Space key for Audio! _____________ Thudding drumbeats arose from the crowd. Voices scattered through the innocents started their chanting. “Ka-ka-li-fa. Ka-ka-li-fa.” Once the rhythm was set, the words changed. The crowd, once innocent bystanders, took part in the chanting. They knew what this was. As the drum and crowd kept the beat, the conspirators started climbing the stairs on either side of the podium. “Lovely we rise,” they sing, their voices as melodious as the voices of Mother Nature herself. “Gently you fall. United as one, we shall free all.” They repeated their mantra, getting louder and louder. The faces of those onstage began to show fear, raw, disorganized fear. A woman stepped up to the microphone. Her voice, even amplified, was deafened by the continuos chant. But one by one, the conspirators lowered their voices so she could be heard. “Today—” her voice shook, “today we gathered here for a reason. But that reason—” she took a breath, “I am your leader. And I declare that reason unimportant.” Two conspirators, the first two up the steps, stepped forward. The singing changed, led by the two. “Lovely we rise, now you are falling, take your last stand, or unite in our offspring. Lovely we rise, now you are falling, take your last stand, or unite in our offspring.” The leader took a shaky breath. She replied, her voice uncertain on the notes, but strong: “Harshly we rose, strongly we ruled, times have a’ changed, I accept your truce.” The leader thought she could see a slight smile on the face of the head conspirators. Then cheering broke out across the crowd. The other diplomats on the stage with the leader looked dumbfounded. One of them tried to push her away from the podium, and a conspirator grabbed them and pulled them away. The crowd could see the fear on the diplomat's face as the leader knelt down and crushed her blood-red ring under her heel to the sound of chorusing cheers.
