[i]Darin looked up at the setting sun. Soon it would be too dark to work. She finished just in time. She was worried that she wouldn’t since she had to pause to go to the feast honoring The Gardener. She wasn’t upset about that. She understood why it had to happen. She just wished it hadn’t needed to take so long. Regardless, it was done, so were her chores, and she would get a good night sleep tonight. There wasn’t much more that the young girl to ask for. She moved to the water spigot to duck her head under it.

The sudden voice caused her to hit her head on the metal, “I like your farm.” Darin rubbed the back of her head as she turned to see The Gardner, “It’s clear you put a lot of work and effort into it, Darin, daughter of Martin, by Talia.” He was looking straight at her, “I am very impress.”

Darin quickly ducked in to the closest thing she could do to a bow, “You honor me Gardener.” She was at a complete lost, “You honor our village.”

The Gardener quickly cut her off, “Enough of that. I’ve had enough of that polite honor nonsense the entirety of my journey.”

Darin rose from her frankly terribly bow to look at The Gardener. Something didn’t look right about him, but she couldn’t put her finger on what looked wrong. He looked almost like an old grandfatherly elder that couldn’t help but love everyone. He had kind eyes and a kinder smile. Darin felt herself wanting to trust him, but shoe couldn’t quite bring herself to do so. After all, she had no idea how he had known her name. It was off putting to say the least.

He walked towards her, “I have a job for you to do Darin.”

She took a step back as she warily asked, “How can I help you?”

He shook his head, “Not me. All of Astra. You know The Tree is dying.”

All of Astra knew that, “Yes I do?”

He continued, “And you must be smart. You know it can’t be fixed.”

Darin was locked in place, “If it was fixable you wouldn’t be traveling around Astra. No.” She stopped herself.

The Gardener continued the thought, “No farmer leaves their fields if they can do something to stop it.” Darin nodded in understanding and the man smiled, “So I have A job for you.” He then commanded, “Hold out your hand.”

Darin followed the command slowly, “What’s the job?”

She felt something drop into her hand, “Plant this. To protect Astra. I can’t tell you where. I can just tell you that The Seed knows where home is. It will know. I know it seems like a big job, but there is good. You will not be alone.”

Darin looked down at her hand. It looked like an ordinary apple seed. She knew it was much more. She felt herself lose her breath when she finally put the pieces together. She had a Seed from The Tree in her hand. She was carrying The Seed in her had. She was carrying the future of all of Astra in her hand. Why had The Gardener given this to her? She looked up at him in confusion.

He was smiling at her. Slowly he nodded. Before Sarin could ask for clarification, he swayed forwards. Darin’s hand automatically clenched The Seed tight as she held out her arms to possibly catch him. Then he pitched backwards. Darin let out a shout as she leapt forward to catch him. They went tumbling to the ground. Darin wound up with her knees on the ground and The Gardener’s head in her lap. She quickly felt for a pulse. There was none.

She screamed out, “HELP! Somebody help! HELP!!!”[/i]
--
Darin shook her head, “He just died. I never found out what he said to the elders or to Thomas and Milla. They refused to tell me.”

She didn’t know why they didn’t tell her. It wasn’t surprising. The whole village, not just the elders, thought that Darin was a problem. She didn’t fell in line. She was tolerated because she didn’t cause trouble. She was slightly surprised that they had believed her when she told them what The Gardener told her. She supposed it was because the fate of The Tree and now The Seed wasn’t something you claimed to be able to help unless you actually could. Maybe it was because she didn’t actually lie to anyone. The village’s main problem with her was that she was a girl running a farm on her own. Then again, maybe the Gardener had said something to the elders or Thomas and Milla. Maybe they were just glad to be rid of her. Maybe it was because all you had to do was just look at The Seed to know what it was. It was probably a combination of all those things.

It was Darin’s turn to ask a question, “What did you do? Before you did whatever you did that got you exiled. What was your job? Can you talk about it?”

Darin knew nothing about Ridahne. She knew that she was some wort of Elf warrior exile. She didn’t’ know much more than that. She didn’t know if it was true of not, but Darin felt like the Elf knew more about her than she knew about the warrior. It made her uncomfortable. Darin wasn’t sure she trusted the warrior. She didn’t know how to know if she could trust anybody. For all she knew Ridahne could just be waiting to see The Seed. It probably wouldn’t actually help, but Darin felt if she could get to know a little bit more about the Elf, she would feel better about traveling with her. Darin looked at the rain. It was getting heavier. At this rate they would be stuck until morning. Darin pulled her pack towards her. If they were going to be stuck she might as well see if she had anything to eat.