A thick silence descended as both men tried to avoid her gaze. "You know technically, she's only been horseback riding for two days," Tynan pointed out, his voice sounding somewhat calmer after he had a moment to think.

"Shut up," Arum whined.

"Relax, Arum," Tynan said placatingly. "I'm pretty sure we aren't inclined to touch eachother, so it's safe to assume that no harm was done."

"Shutupshutupshutup!" Arum snapped, pointing an angry finger at Tynan. "How can you be so calm at a time like this?! Have you any idea what happened?"

"Weelll..." Tynan said, looking aside. "I lived in an Araawan village for six years, yes? And most of the time the ladies there had all sorts of interesting ideas - you learn to recover from shock quickly."

"Shutup! I don't want to hear about women pressing their suit with you!"

"You know, I don't think any of them had ironing in mind," Tynan murmured mildly.

"SHUTUP!" There was the sound of a bowl clattering to the floor. Arum froze in embarassment.

"Well look at it this way," Tynan went on, taking advantage of the man's temporaty fluster as Arum pulled the sheets to cover himself. "Last night was a fluke. It doesn't mean anything - ah! Hear me out." He lowered his hand and Arum shut his mouth, glaring angrily at Tynan. The dark haired man lowered his voice, a faint sneer on his face. "It was your first time, good, be glad it was with someone you have feelings for. Or if that's too hard, be glad you can barely remember any of it. Anything can happen at festivals like this, it means nothing. Get my drift?"

Arum's eyes hardened. The hidden message in those words were evident. Feather was bound to neither of them. "And besides," Tynan went on. "You're dealing with an Araawan druidess here. I hate to say this, but they can take you every night and still not give a rat's arse about you. It's their culture."

"I know what I want," Arum said firmly, a challenge in his blue eyes.

"As long as we both understand that, then." Tynan met his gaze cooly.

There came a whine from the other side of the door. "Are you going to let me in or not?" Adam whined to accompaniment of plaintive knocking.