Eldarya: Imagine

Ezarel | Ridiculous [4]

The next day you leave to work, gathering up all of your papers before that to give them to your co-researcher on the way there.

As you leave, Ezarel's still sleeping, curled up on the a little too short for him couch. You leave a note for him about when you should be back and with instruction on how to warm up the spaghetti you've done together the day before (which he loved as well by the way) for lunch.

The day before you have strictly forbidden him from leaving your apartment, listing all dangers coming from that and promising you will search for the ingredients he listed down and even drawn in a small notebook you have now stacked safely in the inside pocket of your jacket. You haven't told him, but he's damn lucky for it to be you who found him for you have enough searching ways to help him out in as little time as it's possible, the agency you're working for having a giant amount of information from all around the world stacked in the archives.

However you have to work too, so the search has to wait for the breaks you get from your responsibilities. And like that few days pass.

You eat lunch at work, like always and when you come back you engage in heated conversations about the books that the elf reads in your absence. First, it's Lord of the Rings , which you can't believe he did read fully – he points out an enormous amount of errors in Tolkien's interpretation of his race and although at first you wish he would just shut it, you end up interested when he actually adds to it how it should be written. Then, in the evening you prepare lunch together (after you learn he's not really good at cooking alone) and go to sleep to repeat the process the next day.

You do see though that he grows restless so when your higher up offers you a free day next Sunday you decide to take him shopping like promised before.

After you are done with cleaning the dishes that are left after your brunch, you check whether you have everything you need stacked in your purse, while Ezarel puts on his ridiculous boots.

"Hide them" you demand, when you notice them and after a short staring contest, the elf covers them with the leg of one of the two pairs of sweatpants you bought for him, albeit with visible psychical pain.

"And put that on. It's to hide your ears" you add after a moment as you place a black jersey band on his palm before reaching for the doors handle, the keys to your apartment in your other hand.

The man rolls his eyes but does as you say once again, too happy to finally leave the much too small for his liking confines of your flat. You greatly appreciate this fact, because you do not wish to argue where your neighbours would hear. Or would not wish to argue at all. It's enough problem for you they are suspicious of what your job may be, let alone the people you meet with.

Your descend to the underground garage is quiet but the moment you reach your car and open it, the man breaks the silence.

"What is this thing?"

"A car" you calmly reply as you sit on the driver's seat, then open the door to the passenger's side from inside. "Get in."

The elf does so, albeit reluctantly, blurting another question as you motion for him to close the door like you did a moment ago.

"You said it's a mean of transport, but what moves it?"

You prop your elbow on the steering wheel as you send him a patient smile.

"A mechanism that is inside there." You motion towards the cover of the engine and he stares, his eyebrows raising "I'll show it to you later, but now hush. I'll buckle you up-" you reach for his seatbelt, noting how he tenses up at the close proximity. You've touched him once before, it was just a tap on the shoulder to get his attention but he ended up snapping at you and since then you've done your best to not invade his personal space.

You have your theories about this aspect of him already but you have yet no way of understanding which is the true one of them so you don't really dwell on them and simply focus on the task at hand to drive you to your destination.

The elf tenses up the moment you start the engine.

"What's that?"

"The engine." You're not looking at him, but simply focusing on the matter at hand which is getting out of the parking lot. It's funny how he told you about the different beasts he deals with daily in his world without any fear, yet the moment you put him inside the most used by humanity mean of transport, he literally freaks out.

"Don't worry, it has already eaten you," you joke and he shots you unamused glare. You smile in response, driving off onto the nearly deserted road.

The area you live in is peaceful. That's a nice change from your work which is busy and makes the time fly fast with all the different tasks at hand and the stress coming with some of them. And it's easy to ride out on the road.

The estate quickly blends with the busy city and after a moment, when you have to stop on the lights yourself and glance at the man accompanying you, you see he's glued to the window, drawn in by the grand amount of people living their own lives outside.

"Are we in a capital or something?" Ezarel breaks the silence the moment you two drive into an underground parking lot.

"Uh, no. It's bigger."

"How is that possible so many humans gathered in a less important place then? Is this a trading city or something along the line?"

"I guess it's just the fact that there is no one to hunt us down, so we could freely urbanize the Earth." You shrug, your eyes trained on a parking place you intend to park your car on. "Many cities are bigger than this."

He doesn't respond and you park in silence before turning off the engine and turning to him again.

"Now look, this is how you unbuckle yourself." You demonstrate how to get rid of the seatbelt and wait for him to do so too before getting out of the car.

"Alright, so first thing first before we go into the mall..." you say as you lead him towards the lift "Don't run off anywhere or you may get lost. It's large and you don't have a phone so we can't find each other if needed. Just... just stick with me."

"Sure," the both of you get in the elevator and it lifts you towards the main floor.

"Secondly... try to not get too much attention. Neither of us needs it."

He rolls his eyes at this before pushing his back in the corner of the metal box you're standing in as it starts moving. "What the-"

You let out a giggle.

"It won't kill you to stand like a normal human here, you know?" They don't have lifts in Eldarya for sure either.