Maidens

A Camp of Women

When I laid my eyes on the tree, I thought we were mistaken. "This is the camp?"

Lerina's eyes glowed at the skinny, scraggly, twig-like baby tree.

"Clever girls. They must have great glamour mages. Come, the people must see their newest recruits," Lerina told us.

Lyla stopped her arm. "Whoa, whoa. I'm not going with any crazy lady. Where do you think you're going?"

"Ah! I should have known you would object. The camp is concealed from prying eyes for further protection. Only certain people are allowed entry, and any person who's brought along by the allowed are also allowed entry," Lerina explained.

Without further argument, the woman grabbed our hands and dragged us to the tree stump. She placed our palms on the back after her own, and the world began to spin around us. A larger tree now stood in front of us: a great redwood. The base was hollowed out, seemingly a tunnel.

"Still no camp!" Lyla complained.

I tapped her shoulder and pointed to the narrow tunnel way.

"Very observant, Eletra," Lerina nodded approvingly. She slid forward and began crawling on all fours down the tunnel. "Come along, ladies."

Lyla and I looked at each other. Despite the evidence that the Maidens were true, I was still a bit skeptical. What were the odds of all this? It didn't seem possible. Ranian men possessed magic, and now it seemed women did too, but why did this surface for me after all this time?

As my eyes cleared of my thoughts, I saw Lyla look at me strangely.

"What?"

"Nothing. I thought I heard something. Come on, I think we should go," she said.

As we walked in the tunnel, a thought occurred to me. "Lerina, what is the major difference between female mages and male mages?"

"Well, while girls exhibit their traits earlier, boys exhibit them later. In addition, boys can perform most feats of magic, but only small corners of each part. Girls have limited power, but can perform stronger feats of magic over all. In a duel, the powers will be equal if both have learnt the same amount of years, because magic can be combined or layered, giving both people an equal amount of magic."

"Oh!" I said, "Is there a way to tell what power I have?"

"No, not until we get into the camp. A little more crawling should do it," she told me.

Meanwhile, we both looked back to Lyla shivering, shrieking, and swatting away at spider webs.

"Why are there so many bugs? Get them away me!" she boomed.

I let out a harmless laugh, earning a hateful glare from her. "What are you looking at? Move along or help me get rid of this vermin. I can't believe we have to be so, so---so unladylike!"

"Okay, girls. Calm down. The tunnel can easily collapse with hate radiation," Lerina joked.

I think she expected us to laugh, but both of us looked at each other and kept on crawling silently. As we reached the end of the tunnel, a slow stream of light could be made out in the dimness. The only reason we could see at all was because Lerina had lit her finger with a small glow. Once the light began to widen, all three of us cheered. Until we crawled out and saw a hundred bows aimed for us, a warrior girl behind each one, fiercely eyeing us.

***********************************************

"Should we leave?" Lyla gulped, "They don't exactly look friendly."