The Shaman bashed open the door of the temple to the bewildered faces of the mob outside without even attempting to hide the disgust on his face. The participants of the meeting were exiting the temple. The people were beyond confused to see the sun come up before the commencement of the ritual as if the sunrise depended on it. They looked to the Shaman to enlighten them. The Shaman let out a loud and tired sigh. It took him mere seconds to come up with an explanation.
"The Gods demanded the blood of the blasphemer!", he shouted at the top of his lungs, "But a black sheep among us betrayed the Gods and blocked the way and denied their wishes".
"The Gods obligate us to spill and offer the blood of that black sheep before anything else", he yelled while pointing towards the leader of the search party that had failed their mission the previous night.
The leader of the mob turned pale with fear and before he could utter a word in his defense, the villagers pounced on him. They beat him to the pulp, bound him and dragged him to Circle of power. The Chief was petrified on witnessing how easy it was for the Shaman to kill a person without laying a hand on him. While the people were busy getting the alleged black sheep ready for the ritual, the Shaman turned to see the Chief in the state he was in. He smirked and walked past the Chief to get to the Circle. When he was passing him, Tai stopped for moment and whispered to him, "I guess this will buy us another day or two", and winked. The extent of fearlessness of the Shaman further scared the Chief and he wondered if he could face the same fate if he ever dared to cross him.
"Don't just stand there, plan something about the preacher. I'll be back as soon as I'm done with that moron tied on the circle", the Shaman said as he walked to the Circle.
He signaled one of his apprentices to run to the chamber and fetch the ritual props. The Chief went to his longhouse along with his bodyguards and servants while the other tribal leaders went to their designated houses. The Chief knew he had to solve this crisis as soon as possible so he pulled himself together. Meanwhile the Shaman fed the villagers with much needed entertainment. The stage was set, the villain was ready and all that remained was the hero to put the villain out of his misery. The villagers chanted, half against the man who was about to be killed and the other half in the favor of the Gods. The apprentice arrived with the necessary items. A dozen more torches were lit around the Circle and the alleged black sheep was tied to a steel rod shaped like a crucifix and placed vertically on the fire wood at the center of the circle. The bloodied man wanted to scream but he was gagged. The Shaman put on the attire designated for the rituals along with the lion skull headdress and looked to the apprentice who was offering him a variety of weapons to perform the deed. He held a large weapon rack on his shoulder that would have caused him to collapse if he had held it a minute longer. The rack contained a wooden club with barbed wire wrapped around it, an axe, precision knives, a bow and a longsword. The Shaman generally enjoyed using the club because it was the slowest method to take one's life while it inflicted a lot of pain to the recipient which resulted in a lot of entertainment for the public. But today he just wanted to get this thing over with and desired some peace of mind to think about the runner. He chose the longsword, the quickest to put someone out of his misery. He had the sword in one hand and a torch in another as he entered the circle. He shouted some religious chants while doing his physical routine with the eyes rolled-up, arms in the air and the dancing. The crowd cheered him on. Without any hesitation, he set the firewood on fire. The man begun to scream and writhe in pain. The Shaman let him burn alive and let the crowd enjoy for a moment then he slashed the sword across his neck and cut his head clean off. The crowd didn't seem to mind. The victim's head rolled across the temple ground, sprinkling blood as it did and was chased by an apprentice with a sack. The lifeless body was further defiled by the villagers who pelted stones at it. Tai let the poor guy burn for a while and then ordered the apprentices to do their job. The apprentices expertly discarded the burnt corpse from the crucifix, already aware of the further formalities to go through for the disposing off of it.
The Shaman looked to the sky and listened carefully while the crowd silenced to help him communicate with the Gods. Moments later, the Shaman jumped up in joy and announced that the black sheep had been received by our ancestors on the other side and the Gods were delighted by the gallantry of the villagers. The crowd celebrated on their way out of the temple while the Shaman retired to his chamber, completely exhausted and disgusted by the incompetence of his colleagues. This had been a close call. He couldn't repeat the same theatrics to appease the crowd again. The people were no doubt not clever enough to see through his deceits but too much beating around the bush may itch some minds. He went to bed half convinced that the Chief will have found a way to take care of this mess by the time he was to wake up.