JaKaelath stood in the center of the tent, looking at herself in the mirror. Crafted from a breathable fabric, the "Ponu-suit" was a tight, light pink unitard that fit like a second skin. A thin, color-matched pink seam traced the spine down the back. The material covered her from neck to ankle. Despite the full coverage, the suit left the wearer feeling utterly exposed.

The feeling it 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 cotton 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, but JaKaelath just looked at him 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.

She was summoned to Kallian's 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. 

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. 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 seven-foot-tall Dowath. His shame was total, a seasoned scavenger spy, captured without a fight by a single 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 and five massive Dowath flew directly into the Red Band scavenger camp, delivering an arrogant declaration from their leader, Dana: "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.