"YEEEEAAAHHH!"

'Will you shut up?'

"Hehe, sorry."

He couldn't help it, riding Arthur at high speed across the open plains of the Ivory Expanse is just so thrilling. He just had to shout into the wind, he was having so much fun.

Arthur just huffs below him, but doesn't slow. Even at this 'casual' pace, he's moving far faster than a horse. Alfred had suggested that they take their time, he doesn't want to burn Arthur out after all. But the wolf was just as keen to stretch his legs as the knight was to get home, bursting into a sprint as soon as they left the town, before dropping back down into a light run.

'So which way?'

"Just keep heading south, we'll run into a small town in a few hours at this pace." Alfred advises as he adjusts his hold on the edge of the saddle he made, trying to let up his weight on the key points of Arthur's back.

'A few hours?' Arthur asks back, and Al can hear the smirk in his voice, 'That sounds like a challenge.'

And Arthur took it head on, picking up speed with ease, the pair raced along so fast, Al could barely make out any distinct features in the snow, it all just blurred into one white mass.

By the time they could see the town, Arthur was breathing hard as he slowed, clearly having pushed himself to continue running at such speeds for so long. But when Al jumped down, he could see that Arthur was happy. Tired, but happy.

"We'll spend the night here." He says as he pats the wolf's side, walking alongside him into town.

The town, while still small, is much bigger than the half dozen houses of the last village. Old stone building sit tightly packed together around the central plaza, the market place. Alfred's been here a number of times since his exile, as it's the only place within the Ivory Expanse with decent supplies that come in on a somewhat regular basis. Since the town is essentially a trading outpost, nearly everyone that lives here runs a stall of some kind. Travelers from all over busy themselves bartering their wares, or are just passing through on their way to someplace else.

They've all seen plenty of weird things, but a fully armour knight with a giant wolf walking into town is by far the strangest. Since Arthur is just walking calmly, and not ripping Al to shreds, the people don't flee at the mere sight of him, but they do move back. The quiet bustle of the market is completely silenced by their arrival as everyone stops and stares.

'Alfred...' Arthur sounds worried.

He can take people running in fear, at least that he understands. But all the staring is unnerving him, not knowing what they're all thinking, what they might do next. Al just smiles easily, giving him another reassuring pat on the leg.

It's quickly becoming apparent that this is just something they're going to have to get used to. Walking into a town is never going to be the same.

Not acting bothered at all, Alfred walks straight up to a particular stall, though they all look the same to Arthur.

"Sofronia, how's things?" He asks by way of greeting, leaning on the stall bench.

"Alfred..." The young woman says back slowly, eyes trained on the wolf behind her customer, "What is that..."

"Heh," grinning casually he answers, knowing the whole market is listening in, "He's a friend. Don't worry, he won't bite. Unless someone annoys him." At this, he casually flicks his eyes over to the slowly forming group of eavesdroppers, causing them to all dash away.

"Right..."

"Anyway," He says louder than necessary, bringing the woman's attention back to him by loudly dropping his broken Sky Blade onto the stall, "Can you fix this?" He asks casually, but there's no denying the hint of hopefulness in his voice.

Brown eyes widen as she snatches up the two half's, "Alfred Jones! How did you manage to break this?" She gasps, shocked that such a sword could be snapped in half.

"Hehe, funny story. But can you fix it?"

The woman frowns, already in work mode as she runs her hand over the faint runes imprinted into the sides of the sword. They glow a gentle light sky blue in response.

"The magic is still there, so you didn't completely ruin it. A simple reforge and it would be as good as new." She concludes, nodding to herself as she's already planning out the repair process, "But a job like this won't come cheep." She warns.

"They never do." Al jokes, dropping the Emerald horns from the antelope down between them, "This should cover it." He smiles as the woman's eyes light up.

"Yes, this should do nicely." She practically beams, admiring the clear green of the horns.

"And," Al adds as she goes to take the horns, halting her hands movements to hover just short, "If you could put me and my friend here up for the night? That'd be great."

