The instant Amina turned around, she came face-to-face with the Tribal Chief's twisted, crazed expression.
The sharp stone, carried by a vicious gust of wind, rapidly grew larger in her eyes.
Instinctively, she clutched her child tightly to her chest, shut her eyes, and prepared to meet death.
Yet the searing pain she expected never came.
"Clang!"
A dull impact rang out.
Then came the crisp crack of breaking bone, followed by the Tribal Chief's shrill scream.
Amina opened her trembling eyes and saw a tall man standing in front of her.
He was one of the men who had picked up tools alongside her earlier.
He had used his own arm to block the falling stone head-on.
The stone dropped to the ground, while his arm twisted at an unnatural angle. It had clearly been broken.
"You're insane! You lunatic!"
Enduring the agonizing pain, the man clenched his other hand into a fist and drove it hard into the Tribal Chief's face.
The Tribal Chief saw stars from the blow and staggered backward.
"You traitors! Slaves bewitched by Demons!" He clutched his face and roared incoherently. "I'll kill you! I'll kill every last one of—"
He did not get to finish.
Another man charged in from the side and slammed him viciously to the ground.
More and more people gathered around.
They were no longer the numb, walking corpses waiting for death that they had been before.
Amina's actions and the child's revival had ignited their will to survive.
And the Tribal Chief's actions had utterly extinguished the last shred of reverence they held for the old authority.
This man wanted to destroy their only hope.
"Hold him down!"
"Don't let him hurt Amina again!"
Everyone worked together to pin the wildly struggling Tribal Chief firmly against the scorching