Two weeks later.
Mariyah watched as familiar faces began placing logs down onto each other and creating cabins. “This is so beautiful,” she said to Rose who stood beside her and Cal.
“I know. It’s going along great. We’re barely able to fit our group in. People are going to have to start sharing cabins,” Rose replied sweetly. “I don’t mind sharing with a few others.”
“Me neither,” Mariyah added with a smile.
“Owner of the Dome doesn’t share,” Rose gave her a look.
“I don’t mind.” Mariyah shook her head and looked down at her healing leg.
Rose nudged her. “You deserve your own-” Hearing footsteps coming from behind, she turned her head.
Mariyah looked after her.
Jace gave a small smirk as he approached. “We’ve got up almost twenty structures inside, finishing up a few more. Don’t suspect this will fit everyone, not including Peter’s village. We’re thinking about pitching up some huts and tents around the Dome. Wanted to ask you first, what do you think?”
Mariyah grinned and clasped her hands together. Jace was one of the few she had first assumed to be a troublemaker during her first visit to the village. But he was more than that. He, John, and Krill were all handy with building and knew a lot more than just causing a ruckus. “Thank you so much, that’s amazing!” She bit her lip at his question and looked at Cal. “I think that’s a fine idea. If anything happens, we can always quickly rush everyone inside out of harm's way. What’s important is our numbers being together.” She looked at Cal who nodded in agreement.
Jace nodded as well. “Good. We’ll start on that then.”
She looked behind him at Huntro motioning her to come outside. He led her around the small gardens scattered around the Dome and in between the start of the tents. She watched as he showed her the crops. “Everything’s been replanted. We can start making group meals for everyone throughout the day. Keep everyone fed.”
“Huntro!” she exclaimed. “That’s great, thank you so much!” She embraced him tightly and allowed him to continue gardening. She looked around with a wide smile on her face, embracing the progress they had made. Peter’s village, combined with the gladiator fighters, was over a hundred Shifters and Naturals. Mariyah’s close friends, the gladiators, and part of Peter’s village all settled inside the Dome, and the remainder who didn’t fit moved into more new homes just outside of the structure.
That night, Mariyah poked her head in a few of the cabins, each had a bunk bed, enough for two to three per cabin. Turns out Jace and the others built one special for her, despite her insistence on sharing. She had a private cabin with one bed, accompanied by a small desk and chair.
She eventually lay in her cabin and found rest inside on her soft pillow and warm blankets. She smiled to herself under the covers. It had been too long since she’d had a proper bed to herself.
She woke up later in the night, restless and pondering a new idea of sending crops out to other villages. Maybe once their garden expanded enough, she thought, they just might do it. She looked up to the ceiling and stared at the blank wood. A small candle was lit by her desk in the left corner of the cabin, almost fully melted now.
Her eyes glistened from the dying flame of the candle as she sat in silence. “Mother, can you hear me?” she whispered. “Father?” she blinked her wet eyes and swallowed. “I’m using it. We’re all living here now...thanks to you.” She rolled over under her blankets and looked at the blank wall. “Olly... you’d be so happy.” She closed her eyes and finally fell fast asleep.
Later in the night, her eyes shot up suddenly as the sound of clanking against the glass outside woke her up. How early is it? She stood up, exited her cabin and made her way out of the Dome. The cool breeze brushed across her warm cheeks as her tired eyes forced themselves to stay open. Her eyes struggled to make out anything at all in the thick black night atmosphere.
Crunch, crunch.
She turned her head as her eyes slowly made out two figures gathered around by the crops in the darkness. She shifted into a lioness and crept slowly behind them. “What are you doing?” she asked.
The two figures both immediately broke off into a sprint in an attempt to run away.
“Wait!” she shouted, chasing after them. She tackled the slowest one and pinned him down with her paws. “What were you doing?” she asked again. The moonlight rays poked through a crack in the tree branches, illuminating his face. She looked at his dusty brown hair and stared into the blue eyes that looked back at her. They pierced her in a way she wasn’t expecting, but she kept her stare.
