Sealed Garden of Gods

In the continent of Aldeira, there is a story that mothers tell their children to make them behave. A story about a ruined kingdom that people always speak of but nobody ever seen.

The ancient kingdom of Aldenora.

It was rumor to be the first kingdom ever exist in this world, built by hands that were not meant for this earth, and it was the first to fall. They call it the Sealed Garden of Gods. But you can't just walk up to its gates and admire the history. Because Aldenora is hidden deep, deep inside of the Rofnar magical forest.

To see it, people need to venture deep into the forest just to get into the kingdom. But it was not easy. The forest itself is a labyrinth. Once you enter, none can get out. The air is swallowed by a heavy mist, and the tree are huge, their roots looking like twisted black snakes digging into the dirt. With its misty nature and big trees everywhere, people would lose the sense of direction the moment they take ten steps.

There's rumor that the forest been cursed by the fallen gods themselves, so no one could get into the ruined kingdom that way. Although all of that was just a rumor created by the people in taverns who had too much cheap ale. But amidst all the fake stories and exaggerated myths, there is only one thing that all people could agree on. The one absolute truth.

The one who enter the forest never come out again.

The moment they enter the mist, they are lost within the mist forever.

And that is exactly where I am going right now.

The heavy iron wagon bounced as the wooden wheels hit a large rock on the dirt road. The sound of metal chains rattling echoed loudly in my ears. I leaned my head against the cold iron bars of the cage, ignoring the groans of the other men trapped inside with me.

There was about twenty of us packed into this rolling prison. All of us criminals. Thieves who stole too much, bandits who killed the wrong merchant, traitors who plotted against the king. Due to the truth of the forest, every kingdom in Aldeira decided to use it as a dumping ground. If you commit a crime that is punishable by death, they don't bother wasting an executioner's axe on your neck. They just sent you here. To the Rofnar forest. So you be lost forever in there, erased from the world without leaving a single drop of blood on the kingdom's hands.

I looked down at my own hands. They were still stained. The blood had dried deep under my fingernails days ago, turning into a dark, rusty brown. It wasn't my blood. It belonged to a noble. A fat, arrogant pig who wore too much silk and thought he owned the world.

He thought he could just take her. The person I loved. He took her life just because she refused him, thinking his money and title would protect him from any consequences. He was right about the law protecting him. The law didn't care about a commoner girl. But the law couldn't stop my knife from finding his throat in the middle of the night.

I watched him choke on his own blood. I watched the life leave his eyes. My revenge was complete. That was my only purpose left in this world, and I fulfilled it.

The memory of the trial still echoed in my mind. The cold stone room, the disgusted look of the old magistrate looking down at me from his high chair.

"For the brutal murder of a high noble," the magistrate's voice had boomed through the hall, "Kyle Rezel, you are stripped of all human rights. You are sentenced to the Mist. May the forest swallow your sins, for you will find no mercy among the living."

Kyle Rezel. That was my name. Or at least, it was. Right now, sitting in this cage smelling like piss and fear, I am just a dead man who hasn't stopped breathing yet. And the funny thing is, I doesn't really care. Whatever happen next, it just happens. I am empty.

"We're stopping..." a skinny man next to me whispered, his voice trembling. "Oh gods, we're here."

The wagon grinded to a halt. The horses up front were whining loudly, kicking at the dirt. Even the dumb beasts know that this place is wrong. The air outside the cage suddenly felt freezing, like winter just arrived in the middle of summer.

A guard wearing heavy silver plate armor marched up to the back of the wagon. He kicked the heavy lock, and the iron doors swung open with a loud screech. Even with all his armor and a heavy sword at his waist, I could see the guard's hands shaking. He wouldn't even look past the wagon.

"Get out!" the guard shouted, his voice cracking a little. "All of you, move!"

We stumbled out of the wagon, our boots sinking into the wet, gray mud. The moment my feet touched the ground, I saw it.

Looming right in front of us, like a massive wall touching the sky, was the edge of the Rofnar forest. It didn't look like a normal forest. The fog was so thick it looked like a solid gray curtain. The ancient trees that stood at the border had bark as black as charcoal, and there was no sound of birds or insects. Just a suffocating, dead silence.

