He looked pleased by her obvious glee, his mouth curling into a simple smile that lightened his expression. The slight wrinkles just beginning at the edges of his eyes winked at her and brought to notice that he laughed often. "Well, I hope to live up to your expectations, whatever follows," he rumbled, adam's apple bobbing as he swallowed.
Then, he was kneeling at her feet and she took his shield, affixed it to her forearm as she had seen the men do. His shield was beaten, but strong. It had a few deep scars, just like the faint white lines on his face. Arms. Hands. A soldier's strength, a body healed, but wouldn't keep secrets.
He found his feet, the sturdy hand wrapping around the hilt of his sword with loose fingers. His voice was lilting, half-laugh as he tilted his head at her. The girl who stared him down with a shield to separate them. The girl who insisted that he strike her with steel. "And is this, pray tell fair Gloria, how they court where you are from?," he challenged, with an expectant quirk of lips.
He feigned a wound to his heart, clutching at his loose tunic with his fingers. "You wound me that you did not expect courtship. I will slay dragons for you," he promised, both brows drawn sharply over his dancing eyes as he gestured - fingers closing, one thumb dragged across his neck, miming what said scaly beast would be in for. Her dragon was far less corporeal, though, and snuggled up comfortably in the belly of her dear friend.
He blinked suddenly, as she spoke of Burnie. "No, not him," gently said. "The dog in Thessilane. They say Burnie courts his attentions far more than the King's. Dangerous business, that. A sword will surely find his neck if he does not shift his loyalties, but not mine." He cleared the situation as best he could, from the rumors he'd heard, from the murmurings between the King's men and between dwarf and Lady.
She prepared herself for his assault and he frowned at her with uncertainty. It did not seem he was eager to come to blows, real or not.