"Though she is one of the best, I'm afraid that I am not the only one who has suffered at her hands." He opens his Mbuba robe, revealing a bloodied bandage on his stomach, that I had no memory of inflicting on his person.

  She also assaulted her superior when he tried to have her arrested and questioned, she would have killed him if I hadn't intervened and thus inflicting this life-threatening wound. She put the lives of her whole hunting guild in danger when she did not obey a direct order. We all know what such actions entail." He looks at all the council members, holding eye contact with each one of them.

Every eye went to where Jagne stood. Our eyes clash for a split second, and he smirks at me, mouth curling at the sides. It was that quick; it was for me. Even though his eyes wish me a thousand different deaths, each one more painful than the other. He, too, sports the same somber look that Eldres had on. They were such claimants.  

"She has broken no rule council Elder, and you know that. Kamili has given them life. If not for her, we would have lost five of our hunters. She faced the Reapers when the captain gave orders to let them die. What offense is there to give people life? One of them, the life of your own son. "Madi steps forward, the crowd parted, letting him through.

I shake my head. He shouldnt do this; I will not let him do this. He will sink with me if he dared question Eldres, it would be seen as a challenge of sorts. He strode towards me and slip his hand in mine. The crowd whisper, speculative eyes turned on us, Eldres stammer, at a loss for words,

   "Don't do this. Go! Dont look back."

   "I can never leave my heart behind,"he squeezes my hand in his. Setting off my heartbeat in a furious gallop, with an arresting smile.

  "That is true, we can't go around not having any concern for saving lives, an act of true valor and stupidity. We all know that we can't take the risks of people doing whatever pleases them, that is why there are rules in place if not, anarchy will take root and rule our lives, our settlements gone like so many others lost out there! Is that what we want? I might let that pass, but what reason has she to spy on council affairs? How many out there would love to see us brought to our knees? To face destruction? Extinction? "The crowd went silent again.

Everyone knew that it was a blood offense to venture into the forbidden. I had done that, and the tribe dont want to see if I had saved countless of lives; it was not enough to blot out that blasphemous offense, only one thing will do, only blood would suffice, my blood.

Get them thinking about losing their homes, eking out a living in the scorching, hot desert. The thought of joining another settlement is an unthinkable nightmare. Everybody knows what's out there, Bendula's one of the safest settlements this side of  Africa, he has them where he wants them. How can I compete with such a thought?

He had planted the seeds of fear of the unknown in their heads, the idea morphing into a plant growing at a fast rate, growing into gigantic proportions. I know one thing; there's no way I'm getting out of this unscathed, a price would be asked of me, huge enough to have me on my knees. Eldres gives me a triumphant smile that I want to rip out with my bare hands. That's what he needed. Angry eyes turned on me, I could see their eyes mete out ways of punishing me. My heroics forgotten, the cause of Eldress, lethal, poisonous tongue.

   "Does that not give you questions people? What does she have in mind spying on us? That, maybe shes the enemy? "he shouts. "That can't go unpunished by law she should be cut at suns-fall and turned to the Reapers with nothing else but only the clothes on her back come nightfall, or by the trial of surei blades."

I shiver and turn helpless blues on Mama. Not that, anything but that. My eyes plead. I had witnessed that when I was ten, the son of a council elder committed a blood offense, raping, and killing female rug rats, discarding their bodies into the river.

He thought that he could get away with that he was above the council. He realized his mistake too late when he grew careless and sloppy. His punishment was a trial of Surei blades. He was tied to a stake at the very place I stood in, had the whole town lash out at him with small, ceremonial whips laced with small, serrated blades used for such things, everyone made shallow and deep cuts on his body, they didnt stop until each person has been made cuts on his body.

Then left to bleed out till dawn, turned away, banished forever from his roots, but that never came because he didn't make it to morning. None has survived dawn, I'm not sure I could. 

The crowd cheers, forgetting that I was part of them once, that I'm Kendulusun, but at this moment, that doesnt matter anymore. To them, I was a traitor, that I have some kind of nefarious agenda to bring an end to this settlement. I deserved to be punished. These were people I have grown up with, I knew them, I laughed, and I cried with them. I helped protect and provide for them, saved most of their lives. And right now, all that has been forgotten, nothing else matters to them, only my penance does.

   "I claim immunity; my daughter cannot be turned out or sentence to the trial of Surei blades when she has done nothing wrong. No matter the circumstance, Eldres." Mama stands proud, back straight, head held high.

She steps on the dais, facing Eldres, whose face went livid, the council nod at Mama. The crowd quieted, murmurs and whispers rose to a pitch. Eldres turned angry, narrowed to slits eyes on me, seeing that he was cornered. He balls his hands into fists, which he stuffs in the folds of his grand-mbuba robes. Thank God that Mama has some sort of sway over the council. I don't know the immunity she speaks of, but right now, I dont mind if she pulls in some strings to have me free. Banishment and trial of Surei blades isn't something I want mulling in my mind.

   "That is true Channeh, but that immunity can only stretch so far. You left this town twenty years ago in search of glory and fame, to only come back with a child, and another in your belly, a foreign mate and an abomination that should not be let into our town, we let it roam about free to do what it wants out of the goodness of our hearts, risking our children."He had struck a raw nerve in the crowd, and he knew it. It was a downplay that could play well in his favor, using their hatred and fear of Cleo.

  "Kill the beast ." a woman I recognize as one of the people who liked making my family's life hell screams from the crowd, pumping a small, bony fist in the air: her eyes, two burning coals of hatred that made me want to throw up on the dais.

  "Why should we let such a thing live among us?"a man screams taking a step towards Cleo. His face a mask of menace and fury.

"You don't belong here."

  "Kill it."

  "Kill the damn thing."

    "We don't need abominations living among us. God knows we have out enough there. "Another screams eyes full of fire on Mama and me.

Cleo growls low in her throat, stretching to her full height. The crowd shrinks back, cowering.

     "Cleo."

Cleo huffs at me then lay back on the ground, let out a small whine, her eyes trained on me, waiting for anyone to make a move. Eldres' eyes glint with satisfaction. He gives Mama a smug look; I know that this was what he wanted. He was playing with us, using the hatred and fear of the people of Cleo against us. The harm's done; the poison has been released in their systems, in harmony with the plant growing inside them, nourishing it.