Meet us at the center of the shelter. Clint's words echoed in her dreams, jolting her up in a cold sweat, breathing deeply. She did not recall a nightmare, in fact her sleep was dormant to her consciousness, free of distractions, and yet here she was sitting up on her sleeping bag like she'd witnessed a public execution. Advancing to forget about it, Maeve humbly rose to follow the orders given to her just before bed. Three days ago she rose to greet Clint in the Everlight Forest, and after a couple days of duly friendship, she was noticed of her specific purpose of her skills. She put her coat on and nearly tripped on the cardboard box at the door, accompanied by a note:
I'm sure these will fit you, so I thought I'd hand them down!
-Maraya
Intrigued, Maeve opened the box and welcomed her new garment with an eager, heartwarming smile, a feeling so alien to her that she dismissed it as a fluke, raising her new leggings to replace the unbearably denim jeans she scavenged a year ago. They fit snug like a second skin, freeing her legs to all angles, no longer restricting her when she ran.
. . .
All of the Marauders gathered inside a massive hut with a large round table circumnavigating the attendees, engulfing most of the room as they eagerly awaited their leaders, showcasing their collective hard work with the fashioned Glimwood oak showcasing a pastel white heartwood tabletop. Maeve grew excited. The echoes of the folks' conversations failed to elate her, but the eagerness to be a part of something, to help achieve a greater goal - it gave her the one thing she had wanted in her life - purpose. She knew how crucial she'd be in this plan, how many lives depended on her success in this operation. Arms crossed, leaning against the wall in the back of the room, her slim, confident smile imitated a rebellious nature, an outsider with agency, for it was her dream - but she was only playing the part.
Bells rang not far from the building, and the door creaked open with Clint and Maraya behind it. Then, Somo appeared, his large silky brown trench coat failing to hide his age waving at his fellow Marauders as he approached the front of the table, gesturing and gazing at all who appeared around it in appraisal.
"Hello, everyone," A flat, focused voice diligently drifted from Somo's mouth, orderly silencing the surrounding people. "The plan begins now. Clint, the map."
Clint handed a scroll to the beast-sized Somo, taking the space of two people in the room, but the Marauders, including Maeve, respected his flat neutral expression, a calculating leader, ready to take on any challenge to his core beliefs that evolved into the Marauders today. Somo cleared his throat, opening the scroll to lay out an enormous, greatly detailed and useful hand-drawn map of-
"Resistance Base Delta," Somo grinned. "Maraya went through some lengths, huh?" Every entrance, every exit, every stationed guard, every window: the map revealed it all. A small outpost in the Enchanted Forest, Resistance Base Delta was the codename chosen by Clint's genius brain over a bowl of chicken soup last night. As the smallest and most encased Resistance base, it acts as a harvesting area for magicians, sorcerers, and witches to link, bind, and activate crystals for use in the Resistance's fight. "It'll only be a five man team, mostly just to survive the voyage, or else I'd have it smaller," Somo reassured the somewhat skittish crowd at the mention of a base infiltration operation, almost like they were about to go to war. "All we need are the crystals, just a large bag of them." He squinted as he gazed at the list of people on the bottom corner of the map. "We're sending five highly skilled volunteers: Maraya, Clint, Hugh, Donnie, and… Mawve?"
"It's Maeve, Somo," Clint corrected with a whisper to his ear. "Pronounced 'May-ve.'"
Chatter arose with shaking heads and faint whispers surrounding them, confused looks across their faces. Somo gandered at Clint dumbfoundedly. "I still don't know who that is, Clint. All I know is that she wields a crystal, why keep her name from me until now?"
"She's shy, Somo," Clint confirmed him brashly. "That's why I told you to keep her name out!"
"Oh, you know how my memory's been," Somo retorted in private to Clint with a lowered voice. "We shouldn't have planned this so soon. I don't know half of your plan! We don't even know where the unprocessed crystals are!"
"We'll figure it out," Clint reassured in the commotion and giggled. "It'll act as Maeve's last in-house test."
"Wait," Somo budged. "Before we move forward with this, I need to clean my conscience." He raised a hand and the crowd halted their small talk, hardly noticed by Maeve at the back of the room.
"We will succeed in this," Somo reassured the Marauders. "Now our talents far outclass the ones before as our might grows, our will unmatched, be it faced against either the war-mongering Resistance or the authoritative Magistrate, we have the heart to fulfill our destinies! For the Marauders!" With a wave, Somo dismissed all of them except the five he mentioned earlier in a confident applause, leaving with more energy than they entered with. Two young men stood at different ends of the table as the room cleared, one bearing huge muscles to compensate for his baldness, veins bulging cartoonishly from his bicep, staring coldly at Maeve, who remained at the entrance several meters from them, still leaning against the wall nonchalantly. The other was lean and slender sporting a large backpack that arched his posture, itching at his armpits through his filthy glasses and grizzly, curly brown hair. Clint and Maraya continued to stand beside Somo at the other end of the room.
"Little girl!" Somo cried, ill-reacting to the ambient glow emanating from her coat. "You're a little far from here, come closer, we've plans to discuss."
She had heard that before from someone whom she'd greatly admire, the stone warden Inara. Once believed to be her guardian angel, she was only a mere Resistance pawn to her now, especially when she found out about her teaming with Barik at the Magistrate Fortress Keep. Even still, Maeve was so caught by his word choice she didn't move.
"Did you hear me, girl?" Somo restated, growing annoyed at her immature posture against the wall. "I need to ask you a few questions."
Maeve sparked to life and awkwardly began pacing forward. As she approached, Clint's expression worsened at Somo. "What are you going to ask her? I can tell you all you need to know! She's a little shy, remember?"
Somo raised his hand and Clint immediately silenced. "Do you have any parents, Maeve?"
"Not that I can remember well," Maeve started. "All I have is… this." She handed Somo her pocket watch, giving instructions on how to unlatch it.
Somo unlatched the centerpiece and looked at the picture of the woman with her note at the bottom. "I'm very sorry, Maeve," he sighed, handing back the pocket watch. "Clint has told me you're capable. Do you like this place?"
"So far, a lot," Maeve answered shyly at the end, but she held upright at the intimidating old man. "With all due respect, I think we can raid their base without a problem!"
Clint smiled behind Somo at Maeve enthusiastically as Somo turned his gaze at the two men at the end of the table. "Hugh, Donnie, are you up for getting my specialists through the forest?"
"Most definitely, sir," The muscled man responded with a booming voice, and the slender man nodded. "We were up all night gathering survival kit supplies for the voyage, ain't that right, Donnie?"
"That's right," Donnie spewed, nasally yet confidently backing his partner. "We can take you guys anywhere!" He pressed a button on his shoulder and his backpack exploded into several items, tools, and provisions sprouting from spring-loaded metal arms which retracted back into the backpack with a crank of a lever on the side of his backpack. "Count on it!"
"Somo, about the crystal locations..." Maraya whispered in Somo's other ear, "I've captured someone."
"Who?" Somo asked aloud. "Let us all know, we don't keep secrets, not with your team or the Marauders."
"Sorry," Maraya apologized quickly and continued aloud to the rest of the group. "A Resistance leader of Delta Base. He 'left' to grab supplies, they're expecting him back by next week."
"See, that's Maeve's last test, Somo," Clint intruded, still sporting that confident smile.
Blank suspense glowed from Maeve's face upon this information, and she couldn't help but squint and nod in approval at the task, and the four started to the flooding shelter inside the sewage outlet.