The guards quickly unlocked the long chain that connected all of us together, practically throwing the keys away in a panic. The captain of the guard stood twenty paces back, his hand nervously gripping the hilt of his sword.

"The sentence is passed," the captain announced, trying to sound brave. "Walk forward. If any of you turn back and try to run past this line, my men will shoot you down with crossbows. Walk into the mist, and may the gods have mercy on you."

Some of the criminals immediately started crying. A large bandit fell to his knees, pressing his face into the mud. "No! Please! Just kill me here! Don't make me go in there, I heard what the mist does to peoples!"

The guards didn't answer. They just aimed their crossbows.

I didn't wait for them to force me. I just put my hands in my ragged pockets and started walking forward. The mist felt wet and unnaturally cold as it hit my face. It smelled weird. Like wet dirt mixed with the scent of rotting flowers. Behind me, I heard the shuffling of feet and the sobbing of the broken men being forced to follow my lead.

We walked past the first line of massive black trees. The sunlight was instantly swallowed by the gray fog. Everything became dark and blurry. For a few minutes, the only sound was the crunching of dead leaves under our boots and the heavy breathing of the terrified criminals.

Then, we heard it. From behind us, outside the mist. The sound of the horses neighing and the wagon turning around. The sharp crack of a whip.

The guards were leaving.

The group instantly stopped walking. We were deep enough that we couldn't see the outside world anymore. The exit was completely gone, replaced by the exact same endless gray fog that surrounded us from all sides.

"They... they left," a thief whispered, his eyes wide with a sudden, desperate realization.

"The guards are gone!" the bandit who had been crying earlier shouted, jumping to his feet. "There's no one out there pointing crossbows at us anymore!"

A wave of desperate, stupid hope washed over the crowd. It was pathetic to watch. They actually thought it would be that easy.

"If we run back right now, we can make it!" another man yelled. "We just follow the path we made in the dirt! We can escape to the border towns! I am not dying in this cursed place!"

He turned around and started sprinting back in the direction we came from. Seeing him run, the false hope spread like a wildfire. One by one, the criminals turned their backs on the deep forest and started running blindly into the mist, pushing and shoving each other. They were so desperate to return to a civilization that threw them away like garbage.

I just stood there and watched them disappear into the fog. My expression didn't change at all. Let them run. The rumors of Rofnar forest weren't just stories. The mist doesn't let you leave. They will just wander in circles until they starve, or until whatever monsters living in this labyrinth find them. It don't matters to me.

I took a deep breath of the heavy, rotting air. I have no home to return to. My revenge is done. If I die in this maze, then I die.

I turned slowly, ready to walk deeper into the unknown. If the ruined kingdom of Aldenora really is somewhere inside this hell, maybe it's a fitting graveyard for a ghost like me.

But as I took my first step forward, I noticed something.

I wasn't alone.

Through the thick, swirling gray fog, three figures were still standing near me. They didn't run back with the cowards. They had just stood there, watching the others flee, and chose to stay.

One was a massive, intimidating man. He was tall as a bear, his face covered in old scars, and he was casually holding a thick piece of broken wood he must have snapped off the wagon.

Another was a skinny, fast-looking guy. He was tossing a small rock up and down in his hand, his sharp eyes scanning the massive black branches above us like he was expecting an ambush.

The last one was wearing a torn, dirty robe. He looked like a disgraced scholar or a mage. He coughed quietly into his sleeve, staring into the mist with a look of tired acceptance.

None of them looked at me. None of them said a word. But looking at them, I knew we all understood the exact same thing. There was nothing left for any of us out there in the real world. We were the garbage of the continent, and we chose to embrace the trash we are. 

The big scarred man grunted loudly. He adjusted his grip on his wooden club and took the first step forward into the deeper mist. The skinny guy followed right behind him. Then the scholar.

I watched them walk into the dark labyrinth. A silent, unspoken agreement was made right then and there. If we are going to die in this cursed forest, we might as well go deep and see what the hell is hiding in the center of it.

I pulled my collar up against the unnatural cold, tightened my grip on my empty pockets, and followed the three strangers.

We didn't know it yet, but the real nightmare was already watching us from above.