Théadan had welcomed her silent request to be comforted by him, as Navia expected he would be. His arms slid around her, strong and reassuring, so Navia let her uninjured arm wrap around his waist while she listened to him agree the leopard could have hurt them. He continued to soothe her, easing the brush of panic that had come from the stressful situation, only for her defenses to start to come up again when he suggested she shouldn’t put herself in danger. As far as she was concerned, she had had no choice but to act and had selected the less dangerous of the two jobs that had needed to be done. Théadan did not give her a chance to answer him right away however, and briefly she wondered if he had brought up what they should do in the wake of the leopard’s visit as a way to prevent them from discussing her involvement with the horses further.<br/><br/>She hadn’t wanted to leave and be moving through the jungle when she knew the leopard was still out there, so hearing Théadan state they should head back to bed was welcome. Her brows did crease together when he said he’d stay up, especially when she knew they would have another long day of traveling ahead of them. She wanted to protest, but he was moving on to the subject of Vari, causing Navia to frown all over again. The horse had surprised her with how panicked she’d become and she had not taken it into consideration, having simply assumed the mare would trust her. Her own horse had always been calm and collected in stressful situations, but he had been trained with the soldiers’ horses like Wyndagar had been. They’d been taught not to panic; she had to remind herself Varinata had likely been a farmer’s horse.<br/><br/>“Maybe she’s seen a leopard before,” Navia suggested softly, thinking perhaps the horse’s big reaction to the feline might have been due to a past experience, “And that’s why she panicked so much…” It was nicer to think of it that way than the horse merely not trusting her to keep them safe; it was easier on Navia’s ego. She knew the truth of it though; they had not had Vari with them long enough for the horse to trust they would do everything in their power to keep her safe the way Wyndagar did. And Navia was not sure she could fully trust the horse either. She had been so thrilled to have a horse of her own after months of missing the feeling of riding alone and the independence that came with it. She and Vari were going to have to do some bonding.<br/><br/>“We can take turns keeping an eye on the horses and keeping the fire up,” Navia suggested, wanting Théadan to be able to have at least a little sleep. Having a feeling he might protest, she tightened her hold on him briefly and leaned up to press a kiss to his cheek before stepping back from him. “I’ll help you find more wood,” she offered, figuring there would be plenty along the edges of the path. She went to do just that, leaning down to begin gathering sticks, only to gasp in pain when her shoulder protested the movements of her arm. Having forgotten already she’d injured it, she switched to pick up sticks with her other hand while glancing over at Théadan, figuring he’d heard her. “Before you say anything, I am going to help you,” she told him, assuming he was going to tell her to lay down instead of help, “I wouldn’t be able to sleep before the fire was built up more anyway. And there’s no danger in me doing this either, so it’s fine.” She paused to tug a decent-sized log out of the brush and carried it over to the fire, dumping it atop the dying flames along with some dead leaves to help it catch. “And I know you don’t want me putting myself in jeopardy, but one of us was going to have to see to the horses,” she shrugged before raising a brow at Théadan, “I thought I was picking the less dangerous job…unless you would have preferred me facing the leopard head on while you looked after Vari and Wyn?”