Radically Happy

(A possible prologue for Into The Woods; co-written with ChatGPT)

Act 1: The Enchanted Glen

In a forest glen, Seraphina, a powerful druid, lived peacefully until King Edmond threatened to seize her home. Feeling cornered, she turned to forbidden magic, summoning a potent spirt from The Land Above. “Grant me power to protect what is mine,” she pleaded.

The spirit agreed, but demanded a steep price. Seraphina, desperate, slept with him in exchange for magic beans and enchanted soil. With her new magic, she forced Edmond into a treaty, building a wall to safeguard her sanctuary. “This land is mine by right,” she declared, wielding her newfound power. The King agreed, vowing death on any who trespassed — as long as she refrained from using magic against any of his subjects.

But fate had more in store…

From the union with the spirit, Seraphina bore a daughter, Gothel. Fair in form and tender of heart, she was the apple of her mother’s eye. She loved the garden, and spent her days tending her mother’s plants. Seraphina guarded them both jealousy, knowing men would lust after their beauty — and their power.

Act 2: Forbidden Love

Meanwhile, Edmond’s wife bore him a a son, Harold. While still a young lad, he
climbed over the wall into the forbidden garden, kindling a friendship with young Gothel. As the years passed, Harold and Gothel’s bond deepened, their love blossoming amidst the enchanted glen. They whispered promises of eternal devotion, pledging to unite in marriage when Gothel turned sixteen. “I’ll always be by your side,” Harold vowed, sealing their fate with a tender kiss.

Counting down the days until her sixteenth birthday, Gothel’s heart swelled with anticipation, each sunrise bringing her closer to their promised union. But as the day ended without her Prince, Harold’s absence cast an even deeper shadow over the glen. “Where are you?” she whispered, tears mingling with the evening rain.

Unbeknownst to Gothel, Harold was entangled in a web of royal obligations. His father, King Edmond, discovered their forbidden love and intervened, betrothing Harold to a princess from a distant kingdom. Confronted with his father’s decree, Harold’s heart shattered, torn between duty and desire. “Forgive me, my love,” he whispered, as he was led away to fulfill his predetermined fate.

Meanwhile, Seraphina, harboring her own secrets, watched from the shadows. She was the one who had told Edmund, and foiled Harold’s plans. But she lied to Gothel, manipulating the narrative to cast Harold as the villain. “He never loved you,” she whispered, poisoning her daughter’s heart with bitterness. “Humans are deceitful creatures, unworthy of your trust.”

In the wake of shattered promises and deceitful schemes, the enchanted glen echoed with the mournful cries of a heartbroken maiden and the bitter whispers of a mother’s betrayal. A betrayal that would wreak havoc on generations yet unborn…

Act 3: A Dryad’s Betrayal

In the heart of an ancient forest, nestled among the whispering trees, lived Rosalyn, a graceful dryad with a voice that could summon birds and charm the wind. Despite the warnings of her fellow dryads, Rosalyn longed for companionship beyond the confines of the forest.

One day, while wandering the forest’s edge, Rosalyn encountered Gothel, who was also lonely due to her mother’s strictures. Drawn to Rosalyn’s gentle spirit, Gothel forged a secret friendship with the dryad, sharing tales of magic and longing beneath the moonlit canopy.

But Rosalyn’s heart was destined for another. When a wealthy nobleman named George stumbled upon her enchanted glade, she fell under his spell, forsaking her bond with Gothel to marry him. Betrayed and embittered, Gothel watched as her only friend chose the arms of a mortal over their shared bond of magic.

As Rosalyn departed the forest to start her new life with George, Gothel’s jealousy turned to rage. Fuelled by her seething resentment, she cast spell after spell in an attempt to track her down and bring her back. Finally, in desperation she cast a blood curse against the very oak that held Rosayln’s spirit, where they once laughed and dreamed together.

Dryad oaks are sturdy things, and it took months before Rosalyn started feeling sick, and years before she finally died. But Seraphina’s wrath was instant, because Gothel’s curse broke the pact that had protected the forest from King Edmond.

She noted with scorn how villagers started building homes and shops near her once-sacred grove. “Fine! If you think you don’t need a mother, just try living life on your own. I am going in search of your father. The garden is yours to do with as you wish, if you can protect it. But you must never allow the magic beans to leave this soil, or horrible consequences will be unleashed.” So she made Gothel swear, and sealed it with her own blood curse.

Meanwhile, George’s fortune dwindled as he sought fruitlessly to cure his ailing wife. When she eventually died, he drowned his sorrows in wine. He couldn’t even bring himself to look at his young daughter Ella, who reminded him too much of his lost wife. All the servants abandoned him, leaving Ella to cook and clean.

Rosalyn never told Ella her secret origin, but did leave behind specific instructions for how and where she should be buried. Ella followed them faithfully, planting a young sapling in the hole left when the cursed oak finally collapsed, the very day Rosalyn died.

Fate seemed to smile upon them when, on the verge of bankruptcy, George agreed to hire a striking widow to take over his finances. Lady Agatha was a refugee from a distant kingdom, where she hinted she was a close relative of the deposed king. A brilliant negotiator, she not won not only the case but George’s heart.

Unfortunately, Agatha had initially assumed Ella was just another servant, and treated her as such — as did her two young daughters. When she discovered her mistake, she was too proud to admit it, and claimed that Ella wasn’t smart enough to ever be more than a servant. George — still infatuated, wine-addled, and grief-stricken — went along with it. Especially when Agatha told him of a plan to marry one of her beautiful daughters off to a rich young nobleman who could revive the estate and carry on George’s family name.

Haunted by the memory of her imprisonment and the loss of her beloved forest home, Rosalyn watched from within her leafy prison as Ella navigated the trials of her new life. Longing for the day when she might use the remnants of her magic to grant her daughter’s deepest wish…

Act 4: Desperate Measures

For a while, all was at peace. Harold grew to love his new wife, who bore him two healthy sons. When his father and father-in-law passed away, he united the kingdoms, and gave every indication of becoming a strong and wise ruler.

Then suddenly, disaster struck. Harold’s wife became deathly ill. His loyal steward heard Harold lamenting how the only possible cure was beans from the forbidden garden. Desperate, the steward snuck into Gothel’s garden to search for the beans. In her rage, Gothel slew the steward, sealing the queen’s fate. She then uttered a curse of eternal confinement against Harold. “You too will know the pain of being abandoned by all you love,” she whispered, consumed by vengeance.

As the curse took hold of the king, he found himself trapped in his bed, unable to rise or leave his chambers. Despair engulfed him, casting a shadow over his once-vibrant kingdom. “Though a king, I am caught in the prison of my own flesh and bone,” he lamented, his voice tinged with sorrow.

Due to his affliction, the king never remarried, but sought solace in fleeting affairs that brought him temporary distraction from his misery. His sons, Kit and Alan, grew up without the guiding hand of a mother, their perceptions of women tainted by their father’s actions. “Love is but the thrill of the chase,” laughed Kit gaily.

As the elder son, Kit resented being burdened with the responsibilities of ruling a kingdom while his father remained incapacitated. He used the excuse of royal duties to wander the kingdom in search of amorous adventures. As a result, his faithful steward — whose father had died in the king’s service — had to do the actual work of running the kingdom, while Kit took all the credit.

And so, the kingdom languished under the weight of the king’s curse, while his sons grappled with the legacy of his actions. Amidst the turmoil, the threads of fate continued to weave their intricate tapestry, setting the stage for a reckoning that would test the bonds of love, loyalty, and redemption…