Gale was perpetually a little (or very) high-strung, but it was like her claws plucked that string and loosened some of his permanent tension; that friendly pat made the taut line of his shoulders sag, his nerves relax.

“Respite,” he repeated, as if testing out the word, the sound and shape of it on his tongue. A more grounded, responsible person might have bristled at the suggestion of taking their time — Lae’zel was impatient, kept chivvying them onwards whenever it seemed like they were dallying — but in fact, it sounded heavenly. Their group spent time together on the road, exchanged words when they weren’t almost dying, shared the occasional conversations around the campfire, but real respite had been hard to come by ever since that Nautiloid crashed out of the sky. At the prospect of proper conversation and more time to spend with Nepione one-on-one, getting to know her better —

“Yes, of course. After everything we’ve been through, we do deserve some few comforts, don’t we?”

And so he readjusted his near-empty backpack, slinging it back onto his other shoulder, and flashed Nepione a smile. “To the markets, then?”

And he started walking beside her, making their way out of the camp… only to stop just as suddenly when Scratch came bounding along, nipping at their heels, excited to join them on an Excursion™. The wizard danced along beside Nepione, trying to pull his robes away from the dog’s friendly teeth and blustering, oh no, not today, boy, wait, where’d that dratted ball get to —