HYBRID (Now a draft)

Seventeen

Max stood on a high wooden dais, bound in chains.

Standing trial.

His life was probably going to end.

He stood very, very still. His head drooped. He made no eye contact. Both eyes aimed at his feet. His whole body was caked with drying mud. The pebble had exploded into a million gooey fragments, protecting him.

His wrists ached because of the rough rope. They were tied behind his back.

His eyes drifted upward.The crowd before him consisted hundreds of curious eyes. They looked young, teens at most. They whispered, some laughed. Others stood silent. Some showed sympathy. Some glared with contempt. He saw Twyla watching him. Her face was impassive. But her eyes, golden like fire,  seemed to bore straight through him. They were ablaze, two molten orbs of burning gold. 

" Mud boy!" Someone yelled. " Show us some mud pies! " 

" Hey rogue! Uproot a thousand-year-old sacred tree, will you?"

"Yo, Muds! You swim in water, not in dirt!"

"Rogue! Get out of here! Have you no wits than to come challenge a temple?"

" Roll him down the mountain!"

" Tie him to the tree!"

"Silence!" A  deep ,strong femine voice rushed over the crowd, hushing them all. A tall woman walked out. She stepped each step with hard thumps that rumbled the dais. Her steps were hard. An air of authority surrounded her. She moved slowly, each step was slow, but hard with might.

She stopped in front of Max.

Max gazed upward.

The woman had a hard cruel face. Her cheeks were a bit sunken beneath her high cheekbones. Her blood-red lips were pulled into a permanent frown. Long raven hair with streaks of gray pooled around her narrow waist. The light blue hem of her temple keeper's uniform trailed behind her. Her eyes were a dark gray, like the skin of a dead rat. 

She reached out a long,bony hand. Her nails were long and painted red.

Max felt faint. He gasped.She grabbed his head and yanked it backward.

" A rogue!" She screamed. The crowd howled. " A upender of the sacred tree!"She slapped him with full force that sent a blinding pain up Max's brain. He collapsed to the ground. " Disgusting and vile!" She wrenched his head upward for the crowd to see. She kicked him in the gut that sent him sprawling on the platform.

"I didn't...di..." He tried to speak. But saw Twyla give a small shake of her head.

"What did you say, fowl creature? "She hissed. She raised another palm and smacked him hard.

Blood dripped from his lip. He couldn't get up.

"Get up!" she screamed. "Get up!" She growled. " Or you never will, never again." 

Max fainted.