Dark Legacy: Book I - Trinity

Chapter I

The air was cool, and the sky bright blue. The Ikishi villagers savored days like these because they were so few in the year. It was the seventeenth day of the third month of the year forty-three, of the reign of Aikoke, in the island region of Kadek, on the Island of Kadek, in the Kingdom of Lemuria.

The villagers of Ikishi pursued their doings and undoings with rarely a word from the outside world. They revered their Queen, although none had ever seen or been affected by her royal decisions. Nonetheless they all adored her, their land, and their ancient ways.

It was said by those in the West that the people of Lemuria were a primitive race whose technology and beliefs had not advanced for millennia upon millennia. Of course, such opinions of the Yellow race–the Sun race–were based not upon understandings, but upon ignorance, propaganda, and fear. It served the Blood race–the Red race–to diffuse such misunderstandings of the Yellow for the more primitive they made them appear the easier it became for their minds and hearts to conquer them in the name of their Atlantean Empire.

Regardless of the thoughts and opinions of the West the people of Kadek carried out their ways and lives. They were a people dedicated to the sea for it was their "breadbasket," although they had never called it that for none among them, except for one, had ever seen or tasted a loaf.

Nishiaka, the western man of the Red race that had come to them some twenty odd years ago, had named their sea their "breadbasket." He attempted to bake them a loaf, but failed continuously, and in defeat he explained that bread was to his people as fish was to the people of Lemuria. Old farmer Toasu, the only man of the village who, in his youth, had traveled far beyond the borders of Lemuria, later corrected this explanation. The old farmer explained that bread was to the people of the West as rice was to the people of the East. No villager paid any heed to the old farmer unfortunately. And so, the old man kept to himself by plowing his fields and rarely visiting the sea or those who took bounty from it.

The sea bore nearly all that was to be eaten by the villagers. Fish was eaten raw, baked, or dried, and with rice or in soup. After fish came squid, crab, and the many seaweed plants. They also ate vegetables, fruits, and berries from their gardens and from the wild of their lands and mountains.

For the many holidays that they celebrated they slew and ate poultry and swine, and for the days that marked the birth of a new season three cows were sacrificed. It was a great honor for the farmer whose cows were chosen to be slaughtered for the gods would grant him many good fortunes, and in Kadek there was no greater a cow farmer than Kono; his cows were rich in soft and sweet fat. Season after season Kono's cows were chosen, and in return he received many riches from the Elders and the villagers of Ikishi. Kono had the favor of many men for he satisfied their lust for cow's meat. Had it not been for the rules of Lemurian men so many centuries ago that forbade the consumption of meat, except on the days that marked the seasons, Kono would not have enjoyed the wealth he possessed and used to spoil his only son, Aiko.

Aiko had no memory of his mother, Kania, who had been raped and killed by Atlantean soldiers when he was an infant. She was on a four-day journey to Erima, her home village, to pay her last respects to her dying father when Atlantean men seized her and her older brother, Nam. Weeks later their bodies, severely mutilated, were found by Kono and his search party; Kono's hate was deep for the Red race, and deep had he sown it into the heart of his son.

Aiko was a very masculine and handsome boy. Many girls adored him from a distance. He was a natural athlete in the sport of Teshi-do, and he was clever in devising traps for small creatures. His closest friends were the plump but strong Taka, and the skinny but quick-mouth Niko. The three of them would spend their spare time torturing Kieko, the boy of mixed blood.