After that, Ellia checked in with her hunter-gatherers and resource gatherers. Her hunter-gatherers had brought plenty of cactus fruit and had hunted a decent amount of game. They had brought back a bison, an antelope, and a black bear. Ellia noticed that one of her women, a young woman named Jeanette, was not among them.
She feared the worst, and had to confirm it. “Where’s Jeanette?”
“One of the aqrabuamelu got her when we were hunting the black bear. The monster just burst out from the sand from underneath her feet--Jeanette was so horrified she that she couldn’t even move, despite the fact that we yelled at her to.” One of the women said.
Ellia nodded solemnly. She felt incredibly guilty. She had liked Jeanette, but she had a feeling that the woman wouldn’t last long. She was too sweet, too innocent, and too soft. The type of woman who would have swum as a wife and mother, but who drowned as a warrior.
“What did you do when the scorpion creature surfaced?” Ellia asked her warriors.
The women looked at each other. The same woman who had spoken up earlier—Vera—spoke up again. “We were frozen in terror, too. I tried to force my legs to move—to come to Jeanette’s aid—but they refused. I moved after a moment, but it was too late. The scorpion had already skewered Jeanette. We fired multiple shots at the beast, but they bounced off. We had to run…”
Ellia sighed. “I haven’t trained you well enough. You can’t just freeze in the face of danger. Furthermore, I distinctly remember teaching you that ray guns are not effective against aqrabuamelu. If you had been faster, you could have saved Jeanette. We can’t afford to make those types of grievous errors. I’m going to schedule a personal training session with all of you tomorrow. In the meantime, you will only get half-portions for dinner as punishment.”
Vera lowered herself to one knee, hanging her head. “Understood.”
Ellia nodded in return, proud of the other woman for accepting the punishment so gracefully.
Finally, Ellia checked in with the resource gatherers. They had brought more minerals from the usual two caves where they got them, but hadn’t been able to find any new deposits. This frustrated Ellia. We need as much technology as possible to defend ourselves. We can’t make it without those damned minerals.
By the time Ellia was done with all her duties, it was time for dinner. And after dinner, it would be time for bed and her-right-hand woman, June, would have to take over Ellia’s duties for the nightshift by making sure the fortress was run efficiently.
Ellia headed to the mess hall, taking a smaller portion than the rest of the tribeswomen. Her reasons for doing so were compassionate and calculated at the same time. The tribeswomen were always inspired by her sacrifices that they made them loyal to her. But, she also did truly care about her tribeswomen more than she cared about herself. She was getting older, and most tribeswomen were killed before they turned fifty. It made the most sense for her to sacrifice her health for the sake of her tribe, because she would most likely be dead soon.
Ellia ordered a palm-sized slab of meat and one cactus fruit at the kitchen, and that was it. She turned around, thinking of where she wanted to sit. There were some young women sitting on the table to the far right who she didn’t know very well. Because Ellia made it a point to know all of the Nymphs well, she decided she would go sit with them and get to know them.
However, on her way over, she saw the Last Man waving her over to the middle table. Ellia had nearly forgotten that she actually managed to capture the man. The whole thing felt like a fevered dream. She remembered that she did have important business with the man, and decided she had better sit with him instead.