Tales around Mirateia 31

The two of them had left the village a few hours before and while they had been offered to stay the night, they had preferred to get on the road and back home, as Azran put it, just because he is not there, the paperwork dont go away.
Some hours later, with around one hour of sunlight left, Ira and Azran arrived at the same spot they had camped the day before they reached the village a few days earlier. tying their horses to a nearby tree the two quickly and with practice from their earlier travels, split the tasks between them, Azran went out looking for some firewood and soon enough came back with some they could use to get the fire started, after Azran dropped the first load of wood, he then went out to look for some bigger pieces of wood, something that could keep burning during the night, both for the extra warmth but also for the protection a fire can provide against wild animals. While Azran was out looking for some more firewood, Ira took out her fire-starting kit and began working on getting the fire started, to her relief it only took a few attempts to get the fire going, and after having made sure that it would not go out immediately, she started to go through their saddlebags and took out some of the dried meat and bread the villagers had given them, and while Ira wasn't the biggest fan of dried pork, it did taste better than some of the dried fish she had tried at some diplomatic event a year or so before she had met Azran, she still shuddered by the thought of it alone.
About twenty minutes later she heard something big and heavy rustle in the bushes of the surrounding forest, her hand automatically moved to the small knife on her back, but as fast as it had made it there she withdrew it as the noise turned out to be Azran that somehow and for some reason had pulled a rather large log of wood from where he had found it.
"Seems I was right," Ira said as she walked over to give him a hand.
"What? it came from Azran with some heavy breathing.
"Oh nothing, I just thought that all this noise was some creature that had managed to find the camp," Ira said, smiling at Azran.
"oh shut it"
"So would this dumb human mind tell me why it dragged this log from whatever?"
"Well this genius human, thank you very much, found this log and thought it would be perfect for the night.
Ira stood there for a minute trying to think about what to say but she kept coming up with blanks and instead, she just turned around and threw her hands in the air "Men"
Ira went to finish her preparation of the food, shortly afterwards she went back to the fireplace where Azran was sitting poking it with some stick he had found, coming to sit down next to him she handed him some bread with dried meat, quickly looking at her holding the food, Azran quickly threw the stick into the fire and took the bread.
The two of them sat around the fire and ate their simple meal in silence, simply enjoying the peace of their surroundings, somewhere nearby a small bird was making its presence known, after some time just sitting and enjoying nature, Ira got up and went to prepare their beds while Azran went around their campsite making sure that everything was packed and ready for when they were leaving the next morning. Ira was the first one to finish what she was doing and returned to the fireplace where she threw a bit more firewood on the fire to keep it going, about five minutes later Azran was finished as well and before he sat down, as he passed Ira he ruffled her hair a bit before sitting down next to her.
"Hey Azran, do you remember that village we helped with the dead dragon problem?"
"How can I forget, that thing smelled worse than a camp latrine after a few days in the sun"
"I'm just going to pretend I know the comparison, but how do you think they are doing now? it's been quite some time since then, if I remember right they had said that they had called for a healer and with the dragon corpse taken care of, the sickness should stop with the help of that healer."
"hmm, I must admit that it's not something that I have thought much about since then, but now that you mention it I guess it could be interesting to find out what happened to them after we left. Once we are back home in Nicia I guess we could try and send a message back to Pearlhal asking about news of the village."
"Or I could ask my father now?"
"I guess that's also an option, but do you think he would still be awake?"
Ira looked around momentarily, trying to get a feel of the time of day before looking back at Azran.
"It's not that late but it might be better and wait for the morning, also it's not like the village is going anywhere... I hope."
The two sat in silence for some time again and just enjoyed nature and the memories of their first travels together, after some time Azran stood up and with some trouble although he would never admit it within earshot of Ira, moved the tree log he had brought earlier that day, onto the fire and instead of their circular fireplace after he had moved the log onto the fire, he spread out the embers of the fire along the log, making sure that the log would burn throughout the night.
As the fires crackled, their conversation slowly began to wind down and as the air began to grow colder, they decided that it was time to go to bed, as they laid down Azran reached for the blankets and dragged it over them both, as he did that Ira nestled in against him, her head resting on his chest, and as a response Azran laid his arms around her protectively, with one hand resting on her backhead holding it.
Laying in each others arms, they exchanged a few words before drifting into sleep, with a small contented smile on Iras lips.