#erabast

Erabast glanced over at Tenoar through the crowd. It was market day and Tenoar had been very excited about the opportunity to go see a human market with Erabast. Erabast himself didn't normally think much of the market; visiting it was simply a task that had to be done every week. For Tenoar however it was a grand adventure, as was everything it seemed to Erabast. Honestly he found it charming in spite of it making him want to laugh at the short sylvari almost constantly. This particular trip was becoming something more of an adventure than usual, it was always crowded and now Erabast was really noticing it as he was trying to keep track of a child sized companion. Hence the glancing back with frequency. Tenoar seemed quite comfortable however, he'd weave in and out of the throng to look closer at stalls and find his way back to Erabast's side just quietly enough to startle the man when he commented on the goods.

Tenoar seemed to have been waylaid this time however. Mr. Rochester, of course it was. The man was nothing if not a talker and Tenoar loved to listen. Well, perhaps it was for the best. Erabast signaled Tenoar that he would be back and went about actually getting the items he'd set out for; returning to the stall about 15 minutes later. Sure enough Rochester was still going. Tenoar had found a barrel to sit on and was listening intently to the man's opinion on that season's turnip crop. The man was also loading up a basket with "recommended" purchases. Erabast approached and eyed it critically. Tenoar had money, and Erabast wasn't normally one to interfere in other people's business but he felt a certain protectiveness for Tenoar, even if he'd only known him a week, and didn't want him to be taken advantage of. Tenoar noted Erabast's return however and slipped off the barrel and politely began excusing himself while removing items from the basket. He did leave some and was quite complimentary of them before turning to fallow Erabast.

"All done?" Tenoar asked.

"Yes. You?" Erabast returned the question. Tenoar giggled. "Oh yes, that man was very helpful in telling me about things I should try while I'm here. And places I should visit on my way east." Erabast directed them down a side street to avoid the crowd at the Harrington produce stall.

"Still planning on heading towards Hoelbrak?" he asked.

"Oh yes, although I may stop in a place called Lion's Arch first. Practically everyone I meet seems to tell me to go there, including your father the other afternoon." Tenoar was staring at his feet, seemingly trying to step on only the gray stones as opposed to the ones with reddish hues. Erabast smiled. His father loved Lion's Arch, one of the best places in the world to meet people and trade stories. Yes, if it was what his father described Tenoar would like it. Erabast himself had never been there, he'd been born and raised in Divinity's Reach and beyond some Seraph postings in the Hinterlands and Queensdale he'd never left. Tenoar went on to share a story he'd heard from an Asura he'd met a couple days before who'd told him about Moa racing.

Erabast was on duty that evening, so an early dinner was planned. Erabast set about getting things together in the kitchen once they were back at the house while Tenoar flitted around him, helping and getting in the way in turn. He had only done a little bit of cooking before coming to Divinity's Reach, mostly consisting of burning things over camp fires on his trip, but he'd developed a mighty interest in learning more and was in the kitchen whenever Erabast was. Erabast himself was not exactly a great cook, but he could follow a recipe and showed Tenoar several he'd gotten from neighbors over the years. Tenoar had dutifully copied each one into one of his several notebooks; and in fact was doing so again at this moment as Erabast hadn't anything he could really help with tonight.

"Hey, can I try making these? I have most of the ingredients myself, I would just need to borrow some….flour and cinnamon if you have it?" Tenoar looked up. Erabast turned slightly from the counter.

"You can have whatever you need. What are these though?" He asked.

"Apple turnovers." Tenoar held up the recipe and grinned. He'd picked up quite a liking for apples cooked any which way it seemed to Erabast. He shrugged, he'd never tried that recipe himself, he hated baking. Tenoar took the motion as an affirmative and set about pulling things out of his basket. Tullius was sitting in a sort of cushioned chair in what they called the living room, though it was really just an extension of the kitchen, observing the proceedings. Tenoar began carefully laying out his ingredients in his usual style. Erabast wasn't paying much attention to him, only occasionally glancing over, that is until Tenoar got to the butter. He'd carefully set out two sticks, then grabbed a third. He unwrapped it and after a moment of examining it stuck it in his mouth and bit down. Erabast just stared. He'd seen Tenoar do some weird things in the past week and frankly showing surprise wasn't really in his make-up to begin with. He did very much want to see how this was going to go though. Tenoar tried to chew, made a thoughtful face and swallowed. So it went till he'd eaten the whole stick. He turned to Erabast when he was finished.

"….How was it?" Erabast asked.

