The Garden of Need

A collection of 28 posts

The Garden of Need

Chapter 30: Awaken, My Brother

Miko: Visiting every branch, I explored the tree with a limp for several days. I sat with Ananke’s words, her wisdom. She was a great source of knowledge, but my mind was made on those many months of weary, lonely days and nights where Maleki and I lay comatose

The Garden of Need

Chapter 29: The Last Fruit

Miko: I rubbed my shins with fury, a failed attempt to push the pain out of the bone. It did offer some relief or at least a distraction, but then the pain in my head throbbed in my eyes, forcing me down to my backside. My thumb and middle finger

The Garden of Need

Chapter 28: The Seventh Sin

Miko: I left Ananke’s home, proceeding back down the steps feeling enlightened. The information she shared with me was far more than I expected and not the interaction I had prepared for all this time. After all we had been through, a part of me felt let down that

The Garden of Need

Chapter 27: A Consultation of Fate

Miko: I breached a grand limb, dragging myself up the bark and laying against the limb with my back supported by the trunk. My efforts had brought me this far, and before my eyes was the complex crown of the tree. The bushy part of the tree that can be

The Garden of Need

Chapter 26: The First Branch

Miko: Climbing for hours, I was several hundred feet above the roots now, only looking down long enough to check my progress, else I be tempted to jump and get this over with. After another hour of climbing, there appeared to be some form of a cut in the trunk’

The Garden of Need

Chapter 25: The Second Ascent

Miko: I might be in for more than I bargained. Standing underneath this tree was dizzying. The branches started at the sixty percent mark of the tree’s height, and focusing on them from this distance almost made me lose my balance. The roots of the tree were each like

The Garden of Need

Chapter 24: A Remedy For Pain

Miko: My body ached. Every part of my skin, every bone, every muscle, and tendon spiked in flashes of pain. I knew it wasn’t possible, but as I sat there in my shell of a body, I could almost feel the blood moving throughout. My sense of touch was

The Garden of Need

Chapter 23: Paradisus Necessitatis

Miko: I awoke on my back in a field of clovers, thick grass, and large, soft leaves. Behind me, to my left and right, a curved wall made of branches and trees blocked the view of the rest of the area. In front of me lay a massive nest of

The Garden of Need

Chapter 22: Awake, Asleep

Miko: Fighting erupts around me in a loud twist of swings and footsteps. What is this place? This feels similar to the worlds I visit in my sleep, but everything is masked in darkness. Sounds hit my ears, but my eyes never opened. I see things occasionally, or at least

The Garden of Need

Chapter 21: An End

Maleki: A desolate wasteland burned ahead of me. Dirt and dead trees filled the landscape as Miko’s body lay still in my arms. He was breathing, but he had not moved in three days. The life trial was more difficult with his weight on my shoulders. Nomen and I

The Garden of Need

Chapter 20: Found

Miko: My right fist buried awkwardly into Maleki’s head. His face carried to the side, but he spun on his heels, intercepting the second strike with a short kick at my right foot, sending me onto my back. His eyes tracked me up and down for several seconds, almost

The Garden of Need

Chapter 19: Alone

Miko: The waves crashed against my legs as I violently coughed up seawater. My fingers dug into the pale sand as I fought to catch my breath. Warm rays of the sun beat against my back as the last spurts of salty spit burnt against my lips. A breeze carried

The Garden of Need

Chapter 18: Raging Waters

Maleki: The sea itself was swallowing us. The central point was a large circular pit several hundred feet across where the water flowed around it, stopping at the edge of the bowl. There was nothing we could do to escape. There was no skill in this. Nothing could save us

The Garden of Need

Chapter 17: The Sea That Sleeps

Maleki: Waves crashed against me as I kicked backward and attempted to stay afloat. Salty water stung my eyes, and I coughed to force out the water caught in my throat. I tread through the water, struggling to pull Miko’s weight along with me as I recalled to earlier

The Garden of Need

Chapter 16: Between Storms

Maleki: My ears rang like chimes echoing in the wind, circling around my skull while my body attempted to undo the daze that it had entered. My fingers felt numb, and my legs felt weak — actually, everything felt numb, and my whole body was weak. The peak was white around

The Garden of Need

Chapter 15: The Mountain's Wrath

Miko: Miko brought his hood to the side to block the wind, “The air swells in the middle. It will be strongest there.” He was right, it wasn’t quite a pit because the field was primarily flat, but water would no doubt pull to the center with the angle

The Garden of Need

Chapter 14: A Marking Scar

Maleki: I awoke fully bandaged. Sweat rolled down my head, colliding with dried, crusted blood that stuck my clothes to my body. I leaned forward, grunting deep in my chest from the pain. Exhaling, the wounds I had endured from that foul creature became more prevalent. Five gashes through my

The Garden of Need

Chapter 13: Tomb of Fire

Miko: Shuffling off to the side, I kept the Aeternae in my peripheral, trying not to make any sudden movements to spark the creature into action. Before I could focus on my surroundings, a roaring bleat that evolved into a blood-curdling howl rang out through the room, stopping the

The Garden of Need

Chapter 12: Tunnels

Miko: That short walk up the ridge to our climbing point yesterday was the first time I’d had full function of my arms and legs since I started getting symptoms of the sickness. I couldn’t see or talk, but I found comfort in what was finally possible for

The Garden of Need

Chapter 11: Judgement of Aerth

Miko: I awake, and even the world does not greet me. Brighter objects reach through my eyelids, but they do not open even at my command. I reach out with my voice, and not even a sound escapes my throat; my sounds trapped underneath my lips. They refuse to part,

The Garden of Need

Chapter 10: The Climb

Maleki: I’m not upset that Kallen left, although the company was welcomed. This journey is mine and Miko’s alone, and I never expected anyone to take us this far. My poor brother, with no social skills, seemed to be finally warming up to him. A shame, I guess.

The Garden of Need

Chapter 9: Nomen

Miko: The inn we returned to felt the same. Same noises, same voices, all the same smells. Yet, there was a subtle difference compared to the previous night. The same exhaustion filled our bones, and the quiet tension remained all the same. A faint drop of hope filled my mind

The Garden of Need

Chapter 8: Majik

Maleki: Kallen didn’t seem to understand my question and responded with disbelief. “Come on, be serious now. You just tussled with a kaliber two maji like it was a normal day’s work. There’s no way you don’t know about majik.” He laughed at himself and took

The Garden of Need

Chapter 7: The First Battle

Maleki: The boy’s silvery hair dipped to the side, and his hand moved impossibly fast towards my chest. I braced my shoulder forward and tensed my body, knowing I couldn’t avoid the imminent blow. White energy moved with the boy’s hand, and a blurry spherical shape collided

The Garden of Need

Chapter 6: The Temple At Quavoris

Miko: It was another four to five hours in the cart before we reached Quavoris, but the time flew by as I overindulged myself in the books I brought. I’ll run out of new reading material at this rate. When we get into the city, I should find more