notion • john murphy

1 - BANISHMENT

[ BANISHMENT ]

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Their yells and cheers could be heard for miles.

"What do you think is happening?" Sayah asks Lincoln as they quietly and sneakily approach towards the Sky People's camp. The people's cheers grew more clearer as they spied through some of the surrounding bushes.

"Look." He points.

The sky people stood there, cheering what sounded like to be saying, "Float him! Float him!" Over and over again.

"Float him? What does that mean?" Sayah questions Lincoln, still keeping her gaze on the cheering crowd. Lincoln didn't answer, his brows furrowed in confusion.

Sayah notices the same brunette from the first day they landed. He looked almost scared. Innocent. So much different to how he appeared the first day they had landed.

   The cheers grew louder and the brunette suddenly ran forward. However, another young boy stuck out his foot, causing him to trip over it. As soon as he hit the ground, the others began to kick and beat him.

The same blonde as the first day, was stuck in the growing crowd around him, trying to grasp onto the others to get to the brunette. She pleaded for them to stop. Her pleas went unheard. The brunette tried to get up, but someone kicked him back down.

   Sayah clenches her jaw at the action. "Where is their leader in all this?" She murmurs to Lincoln, watching with a distasteful look. "Surely this is not their way."

   Lincoln purses his lips, but says nothing. The two continue to watch the rageful crowd continue to beat the boy until they put a rag of some sort in his mouth. They tie up his hands behind his back and suddenly he was shoved down a small, mud like, hill. He rolls down helplessly.

"Animals," Sayah whispers. She looks to Lincoln. "We should stop this, Lincoln. Whatever their reasons, surely we can—" A loud crash and more cheers interrupted her. Sayah looked back to see the brunette hanging by a rope of some sort. Her eyes widen in shock and she looks to the ground, eyes searching around as she tries to think of a plan. She straightens up, stepping forward, ready to intervene but an arm pulls her back.

"Lincoln—"

"It's not our fight, Sayah." He tells her as he pulls her away. "Come on." She doesn't budge at first, trying to get one last look at the horrible scene, but Lincoln turns her around to face the opposite direction. "Come on, move. Let's get back to the village."

Sayah doesn't object this time and trudges along, mind whirling. She didn't know what happened back there, but she could tell one thing. The boy was innocent for whatever he was being harshly punished for.

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"A few other scouts told me they're searching the woods." Lincoln informs her, as he sat next to her in front of the small campfire. It was later that night now, and the tortured brunette still played on Sayah's mind. She wondered if he was dead; if that was how the Sky People dealt with their own if they had committed a crime of some sort. If so, Sayah didn't like it. It appeared there was no respect, only hate. Which she might've understood if she knew the full story, but her memory of the look on the boy's face, the innocence, the silent plea he spoke with his eyes. . . she could not believe he had done anything wrong. How could they treat one of their own that way?