Prologue (Ruby eats the Fruit)
There was once a time where humans were immortal. They could age but never die. It was a static way of life and the town was happy with it.
Outside the town was a forest. Its land surrounded the clock-face shaped town perfectly and stretched for miles. The trees all blossomed with scarlet red fruit.
It was foretold that one bite from the fruit would take away one's immortality, fating the consumer to die. They would be shunned and isolated by the village.
So no one in the town dared to eat the fruit. Only a man called Wally Rose and his lovely wife Lucy had eaten the cursed fruit. It was just the two of them in a pretty cottage in the forest that Wally had built with his bare hands.
One day, the couple had welcomed the arrival of their first child. A girl they named Ruby. After the red fruit.
When Ruby was only six years old, she used to play with the towns children in the forest everyday. One day when playing hide-and-seek, Ruby had picked a red fruit put of curiosity and took a bite. The child was now fated to die, just like her parents would.
The children no longer played with Ruby. Not even acknowledged her.
Ruby had asked her parents what she did wrong. Knowing how difficult life would become for her, Wally & Lucy assured their child that only the belief in the fruit's curse gave it its power. It was why the town never understood them or the truth behind the delicious fruit.
"As long as we remain optimistic through these hard times, the curse may turn out to be a blessing in disguise.." Lucy had told her daughter.
"It doesn't change who you are. You're still you. Everyone else just hasn't realised that yet" had been Wally's response.
Ruby was determined to show the town that they were mistaken. Even after her parents passed away, she vowed to change the town's mind.
