The First Scattering
The First Scattering immediately followed the big battle with the devil fish for Menedékhely. Beorn and I played a large role in that, with those able to fight on our side dwindling away and the number of devil fish masquerading as our deceased comrades increasing all the time. The last battle took place on The Cliff and ended with both Beorn and I being forced to retreat. We had been buying time for the last few citizens of the city to evacuate themselves to a safer place.
I have to tell you a little about the life cycle of a devil fish in order for you to better understand me, although I have already mentioned part of it in my second post regarding Beorn. Devil fish are live-born fish, like guppies. They grow and reproduce with a speed you wouldn't believe if they have a continuous food supply. Being genetically modified by my father, they were given an aggressive streak (which turned out to be too aggressive) to help their survival - that is, they could eat anything organic and would attack anything that had the potential to be food. The more they ate, the sooner the reproduced and the sooner they died. Maturity to reproduce occured quickly, but is not considered full maturity by the older fish.
If they were fed very little over large amounts of time, these fish were extremely long lived and did not die of old age. Full maturity was only reached at 20 years or so, when the fish discovered its ability to project an illusion of anything it ate whole and could masquerade as a human, (walking, talking, eating, etc) if it had eaten the whole human. It was these fish who had learnt to take on their illusory forms, whom we fought against.
Imagine seeing some of your closest friends pulled under water in a froth of blood, then minutes later, see them emerge apparently unchanged, but bent on killing you and all those around you. It was horrible, but this is what the devil fish did and how they earned their name.
Survival of the fittest? Ha! Those within the Lagoon Mountains were set on genocide. Those outside the Lagoon Mountains have other ideas. Somehow, they've managed to set themselves up as gods. Now its me set on genocide, unless I can find some other way to control these fish. The only good thing is that the fish can't live in salt water, so the Islanders will be safe from the fish unless they bring some back during a trade. They're my best bet as allies outside the Lagoon Ranges.
Anyway, let's get back to talking about the First Scattering shall we?
The remnants of the Old City fled south toward the hills above the South Valley Flood plains, almost due south of Menedékhely. Most of the people had been split up and wandered the land, doing their best to survive until enough of them gathered together to found the Second City. The only records of the First Scattering were distroyed along with the Second City, but from memory, they only record the relatively few families that survived the battle with the devil fish of the millions that had once lived in the Old City.
At the beginning of the flooding of Menedékhely, several hundred families agreed to travel south and attempt to cross the Southern Mountains and wait there until the devil fish had been destroyed or were no longer a threat. When it was safe, people would be sent to fetch them home. Sadly enough, everyone had forgotten by the time the Second City was built, too busy trying to survive and those people who had made the journey became the first of the Southerners. While Beorn and I had not forgotten, we had decided that it was probably safer for them there where the devil fish were less likely to get to them. Turns out we were wrong there.
Next time, you get to find out about the Age of the Second City.
