The Happy Times/2

2

"... and we have come to the conclusion that, despite minor protests, we will not look further into the previous count; we are to act as previously voted. Any other complaints?"

The head elder looked around, trying to see if any hands would rise. None did. He scratched his bald scalp. His ears wiggling up and down, he took another clay tablet from a pile of issues the council was to discuss, discarding the previous. He noted that the tablets were slowly increasing in size, with the authors increasing both word size and gloominess.

This one had a report written on it. A dead body was found near the village. A hunter, too. The body was viciously murdered and, as the report additionally suggested, horribly tortured.