the kingdom was lost.

it was in shatters, ruins of what was once a great castle dilapidated, moss overgrowing the huts of a nearby town. the forest spread far and wide around it, coming up to the side of an ever growing lake, and as the nature grew back, the signs of humanity were lost from it.

maybe it was supposed to be that way, years in the future when the only sounds were of crickets chirping and deer bounding after each other under the tall, dark trees. maybe there wasn't supposed to be humanity, building and breaking and marking their claim which would never last under the power of the land.

there were no cars, no roads to be seen. concrete homes were nothing more than crushed rocks, and bridges had fallen into the rivers and seas long ago. there was no humans. no people. no man-made towers. they had fallen long ago, with bombs that left the earth pocked, but which nature turned into valleys and lakes instead. their marks were crumbling, their words gone with the breeze. the power, the magic they once held, was forever lost with them.

their kingdom was gone.

but in this new age, there was quiet. there was peace. the cycle of life and death was repeated by the animals, by the birds who sang and the wolves that prowled. new species arose, others declined, as it was the way life worked.

and humans declined in the cycle, gone with their passions and leaving only silence.

but somewhere, in a place they once called home, something grew. it had two hands, two feet, and its brain was slightly larger, although not by much, in comparison to the other creatures.

it could be called evolution. before their brains would be able to understand the complexity of their development, they would certainly call it 'magic'.

and maybe it was magic.

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prompt: silence