One of the Wo-men / Part I Redemption

[Caira Ayryn]

Caira had spent the night reading the Greek Mythology story book -though she actually assumed the stories were “historical”- they gave her hope as to any enemy could be defeated with sheer wit, passionate willpower, and the favor of the gods. So, the girl wondered and pondered what was the best tactic to face a warrior who had unsurpassable speed. The Omniverse was certainly a place where she would encounter people with the complete package: Skill, speed, and supremacy.

The wake up call finally sounded. Caira moved back into her "Prime-only" dorm. She passed by men’s housing as the partially nude, partially groggy, men awoke from their slumber and began to get changed and ready for the day as though there was nothing in the world to shame them... The monk soon found out the hard way.

“What? There are no women’s dorms?”

“Supply and demand, sweetheart.” Muttered the training officer as he pressed his cigarette ashes and smothered their glowing smokey embers.

“Surely there are women Primes who want to-”

“Listen, I don’t know how the military works for you in the world you are from, but some societies have their women do other tasks because not many of them can fight on the front lines. Some even bear children. It isn’t all about inability.”

The girl scowled at the stuck-up bastard, inability was a stereotype. Another word she would have preferred to replace it with would have been “inequality.” It sounded more like politics than priority of the Kingdom, meanwhile the man continued to ramble, “Some have families and others become pregnant one day or another. Very few train here and very few succeed beyond the confines of the Kingdom’s reach.”

"How can you possibly stereotype women like that?"

Caira stood in the officer’s smoggy office and thought about the roundabout answers he was giving, “But I’ve met one before, she was in List’s-” the man gave her a snide look and he quickly corrected the fallen soldier’s title, “General List’s platoon.”

“Fine man, he was. Taking on a woman in his platoon. She trained like the rest of ya’ before she became a soldier. Took ‘er twice as long, I might say, but I don’t think you’ll have that problem ‘cause you already know hand to hand. He trained ‘er from scratch.” Caira stood there for a moment, sifting through the unimaginable idea of such a noble Kingdom lacking progress. It was as though having a woman as a member of their legion was something rare and unimaginable. The man chewed his cheek sloppily, “Plus, she was his sister.”

He enjoyed the shock and awe that the new knowledge brought to her stupefied expression and lit another coffin nail. Caira took a moment to regain her wits before nodding in acknowledgment, apparently it was something doable. “Well, I think I have something to fix your dorm problems,” he said after a while.

...

“This?” Caira stared at the storeroom, it was a small unkept shack with a leaky and deprived roof with broken clay shingles. The musty smell grew in her nose when she entered and she quickly clasped her cupped palm over her lips to annex the pungent taste from her tongue.

The man blew his smoke into the already tainted room as he directed. “Yep. It’s all yours if you clean it. But you still have to train like the rest of ‘em.” The trainer said so the girl wouldn’t get the idea that slacking would be permitted.

“I’ll do it,” Caira stated and affirmed his efforts, before receiving his wrath-filled glare that told her she was missing something, “-Sir.”