Another snippet
Nov. 10th, 2003 11:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lederhosenNot doing NaNoWriMo, but thought I'd share a vaguely Princess Bride moment.
*****
Outside the window, three floors below, stretched the blue tiled roof of the Great Hall. Beyond that, the vast expanse of the Zoo. Like much of the palace, it had been considerably improved upon since its first incarnation. The first Sultan, Shahryar – a man of sudden whim – had fenced off a vast area, planted a range of trees, and populated it with fabulous beasts from every corner of the earth, which had promptly devoured one another. The victors had then broken through the boundary fences and eaten several of the Sultan's subjects before order was restored, and the Zoo stood empty and overgrown for years afterwards during the second Sultan's insanity.
The third Sultan, Namizzad, had begun the process of reclamation, employing an army of gardeners to replace the overgrown flora with neat columns of roses and fruit trees, but had been garrotted before the process was complete. The instigator, his younger son Adar, then surprised the populace by embarking on a reign still renowned for its generosity and justice, and completed the renovation, dedicating the gardens to the memory of his father.
However, Adar's elder brother Amar, long presumed dead in a shipwreck, had eventually proved to be nothing of the sort, and in its thirteenth year the 'Golden Reign' came to an abrupt and bloody end. Amar had ordered the Zoo restored to its original purpose, building the walls higher and stronger and keeping the animals fed on dissidents and criminals. Nevertheless, they persisted in eating one another despite all Amar's care, and eventually he had regretfully ordered the Zoo partitioned into several regions, one for each type of creature. In keeping with his attitude towards governance Amar had not thought it necessary to remove the animals before beginning construction, resulting in constant interruptions to the process, but eventually it had been completed. The individual regions were separated by thick steel bars, set far enough apart to allow smaller animals through, and – except for the outer walls – gated for human passage.
Walkways atop the walls allowed the Sultan to survey his pets from a safe distance, and with the occasional addition of food and provision of guards to deal with escapes the zoo became largely self-sustaining. Occasionally a Sultan would add a few more enclosures and creatures, and the tenth Sultan – hoping to establish a colony of tame rukhs – had gone to great expense to erect a strong barred dome over the whole, but all in all the Zoo was much as Amar had left it.
*****
Outside the window, three floors below, stretched the blue tiled roof of the Great Hall. Beyond that, the vast expanse of the Zoo. Like much of the palace, it had been considerably improved upon since its first incarnation. The first Sultan, Shahryar – a man of sudden whim – had fenced off a vast area, planted a range of trees, and populated it with fabulous beasts from every corner of the earth, which had promptly devoured one another. The victors had then broken through the boundary fences and eaten several of the Sultan's subjects before order was restored, and the Zoo stood empty and overgrown for years afterwards during the second Sultan's insanity.
The third Sultan, Namizzad, had begun the process of reclamation, employing an army of gardeners to replace the overgrown flora with neat columns of roses and fruit trees, but had been garrotted before the process was complete. The instigator, his younger son Adar, then surprised the populace by embarking on a reign still renowned for its generosity and justice, and completed the renovation, dedicating the gardens to the memory of his father.
However, Adar's elder brother Amar, long presumed dead in a shipwreck, had eventually proved to be nothing of the sort, and in its thirteenth year the 'Golden Reign' came to an abrupt and bloody end. Amar had ordered the Zoo restored to its original purpose, building the walls higher and stronger and keeping the animals fed on dissidents and criminals. Nevertheless, they persisted in eating one another despite all Amar's care, and eventually he had regretfully ordered the Zoo partitioned into several regions, one for each type of creature. In keeping with his attitude towards governance Amar had not thought it necessary to remove the animals before beginning construction, resulting in constant interruptions to the process, but eventually it had been completed. The individual regions were separated by thick steel bars, set far enough apart to allow smaller animals through, and – except for the outer walls – gated for human passage.
Walkways atop the walls allowed the Sultan to survey his pets from a safe distance, and with the occasional addition of food and provision of guards to deal with escapes the zoo became largely self-sustaining. Occasionally a Sultan would add a few more enclosures and creatures, and the tenth Sultan – hoping to establish a colony of tame rukhs – had gone to great expense to erect a strong barred dome over the whole, but all in all the Zoo was much as Amar had left it.
