[shaman]

5 welcome to the wilderness.
Sid couldn’t believe it. This was his last night in camp, after that there would only be the open wilderness that oddworld had to offer.
What were the other rebels doing? Sid thought. Theya and Roger had fled when they were told they had been discovered, but they had to have gone somewhere since it was very difficult for fugitives to join other tribes.
It was a very unpleasant thought. Sid was one of those “criminals”. Who were hunted by industrialists and terrified other tribes, and then again so was Marty. This was by a long run the worst thing that had ever happened to them, the images of his tribe glaring and shouting abuse would not move from Sid’s mind any time soon, and Sid shuddered to think of them. Was this just one of those things that could be forgiven? Or were they really banished for good?
By morning it wouldn’t make any difference. Neither Sid nor Marty would be allowed near here again, they wouldn’t be around to see if they had been forgiven. Day was dying now, and the sun had turned a dim fiery orange, descending on the horizon. There was nothing more to do today. Sid just rolled over, sighed and fell asleep.

There wasn’t much time for saying goodbye to anyone in the morning. Clearly the fear of being persecuted for harbouring terrorists had spread throughout camp, and they wanted to get Sid and Marty out of their hair as soon as possible.
Marty and Sid were stood next to each other, surrounded by about half the tribe; the others clearly weren’t up or were still pissed at them. Mazza walked over to them, it was a very upsetting moment, he didn’t look angry anymore, just very regretful.
“Let’s get this over with”. He whispered to Sid and Marty. Sid couldn’t bear to look him in the eyes.
It wasn’t as though they were going to be just thrown out of camp and left to wander, they were to be taken about a mile from the camp and then let go, everyone was terrified of the sligs returning, Sid could see it in their eyes. As they were led out of the camp by Mazza, Sid spotted zule.
He couldn’t say a thing, it hurt too much. So Sid gave her a slight nod as he walked out of camp for the last time.
Soon the camp was out of sight, and Sid found himself next to Marty somewhere in the wood, they had been walking for some time, and any sight or sound of civilization was long gone. Sid promised himself that he would get out of this part of the woods as soon as they were alone, lest they fall prey to paramites.
“Ok we’re done here”. Mazza called to the mudarchers flanking Sid and Marty. He then strode up to Sid.
“Don’t come back” he told him.
Don’t come back. This is what Sid had feared; they were in fact not going to be allowed back again this was it. They were ancient history to their tribe now, all because they had tried to be heroes.
Mazza was leading his mudarchers back towards camp now; obviously he didn’t want to look back. It was as upsetting for him as it was them, since everyone new everyone in a small tribe. Now Sid understood what he had done to them all.
It could have been hours before either one of them spoke.
“i can’t believe this” Marty said through gritted teeth. ... ”banished for saving mudokons”
“So here we are”. Sid said. “Now what”?
“I don’t know about you Sid”. Marty replied quietly, but I’m going to my cousin’s tribe.
Sid had expected that, not even getting banished would have stopped Marty from caring for his cousin.
“Ok” Sid sighed. “What way is it?, seriously i wanna get going now before we get eaten or something”.
Marty was obviously getting the message and calmed down. So they set off, Sid following Marty, to his cousin’s camp.
They were soon miles from their own camp, and in dangerous territory. A year earlier vyker’s labs had been torched and a three million moolah can of gabiar stolen. When vyker’s labs had gone down, it landed just over the mountain close to their position (Sid remembered the bang), and the industrialists had strived to sweep aside all mudokon resistance and capture the lab’s crash site.
They had recently secured it and began to salvage what they could, and had set up patrols in the mudokon territory to stop terrorists from infiltrating and stealing technology from the ruined vyker’s labs. Such patrols were rumoured to have given rise to the slave caravans that they had seen in the area, and had brought a conflict that had been going on all over east mudos to Sid’s doorstep.
Sid however was determined to stick with Marty. Patrols had died down in this area but they still had to be quiet as they were technically now wanted men, occasionally the saw signs of mudokon resistance. Totems put up to insight rebellion and graffiti on walls plastered with “anarchy” symbols were a common feature of this small part of the forest. Marty looked back at Sid and smiled. Sid knew Marty was also glad of this resistance. It made them both feel like fighting for their freedom and also made what they did at the glukkon camp feel like less of a crime. In fact if Sid was honest ... it made him proud.
Hours passed, and they found themselves camping out in a secluded part of the woods. By Marty’s advise they had stopped and set up a few shelters made from whatever they could find, continuing would have been very stupid as this was the late afternoon – a prime time for slig patrols to comb the area for resistance fighters- Sid and Marty had decided to stay put for till evening when they could move under cover of darkness.
Nothing was given to Sid or Marty before their banishment; no food anyway. So they had to risk a little trip away from camp and had snared two ratz with a few berries. Nature had also provided them with the materials to build a small fire.
So they both sat at their pitiful dinners and busied themselves with keeping the fire burning and keeping the camp up together. Since both Sid and Marty were training to be shaman they had a little chant circle going at one point but had to stop because the noise may attract sligs.
Evening was drawing in fast and the first stars were beginning to appear. Soon it would be time to go, because their campsite would be crawling with sligs by nightfall.
Sid helped Marty demolish the camp and made sure there were no traces for industrialists to follow, and once again they were off through the woods into the darkness.
It was terrifying at night, it was almost impossible to tell how Marty knew the way to his cousin’s camp in this darkness. They pushed through the brambled forest and waded through the river between them and the plains on the other side, until Sid and Marty stood on the edge of their forest home with the hills of east mudos stretched out before them, great hills on either side of them and the mountains beyond.
Now it was very cold as winter had grasped the land in a freezing vice. This was unfortunate as they had both waded through a river, and were both regretting it now that it was piercingly cold.
“L-look”. Marty shivered pointing at the nearest range of hills, “The camps up there”.
“We-we’ll go up there in the morning”. Sid replied. “Don’t want to wake anyone up, n-not with the kind of publicity”.
Marty nodded. “Not bad for the first day alone though is it”?
They gathered up some wood and for the second time that day, set up two shelters, Marty was right. They weren’t doing badly for one day without their tribe. Though one question was constantly attacking Sid: what were they going to do after?
They set up their shelters just inside the wood.
“Marty give me some help over here” Sid shouted. But Marty was crouching down in a ditch, singling Sid to get down frantically.
“Sit down now”! Marty hissed. He pointed out of the woods, there, creeping through the darkness on mechanical limbs and as an army of red eyes, were dozens of sligs Sid immediately threw himself next to Marty, and watched as the sligs marched past.
They watched from their hideout praying that the sligs wouldn’t turn round.
“Think it’s a slave caravan”? Marty asked Sid hurriedly.
“If it were a slave caravan it’s have vehicles with them”.
“Oh thank odd”. Marty sighed as the sligs marched out of sight.