“The crops...my village has nothing,” he eventually spoke, struggling to make out her face. “We’re dying over there.”
Mariyah climbed off of him and shifted back to a human. “Your village is starving? I will bring your village food. But do not steal it from us. Do you understand?”
He nodded his head and stood up. “Sorry about that. News of your…” He tilted his head as he looked at the Dome behind her, “...your dome, I suppose, has been spreading and we thought you’d have food.”
“We do. You should’ve asked,” she said quietly.
“I will from now on…sorry about that.” He held his hand out for her to shake. “Cornelius is my name. Just call me Lius.”
She reached out and shook his hand. “Mariyah.”
His expression changed. “Mariyah?”
She tilted her head. “Mariyah.”
“You’re the one…” he whispered.
“The one?”
“The one they’re talking about. You attacked an arena?”
Her eyes widened. “Oh…well we were just rescuing its prisoners.”
“So it is true?”
She stayed silent.
A smirk crept across his face as he stared into her eyes, causing her to blink quickly, flustered. He nodded his head. “Interesting”
“Interesting?” she repeated, her eyes squinting with curiosity at this boy. “It was just a rescue.”
He stared at her for a few long seconds, the moonlight shining on his face a bit.
Her brown eyes locked onto his blue ones before she eventually looked away. “Well, you’re welcome to stay the night. Tomorrow, I’ll send you back with supplies,” she said to him with a small smile.
He nodded his head. “Thank you. My friend’s gonna wonder where I went, but…he’ll be okay for the night.”
She led him to an empty cabin and made sure he was set before going back to sleep inside her own.
The next morning, a knock on her door woke her up. She opened her eyes sleepily and looked around. She got up and opened the door groggily, seeing Cal. “Oh, good morning,” she said in a tired voice.
Cal’s face looked unamused. “Morning. I think you need to go talk to Smolder, over there.”
Mariyah’s eyes narrowed. “Who?”
“The boy you supposedly met last night. He says you’re gonna bring his village food.”
“Oh…” she rubbed her eyes and pulled her hair back into a low ponytail. “I’ll be out there soon, thank you,” she said. She closed her door and got dressed into her worn out dress, staring down at the blood stain that she had scrubbed in the creek to no avail. She puffed out in embarrassment before quickly walking outside. “Cornelius?” she called out, walking over to him. He was leaning against the glass wall by the door. She could have tripped over her feet at the sight of him in daylight. He was handsome. He was definitely handsome. Not that it mattered to her, of course. But he was.
“Nice of you to wake up,” he said with a grin.
“Sorry- didn’t realize I had slept in so much.” She smiled a bit and opened the Dome door. “I also usually don’t get interrupted during my night sleep,” she said to him.
He followed behind her. “Well, I thought it was a worthy interruption.”
She snorted at his comment. “Bold,” she said shortly, giving him a laugh.
When they made it to the garden, she asked Huntro to fill up a basket of corn and peas for his village. Mariyah sat on the grass beside Cornelius while they waited. He looked at her carefully. “So you all live in this structure, and you’re safe all the time?”
She looked at him with a small smile. “So far. It’s really wonderful. We can’t all fit inside, but just having everyone this close is important. We can squeeze in if there is an emergency.”
He listened to her and nodded his head slowly. “Sounds like you guys have it figured out.”
“Hm…somewhat.” She rested her chin on her knees.
He picked at the grass beside him. “Still can’t imagine that you guys really raided an entire gladiator arena. No one stops talking about it.”
Mariyah looked at her feet. “It wasn’t much. Our friend had gotten taken, so we went after him and ended up saving others as well.”
“They must feel safer near you,” he said quietly.
She tilted her head. “I don’t know...we’re not fighters. But our numbers help.”
“You all attacked kingdom guards, and you say you’re not fighters?”
