"Amusing."

"Most," she nod, spying how his lips curled, eyes gleamed, and his tusks stood with all their pointed promise.
"There are worse things for a man to be."
"Drab, dull, boring, to name just a few such things," her head bounced along.

"Largely the culprit for how my life has gone, that sense for propriety."

Let his words linger in the air. "Is that so?" she said as she watched him look about.

“Suppose I’ll keep it up, if it makes you smile. ”

How the feeling they brought settled down the base of her. Up her chest and along her neck. "All the more when you smile in turn, Aarno," she said, waiting to catch his eye, and held it.
 
It was so. And he affirmed with a nod of the head, small and easily forgotten to the bob of the ride. Her words though — he’d remember those, the last notion drawing him to relent, to gaze at her again.

Not dull, not boring, not drab. That was most of his worries gone now wasn’t it. With that to spend he braved holding her look, to meet her as she met him. Could do it without smiling for the total of six seconds. An exhale turned to a laugh.

“ You should find my smile rather agreeable? “ He teased, letting it spread a little wider, crinkling the corners of the eyes. “ Anything else? “
 
The laugh. Like a warm crumble of sun baked earth come free from the stubborn rock it so oft clung to. Buoyed the feeling that sprung from her chest. Caused her to crack.

"The way you look," she said, leaning into her own stare, for emphasis. "At things with such intensity," eased back, rounds of her cheeks still warmed by the blush. Nod, and turned her eyes away. Stole a little truth for herself as the woods opened unto a sunbathed glade.

The bird song came clear across the grass, and the wildflowers danced their petaled dance against the breeze. She slowed Roci's trot to a walk. Then stilled. The horse's tail swished, and Helena hopped down from the saddle.

"A fine place for camp, aye, Syr Latva?" she teased. Already pulling free her pack, though the warmth she felt across her nose felt all the warmer for the day's light against the early spring chill.
 
Too much? He was left with his smiles and tease, properly deservedly, but hardly sorry for it. The trees gave way to something rather storybook and though a change in subject occurred, unbidden it was not. They’d earned a wealth of traveling for today and the dark here fell fast after the Sun was well past it’s zenith.

He made a show of stopping Svala, still for a spell wherein he regarded the glade at length. Not with doubt, but linger behind when another had already dismounted, allowing him listen to the sounds of her hassling the pack off Rocinante. Efficient, decisive. He’d not disagree.

“ Quite so, Captain. “ He affirmed finally, stroking Svala’s dappled neck afore dismounting himself. It felt good to stand and he shook the tension out of his shitty knee on his way leading Svala to the shade of the surrounding copse. A particularly large and burrladen linden tree loomed there amidst the other old things, perfect to rest one’s weary bones against.

Later. Once he’d stopped Svala and begun liberating it off it’s burdens, he glanced sidelong to whence he came — the sunbathe meadow with it’s flowers and the little rocks pocking the grass that waved in the breeze. A spot to dine at, for sure, but first—

“ I’ll forage for some tinder. “ he started, putting down his pack in a nook where the linden’s large roots vanished to the ground. The kettle tied to it’s side gave a pointed clatter.

“ Afternoon tea is way overdue, no? “
 
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