Adventures of the Rabble Rousing Idiots

Hello my friend. Stay awhile and listen. My name is Leckard Bain and I will tell you a tale long ago of a place far away. Hundreds of years ago there was a kingdom named Grandiar. The kingdom, being the largest at the time, had its fair share of problems which was made worse when the reigning emperor passed away from a chronic illness. His only child and successor, a young lady of only age seventeen, was inexperienced in ruling a kingdom and had left much of the work to be done by the advisers. This created an issue where the advisers would create laws that limited the middle and lower class while empowering the upper class such as themselves, resulting in a situation where the rich were slowly getting richer and the poor becoming poorer. And even though the emperor had passed away for only a year by then the kingdom was starting to suffer.

Take the capital for example. It had before been a proud and prosperous city but now was almost completely controlled by the upper class. The middle class businesses could no longer afford to pay most of their workers and the lower class were either employed by the rich as very cheap laborers or simply reduced to street ruffians barely getting by each day through theft. It is here where our story begins, at a farm owned by a very wealthy family, with two people: an elf by the name of Zaira and a dwarf named Hardul.

Zaira Isolde walked away from where she'd been speaking with the landowners on the farm and gave a heavy sigh. They obviously thought very little of her already, but thats not what bothered her. The fact they felt the need to give her a babysitter for the day is what irked her. She had been instructed to go wander about and see where things were until someone came to get her to give her a rundown of the place. What was the mans name again? Hardul? She shrugged the question off. She'd figure it out eventually, but its not like it mattered, he would soon enough be no part of her life as well. She just had to put up with him until it was over.

Zaira meandered around the farm looking out into the fields with a groan. They weren't very small. She supposed this might mean more pay, but then she remembered their slightly snobby attitudes and decided to give up on that hope already. No point in asking for miracles when they've yet to come before when she actually needed them. "Well, this is already looking to be an absolutely peachy place...." she grumbled sarcastically as she turned from the field to investigate some of the smaller buildings, ignoring some of the other workers as she passed them. If they made no effort to talk to her, then they weren't worth talking to.

Hardul casually strolled through the fields after leaving the landowner's house (really it was more of a mansion). Apparently his job today was to show a new girl they had hired around the place. Get her acquainted with everyone, make sure she knew where everything was, stuff like that. He considered himself pretty lucky for being the one chosen to do this, it would give him a day off from slaving away on the fields. Manual labor wasn't something he minded doing but it also wasn't something he enjoyed either. The less he had to work the more energy he would be able to conserve for his nightly tavern brawls.

The dwarf's eyes narrowed to a squint when he noticed a figure in the distance. Though it was quite a distance away he could sort of make out the person's features. A female it seemed, and one that he did not recognize. Probably the girl for whom he was appointed tour guide. He approached the girl, stopping a few feet away from her. "Oy Lass, I never seen ya here before." Hardul stated, "Yer the new guy that'll be workin' 'ere right?"

Zaira looked about the place with little to no interest. The building she’d left the owners in was huge to say the least, but it was already showing that their gluttony and greed was great. Their workers seemed to enjoy their work very little and didn’t look like they got much compensation for it either, especially not the big man a ways away. He wore very little clothing at all and didn’t look anymore well off than the others except for his big stomach, though he was a dwarf so it shouldn’t surprise her at all. The beard and the belly give that much away about him.

Zaira turned about and began inspecting the place again, once more ignoring her fellow workers to be; that is, until one of them actually spoke up. The deep voice startled her a bit and she quickly turned back around to the source only to find it was the big man, though up close she more felt like calling him half troll. “Yeah, that’s me…. And who are you?” she asked crossly. Zaira folded her arms across her chest as she waited for an answer from the big man, rather glad he’d stopped further away than most would, but she didn’t trust him after just that one grace. “And in case you’re blind, I’m a female you fat lug.” She stated crossly.

Hardul let out a hearty chuckle in response to the female's curt comment. He didn't seem to be bothered by the fact that she just called him a "fat lug," mostly because it was true. He couldn't deny the fact that he had a rather large build and that massive beer belly of his didn't help matters. However unlike this girl most people would not be rude enough to tell a complete stranger they were fat. "Haha yes well I'm sure those wealthy pigs told ya about needing someone to show ya around." Hardul explained, "That'll be my job today. Name's Hardul."

Hardul then took a moment to study the female, stroking his large beard as he did so. Judging from her height and ears she was either an elf or half-elf. And the way she was dressed along with her physique it hardly seemed she was ready for the kind of work they do. If anything she looked like she'd be better off in front of a loom making clothes rather than working on a farm here. "Hm, what kind of work do ya do Lass?" Hardul asked after a brief pause, "'Cause ya look kinda scrawny to be a laborer."

Well, at least this one seemed to have a sense of humor. The fact that the man laughed at her insult instead of acting on it made her lips twitch slightly in a half smile. Zaira hadn’t come across many people who would put up with her attitude before and now she wasn’t sure what to do. So it appeared that this man was to be her guide for the day, per-say. If he wasn’t already deterred from her then maybe he wouldn’t be a bad tour. However his next choice of words made her have to think. She really hadn’t had any proper work experience before but didn’t really want to admit to that. Granted she was already hired, so they couldn’t exactly turn her away for that, but she knew how people are about lack of experience.

Hardul seemed like the type to be a bit observant, though the alcohol scent may say otherwise, so she deterred from the idea of lying. It never benefited her in the past, why start now? “Honestly, I have never worked before.” She shrugged. “This is my first job.” Her tone seemed to have relaxed more now, probably because the man hadn’t jumped at her for the insult. She was a bit disturbed by him rubbing his beard when he’d studied her over, but figured it was just a habit and didn’t comment on it. The man did have a huge amount of hair there though, she couldn’t deny that.

Another chuckle came from the dwarf when the elf girl mentioned she had no work experience. It was a wonder how she got hired here. Though farm work required little to no actual work experience or skills something that was needed for a laborer was physical strength and stamina. Some of the work here, especially the construction as well as working the fields was quite taxing on the body. And looking at her Hardul seriously doubted she could even swing a logging axe much less cut down a tree or plow the fields. And knowing the landowner he'd probably still force that kind of work onto the girl despite her being obviously unfit to do such a physically strenuous task.

Taking a glance up at the sky Hardul noticed it was almost right overhead, practically noon now. He should get to his task today if he wanted to have enough time to hit the tavern tonight. First he'd have to get the girl a place to sleep and put her belongings. "Alright Lass we ain't gonna get anywhere if we just stand here an' talk." Hardul stated, taking some steps toward the cabins, "Let's get ya settled in first then I can show ya around."

Zaira was a bit grateful when he didn’t immediately go asking why she was choosing to work here. Kind of difficult to explain that she ran from home and this was the only place hiring that didn’t immediately turn her down. She gave a small nod when he said to show her where she’d be staying and uncrossed her arms. “I haven’t got much, but I suppose knowing where I’ll be staying is useful.” She stated. All she really had was a small side bag she’d stolen from home with a few rations left and a blanket to keep her warm in her travels. She honestly hadn’t packed very well for traveling and by all right probably shouldn’t have made it far; though the helpful wanderer or two did assist in getting her here more safely than had they not been there. She also kept a small knife in her bag that she’d taken from home, though that had been a gift when she was younger that they’d never found or thought of taking back from her.

“Alright, then lead the way there Hardul.” She said, one hand on her hip as she waited for him to get going. “So how long have you been here anyway?” she asked, deciding to make some light conversation. Granted he was talking to her because he had to, but he also had guts to put up with her so far, so why not give into light chatter? She hadn’t had a good one in a while.