Forums » Fantasy Roleplay » Mike and Ralen - Meet Cute

“Uh … thanks,” Mike said softly. She smiled a little as she caught his other comment about how he slept. “Don’t tell me things like that,” she whispered, “I might change my mind. Besides it’s not like I’d be using the bed much anyway,” she teased him.

Caleb had since gone to tend to the mules and pack up his stuff. Mike stacked the dishes and stood up to go get her things packed. “Will we get to the town before tonight or will it be another night in tents before we can have something better?” she asked Ralen as she was packing her mule.

"We've got one more night in tents," Ralen confirmed. "If we make a little more progress today than yesterday, then we'll make it into town towards early afternoon tomorrow."

He looked up as Caleb got the mules ready and grinned. "Good job, Caleb, thanks." He turned back to Mike, "And then we can have our featherbeds and whatnot to sleep on to our heart's content until the next day. From there it's a four day--four night--outdoors camping until we reach the next city. So if there's anything you need to stock up on, I recommend doing it at this place."

Mike nodded as she mounted her mule. "I fully intend to," she told Ralen. She turned her beast to follow after the horses once Caleb had suited up in his armor and gotten the last of their things together. "You didn't get much chance to sing last night," the wizard said to Ralen, "It's not raining now, want to give it another try?"

Ralen laughed when Mike brought up the singing again. "What, you want me to inflict my voice on your delicate ears again? Alrighty..."

As they set off, he picked up a lilting tune; a raunchy spinoff of a former sailing song that had been changed to fit a mainland's tavern. Caleb would probably have loved it, but the female in Mike might not have as it bespoke of a sailor (or traveler) in disguise and all the various things the character was expected to do along the way.

He only sang three of the six stanzas, having forgotten the rest. He coughed and cleared his throat, unused to singing. "And...that's my contribution." He took a sip of water.

“Interesting,” Mike said quietly. “Wonder how they thought up that one,” she said a bit louder. She was curious what his opinion was on the topic of people in disguise. “I think I’ve heard something like that before, but with more salt in it,” she said. Her father was a fisherman and she’d be a ship's boy from the age of ten so she was no stranger to rowdy songs or swearing. Though she wonder if the well to do man suspected her and if he did, might he have plans of his own. “You think if the weather stays good and you aren’t over tried by the time we make camp, that you could show me more of your magic?” the wizard asked Ralen.

Ralen grinned and shrugged. "Who knows. All that time at sea might have just given them ideas is all. And probably some girls did sneak aboard. Though they probably didn't last long. Work's too tough for 'em to handle."

He glanced back at Mike. "Oh? Um, depends what you had in mind. What sorts of magic did you want to see?" Unfortunately Darien and Zane had the type of magic that was easier to show off than his own.

"Possible. I've heard rumors like that. Of course some place have woman soldiers so I don't know if the work would be too hard for all of them if they stuck with it. Worst part for them I imagine, would be getting caught and what the crew would do about it once they knew. That kind of thing gets you hung in a lot of places or worse," the wizard said as she looked away from him. "Anything I guess. The thing with the trees last night might be a bit much to do again, but whatever you feel like doing is fine," she told Ralen.

Ralen shrugged, but made a face at the woman soldiers bit of trivia. He hadn't known that. "Really? Female soldiers? I'll bet they're mages then, or really really tough old broads. Either way, probably wouldn't want to be captured by them any more than they'd want to be captured.

"And I can think of a few things worse than hanging for women caught in disguises like that--specifically in jobs meant only for men. But...the better question is why would they bother to disguise themselves? What about those jobs attracts them to it?"

"One place we went through did beheadings for that, though I'm sure that's not quite what you mean," Mike mused. "Most work for men pays better than for women I've noticed," she said, "Some places a man would rather die than not have a son to put to work. And if fate should be unkind and give him only daughters he might put one or more of them to work as sons as long as he can get away with it. .... Could be freedom. Or the girl might be rubbish at being a girl. You'd have to ask one of them to get a good answer." Caleb rolled his eyes and gestured that he thought his brother was a bit crazy. "Mike's been on this 'women should be treated better' thing for ages, best to ignore him or nod a lot until he gets tired of hearing his own voice," the warrior said.

Ralen eyed Mike. "You have a sister, so is that coming from a protective brother trying to look out for her mentality? I don't have any sisters. My father lucked out in that regard, I suppose you could say. But even if we did have a sister, she probably would have been alright.

"Besides, just because a girl is rubbish at bein' a girl, doesn't mean she can just haul off and be a boy. There are schools and nuns for that."

He glanced at Caleb. "I'm amazed how different you two are for being brothers." He shook his head, amused and confused at the same time.

