Arrges and Dondus had been the most dovish and gracious cities in Armageddon. Armageddon, which was the first existing land after the creation of earth, began inhabiting the very first humans. The first humans were called Princeps. These Princeps were like real humans, but the solitary discrepancy was that they had a single eye which was located on their temples. This very physiological quality made them be thought as the Phylogenetic Cyclops - the newer, adjusted evolution of Cyclops. But they weren't. They weren't huge and arrogant and aggressive, and none was even borne taller than 5'0 ft, just like the Cyclops who were always found in those forms. They were their own being with peace and great uniqueness.
The Princeps, at a point, were procreating rapidly and diffusing to all corners of Armageddon, with over eighteen thousand (18,000) of them, making them prone to division. One day a congress was held within them, and they decided to disintegrate into cities and each having a verge and a ruler. Four cities were coined out: Arrges, Maizugush, Gerdes, and Dondus (names got from the first-pairs letters of Armageddon). And it was a remarkable fact that the separation was mostly based on their distinguishable eye colors: Arrges' were blue; Maizugushes' were grey; Gerdes' were amber, and Dondus' were red. This would help any of them identify their outlander.
The inhabitants of Arrges and Dondus were the only ones who shared close boundaries which made them partake in several things commonly. Both saw each other with love, and tolerance, and hope, and they never for a time implanted destruction against themselves. Things were hunky-dory until the third generation of the Princeps. King Tydeus, the new ruler of Arrges, was good and upright and never failed to accommodate the Dondus. King Herakles of Dondus, on the other hand, was the downright opposite of Tydeus. He was huffish, callous, and inexcusable in judgements. He had irreparably destroyed lives in Arrges and in other cities. Among all the agone rulers of Princeps, he was the very first to exploit and install magical powers, which made him more dangerous and inviolable.
King Herakles was tacful and concerned but only to his daughter, princess Danae, and his aggressive pet (monkey). His wealth and resources had been recorded to have not been extended to his own land and people; however, he had often spent his fortunes in numerous golds and diamonds which aureately enriched him and his entire castle. One well-known fact about Heracles is that he didn't take a slight chance to trivialize with one who messed with his daughter or pet - according to an oath he took where he gets to slay the culprit with his own sword.
One day a group of young, male merchants from Arrges was returning to their city and at the boulevard that leads to the exit route off Dondus, they were fated to their most lethality. Princess Danae and the king's pet were having a good walk together through the same boulevard, but they were moving up to their father's castle. Immediately seeing Danae, the merchants couldn't get off their piercing eyes out of her, for she was ineffably charming and had been the dream of every male Princeps. But due to King Herakles' caveat and its cataclysm against anyone who would come closer to his daughter, Danae was out of reach. She was like a burning flame in the dark - beautifying but mordacious to touch. She couldn't go close to anyone; she might be punished too. She'd lived almost her whole life with no one to laugh and share some little secrets with. She always wanted to see how it feels for one to smile at her. She wanted love, but she'd been unlucky.
With the merchants still devouring her with their eyes, her companion noticed the unceasing looks from these young males from Arrges, got stimulated with hostility, and attacked them terribly. The young merchants were five in number. In the process of the attack, two of the merchants were gravely wounded but the king's pet was killed. And tragedy befell them. At that point, they couldn't do a thing but let daze and fear overwhelm them.
Danae was in shock and tears but before she could arrive at the castle, the news had reached King Herakles' ears. The King was at once furious by this, and ordered the young merchants to be seized and brought to his presence in his castle. When these young males arrived and Heracles identifying their bluish eyes-color, without any questioning, ignorantly convicted them of two statutory offences: sexual assault and murder, and charged that they'd be slain by his own sword, one after one. But due to an annual deification going on in Dondus, however, Heracles still kept them captive, and gave strong orders not to let any of them see the sky until the last day of deification when they'd serve their sentence.
Erik, who was among the convicted merchants, was full of vibrance, diligence, and talents. He was distinctly the youngest among them, and went along with his wooden recorder that often helped in confining his peace of mind from scatting. But Erik's little only brother was too sick, and he was the only eye that had been looking after him for years - their parents were deceased. And this time he wasn't going to be closed to him; who would know the fate.
