His words ended the conversation, of which he was thankful for, though he didn’t necessarily feel good about it. She stated she was returning to the fire, being cold, but she didn’t beckon for him to follow. He assumed she left it up to him whether or not he wanted to return to the fire with her. He didn’t want to, but didn’t see it as a pure choice. The mood had already been soured by their altercation, and though no voices were raised, things had been stressed. Him residing there, as much as he wanted to, probably wouldn’t have smoothed over well later on.

“Okay,” he said in reply, delaying his own movement to stand until she was off the boulder. He brought his shoes with him as he stood then scooped up his bowl of partially eaten porridge in the other hand. His appetite had been dashed so he tucked his shoes under his good arm and spooned the slop onto the ground in the sand before turning to trail behind her.

She stopped by the main fire, where a few of the caravan goers were huddled around speaking idly and quietly. A few shifted their eyes to the couple but said nothing. Noah looked for Aimee and couldn’t find her, coming to stand close behind Elann as she warmed herself in the radiating heat of the fire. He met the eyes of the woman who approached Elann, the one who had said she was glad to see Noah on his feet. They exchanged a small smile, though the women was probably none the wiser to any plight that may have happened between the couple since Noah displayed the same face he always did to the various caravan goers.

Noah also saw Alena sitting in her father’s lap. They waved to one another before the movement of another woman caught Noah’s eyes. She came to the couple, standing in front of Elann but looking at Noah. In the crook of her arm were a stack of bowls, the uppermost bowl filled with the collected wooden cutlery. He looked at her blankly, not understanding that she wanted his bowl until she nodded towards his hand holding it. He reached past Elann’s shoulder and gave it to the woman, hushedly saying a thank you.

It was growing further into nighttime and the temperature was dropping, but not as low as days before despite the rain. Humidity clung in the air and clouds clung in the sky. It would not rain again, Noah knew, but heard a man speaking to perhaps a friend about it, forecasting with confidence.

He moved up to Elann’s side, kind of leaning towards her for safety as he bent down to put on his shoes, precariously balancing on one foot at a time as he slipped them on. He stood again and looked over to her, studying her and the way her hair fell in that moment. The wind rushed up from behind her, blowing her strands over the lower part of her face, obscuring her face and mouth before it resettled. He didn’t hesitate to reach into her space and move her hair behind her ear, something he had not done for a while but used to do frequently when they were in Syliras. His eyes went over her features as the moon struggled to shine through a thin sheet of clouds above, disappearing again in the next moment as the weather front continued to move on above them.

Noah looked back towards the fire and those gathered, staying beside Elann for the moment and not moving elsewhere. He wanted to give Emery the gold in his pocket, a few coins he took from the chest, but the doctor was with his family and Noah didn’t want to interrupt. He held his peace, figuring it would not matter when he gave Emery the gold he believed the doctor deserved. He was standing there listlessly, no overtly yearning for any one thing but floating in the diminishing mood of the night. The fire was warm on his front and Elann prevented the chilled air from reaching one of his sides, he was rather content in the moment as he sorted through his thoughts still, what few were still lingering.

“Are you tired?” he asked Elann, the answer judging what else would be done with the night they had. Unlike him, she had not slept and napped during the day, unless he missed it.