The smaller of the two draws a slow breath. Everything he did here was a gamble, and that sets the tone for what he hears out of the rest. Every move he made, from where he slept to what he ate and what he did with his day was a constant, endless gamble, cobbled together with guesswork at best. Very little of it was what he was taught, what he knew. "If I cannot handle my own difficulties I do not deserve to have them solved for me. I will not trouble our hosts with something so petty as this."

He's not going to go any further - not in public, not with so many around. Especially not when Avan might suddenly reappear with a broccoli head, or something equally inappropriate to the meat parade he'd had going earlier. And he's keeping watch in case the other teenager DOES suddenly reappear with something offendingly green in hand. It's going to be an ongoing concern.

It's also strange, to hear anyone at all (though it might be cheating when it's himself, just older, the same way such casual contact would be unwelcome were it anyone else--) say they're proud of him. Not unwanted, though it doesn't feel deserved. Especially since.. "..I think I'm going to leave for a while." So much for being willing to stay here, outside his comfort zone; the apologetic tone is at least genuine; no sooner is someone proud of him for dealing with it all, that he wants to leave. "I don't think it'll offend the King at this point."