Sid immediately threw himself next to Marty, and watched as the. Now very tired and very hungry (ratz aren’t exactly a good source of food) and trying to forget the unsettling activities of the night before they fell into a dreamless sleep.
The sun was creeping over the horizon. Casting a dull light over the forest and the plains beyond, the mountains ahead shone like great white pearls and the ground was crisp with frost, it was the roar of a distant scrab that woke Sid and Marty who though used to cold mornings like this were shocked by how bitter it was outside.
Still weary that sligs may be around, they whispered their conversation and demolished their shelters as quietly as possible, before making the trek over the frost bitten plains towards the vast set of hills in front of them.
There was no way of telling if the mudokons in the camp above had made any slope up to their home, so Sid and Marty were forced to scramble up the bitterly cold rocks towards solid ground. The floor was just shingle and each step merited a painful slip through jagged pebbles, finally – out of breath and with sore feet, they made it to the top of the hill where the sight of a few tents and totems greeted them not to far away. But upon closer inspection they found something very unnerving.
The mudokon camp was deserted.
There had been no sign on a struggle and everything was left undamaged. So there was still marginal hope that something other than industrialists had made this village empty, but it didn’t look that promising.
Marty was frantically calling for someone, hoping that there was still a mudokon who could explain everything, but there was nothing. It was eerie, like the calm before a storm.
“What’s that mart”!? Sid called, there down the slope, towering above some huge rocks and old ruined statues was a pillar of white smoke which Sid recognised as a beacon.
“It’s them come on”! Marty called back as he descended the slope into the native ruins. Sid followed him and they found themselves in the middle of a massive stone circle, its idols and statues shattered in places from centuries of decay and all of which was made grey stone, dotted with carvings of paramites and scrabs. Up ahead, in the centre of the circle was a large pond surrounded by fallen ancient statues, and just behind that was a magnificent storm circle, clearly this place was a large temple.
The tower of smoke was coming from the part of the temple which held the storm circle, though they couldn’t see what was causing the smoke. Sid and Marty ran to the other side of the temple to find what who was sending the signal and ran straight into the storm circle.
Their mistake was immediately obvious. Sid had no time to scream as dozens of sligs appeared from behind the rocks that mad up the storm circle.
“Hands up” one of them commanded raising his rifle.
Sid froze, after all this ... they had been caught.