She remained silent for a moment before speaking. “I mean, we aren’t trained soldiers. We were just trying to rescue our people. It was a one time thing, we definitely aren’t fighters.”
“Not fighters…” he repeated.
Mariyah laughed at his sarcasm. She looked at him for a short while. Memories of Olly flooded her brain as a bit of his tone almost reminded her of him.
“Here you go,” Huntro said, handing her the heavy basket of crops. “Enjoy, they were grown by the best farmer in the kingdom,” he said with a grin.
Cornelius chuckled and took the crops from him for her. “Sounds like it doesn’t get much better than this. Thank you.” He hesitated before turning to Mariyah. “You wanna see our village? The villagers would love to meet you.”
She pressed her lips together, then nodded her head. “Sure,” she said. She went and told the others she’d be back shortly, before heading out with Cornelius.
The two began on their walk shortly after. Lius walked alongside her, holding the basket.“So. Miss Mariyah.” The corners of his lips tugged up a bit. “Where’d you get the bright idea to attack them?” He looked over at her as they walked. "Oh- sorry- rescue."
She giggled a bit. “Like I said, they took my friend, Cal. ” She shrugged her shoulders. “It’s not as big as it seems everyone is making it seem to be.” She watched her feet as she walked. “I had a friend, his name was Olly. He was a Shifter but he was killed protecting me...and after that, my parents were killed for hiding my identity…” Her eyes began to sting and she looked out to the forest, forcing her tender heart to toughen up.
“That’s why you’re not marked? They hid it?”
She nodded her head. “After their deaths, I met Cal- the tall boy back there with the black hair. He helped me when I was in really bad shape...and then the soldiers took him. A few of Olly’s village friends offered to help and we headed out to get hime back...that’s really all it was.”
“You make it sound simpler than it had to have been.”
She shook her head with a small smile.
A chicken scurried around as Mariyah and Cornelius arrived at his village. She looked all around her, slowly. “You live here?” she asked him. There was no one outside, just a few huts lined up.
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“There’s only twelve of us.” Cornelius set the basket down and looked around. “But usually everyone’s outside..” He tilted his head for a moment before ducking into each of the tents. “Huh,” he mumbled. “I’m not sure where everyone is…” he said quietly. He called out the names of some of his villagers around the border of the village, but none answered.
Mariyah frowned and looked around herself, but there wasn’t a villager in sight.
“LIUS!” a male voice shouted from the hidden shadows of the forest. A cheetah sprung out of the bushes and in front of Mariyah and Cornelius. “Lius, the soldiers came,” he said out of breath. “They took them all.”
Lius narrowed his eyes. “What? Where?”
“I don’t know...I came back last night and they were gone. You never came back, I thought they had somehow taken you too-” He looked at Mariyah and her blank forehead. “Who are you?”
“I’m Mariyah. Were you one of the others stealing our crops?”
“Uh…” A charming smirk formed on his cheetah lips. “Now, I wouldn’t call it stealing. More like kindly removing them from your possession.”
“How sweet of you to do for us,” she retorted with a painfully sarcastic smile. She grew serious after his eye roll. “You’re saying your entire village just vanished?” Mariyah stared at the cheetah for a moment, looking at his beautiful printed pattern.
His smirk quickly fell. “No, they didn’t vanish. They were taken. They’ve probably been taken to the camps,” he said.
The camps? She pressed her lips together as she remembered Cal mentioning the slave camps in the forest.
“They’re all gone…” Cornelius said in a worried voice as he walked around, looking in each tent. “I wish I was here,” he mumbled.
“Just to get taken too?” the cheetah asked.
Mariyah watched the two of them, confused as her heart began to sink. “I can't believe they took your entire village.”
Lius looked at her. “They must have.”
Her face fell as she understood. She shook her head in disbelief as a sickness filled her stomach imagining it. “I’m so sorry…” She looked around again, worriedly. She cleared her throat before speaking again. “Would you two like to come to the Dome for now? You all can stay as long as you need,” she said quietly. “We shouldn’t stay here much longer if this place was just raided, right?”
