So the mines were a little out of the way. Mav had walked west on the path for less than an hour before Kellen informed Mav to head south on an intersecting road. It was a wide highway on which the occasional car or bus zoomed by. Like most Neirean highways, however, there was a worn walking path alongside it. This trek took a couple hours, but so what? Mav got a decent workout pulling the cart and he spent a nice time making friends.
Kellen and Orla had been married for nearly ten years, and they’d known each other for more than twice that long. They grew up in a hamlet to the east of Linick, at the edge of that region’s mountain range. They wanted to raise their daughters – Cara and Clara – away from a big city, but recent developments forced them to leave their home and look for work elsewhere. They heard that CC Corp – a relatively small but growing mining company – was opening a new mine in Mount Ergil and had been traveling for the past two weeks to get there.
“And here you finally are!” Mav proclaimed as they entered the settlement.
Several buses were parked in a line, dozens of people mulling around them. Farther inside, workers inspected large vehicles designed to destroy and move large pieces of land and rock. Those vehicles appeared to have metal plating of similar grade to the ones Peace Keepers and the Talam Guard used when deploying troops to a battle field.
“Oh, bless you Honored Flame Dancer,” Kellen said. “The line for new recruits should be over there.”
Mav brought them around the buses. The people there hadn’t just been mulling, but were waiting in line to speak to a woman at a desk. At a closer look, the line was filled with groups of different families. About a dozen other carts were pulled off to the side, a buff man with his arms folded watching over them. Mav brought Kellen’s cart to the others.
“If I could give you more than my thanks, I would,” Kellen said.
Mav smiled, then beamed at Cara and Clara, who’d hopped in the cart when they'd grown tired of walking an hour ago. “Just provide a better life for your family. That’s all I need.”
“We will.” Orla began twirling her hair in her finger, looking side to side. “But I have to ask... I don’t mean to be disrespectful... but is she alright?”
Maren trudged to a stop ten feet behind them, looking as if a rat had bitten her toe, forcing her awake, and now she couldn’t fall back asleep because of the constant sharp pain – as unpleasant an experience as Mav had suffered while in training. Well, a few others had been worse. But why think about trauma when his good friends Repression and Lying were at his beck and call?
Speaking of the second one. “Oh, she’s fine. Just didn’t get much sleep last night. Nothing to worry about.”
No reason to get into the fact that the enthusiastic and peppy Maren he’d met five days ago had been replaced with a grouch.
“Sorry for assuming anything, Honored Flame Dancer,” Orla said, bowing slightly.
“Please, it’s alright,” Mav said. “You four have a good life now.”
With final farewells, Mav joined Maren. “Not even gonna say goodbye?”
She grimaced as if that rat were still gnawing on her toe. “How’s he supposed to get work on that ankle?”
Orla supported Kellen as he limped to the back of the line. Cara and Clara ran circles around them like hyperactive moons.
“It’ll heal eventually,” Mav said. “And in that time, Orla can work by organizing materials or whatever they mine. That’ll still pay better than they’d had before. And when Kellen heals, he can bring in even more credits.”
Maren hmphed. “Guess that’s good.”
Maren didn’t look happy, but her demeanor didn’t suggest she was angry at the family. Mav also hadn’t detected any sarcasm in her statement. If she didn’t mind helping them, then why hadn’t she tried to engage with the family? She’d hung back the whole time, barely saying anything even when Cara and Clara ran back to talk to her. The little girls had returned, downhearted and upset, only a couple minutes later.
No one spoke of Maren until Orla had just now. What was going on with Maren?
“Might as well look around,” Maren said, scanning the mining settlement. “See if we can get a small job here. But don’t accept one unless we get paid, got it?”
Any hope Mav had been building was kicked out from beneath him. Payment, payment, payment. Did everything have to be about collecting credits?”
“Yes, ma’am.”