It felt like Tracou had closed his eyes for a second, only for it to be morning when he opened them.
Dim light from the morning sun was slinking into the single window in the room. For Tracou, getting up early was important to him. Hearing people say that nobles were lazy bothered him, so he had decided that he would rise with the sun at every possible opportunity. In reality it was an empty gesture, but to Tracou it was worth something.
Tracou rolled onto his back with a groan, only for him to collide with flesh. This alarmed him to the point where he managed to launch himself backwards with a yelp. He fell onto the floor and, dazed, stayed there for at least a minute, but probably longer. During that time there was some grumbling from other beds, which Tracou ignored. Slowly, he got onto his knees and peered over the bed. There was definitely someone else in it.
Pendaer. Right, of course. He was in Shalen and he had let an elf sleep in the bed he had rented. Tracou rested his forehead against the bed and let out a sigh. Waking up in bed and finding another person there when not expecting it was terrifying.
"Hey, Pendaer," he whispered harshly. The elf didn't move, so Tracou leaned over the bed and jiggled him. This also produced no reaction. Frowning, Tracou yanked away the blanket they had been using. Pendaer made a face and rolled over onto his side, curling into himself.
This was going nowhere fast.
Determined, Tracou walked around the bed to Pendaer's side and stared down at him. Yes, this was going to require something serious.
So Tracou grabbed the tip of Pendaer's ear and pulled. Brown eyes flew open almost instantly.
"Ow!"
That was more like it.
"Shh! Not so loud. Are you awake now?" Tracou asked, not pulling Pendaer's ear anymore, but not letting go of it either.
"Ugh..." Pendaer sat up, trying to blink the sleep out of his eyes. "The sun's not out yet..."
"Yes, it is."
"No."
Tracou rolled his eyes and pulled Pendaer's ear just enough to remind him of what he could do.
"Elves don't get up this early," Pendaer whined. "Have mercy."
"I bet they do. You just don't."
"I'm still tired."
"You slept longer than I did. Come on."
"Why? What are we going to do?"
"We're going to get you clothes."
"Can't we do it later?"
"No. Don't you want to wear something that isn't covered in dirt?"
"I want to sleep..."
"Just get up!"
Every step of the way, Pendaer struggled and complained about being woken up so early. It wasn't until Tracou shoved some bread into his mouth that he accepted his fate. Many of the other men were getting up as well so, really, Pendaer had no excuse.
Pendaer's whining had made them leave the inn a bit later than Tracou had wanted. This was probably for the best, though Tracou would never admit it, because it had given the vendors some more time to lay out their wares. Most merchants sold fabric instead of full on clothes, due to the fact that preparing several sizes was impractical. This, of course, held true primarily with exotic or expensive fabrics. There were a couple of merchants selling clothing made of cheap cloth that would more or less fit Pendaer. They weren't as tailored as what he was wearing now, but he would have to deal with it. Going to a tailor would just be a hassle and who knew how long it would take. Probably too long. Tracou had only thought he would be in Shalen for at most five days, so he had only made arrangements at home for that amount of time.
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."
"I see..." Pendaer inclined his head towards Tracou, eyebrows knit together. "I'm sorry he was mean to you."
The expression on Pendaer made Tracou feel unpleasant, uncomfortable. He needed to stop making that face.
"He was leaving the inn, so hopefully he had a bad time finding a place to sleep. That would serve him right."
Pendaer's expression got more severe, not less. This was backfiring on Tracou. Maybe a smile was too much to ask for, but Pendaer could have at least gone back to neutral.
"He was at our inn?"
"Mm-hm."
"If you see him again, please let me know."
"Why?" Tracou tilted his head. "Are you going to tell him off?"
This finally broke that expression on Pendaer's face. He laughed.
"Maybe. We'll see."
They continued wandering around, mostly in silence. Tracou became absorbed in a few trinkets and stayed in one place for so long that he didn't notice when Pendaer slipped away from him. It wasn't until he set the trinkets down without buying them that he realized he was alone.
Panic nipping at the bottom of his heart, Tracou scanned the crowd for anyone with pointy ears. Because Pendaer towered over most people, he should have been easy to spot. But no matter many times Tracou dragged his eyes over the crowd, there was no Pendaer to be found. He had disappeared.
Where could he have gone? Shalen was huge. Pendaer was not the least bit familiar with Shalen and likely didn't even know where the inn was. Maybe he had gone to find it to try and go back to sleep?
Tracou spent a few hours searching for the lost elf. He wasn't anywhere near the inn, the general market, or even the food market. When he asked passersby if they had seen an elf, several of them had seen both elves. Even so, no one could tell him where Pendaer had gone. He was stuck walking anywhere and everywhere, keeping an eye out for long blond hair and pointy ears.
Somehow he had lost Pendaer. So much for him knowing what he was doing—he couldn't even keep a huge elf within his line of sight. Anything could happen to Pendaer here. The Elven Kingdom was the wealthiest country on the continent so Pendaer would be an appealing target for thieves and con-men. If something happened to him, it would be Tracou's fault for letting him wander off.
Tracou decided to do one more circuit around the places they had already been. The combination of dashing around everywhere and anxiety was exhausting and, if he couldn't find him, maybe he should give up. Maybe Pendaer didn't want to hang around him because he was interested in boring things like shopping.
As he approached the market, he spotted pointy ears waiting just outside the entrance to the area. It was Pendaer, looking rather serene compared to how Tracou felt.
Tracou ran over to him, already yelling.
"Where did you go?! I was looking all over for you!"
Pendaer turned towards him in time to see him skid to a stop in front of him. His expression turned sheepish.
"I, um... I got distracted. Then I couldn't find you. You're rather small, you know."
Distracted! This elf had the absolute gall to have gotten lost because he had gotten distracted and then blame Tracou's height on getting lost. Tracou felt like he was going to erupt he was so angry.
"Are you stupid?! Do I need to tie a rope around you so you won't wander off like a dumb animal?!"
"I'm not stupid," Pendaer said softly.
"No? Disappearing because of a distraction sounds pretty stupid to me!"
Pendaer grunted, glaring down at the ground. "I saw the blue-haired elf. If he sees me, it will... be a problem for me, so I left."
That was at least a better explanation than just leaving for nothing. That blue-haired elf was obnoxious to say the least, so it was understandable that Pendaer wouldn't want to see him. Tracou huffed. A portion of his anger had vanished, allowing his physical fatigue show itself.
"You can't just leave without telling me. Shalen's gigantic! You could have been anywhere! I was worried!"
Pendaer nodded slowly.
They stared at each other, both unsure of how to proceed, until Tracou decided he had had enough.
The physical capability of a dezmek was lower than that of other races. Tracou, being a minor lord, engaged in physical activity even less than other dezmek, so his tolerance of it was abysmal. He had been running around for hours and it had finally caught up to him.
"I need to sit down. Do you still have food in that bag of yours?"
"Ah, yes."
Unwilling to walk far, Tracou settled for a spot just outside the walkway to sit down. Pendaer joined him, moving stiffly.