The cheetah looked towards Mariyah and shifted into a human. He was a tall, slim boy, with long and wavy bright blonde hair. Not a hint of highlights anywhere to be seen. He towered over her and held out his hand. “My name is Fossil.” His light hazel eyes could have stunned her if she didn’t know better. Why must they both be so attractive?
She held his hand and shook it, which was followed by a smoldering look from him.
Cornelius ran his hand through his hair. “Are you sure you’d have room for us?”
She nodded her head. “It’s only you two...and if there’s no room inside the Dome, there’s plenty of room in the surrounding village.”
“Thank you then,” Cornelius said to her with grateful eyes.
She nodded her head and watched as Cornelius began to head back with Fossil. She stared at them for some time, pondering what it must be like to lose their entire village. Slave camps. She closed her eyes for a moment as she composed herself and continued behind them.
-
“The same ones who were stealing from us?” Cal’s tone couldn’t hide his disapproval.
“They had no food for themselves. I would’ve done the same thing, Cal,” she said to him, watching the bustle of everyone going about their business in the Dome. The two of them leaned against the curved Dome wall, farthest away from the rows of cabins. People were walking around, all partaking in their new routines now that they had a real community.
“How long will they be here for?”
“I don’t know,” she said, with a hint of irritation in her voice. “Why does it matter?”
“They were stealing from us, Mariyah. That doesn’t put them off to a good start,” he replied, narrowing his eyes. “Just because he’s pretty doesn’t mean we trust him.”
“Pretty? What? That has nothing to do with it.” She turned to face him, her face souring. “I told you they needed that food. They were starving.”
He sighed, relenting.
She nodded her head and continued. “They just lost their entire village.”
“To what?”
“Slavers.”
“The entire village?” Cal narrowed his eyes.
Mariyah looked at him carefully. “The entire village.” She bit the inside of her cheek for a moment. A thought had formed itself in Fossil and Lius' village the second she had begun her walk back to the Dome. And that thought hadn't cared to go away.
Cal shook his head. “Sick soldiers.”
“It just happened sometime in the night…” she said quietly.
He lifted a brow. “Yeah?”
She nodded, playing with her fingers. “So they can’t be very far.”
He narrowed his eyes, studying her.
“Cal,” she began. “I can find the camp.”
He lifted his eyebrows as she continued. “Find the camp? Why?”
Mariyah looked around nervously, as if she herself was scared of the words she was about to allow out.
“What are you saying?”
She looked at him with a guilty shoulder lift as he understood.
“You want to?”
She bit her lip and nodded. “Maybe..yes...We-we did it once, we can do it again, don't you think?”
Cal looked at her carefully. “This is close to declaring war on the king, Mariyah. This isn’t some storybook. You’re attacking his bases.”
She lifted her chin, trying to convince him. “This will only be the second. It’ll only have been two.”
“'Only two',” he repeated. “You’re killing his men, Mariyah, he will retaliate. He's already threatened you once.”
She held her hands out. “And if he does, we have our own giant base to stay in that will protect us. Or…” She looked at him. “We defend ourselves. We’ve fought them before. They aren’t used to animals fighting back. It wouldn’t be hard, and maybe this will show him how strong we really are,” she said to him. She inhaled deeply and looked at him. “They’ve killed so many of us, Cal. You know that. We can try and help at least a few people.”
He clenched his jaw, his arms crossed as he looked at the trees behind her in thought. “This is a big move.”
He was right and she knew it. But knowing that a group had just been taken wasn’t allowing her to think of anything else. She wanted to save them, she needed to. “I know. But it’s either this or let them suffer, Cal.”
He looked at her for a long moment. “You know, you speak like you don’t intend on this being the only attack you do on a camp.”
She looked at him blankly before looking away. No, no. This won’t be a regular thing. “Then you’re misunderstanding.”