"It has a lovely texture." Tenoar said, smiling. Erabast raised one eyebrow.

"Ok, seriously, why did you do that?" he asked.

"Huh? Should I not have?" Tenoar looked concerned, he was afraid he'd done something offensive.

"No, it's fine. Well, kind of gross I guess but…look, people don't normally just eat butter." Erabast tried to explain.

"They don't? Mr. Rochester said it was the best food in Tyria." Tenoar was celearly confused. He saw no reason the butter should be any different from the bar of chocolate Erabast had given him yesterday or the banana he'd had in the Queensdale market. Erabast snorted and turned back to the sink with a smile.

"Ok, that's debatable. But we don't typically just eat it regardless. It's meant to be an ingredient, or used like a condiment." Erabast dried the knife and put it in the rack.

"What's a condiment?" Tenoar asked. Erabast looked back at him. It was continually strange to him the things Tenoar did and did not know. He had been talking to Tullius about the history of Ascalon and knew some obscure generals' names because he'd read about them. He'd told Erabast and Tullius about how he knew about the Spirits of the Wild of the Norn and how to ice fish the moment he'd "awoken" because he'd seen them in The Dream, something Erabast still found baffling. Yet he didn't know what condiments were. Tullius was cracking up in his chair, having finally gotten over watching Tenoar eat a whole stick of butter.

"I—look, I'll bring you home a book from the library on it later ok?" Erabast knew enough of Tenoar to know if he started explaining condiments it would lead to other questions and he wasn't prepared to teach anyone about cooking terminology. Tenoar tilted his head. "What's a library?"

   Tenoar glanced up from his map to stare at the diverging streets in front of him again. He’d asked directions from a shopkeeper a few buildings back, and at the time he’d been sure they made sense but now he was standing in confusion. Again. He’d made it from the Grove to Divinity’s Reach with no problem; he’d found the maps easy to follow out there. But in here the many little winding side streets and diverging levels was making it very difficult for him to get to the inn the lady in Queensdale had recommended to him. Everything looked the same, only the street names seemed to differ and it was sometimes hard to find the signs.

           Tenoar wrinkled his features up in thought and ran a hand through his hair. He’d simply have to ask someone again he supposed. He glanced around briefly. So far almost all the humans he’d spoken to had been friendly and helpful, and he was naturally outgoing so he wasn’t nervous about speaking to strangers. The lady with all the shopping bags looked awfully busy though That gentleman trying to herd the two young children with him up the side walk probably wouldn’t appreciate a distraction either. Ah, a Seraph! Perfect.  Tenoar hopped off the sidewalk and crossed to the tall man in uniform presumably patrolling down the street.

           “Excuse me.” Tenoar said warmly. The man stopped walking and looked down, and he had to look a good way down at that. Tenoar was unusually short for his people, and the guard was well above average for his.

           “Good afternoon. Can I help you?” The seraph replied cordially.

           “I’m sorry to interrupt your patrol, but yes. I’m trying to get to… ‘Applenook Inn’? I’ve been given directions but I can’t seem to get there. I keep ending up back in this loop.” Tenoar gestured to his map. The seraph adjusted his posture to better see the map.

           “The upper and lower levels can be confusing to visitors in my experience. There are limited ways to get between the levels.” The seraph looked at the map and the place where the inn the sylvari had mentioned was to try and think of the simplest way to send him.

           “What brings you to Divinity’s Reach?” he asked as he mentally laid out the route.

           “Exploring! In my dream I saw bits of so many places, I wanted to get out and see them all as soon as I could, and find more for the Pale Tree to learn about!” Tenoar explained enthusiastically. The seraph raised an eyebrow curiously. The sylvari read his face.

           “Oh, sorry. That probably doesn’t make sense. I was told that other races don’t dream.” Tenoar tilted his head slightly, almost turning his statement into a question.

           “Humans dream, but I think it might be different than….what you were referring to.”

           “You do? What are your dreams like?” Tenoar had completely forgotten about the map in his hands, his curiosity always getting the better of him. The seraph opened his mouth to answer, but he stopped, realziing this conversation might take some time.

           “I think that may be a more in depth conversation than we should have standing in the street. You said you were heading to an inn? You don’t know anyone here in the city?” He asked.

           “No, at least, there’s not anyone here I know that I know.” Tenoar bumbled through his reply, his mind turning back to more concrete matters.  The seraph smiled lightly at his mixed up response.

