This is a crossover that my sister gave me the idea for and it would not leave my brain. It involved my Grey Warden OC, which is Nymeria Surana whom you might recognize from A Chance of Fates. This story is not related to that in any way, only the character is the same.

Usual disclaimer: I don't own anything, I make no money from this, etc.

Nym let out a sigh as she stood on the ship's deck, gazing out over Amaranthine. It had been more than three years since the darkspawn destroyed Amaranthine, yet the city's scars were healing well. Barkspawn was draped over the ship's rail, clearly excited to set sail. Nym smiled as she scratched his ears, "Ready for another adventure?"

"Do you need to ask?" Nym whirled around to see Zevran, pack slung over his shoulder.

"What -"

"Are two fine stallions such as ourselves doing here?" Oghren chuckled as he swaggered over to the elves. Barkspawn clambered off the railing and barreled into Oghren, knocking the dwarf over.

"Surely you expected us to accompany you, yes?" Zevran asked, moving slightly to the side to avoid getting caught by the dwarf/dog pile. Nym was pointedly ignoring Oghren's gruff pleas for assistance, choosing to instead cock an eyebrow at Zevran. She nodded slowly, silently grateful that two of her closest friends would be joining her.

"Nym! Nym! HELP!" Oghren's panicked yells broke the silence as Barkspawn started to lie down on Oghren's face. While Nym tried to convince her mabari to move, the ship cast off from the port.

"Well boys, we have one quick stop to make before the real journey begins."

"Anders!"

The door to Varric's room burst open, startling everyone around the table. As they dropped their cards and drew their weapons, Anders called, "It wasn't me!"

To the increasing confusion of everyone in the room, Nym strode over to Anders and settled on his lap. "We need to talk." She threw back his ale. "What wasn't you?"

"I assumed I was in trouble."

"Ah. Fair enough."

Their exchange was interrupted by Hawke's brain short-circuiting. "Soooooooooo…?"

"Oh, I suppose introductions are in order." Nym chuckled at the sight of everyone still standing with their weapons drawn. "Everyone, please sit down. I shan't be attacking you…this evening."

"That wasn't reassuring," Fenris muttered as he slowly took his seat.

"No need to introduce us," Isabella winked at Nym. "Nice to see you again, sweet thing." Nym responded with a wink and a smile, causing Hawke's eyes to bulge out of his skull.

Aveline coughed. "Anders. Explain."

"Explain?" Anders and Nym questioned simultaneously, causing Fenris to shift his chair farther from the pair while Merrill giggled.

Varric leaned forward in his chair. "This woman burst into the room and sat on your lap. THIS woman. This raven-haired, caramel temptress. This Antivan goddess with eyes that will melt my soul, came into the room and sat on your lap. YOUR lap. You, the mangy apostate who probably has naughty dreams of said woman and is too busy convincing her of your manifesto to have fun. Yeah Blondie, we need an explanation."

"I wouldn't let a dream about her go to waste," Hawke mumbled, causing Fenris' scowl to deepen.

While Nym stared at Hawke, Anders cleared his throat. "This is Nym. We've been friends for, umm…"

"A long time," Nym interrupted.

"Right. Nym, meet everybody. Sebastian, Fenris, Merrill, Aveline – the guard captain – Isabella you know, that's Hawke – yes, that's the Champion of Kirkwall, I know, I know, he's disappointing – and finally Varric Tethras. I think you started reading a book of his?" Anders rushed through the introductions, ignoring all attempts by others to speak; Hawke sounded particularly indignant.

Isabella smirked. "Now, that's HARDLY an introduction worthy of Nymeria Surana, THE Hero of Ferelden."

Sebastian actually got up to bow to Nym, gently kissing the back of her hand. "It's an honour to meet you, my lady."

A look of horror grew on Aveline's face as she realized that such an important dignitary saw her in the Hanged Man playing Wicked Grace. Fenris stared at Nym in shocked disbelief.

Hawke gaped and eventually said, "You're who's in command of my brother? I pictured you differently from his letters."

"Oh?"

"He made you seem, I don't know, intimidating. Less beautiful, more terrifying." The room's temperature dropped noticeably at Hawke's words.

"What? You don't think beautiful women can be terrifying?" The smile on Nym's face was razor-sharp.

"No, they can. It's just, you don't seem that…impressive."

"Who's not that impressive?" Oghren staggered into the room, Zevran following closely behind him with Barkspawn. "Hey, Sparklefingers!"

"Andraste's knickerweasels, you brought him?" Anders groaned into Nym's hair.

Ignoring Varric's question of "Sparklefingers?", Nym said, "Well dears, it appears the Champion of Kirkwall does not find me impressive."

Barkspawn growled at Hawke while Zevran and Oghren gawped in disbelief. Zevran recovered first, rolling his eyes rather exaggeratedly. "What about that whole Archdemon-business then? Did I imagine you killing it?"

Oghren shook himself out of his stupor. "Or when you took care of that dragon cult in Haven? They gave up without a fight, right?"

"Funny, I thought I remembered you saving Redcliffe from hordes of the undead. Or had I just had too much to drink?" Zevran muttered sarcastically.

"Remember the Varterral? That thing straight out of elven legend? It's actually a little bunny," commented Anders with a sage nod.

"Don't forget broodmothers!" Oghren shuddered. "Fucking broodmothers…"

"Or," Anders added, raising his voice to be heard, "when she yelled at a darkspawn and it ran away screaming and Oghren almost wet himself?"