He sighed before rubbing his forehead. “You should look soon before they start to separate them.”
-
It had taken Marcy and Mariyah less than an hour to find the slave camp. They flew for quite some time over the trees, searching for Lius and Fossil’s missing village. With such dense and tall trees, it was difficult.
“This must be it, don’t you think?” Marcy asked, tightly gripping Mariyah’s feathers as they both looked down at the view below them. There was a cluster of navy blue clothed tents, much fancier than the Shifter villages. Soldiers walked around, some laughing and drinking around a campfire. It was the only camp they’d seen yet.
“I hope so.” Mariyah narrowed her eyes as she sat perched on a tall evergreen tree. “But I don’t see anyone other than soldiers.” Her eyes flicked around until she noticed a large tent separated from the others. “Wait...look there.” She pointed with her wing. “They’re probably keeping the slaves in there, you think?"
“Most likely…hm.” Marcy tapped her lip with her tiny mouse fingers in thought as she mumbled under her breath for a few moments. “I counted twenty three soldiers. But there could be more in the other tents.”
Mariyah recounted to be sure, and nodded her head with a lifted brow. “Better to plan for more than less. Let's say thirty?” She looked over the layout of the camp for a few more long moments before expanding her wings. “Can we take on thirty soldiers? With just us?”
Marcy held on tightly as Mariyah flew off into the sky. “Gil, David, Huntro, Cal...Kindrick, Kai…Rose, Bray, Sylve…. Sare, Jos... Steph...then you and me? Against thirty soldiers? With swords?”
“Plus the gladiator fighters…which I would need to speak to.” Mariyah stared ahead as she flew through the clouds. The sun was beginning to set now.
Marcy scrunched her small nose. “We could do it, just us...if we were better fighters. I’m only a mouse. I have to rely on crawling up soldiers' trousers and biting them where it hurts.” She grinned at herself with narrowed eyes.
“I–I-You–” Mariyah stuttered as she lifted her eagle eyebrows. “You did that?!”
“Maybe, maybe not.” Marcy lifted her chin and crossed her arms. “As for the others...Gil and David definitely will have no problem fighting. Kai? Maybe if he pecks their eyes…”
Mariyah winced at the gruesome image and shook her head aggressively. “I’m sure he can use his bow.”
She ignored her logic. “He’d at least cripple a soldier with pecking. Now for Rose...I can’t quite see her pecking out eyes.”
She winced at the thought. “I’d rather not see anyone doing that...but I suppose that’s Kai’s best way to fight...though he would probably prefer a bow. Rose needs to wait some distance away in the forest so that we can bring her any wounded slaves we find. Hopefully there are none, but...I don't know what it's like in there.”
Marcy nodded. “Perfect. We have our own little medic. Good. Then Steph and Jos can...fight however monkeys fight, I suppose.”
Mariyah couldn’t help but giggle. “I shouldn’t laugh, that’s not funny, but-”
“No, it is.” Marcy crossed her arms. “Those two looked absurd fighting off the guards at the arena.”
After more laughs, Mariyah continued. “Huntro and Bray would be very useful. Their biting would hurt.”
Marcy nodded.
“That leaves Sylve, Kindrick, and Sare. Kindrick as a little red bear might compel a few soldiers to hug him…I think he should stick to the bow too.”
Marcy snickered. “He may have the least intimidating shift out of all of us.”
Mariyah looked up. “Are you sure?”
They both laughed a bit more before finishing their evaluation. “Sylve can strangle, and Sare can attack some with biting and scratching,” Marcy added.
“I...I’ll go with what feels best.”
Marcy nodded. “If we each took on one, that’d still leave around fifteen...I pray those gladiator fighters wanna help.
“You and me both.”
Upon Mariyah and Marcy’s return to inside the Dome, Lius quickly greeted Mariyah as Marcy walked off. “How did it go?”
