The crowd stared at me, dumbfounded. A prisoner?!? Speak against Leader?!? It was unheard of.

A guard unchained me and shoved me to the podium. Leader glared at me and stepped back. I gulped. What was I going to say? What was I thinking? My brains found no words, but evidently my mouth did.

“When I was nine,” I began, my voice rang out,  incredibly loud, “My brother was killed by nightmares. Mage gave him a sword that could supposedly kill nightmares.” I saw Mage in the back of the crowd. His bald head gleamed in the morning sunlight. From within the wrinkles that comprised his  face shone his misty green eyes. Somehow, those blind eyes seemed to watch me more intently than all of the functioning ones that also gazed at me.

“The sword didn’t work,” I pressed on, “Whetstone was fed on by the nightmares. After that, the tribunal stopped trying to defeat the nightmares. But, I continued! I, a nine year old boy, continued trying to defeat the nightmares!”

Leader looked like he was ready to bite my head off. He probably would have too, but that would have looked bad in front of a crowd.

“‘Why?’, you might ask. Why did you keep trying, when the attempt to kill the nightmares killed your brother?”  The crowd was hanging on my every word now. “IT IS BECUASE MY BROTHER DIED THAT I CONTINUE TO FIGHT!” I was yelling now, and no one would have dared stop me, “AND IT IS BECAUSE DOUGLAS’S FATHER DIED THAT HE FOUGHT TOO! WE ARE CHILDREN, YET WE ARE THE ONLY ONES TRYING TO FIGHT AGAINST THE CREATURES THAT THREATEN OUR EXISTENCE! AND, EVEN IF YOU DO EXILE ME, I INTEND TO KEEP FIGHTING! I WILL FIGHT UNTIL VICTORY IS OURS, OR UNTIL I DROP DEAD!!!”

The crowd went berserk. They screamed and clapped, they hooted and hollered, they did everything they could to show their appreciation for me. Leader whispered an order to a guard, who began dragging me away from the podium. But, I had one more thing to say.

“YOU MAY TAKE WHAT IS MINE, LEADER! BUT, I WILL NEVER LET THE NIGHTMARES TAKE WHAT IS INTISA’S!”

Then, the guard chained me to Taren, and we were ushered back to the dungeon, amidst the cheers of the crowd.

The next day was the day before Taren and I would be exiled, and it held a surprise for us. The guard came into our cell block. “You two,” he said to us, “And you, next door.  Leader wants you three to come out to the square. He said that he wants you to see something that will be ‘good for you’.”

We were ushered out of our cells and out of the cell block. The person next door turned out to be a curly haired boy. I assumed that he was probably the boy who had gone over the wall with Taren. He had very tan skin, a prominent chin, black hair that fell in thick curls, and electric blue eyes. Numerous cuts adorned his arms. Apparently, he hadn’t gone over the wall and come back unscathed.

By observing their behaviour, I discovered that there was probably a little more between this boy and Taren than just being friends. They looked into eachothers’ eyes often, then smiling, half laughing, and looking in the other direction. These little glances were making me inexplicably irritated. It was like I wasn’t there, being shoved roughly alongside Taren.

To my relief, we soon reached the square. Leader was standing on a podium near the fountain, his grey hair shining in the early light. Taren saw something and gasped, squeezing my arm, hard. “What?” I inquired, though I wasn’t exactly frustrated about that squeeze.

“That,” she replied, pointing. On a signpost near the fountain, there were two posters. One had Taren and the curly haired moron’s- I mean boy’s- faces on them. Under each face was a name.

Taren Willow                    and                      Casey Johnson

To Be Exiled For Wall Jumping and Third Degree Murder

On another signpost was a poster with my face on it.

Silas Harrif 

To Be Exiled For Wall Jumping, Treason, And Third Degree Murder

“I’ll bet they just tacked on treason to make me look worse!” I whispered furiously. 

The guard said, “SHUT IT, CONVICT!” very loudly, and shoved Taren, Jerk-face- I mean- Casey, and I up on the podium behind Leader. Another guard shackled us together insuring that, as he put it, “THERE WON’T BE NO FUNNY BUSINESS!”

I ’started to notice’ that the guards seemed to like to shout. I was about to say something witty like, ‘My, aren’t you polite!’ but Leader began to speak to the crowd.

“People!” he said in a loud, resounding voice, “We are gathered here today, not only to speak about the loss of my nephew, Douglas, but also to speak about a issue which has been creeping into Intisa like a plague of locusts. I’M TALKING ABOUT WALL JUMPING!”

 At this, the entire crowd gasped. Taren and Casey scooted a little bit closer together.

“If there’s anybody here, people,  ANYBODY HERE WHO WANTS TO TALK OUT AGAINST ME, I WILL HERE THEM. BUT FIRST, I CHALLENGE THEM THIS! I CHALLENGE THEM TO ASK THEMSELVES, WHY? WHY DO I SPEAK OUT WHEN THESE CRIMINALS BEHIND ME,” he gestured to us, “COULD BE TARGETING YOUR CHILD NEXT! YOUR CHILD COULD BE THE NEXT ONE TAKEN OVER THE WALL TO BE FED ON BY THE NIGHTMARES! So,” he said, calming down, “If there’s anybody here who wants to speak against me, do so now.”

No one spoke. Taren and Casey were holding onto eachother, terrified of Leader. The crowd was deathly still.

“I will.” I said as loudly as I could, “I will speak against you.”