Twinks in Space: Fantastic Voyage - Part Two - 32. Chapter 32 - More Mama

The banishment bonfire burned at the heart of the Entry of Ecstasy. Lyoth, Stawren, and Alihte were hidden in the dark forest, watching Mama rage at her Children around the clearing. She looked crazed.

“Alihte is one of the corruptors now! And you, Worthil,” she barked, pointing an accusatory finger at someone Lyoth and Stawren could not see, “you fuckin’ were her closest friend and shit weren’t you? What’re you purging? I almost think you ought to throw yourself into the fire for not seeing who she was. Alihte played you like a slutty fiddle, a slutty fuckin’ slut-fiddle. You disgust Mama goddess. Worthil, what are you burning? What are you banishing that reminds you of that corruptor? I want fuckin’ to see what you’re getting rid of. I wanna see what reminds you fuckin’ of Alihte.”

Stawren and Lyoth looked at each other in confusion.

“Why does she swear all weird like that?” he whispered.

“Yeah, it’s like she doesn’t know where to put the emphasis in her sentences.”

They turned to Alihte. “What’s the deal with that?”

Alihte shrugged. “It’s the way Mama talks.”

“It’s the way several people in the group talk,” Stawren added.

“We all try to emulate Mama, even her manner of speaking I suppose.”

The trio fell silent again. Mama was mumbling something they could not hear. It was temporary, and she started shouting again.

“How dare she leave me?! I’m the mother of all creation and shit! I’m fuckin’ the god of all creation, and she just up and leaves? Oh-ho, I think not; Mama goddess rejects her and all her wickedness! She is not now, and never again fuckin’ to be part of my Children. All those who reject me will suffer, and punishment is the only reward for all their sins. Burn her out of your lives, my Children! Burn her!”

Lyoth and Stawren may have been focused on Mama, but Alihte was staring at her daughter, Nunta. The young woman was seated off to one side, and she was intently watching Mama.

Mama took a large swig from a mug she had standing on a table, and she stormed up to another person on the far side of the fire. “What about you, Benvion?” Didn’t you and Alihte kiss and make out that one time at a full moon ceremony? Gross, how could you do that with someone like her?”

Alihte made an apologetic face for trying to deceive Stawren and Lyoth about relationships among members of the Children.

“You did, Benvion, didn’t you?” Mama snarled. “You made out with her and shit! You fuckin’ have terrible taste. You should never be allowed to choose your own lover again, in fact, yeah,” and Mama repeated herself with a wicked sneer, “fuckin’ yeah! From now on,” she continued, adopting a lofty tone, “Mama goddess decrees all future relationships will be established by me. It’s obvious none of you have the capability to make these important decisions for yourself, and Mama goddess will determine the godly relationships from among your fellow Children.” She scowled around at the group. “All of you who are currently in relationships, you will need to come see me as a couple so I can reassess your situation. And just because you’ve been with someone for a while, that doesn’t mean you’ll necessarily remain together; I may deem your relationship unworthy and shit.”

None of the Children opposed her new commandment.

“Mama is so unlikable,” Lyoth whispered.

From the outside, Alihte was seeing Mama and the Children in a new light for the first time, and she felt ashamed and guilty for having been part of the group for so long. At the same time, Alihte could not deny the urge within her to rush back and fall at Mama’s feet, begging to be taken into the fold again. Her conflicting emotions raged through her, but it was at that point in the night’s banishment celebration that Mama started getting violent.

Lyoth and Stawren were both surprised by the sudden escalation of the woman’s wrath, as she backhanded her nearest Child across the jaw. The unlucky target was one of the younger men of the camp; he let out a startled wail and fell to the ground, clutching his cheek in his hands. Mama then grabbed a woman by her hair and yanked her off her feet.

To the further confusion of Lyoth and Stawren, all of the other Children seemed to ignore Mama’s actions. They were not zoned out on the goutria blood, but none of them watched or reacted to their leader’s attacks; they just seemed to be trying to avoid becoming her next target.

Mama kicked the leg of a chair out from under another of her Children, sending the individual sprawling. The woman then let out a scream of fury and grabbed a broom, swinging its long wooden handle through the air like a club, and bringing it down onto a tabletop that held several small plates of food meant for a few of her Children. The pieces of apple, cheese, and bread scattered across the ground.

Even though Alihte had a full stomach for the first time in years, she could not stop the anxiety that prickled in her mind at seeing the meager meal spilled into the dirt.

Mama slammed the broom’s handle against the table over and over until the wood of both began to splinter. She threw the broken broom into the woods, nowhere near the hidden trio, but they still hunched lower. The woman screamed and slapped around her followers for over two more hours, but eventually Alihte pointed out to Lyoth and Stawren that one of the Children had passed out at the edge of the clearing.

“There’s a good chance they’ve started handing out goutria blood pills,” she whispered, and before long, a few more of the Children were unconscious.

Alihte’s daughter Nunta was still alert and awake, and although she did not attack any of her fellow Children, she scowled at whomever Mama’s anger happened to be directed, from one moment to the next. Nunta kept her distance from Mama, but she acted as though she was ready to strike out at any of the other Children, if Mama were to command it.

“Too bad we don’t have my nanoparticle arrowheads,” Stawren said to Lyoth under her breath with a disappointed shrug. She turned to Alihte. “They could have knocked out everyone and we would have been able to take your daughter and go.”

Eventually Nunta did swallow a goutria blood capsule, but before she drifted into unconsciousness, Lyoth, Stawren, and Alihte heard her mumble, “What’s wrong with the fire?”

The trio focused on the flames.

“It’s spreading!” Lyoth hissed.

“These damn idiots,” Stawren grumbled. “We have to put it out.”

Alihte grabbed one of Lyoth’s arms. “But some of the Children are still awake.”

“We’ll deal with them,” he replied, indicating Stawren, who grinned and nodded. “Alihte, stay here,” he commanded.

A few of the coherent Children also noticed that the fire had breached its ring of stone. One of them started throwing dirt onto the flames while the others rushed off to get water. Before they got back, the group’s toolshed had begun to burn.

Lyoth and Stawren suddenly appeared, and their return startled the Children.

Mama focused her anger on them, but it was not to last. “You two heathens!” she screamed as Stawren walked right up to her. “You’re the ones who caused all this misery and sorrow! May you forever be cursed by the…”

Stawren punched Mama in the face.

The woman was knocked to the ground, and her jug of tronidra alcohol shattered beside her.

It was several long moments before Mama was able to gain her bearings, but in that time, the fire to her shed was put out, and the banishment bonfire had been contained. Lyoth and Stawren were nowhere to be seen. Mama looked around the clearing at her Children, most of whom were unconscious. Then she realized, Nunta was gone.