There were farm fields and vineyards and orchards and meadows for
grazing animals all within the city walls, and not just congregated
around the outside, for there were buildings all around the wall's
perimeter, but scattered among the other buildings in a natural and
pleasing way. In the southern part there was a lake that was of fair
size, and a fleet of fishing boats anchored at its shore showed that it
did its part to contribute to the city's well-being. Several of the
trees throughout the city were especially conspicuous in their grandeur,
for they rose hundreds of feet from the ground and had great waterfalls
flowing down from their tops, as if they were crying great torrents of
tears down from their aged faces, though if in sadness or joy, I
couldn't tell.

To the east there was land visible from the height at which I found
myself, though in the distance it became hazy and I could not make out
its distinct features. It was evidentially corrupted, however, for it
had an uneasy look about it, as did the ocean, which was a faint, pale
shadow of the rich blue it was in my childhood days. The sky as well was
tainted, and it looked to be filled with the accumulated atrocities of
countless generations. The clouds were thick and bluish, and the
spherical mural of the sky itself had been greatly dried, cracked, and
crumbled since my time, for it bore the marks of pain, the marks of the
labor pains of the earth's last gestating doom. And well they should, I
thought, for in the years since my natural life it had seen much
suffering and much destruction.

The King broke the silence, saying, "Lovely, isn't it, Jehu? And it is
all yours for the taking."

"What do you mean," I asked him.