the reign of wise king Darius, the third.

unlike his illustrious predesessors (a cactus, and a , respectcely), Darius , the third of his name was an Aralia. a thread leaf aralia, to be exact. he took his throne amid a period of great turmoil. the untimely and suspicious demise of the medicinal sage Xerxes, the grand wazir, of the lower reaches of the eastern balcony left a power vacuum, was followed by fears of an encrochment of the relentless rosemaries. this was addressed without delay by the new soverign. the punitive expedition was not without cost, and through those dark early days, many of regal leaves were lost to the insurgants. however, with resolute action, the rosemary dominion was pacified, and for a long period, did not dare to tempt the wrath of the now well-established king. the hard summer that dollowed tis period of unrest was not without difficulty, but Darius presevered, and was sprouting new foliage and extending his dominion. he was not disheartened by the dry air of the winter months, nor its plummeting temperature. such was his grace, that under these harsh conditiobs it strived and made itself ready, and by springtime sprouted not one , but four new branches. such was the rapid pace of his spread, that despite the hardships which beset his reign, be they an unexpected buffeting of the palacial pot, dust, or even an ant infestation, he held his perch upon the balcony and did not yeild. from a young sapling, it grew through the hard summers and bitter winters until it reached the unprecedented height of three feet.

but it was in the midst of this prosperity that tragedy struck. as his foliage extended greatly beyond the meager resources of the palatial pot, yea, even causing it to often be unbalanced. it was then decided that he should abandon his old pot and enthrone himself anew in a new, bigger and more voluminous palace. commensurate with his acheivment and triumph. a well crafted, porcelain edifice was chosen and he was repotted, upon the jubilation of his third year of ascendency, in the early spring.

alas, the subsequent summer was particularly disastrous. it was as if the sun-god himself, choosing to strike against the benevolent ruler, out of jelousy and spite. with unprecedented heat waves, and possibly a difficulty to fully acclimate to the soil of the new pot, many roots succumbing, and with them an ominous fall of several leaves. the autumn regrowth, which charachrarized his early reign was not seen, and not a single new branch appeared. the leaves fell, one by one, and the mortal threat was quite apprent. but glorious onto the end, the mighty Darius, held on despite his illness, for most of the cold winter months, when even the rosemary succumbed en mass.

the reign of Darius the III ended in the early days of april, when the spring blooms outside, beneath his ascended 5th story realm. birds chriped and mated, and growth was renewed among the vassal ficus , gynko, and tangerine trees, and the myrtel thralls under them. such was his power, the he survived until a time of great prosperity and justice to his subjects. his death was silently mourned amid the budding cherry flowering.