Fateful Chance 

          The Kingdom of Akron consists of two large islands and three smaller ones tucked in between.  The easternmost island, aptly named Kallimon, is beautiful. The western island is Leotis, which means plain.  The three small inner islands are Phobios, Deimanos, and Taros.  All three names have to do with fear or terror.  At one point in time, Akron was one island.  Its inhabitants called the whole of it Kallimon.  At the center of the island was a volcano that had been dormant for thousands of years, if not longer.  One night it awakened and the explosion ripped the island in two.  The sea rushed into the center, leaving nothing there except the trio of small islands that remain as testimony to the terror the people experienced as their world was ripped apart.  It is said that because of the eruption nobody can find their way into and out of the islands, except for the rulers of the islands.  
The King, whom they call Vanax, ruled over the land and people for many years without intrusion until one day a ship wrecked close to the islands.  The Vanax went out to look for survivors.  You see to them, outsiders were forbidden to come into the islands.  They were called xenos.  If something should happen so that a xenos should find their way into the islands they shall never leave again without the Vanax's permission.  The Akronians were not mean people for all their harsh ways for they sent for the families of the people who did happen to come there.  The Vanax feared that one day one of his own people would betray him and lead other people into the islands to try to ambush him and take over, so he made a map.  This was no ordinary map though, for he wanted the map to be hidden in a way so that should another person look upon the map they would not know it was.    He designed a mask and then painted the map onto the mask.  He was also very cautious in this too because to actually read the map you had to turn the mask upside down.  He then told only his brother the Prince, whom they call Archos, and his sister the Princess, whom they call Jenex, how to read the map.  The sailors far offshore with their spyglasses could only see what appeared to be a narrow inlet which was in fact the twisted, hidden entrance to the drowned center of Akron.  If some unwary sailor did happen to drift too close, they would only see what appeared to be big boulders looming just above the surface of the water.  It was really pumice that had drifted ashore.  The Vanax hung the mask on his wall and told anybody who asked, that it was just some art that he had bought. 
 One day a man by the name of  Johnathon asked for the Jenex Lassandra's hand in marriage.  The Jenex did not like Johnathon and so told him no.  Her brother,  Archos Alejandros, agreed with his sister and told Johnathon to leave.  Johnathon did not and while everyone slept that night he kidnapped the Jenex.  Johnathon didn't know how to leave the islands so he made the Jenex tell him  and then he took the mask, boarded a ship, and left.  The Vanax and the Archos awoke the next day to find that the Jenex was gone.  They went after her and found that Johnathon and their sister had shipwrecked on the island Diemanos.  The Jenex had lied to Johnathon and  had told him that she didn't know how to read the map.  Therefore, Johnathon had read the map right-sideup instead of upside-down.  Johnathon was put in jail and sentenced to stay there for life.  The Vanax, the Archos, and the Jenex all agreed after they had put the mask back on the wall that should it ever happen again they would lie like the Jenex had.  They were not so lucky though for Johnathon escaped from jail, took the mask, stole another ship, and safely left the islands.  He stopped at the first sight of land and docked.  He then went to see the King Reichard of Hawkland and tried, unsuccessfully, to get him to attack Akron.  The King took the map from Johnathon  and went to the islands.  The Vanax Atrid, scion of the House of Atreus and chosen ruler of Akron met with King Reichard of Hawkland and introduced him to his younger brother the Archos Alejandros and his wife Lady Joan and his younger sister the Jenex Lassandra.  King Reichard fell in love with Jenex Lassandra and they were married. 
 To this day, three thousand years later, the mask, which they named Fateful Chance, has remained in their family and no one has ever tried to take over Akron.  Johnathon died with everyone believing him mad, for he kept telling anyone he met, that there were these beautiful islands and only he could get to them.  The people of Akron grew and prospered in safety.  King Reichard and Jenex Lassandra made frequent trips to her homeland, but were always very cautious.

                                                By: Jessica Marie Isom