Mikalen Mantel - Prey/Slave

Name: Mikalen Mantel

Role: Prey/Slave

Mikalen, along with a few of her friends, came to the city of Ireem by way of ocean voyage from the Americas. She was curious of the foreign lands and it's culture so they set out before she was to wed a boy her family proclaimed to be suitable for her. "He will have the strong hand of guidance and it will soon take the wildness out of you. You will see, my dear, it's for the best.", her Mother chimed to her one early morning. Mikalen couldn't stop the dark feeling she got in the pit of her stomach at the words. She knew then she must get away from this house, her family, and mostly that boy.

She didn't dare come out of her room until the ship had left the dock. The deckhands quickly cleaning from the celebration of departure and hurrying about to prepare for the evenings festivities. It was that very night she had her first taste of the forbidden liquor. Wine. Rich and dark. How it burned and tickled and made her seem to glow from the inside!

As they rounded the coastal point of this strange lands, she strained her eyes as they stood on the ships deck to see everything she could see. Her blonde hair whipping around her face unable to be tamed by the pins and hat atop her head. She held it in place and caught sight of the darkly-tanned cabin boys who watch her. She blazingly tore the hat from her head and tossed it to the sea - her wreath a memorial to the old life she's left behind.

The streets held so many interesting things for her untrained mind. Such unique and delicate adornments to the filmy, bright silk cloths the women drape about themselves. How she longed to free herself of the thick and overlaid gowns the western world dictates she wear, she thinks as she smoothes the bodice with a gloved hand. Catching the eye of her childhood friend and most trusted companion, she tosses her a pile of the silken clothes and then some coins to the woman who sold them smiling broadly to her as she bows repeatedly in thanks.

The night brought the heavy scent of the lands ... the incense burners filling the hot and comforting air with essences of sandalwood, myrrh, lotus and other mixes of floras and spices she is unable to name. Almost intoxicated by the sounds of the music from the taverns, the loud and boisterous conversations from groups of men who gather around. The camel's songs that seem to filter through it all. Holding tightly to her girlfriends arm, both of them wearing the filmy silk cloth, heavy coin belts and beads and the delicate embroidered slippers they found in the various bazaars that day, they run and almost skip into dances as they trod over the worn cobbles that make the streets.

With a delightful squeal, she pulls her friend by the hand into a tavern. “Wine! They will have wine. I bet it’s very sweet and will be nice in this heat. Bring us wine!!”, Mika calls out into the crowded room. The dancing girls part a path and they stumble in their playful run to a nearby sofa. As they settle a servant has busy setting glasses and a bottle to the table after pouring them full. The night spins by in a blur of rainbow coloured silk, chiming bells, clinking coins and … a lot of wine.

The sun brings a pain of which she’s not felt before. Mika feels out around her and tries to gather her thoughts within the sickening thudding in her head. She is alone in a cool stand of ferns under a tree of some sort. Quickly she sits up and then steadies herself from passing out with the rush of blood to her head and the pounding hangover from the wine. She rushes to the hotel and finds it empty with a simple note on the pillow.

“Mika, dearest Mika. Forgive me. The ship was sailing and I didn’t know where you were. I will return and find you, I pledge this to you my dearest friend. Until then, stay well!”

Alone. Alone?! Panic rushes over her and she collapses with the last though being she is here in a foreign land without friend or family. How will she survive?!