Paradise Paved

Paradise Paved

 

          There was once, on the outskirts of the City of Phenas in the urban kingdom of Krandau, a mountain. It was quite a nice mountain, not tall enough to have snow on its summit all year, yet not low enough to be called a hill. Near the mountain was a large lake, with water so blue that it seemed to be made of liquid sapphires. At night, when the heavens lit up, the lake’s perfectly still water reflected the stars back up to the heavens. There were also woods near the mountain, which were made up of very old, very tall, very strong trees, greener than those in most woods.  The flowers in the area bloomed year-round, some in the day, and some in the night. Their sweet fragrance always filled the air. The breeze, which was never too strong, but always enough to keep the temperature just right, carried the scent to the city. Everybody agreed that it was a quite pleasant smell. Some people, especially young couples, would drive out to the mountain, and spend the night there in its pleasantry. They would camp in the nearby woods. Everything considered, it was quite a lovely and beautiful place.
          Eventually, many people decided that the place was just so amazing that they wanted to stay there forever. Thus a community began to grow up around the mountain.  It continued to be a popular destination for Phenisran tourists, and those in the New Mountain Community were more than happy to accept the money of the tourists in exchange for food and lodging. The old, strong trees in the nearby woods were felled for timber, so to expand the community. New facilities were built, for the town, for the lake, for the tourists; and the woods shrank. Eventually, the last tree from the woods by the mountain was felled to make another inn for the tourists. And so they became a missed thing of the past, but it couldn’t be helped.
          Over time, the mountain became such a popular destination that tourists from all around Krandau, and even from other continents, came to visit it. So many people visited that the fumes from their vehicles choked the breeze, and where it blew into the city was no longer pleasant. So many people visited that there was very little room left for all of their vehicles, and the people parked willy-nilly wherever they felt like it. The New Mountain Community members met, and decided that it would be well to build a parking lot for the out-of-towners. Unfortunately, this parking lot, in order to meet the demand of the numbers of the tourists, was so large that it could only conveniently fit in one certain area – which, as it turned out, is where the sweet-smelling constantly-blooming flowers’ main area of growth was. The construction company, being from out of town, did not know this, and the head of the New Mountain Community’s council drunkenly signed the plans that would eventually become the lot.
          And so building began. Tractors came in and plowed through the fields of the sweet-smelling constantly-blooming flowers. The fields became dry dust, and then were layered with black, foul-smelling, hard, rocky asphalt. The sweet-smelling constantly-blooming flowers became a missed thing of the past, but it couldn’t be helped.
          The tourists continued to visit. Fishing became a popular pastime at the lake near the mountain, because the fish that dwelt there were very large, cooked quite well, and had a very agreeable taste. Unfortunately, as the tricks to catch the fish became well-known and practiced, their numbers declined. More and more people visited the lake by the mountain in hopes of catching the biggest fish on record. An unneeded and greedy attempt to drum up business by the drunken New Mountain Community’s council head offered a large cash reward for the capture of any fish that was longer than the record, in a contest to be held on the anniversary of the New Mountain Community’s establishment. The day came, and only three fish were caught – a large (but not large enough) male, an egg-laden female, and a barely hatched fry. And so the fish of the lake by the mountain became a missed thing of the past. But it couldn’t be helped.
          The tourists kept coming.
          The lake by the mountain was still a popular place for water sports after the Vanishment of the Fish, as it came to be called. Boat races were held often, and every weekend parties were held on the shore. Beer was popular at these parties. It, and the gas that ran many of the racing boats, seeped into the lake by the mountain. Trash left over from the parties floated in the river. The tranquility of the lake was disturbed. No stars were reflected in the dead and murky waters. And so the lake by the mountain became a reeking mudhole, and a missed thing of the past. And it couldn’t be helped.
          Years passed. Tourists, noticing now that everything that had called them to the mountain in the first place had become things of the past, stopped visiting. The New Mountain Community shrank. Many stayed, because they figured that, well, the mountain itself still looked nice, and the temperature of the area was quite enjoyable.
          Eventually though, the New Mountain Community vanished, in the same Great Event that felled the kingdom of Krandau and every major kingdom around the world. The old world became a thing of the past, not missed by the few who were left after the Great Event. Life went on, and on went time. Weeks, months, year, decades, centuries went by. And in time, civilization began to rebuild itself, nations formed, and again the mountain was located on the outskirts of a city.
          Some people, preferring to live in small groups rather than in the large, cramped condition of the city, moved to the area near the mountain. There, while digging for the foundations of their buildings, they found peculiar things. They notified the city museum, and the museum’s diggers of the past came to the mountain to look at these things. One of them, in particular, intrigued them. It was a rather very large rectangular thing, made of a peculiar kind of grainy, black rock, with rocks in it. It was very odd, indeed, that this thing be found, and nothing like it in such condition had ever been found.
          And it was agreed, by the diggers, and by the people who moved to the mountain that, it was, in its own way, quite beautiful. And they put the black-thing-of-grainy-rock on display, so that people could see what was missing from the past.