"I have no sisters, just him," Mike replied gesturing to Caleb. "He does have a younger half-brother by his step-mother, but that one is no relation to me." Mike shook her head, “As for schools. A girl can be a school teacher at the age of fourteen or older if she can read, write and a few other things. Schools charge five pence per day and many poor familes prefer their children not to attend because it saves them money. In the cities there factories, not many but a few and they take in children to and put them to work for little to no pay. Fatalities are high. Fouratley I did not grow up in or too near any cities. As for nuns I think we’ve gone over that before and they tend to have very high standards that are difficult to meet …. Also it’s very boring.” A part of the wizard wanted to tell Ralen off and maybe fry his horse to teach him better manners but maybe with a little work he’d not be quite so against what she was doing. …. Maybe.

Ralen didn't know any better and anyway the way he was brought up, it was little surprise that he had the views he did. He was a man of standing and power, to some extent, and he'd been taught by others, some verbally others by watching, how society worked.

"Oh, I had no idea. I had tutors, myself, my brothers and I, so we can read, write, do math, and the like." Not that he was bragging. "Most of it was boring and the tutors were strict, but dad says it's important so we learned it."

His eyes widened a little at the idea of how little schools charged and then at the factory conditions. "Really? They're that bad?" He had had no idea, other than rumors that floated around, but those were rumors and surely not true!

"Are you plannin' on disguising yourself as a girl then to go lead a revolution against the factories and schools?" he teased Mike. Apparently he still hadn't quite made the connection of Mike being a girl...yet.

"Legally a child is supposed to be nine before they can be shoved up a chimney to clean it, but they take them as young as four and fudge the numbers. Factories take them from five and up," Caleb said with a shrug, "Some of the boys they would visit the barracks and the other squire's younger children did factory work to bring in extra money."

"Most girls aren't sent to school because they're too busy helping their mothers take care of their younger brothers and sisters or are just old enough to be married to far older man who is just as poor or slightly less poor than their own father is. A week's wage is half a pence for many people. It's higher on the mainland of course but back on the island nearly everything cost double because we have to get it brought across the ocean first and that cost money," Mike said.

Ralen was just speechless. He'd had no idea what all was going on in the rest of the city or other towns, cooped up as he was in his father's business.

"Damn," he murmured. "Four year olds being sent up chimneys? I was five when I climbed up ours--and got stuck. Took three men to help get me out." He shivered. It wasn't a fun experience for him, he couldn't imagine it would be fun for anyone.

"And, doesn't sound fair to the girls," he admitted. "But age isn't a bad thing. Granted if it's like more than ten years it gets weird, specially if the girl is young, but..." he shrugged. "Not everyone does that--that's probably the more severe cases."

But the gears were turning in his head once again and he was lost in thought for a while, contemplating what he could do--if anything--to change or at least help those being oppressed in such cruel ways.

"I may be a little off on the exact numbers since it has been a few years since we were last on the island, but I doubt it's changed too much in only five years," Mike said, "And those were only schools for the poor children. I'm sure the ones for the rich if there are any are quite nice. Aside from costing being different things I've seen aren't much better on the mainland except schooling for the poor is a little cheaper, but not by much." Caleb nudged Mike. "I think he gets your point," he told her. "Think maybe we'll take a break by noon, it'll be warm by then," the fighter called over to Ralen.

Ralen shook his head. "I haven't been to the island but once, and I was too young to really remember it." In fact, he wasn't even sure it was the same island that Mike was talking about.

He did, however, throw a grateful look in Caleb's direction. "At noon," he glanced at the rising sun. "Well, another hour or two and it'll be noon. We're making good progress though." Already they'd covered easily the distance that Ralen had last time. And he was actually entertained...which made the time go by so much faster.

“I didn’t bring up the subject to upset you, your ladyship,” Mike said to Ralen, after several minutes of being quiet. “ She found it fun to call him a girl and so far he didn’t seem to mind it, which to her was as good as permission to continue referring to him as such until he got sick of it. The hours passed quickly and Mike was glad for a chance to stretch her legs. She walked around a bit looking around at the grass and trees as she got her legs used to being moved again. Caleb loosened his armor to keep a bit cooler, but kept closer to the horses as he exercised his legs.

Ralen shook his head. "Oh no you didn't upset me, I just...wasn't aware of such things..."

He didn't even hear that she had called him ladyship, in his distracted state. At any rate, he took advantage of the break to walk and stretch as Mike and Caleb were doing, rolling his shoulders though it wasn't like he was carrying a heavy pack or anything. That was the nice thing about having horses. They carried the heavy stuff.

Mike wandered over to where Ralen was walking and tried to take his hand in hers. Her hands were small with very thin fingers but also rough, calloused and scared from being used. "Mind if I walk with you?" she asked looking up at the man. "Did the ride chaff your soft dainty skin?" she asked him playfully and smiled at him.

Ralen hesitated as Mike reached for his hand. If Mike were younger, maybe he would have taken it, but instead he avoided it, keeping his own hand pressed against his tunic.

"You can walk with me, I don't mind." But holding hands was for couples and he and Mike weren't a couple. He grinned wryly. "You know, if you keep up that ladyship thing, we might end up in trouble--especially if this next town doesn't like cross-dressing folk."