Otter Creek You would have to be half mad to dream me up

Aventus reminded himself at least five times between leaving the stream and Arielle reaching for the leaf in his fur that he was being ridiculous. Pharaoh and his jewel must have weaved some magic over him, making him a slave to impulses he once had control of. She leaned forward and he brought his muzzle down, hovering just over her crown and not daring to move another muscle. He even held his breath. Was she reaching for him ...?

Alas, she was just reaching for debris. Arielle plucked the leaf free and he hoped she didn't feel the way his heart thudded against his sternum when she did. He would feel really dumb if she noticed how caught up he was, remaining mostly oblivious to how she reciprocated. It was nothing like the blatant way Jawahir had looked at him on the pharaoh's command. It was so subtle despite how terribly obvious it should be that he convinced himself it wasn't real at all.

He cleared his throat and stepped politely away before shaking out his fur. Back to business. There was no way Aventus could or would forget how her teeth felt against his throat, the trust of it. Or how the water slicked her fur to her sides and revealed a figure he once thought well-suited to fighting alongside Ursus, but now struggled not to stare at. Or how the smell of dried herbs mingled with the sandy smell of the mesa in her fur, wrapped neatly up in a spiced perfume all her own. The hint of pine needles reminded him of home. Or how for just that moment, he forgot the pain of his mother's death and his fear for his father, his hatred for Nyra, and knew only her. For the sake of their friendship, he would try to pretend, but he could never forget.

I don't know this area, he admitted. Let's look for a hollow under a tree or something? He beckoned for her to walk with him away from the frigid water, simultaneously trying to surreptitiously bump his hip against hers and maintain a respectable distance so as not to make things super weird, as if they weren't already kind of weird, what with him somehow justifying away every signal she gave.