Relief

Heron was somewhat relieved to be done with dancing. Not that he disliked dancing with Elswyth exactly – she was a good partner. Just he wasn't all that used to dancing with a pretty girl…other than his younger sister. He'd danced with other women but they were usually older.

Well, Elswyth was older than he was but she was still not that old. She was still in her twenties. And she was rather pretty, in a different way than his sister.

At the same time…now his arms felt rather empty. It was a peculiar feeling. He must have gotten used to the feel of her body next to his. It was somewhat embarrassing.

And it was one of the reasons he was so glad that it was done. If within such a short period of time he'd gotten used to it…he was a bit scared it might have become worse.

He felt really conscious of her right now, uncomfortably so. That dance had definitely not been in his comfort zone. It was definitely a dance meant to be danced with one's lover. Not friends.

Unless he was just being too set in his own culture. But…still…they had been a bit too close! And he already had some trouble with keeping his thoughts decent.

It was embarrassing that he honestly could not help but find Elswyth attractive. And it made him feel guilty cause she trusted him.

He spent a bit of time calming down with deep breaths as they left the dancing area. "We should find Kur again." He said after he managed to get to where he thought he could talk without blushing.

"Probably. I get the feeling he would probably be somewhat panicking," Elswyth said. "He strikes me as someone who would not do well in crowds."

Kur was actually still right where they had left him. Though he had been joined by his half-elven lady friend. Which relieved Heron as he had been a bit worried about this shy elven man being all alone in such a big gathering.

But he seemed pretty relaxed as he chatted with Tira. Had a soft hint of a smile on his face as he listened to the girl talk.

He saw them approaching and slightly raised his hand to wave them over.

When they were closer, Kur smiled wider as his eyes lit up, "Did you two have fun?"

Tira raised an eyebrow and shook her head, looking a bit amused over something. She didn't say anything.

Heron and Elswyth both answered at the same time.

"Very much so."

"It was interesting."

"I'm glad." Kur said. "You know, um, you two don't have to hang around with me all night. It's a good chance to meet people and I don't want to keep you from doing that just because I am not all that good with crowds. And Tira is here so she can keep me company. She isn't too into this scene either so its no problem for her."

"He's right. When I come to these things its usually just to make sure he has someone to hang out with other than the queen. As much as they get along its daunting to him to be beside her at such gatherings." Tira added on with a teasing smile.

Heron thought about it for a minute. He did kinda want to meet several interesting people he had noticed. And while it was daunting to just walk up to someone, he wasn't that terrified of it. He could always just walk away if necessary.

"Alright." He most wanted to meet the fairy. He had never even seen one before. It was kinda exciting. "C'mon El."

His ranger friend followed him as Kur and the half-elf retreated to the corner.

It was not hard to locate the fairy. She rather stood out afterall. But he realized that she was a bit surrounded. He decided to talk to some other people first as he would feel bad about crowding her.

Starting conversations was not that hard. Keeping it going was a bit harder. he exchanged pleasantries with several as he slowly made his way across the room. But only a few conversations went beyond that.

Several of which was because the other person was promoting their business. Other than that he was hit on by a few others, or Elswyth was – both of which she glared at till they shut up. he was thankful she had taken it upon herself to stop that for him, as he had no idea what to say.

There were two conversations though that he found interesting. He talked with a girl from Carendlus about books for a bit, which was fun. And the other one was actually about flowers. Most of the time that would not have been a highlight, but they had talked about the different meanings when people gifted flowers.

Heron enjoyed that both because he liked flowers and he just liked learning things. Anyway he felt like it hadn't been a total waste walking across the room and talking to people. And the crowd was starting to thin around that fairy girl so maybe he could approach her and talk with her a bit.