chop ya in half at the thigh just to get a good look at ya! I’m Iggy! I’m supposed to be a... ummm... a cabin boy! Don’t know what that is, but it sounds like lots of fun! Captain Mariana said I was to come and see you. Why is she Captain instead of you? Can she beat you in a fight? Probably goes straight for yer danglers, seems like the smart thing ta do.”

Iggy grinned up at the kossith, not a hint of sedition in his voice or manner, just the omnipresent, latent euphoria.

[Elissa Vuronia]

Amity was pretty nervous as he was taken away to the holds. Of course the shipmates were extra careful with him, especially when Elissa had paid captain Mariana the fee that was agreed. And a little extra to ensure her best friend was well looked after and wasn't to be touched by anyone except from Elissa of course. It was however Amity's first time on a ship, despite this Elissa was determined to ensure that he was as comfortable as he could be. And with her part of the bargain fulfilled she let out a relaxing sigh and stepped out onto the deck, the sun was shining down over Denerim making it a perfect day to travel.

Wearing just her silver tunic and trousers, Elissa enjoyed the scenery that lay before her. All around her the deck was incredibly busy, she moved to a corner of the ship making sure the working ship mates had enough room to work. Gently leaning against the barrier, which protected people from falling off the ship itself, Elissa stared out into the distance in a northwesterly direction and saw the massive scale of the ocean.

There was nothing else except the sure majesty of the ocean. It was so beautiful, that the sun shone its reflection down over the ocean, which made it sparkle. Thoughts littered her young mind as her thoughts were of Amity, her parents and the quest to understand life. Elissa sometimes would think to herself and wonder if she will ever achieve her quest? She missed her family very much and one day if she returned to Amaranthine, Elissa would immediately head to her family, and tell them everything she had learned during the adventure she had.

However she snapped out of her own world and heard a cheerful voice. Elissa turned around and noticed a Kossith and a boy who was happily talking with the towering Qunari. It sounded like the young boy was part of the ship's crew, and the Kossith itself looked pretty menacing. A smile appeared on her face as she admired the boy's exciting personality, but she simply turned back to admire the ocean which was the start of the next chapter to Elissa's story.