JaKaelath's eyes open. She is lying in bed next to her boyfriend, Kragon.

  In the darkness, she can barely make out the surroundings in their shared tent, which sits in the scavenger camp.

  She sighs and thinks of her routine, everything is the same. She feels ashamed that she does not feel comfort in the mundane, routine life that has become the norm in camp over the last few weeks, but instead, she yearns for something different. She thinks, "Same crappy food, same tedious chores, same faces, same lame jokes from friends".

  She turns over and opens a flap behind her bed, and sunlight illuminates her face, making her eyes almost seem to glow momentarily, as she squints them again to fall back on her bed.

  Just then, a thought rushes to her: today will be different, she does not know why, but she has a feeling that today will be the beginning of something wonderful.

  She closes her eyes to her world and prepares to sleep some more. Then a noise is heard from in the camp. There is a commotion. Something big is happening. People approaching. Someone is coming! She urgently wakes Kragon.

  She did not completely wake him before someone entered the flaps of the tent, a female scavenger. "You, JaKaelath, Kallian wants to see you right now!"

  Soon, the mundane routine of life would be something she wished for.

  Later that afternoon...

  JaKaelath stood in the center of the tent, looking at herself in the mirror.

  The feeling of being in the "Ponu suit" was weird to say the least. She stared at herself up and down in the pink unitard that fit her as tight as a second skin, covering her from neck to ankle.

  The only interruption in the otherwise seamless garment was a thin seam that traced the spine down the back.

  The feeling the Ponu suit offered, of being bare, exposed, was unsettling. She ran her hand over her hip; the feel was so different from the worn leather or rough clothing she was used to.

  Looking at herself in the mirror, she was a figure that was both familiar and alien.

  She brushed back her long, light brown hair.

  Her friends sitting in the tent couldn't help but giggle at both how uncomfortable JaKaelath was, but also at how well she could pull off being a Ponu. This was a mission that she was seemingly born for.

  "Never knew you had such a cute bum, JaKaelath!” her friend JaMaya giggled, pointing at her behind, which the "Ponu-suit" left little of to the imagination. Scavenger culture was not used to this.

  "Shut it," JaKaelath snapped, flushing.

  These suits were a part of the enemy's identity, a strange symbol of the strange women known as the Ponu, who have always been the enemy of her people.

  She had heard the stories ever since she was a child of the invasion by the Ponu, how they wiped out entire villages before the scavengers united and fought back.

  Along with the stories of the Ponu, she had heard whispers about herself. She was smaller than the other scavengers, with softer features. She had heard many times her scavenger tribe-mates say that she looked too much like a Ponu, that maybe she was one. She had seen her father get into fights with people who claimed his daughter was a Ponu.

  "You know, JaKaelath, you there in that tight light pink suit, barefoot, your hair flowing down, all you need is to put some pretty wings on your back and you'll look just like a fairy". JaMaya laughed the loudest at her own joke.

  JaKaelath only answered with a sharp look towards JaMaya and their other friend, JaLena

  "I can't see how they wear these things," she said, more to herself than to her friends. "I feel completely naked. Vulnerable."

  A deep, measured, familiar voice answered. "That's the point." It was Kragon, her boyfriend.

  He pushed aside the tent's flaps and stepped inside.

  Kragon had every bit of the scavenger physique, so there was no question of his heritage. Tall, muscular, with sharp features, rough-looking skin and thick dark eyebrows.

  The only thing more impressive than his physical presence was his intellect. He was one of the smartest people in any scavenger camp, and quick to let anyone know he used his head, not his muscles. Yet, looking at him, you got the feeling that if push came to shove, he could use the latter most effectively.

  He couldn't wait to share what he knew about the suits. “They were designed by the Ponus’ masters, Geeryo, to symbolize that they were owned—body and mind. But now, they seem to wear them as a part of their identity.”

  He moved closer, his eyes scanning her up and down with a look of appreciation.

  “Besides,” he added, his voice dropping lower, “the suit fits you so well. It’d be a shame to let it go to waste.”

  The others giggled, trying to keep the mood light and relaxed in what was a dire situation, their friend walking into the jaws of the lion. JaKaelath just looked at Kragon as she saw the deeper meaning in his words. Her features, she could easily pass as a Ponu. She looked too much like the enemy for some in her own village. Even her name, JaKaelath, meant “The found one,” a constant, cruel reminder of the whispers that had followed her since childhood.

