The Fireborn Chronicles: The Lost Maiden

Chapter 24: To Survive as an Outlaw

The ocean was bringing back dozens of memories again.

She realized that it had been a long time since she last saw the ocean. Perhaps that was because looking at it might bring up things that she wanted to forget. The soft sand at her feet, the waves crashing down repeatedly, and the clear sky above her all brought back so many memories.

However, she still couldn't toss that pleasant experience behind. The ocean was something that was stuck to her heart no matter how hard she tried to force it out.

But what was awaiting her on the other side? She was so close to the place she wanted to find, the place which was so close yet so very far away. She did everything she could, even terrible acts, to be where she was right now. That was why it was almost laughable that she was still having second thoughts over visiting that place.

She wondered if performing those treacherous acts would still be something haunting her ever since. She had changed so much during her time away from her people. Yet, it was because of changing that her past was also fading away like the ocean waves.

She remembered the simpler times, back when she was with her father, mother, and four siblings. These times held memories that were indeed happy and sad. 

Her two twin brothers who always played with each other were the youngest, and she also had an older sister and an older brother. Their family was very large, and because they were such a big family, they always had to work for what they wanted to get. 

However, it wasn't something that they were angry or sad about. Instead, it reminded them that they should always think about each other first and enjoy the times of being together.

Nowadays, Kaika Mahinua was nothing like that little girl in the past.

Her homeland, called Mokupuni, was a nation that thought of magic as the root of all evil. It was a remote, island nation that lay south of other neighboring countries like Czahunlia and Czacýkva. It was also the island where the Tiki first originated from.

Their culture thought of magic as a curse, something that would drive the human that is given this power to corruption. They believed it was something that only brought about misfortune upon others. These were the sayings of the chief priest in Kaika's tribe, and it was also the sayings of many other tribes across the nation. 

Rather than practicing this curse, Mokupuni was established solely with bare hands, with no magic being practiced by the people. The way of Mokupuni was the way that Kaika had experienced, but then she soon came to realize how magic meant everything in this world.

A very long time ago, the once prosperous group of Tiki came upon the island country of Czahunlia, though it had not been named during that time period. The Tiki tribe was led by the leader of the tribe Tutun and his wife Zayat, who were later recognized as the father and mother of the Tiki. They were even praised as heavenly beings, watching over Mokupuni until the end of the earth.

Tutun and Zayat arrived in Czahunlia, and it was then that they soon discovered the means of magic and how it came to be. Tutun and Zayat had seven sons and daughters, Uleilei, Uya, Ugu, Kethu, Dahnu, Uba, and Atupu. These seven and their mother and father were gifted with mana, and they were the founders of the nation called Mokupuni by the Hunspr Sea. 

At first, Mokupuni consisted of seven islands surrounding one large one in the middle. Each sibling owned an island, and the mother and father owned the larger island. The purpose of the smaller islands was to control the seven sins of magic, which were pride, envy, wrath, sloth, greed, gluttony, and lust. Each sibling was given a sin from Tutun, and their task was to restrain the sin on their island so that it may never escape.