Ben sat on the ground and glanced at the scenery around him while his mind was busy doing backflips from all of the recent events; He had gone from a simple guy on earth to being summoned into an otherworldly place, met the legendary Merlin, was called upon by strange beings called the Glass scholars and discovered his Void Core was extraordinary, then the King appeared and tried to trick him, and even tried to kill him!

He could no longer tell if anything was even real anymore, but if it was, he needed to get used to it, and fast.

“hah… I hate how calm I am right now, isn’t this the part where I’m supposed to have a break down?” Ben couldn’t tell if being this calm was a good or bad thing right now, but staying calm was probably the best situation he could hope for.

“Well, I guess I should go on a little adventure”

Picking himself up off the floor and picking a direction, Ben began to explore the local area.

Besides the wide variety of flora and small flying creatures inhabiting this garden, there didn’t seem to be much to do; Ben had been exploring for over an hour but even with the beautiful scenery, with nothing to do, it soon started to become a bit boring, the only redeeming feature being the fruits he had managed to find throughout the garden, after chancing upon the first deer-like creature he had seen, he followed it carefully, trying not to scare it, but while doing so he found it to be eating particular fruits, while avoiding others completely.

It was simple, too simple actually, there were only two colours of fruit throughout the garden, Vibrant Blue fruits resembling apples, and blood red fruits resembling grapes, though he avoided them all as he didn’t know which were safe for consumption.

After following the deer-like creature, he saw that it only ate the red fruits, with a great deal of curiosity he worked up the courage to eat one of the many red fruits and almost cried in happiness, this fruit seemed to be the ultimate food item, whatever flavour he desired as he bit into the grape like fruits would manifest as the juices exploded within his mouth, anything from apple juice, to roast chicken, it even gave a slight feeling of euphoria as the juice slid down his throat giving him an eating sensation he had never experienced before, making his eyes tear up in delight.

With the abundant amount of red fruits throughout the garden, he had no need to pocket a few of them, as he could simply grab one whenever he wanted from the various trees.

After making such a surprising discovery, Ben’s boredom subsided and he decided to see if he could find any other surprises hidden within this garden, his next goal was to try and make contact with the various fauna within the garden, the first being the deer-like creature.

Ben once again began stalking the deer-like creature, this time he intentionally tried to make himself known to the creature, as a result it noticed him almost immediately, but unexpectedly did not run away, but instead began to approach him, it slowly walked until it was less than five feet from him, allowing Ben to get a much clearer look at the creature.

As he thought, this was a creature that resembled a deer quite closely but at the same time was completely different, he couldn’t tell from first glance but now that it was up close he could see everything; The Antlers growing from the creatures head had a similar shape to a deer’s but instead of being made from bone, these antlers seemed to be made of a beautiful multi-coloured crystal, similar to opal, that shimmered in the sunlight.

The Deer’s eyes were also strange, it didn’t possess pupils of any kind, just a pure white iris that resembled a smooth gemstone, none of these features scared or surprised Ben, he was just in awe of the beautiful creature in front of him, and when the creature began to walk even closer, he noticed another peculiar aspect, this deer made no noise when it walked, instead it seemed to lightly hover several centimetres above the ground.

The moment Ben realised this deer could hover, or maybe even fly, the deer no longer hid it’s ability, it lightly kicked it’s hooves and rose higher off the ground until it became eye level with Ben and began to stare into his eye’s while only being less than a foot from his face. Ben unconsciously raised his hand towards the deer’s head, once he made contact the deer’s eyes closed and lightly nuzzled its head into the palm of his hand before performing a light bow and then almost instantly disappearing from his view with the exception of a white streak of light as it disappeared.

“That was… strange?” after the deer left Ben became bewildered, the moment he made eye contact with the deer he seemed to have fallen into a trance, although it didn’t seem to be one with any negative effects, he still felt slightly fearful of how easily he became enthralled.

“Is there anything else?” Ben’s adventurous and curious nature finally appeared and burned brighter than ever, his fear quickly dissipated, and he decided to venture further into the garden to find more surprises.

As he made his way deeper into the garden, sitting atop the lotus was the deer-like creature staring at him from afar, a tear appeared, and Merlin stepped out beside the deer.

[How is he?]

Merlin turned towards the Deer-like creature and waited for its answer, he seemed to be quite familiar with the strange creature.

[I do not know]

Merlin’s Brows furrowed at the deer’s answer, clearly, he was not expecting such an answer.

[What do you mean?]

[I cannot measure him]

Merlin’s body swayed wildly as he nearly fell to the ground, he eyes nearly popped out of their sockets as he stared dumbfounded at the deer.

[Even Gaia herself cannot gauge him?]

Merlin asked this question with a very serious but cautious tone, he did not wish to offend the entity before him, but he also could not contain his curiosity as he asked his question.

[No, I cannot. I do not understand. He should not exist. He is an anomaly]

[I paid such a heavy price to call you here, and yet, it was all for nothing]

Merlin’s eyes dropped as did his mood, he had used almost his entire fortune to call upon the spirit of Gaia, and yet, he got nothing in return, no answers, only more questions.

[My business is done. I shall take my leave]

[Of course, thank you for your assistance]

Merlin gave a deep bow towards Gaia’s Spirit as it began to dissipate into the air, and eventually disappearing after several seconds. Merlin relinquished his bow before once again looking towards Ben’s direction and letting out a deep sigh of regret.

[I cannot guide this boy; he must find his own path… and hopefully it’s a good one]

[MERLIN!!}

Merlin’s body froze on the spot, his face turning a shade paler.

The garden began to shake violently, looking up, a bright, white line streaked across the sky and began to slowly open, ripping the sky asunder.

Merlin hurriedly opened a tear and rushed through, appearing beside Ben, grabbing him and rushing back through before any protests could be made, Ben’s vision blurred and quickly readjusted to see the inside of Merlin’s cabin, which turned out to be just an empty room with a fountain residing in the centre, just a simple stone fountain, no special carvings or engravings, with the exception of the vivid purple water flowing through it.

Ben had several questions run through his head, what’s going on? What is this fountain? Why are you rushing? But none of these would be answered as with a light swing Merlin through him into the air towards the fountain, crashing into the water.

[I apologise, but I have no other choice, you must take your own path, and maybe one day we will see each other once more]

Ben’s body filled with confusion as he quickly sunk down into the water, which seemed to be drawing him towards the bottom faster and faster as if he was falling through the air, thirty seconds passed before Ben became short of breath and started to panic, trying to swim upwards but to no avail, it only made him sink faster, and before long he was forced to inhale causing his lungs to instantly fill with water making Ben scream out in desperation towards Merlin, he had done nothing bad towards anyone but all of a sudden there had already been two people try to kill him, and this time it was even someone he trusted.

As his mind began to fade, a bright light appeared at the bottom of the abyss, Ben’s vision had already begun to blur, and his body began shutting down, even if he wanted to react to it he couldn’t, all he could do was await his death for the second time, his vision gradually darkened until it faded to black and his body went completely limp as it floated down towards the light.

His body finally made contact with the light and with a bright flash he became engulfed by it, disappearing from view.