"Oh, you drive a hard bargain Jones." She chews her lower lip, looking longingly over the horns before sighing, "But Alright. You've got yourself a deal." She agrees, quickly grabbing the horns before Alfred can add anymore conditions to the deal.

'What are you doing?' Arthur asks as he lies watching the night, enjoying the heat from the forge.

"Shh, I'm trying to relax." Al hushes, eyes closed as he sits leaning against the back of the stone bath.

Despite what others tend to think, he can actually think things through. And he'd already planned where he wanted them to stay the night. Sofronia is a friend he'd made here a few months after his exile, back when she noticed his continual visits to the town, when he was working on fixing up the Solace fort. She's quite the skilled Magia Smith, able to make a large variety of magic infused weapons and armour. So her place was first in mind, since he had always planned on coming here before everything in the last village. He really wants his precious sword fixed, plus, the forge is easily the biggest building in town that isn't the stables, meaning that Arthur can fit in just fine.

Sure, Al may not be all about personal hygiene these days, but there really is only so much sleeping in barns someone can take before the smell gets too much. At least if Arthur gets dirty, he can just roll in the snow to get clean. But Alfred's not had a bath now in over two weeks, and he was really starting to stink. Another benefit of Sofronia's place, the water bath for the forge also doubles as an easily heated bath. After all, why go to the trouble of heating water in your house, when you have a toasty forge sitting right outside that can do the job just fine?

He sighs as he sinks further into the hot water, steam rising up off the surface.

Arthur however, is still baffled by the idea, having never seen hot water before.

'You can relax in that?'

"Yes."

'But how? Isn't it just all wet?'

"Yeah but it's sooooo warm."

'But doesn't it hurt then?'

"Nope, it's juuust right." He sighs again, in total bliss.

Arthur says nothing more, and Al thinks that that's the end of it, until he hears the wolf moving about. He cracks an eye open and nearly jumps as Arthur is right in front of him, looking down into the steamy water.

"Dude! Privacy!" He cries, quickly moving his hands to cover himself under the water.

But Arthur ignores him, frowning slightly as he sniffs, feeling the heat radiating off the surface.

'So being in here feels nice?'

"Yeah, well it does when no one is staring down at my junk! Will you please back off?!" He cries, not liking the proximity of the wolf to him when he's so exposed.

It was fine when he was on the other side of the room, not staring right at him. Thankfully, he sits back, but somehow raises an eyebrow at him, even though Al's pretty sure wolves don't have eyebrows.

'Why? Are you ashamed? Are they not an impressive size for you humans?' Arthur asks, genuinely curious.

"What?! No! Yes! I don't know, why would you even ask that?" He cries, face turning red, and not from the heat of the water.

Arthur, it seems, can be very inquisitive when he's genuinely curious, as he doesn't let up, no matter how embarrassed Al becomes.

'Is that why you weren't a leader? Could you not beat out the other males?'

"No! Dude, that is so not how we do things!"

'It's not?' The wolf tilts his head questioningly.

"No! I wasn't a leader because I was still working my way up!" He huffs, breathing heavily, still highly embarrassed.

Arthur just frowns, concluding that, 'Humans are strange.' Before thankfully walking back over to lie by the forge again. Alfred sighs in relief that he's no longer being judged, sinking back down into the water.

But now he's unable to relax again, so, sighing once more, he carefully climbs back out, keeping his back to the curious wolf as he grabs for the nearby towel. He thinks that that's the end of his embarrassment, but, apparently the Gods have it out for him.

Just as he's reaching for the towel, Sofronia walks in with his now cleaned clothes, and looks him over, smirking.

"Nice, but I've seen better." She says, tossing his clothes at him and laughing as she walks back out.

And just to add insult to injury Arthur says knowingly, 'So it's not impressive.' As if he's finally unraveled a mystery.

Al groans, just what did he do to deserve this?

Authors notes: Haha dick jokes. Well more like ball jokes, but it's all the same humour. Fun fact! Many species of male animals use testicle size to determine dominance, so that last scene wasn't completely out of nowhere. As for what that means for our boys? Well, I'll leave that up to your imagination for now. A few people have voted for romance so... *shrugs*

R & R people.

Until next time, stay awesome!