Uther and Ygraine had come upon the lake without hurry, and were pleased and surprised to find the area empty. They could bathe without anyone bothering them, which would be a nice escape for the King and Queen. This journey had been interesting so far, though the Queen was getting tired of hearing Uther complaining about not liking the feel of grass under his feet, and preferring his stone cave in the mountain. He said the air was thicker ‘down here’, though they did not live so high up.

Really, he was just whining for the sake of it. If she hadn’t been told and assured he had once been a profoundly skilled warrior and knight, she never would have believed it after the few days of walking around their large pride and all the private complaints he shared with her when no one else was listening.

Big baby.

For his part, Uther felt he was just telling her the truth. He was trying his best to be accommodating and enjoy what they were doing, but he would just as soon go home and have his Governors and Council reporting the news of the Provinces to him instead. That was their job, after all, and his was to rule over them all. Sure, it was interesting to see all of this up close, and see into the lives of his people, but it only made him feel like he had more work ahead of him.

Ygraine nudged him lovingly and then moved to take a drink from the water. He followed her, standing close so she could lean against his large, powerful frame at her leisure while they drank. His head shot up when a large splash covered him with water, dragging his fur down in heavy, waterlogged clumps and making him look like a strangled rat. He looked at the shifting waters and Ygraine as she surfaced. She was all smiles, her fur somehow looking even more beautiful in the water, while Uther felt like seaweed.

That was not fair, on so many levels. He grinned at her.

“You think you are funny,” he said slowly, shaking his head.

“You looked like you needed to cool off,” she said brightly, kicking her feet and paddling around in the deeper area of the water. He sighed and watched her, laying down. He was not going to go in the water, despite being thoroughly soaked. She padded over to him, her nose just above the surface of the water, her eyes at his level for the most part. He watched her suspiciously and she lifted her head enough to spit a light spray of water into his face.

He let out a roar of a laugh.

“Ah, there it is,” she said, climbing out of the water. “I was wondering if you had forgotten how to laugh, my love. Your face as been so set, I was certain it was broken.”

“I suppose I have been a bit… tense.”

“Tense? No, that is not an apt way to describe it. Grumpy, I would say. Like a cub denied supper.”

“I am not cub like in anyway,” he said obstinately, holding his soggy head up proudly and looking away from her with a cubbish huff. He noted his behavior and then pretended it was intentional, holding his nose up higher for emphasis. He felt her rubbing against his chest and neck, her head under his chin. He settled it against her head, cuddling her as she rumbled lovingly against him.

She settled down on his front paws, and he sighed, looking at her.

“You are getting me further wet,” he pointed out, and she hummed a response to that. It was all he was going to get out of her, it seemed. She was not keen on apologizing for it, as he was wet anyway and she hardly doubted he felt none of the water that was rolling off her fur now. He had failed to shake himself off, after all, and that was no fault of hers. If he did not want to be wet then he should have done better to dry himself. For her part, she was content to let the sun warm her fur.

“Do you remember when we first met?” She asked him, rolling a bit, bumping into him as she did so, so she could lay on her back on top of his paws and look up at him. It did not seem very comfortable to Uther, but she seemed more than content and he looked down at her in wonder. He considered her words for a long moment, either straining his memory back that far or just putting it on to tease her.

“No,” he said, making his intentions clear as he grinned. She swatted his chin with her paw.

“You were so young and spirited. Now we have many more concerns. The Kingdom, our separation, the Druids… our family.” She spoke the last part lowly, her happy expression dropping just a bit. It hurt her that they had not yet been able to create a family, but he assured her time and again that they would, they had nothing to fear. It was becoming harder for her to believe him, but she did not want to have that conversation again and shook her head as he opened his mouth to reply. “I simply mean you could do to let loose every now and then, my dearest. You are so serious, sometimes I think you forget you are allowed to be Uther, and not just High King.”

He watched her, then smiled softly.

“I am unfathomably happy in this life, Ygraine, because I have you. I would never let you go, and I would not change my place beside you for anything. If I do not show it enough that is my mistake, but you make me happy in a way that I never felt in my youth. I am not good at smiling freely now, I suppose. But I love you, and I am blissfully content. What would you have my change in that?”

“Oh Uther,” Ygraine said quietly, leaning up to give him a tender nuzzle and light lick. “Forget I said anything. I love you, too.”

(Word Count: 1,044 in Word)