"Right... of course." Smile taking on something of a nervous hue, Alexi nevertheless agreed to her offer. Belly full and the worries of the earlier day fading with the oncoming exhaustion, he couldn't muster enough concern to truly balk at the suggestion. She had brought it up before, after all, and if he had wanted a chance to refuse, then would have been the time to speak up. 

Perhaps he was becoming too prudish. The scribe could clearly imagine how Charles might react to such a suggestion, and indeed found it easy to picture himself responding in a similar way. But it seemed like that 'him' was a far younger one, and the picture painted in his mind bore an almost condescending tint, as if looking back on the poor soul he once was. 

Maybe he was too self-conscious, but neither would earn him more than a sore day tomorrow. Rationale remained as solid a bastion as ever for Alexi's oft-conflicted thoughts, and he planted himself firmly behind it's walls once more now.

"Back certainly, if sitting on a horse most of the day is any worse that in a chair, I'll need it." 

He certainly would, that fact helping more than a little as he began to unbutton his tunic. Part of him mused that he should have done a better bathing job first, but he worked to push that thought away. Some thoughts would not help right now.

Instead... instead he thought of the light, the strange, flickering flame he had glimpsed before. What were the stories he knew? Seastars? No, Seastars he knew, the trickster-demons of the sea. False, dancing lights to lure the unwary, they shimmered like stars just below the water's surface. He remembered them from his childhood, the cautionary tales he fell asleep to each night, and even the time he had snuck out to see them for himself. 

But these lights had been dancing flames, not stars, hiding in the darkness of close-growing trees. A cousin? Some land-based demon who used the same tactics?

But to what end? Sure the forest was not altogether safe, but he had made his way through once, somehow. He didn't recall seeing such lights that time, either. A trick of the setting sun? Or... something to do with the seasons? Seastars he [i]knew[/i] about, but what he saw earlier... it could be anything, couldn't it? The chance of a demon, had to be slim.

Slim was still a danger, but as the memory of that flickering flame danced in his eyes, that danger seemed oddly far away. What was a little danger? He had made it through more dangerous situations today alone, what could go wrong?

Dancing, flickering, entrancing flames, he simply could not get them out from his mind.

Quietly, he mused over his memory of the flame, pulling his tunic free to rest it on his lap. His back was pale, barely touched by sun and never by wound. Much like the rest of him, light skin hugged tightly to the flesh and bone of his form. Mind swiftly vanishing elsewhere, following a lovely light, Alexi relaxed, allowing Katherine to do what she needed to help him, without worry.