  Her parents were both gone now, and at twenty-six, she was still haunted by the rumors that she was not truly one of them.

  She even remembered a fight her father had with Kallian, the overall leader of her people, the "Red Band" scavengers, when she was a child, after Kallian had called her a Ponu. Her father had trounced Kallian, humiliated him. Kallian never seemed to forgive or forget that.

  She thought of what had happened earlier that morning.

  Kallian and his "gang" as she thinks of them, had arrived in full force and she was summoned to his temporary command tent. There sat their leader. A tall, bald, muscular man in his 40s who had a scar across his cheek.

  With distant, cold eyes, he gave her the mission. Infiltrate, pretend to be one of them. Find their weaknesses. He handed her the "Ponu-suit" without further instructions, as if she would be familiar with it.

  Kallian had always avoided her whenever he was in her camp. He was the overall ruler of their people, so he spent time in all of their camps. His base was in another camp, but now he had been spending more and more time here, her home camp, and it made her nervous. When he didn't avoid her, he seemed to have a disdain for her. Now he might have been sending her on a suicide mission. Who knows what the Ponu will do if they find out she is a spy. That's not even taking into account the Dowath. She shuddered to think of that.

  If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  The Dowath were what made this life a living hell to survive in. Wars between scavenger tribes happened from time to time and were brutal. The Ponu, when they are organized and motivated, have a deadly efficiency, but the Dowath were on a whole different level.

  Human beings were not much more than food to them. Just one with its incredible strength and razor-sharp claws could take down a dozen men. Small arms, which they had few of, were almost useless against the monsters.

  To be caught in the open meant death to one of these large, humanoid bat-like creatures with large wings independent of their arms. They were a prime reason that no human settlement can ever grow to anything large enough to create a civilization. It was better to move on from place to place. Only stay in one area for a short while, and maybe the Dowath will not attack.

  This is what made her mission so interesting. She would be going to a cave where Dowath, hundreds of them, lived, along with Ponu, hundreds of them, living in peace. Dowath had hunted Scavenger, Ponu alike, but this was different. This one cave of Ponu women had somehow formed an alliance, and now the Dowath were their protectors. It seemed impossible.

  Yet the entire camp saw this alliance firsthand.

  Dukota, Kallian's hand-picked spy, had been recently caught on a hillside near the Ponu's cave by a single Ponu woman. She didn't even have to threaten him herself. She merely stood there, flanked by two eight-and-a-half-foot-tall Dowath. His shame was total, a seasoned scavenger spy, captured without a fight by a Ponu woman in a pink suit.

  The Ponu didn't just let him go; they interrogated him.

  The worst part was yet to come, days later. The same Ponu woman, named Emma, and five massive Dowath flew directly into the Red Band scavenger camp, delivering an arrogant declaration from their leader, Dana. The message Emma gave was simple: "We're ready. Are you?" This audacious move had humiliated Kallian, making the entire scavenger tribe look weak and indecisive.

  Dukota was useless now as an asset in Kallian's eyes. Kallian now needed a spy so covert, so unlike the Red Band's scarred warriors, that the Ponu wouldn't see her coming. That spy had to be JaKaelath.

  JaKaelath, however, secretly wondered if this was just his way of getting rid of her once and for all.

  Later...

  Kragon marched confidently behind JaKaelath. He seemed relaxed, considering they were approaching the stronghold of their enemy. He held a rifle in one hand with the barrel pointed in her general direction, but not directly at her. It was all for show.

  If they were spotted early by the Ponu or one of their Dowath, he was to pretend she was his prisoner, being led to her punishment. He would run off, and she would "escape" to the Ponu, maintaining her cover.

  He would escort her to as close to the cave city as he could, which then still left a long, exhausting walk through the dead forests of the wasteland.

  “Remember,” he said, with a grin on his face, “if the Ponu suspect you, just say some slogan like ‘We are the future’ or ‘Geeryo is great.’” He laughed at his own joke.

  JaKaelath's patience was wearing thin with the lame jokes.

  His eyes lingered on her for a moment, looking her up and down in the form-fitting Ponu-suit. “You know,” he said, “from this angle, I gotta say, that suit really makes you look hot.”

