Nodding in agreement, Michael followed her through the crowd to the village center, finding the tribe's members gathering and piling logs into the pit of the great fire. It was a preparation, Mila clarified, to be meant for the next night.
A scream erupted from within the crowd, many faces turning toward an elderly Neko woman on her knees just outside the Elder's hall. She broke down into tears as she called out to the young man in her lap: the warrior Michael had seen being carried out of the medical hut. Despite the woman's pleading, his body went limp on his improvised stretcher; his eyes slipped shut and he finally succumbed to the gaping wound in his belly.
A dozen Willhers immediately came to the woman, kneeling at her side and wrapping her in their group embrace. She continued to