"I stand by that. It was scary."

Nym rolled her eyes. "I was not that scary!"

"Yes, you were." Anders, Zevran, and Oghren replied in unison.

"Are we supposed to believe that actually happened?" Aveline asked skeptically. Barkspawn turned to growl at Aveline.

"I think she's impressive," Sebastian commented. Barkspawn gave a happy woof.

"I think she's scary," Merrill said quietly.

Nym cleared her throat. "I really don't give a damn what any of you think. Except yes – Aveline, was it? – it did happen. Now then, Anders. I came here for a reason. I need to talk to you." She hopped off his lap and grabbed his hand. As she pulled him towards the door, she turned to Oghren and Zevran. "Ensure we're not interrupted, would you?"

Anders sighed as the door shut behind them. "What's going on?"

"As I'm sure you remember, I've been attempting to find a cure for the Blight. And so far, I've got nothing. So…" Nym trailed off as she sighed, looking far more exhausted than Anders remembered seeing her in recent memory.

"So…what?"

"So, I'm going traveling. Zevran and Oghren decided to accompany me. Nathaniel will oversee Amaranthine while I'm gone, and vague letters were sent to Alistair and Leliana. Everything is taken care of, but I wanted to tell you in person. Because if something goes wrong here, you need to get back to Amaranthine. For some strange, unknowable reason, Nate doesn't have the same political sway I do." Anders rolled his eyes at Nym's brief attempt at levity. "He can only guarantee your safety if you're actually in Amaranthine."

"Wait, you're not forcing me to go back?"

"Nah. Keep your clinic here. Keep helping people. But this time, stay in contact with Nathaniel. Something tells me he'd like to hear from his boyfriend. Understood?"

"Yes, ma'am." Anders smirked at the way Nym's nose scrunched up in disgust at being called "ma'am".

"Ugh. You're lucky I love you or else you'd be nothing more than a scorch mark on this grungy floor."

Anders laughed as he and Nym walked back into Varric's room. His laughter died out quickly, however, as he took in the shock on almost everyone's faces. "What?"

"You laughed. You never laugh," Fenris commented dryly, not quite managing to hide his shock.

Zevran and Oghren exchanged confused glances. Nym shook her head before turning to Hawke. "Make sure my Warden Constable doesn't get in trouble. And by that, I mean make sure he doesn't get caught." Anders groaned and banged his head on the table as everybody, particularly Sebastian and Varric, started questioning him about having that title.

Nym ignored the uproar and gestured for her companions to leave ahead of her. Zevran and Oghren each gave Anders a slap on the back before departing. Zevran made some inappropriate comment as he left, but it was drowned out by Oghren shouting, "Keep your pants on you perverted elf!" Nym and Anders rolled their eyes at the dwarf's usual dramatics.

Barkspawn started to walk out the door, stopped suddenly, and turned to look at Anders. "Oh no…" Anders sighed, just before the mabari bounded over to him and enthusiastically licked his face. "I'll miss you too, you flea-bitten mongrel." Barkspawn wagged his stumpy tail before chasing after Oghren.

As she closed the door, Nym stuck her head back into the room. "Don't forget to write to your boyfriend!" She slammed the door shut with a cackle as she heard various exclamations, her favourite being Anders' lovely farewell:

"Fuck you too Nym!"

"I hate sailing," Oghren moaned as he leaned over the railing, face green and clashing horribly with his fiery red beard.

"We're not even on the proper ocean yet. We need to find a different ship at Estwatch."

"Why Estwatch my dear?" Zevran called from his seat, far from the acrid odor of Oghren.

"Because," Nym coughed as Oghren retched again. "The only people who are willing to sail across the ocean are some of my favourite people."

"Oh?"

Nym's answering grin was wicked. "Pirates."

"I love it here," Nym giggled as yet another bar fight broke out.

"It is rather fun," Zevran agreed as he deftly stepped around the brawlers.

"Get over here! Yer rounds behind!" Oghren yelled at them over the din, waving like mad. Nym and Zevran wound their way through the crowd towards Oghren, snagging drinks along the way.

"So," Oghren belched, "any luck?" Barkspawn whined curiously from his spot beside Oghren's chair.

"Once word got around that the Hero of Ferelden was looking for a ship, crews were practically throwing themselves as her feet." Zevran shared a smirk with Oghren.

"It was hardly as dramatic as that," Nym rolled her eyes. "But we have a crew willing to take us. They need time to provision the ship. We sail in one week."

"We get to hang around here for a week?" Oghren asked.

"I think we can manage that." The three of them exchanged grins and cheered.

The four companions adjusted to living on a ship with varying levels of success. Nymeria and Zevran were perfectly fine. Barkspawn never truly gained his sea legs; it was not uncommon to see the hound stumbling around as if drunk. Poor Oghren though: what he swore was just temporary seasickness lasted the entire journey. He could be found either in his cabin or heaving over the railing.

Spending months travelling with pirates was quite a change from the daily dealings of Amaranthine. Zevran had not realized what a gap there was in his knowledge of dirty drinking songs until he had dinner with the crew. Barkspawn missed the abundance of fresh meat available to him back home. Nym appreciated just being one of the boys instead of settling ridiculous land disputes between noble pricks. Oghren could not remember what it felt like to not be sick.

Despite the varying experiences on the ship, a collective sigh of relief was heard when the captain turned to Nym, gestured to the shore, and said, "Welcome to the Northern Kingdoms."