This started as a question posted on Twitter: "If you were stranded on a desert island with two DA characters, who would be the best and the worst to be stuck with?" The characters of Anders and Fenris are from Dragon Age 2 but they will be different for this story. Mage Hawke has abilities that are not from the game as you've noticed so far. I'm trying to see how this goes and decided to post a few chapters anyways. My partner in crime for this is KrisJFern. All comments are welcome.

As always: thanks to Kris for being a great sounding board in all things Stranded.

A/N: I am also working in collaboration with another author here called Signs of Falling Grace.

Stranded

The water was warmer the closer we got to shore. My limbs felt leaden as I continued to crawl on my hands and knees, feeling every cut and scrape from the rocks under me but I could not stop until we were safely out of the water. I looked over my shoulder at Anders, who looked as tired as I did, panting when we reached the shallow sand bar and were finally able to rest. He sat back on his heels, moving his long hair out of his eyes with one hand.

"Maker's breath! I didn't think we would ever make it to shore!" I said to him, sputtering out water from an unexpected wave that caused me to lose my balance and flail to right myself.

I felt the pull of the tide as I struggled to right myself once more and not be dragged out into deeper water. I knew that if that happened, I would never be able to make it back. I got back on my knees, flung my wet hair back away from my eyes and watched Anders struggling to reach me. I held my hand out to him to let him know I was fine and he rested again.

"At least you're not still carrying this bloody elf! He's wire thin and heavier than anything I've ever had to carry in his blasted armor," he swore and I looked back at the unconscious man he carried his back.

"He saved our lives, Anders. The least we could do is make sure he didn't drown for his troubles," I said and turned back towards the not too distant shore. "Let's keep going. We can rest once we're out of the water."

I moved closer to him to try to relieve him of Fenris but he shrugged me off and motioned to keep going. I was suddenly glad that I had left my armor back in Kirkwall, as the soaked mage robes, a gift from my cousin, were weighing me down. I could only imagine what Anders was going through with his own robes and Fenris' added weight and armor. I had regretted losing the long sword when we forced to abandon the sinking ship but there was no way we could have brought it along. Between the two of us, I had the only usable staff, as Anders was forced to leave his to help carry Fenris over the side and safely into the water. I only hoped that whatever we faced, we could make do with the small daggers I had hidden in my bodice.

My arms shook the last few feet as I dragged myself away from the water's edge and finally gave out as soon as we were safely on dry land. I fell face first, unable to move and lay still for a few moments until I felt Anders hands on my back, flipping me over so I would not breathe in the sand. With the back of my hand I clumsily reached up and wiped the grittiness away from my eyes, nose and mouth before I looked up at him.

"Remind me never to get on a bloody ship ever again!" I laughed as I dropped my hands above my head.

"Are you alright, Inara?" he asked, leaning forward and wiping more of the drying sand off my face.

"Better now that I'm not swallowing half of the Amaranthine Ocean," I said and looked up at him before looking past him to the still form of Fenris. "How is he?"

"Breathing, thank the Maker, but still unconscious. I imagine he will have a hell of a headache when he finally wakes up," he said, watching as I slowly crawled over to him to look him over myself. "Unfortunately I don't have the strength to do more than a cursory exam. He'll be fine for now, but there's nothing more we can do tonight."

I reached out and moved a few strands of wet hair off the elf's forehead and caressed his face before I laid down next to him, snuggling as close to him as I could without putting any weight on him. From what I could tell, he had no broken bones and could find no cuts. My guess is he was still unconscious from hitting his head as we tried to escape. If he had not put himself in harm's way, we would have been unable to get to the deck of the ship.

I waited a few moments before turning my head and looking at Anders, who was now seated facing the water.

"What are you looking at?" I asked him quietly.

"I'm trying to figure out where we are," he replied. "We were only out to sea for a week before the storm hit and threw us off course."

"If we're lucky, we're close to a village that we missed when we were making our way to shore," I said and yawned. "Tomorrow we'll have a look around but for now, let's get some sleep."

I held out my hand to him but he remained where he was seated. I turned to him and balanced my weight on my elbow. "It's getting cold, Anders. I don't know about you but my robes as soaked and I haven't the strength to gather dry fire wood. If we sleep close together we might be a little warmer by sharing our body heat," I suggested.

Finally he relented and moved to lie down by my side as I laid back on the sand. I could feel his hesitation to close the gap between us so I reached out and grabbed his arm, tucking it under mine and pulled him closer to me as I turned my body towards Fenris so that he was molded to my back. I had not lied about the cold and found that my shivering immediately stopped with him close as he was very warm. I felt his breath on the back of my neck as I interlaced my fingers with his and closed my eyes.

Thanks to everyone who has been following this crazy story. If you have any questions about this, please be sure to have your PM's enabled so I can answer back!