Children of the Whales

The Mud Whale, a utopian island that floats across the surface of an infinite sea of sand, has a 14-year-old archivist named Chakuro. The ability to use saimia, extraordinary abilities that doom one to an early death, has been gifted and cursed upon nine out of ten Mud Whale residents. Even though Chakuro and his pals have discovered other islands, they have never encountered, seen, or even heard of a person from a different island. When Chakuro visits an island the size of the Mud Whale one day, he encounters a girl who will shift the course of his life.