           “Well then, how about you skip the inn and stay with me and my father? My patrol isn’t much longer, I can give you a bit of a tour on the way back to headquarters and then I’m off for the evening, and perhaps we can have an interesting talk.” The seraph’s own curiosity had been well and truly sparked, he’d seen sylvari before a few times passing through the city but he’d never gotten to speak to one of them. He knew his father was curious about them too, and this one seemed quite ready to share.

           Tenoar smiled broadly up at his tall new friend. “I’d love that.”

           The seraph put out his hand; Tenoar had learned enough of human culture on his trip up to know to grasp it and shake.

           “I’m Erabast DeLaney. A pleasure. You are?”

           “My name’s Tenoar.”

           Erabast started walking again and Tenoar fell into step beside him, although he had to move quite briskly to keep up with Erabast’s long stride. Erabast pointed out things “of interest” on their way; he’d been a seraph for a number of years and they’d been given a basic spiel to give to guests in his training. Beyond that he knew a lot as he’d grown up in Divinity’s Reach. He could frankly give a “better” tour in the lower level in his opinion, but Tenoar seemed quite pleased with the historical information Erabast could dole out as they made their way to the seraph station.

           “Lieutenant.” A seraph on guard at the headquarters’ greeted Erabast.

           “Marquet.” Erabast nodded and asked Tenoar to wait in the main room briefly while he checked in and took care of a couple things before leaving for the night. Tenoar sat patiently in the lobby for all of three minutes before he was up and peering into adjacent rooms and examining the decorative armors and weapons adorning the walls. The guard at the door glanced back occasionally, keeping an eye on the sylvari more out of amusement than suspicion. Tenoar would have made a fine spy, he looked so unthreatening and child like, at least by human standards. The height had a lot to do with it. Unfortunately for any spy networks looking for recruits Tenoar was exactly as he appeared; an extremely inquisitive, and young, self titled “explorer”. Erabast returned to the main room and cleared his throat. Tenoar wheeled around, he didn’t have quite enough sense of human culture to be embarrassed by his obvious exploration of the room, and began asking Erabast about the triad of swords above the entry way.   

            Erabast chuckled and went through the story of “old Commander Duggery Eagle Eye” who seemed to be everywhere and know everything in Divnity’s Reach in his day; the man never tired and was able to be anywhere there was trouble in the city at a moment’s notice. Turned out he was actually three; identical brothers that is. The Queen at the time, this was many years before Jenna, had been pressured by the nobles into issuing charging for “impersonating an officer”, but each of them claimed that he HAD passed his training and, as they were identical, his, or rather their, old trainer couldn’t identify who he’d given the papers to, or who had even been at the training camp for that matter. Finally the Seraph troops had raised enough signatures on a petition to get the matter dropped and all three brothers had stayed in the Seraph; keeping the city peaceful for another eight years before they all tried some acrobatic stunt for the Seraph charity festival that had ended in….well Erabast felt it best to leave out any details regarding fiery deaths. He just said it was a tragic, though hilarious accident and the trio of Commanders was fondly regarded to this day. Tenoar had been completely enraptured by the story, he adored history (you should see him the first time he finds a library). They were now back to Erabast’s home in the southwest quadrant of the lower city. Erabast opened the door and usured the teal skinned sylvari in. Tenoar was just starting to look around the room as Erabast shut the door behind them when he jumped at a loud “ROOF!”. A large, drooly, shambling creature came bounding towards him; it was tall enough to have it’s head on a level with Tenoar’s chest. Tenoar stood stock still except to glance up at Erabast over his shoulder as the creature loudly sniffed the sapling. “Sorry, I should’ve warned you. This is Mephisto, my dog.” Tenoar had heard of dogs before, he’d seen some on the farms but never one this big. “Can I pet him?” Tenoar asked as Mephisto drooled into the backpack the sylvari had been holding just above the ground as they’d come in. “Sure, he’s very friendly. As you might have noticed.” Erabast laughed teasingly. Tenoar smiled and started rubbing the animal behind the ears just like he would with a fern hound. Mephisto approved most highly and rewarded the sylvari with an enthusiastic and all encompassing face lick with plenty of drool. Tenoar seemed quite unsure how to respond to this display and Erabast quickly found a towel, wet down with soap and water, for him.

         “Well now, who’s this?” Tenoar looked up and saw an old, or maybe not, but frail man leaning in the doorframe that led into the next room.

         “Dad, this is Tenoar. He’s visiting the city and I invited him to stay with us tonight. Tenoar, this is my father, Tullius.”

        Tenoar smiled up at the man, who would have been about as tall as Erabast had he not been hunching over. “A pleasure to meet you.” Tenoar greeted.