"Well," Gilmore wasn't normally one to look sheepish. Usually his confidence overrode anything he thought he might have done wrong. "I could have defended myself. You would have just stopped being a bird. And I figured I would have enough time to cast a spell at them and stop you from falling too fast-" he shrugged. "Please don't look at me like that, my darling. I had everything under control."
He took his reprimanding for what it was, though. And he appreciated the concern, of course. He would no doubt have said the same thing if Theo had told him he'd left himself a little bit vulnerable to an attack.
"There are many sea monsters in Exandria. And pirates, of course. More pirates-" Gilmore started, then looked to Theo when the other man froze, following his line of sight. Slowly, he reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a small glass bead.
"Just stay close, I can put up a barrier around us that will last for a minute, we can start to make our way back and put as much space between us as possible-" Gilmore reached for Theo's hand. "I don't want to be invisible. I want to know where you are. We can go, just keep walking. And if we get trouble then we can try invisibility. Let's go-" Gilmore broke the bead between his fingers and a barrier shimmered around them as they continued down the alley and away from the men in cloaks.