  She had had enough. She stopped dead in her tracks. “So are you saying you find Ponu women more attractive than us scavenger women because of these silly suits?”

  His humor vanished, and he quickly turned back to her, his face blushing. “No, no, that’s not what I meant. I just… You look good in it. It fits you, almost naturally.”

  JaKaelath turned angrily. “I am NOT a Ponu.”

  “Of course you’re not,” he said desperately. “We’ve never even seen a young child or a teen Ponu. They all seem to be adults. You grew up here with us. We were kids together. Although....." he continued, soon regretfully so, "it would explain why we haven’t been able to conceive.”

  That was it. The final, brutal insult, whether intentional or not. With a sudden, fluid motion, JaKaelath lunged forward, disarming him startlingly fast. She slammed him against a tree.

  Her eyes, which were usually a soft, warm brown, were now cold and hard. Her breath was heaving with anger. “Don’t you ever,” she said, her voice low and terrifying, “bring that up again!” She released him and, without another word, turned and walked on. Kragon stood there, stunned, watching her go, the surprise and respect for her quickness now mingled with a new, unsettling fear.

  An hour later, they made it to the point where she would go on alone, and Kragon would wait for her during the week of her planned mission.

  It was a point referred to as the hunter's hole. Above ground, it looked like just a small, rocky crevice. However, under a hidden door covered with leaves on the ground was a small underground bunker. It was just far enough away to avoid a Ponu patrol but close enough that if she had to escape, she could make it back to him.

  With this, JaKaelath was on her own. She walked over the terrain carefully, as she was still not used to walking barefoot as the Ponu women did.

  JaKaelath had always had a very strong memory. It was a gift that had earned her a reputation among her tribe as a scout who could remember terrain with a photographer’s eye for detail. She made detailed mental notes to herself that she could recall with perfect accuracy weeks later. Hopefully, she thought, this would serve her well in the cave.

  She made it to the edge of a treeline, and looking out, she saw it. The mountain containing the City cave. She took a deep breath. She was about to walk into the jaws of death, into a place where the Dowath, the hunters of the air, served their pink-clad masters.

  She knew nothing of Ponu culture except that the ones living in the cave were not the norm. She wished Kragon were somehow going in with her; he could probably tell her this or that about the Ponu.

  All she knew was that most Ponu live scattered in the wastelands and ruins, hunted by different Dowath, who apparently hadn't gotten the message that they are allies. Or hunted by her people, the scavengers, for revenge, for when the Ponu mercilessly attacked them for their masters.

  She knew that there were male Ponu, but they were extremely rare, and when found, most would die within hours. It's rare to see a male Ponu who does not succumb to whatever sickness afflicts them.

  An angry thought flashed through her mind. Perhaps this is how Kallian wants her to die, in this Ponu suit, a final laugh at her father. An ironic twist of the knife. Maybe she should turn back, grab Kragon, and just go somewhere, anywhere else. But a surge of defiance pushed the thought away. Kallian may want her to die here, in this Ponu suit, but she wouldn't let him have the final laugh. Her people needed her. She would fulfill her duty. She stepped out from the tree line and approached the Cave.

  She marched down from the treeline through the large open clearing. Overhead, she saw a Dowath flying. It sent fright through her entire body, and her heart began to race. She closed her eyes to remove the fear, to keep herself moving forward. Every cell in her body was screaming to turn and run. She kept repeating to herself, "It will not hurt me, it thinks I am one of them. It will not hurt me, it thinks I am one of them".

  The creature let out a call, a scream of dominance over the skies, that sent fear shuddering through JaKaelath's body and her eyes snapped open.

  Her legs felt heavy with every step, and her breathing became shallow.

  She was past the point of no return, she thought, out here in the open, if the creature above wanted her dead...creatures, she gasps, seeing a second Dowath flying nearby. There was nowhere to safely run.

  As she approached the City cave, she was taken aback by how large the place must be just by looking at the entrance. She saw Ponu women walking about near the entrance, but what almost stopped her in her tracks were the two Dowath seemingly standing guard at the entrance. She took cautious steps as one of the monsters looked down at her with a grin. Her hands were shaking, eyes directly fixed on the creatures, ready to desperately run for her life if either moved. Just then, a woman's voice called out, "Welcome, sister!"