There are many theories on the exact nature of the Garden. What is it? Why do planets get chosen to join it? And other such questions. Of course, no one except perhaps the Gardeners knows, and if they do, they aren’t telling anyone. As far as we have been able to tell, one night the constellations just changed. One second, we were in the same place the planet has been for billions of years, the next we weren’t. Those on the other side of the planet noticed even less, as the sun only flickered for a moment before people started manifesting Seeds, leaving no room for much speculation. Every Garden world shares the same Sun, leading a few authors to believe we share a solar system. Surprisingly, there is no evidence for this other than the Sun. Any cultigen that sets foot on Ega can tell that it is the exact same Sun we bask in on Earth, yet the night sky is completely different and we cannot find Ega with telescopes or sensory Concepts. This suggests some large-scale warping of space, but if it’s possible that two planets in different places in the galaxy can share a Sun, why did the Earth get moved? Where were we moved to? The Elvar believe the Sun is a god that blessed the sapient races with the means to touch godhood themselves with his bounty (what they call Aether). The Daemo’karin believe they, along with the other Garden races, were chosen to be holy warriors, the Garden a training ground for a coming war against non-Garden races. No one knows what the Grudan, secretive as they are, believe. The point being that, ultimately, it seems none of us have a clue.

Excerpt from “A Traveller’s Guide to the Garden”

Musa picked up his blood-soaked glaive with a grimace, pulling some viscera off the spike.

“I’m never letting you touch my weapon again.” He said, as Mike sheepishly shrugged to his side.

The drive had taken two hours, thanks to the influence of the Bulwark all Burrows were at least that far away from the city. They got off on the outskirts of the Burrow, a spot within the pine forest that was a touch more vibrant, with the trees a hair thicker and the underbrush a shade greener. Apparently, from above, it looked like a gigantic disc of vitality, strengthening towards the centre, as if the surrounding forest was somehow slightly less alive. The massed students had quickly formed into their strike teams, 12 in total. Mr McLeod would take them into the Burrow in groups of 8, as they weren’t looking to bloom just yet, merely gain battle experience. Then he’d leave the two strike teams relatively far from one another but within hearing range, in order for them not to disrupt each other and also as a first response if something went wrong. It had been going well so far, the local wildlife not being that dangerous this far from the Drasil.

“How was I supposed to know it wasn’t a Burrow beast? It’s not like they come with a name tag!”

They had been sitting by a tree, preparing for lunch, when they saw a flash of brown off to the side. Without hesitation, Mike had turned, picked up Musa’s glaive and threw it at the shape, imbuing it with Penetration, all before the others had even confirmed what it was. He’d punched a fist-sized hole through the moose’s torso and the tree behind it, the glaive getting lost among the underbrush and fallen pine needles. Musa forgave his jumpiness, as it was their first time in a Burrow, but wished he hadn’t been so decisive with his damn glaive.

“Why did you even use it? You have a whole bandolier of darts strapped to your chest for this exact purpose!”

“I just saw the flash, then your blade and instantly reacted. I’m sorry, this place has me twitchy.”

It had them all twitchy. The dense canopy cover had fully blocked any direct Sunlight, yet the ambient energy in the air was slowly leaking into his soul, giving him the invigorating rush of Sunlight without the healing, soothing effect, the energy having already been filtered through the Drasil.

“Ugh, let’s just go, I’ll clean it in a stream or something.”

“Strike team 5, this is Strike team 6, we’re pressing forward.” Mike spoke into his ILC earpiece.

“Copy that Strike team 6, we’re just finishing up our lunch, ETA two minutes according to the map.”

Mike turned around to see Jas and Birgitte packing up. “Team 5 is two minutes behind us, let’s speed up, guys.”

“Indeed. Maybe we shall be able to test our mettle against a rabbit with an especially strong leap, or, god forbid, an angry mother fox. Truly that would be a battle for the songs.” Jas was unhappy, as so far they’d only encountered the unfortunate moose and a flock of birds with four wings each that flew into the air and disappeared when they spotted the group.

“Be careful what you wish for, young prince” Birgitte said in her sage old lady voice, “Your heart’s utmost desires may yet lead you to your doom.”

“It’s only funny when I do it, Birgitte.”

Her head whipped around in shock. “You can talk normally? And did you just use my name?”

“It shames me to admit, fair maiden, I have not a clue of what you speak.”

“Oh bullshit! Musa, did you hear that? He spoke normally!”

Musa laughed as he approached, “Birgitte, Jas doesn’t do that. I don’t think he can, to be honest. Come, let’s go, we’ll definitely see cool stuff as we get closer to the centre.”

He and Jas walked off, leaving Birgitte behind, a bemused expression on her face.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The team stopped when they encountered a wolf about the height of Birgitte’s waist, just sitting on the forest floor, waiting for them.

“Why isn’t it attacking?” Birgitte asked.

“This is the tree’s warning to turn back. I’m guessing a few other teams are already fighting hard nearer the centre, so it doesn’t want to spread its forces too thin,” Mike said, the man with all the answers. “If we pass him, we can expect it to get exponentially harder from here. Luckily this is still a newer Burrow, so the beasts aren’t that tough.”

“So do we just walk ‘round it or-“

A bright white ray shot from Birgitte’s side, startling her. It bored into the wolf’s throat, setting its coat alight, and sliced outwards diagonally through its head. The beast died with barely a whimper. She turned to see Jas admiring his new dagger with a smile, his face illuminated by its dull white glow.

“I guess we could always do that.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“This is your fucking fault, Jas!”

