The Prince's Mark

Chapter Five

As they left the inn and started to head towards the center of town, Pendaer yawned loudly.

"I don't know how you do it. You can see in the dark, can't you? Why do you get up when the sun rises?"

Tracou glanced at Pendaer, raising an eyebrow. "Just because I can see in the dark doesn't mean I can stay awake all night."

"You could, if you slept in later."

"But why would I want to?"

Pendaer took in a deep breath, mulling Tracou's question over.

"Because then I would get to sleep in, too," he said, cheerfully.

Tracou snorted. "You're almost eighty! You can handle getting up early. You want to travel, right? If you want to travel, you'll want to getup early. You could be easy pickings for some bandits."

"Bandits..."

Could Pendaer handle bandits? He was big and, despite being an elf, could probably get a good hit in on a human. But he didn't even have his own weapon. Not only that, but bandits tended to travel in groups.

"What would you do if you were faced with bandits? Let's say five of them," Tracou asked.

"Um..." Pendaer screwed up his face in concentration. "Have you dealt with bandits before, Tracou?"

"Yes."

Pendaer smiled. "Then I should be fine."

Tracou was speechless. How had Pendaer managed to insult him and prove himself a moron in so few words? He had no experience even with traveling like a normal person or buying supplies, but he was confident that he could deal with bandits just because Tracou could.

"You're an idiot," Tracou deadpanned, eyeing Pendaer like he had just said that grass was made of clouds. "How do you think I handle them?"

"Well, if it's dark when they attack, then... Do they run away because of your eyes?" he asked, his lip twitching.

Tracou huffed. "No!"

This made Pendaer laugh. Face coloring, Tracou frowned up at Pendaer. Had he been tricked again? It should be too early in the morning for Pendaer to manage something like that!

"You use magic to scare them off, right? I can at least defend myself with magic. Not in the way dezmek do, but I think I would be okay."

"Hmph! Why do you think that? I can restrict their movement with magic. What can you do? Humans are stronger than elves, too. Don't forget that."

Pendaer's expression steadily turned into a frown. "Elvish magic requires an object to be acted on, so... it would depend on what I had."

"You're an ideal target, especially if you were alone."

"So if I wasn't alone, I wouldn't be a target?"

"You would be less of one."

"Then maybe you should come with me." Pendaer smiled down at Tracou.

Hearing that pleased Tracou, but that was unacceptable. He had his own responsibilities. Not only that, but accompanying Pendaer would only end in tears. He could feel it. Besides, this was probably another attempt to trip Tracou up.

"Hire a guard," Tracou huffed.

By now, they had entered a busy part of town. A stage had been set up away from the other buildings and, while no one was on it yet, there were a decent amount of people milling about. Some men were sitting around playing dice games and even arm wrestling each other. Those men, considering the sweat stains on their shirts, had recently finished putting together that stage.