Two Taken

Prologue

Prologue

- the before

Introducing the world of Darlian and Leminai

Long ago, there was a star-cit that was named Darlian, a beautiful and wondrous place filled with trelians of all shapes and sizes, changing and growing, never the same. It had tropical jungles next to stormy forests, and strange creatures like you've never seen before. Amidst all the chaos, there was a silent peace that entered every being that touched the lands. The animals feasted together every day, at the crack of dawn. Everyone was joyous, and many star-cits were allianced with them; often the star-cit's people would visit Darlian for a merry welcome. Except for one.

Leminai.

Although Leminai was right next to Darlian, and was the only other star-cit in their mai, they were waterlenes. Other elementals in existence included trelians, skyn, and firlons. These were the elements, and most skyn, firlons, and trelians were thriving. Waterlenes were jealous. They were destined to block the current of water that fell off the world at the Ends, but new types of machines were doing it for them and most of the waterlenes (when reached the age of 16) were sent to measly jobs like boaters and skillets. The money they earned was not enough to pay the taxes to their kings and queens, which made the royals not able to provide for their people, and instead they had to either form an alliance with another kingdom or take too much from their own ground. Leminai's proud king did the latter. They were unable to get food from Suppliers, as none were in their mai and it was too much of a risk to go to a different one. This put almost every waterlene in Leminai into extreme poverty, and all of their plants and animals perished. By this point, their king was desperate and at loss of a plan, as now Darlian didn't want to let Leminai form an alliance when the king had finally asked for help.

Then, something perfect happened. A trelian went crazy in Darlian and murdered 10 firlons and skyn, who were Messengers and Importers. The Star People felt that punishment was necessary, and kept all of Darlian's food stocks tremendously low. Even though there were only a pitiful few waterlenes who could fight, the king brought everyone who was able and declared an attack on Darlian.

Surprisingly, it worked, though mainly because the trelian's royalty (trelians are non-gender specific and refuse to call their royalty king or queen) was weak-willed and ordered all their subjects to retreat. The waterlenes' king took over Darlian and began to harvest the literal never-ending food, as the low amount of food returned to normal since the trelians had left. All the trelians that were still in this mai were killed or forced into hiding, waiting until they could escape. To avoid any more escapees, the king formed a strong group of individuals called The Watchers, trained to track down any remaining trelians in their mai.

This is where our story begins, many decades later.