On the second night, Danae's sleep was again impeded. This time she couldn't get enough of it, so she curiously got up and began tracing where the strange high-pitched sound of the night had been actually egressing from. According to her, last night's was gratifying, but tonight's was going to be both pleasing and excavating. So she mildly tiptoped through the porches, scrupulously scanning every of the connecting entrances. The sound got more intensifying as she drew closer to the cell-room, where the young merchants were been confined. And at the very front of the cell-room, she met wonders. First at the marbled-floor of the cell's entrance was where the two keepers of the cell were unusually slumbering, with their swords fairly detached from them. This was unbelievable, she thought. Waggling in terror, she walked past through the half-dead cell keepers but was instantly frozen at the entrance metal gate. Now this is the place! Without further reasoning, she gripped two of the rails of the gate, peeped through in-between, but she only felt the coldness and fogginess of the cell. Consequently, she took a fire lantern which was lying beside one of the keepers and shone it directly into the cell - this was where she met the second wonder. She saw the glimpse of young Erik playing his recorder diligently and nodding to its rhythm. Crazily interesting, isn't it? But wait! His fellow captives were deep in sleep; why would these people here weren't caught up with this but only me? Dannae thought.
On the third night, the night before the final day of deification when the merchants from Arrges who were in captive would be slain by King Herakles, Danae and Erik found themselves sitting under the Old Tjikko tree - not too far from the castle. The night sky was darkening, but the pale crescent moon was beaming like a silvery claw down to the barest soil. The night itself was on its glutted loneliness, except the presence of the king's daughter and the youngest merchant. During that day, in the cell, Erik had already gotten a news from his city about the death of his sick brother who had been his only hope to live. Now his hope is gone; nothing else left to be living for. He needed to face his fate tomorrow with an unfaltering heart. Luckily Danae was with him, she couldn't let him bare the pain alone. She would take Erik's hands, kneading them gently, smelling and dropping them so close to her lips. She really admired him: his bluish eye, his hands, his talent, his pain - everything. Danae really felt for him, and after meeting Erik the first time in the cell, last night, she had thought of many ways to help him be a free man. So she settled with the idea of giving Erik her dad's acernia folia which she stole. Acernia folia is an ancient leaf with a strong magical power (giving the chance to switch into anyone's body) and it's usually enclosed in a little cuboid box. Very expensive and strong; no Princeps in the four cities was this in his custody except King Heracles. Danae opened the box containing the acernia folia, took it out and tore into halves. She gave one half to Erik and withheld the other, and both synchronously chewed the leaf, as she had instructed. Immediately they embraced, their bodies switched: Erik was now bearing Danae's body, and Danae bearing his. Erik was drowned in an ocean of ecstasy - he hadn't seen what he had looked like for once, unlike Danae. Danae told him that that was the best thing she could do for him, and no one would know. She instructed him to take care of her body, by avoiding any object that'd make him bleed, until tomorrow when he'd be facing his judgement. Erik nodded in agreement. Danae gently kissed him - their first kisses - and they went back to answer the night's call. But this time, Danae took the cell, and Erik took the princess' room.
The last day of deification came, and the people of Dondus gathered in front of the castle, drumming and chanting to the name of their god. Then suddenly the king gave a gesture for all to be calm, for the time of judgement had come. He ordered the perpetrators to be brought out, and they were out to the people, chained in both hands and feet. Princess Danae was leading the other four captives. However, Erik was standing beside the king, looking at Danae in terror and wishing for something else to happen other than death. Heracles failed to understand things had changed; his daughter was now a captive, and his captive was his daughter. He was always too swift to kill, so no room for rationality. After pronouncing some words from the scroll, he made them kneel down. Moving closer to his daughter, he drew out his glinting, vicious sword and slitted it through her neck. At once her head fell off, and Erik's and Dane's bodies switched over. Chaos broke out as the people of Dondus saw this; this was the very time Heracles knew he was doomed.
King Heracles was hexed of being slitted by his own sword - in fulfilment to the oat he took.
And at the presence of the Dondus were their King and Princess lying dead.
At last the captives were freed, including Erik.
Erik asked for the body of Danae be taken with him to his city, and it was granted.
Heracles was buried on the dusk of the same day in his garden beside the castle.
And more importantly, the Princeps didn't survive to the next generation; they all vanished from earth in order not to incur another more tragedies.