Silent Eden

Chapter Seven

Eden woke up to the sounds of wind and sand blowing against the glass of the compound. She didn’t open her eyes. She could still smell the earth of the little hut that she had fallen asleep in. She could feel the rough fabric that the strange red boy had put around her shoulders.

Being back in the compound just made getting up and working for the Divine Magician so worthless. She was already going to be in worlds of trouble when she reported to him. Getting up was going to make it just that much worse.

Rolling over in her bed, she breathed in deeply again, expecting the smell of stale sheets and laundry. Instead, she caught the tender aroma of the same sweetness that she had experienced when she had fallen to her knees in her dreams. But what a beautiful dream it had been.

Sighing, she sat up, rubbing her face to get a better view of the room that she shared with her siblings. The room didn’t appear as it should have, though. The dimness fell back, little by little bit, revealing the same small hut that she had fallen asleep in. It hadn’t been a dream after all.

Eden wasn’t disappointed in the least. Her heart leapt for joy at the fact that she was still in the same place that she had dreamed of. The sound of the sand against the glass wasn’t the same anymore. She looked around the hut, spotting the sleeping figure of her new companion on the floor. Crawling over, she checked him out as he slept. He had a crude blanket pulled up over his chin. He seemed to be completely at ease, despite the strange sound that was coming from outside the hut.

Standing up, taking a moment to regain her balance, Eden tiptoed her way over to the grass mat that acted as a door. She slide it aside and stared out at the scene before her. Water fell from some unknown source, pouring buckets over the grassy fields and trees of the forest. It left a strange, if pleasant, odour behind. She breathed in deeply, resisting the urge to run out into it.

Zanthius had been adamant about her not leaving the hut; it was best that she listen for as long as he wanted her to. As alien as he was, and as confusing as this entire journey had been, she didn’t want to end up making her host angry or put out. The last thing she wanted to find out was whether or not he was able to send her back to the Compound and the surely waiting rage of the Divine Magician.

So she sat down in front of the door, mat slid to one side of her knees so that she could watch the water fall from the skies to the earth. What a strange phenomenon, she wondered. What kind of place had water that came from nowhere? There were no hoses, no spigots or spouts to be seen anywhere. Perhaps Zanthius would have the answer. It would not do much good to ask him, she thought, he would only really be able to tell her what it was, not where it came from, or why it was happening.

The skies weren’t as blue as they had been the day before. They were dimmed out by a strange covering that appeared to be heavy silver smoke. The water seemed to be coming from the overhanging smoke, but Eden wasn’t entirely sure how that worked. What kind of smoke produced water? It didn’t matter, she supposed, just another mystery of this new place that she had come to. It was something new to admire the beauty of.

The water didn’t smell foul and dirty, either, she noted. It wasn’t sweet like the grass, but it had a sort of clean smell to it. It was almost as though it was feeding the sweetness of the grass, making it deeper and stronger. She didn’t mind that, either.

From behind her, she heard the shuffling sounds of Zanthius. She didn’t bother glancing over her shoulder to see what he was doing. She wasn’t afraid of him, since she would obeyed what he would told her. He uttered something that she wasn’t any more familiar with than anything else he would said. She assumed it was a type of greeting, since he didn’t sound as though he were questioning her.