The Chief was a strong and stern yet a well-mannered and cool tempered man. He was named Baka by his father, inspired by his great grandfather who had conquered the village. He was a tall dark-skinned man with boyish features showing the recently departed teenage on his face. He had a teenager's growing voice but his boyish voice was not to be mistaken for a weakness, for his confidence and command made up for the lack of weight in his voice. The man wore a long crimson cape and a feathery headdress clustered with gems, a talisman that displayed a head of a panther, along with a golden robe that signified his superiority. The numerous scars on his face showed the ruthless and brutal training, he had been through since his childhood. There were bright markings painted and scarred on his body and face that were a sign of his authority. He was in his early twenties and had inherited the throne as a result of the untimely death of his father, the previous Chief. Baka was the only son of the long reigning Chief that had unified the tribes. He had been living a normal teenager's life in a nearby city when he was informed of his father's deteriorating health. His father had sent him outside the forest, into a civilized city, to learn the ways of the modern men so that some reforms could be introduced in the village. He was the first man from the village to step outside the ramparts of the village. He had learnt a lot, both material and moral, from the city folk and was restless to correct his village according to them. Baka's father had tried to apply some reforms in the village numerous times but had always decided against it at the last moment.
Several previous generations of Chiefs had banned the citizens from stepping outside the village or allied tribes. The ban was partly the reason that the village and the nearby tribes had remained undiscovered to outsiders till now. The ban was to limit the exposure of the people to new ideas that might turn into rebellions or revolutions. Typical insecurity of a weak tyrant. The Young chief wanted to change that and intended to encourage his people to receive education and see the world to learn better ways.
The ruling family was wrapped in gold and decorated with gems but in reality, they were the leaders of a group of bandits that had taken over the village decades ago. There was no concept of accountability. No one would dare question a bandit king in his own territory but the continuous rule of his family had made the people comfortable with them. This aspect of limitless power was enjoyed by the young chief's ancestors but he wanted to be more than just a bully on the throne. His father had been the architect of the luxurious state his village was in. His father had been a great reformer. Baka had a lot of responsibilities on his shoulders. He had a lot of new reforms of his own in his mind. Many of the reformatory ideas that he had, were shared to him by his mother who was arguably the wisest woman in the village and definitely the wisest woman the young chief had ever seen. She had always been full of reformatory ideas but her husband had never lent her an ear. He only saw wealth and power before executing any plan. And even if the schemes suggested by her were any good, he still wouldn't have accepted them as it was against the custom to have a female chief or advisor. Baka cursed his father for wasting such a woman's wisdom for so long. Now that her ideas could have been of any use, she had become too old to even understand the complex problems the Chief was to face. It wasn't that the elite of the village was bound by the customs and traditions, even if they didn't like it. If any tradition caused any issue for them, they had ways to bypass it. The custom of the village was to be monogamous but it felt less fun, so they used the Shaman to bring religious ambiguities in it and help them satisfy their lust.
The Chief was the highest civil and military authority of the village. There were hundreds of trained warriors willing to die or kill at his command. But on the night at hand, many of his trusted warriors were leading the angry mob that was on the trail of a prey and he had left them to their task. Baka was on his way back from the forest along with the Shaman, Shaman's apprentices and some other tribal leaders.
While walking the Shaman, with his eyes closed, forcefully said, "You all have earned a feast that comes once the gods are done with that foreign scoundrel, the gods are pleased!"
The apprentices and servants were filled with joy and the tribal leaders hummed in agreement and were restless to see the end of this affair. The apprentices started blissfully jumping, whispering and talking to each other like little children on a walk to the candy store. The tribal leaders mumbled to each other in hushed tones as they walked back. They wore long robes and caps of different colors, hanging different pendants on their necks indicating their tribes. Baka kept walking with his eyes dead ahead without sparing any attention for the Shaman's words. He looked anxious as he would give anything for this night to end. The Chief had his hands full with the problems of the villagers that he was responsible to solve but instead he was unwillingly wasting his time on a manhunt. He did not care if any heavenly trinkets or rewards were waiting for him at the end of the night. A senior apprentice approached the Shaman and informed him that a group of villagers, troubled with nightmares, were waiting at the temple awaiting his return. The Shaman stomped his feet like a child, clearly not in mood to entertain them. His additional job as the spiritual healer had always stressed him but the desperation of his subjects put him in a dominant position to ask for anything in return for his services. Whoever the people were, whatever their problem was, it was going to have to wait until all the blasphemer drama was over.