The Beginning

Despite the cheeriness of my country, I found it prudent, at the age of seventeen to solicit my father for the freedom to travel south beyond our borders. This I did greatly desiring to see what lay beyond our golden gates and marble pillars. I wished to see the land of trees, the land of sand and sea! My father objected stubbornly for nine months until at last I was successful in convincing him to consult with the elders. I truly felt that the elders would allow it. Although it was not customary for them to promote the leaving of the territory, I felt that they may consent to me. They had called and elected me to be trained as a judge in the city. My appeal to them was that if I were allowed to travel it would enhance my ability to judge with equity and without bias or prejudice.

And so it was that my father went before them and delivered his plight into their hands. I do not know what conversations and debates transpired between them, but it was not until many weeks later that they delivered their position to my father. They spoke to him in council and told him that if he were agreeable to the idea of my leaving (for never would they interfere with a father's right to raise and treat his children - it was against their laws) then they would allow it. Nevertheless, they also suggested that I be allowed to leave on the condition that I return within a year's time to begin my formal training and that after I return I abandon the entertainment of further fantasies of leaving.