The Prince's Mark

Chapter Three

Had they been buying clothes for Tracou, he would have been picky. Extremely picky. They would have spent the entire day going around to the same few stalls as Tracou nitpicked about minor details, fit, and price. But Pendaer accepted the first thing they found.

"Don't you want to look around?"

"Not really."

So that was that. They had accomplished their major goal for the day.

"What do you want to do, Tracou?" Pendaer asked as he shoved the clothes he had just bought into his sack.

"I like to go around and look at everything."

The stalls went on for quite a while and the area was teeming with people. Pendaer glanced around at this, frowning.

"Is there something in particular you want?"

"Usually I like to get fabric."

"Oh, then let's just go to those vendors."

Tracou huffed. "I want to see everything."

"That sounds boring," Pendaer said, point blank.

Momentarily speechless by what Pendaer said, Tracou blinked at him repeatedly. What could he say to that? Tracou puffed up in irritation.

"I let you sleep in my bed and I've bought you food, so the least you can do is let me do something I want to do!"

Pendaer heaved a sigh, but nodded. "Can we do something fun afterward?"

"We'll see," Tracou huffed.

The way Tracou browsed was slow and methodical. He took his time to examine at least one thing in every stall. It was entirely possible that he might find nothing at all, but the important thing was to genuinely look.

Pendaer wasn't half as interested. He obediently trailed Tracou, but appeared to be off in his own world. It was annoying. They might as well not be together if they weren't both interested. Pendaer's attention should at least be on what was going on in front of him. But, truthfully, nothing on offer so far was of particular interest to Tracou, so it was likely that Pendaer wouldn't care either. Surely there had to be a way to get his attention. The more Tracou tried to think of something to speak with Pendaer about, the more he felt like he was forgetting something.

"Oh! That's right! I saw another elf last night. He had blue hair!"

Contrary to Tracou's expectations, Pendaer didn't jump at this information and ask about it. He stole a glance at Tracou and then looked off to the side.

"Oh?"

"Don't you care about meeting another elf?"

"Not really."

"But you're all alone!"

"No, I'm not. You're with me."

That was true, but if Tracou was out in a new country and had the choice between being led around by an elf or by another dezmek, he would pick the dezmek.

"You wouldn't feel better with another elf?"

"I've met a lot of elves, but not many dezmek," Pendaer said with a smile.

Tracou absorbed this for a moment before nodding.

"Maybe it's better you don't talk to him. He was really rude to me!"

One corner of Pendaer's lips pulled upward. "Was he? How so?"

"He told me not talk to him! And he called me a dezmek," he said, imitating how that elf spat out the last word. "He said it like I was dirty."