Ocean Kingdom
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The sea, as he expected. Not even the wind was to be trusted on this voyage.
His ship, with its new sails, was making a good speed, but it couldn’t match that of the galleon. It had been a good trade deal for both parties: one of their ships would carry three hundred barrels of gunpowder; in return, they were to receive six hundred bales of cotton and ten tons of sugar.
The captain of the galleon had agreed at once and without question, which made the journey more interesting than usual. And now they were almost there; only two miles remained before reaching the island.
He watched the coastline intently, searching for any sign of activity. But everything seemed quiet; not even a fishing boat could be seen from here.
A small boat was approaching them rapidly. A man stood up in front, waving his arms excitedly. He was dressed in dark trousers and a light-colored tunic. There was nothing unusual about him. In fact, he looked very much like every other merchantman who sailed along these waters—except for the strange black bird perched on his shoulder.
“Good day, sir! I hope you have a safe trip!”
The man’s voice sounded oddly familiar to Armina. “Yes,” she said slowly. She glanced back at the blackbird sitting on the man’s shoulder. It was the same black bird that had been sitting atop her own ship. Was it trying to communicate with her somehow?
The bird cocked its head at her, then turned back toward the man on the dock.
Armina shook her head slightly—but it wasn’t the right time to think about the matter—and called out, “Good day to you.”
“Are you heading straight down there?” asked the man, gesturing toward the shoreline.
“No,” answered Armina, “we are going to take a look around first.”
“Oh,” responded the man, his voice suddenly sounding worried. “That will be dangerous, sirs. The island is inhabited by some rather aggressive tribesmen.”
Armina felt her heart sink slightly—was this what she had come to? Were there people living on this island already? If so, why didn’t they leave? And if there were no natives here yet… did that mean their arrival wouldn’t cause problems?
“You shouldn’t go ashore, my friend,” said the merchant. “The island is infested with wild beasts—especially the cannibals. They will eat anyone who comes across the rocks.”
“Thank you for your advice,” said Armina, trying not to show how relieved she was feeling. “We’ll keep our distance from shore.”
With those words, the galleon began its descent.
As soon as she heard the sounds of the sails being unfurled and hoisted up, Armina knew that she must make a decision. She’d been expecting something like this—that they would have to land somewhere and wait for an answer from the natives, and the fact that the men hadn’t wanted to come here before spoke volumes about their attitude toward this region.
That meant there were people living here, but perhaps they weren’t hostile. Perhaps they were just waiting to meet the strangers coming into their territory and find out who they were and where they came from.
She looked over at the blackbird once again. Now that she was closer, she realized that it really was much larger than a normal bird of prey.
“I’m sorry we haven’t had time to give you anything to eat…” she said, glancing at the bird, which was now staring straight at her.
It cocked its head at her once again.
The blackbird flew off.
“What does that mean?” Armina whispered to herself. Why did that bird have to be watching us all along? What did it want with us?
***
Armina’s mind kept repeating itself to itself as the galleon drew closer to the coast. She stared down at the ocean, hoping to see something—anything—out there, but the sea remained as still and silent as ever.
The men on the deck were shouting loudly and waving their arms to let her know that they were coming back—but she was sure she wouldn’t be able to make them understand what she wanted.
Armina took the telescope from her bag and aimed it at the coastline. At last, she found what she was looking for: a single man standing alone near the beach. She couldn’t see anything else out there… so perhaps this was indeed their meeting spot.
“I can’t see anything,” Armina told her crew. “Let’s go ashore.”
They lowered the ship’s prow and began to sail toward the shoreline.
At the sight of the ship landing on the beach, the native man ran to meet them. He looked like an ordinary fisherman, except for the black bird perched on his shoulder.
“Welcome aboard!” he shouted happily.
Armina nodded at him and stepped onto the sand, followed by her crew.
“Where exactly do you live?” she asked.
The man pointed to a place on the shoreline, beyond a cluster of rocks. “Right there,” he replied.
Armina turned to face the rest of her crew and signaled for everyone to follow the local man to his home.
Armina was surprised to see that the area seemed more or less in good condition. A few houses dotted the landscape, and even though they were small, they appeared sturdy and strong enough to weather any storm.
Armina smiled at the locals as they walked past. “Thank you for welcoming us,” she said, “it’s nice to meet people who live so far out into the world.”
The natives exchanged smiles and nods of gratitude before returning to their work.
“This is a beautiful country!” she added, looking around. “So many trees! I’ve never seen so much greenery.”
“It rains a lot here, especially during the summer months,” one of the local men explained. “But you’ll see that soon enough.”
Armina and the crew arrived at a large group of buildings, and everyone gathered near the entrance to hear the story the native man had to tell.
