"Jeez, you two! I know the well's water isn't any warmer! But with a well, all you need to do is rinse yourself off and that's that. You don't have to walk all the way out of town, get undressed and wade into the river to get cleaned up." She explained herself, putting both hands on her hips. It was clear these two hadn't grown up wwith such 'traditions'. It was common back in her village though - going out to the river, especially by yourself, could be dangerous and took a lot of time. Time that could be better spent helping around the farm or in the fields. Thus, you'd typically just go behind your house, get nekkid and dump a bucket of water over yourself, and that was that!

It wasn't like it was an uncommon practice elsewhere either. If you couldn't afford to go to the local bath house, this was as good as it got for many people - especially in the larger towns where you didn't exactly always have easy access to rivers or streams. Still, it seemed like her friend from the stepps wasn't keen on the possibility of being sneakily observed - even though most wells in a town like this were located in the back-streets behind buildings, with very few ways and angles for someone to peep on you. But, if she prefered the river then that was just something Druid Girl would have to go along with.

And then came a bit of a slapping wind to her face.

Apparently, both the Steppe Archer and the Lizard Fighter were very, very aware of her physique it seemed. This made the druid stand silent for a while, unblinking and motionless. Then a tinge of red spread across her cheeks and she averted her eyes to the side, raising her arms to wrap them around her exposed midriff and her bandeau-covered chest.

"W-well... I didn't think everyone was like that... Back home, in the village, the boys I grew up with did that too... But I thought that was just because they were boys, y'nkow?" She said, voice a bit more quiet and demure than usual. "I mean, we'd seen each other naked lots when we were kids and bathed together and stuff, so i didn't really think much about it... And everyone keeps saying that nobles are  supposed to be well-mannered and gentlemen, so I... Uh... Wait, have you been looking at my chest too, Red!?" Druid Girl explained, before realizing taht Big Red had just called her, and their lioness-archer, attractive! Something you could only call someone if you'd actually taken a good look at them.

This caused the Druid's face to grow even more red, and she looked a bit conflicted, somewhere between embarrassed and wanting to run away, along with angry and wanting to slap the lizard across his non-protruding ears. Luckily, she did neither of these things, but instead opted to let out a long, tired sigh.

"Pops always used to say I was the prettiest girl in the world... But he's my dad, so of course he said stuff like that, right? Fathers are supposed to call their daughters things like princesses and all taht." She shared an embarrassing fact about her dad. "Usually, people don't even spare bumpkins and country-girls like me a second glance, or so some people I met told me." She was pouting now. "Well, whatever! Let's... Let's just gog et washed up in the river! Away from prying eyes!"

With that, the nature-mage turned on her heel, still trying to cover herself with just wo arms, and began marching off. At a much brisker pace than she usually had. It appeared this little bit of conversation had made her feel a bit self-conscious perhaps. As they would walk though, she turned a head to Big Red and addressed something he'd said earlier.

"Inter-party relationships are fairly common, y'know? A lot of adventurers actually get married to someone they've worked alongside with for a while." She paused, then gave the lizardman a once-over, from head to toes, before going on. "... Sorry though, you're not quite my type, Big Red." She added on, with a slightt, good-natured snicker.

The group would now have to go back down the street form the market, out the eastern gate, down the path in the woods and finally get to bathing in the river, before making the trip back to Palisade Town. There wasn't any rush of course, the sun was still up and the gates weren't closing and locking up for a good few hours more, plenty of time to dget themselves cleaned up and make it back inside the walls.

Meanwhile, the nobleman who had gotten a rather large number of signatures on his petition seemed extremely pleased with himself. Rolling the scroll up and tying a silken strap around it, he safely pocketed the documet and ordered his cadre of four bodyguards to come along. The group of goons formed up, two infront of the man and two behind, before setting off at a leisure pace towards the northern parts of the settlement. No doubt to deliver the document to the town hall before nightfall. If all went well for him, the gates might be left open on constant as little as a week from now!

On the other hand, the two Rhea-youngsters who had been keeping an eye on folks around the market were now gone. Having scampered off or perhaps more likely snuck off, somewhere during all this time. It was unclear if they'd actually done anything other than watch and observe, but if they had it certainly didn't seem like anyone had noticed, since no shouting about thieves or missing personal bleongings were heard.