Chapter I
The Astakidans were brave and loyal, sacrificing themselves for others. The Kalolimnians were honourable warriors, always settling things by fighting. The Arkoids were the intelligent citizens who won battles through cunning and slyness. The three peoples were like one big unhappy family, always arguing and fighting, but working together whenever they were under threat. Each person in Astakida was related, as were the people in Arkoi, and Kalolimnos as well. The three Nursery Islands saw to that. If there was a baby born in the Kalolimnos Nursery with an Arkoid’s gene code, in the dead of night the misplaced child was shipped off to the correct island. End of problem. Of course, there were occasionally (but very rarely) kidnap-and-run attacks from bandit races like the Salaminians, or the Alimians. Once every aeon, wars are waged over an unusually powerful child and the three nations have to step in, taking back the child. But do they give a second thought to the normal children that have also been kidnapped? They never gave them a glance. As a group, each kidnapped child on Salaminia sat on the beach, staring out to sea, wondering what’s out there. Some children formed into gangs, and went about, thieving and doing what they wanted. The Salaminians weren’t hesitant to tell them where the children had come from which, although made them detest the kidnappers, made them extremely thankful, but also wistful. How do I know so much about them? Isn’t it obvious? I was one of them.
I was on the same ship as one of the children who managed to create a war while sleeping. I wasn’t kidnapped on the way to a different nursery island, but on the way to the mainland from the Nursery Islands. I grew up until I was 13, then before I could say, “Hey! I’m an adult!” I was whisked off to the mainland. Or at least halfway. That was when the Salaminians kidnapped me and the significantly divine child. Five weeks later, war was declared on Salaminia.
When I was kidnapped, I was literally thrown out. You see, because once they noticed that I wasn't of divine blood, they pitched me overboard (they were quite muscular) into the sea. They disappeared out of sight, and the closest landmass was 4 leugas away. As an unfortunate addition, that landmass was Salaminia. I began to swim strongly in that direction, reaching the sandy beach as the first