He spoke quickly, using simple words of the language of the world. It wasn’t hard to understand what he meant; it sounded more like he was reciting a list of facts than giving a long-winded speech.
“The island has a name, just like every other place in the world. This is called O’ltormea. Our home is in the center of the Island of Men, which lies within the Great Sea. We call our capital city Serenity since we believe that all life exists on this island.”
“That’s why it’s important for us to preserve it,” another man added. “If we destroy this island, it will be the end of everything we love in the world.”
“How many years has this place been around?” Armina asked.
“Ours is one of the oldest civilizations of the world,” the man answered simply. “The history of humanity starts here.”
Armina was about to ask a question when someone shouted something at her from behind. Her eyes went wide as she saw what had caused the commotion: two large figures were charging through the jungle toward them. The men stopped and turned to face Armina.
They both wore black cloaks pulled over their heads, and they were armed with sharp weapons held low against their chests.
Armina gasped as she recognized the pair who’d attacked her earlier: the assassins who worked for Alcazar!
“You!” she called out to them. “You’re the ones responsible for killing my parents!”
“Well now,” one of them sneered. “What brings you here, girl?”
“I’m here to kill you!” Armina replied without hesitation.
Both assassins laughed at this statement. “Kill us? You think you could take one of us?” one asked.
The other nodded. “Yeah. You couldn’t beat me in a million years. Even if you managed to kill either of us, that would only mean our deaths, not the end of the world.”
Armina’s mouth fell open with shock. They actually believed that! But then she remembered how easily her father had killed them, so she figured they must have known what they were talking about.
Still, it was difficult to take these two seriously after witnessing their actions so recently. What did they expect her to do? She hadn’t trained as a warrior, but she had some experience defending herself on the battlefield. There was no way she could defeat these two—not unless she somehow managed to take advantage of a weakness…
The two assassins looked over their shoulders at the crowd of onlookers who’d gathered around to watch this confrontation.
“Don’t worry,” one of them assured everyone, “you won’t get hurt.”
“We wouldn’t want to hurt anyone,” the other added, “but we can’t let her live.”
Their words set off alarm bells in Armina’s head. “Wait! Why?” she demanded.
The first assassin took a step forward and lowered his sword. “Let us explain things to you, girl. This isn’t the first time we’ve met. In fact, I know you quite well—I once saw you kill your own parents in front of everyone!”
“That’s right,” the second assassin added. “We were there to watch you die, too. And that was only a week ago.”
A wave of sadness swept over Armina as she recalled the day she’d murdered her parents. If the assassins had been present that fateful morning, they would’ve witnessed her parents being brutally slaughtered in front of everyone—the memory still sent a chill down her spine.
She looked down at the ground as she realized the full extent of what had happened, unable to believe it was true. Her parents were dead. Just like that!
Armina was shocked by her discovery, but she didn’t give up. She knew there had to be some mistake. These assassins must have made a mistake somewhere along the line…
“I don’t understand what you mean,” Armina said slowly, her voice barely above a whisper. “You say I killed my parents? How?”
“It was quite clear what happened. Your mother and father were having an argument, just like any other normal couple does. Then suddenly, they started fighting. The two of them began to fight over the same woman! You see? It doesn’t matter who started the fight, it’s always the same story. So you know what that means, don’t you?”
At this point, Armina had nothing more to say, because she understood exactly what he meant.
Her heart pounded so hard it felt like it might explode out of her chest. “You’re right,” she whispered in disbelief. “It really doesn’t matter whose fault it is; it’s the same story all the time.”
Armina’s thoughts raced as she tried to come to terms with the information the assassins had revealed. They were telling her the truth, which meant she had been lying to herself all along! She’d thought the whole thing had been her fault, but in reality, it was her parents’ fault for getting into an argument, just as they always did.
“But why?” Armina asked, unable to hide her confusion.
“Because of your heritage.” Both assassins gave her blank stares. “Your family has been cursed with terrible luck,” they explained. “All the people who’ve lived here have done something horrible—something that has turned our entire land into a living hell.”
Armina was speechless. “Cursed? But what about everyone else? What about the others who didn’t murder anyone or curse anyone?”
“Well, there’s no doubt they’ve also committed crimes,” the first assassin responded. “But none of them have killed as many people as you have—they’ve never even attempted it. No one else has murdered their own parents.”
Armina stared at the ground as she struggled to accept this information. She’d done everything wrong. Her parents had been right about her—it had really been her fault, not theirs.
“How could this happen to me?” she wondered aloud, feeling as though someone had plunged ice-cold water in her mouth.
“I’m sorry,” the other assassin said, “but that’s the way it is.” He took another step closer and raised his sword again. “Now it’s your turn to pay.”
The End