Once Upon a Time

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful country. When they made it – for this country was carved out of the earth like a slice of cake – it became ere long the Land of the Lost.

Aileann Faevelt Lhann’shoay! It was never young, this country of thine. The memory of blood was upon it ere it was born. Half a century, and still it wheezes on. Unto eternity and beyond.

Oh, it’s a bonny land, a bonny, bonny land, infested to the core, like Snow White’s apple. It has the poison of Shelob in its veins. And there it lies, rolled up in a shroud of spider silk, its eyes stark and staring, paralysed, waiting for the Orcs of the Black Tower.