The prince just laughed manically from behind his large shield, twisting and turning so that any wolf on him would only strike metal. There were a dozen large grey wolves attacking the group and things looked dire for Jas. His dagger was out of energy and he was stalling for it to refill, using it as a knife instead of a laser. It was rather ineffective though, as he’d slash a wolf only for the wound to close up as soon as it jumped back. Birgitte wasn’t having any better luck, her submachine gun beginning to run hot. The large wolves were soaking up bullets, moving out of the line of fire and healing a second later. She had one of her pistols out, a close range bullet to the brain her only way of killing these things. They had grouped together as the wolves had gone directly for Jas, and Birgitte had run towards him to lay down some supressing fire.

Musa and Mike on the other hand were having the time of their lives. As the higher mobility members of the group, the initial plan was for them to fight near Jas, so he could jump in with his shield whenever necessary and provide critical stuns, with Birgitte sniping from the back. However, the plan had quickly fallen apart as the wolves had zeroed in on the man in white, and separated him from the rest of the group. Birgitte was keeping them from getting too close, so they had time as they ground down the rear of the pack. Mike was unstoppable, roaring as he crashed into the pack and cleaving a wolf in two with a swing of his axe, both halves flying off to the sides. The gore sprayed over a few other wolves and they turned towards him, growls deep within their throats. Mike burst forwards and threw a flechette at the leftmost wolf, the dart drilling down through the top of its head and getting stuck in its torso. It collapsed as he swung his axe once more towards a wolf about to bite him, cutting its snout off and as it whimpered and turned away, he empowered his foot and kicked straight through its chest, entrails spilling out on the forest floor. He turned when he heard a growl and threw another flechette, catching the last wolf in the heart mid-pounce. It landed on him, pumping blood down his vest and soaking him.

Where Mike was a sledgehammer, Musa was a scalpel. His fight looked rehearsed, with how simple he made it seem.

Left. Stab.

Musa dodged to the left, savage claws just missing him by a hair as he brought his stabbing spike around and punctured it through the eye.

Forward. Sweep.

He jumped forward, the wolf that tried pouncing on him biting nothing but air. He brought his glaive around in a fast sweep, cutting off its back limbs. The creature landed painfully, bloody stumps dragging along the pine needles as it tried to crawl away, but he walked forward and-

Right. Chop.

Dodged to the right when another wolf came from behind him, blade already falling towards its neck. He wasn’t strong enough to decapitate it yet however, and the blade got stuck in the back of its throat, taking the rest of the glaive with it. The beast, spine neatly severed, could do nothing but choke, as the blade was blocking its healing factor from repairing the damage. Musa took out his pistol and put two bullets in the paralysed wolf’s head and two in the crippled, its legs already healed over with a fresh layer of skin. He yanked out his glaive and turned just in time to hear an exclamation of joy from Jas, as his dagger started shining radiantly and shot out a ray of concentrated light, slicing the last three wolves apart. He gave another whoop of joy and shot his beam directly into the air. It hit a branch, which broke off and started falling. The branch hit the ground and exploded into more pieces than there seemed to be at first glance. Birgitte looked at the wetness spreading out from under the debris.

“Guys, I think that was a nest of some sort.”

“Jas, stop fucking around, that’s an order. You’ll get us killed.”

The elf at least had the decency to look ashamed before a loud hoot filled the air. Their heads snapped upwards as the biggest owl they’d ever seen flew above them. It circled them twice, staring into their souls before it sped off. It seemed to divebomb a tree, instead sinking into its own shadow and disappearing.

“Well that wasn’t ominous at all.” Musa exclaimed happily. “Let’s keep going, shall we?”

There was nothing else to be done so they set off, Mike’s boot still squelching from the wolf guts.

“That’s disgusting bro.”

“You’re disgusting, bitch.”

The ambient energy got higher and higher as they walked further into the Burrow. They encountered more wolves, a smaller pack this time, but they were faster and bigger. Luckily, their formation worked perfectly since this time the beasts weren’t so deadly serious about eating Jas. The man ran forward and started things off with a wide area stun, blinding light filling the space. The wolves howled in pain as Musa and Mike ran out from behind him and started tearing into the pack’s flanks. Birgitte was set up behind them with the .50 cal rifle and shots would boom out every now and again, a wolf’s head exploding in shards of bone and gobs of brain matter every time. Once the few remaining wolves had recovered from the light, Jas’ dagger had already refilled and they were quickly cut down.

This repeated a few more times as it seemed there were only wolves in this section of the forest, until all of sudden everything went quiet. Birds stopped chirping, insects stopped cricketing, the very wind seemed to pause. The team looked at each other, worried, when they heard a loud snuffling sound, as if something was sniffing the ground. They turned and saw a large brown bear with its two cubs off to their side. The bear was the size of a truck, the cubs the size of normal grizzlies and it looked like they hadn’t noticed the four yet. They spoke in low voices.

“Jas, if you do something stupid, I swear I will shoot you.”

“Worry not, beautiful one. There is only glory in battle, not death.”

“So we’re agreed then?” Everyone nodded towards Mike as he raised his hand to his earpiece. “Strike team 5, do you copy?”

“Copy. What’s up Mike? Are you whispering?”

“We’re in front of the biggest fucking bear you’ve ever seen dude. Get your team out of the area, we’ll be following right behind.”

“Wow, okay, roger that and thanks for the heads-up. Out.”

“Okay let’s g-“

A loud hoot rang out once again above them. The accursed owl of course reappearing at the worst possible time.

The colossal bear looked up from the ground at the owl, then down to the group as they tried to slowly back away. Its eyes started glowing red and it let out a booming roar.

“Fuck.”