Although Mallory was, to an outsider's perspective, pulling him along to the run-down tavern, Blake knew if he wasn't jogging along at a matching speed she likely wouldn't have been able to tow him in her wake quite so well. While they were both quite thin (Blake much worse off for obvious reasons), Mallory was positively short. He never talked about her height, knowing that she hated always having to look up to people - him included - but her stature became even more of a contrast than usual once they entered the ramshackle pub that Blake knew was often frequented by the pirates who passed through Denyan during their travels.<br/><br/>The pirates were shockingly unmoved by Mallory's determination; Blake was horrified upon realizing that they wanted<span style="font-style: italic">him</span>, and not her, to go aboard with them. Sure she was a girl, but she was the smartest person he'd ever met! She was definitely the smartest person in all of Denyan- she'd taught him numbers and letters, as best as he could learn them, drawing in the mud with a stick or counting rocks and shells out by the coastline. He could read a bit and he could count up to 12 (the next one was bad luck, which was why she'd stopped teaching him there- at least, that was why she said she'd stopped. And Mal never lied- that was a fact).<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">"I'm worth twice as much as Blake!"</span><br/><br/>Upon hearing the words, Blake moved forward and stood alongside his ally, trying to slouch down so as to avoid looking too much taller than her. He took their scorning of her as a personal insult. "She's righ'," he said angrily, glaring at Rog and the other one. "She's smarter'n anyone I know, an' she'd make a better deckhan' or swabber or whatev'r you call 'em, than anyone!"<br/><br/>When they merely watched him blankly, he went on, still furious. "She's worth three'o me, an' if you don' take her I ain't goin' neither!"