From Night On: Magdalene

Chapters 11-12

"That's exactly what you're doing right now!" Meira growled, but the two men still didn't pay her any mind.

"Then that is a lesson she will have to learn," Quaden remarked. "She will need to learn the balance between being commanding without being a tyrant. You wanna place wager on how this will go?"

Meira was fuming. She could see exactly what they were doing, but that didn't stop her from getting angry. "Ten silver says she knocks out a man within the next day," Mateus bet, "but twenty says she never becomes a tyrant. She's not that kind of person."

"I can see that," Quaden nodded. "She's too soft to go tyrannical on anyone, but I'll take that bet and move the first knock out to within the next twelve hours. She is a woman, after all."

That was the remark that set her off. Just before Meira blew up, Mateus winked at Quaden, "Padding in your favor."

"What is that supposed to mean?!?" Meira roared, startling everyone in earshot. "So what if I'm a woman?!? Get your heads out of your asses before I win that bet and knock you both out in the next minute!" Mateus couldn't help snickering at the fact that he just teased and got a rise out of Meira, but she wasn't having it. She released her glare upon him and he went still. "Get your men in order!" she barked. "And you," she turned to Quaden, "you said you'd stay out of this, so keep your words to yourself!"

Quaden and Mateus excused themselves quickly, giving her the respect she was learning to demand, and she turned to the rest of the groups. "Eat, drink, and get some rest," she ordered them. "We are leaving in six hours." At her command, a few of the men laughed and ignored her. She marched over and knocked one to his rear, standing over him with her Centurion's Stare. "If you'd like to be left behind," she laughed, "I'm sure we can put your pay to better uses, or would you like to keep your employment?"

The fury of being treated as anything less than an equal boiled up from her anger towards how she had been treated by her mother. She was not just some commodity whose future was to be discussed with anyone but her. She knew it was well within her to be just as capable as any person, if not more so, but it was only in the face of opposition that she would be reminded of her determination to prove it. A lesson, in time, she would have to learn to remember, regardless of who stood in her way, including herself.

Without anymore hesitation, but with a slue of nasty looks, the men followed the command at the appointed time and loaded back onto the ships. Meira chose to keep her boat at the rear to watch over the rest. While they allowed the flow of the river to take them easily along their paths, she maintained her hardened stance as she marched about the boat, inspecting each crew member's duties.

They didn't like the eyes on them. Quaden had created a tightly run business where he could trust his men to perform their tasks without oversight, so Meira's watchful eye was mistaken as being over controlling. She didn't intend to give that impression, but, since they seemed even more annoyed by her questions about what they were doing, she had to sacrifice her concern of their perception in trade for learning of their respective duties through simple observation.

On the second day of travel, a man who had been trolling a net for fish hit a snag on something in the river and was nearly pulled overboard into waters that were teeming with crocodiles. Meira, who happened to be passing by him, watching him from the corner of her eye to learn his technique, leaped into action to catch him before he was tugged over the rail. With incredible strength, that shocked even those who were familiar with her abilities, she helped the man haul in the net as it kicked and turned.

Once at the surface of the water, they could see that they had unintentionally caught one of the large reptiles, that then put up the fight of its life. The centurions jumped into the fray, hoisting the creature aboard and killing it quickly for the meat. This whole instance gave Meira a pivotal chance to make her agenda clear and she didn't hesitate.