The Retribution Initiative

Diikuma

-Lucas-

Voices crowded into my mind. They ebbed like the waves on a beach my parents took me to as a kid. The beach had been on the far side of the island, tucked away beneath rolling cliffs. I remember being afraid of the beach. The ocean seemed angry, ready to consume me like the monster under my bed. It roared, clawing at the sand beneath my toes. It was so powerful, so organic. I remember wishing I could be back home, safe in my parents' tiny apartment in the depths of the city.

Home. I'd never go back there now.

The voices splashed against my ears. I thought maybe there were several people. A man, with a voice like the sand beneath my body. It was soft, but unrelenting. It carried a strength underneath it, like a pillar of ferricon. Now a woman was speaking. Her voice twisted in my stomach. It was full of anxious energy, ready to snap like a brittle twig. She made me nervous just listening to her.

My head hurt. Scratch that, my entire body was throbbing. It made it hard to focus. I wished I could just go back to sleep. It was easier to ignore the pain then.

A third voice, higher than the rest, distracted me. Was that a kid? It was timid. Poor kid sounded stressed out.

"Papa?" it ventured. "Why don't the Endars like us?"

The silence was dense. I heard someone sigh. Someone snorted, maybe the woman. The man's voice came after a moment of contemplation. "That's a very good question, Nik. This is probably really confusing, isn't it? Come here. Let's sit down."

The man grunted, presumably as he sat. I imagined an old man lowering himself onto the ground, bracing himself with hands stiff with age. "Ohhhh. That's better. Now, let's see about your question. You've learned about Hayl in school, haven't you?"

There was silence. I guess the kid nodded. "Good. Did you ever learn about Halenor?"

More silence. Maybe the kid shook his head, because the man grunted. "Hmm. Well, I suppose can start there. A very long time ago, Nik, our island was very beautiful. It was named Diikuma back then. Did you know that?"

"Diikuma," the boy whispered, trying out the name. "Did you live in Diikuma, Papa?"

The man chuckled. "No. This was long before me. When our island was named Diikuma, the Endars lived here. They lived on the whole island, and it was their island. But then a very greedy man came here. He was very rich, but he wanted to be even more rich. So he attacked the Endars. He had weapons that were better than theirs. He was not peaceful like they were. So he won the war."

"That's not very nice."

"No, Nik, you are right. It wasn't very nice. After the man won the war, he made an agreement with the Endars. He said that everyone could live at peace if they let him and his people come and live on the island too. He wasn't very kind, Nik, so the Endars didn't have a choice. They agreed. So that's how our people, the Cretians, came to the island. Halenor was the first Cretian leader on the island. She renamed the island after herself, which is why our island is named Hayl now."

I finally managed to open my eyes through the exhaustion. A rocky wall curved up into a high ceiling, buried in dark shadows. I stared at it, too tired to move anything besides my eyes.

"So the Endars are upset because Cretians took their home?"

"Very good thinking, Nik. That's part of it. The other part is what Halenor did when she got here. See, Halenor was a very, very smart woman. She looked around at the beautiful island and she knew there were lots of ways to make money here. She opened a lot of mines like this one."

"What are mines for?"

"There are a lot of things underground that can be sold if you dig it up. On our island, we have a lot of ore. That's what you use to make ferricon. Halenor knew if she dug up the ore here, she could make lots of money turning it into ferricon. But, she didn't know how to keep the island beautiful. She was greedy, just like her father. And so were many of the Cretian leaders after her. After a long time, our beautiful island wasn't so beautiful anymore."