Heron was startled out of his studying when the carriage suddenly stopped. He looked up, blinking as he realized that the sun was nearing the horizon.
Elswyth had stopped the carriage in front of an inn. It was a cozy looking place with firelight flickering through the windows.
Elswyth lightly stepped down and held out her hand to him, a mischievous spark in her eye. "Coming, my lord?"
He did not accept her hand and instead got down on his own. Or tried to. His foot slipped and he ended up planting face first on the ground at her feet.
Laughter rung over his head and he felt his cheeks grow slightly warm in embarrassment. She was still laughing as she helped him up. Heron did his best to act like nothing had just happened and moved past her into the inn.
It was warm inside. And quite… boisterous. Heron had never seen anything quite like it.
There were quite a few people inside. While Heron had seen other races before, this was his first time really seeing so many in the same room. Elves, Little Folk of both kinds, a few dwarves, there was even someone covered in fur and who had a tail and ears! And there were several half-breeds as well, the most common being a human and elf mixture.
Heron had seen half-elves before of course. While humans were the most common race in Amriel there were others, the most common being elves. Followed naturally by the marriage of the two races. He had not ever actually seen a dwarf before and he had to try his hardest not to stare.
"Something the matter?" Elswyth was still laughing at him.
He hurriedly shook his head, as the last thing he wanted to be was rude. She gave him a cheeky grin and then had him sit at a table in the corner. Leaning closely to him, she whispered in his ear, "Keep out of trouble, Your Highness."
He ignored the way his ears had grown just a bit warmer at having a girl suddenly breath on them and looked down at the table, doing his best to do as she said. He figured that she had a reason for wanting him not to draw attention to himself.
As she left though, he peeked out at the people in the room. They really were a rowdy lot. As he watched he saw someone almost stab themselves because he was just casually tossing his knife up and catching it. When he almost caught it blade first the people around him roared with laughter at his mistake.
He was a bit shocked. Shouldn't they be more concerned about their friend almost stabbing himself. But then he noticed that the man was laughing as well.
Elswyth came back, and tossed him a key, "For your room. Food will be here shortly." She sat down and followed his line of sight. She chuckled, "They're just playing. If he had actually stabbed himself then they would be all concerned, but since he's fine – no point worrying about it."
"I see." Heron was a bit relieved.
She continued, "Jarenkul may have the reputation that we have a lot of thievery and whatnot, and we do, but the common folk do care about each other. Murder is still not all that common, and even we frown on some things. Just we love challenges, you know? That is really what it is. And not everyone is a thief either. Personally I don't steal, my challenge is more in the hunt."
"Okay," Heron nodded, "I honestly wouldn't say anything if it was. Wouldn't be my place." He spread his hands helplessly, "I just need to keep an eye on my own stuff is all. If it's important to me."
She laughed at him. And shook her head, "You are an interesting person, aren't you? I might not mind babysitting you after all."
"I'll take that as a compliment." Heron smiled at her. He felt a bit of accomplishment in the fact that this girl had already moved him out of her general concept of nobility. And that she seemed almost more trusting of him.
The food arrived not long after and he ate ravenously. So did his new acquaintance. Neither one of them had ate all that much today and both of them were famished.