His eyebrows raise in an aloof manner as Hesri moves to comfort the girl, seemingly unmoved by the outburst. So he touched a sore topic. It didn’t take much imagination to see how Vena would have had a rough one on her own, but that wasn’t his problem to solve. Whatever drove Lashan to adopt all these scraggly village leftovers was beyond him. But now he was in that category too, he supposes.

His eyes jerk away from them when Hesri suggests he leaves half-dressed. Girls! Why do they have to be weird about things that were just more comfortable.

“I should get going.” He blurts out sheepishly. “I can bring something back for you guys.”