She met his eager gaze and showed a small smile. “It went well. We estimated about thirty soldiers. But we only have fourteen of us.”
“Including me and Fossil?”
She lifted her brow. “You’d come?”
“It’s our village. Of course we would.” He gave her a faint smile.
“That’d be really helpful…if you're sure you’re okay with this.” She tilted her head. “What’s your shift? I saw your friend is a cheetah,” she asked, watching him carefully.
Cornelius locked eyes with Mariyah as he shifted into a large tiger. His fur was golden orange and his stripes were jet black. The white on his fur looked like cotton. He watched her with his blue eyes before shifting back into a human.
“Oh.” She widened her eyes. “Yeah, that’s definitely helpful.” She laughed, before her smile faded just a bit. “I just want to make sure you know we’re going to be fighting, and it’ll be dangerous? I don’t want you to come without knowing the risk we’re taking.” She looked at him with an understanding face.
“I know. Not much Fossil and I should be scared of; a cheetah and a tiger. As long as we don’t let those swords touch us.” He grinned. “Trust me. We’ll be fine. And those are our friends. We need to be a part of this.”
“Well...Thank you.”
Lius lifted his chin. “And your shift is?”
She sighed, not wanting to get into her abnormality, but she explained it regardless.
After the expected shock waved over him, he replied, “Well.” He nodded. “That’ll be very helpful. Though, I can’t see you hurting someone.”
“I don’t want to.” She looked at him, her eyes saddening for a long moment before she spoke more. “Well! Then…that makes fifteen with you, sixteen with Fossil.”
“Sixteen animals versus thirty soldiers?”
“Versus thirty?” a voice called out and a broad young man soon approached the two of them.
Mariyah flashed her eyes towards Lius and then to the stranger in front of her. He looked familiar, though she didn’t know his name. She smiled at him. “Hello. What was that?”
“I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop or anything, but I heard you say something that sounded like a plan?”
Lius looked at Mariyah, unsure of what to say.
“Oh, yes. We are planning on rescuing some villagers from a slave camp out. We were just going over the numbers.”
The man replied, “Something like the way you saved us?”
She narrowed her eyes before recognizing him. “Oh! You were a gladiator?”
He nodded his head and held out his arms covered in scars. “I’m a grizzly.”
“I’m so sorry…” her voice trailed off as her eyes skimmed over his gnarly cuts and gashes. “Yes. Exactly like that. But I think this may be more difficult. There isn’t a festival to mask any commotion, and it seems to be heavily guarded.”
“I can tell you now, you can have me fight. I have friends, friends I met at the arena. We’ve been treated like animals. I know we can become them but...we aren’t animals. We’re still human at heart. And the things we saw down there…” He shook his head. “If what you’re doing means going against the king and this God forsaken kingdom, I’ll gladly help. I’m sure my friends will too.”
Her heart thudded anxiously in her chest. “Oh-I-are you sure? I mean...this may be very dangerous. I don’t know exactly how this will go-”
“More dangerous than tossing us in an arena with wild animals?”
She didn’t respond, only looked at him with sadness.
“Count us in. I’ll talk to the others and give you a number.”
Her heart warmed at his offer and she smiled. “If you’re sure...thank you.” She nodded her head and looked at Lius as the man departed, her smile fading. She put a hand to her stomach. “That just made me incredibly sick.”
“Sick? He just offered you fighters.”
Mariyah’s eyes widened and she nodded her head. “Yes, and that’s more people under my watch.”
“Weren’t you just saying you needed more help?”
She frowned and bit her lip. “I’ve never had this type of responsibility before. That’s all.”
Lius nudged her shoulder. “You have us. We all wanna be here.”
She sighed slowly. “I suppose you’re right.” She gave him a small smile and laughed nervously. “I hope you're ready.” I hope I’m ready too…
“I’ve been waiting for something like this for a long time. Fossil and I will be ready.”
He smirked, and the two chatted a bit longer before Mariyah departed into her cabin.