The Garden of Eternity

daisy

Find eternity beyond this place. It isn't safe, no, it will never be safe to wander the paths of Aeternum, understand this and heed this warning. You must do whatever it takes to stop the demons from leeching off of the flowers of immortality.

'What demons?' Ambrosia thought to herself, jumping back as the flame of the demon in front of her snared her. He looked at her, with ugly eyes, with no depth, understanding nor compassion; all they were filled with was hate. 'He's not leeching from the garden,' She turned up her nose, 'that much is obvious.'

Ernaline shot out her flames, unsheathing her sword before lunging forward and abolishing the demon. "Ya, that was supposed to be my kill." Ambrosia looked at her in distaste.

Ernaline simply gave her a warm smile, the beautiful sunrise enrapturing her blonde hair with the red highlights; she was too beautiful a soul for this world.

"Ya, Ernaline, where's Enid?"

"I'm not sure." She said before looking around the forest surrounding us.

"Yo!" Enid jumped down from a tree before standing up, towering over the two girls.

"Since you're here now, and the demons of this forest have all been defeated," Ambrosia sighed, "I need to talk to you guys about something."

"Yeah?" Enid asked, sitting down on the forest floor.

Ambrosia sat on a rock and Ernaline joined Enid in sitting on the forest floor. "So, the Garden of Aeternum—"

"What's that?" Ambrosia and Ernaline's eyes widened in surprise.

"Enid, you don't know the story of the Garden of Aeternum?" Ernaline asked, curiously.

"No?"

"Oh." She was dumbfounded, "It's, well, it's the garden of eternity. Our parents told us of the garden when we were learning how to fight with swords. The story goes like this, there was once a beautiful woman whose hair was silky and smooth, her eyes a soft hazel and her smile as graceful as a swan. She was adored by her entire village and many men wanted her hand in marriage. What they did not know was that the woman, Yuri, was a someone, like us, who was aware of demons and hunted them. She was as powerful as she was beautiful, and her power was so great, that she was acknowledged by many others—"

"Even though most of us don't know of many others or barely a few." Ambrosia cut her off.

"Yes, she was known by many. However, from all the praise and power she held, she became corrupted. She began desiring selfish things, becoming more and more self absorbed. And through this corruption, she began to desire what the demons had, a long life-span. She wished for her appraisal to carry on for longer, longer than her human life. So, the story goes that Yuri, on her mission to smite a particularly ferocious demon, found a garden so beautiful, it enraptured her senses and she walked through it. The garden, for her was filled with wisteria flowers and amaranths, both of which symbolized immortality. She walked for a while and soon she ended up at the path's bifurcation, one path, was led by the same wisteria and amaranth and the other was led by chrysanthemums and spider lilies. She had a choice, which she wasn't aware of, whether to choose mortality or immortality. She, without hesitation, walked down the path of immortality, the one led by wisteria and amaranths. She was so desperate for the praise and so-called admiration, that she sacrificed her humanity for it. When she walked down that path, the wisteria and amaranth enveloped her, and she became an angel."

"Angel? As in those immortal beings that cause mayhem and chaos? I thought they were the stuff of legends."

"Yes. When she went back the demon-slayers, they shunned her for lying that she was human, although she was initially. Her village shunned her for her deceit, for manipulating the villagers using her angelic beauty, even though she had been human. After being shunned and hated by everyone, she found herself alone, and she wept near a wisteria flower. A voice asked her, 'was immortality truly what you desired?' She did not answer, the voice said, 'I will give you a chance to return to Aeternum, you must make the right choice.' And the girl frantically agreed. The path opened in front of her and she walked in and, the story goes, every flower of Gaea was present. She walked through again and when she reached the path's end, it split into five paths, two were the same, one led by chrysanthemums and spider lilies, the other led by wisteria and amaranths, the other five consisted of one path that was led by petunias, one path led by daffodils and daisies, the last one led by many flowers, jacarandas, hyacinths, lilacs and snow drops. Now if you were her, which path would you have taken?" Ernaline asked Enid.

"Me?" He tilted his head before placing a finger on his chin, "Well, let's see," He thought for a moment, "The path led by many flowers."

"I see." Ernaline nodded before continuing, "So Yuri, being unfamiliar by the many new paths, took the path that had been there before, the path led by chrysanthemums and spider lilies, as she believed that, that path would give her, her mortality back. She walked forward, surrounded by the beautiful chrysanthemums and spider lilies, the flowers enveloped her and she felt a surreal warmth and lightness in her chest as she passed away in the field of chrysanthemums and spider lilies."

"What?!" Enid yelled, "Why'd she die?"

"I remember being scared and my parents telling me that each flower had a meaning. So I learned all the meanings of every flower, just in case I end up at the Garden of Aeternum." Ambrosia grinned, "The reason she died was that the flowers chrysanthemums and spider lilies symbolize death and mortality."

"Then why'd she die? Wasn't mortality what she was looking for?"

"No," Ambrosia smiled, "Unbeknownst to even herself, she was looking something to make amends, a new beginning, and the path that symbolized that was the one led by daffodils and daisies."

"But I thought Angels can't be killed by any means."

"Oh they can be, by either the Garden of Aeternum, or poison made of extracts of spider lilies and chrysanthemums."

"Shut up, don't lie."

"I'm serious."

"Well okay, what did the other paths represent?"

"The path led by petunias represented anger and resentment." Ambrosia explained, "And the path with many flowers..." She grinned suddenly, "Do you want to find out?"

"What do you mean find out?"

"I mean, let's go to the Garden of Aeternum?"

"It's real?!"

"Yeah, found it a year or two back."

"What are we doing here then?" Enid jumped to his feet, "Let's go!"

"That's the spirit." Ambrosia grinned and Ernaline just fondly shook her head.