“Perhaps if you want to finish this quest, you should not be so frustrated by my advice,” Nashtra replied.

Peter shrugged. Peter always shrugged when the other person was right and he did not want them to be. Of course, he shrugged a lot of other times as well. Bayani felt as though he knew the difference between his shrugs, though nobody else believed him; he knew that this time, Peter did not want to admit that Nashtra was right.

Instead of calling him on it, he filled the water skin at the river, took a drink, and then brought it over to Peter. “At least this time there are not animals falling from the sky,” he told his boyfriend in a hushed voice.

Peter peered at Bayani as he drank deeply of the water. Then he said, “Adventures are a little more fun when you have the guarantee that if you lose, you’ll have a chance to try again. It sounds like we’re going an unfriendly village, and I don’t like what happens in unfriendly places in my games.”

“Maybe they aren’t entirely friendly,” Bayani suggested, although he knew precisely what Peter was referring to. “Maybe it depends on whom they think you serve.”

“I don’t serve anybody.” Peter grumbled the words, although they carried with them a certain sense of finality.

“Not even me?” Bayani asked in a teasing voice as he took Peter’s hand.

Peter only gave an unimpressed hmph at the comment.

“Anyway,” Bayani went on, “you may not serve the baron, but you are on a quest to help his king.”

Peter rolled his eyes. He saw his sister walking up to them, and decided that he would not be saying anything else on the matter.

“Is he going to be grumpy all day?” Cerys asked.

Bayani threw up his hands. “He’s your brother.”

“He’s your boyfriend,” she replied.

Peter glared at them both.

“Once we get to the village,” Nashtra said as he walked over to the, Himeko following close behind, “you can head to the steam baths. They tend to make people feel better.”

Cerys sighed, and thought it best to agree with his suggestions. She left her brother alone, and went back to the riverside to cool off while she still had the chance.