Renegade

The cave was lit by fire torches in the men's hands. There were 30 men, all dressed in long robes made of goat hair talking amongst themselves. As they conversed, a breeze entered the cave through the opening and ruffled their beards slightly.

"When will she arrive? If she delays any longer I shall fall asleep!" one of the men said.

"Be patient my brother. She will be with us soon", another replied.

Slowly, the chatter amongst the men died down. Finally, all were silent. They could hear the crickets chirping in the distance.

One of the men walked slowly toward the cave entrance. He carried his fire torch with him. He looked out and saw a black sky studded with white diamonds. Then looking into the distance, he heard the faint sound of music.

Another man came beside him and placed his hand on the first man's shoulder. "It is unbelievable that Queen Satira can be holding a banquet to celebrate her so called achievements", the first man said. "Does she not know that celebrating oneself is in direct conflict with our god Omni's instructions?" he asked.

The second man sighed. "It is sad", he said while shaking his head. "It pains me to think that Queen Satira is becoming more and more like the wicked queens of the nations. I fear that one day she will completely abandon the great god Omni".

There was silence between the two men.

"Do you think she is coming?" the first man asked. "I am afraid that she may be trapped by the Queen's celebrations".

"She will come" the second man replied. "Our god Omni will see to it that her journey to us will be a safe and secure one".

They both looked out into the distance.

"I-I can see something" the first man said. He walked out of the cave and stopped after a few steps. The second man, also carrying a fire torch, slowly took a few steps forward, not quite reaching the mouth of the cave.

Both men stood. Finally, after some time the two men saw a few figures walking towards them. One figure carried torches like theirs, and they could hear talking amongst the figures.

"Prophetess of Omni, is that you?" the first man called out.

"It is I, my faithful brother" a figure called back.

The second man breathed a sigh of relief. Both men walked towards the figures. When they drew close, they saw three people- one man carried torches in both hands and the other carried heavy sacks on his back. These men were dressed in linen robes. The third person standing in the middle was a woman. She wore a long robe made of goat hair.

"Our prophetess" the two men from the cave said unanimously. They dropped to one knee and bowed their heads to the floor.

"My brothers" the prophetess replied. She placed one hand each on the men's shoulders. "Please, rise so that we may go inside".

The two men rose and all five people walked into the cave, where the other men were still sitting in silence. When the prophetess and the men with her came into view of the other men, they dropped to one knee and bowed their heads. The prophetess walked through the center of the cave and stood on a mound at the front.

"Brothers, rise!" she commanded. The men rose from their positions.

"My brothers, faithful prophets, our great god Omni has seen to it that no one of us should go hungry. Look! Here is bread for everyone of you!" She pointed to the man carrying the heavy sacks. The man opened the sacks and began distributing loaves of bread to everyone present.

"Omni is too kind to us", one prophet said.

"Indeed he is", another replied.

Everyone ate. One prophet looked up at the prophetess.

"Please, our sister, what did Omni tell you?" he asked. The rest in attendance all fell silent.

"What Omni has revealed to me I will now tell you", the prophetess replied.

"There was a pride of lions walking in the desert, in their territory. A young female was the leader among them. Then a group of jackals, also led by a female, appeared. the jackals began taunting the pride, so the pride attacked the jackals, but lost. The jackals forced the pride out of the pride's territory.

"One of the pride was left with a deep gash on its side, from which it never healed. then as the pride continued to walk in the desert, a bolt of lightning hit one of the pride, and it fell in death instantly. A short while later another member of the pride saw a path on its left. He followed it and left the rest of the group".

The prophets began to talk quietly amongst themselves. One of them looked at the prophetess.

"Our sister", he called out. "What does it all mean?"

The prophetess shook her head. "My brother, our god Omni has not yet revealed the meaning of this vision. We must be patient and wait".

The prophetess looked down at her necklace. It was a thin line of gold attached to the image of an eye. As she picked up the eye and examined it, she could see that the eye began glowing the colour green.