The souls of two kingdoms, who reign from opposite ends of the earth, cross paths in the isolations of a dark realm...the Upside-down. Each time they enter this realm, their connection to one another deepens, even when they depart into their own reg...
(Listen while you read: "Inner Sanctum/The Nesting Grounds-Score" by James Newton Howard)
The kingdom my family and I rule over is one of peace and prosperity. Because we built this kingdom on the basis of love and unity, we've been able to expand our rule across thirty-six other islands in the Polynesian Triangle. Because our location is in close proximity to some of the other islands we occupy, we communicate and socialize with our sister tribes often.
My father, Chief Gordon Ata, has been the leader of our beautiful kingdom for sixty years and counting. His parents started training him when he was just a boy, so once he officially accepted the title, he was able to rule our people with much ease and grace. With my mother, Milika, and I and my many siblings by his side, our family did our very best to sustain the culture and it's ancestry, as well as the purity and innocence of our reputation throughout this wretched world.
The main inhabitants of our kingdom, including me and my family, reside in the city of Nuku'alofa, the capital of the largest island in our kingdom Tongatapu. We have the warmest weather here, which is one of the many things I love about my home. We have an abundance of fresh fruit and vegetation, along with beautiful, clear bodies of water.
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We don't really have a variation of animals in our kingdom...at least not on our specific island. But we love the bats that, ever so often, come out of the caves deep in the jungle of our island and play with our little ones. They often gravitate towards the children more than they do the young adults and the elderly. I honestly think that somehow, something within them senses the purity of children and they can't help but approach them. I was never really approached by them as much as the other kids. I never understood why. Until one day, it all made sense.
That day was the day when I wandered deep into our jungle to explore. I stumbled upon a very dark and glum rock formation that seemed to be opening. When I walked in, there was a small creature staring back at me in the darkness. The only aspect of the tiny animal that I could see through the darkness were its beautiful, glowing eyes that looked a little frightened. Though I didn't know if I was in danger being in the presence of an unknown creature, my heart began to melt when I heard its faint whimpering.
As I approached it, the crystal necklace I wore that my grandmother passed on to me before she died, started to glow. As I adjusted my eyes to the new source of light, I was appalled, but pleasantly intrigued by what I saw. This was no ordinary animal. It's appearance was that of a lion cub, but it had the wings of a butterfly, and piercing red/pink eyes.
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