"No, you are the one embarrassing yourself in front of the Queen, not me!" Alver refuted back as his sister glared at him.
"You always do this, you always embarrass me!!" said Lorian in a fit of irritation as her cheeks blew up and Wura could promise you that she looked so cute with her cheeks filled with air like that.
"No one is embarrassing anyone." said Wura as she felt like she had to interfere, the little sibling squabble was starting to get out of hand.
Lorian immediately stopped looking so upset when she remembered that the Queen was still here and she had witnessed her arguing with her elder brother like an ill-mannered child, she felt even more embarrassed by this.
"Your Majesty, forgive me for being so immature, that is Alver's forte and not mine." said Lorian as she eyed her brother aggressively and Alver rolled his eyes, his sister was just so concerned with making a good impression in front of the Queen and he could not care less.
"You are not being immature at all, on the contrary you are very mature." said Wura as she smiled.
"And of course I am more mature than her, being the oldest and all." said Alver confidently as his words elicited a refute from Lorian as their squabble started all over again.
In the midst of the siblings squabble between oldest and second to oldest Wura observed that the youngest Emond was the quietest of the three. He had said nothing at all as his older siblings quarreled and instead, his attention seemed to be on Mero as his eyes had not stopped looking at Mero.
"Children have you come back yet?" came the voice of their mother as bother Lorian and Alver stopped quarrelling as they turned to look in the direction they heard their mother's call.
"Yes mother, we are here." replied Alver quickly, he did not want to get in trouble, they were out later than they were supposed to be, and he was sure that if not for the fact that the Queen was their guest for dinner tonight, she would have certainly given them a good scolding.
"Lorian come and help me here." said their mother.
"Yes mother." Lorian quickly replied.
"I will be right back your Majesty." said Lorian as she smiled at Wura and Wura smiled at her before she took off running to quickly assist her mother.
"It is getting dark now, My Queen, I think we should return to the tent." said Mero as he spoke up. Initially he did not want to say anything since these children accused him of being a temperamental man who was so unstable that he would harm children with no reason at all, and even if there was a reason, he would not hit children for any reason at all.
But the children, and even Wura herself, seemed to think otherwise, however, it was clear that she and the children were enjoying the company of one another so much that they did not seem to be tired of standing, or aware of the fact that it was getting darker and the light sources were coming from the fires lit in front of individual tents.
"Oh Mero you are right, come on, let us go and sit down and talk some more" said Wura as she smiled.
"With pleasure my Queen replied Alver with a charming smile that made Wura giggle as they proceeded to return to the tent.
Mero signed internally, he was tired and the dinner had not even started yet.
...
Wura smiled, dinner was wonderful, even though it was nothing special, but a nice vegetable soup with basic vegetables that they were given. She could not remember the last time she had eaten something so filled nice.
Maybe she just felt that way because she felt like Adelias, (Which was the name of the lovely woman) prepared this wonderful meal for them with the whole of her heart.
Although it was not much, the motive behind making the dish was what Wura appreciated the most.
She could not remember the last time that she had dinner with a family... it reminded her of her family, she missed her family so much, her father, her mother, her Aunt Tessa and Uncle Richard, and her little cousin Lily who would have grown so well by now.
She missed them all, but with everything on ground it was just too dangerous for them to leave where they were in safety just to visit her and vice versa, and without Liam in the picture, she just felt even more lonely.
Wura had failed to notice, but she had been skipping her meals mostly because she felt no drive to eat, she always ate alone, she felt so alone even though she knew that she was surrounded by people who cared about her.
Wura smiled, the dinner was filled with light banter between the children. Wura enjoyed listening to the voices of the little children, it made her remember how it felt when she was a child.
Adelias was a kind mother, as much as she was a kind woman. Wura felt honoured more than anything to be invited by this lovely woman to have dinner with her and her children.
Dinner was over and Emond had fallen asleep, probably from all the playing they had done all day so Alver carried him inside the tent to put him to bed.
Adelias and Lorian had gone to take care of the dirty dishes, because leaving them till tomorrow would be too stressful to wash in the morning, thus leaving Wura and Mero alone.
Wura glanced at Mero as she saw him idly looking into the fire that was in front of them to keep them warm.
They were alone and they had eaten which meant that he should not be cranky, so Wura felt like this was the best time for her to apologize.
Mero had been awfully quiet throughout dinner, he had spoken minimally and Wura felt bad that he was not enjoying himself because of her, he did not even want to come to this dinner in the first place.
"Mero..." Wura called softly as Mero turned to look at her.
"Yes my Queen." replied Mero as he had thought that her call meant that she was ready to leave now.
"Mero, can we talk please?" asked Wura.
"We are already talking my Queen." replied Mero as Wura sighed.
"No, not like this I mean... will you listen to me and not just listen, I mean really listen?" asked Wura as Mero nodded, he did not get what she meant, but she looked very serious.
"Mero I know that you are upset with me even though you did not say anything. It is very clear, we are not on good terms at all." said Wura as Mero looked at her and said nothing.
"I am sorry for the things I said in the morning, I did not mean to offend you, I know that you would never hide anything from me if it was not absolutely necessary." said Wura.
"Mero I trust you so much, you have my unquestioning trust, there is no one I have the uttermost confidence in rather than you." said Wura.
"I hold all your words too heart, believe me when I say that Mero." said Wura sincerely as Mero would be lying if he said that he could not see the sheer look of honesty and softness on Wura's face.
"I am sorry for making you even more upset when I took a decision without informing you, I know you only care most for my wellbeing and I know that you would not be so difficult if you thought that I was not taking my own safety seriously." said Wura.
"Look Mero, I do not know if you know this, but... you are a huge pillar of support for me." said Wura as she sighed.
"You have always been there for me whenever I needed you most, and even though we might fight, you never cease to be there for me in the toughest of situations." said Wura.
"I would not be able to do half the things I do, or be as confident in things like this as much as I am if not for you and your constant support." said Wura as she looked directly into Mero's eyes and he looked back into her eyes, feeling less and less annoyed as she spoke.
"I guess that what I am trying to say Mero is... *sigh*, is that I admire you and I cherish you so much, believe me, I cherish you, I do not know what I would do without your constant support, so please forgive me for offending you, I promise you that I will try not to ever offend you again, even though offences are bound to happen, but I at least hope that we can work through them and talk like the reasonable adults that we are." said Wura.
Mero had stopped listening after he heard the word cherish... so she cherished him? She actually did care about him? That made him feel one hundred times better, it made him stop scolding himself for feeling and behaving the way he had been. He himself was wondering what had made him feel so upset in the first place, he thought he had gone completely insane. He did not know what was going on with him at all.
"So what do you say? Do you forgive me?" asked Wura in expectancy.