Chloe’s p.o.v.
Back in the castle….
The kingdom had begun to rot, It started subtly at first—unseasonal winds rattling through the castle corridors, a sharp chill that settled in the bones of those who walked its halls.
Meanwhile, overnight, the rivers ran dry. The once-thriving fields withered into dust, and the air thickened with the stench of decay. The sun, once a golden beacon over the kingdom, became nothing more than a dull presence behind the dense, gray clouds that refused to part.
People grew sick, coughing, feverish with their bodies frail with hunger. With no harvest and no clean water, desperation took hold as hunger made monsters out of men.
Suddenly, the villages fell into chaos as starving families fought over scraps. Food stores were raided, merchants were attacked
