Mine Assault

“First target, the cleaning station there on the left. We’ll mingle with the miners on their way to the clinic, our prime target,” Alpen said. “If we see Mellen, we grab him and go.”

“Treat the miners as hostile?” Drindl asked. Bebe glanced sideway at him, surprised at the matter-of-fact tone.

“Yes. If they are addicted like Alithea said, their loyalty is to the drug and they will treat us as hostile.”

Bebe realized that it took more than eating some energy to feel comfortable in the warrior community. “It’s not their fault that they are addicted.”

Alpen turned to her. “It’s not the wolfbear’s fault that it’s hungry and I’m food.” He held out his hand to her. “We must act as one. Do you want to stay here?”

Bebe paused, then shook her head. “I’m a negotiator. You are a warrior. You go directly to your target. I circle the target, hoping to strike a bargain.”

“Is that what you did when you were attacked in the queen’s castle?” Alpen asked. The look on Drindl’s face showed his surprise at this revelation.

“My bargaining was to strengthen and defend my position,” Bebe said. “My training took hold.” She paused. “I am with you.”

Alpen took her hand and Drindl’s as they gathered in a circle at the edge of the forest. “We spring from the dirt like the energy in the spring. We are separate roots but one tree reaching for our goal.” Hands clasped, they touched the earth, feeling the network of life through their arms and shoulders, down into their chests, through their hips and into their legs, connecting them with the lifeforce. After a moment of silence, they broke the circle, then moved left along the rim of the gaping hole it the earth.

With a curl of his hand and a point of his finger, Alpen signaled to the elephant coming down the main road into the mine. In less than an hour it would return with a load and more miners on their way to the clinic. He signaled to the clinic building, held up two fingers, then made a walking sign as though going inside and held up two fingers again. He pointed to the left rim of the giant mine where they washed the miners before visiting the clinic. Two fingers. Six Fae warriors in total.

Before descending the slope into open view, Alpen rolled in the brownish gray dirt, and Bebe followed suit. Walking between Alpen and Drindl, Bebe assumed the same tired and bent posture as they drew closer to the washing pool.

Later, she would think back this time, feeling a sense of shared understanding with Alpen and Drindl. As the three of them joined the line of miners at the pool, she would have been attuned to every gesture of the Fae, ready to fight or flee. She was an animal, instinctively reaching for motion as a solution to any need or threat. The energy had helped her meld her senses with the earth, and like all life rooted in the earth, she understood the skill of bending with a threat.

She didn’t look at the Fae warrior as she stood, wide stance like a tired warrior who had battled the dirt and his own fatigue for most of the day. She didn’t worry whether Alpen or Drindl would fight or make a run for it. She somehow knew what their response would be because their minds and emotions were entangled roots joined in the earth.

She sloughed off her tunic, then waited in line, hunched from weariness, burdened with a heavy weight on her shoulders like the miners in front of her. When it came her time, she stood placidly as a Fae warrior quickly scrubbed her down with a long-handled brush. Had the Fae warrior gotten closer, she might have realized that, wide stance or not, Bebe was a female. She copied some of the other miners, turning her hips slightly away from the gaze of the Fae attendant and covering her genital area with her hands. She was handed a tunic that felt rough and she tugged it on as she walked away. Drindl was behind her on the path, Alpen two miners ahead as they trudged to the clinic.

Somehow, she knew that Mellen was not in the line at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the clinic itself. Head hung, focusing on the miner in front of her, she disregarded the short sharp voice to her right. Then she felt a Fae warrior touch her arm.