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Elaria

Elaria’s day could not have started off more perfectly. She had a delicious breakfast, no twisted ankle, a few weeks off from the guard, a year of pent up urges satisfied, and the prospect of probably spending the rest of her life with a soon to be wealthy mage who was kind, handsome, and a dragon in bed. For a moment she thought she was dreaming, because nothing short of dragons busting into the inn could ruin her mood.

Leo returned from talking with Kesl, and he looked troubled, his brow scrunched up with concern. “Um, hey, so… I know who to talk to…” Leo started a bit sheepishly.

‘Hm? Probably someone from the academy right, most are stuck up and pricey, but it shouldn't be too bad.’ Elaria thought with a swig of her mead.

“It's the healer.” Leo finished and Elaria nearly choked on her drink.

And like that her mood was ruined.

“You can't be serious… With what you pulled in front of her, there's no way she'd settle for the whole ‘escaped slave’ story. Hell she might just figure out what you are, she was already in the process of doing so.” Elaria remarked incredulously, after having a small coughing fit from her beverage.

“Well I need to learn runic magic if I want to start making any money, and Kesl says that's the only mage in town that he knows of. Still you're right, it'll be best if we go to her as a last resort.” Leo explained with a shrug.

“Damn it. Let's go buy you some clothes and ask around at the market, maybe we'll run into a traveling mage.” Elaria told Leo with a hint of irritation, while gesturing for him to help start his job as her crutch for the day.

Elaria was helped from her seat, an arm locked around Leo as she leaned on him while they started toward the exit. A smug expression crossed her face as she felt the jealousy of the inn's other patrons, which didn't escape Leo's notice.

Leo raised an eyebrow, hugging her a little tighter to get her attention, which worked way too well as she let out a small contented sigh from his body heat. “Did you know about the sound?” Leo asked accusingly.

Elaria winced a little. “The rest of the rooms are empty during the lunch rush and I didn't think we'd be able to go for so long. I may have forgotten somewhere along the line….” She said defensively, but still privately found the whole experience as a major turn on.

Leo frowned and let out an exasperated breath. “As ego boosting as it is, I'm not looking forward to the rumors spreading across town....” Leo trailed dejectedly.

Elaria realized that such a rumor would not be good for his cover. “Oh, right…”

Leo groaned. “I just hope we can finish up at the market before it spreads.”

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Leo

Leo found that the trip to the market was uneventful, say for the norm of being stared at along the way. He was half expecting some special event to appear, where he would have to save the town from destruction. Not that he would risk doing that though, ‘attention bad’, and he has no level of perspective on the dangers that this fantasy world had in store for him. So the more he learned about the new world he found himself in, the more he thought that getting noticed by someone with a modicum of authority would be a good way to get him killed, enslaved, or tortured.

‘The powers that be seem to dole out some pretty fucked up punishments to anyone attempting to rock the boat.’ He thought grimly to himself.

When they arrived at the market, Elaria directed Leo to the elven side, and told him that the elves sold clothing more often, and for different races. Leo thought that seemed a little on the nose, but dwarfs dealing in armor and weapons wasn't much better.

They pretty much found that the first stall sold clothes, and Leo got his first good look at an elf.

Leo did not expect the type of elf in front of him. If he had to be honest they looked less like the generic fantasy elves, just humans with pointy ears, and more like warcraft high elves. She stood just a foot taller than Leo, nearly as slim. She had very long ears that shot straight up, the tips just passing the top of her head. Her skin was fair, not pale though. The eyes were a little larger, so were the irises which were slightly transparent, blending into the sclera as they glowed faintly. She had no pupils, or what seemed like no pupils as it was the same color as the sclera, making it difficult to tell if she even had them. The sclera also seemed to be not white, but a ‘very’ light shade of blue. Her face looked almost unnaturally soft and symmetrical, just hitting that too perfect threshold.

The elf was completely confused when looking at Leo, but Elaria stepped forward immediately and told Leo to give them some privacy as they worked out a deal. Leo stepped back as the two talked and browsed the racks behind the stall.

Leo thought back to his lack of wealth and how exactly he would go about making some. He would definitely make money faster from reinventing things from earth, but what should he make?

Leo started thinking to himself as he waited for Elaria to finish haggling. ‘A cell phone? A car? TV? No cant make things that scream, ‘Hey I'm from another world’! Maybe magical tupperware? Could sell it to a wide range of people, maybe even add temperature settings. Could start by selling some to Kesl, wonder what kind of foods he can make. WAIT! I could maybe sell him some recipes, pizza, fried chicken, hell maybe even just grilled cheese. I could ask for a percentage of total sales every month, that'll definitely be a steady source of income, or maybe just free meals because some of their food is pretty bland… Loved the pancakes though.’ Eventually Leo was pulled out of his thoughts by Elaria, who called him over.

The elf pulled out a tape to take Leo’s body measurements, and while measuring him she might have been a little ‘too’ thorough. Leo noted that the measuring tape wasn't mechanical, and that maybe he could invent one to sell.

When the elf was done with her measurements, she went over the racks and pulled down a set of clothes, and motioned for Leo to try them on behind a standing curtain. The pants were a loose fit, dark gray, and felt durable while still being comfortable. The shirt was short sleeved, white and also a loose fit. It looked like it was made out of cotton, but felt way heavier than his normal t-shirt. The boots were leather, and crept halfway up his shin fully laced. He put on an over the shoulder leather bag that seemed like a foot in diameter. Lastly he put on a dark blue jacket, which had a hooded cloak sewn onto the shoulders. The cloak felt light and went down to just below the knees.

The clothes seemed to fit perfectly, and once Leo got them on he walked out to show Elaria. She seemed more than pleased with how he looked, as a warm smile spread across her face. Leo went over to a standing mirror to get a better view of himself. He was a bit impressed at the sight, because he definitely looked like he walked out of a fantasy/medieval convention, but the clothing was genuine and felt very durable.

They walked over to the elf who was talking to another customer, but the customer left after spotting the two of them. Elaria gave the elf two silver and forty copper, but there was something that seemed different about the elf's expression.

The elf looked at Leo with a much deeper predatory glare than before, her ears perking up slightly as her eyes seemed to drink him in. “Oh, don't you look dashing, but somethings missing... Hold on.” The elf remarked before rummaging through a small pile of clothes.

Grabbing a very long dark gray scarf, she sauntered up to Leo and went to wrap it around him. She pressed her body close to him from the front, while taking slow care to lay it around his neck, even though she ‘really’ didn't need to, as Leo got a face full of her chest.

Elaria was unamused to say the least. "We're not going to buy that.” She said with mild irritation.

“Don't worry about it, this is on the house. I would be remiss if I left a man's wardrobe incomplete.” The elf responded.

Leo thanked her, and was going to mentally chalk up the behavior to the ‘fucked ratio’. And he would be a liar if he said that he didn't very much enjoy the little experience, mostly because she was an elf, which added a different kind of appeal given all the media back on earth.

But as they were leaving the stall, the elf yelled over at him in a sultry voice. “Come back again, Mr. dragon.” The call sent a wave of frustration over Leo, as everyone in town would soon know about his, 'abilities'.

*Internal Screaming*

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