After more time had passed, his hunger remained ever growing, but there was no room for Karaccnar to expand on the island of Manzuhi. The center of his body, and its largest mouth was located in a special temple complex at the center of our village, high atop a stone pyramid, as tall as 10 men, overlooking the island. Along the temple we had multiple priests perform religious ceremonies for the weekly feeding ceremony, and the most beautiful maidens from all the villages were selected to care for its tentacles, providing them with water and nutrients as our farmers deemed necessary. Some villagers initially tried to flee, but as the great Karaccnar grew this became impossible. His great arms now stretched from coast to coast, covering the pearl-white beaches, and any who dared to set foot there were swiftly punished. Many of the smaller villages and tribes existed solely to produce off-spring to feed Karaccnar and his children, but the age of sacrifice had to be gradually lowered to keep up with demand. Eventually we had to regretfully resume feeding Karaccnar with our own. With less time spent as an adult, our production and that of our neighbours dropped, but this was a problem that solved itself, as with a smaller adult population you require less resources to keep the population healthy. Older members were notably less productive anyway, and unfortunately in many ways they were leeches to our resources.

Currently the age of sacrifice is merely 41 years of age. I myself am well past that age, as one of the elite guards of Karaccnar, I am exempted, together with the chiefs, other guards and some of our priests. Karaccnar will enter its next reproductive cycle soon, and we are preparing a great ceremony and festival, larger than any we’ve had before. This one is very special to me, as it will be the first festival that my son, who I’ve named after Rezuko, will attend. The great Karaccnar’s tentacles are now so long they reach deep into the sea, and it allows us to fish from our boats as long as we don't sail out of its reach. We have spotted several islands on the horizon, not too far from here, separated from us by the clear blue, shallow and calm waters surrounding the island. Just a few weeks ago we made contact with some fishermen from a different island. They called themselves the Hakuki, and they spoke a language quite similar to ours, but not exactly the same. They worship a great bird with blue and green feathers which change their colour depending on the sunlight, although this mysterious bird hasn’t been seen for quite some time. We exchanged jewellery and clothing from our ships with them, they were most friendly towards us and displayed excellent craftsmanship. We have invited them over for the great festival, and they promised to build a large ceremonial ship that could carry enough people to celebrate with us. Likewise we too have begun constructing larger ships, to make the short trip to our new neighbours.

Stolen novel; please report.

I am glad we will be able to bless new lands with Karaccnar. A tear falls from Yabari’s eyes.