Felix leans closer to steady Jim if he looks like overbalancing, but he’s smirking all the while. Jim mightn’t have been trying to pose, but that has its own attraction. As does catching him off-guard, when it makes him laugh like that.

“I didn’t want to interrupt the music. And…” He shrugs a little, offering the cloth-wrapped bundle in his other arm. No wrapping paper in Skyrim, just a nicer cloth. His smirk’s faded a little. “I wanted to catch up to you before- well, we were occupied again.”

He’s acting relaxed as he hands over the bundle, even if his eyes are on Jim’s face and he has a thousand things on the tip of his tongue to say at the first sign of displeasure. The cloth actually seems a little damp.

This is for the purpose of safety, because inside is an ebony statuette: a dragon curled over his perch, with half-spread wings and a polished stare. It’s more stylized than detailed, but to Felix the sculptor was clearly working from sight of a real dragon. The anatomy and proportions are too correct. This stuff’s quite popular in Skyrim right now, but that’s why Felix has added his own touch: a very weak fire enchantment. Just enough to make it give off a little heat and make tiny ripples of flame dance over the ebony. How they’re bright enough to form a visible aura and yet too gentle to burn the fingers is one of the mysteries of magic.