Roar, Lioness. Roar

To Catch a Mouse

"Disarm them," Bria directs Anya and Tick.

The redhead shuffles her feet, readying herself for the Valkyrie battle dance. Rebel grins, eager to pounce. Verlaine backs away, centering her sight on the woman's chest.

"May, wait!" Akiva says, placing herself between the woman and their guns. She whispers to her in fast short code.

"I will only say this once, girl: comply or be prepared for a world of pain." Bria's words and body language are calm yet foreboding.

She glances her way, eyes seeking approval, and Latisha nods. For the first time in a long time, Latisha feels something other than contempt towards the old woman.

At Akiva's prodding, the Valkyrie raises her hands. Tick and Anya are quick to strip the women of their meager belongings. They take everything except for their armbands. Those are rigged to explode, killing the wearer and anyone within ten feet. A precaution The Mothers use to keep Phalanx's secrets. Their stuff is thrown into a net bag. It's barely enough for one to survive in The Waste for more than a day. What could the two of them have hoped to accomplish?

If Latisha knows Akiva, the sneaky field mouse, they were up to something.

"I will cut those eyes out of your head," Bria hisses at the icy glare of the redhead. Surely this fierce woman is the one Akiva once spoke of so fondly.

"Bria doesn't like your friend, Field Mouse," Latisha laughs. She gestures for Bria to lower her machete. "We want them at their best, no?"

"I'll leave her one, Latisha. Then she can–"

Barbed tentacles yank Bria backwards into the waiting grasp of a hungry squid. She screams as he bites deeply into her arm and tears a bloody hunk from her shoulder. It howls in joyful triumph and Latisha fires from her hip, reducing its head to yellow chunks. Verlaine hits it in the body and it stumbles back and over the cliff's edge. Bria's cries echo through the expanse as she falls out of sight. The pack runs to the edge and renews their barrage, raining death on the squids who'd survived the destruction of the bridge and scaled the rocks.

When the cliff is clear of monsters, Latisha gives the order to cease fire. Her cats look at one another, Tick on the verge of tears, Rebel breathing heavily and eager to continue the fight. There is no love lost for Bria, but she's one of their party and a member of the clan. Despite her animosity towards the abrasive woman, even Latisha feels the instant and sharp sting of loss. She looks over the side and down to the mist gathering at the bottom of the mesa.

"It's probably a better grave than you could have hoped for, old woman," she says to the dead.

Latisha remembers sitting with Bria and breaking fast with her collection of brats. Three were her own blood, but the others were the daughters of friends lost. As her huntress, it now falls to Latisha to care for the little hellions.

She and her cats return their attention to the field mouse and her red-haired friend. Verlaine stays behind, keeping watch over the chasm.

"Come along," Latisha says. "It is getting late."

Anya nudges the two outsiders with her rifle. Akiva stumbles and falls into the dirt. The bottoms of her feet are red and bleeding from small cuts.

"This little one will be more trouble than she's worth." She looks back to the expanse and South Garden. "Maybe she is already."

"I don't–" Latisha begins.

"I'll carry her," the redhead interrupts. "I can carry her with no problem." Her Phalanx accent is strong, using too many unnecessary words and pronouncing every syllable.