One moment, Anders is fighting beside Hawke, both of them flinging spells, and the next-

The next he is falling, surprise stealing the scream from him. 

The last thing is he hits the water, painfully, and gasps, healing himself as he flounders. Despite Hawke and Isabela’s attempts, he never learned to swim, a fact he is regretting as his clothes start to drag him down. “No- no!” He gasps helplessly, floundering. 

The ocean provides, at least, a little buoyancy from the salt.

...Something is coming up from the depths.

...Maker, let that not be some sort of mythical beast he denied existing. Please let Hawke rescue him before he gets eaten alive. 

Of all the times for Justice to go silent, this was very inopportune. He casts barrier over himself and prays. 

Something catches on the back of his collar, and starts bodily lifting him out of the water. Around him, sleek and sharp metal 'fins' are breaking the surface of the water.

“What- Maker-” is all Anders can say as he’s lifted bodily out of the water by something puncturing his favourite (and only) coat. 

The thing below him is distinctly not flesh. Some sort of dwarven creation? He sends a pulse of healing energy (from where he dangles embarrassingly), and can detect no life signs from the metal...thing. There are signs inside, however. 

Some...kind of boat? 

Indeed some kind of boat. The fins are followed by a flatter metal surface with a very gentle curve to it.

About five feet from where Anders is now hanging, a hatch opens in time with a series of vents, all of which immediately spit out smoke and steam.

And in the case of the hatch, people.

"For fuck's sake, Tana!" one is yelling. "Next time you decide to blow something up, warn us so we don't have to do an emergency breach."

A woman with a peculiar, bulky device around her legs laughs. "I'll start warning you I'm gonna blow shit up when you start warning us you're gonna get us shot at."

Anders goes to call out, but then wonders if that's the smart thing to do. He doesn't know these people, and they could be against mages.

Then again, he is hanging from a spike.

"Um, hello? I think you've both speared me and save me from drowning!"

"-Huh. Whaddaya know? We went fishing."

An overlarge dog (and had he always been among the group?) pads over to sniff at Anders feet.

The first woman saunters after the dog, hair shimmering and changing colour under the sun. "And what, pray tell, have we caught?"

“A tall, wet, grateful man.” He waves at both women and tries not to flinch away from the dog 

"Gratitude, regrettably, doesn't fill bellies."

“True, but I’ve heard human flesh does nothing good for the brain.”

The woman laughs, harsh and cynical. "Perhaps not, but sometimes: needs must."

"You're being a bitch again," the voice comes from where there was previously, the dog.

"When isn't she one?"

“I can promise I would not be a good meal. I may be tall, but very stringy. Not much meat on these bones.”

He sees the dog turn into a man, and his relief is palpable. “Thank the Maker. You must be a mage, me too. I was worried I’d fallen into the clutches of dwarven-craft-stealing-cannibal Templars.”

"-Uh. Mage? I mean, that sounds really cool, but I do large dog and that is...approximately it."

"You are a bit rangey come to think of it." The woman apparently in charge glances over her shoulder. "Deke!" she roars.

“Shapeshifting is one of the hardest schools to learn. I’ve never been able, myself,” Anders says, and he sounds truly impressed. 

He looks hopefully at the woman in charge, that he might be let down from his...perch. 

A man, a height with the woman appears, and blinks up at Anders. "Didn't know human was in season out here."

"Shut up and help me get him down. You too, Rex, don't just sit there."

Rex is abruptly a dog again.