A Different Island

Chapter 12: The Kingdom of Kipoiwa

You might be wondering how it turned out, you obviously knew I was gonna be fine as I'm talking to you. And thankfully, it wasn't all that complicated. I won't reveal what saved us from possible imprisonment, or worse, death.

And after the trial, Tommy and I enjoyed our new lease on life as we would join a part in the Kipoiwa Kingdom's workforce. We would indeed also spend a bit of time meeting with the many village citizens and work within the several caste system roles that were offered in the kingdom. And I would also start to get down and dirty on finding the history of this island, a quest that would change my life forever, but that is a story for another day.

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As we were brought into court, we sat down thinking about every possible outcome of this trial that wouldn't end so well for the two of us. After a while, several members of the council arrived at the court. This would include both people in higher rankings and some people who worked more towards certain industries like farming and mining. And once King Reginald, his wife, Queen Raina, and the rest of the council members arrived, the trial began.

According to King Reginald, the way this would work is we would tell our story to the 18 members, who would then cast a vote on four possible options. The options were Citizenship, Workforce Incarceration, Punishment, and Execution.

Citizenship would be use being incorporated into society among the citizens. Workforce Incarceration would be similar to citizenship but the only difference is that we automatically get a job assigned to us which we are not allowed to change whatsoever. Punishment would be a split path in two options which would either be imprisonment or slave labor for a certain period of time before going into citizenship.

And Execution...well it lives up to its name. If we were declared harsh liars, untrustworthy, and charged with a crime of spreading vicious rumors then the worst possible outcome would end up with Tommy and I getting killed in certain ways which would range from hanging, poison drinking, and even two punishments which I don't think anyone would allow, being eaten by sharks and being melted in a substance referred to as slag. But thankfully, either way those wouldn't be how we would die, but the fact that the worst this would end is with us being killed just shakes me to my core.

King Reginald ordered us to retell our stories, and we did. We each told the members how we came to this island and about our experiences. And afterwards, the voters went away to another part of the court for discussing what to do with us, and once they came back, they revealed the results of the voting.

The group of citizenship or punishment, which consisted of 4 members went first, stating that our story wasn't sounding completely factual and that we could just be some sort of intruders from what they theorized as a separate kingdom located somewhere else on Kipoiwa. But if we weren't, it would be easy to have us life as a citizen of the kingdom.

Then the Execution party, which consisted of 6 members, went next. They generally agreed that our story was completely false as we could be some kind of intruders from another place on this island or worse, some kind of supernatural deities disguised as humans to eventually prepare the kingdom and the island as a whole for horrible events to come. Tommy and I were absolutely horrified and acted quite offended about it as to the two of us, it was such an absurd claim. But then again, if they say they've never seen any humans outside of this kingdom's walls, they did have a right to suspect either possibility.

Thankfully, the Workforce Incarceration party beat the other parties out with 8 members with one of them being the kingdom's queen, Raina. They stated some very intriguing points, such as the heart of the island wanting to continue bringing humans onto the island. Or that this was a special present from the heart in turn of all of the kingdom's offers. And if we joined the workforce, it was possible they could assist and possibly teach us a thing or two if they had any knowledge about it. And thanks to their efforts, Tommy and I survived the trial and were accepted into the Kingdom of Kipoiwa.