When evening started falling, they stopped to make camp. Before Dawn could dismount, her husband had already swung himself down and had reached up to help her.
She did not refuse him. As she slid down into his arms, he did not immediately set her down though. Twirling her around, arms wrapped firmly about her, he seemed to be enjoying himself with dancing eyes.
She laughed, a bit in surprise, but also a bit just because he was laughing too. And because she felt happy, and the sudden rush affected her.
When he planted her firmly on the ground, the world seemed to be spinning. Which made her glad that he had not removed his hands from grasping her waist.
She leaned into his embrace, her laugh finally subsiding. Her arms snuck around him and she hugged him. She did not want to let him go. Not yet. At least not literally, figuratively she would never want to let him go. The thought made her tighten her grip on him, squeezing herself into him as if she wanted to meld into him.
He kissed her brow gently, barely even skimming it. It was a rather gentle touch, and so familiar. Dawn burrowed her head into his chest, and wished she could get closer than this.
"Just ignore them," She heard Miria say with a resigned sigh, "They're in their own little world."
"Can't blame them." Askar sounded far less uncomfortable than his cousin, "And our king has never been all that reserved about his feelings. And she thought she had lost him. Just look the other way if you aren't used to it and it makes you uncomfortable."
Dawn barely kept herself from snorting in amusement. It was a bit odd, that Arrion was like this, and had no qualms about showing his affections so publicly. As a whole, his kingdom was fairly conservative about such things. And most would be okay doing simple endearments but would balk at anything more. But Arrion had never had those qualms.
Perhaps because he was a druid. And he spent a lot of time with animals. They had none of those social niceties that said to pay attention to who was around you.
Or maybe it was because he was chasing a woman who was not the most susceptible so he figured he could not afford to ever stop taking steps towards her.
Whatever though, she liked him like this. And of course she needed to show him she loved him. She needed to fix any insecurities he might be struggling with. She was not so foolish to think that all those slights would just be erased because she said she loved him. It would take time for him to completely be able to believe her no matter how much he trusted her words.
"Come on dear queen of mine," Her husband's voice was somewhat laughing, "We should probably help set up camp."
Reluctantly she separated from him, releasing him and stepping back. Looking at him, she did not want to leave his side. Of course, he was right, and they did have stuff to be doing. But she just wanted to be near him.
Stepping back close to him, she appeased herself by kissing him to help her deal with her separation issues.
She pulled back, and smiled at him, "Okay. But you are sitting with me at dinner."
His arm snagged her and he pulled her close again to kiss her again. She was surprised to feel frustration in that kiss.
He released her lips and kissed her nose softly. "I was already planning to. I should go help with the animals. Love you, dear."
Releasing her, he walked away. But he kept looking back at her with this almost silly grin on his face.
Utterly besotted. Dawn smiled to herself. He was utterly besotted with her. It was a good feeling.
She went to help set up the tents. It was not hard with everyone working together.
But it took them long enough that the priestess had finished cooking by the time that they were done.
Dawn was more than happy to be reunited with her beloved. He scooted next to her, as if he was glad as well. They were quiet though.
The others not so much. They were laughing and talking together, at least most of them. Vixen was being utterly quiet and before dinner was even finished she had fallen asleep on Tira's shoulder where she remained until Tira had to get up for something and moved her to fall the other way onto Lowks instead.
After dinner, Dawn did not want to go to bed yet. She wanted to spend more time with her husband. So she laid her head in his lap and tried to get him to stay up a bit as well.
Thankfully, he was easy to convince. They ended up being the last to actually go to bed. Lowks was second to last as he had to wait patiently on his sister to remove the girl she had dumped on him.
Well, other than the people who were on the first watch. Brilma and Colton had snuggled up and settled down to keep watch. Miria worked to clean up the rest of the dishes, and did her best to ignore both couples.
Eventually due to the fact that she was pretty much falling asleep, Arrion sent her to go get some sleep. He did, pleasing her greatly, give her one last kiss good night before walking away to his tent.
Tira and Vixen were both asleep already. Dawn laid down and closed her eyes. She was out in a second, even though she did not have her cuddly husband with her.