Darin was the bane of her mother’s existence. The lack of hips and the flat chest could be forgiven. It’s not like the girl had control of the body the deities had decided to bless her with. However, Darin was positive that her mother had still not forgiven her for cutting her wavy brown hair short with the kitchen knife when she was 16. The 19 year was also convinced that every time her mother saw her wearing pants, she had a heart attack. Darin didn’t care. Pants were more practical. It was just her and her mother. Someone needed to keep the farm going. No one in the village wanted to help so it fell to Darin. Of course, that wasn’t the case now. Now Darin had a GRAND DESTINY. The entire village had stared in disbelief the day that The Gardener had come to their home. Everyone in Astra knew The Tree was dying. No one knew how to stop it. It was also known that The Gardener had left their post and was traveling though Astra. What they were looking for was unknown. They wondered though towns and cities. They visited the Elves and the Sirens. Great Human kings had played host to the Gardener. The village Darin lived in was a small human place that wasn’t on the way to anywhere important. It was quiet too. No one visited, and when those filled with wanderlust left, they didn’t come back. They never expected to see The Gardener. The entire village had come together to hold the best feast they could. Then The Gardener had pointed at Thomas, the village’s best hunter and, Milla, the lord of the neighboring town wanted her to wife. He pulled them into the relative privacy of the elder’s home. He talked to them forever. Most people had gone stayed. A few, Darin included, went back to work. She was not expecting to finish with the day’s work long after dark to look up to see The Gardener staring at her. He gave her The Seed. He also gave her instruction to plant The Seed. He couldn’t tell her where. He could only tell her that The Seed knew where it needed to be planted. He warned her of the danger. It needed to be planted before The Tree died. Some people didn’t want The Seed to be planted. It wouldn’t belong before all of Astra knew it existed. She needed to be careful. She needed to be both patient and quick. Then they died. In front of Darin. She let out a scream. It wasn’t long before people came to see what was going on. It took some explaining, but soon everyone in the village knew what task The Gardener had given the village’s oddest girl. Darin protested. Someone needed to take care of her mother. Thomas said he would. Mila promised she would see it done. That protest dealt with the village came together to outfit her for her journey. Since traveling as, a boy was safer, her tendency for wearing pants was safer. The butcher gave her a decent knife to defend herself with. Darin’s mother cut her hair short, kissed her goodbye, and sent her on her way. That was three months ago, and Darin was starting to think she should have traveled with someone. She was currently hanging upside down. She had fallen off a cliff and into a forest. A tangle of vines had caught her. However, now she was stuck. This wasn’t the first time something like this had happened. There were the giant spiders, the bridge she almost fell off of, the bandits that took her pack mule. Darin was not liking this adventure. She muttered to herself, “By The Tree, why me.” If The Tree weren’t so important Darin wouldn’t have gone on this adventure. The Tree was what kept most evil out of Astra. Evil was still there, but it was difficult. The closer you got to The Tree the less evil there was. Darin had heard extremely old stories of war, and she didn’t want that in Astra. She would avoid it if she could. So, she needed to find a place to plant The Seed. She knew that the only way she would find the place would be travel Astra until she found it. She was not doing a very good job of that. She wasn’t sure what she would do when it came time to fight to defend The Seed. In her opinion, the Gardener picked the absolutely person for the job. Darin tried to break free, “Oh come on!” A few vines snapped and she dropped a few feet, “Haha! Progress!” She could do this! It had been three months and she wasn’t dead yet. The deities had to be looking out for her. She would get out of this mess. She would figure out where to plant The Seed. She would preserve peace in Astra. She could do this!