A dark rot seeps through the land like mildew snaking it’s path through the cloth seams of a canvas. A lot of people think that the curse came from a neighbouring trades-kingdom, some lonesome creature prowling around a cave in the high hills or maybe a wizard with soulless voids for pupils and a temper that can break through the steel bolts of chains but those like me who look so closely they can see a fair faced pixie fling itself sprightly between the blush seashell petals of the lollipop flower as it dances downriver on a hot day will know that the true source of this kingdom’s pain comes from within. That’s why those who live nearest the middle of the city will feel the shudder of crumbling buildings where they should feel the lullaby of a heartbeat. A deep throttled desire for vengeance penetrates the veins of the kingdom until the luminous water in every river is whipped as viscous as tar and every bird that migrates through drops to the ground as a tear would. Nowadays birds have stopped passing altogether. The countryside that we used to be so proud of now only looks vibrant on the flags. Each valley of rainforest green that used to house flowers the colour of the shine off a camera lens has shrivelled into a sorry canyon. The paths through the forest have become overgrown with snivelling weeds that claw their green fingers over any small jackalope or kitsune cub that heads their way and cling to the roots of trees like a dying lover. Trees that were once sturdy enough to climb. Trees that I used to climb high into before they got carted away in navy tarpaulins or malnourished down to cowering husks. All that’s left to climb now is the toadstools and even they’re rotting away by the day. Sometimes I sit and stare up through the soul of each star and wonder what would have happened if nothing had ever changed. What would have happened if whoever lived here long enough ago to wreck damnation on this paradise of ours hadn’t. Maybe I wouldn’t be alive. Maybe none of us would be. Maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing