The Feast

We could hear the party long before we could see it. Without regulation the savages were free to do whatever. However, as we arrived, all singing and dancing fell silent, one by one, until all eyes were trained on us. I did not know what to say, but there was nothing more to say. Suddenly, the two tending the pig ran towards us. They bumped into me with the pig, I don't know if it was an accident or purposeful, and I was scorched. I yelled, and so did they, but they did riotously, and once again I was a laughingstock, the whole island united over the mocking of me. I felt a bit embarrassed, but that combined with the nervousness I had felt earlier facing the silence created an indescribable emotion of humbleness. Jack, for all his evil deeds, told the two to give us a hunk of meat. I watched, entranced, as they ripped off a piece of meat and handed it to me. I wolfed it down, and my hunger called for another.

Jack then made his move. "Who's going to join my tribe?" he asked. With a bone in each person's hand, they were obliged to say yes. Ralph spoke up, but ineffectually, as the boys had now gravitated toward Jack. However, Ralph brought up the rain that was now falling in small drizzles. The hunters seemed worried, like rain was a mystery to them, but Jack only responded with "Do our dance!" I was about to laugh. Did he think that a dance could repel the rain? The boys got into to a circle. At first, I regarded it with mockery, but more and more I felt the appeal of the dance. To be a part of something larger, to take something you were in fear of and surround it, was the appeal of the dance that drew us in. We began to stamp in a circle, under a single beat. It was no longer a dance, a chant.

I don't exactly remember what had happened after that. I remember having blurred vision, just following along. I remember feeling a surge of something - I don't know what - and an all-powerful desire to... to do something.