Lying awkwardly against the edge of his bed gave Tracou plenty of time to think about his situation. Hanging around Pendaer was a problem, but parting ways wasn't possible as long as Pendaer shared the bed in the inn with him. Tracou had two more nights paid for, so after that he would be free to leave and completely forget about the elf sleeping next to him.
Until then, he would just have to ignore any unfortunate feelings that sprung up when dealing with Pendaer. He could stick with Pendaer for two days as long as he stomped down anything untoward.
The next morning, Pendaer was again uncooperative when it came to waking him up. But Tracou was relentless, kneeling beside him on the bed and wiggling him until the elf couldn't take it anymore. He was a heavy sleeper, but Tracou could be highly annoying when he wanted. Pendaer eventually groaned and rolled over towards Tracou. This meant that he was diagonal, half lying on Tracou with part of his back on Tracou's knees and the rest of his weight concentrated on his side that was still on the bed.
"Okay! Stop shaking me. Ugh..."
But he didn't move or even open his eyes. Tracou reached out and pushed Pendaer off of him. Rather, he tried to, but Pendaer was a dead weight and Tracou, like most dezmek, was lacking in physical strength.
"Pendaer," he hissed. "Get off of me!"
"Why," Pendaer paused, heaving a sleepy sigh, "are we getting up so early?"
"Because! We only have so much sunlight. I thought elves would treasure the sunlight and want to get the most from it like humans do."
Pendaer whined softly. "I want to sleep."
"I'll leave without you."
A few moments oozed by, but Pendaer got off of Tracou and sat up.Despite having so much of it, his hair looked fine even after sleeping. Tracou's tended to stick up at strange angles when he woke up, so he had to fix it every morning with magic. Combs were not terribly useful for dezmek, but some of them did appreciate decorative ones.
Pendaer looked in his general direction, eyes blurry. "What are we going to do today? More shopping? I'm done with shopping."
That was what Tracou would have done had he been alone, but he wasn't alone. He had to entertain the both of them. Well, maybe he didn't have to entertain both of them—no one was holding a knife to his throat. Still, he wanted Pendaer to have a good time.
Because so many people were in Shalen for this merchant gathering, there was more going on than just an opportunity to spend money on trinkets from afar. Those who couldn't peddle wares could peddle other things,like entertainment. Tracou had never indulged in these things himself, due to his narrow focus on objects over experiences, but Pendaer's interest in the marketplace had been minimal. Maybe going to see a play would better suit him. That archery competition would have been ideal, but that was already over.
"I've heard before that they don't only have things to buy, here in Shalen. They have games, plays, and music, too."
Pendaer hummed thoughtfully. "And you want to do that?"
That phrasing didn't sit well with Tracou. He was suggesting this for Pendaer, after all, not for himself. But saying that would make him uncomfortable, so Tracou nodded.
"Will that stuff start this early?"
"I don't see why not."
Truthfully, Tracou had no idea.
Due to Pendaer's plodding post-waking process, it took quite a bit of time to get ready. Tracou was ready in a few minutes and even had some breakfast while he waited.
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.
Tracou was ready to pass them by, but Pendaer stopped in his tracks.
"Let's see," he said, grinning.
"See what?"
Pendaer was focused entirely on two of the men arm wrestling. "If I'm stronger than a human."
"You're going to lose."
Shrugging his shoulders, Pendaer kept his eyes on the men. "If I win, you'll let me sleep in tomorrow."
"What?" Tracou crossed his arms over his chest. "That's stupid."
"And! You'll sleep in, too," he announced, a disturbing amount of confidence in his voice.
Could Pendaer actually win? Most of Tracou wanted him to lose because sleeping in did not sound like a good time. It was more likely that he would wake up and be forced to lie in bed rather than do something productive. But part of Tracou enjoyed the idea of Pendaer winning.Being stronger than a human male was significant indeed.
A male elf had roughly the same amount of strength as a human woman. A dezmek man had less than that and dezmek women were essentially small children when comparing their physical strength to that of a human man's.
After the current arm wrestling match was over, Pendaer tapped one of the men on the shoulder. They had a short discussion and that man got up,leaving the stump on which the test of strength was taking place. The man left sitting across from Pendaer, a relatively skinny looking man, smirked at the elf.
"Ready?" the man asked, voice deeper than Tracou had expected.
Pendaer nodded and got his arm into position. There was a countdown from three and then it began.
Unsurprisingly, Pendaer's arm dipped. He grunted, alarmed, and struggled to reclaim lost ground. The man saw this and politely let up some, allowing Pendaer to get his arm back upright. They were in equilibrium for a few seconds before the man decided to end things, pushing Pendaer's arm down against the stump. Smiling in embarrassment, Pendaer wiggled his hand.
