Ralph stepped slowly across the wet sand. The darkening clouds gathering above in the sky signalling a coming downpour. Ralph's eyes were locked on one thing, the smoke rising into the air joining the clouds.
The scent of fresh meat permeated the air, the smoking skin and flesh of freshly caught pig. Ralph felt... fear, this all felt off. Why was he, the leader going to some stupid choir boy's feast. His gaze fell over to the smaller, fat boy Piggy.
"Piggy... do you think Merridew... wants us dead?" Ralph's faint voice broke through the air. It was the only sound apart from Piggy's soft breathing.
"Why do you care. His so called hunters can barely keep a fire burning. It's a shock they ever caught meat." Piggy's tone opposed that of his partner. Despite being 13 Piggy had seen enough to form his opinions of Merridew. "Merridew can't even start a fire without my specs..."
Piggy's words soon faded into the oblivion. Much like his fellow bigguns Ralph had gained the ability to tone out the fat boy with expertise. Ralph however couldn't ignore the sound of glass crunching as they walked. Piggy's broken lens rubbing against the frame of his boxy glasses.
As the pair approached the bonfire the scent of meat only got stronger, the rich smell of char filling their senses. The boys had long forgotten the scent of their own body odour. Yet the accumulation caused a slight...salty scent to pierce into Ralph's nose. Piggy seemed to not smell it, or he just didn't care. His breathing getting a bit heavier as the smoke slightly triggered his asthma. Ralph's ears soon picked up on a sort of singing coming from the tribe. The multiple voices making it more of a cacophony than a song.
"Oh chief! The fat one is here! Along with... Ralph." The voice calling to their leader stood out amongst the chanting.
Sitting on a fallen tree trunk sat a redheaded choir boy Jack Merridew. His entire body emitting a sense of superiority to his followers. He held a wooden spear in his right hand, a pocket knife in his left. The biggun tossing it up and catching it without looking.
"Ralph."
Everyone's gaze fell onto Jack who had stood up from his seated position upon the throne. The redhead threw his knife, its blade breaking the bark and stabbing into a tree. Jack's stride was nothing less than confident. His spear clutched tightly between his fingers and palm. The dull end being used as Jack like a ruler, he brought it up bashing it into Ralph's chin forcing the boy into eye contact.
"Where's the conch now? Where is your leadership. You've spoke so much yet here you are standing before my tribe." Jack spoke with hostility. To Merridew Ralph had betrayed him. Ralph was his first friend upon this island, the boy he first felt a connection with... yet Ralph had to go and blame every issue on him, he simply HAD to go insult him and his hunters.
Jack turned around stabbing his spear into the sand. "Get them some meat. The fat one can get the snout." With that Jack climbed back into his throne, his hand signalled for his right hand man Roger to stand beside him.
Roger gazed out at the pack of boys, his eyes squinting in disgust as he saw the littleuns eating with some resemblance of elegance. But that wasn't the reason he was called. Roger fell to a knee gazing up at Jack. "Yes chief."
Ralph stood idly at the edge of the bonfire. One of the smaller kids Percival stumbled over handing him one of the pig's legs. The boy had clearly already taken a bite out of it...but it was better than the laxative prone fruit that grew on the island. Ralph's yellowed teeth sunk into the burnt skin, its crisp crumbling onto the sand below. Ralph's tongue shot out rubbing against the warm juices that squirted from the meat. This was heaven... Ralph swallowed slowly. However his eating would only increase in tempo as he got more desperate for sustenance, his teeth tearing away the flesh like a savage beast. Ralph could barely chew before his throat forced a swallow, he could barely finish swallowing before he bit off another chunk.
Ralph's gaze fell upon Piggy once more. The fat boy was... eating. Piggy seemed reluctant, he had received the snout of the pig per Jack's orders. Unlike the rest of the corpse the snout seemed less cooked, the black burns not visible across the skin. But Piggy couldn't stop eating. It was a bite of sand, the flesh dry, the juice completely evaporated from the snout...
"Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood. Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood. Kill the pig! Cut her throat! Spill her blood!" A chant had begun. Ralph's attention immediately darted towards the event. The tribesmen forming two circles. In the middle was a boy named Robert. He was squealing and charging like a boar. Ralph was still, Piggy not participating either. Ralph's gaze fell onto more circles forming, a group of littleuns danced in their own circle. It wasnt a dance, it was more acquainted to a ritual.
"Enjoy yourself~" Ralph was stabbed in the back by the back of a spear. As he turned he just briefly saw a red smile. The same design Jack had painted upon his face. Ralph was in one of the inner circles. His chance of escape gone... and so he joined into the dance, his voice joining the cacophony. His mind joining the herd.