"I lost," he said.
"I can see that," Tracou replied.
But Pendaer didn't get up. They should get on with their day, but Pendaer apparently had other ideas. He turned to Tracou.
"Come here and sit down. I want to try it with you."
"That's not fair, Pendaer, and you know it."
"That's okay. I want to feel exactly how strong you are."
Tracou grimaced. He had always considered physical activities to be outside of what he could do. Of course, dezmek had their own physical games they played, but they were considerably lighter than what humans liked to engage in. Tracou even avoided those lighter games, so this arm wrestling thing was definitely beyond him. Then Pendaer would know how weak he was which was not a good thing. Even if he was a dezmek, Tracou was still a man. He didn't want to be thought of as a weakling.
Maybe if he could grab his wand...
That thought must have appeared on his face because Pendaer quickly shook his head at him.
"No magic."
Tracou clicked his tongue. "You're not going to let this go until it happens, are you?"
Smiling, Pendaer shook his head again.
The man who Pendaer had arm wrestled with had left his spot at the stump, so Tracou reluctantly replaced him. This pleased Pendaer immensely.
"If I win, we sleep in tomorrow."
"No. You already lost that bet."
Pendaer chuckled. "Okay. What do you want if you win?"
"If I win..." Tracou didn't often place bets. He wracked his brain for an idea, scowling right at Pendaer as he did so. What did he want? Anything he genuinely wanted from Pendaer was only going to hurt him in the long run.
"If I win, um... then you'll call me The Great Tracou for the rest of the day."
Even before he finished speaking, Tracou could feel just how stupid that sentence was. But he had already started so he had to commit.
Pendaer eyed Tracou, concern on his face.
"Tracou, are you a child?"
"N-No!" Tracou winced, stomach flopping in humiliation. "I can't think of anything."
"Okay. The Great Tracou it is, then."
"Augh, no, I take it back!"
Pendaer smiled, placing his elbow on the stump. "Don't worry—you're going to lose anyway."
"You're the worst," Tracou said, cautiously setting his elbow down and grabbing Pendaer's hand.
"Ready? On the count of three."
Tracou nodded. After the count reached one, Tracou pushed as hard as he could, gritting his teeth. Pendaer's arm was not moved. All Pendaer had done was tense his muscles, but Tracou couldn't make any headway at all. With a decidedly not masculine whimper, Tracou bent his body the way he wanted his arm to go as if that would help him at all.
Across from him, Pendaer was smiling warmly. There was nothing Tracou could do, but he was trying his best anyway.
This continued for too long and Tracou soon exhausted the strength in his arm. Noticing that Tracou had given up, Pendaer lightly pushed Tracou's hand down against the wood. This would have been a good time to release Tracou's hand, but Pendaer kept a hold of it. He seemed to be enjoying holding it against the stump.
"I'm stronger."
Tracou grumbled, trying to wiggle his fingers to signal that he wanted to be freed. "I knew that already."
"So we make a good team," Pendaer said, loosening his grip on Tracou's hand but not letting him go entirely.
"Just because you're stronger? I can use magic; I don't need physical strength. I know how I compensate for you, but how do you compensate for me?"
"I'm stronger," Pendaer repeated, uncertain.
"And?"
"And..." Eyes vacant, Pendaer was quiet for some time. They were lucky no one else wanted a turn at the stump, otherwise the way they were sitting with Pendaer holding his hand while he stared in Tracou's direction would have been even more awkward. He did eventually come back to reality, his back straightening as he did. "And I have good hearing!"
"Oh?"
"Elves have better hearing than humans or dezmek, so I could hear bandits coming from a long ways away."
"I see. That's definitely something I don't have."
The crowd had been steadily increasing in size around them. The stump they were using as a makeshift table was not in a good position to see the stage from, standing or otherwise, but people were standing there, too.
"I didn't think there would be so many people," Tracou said, watching a section of the throng chatter among themselves. His eyes drifted around, marveling at the amount of people, until he spotted something blue emerge from the crowd.
Looming behind Pendaer, the blue haired elf glowered down at the back of Pendaer's head. He didn't have his horse this time and moved silently without it. Somehow it seemed that the blue haired elf hadn't noticed Tracou at all, or was ignoring him on purpose.
"Um, Pendaer..." Tracou began with a grimace. This made the blue haired elf's gray eyes flicker to him briefly. He smirked down at Pendaer.
"Pendaer, hm?" the blue haired elf said, voice like mud.