Chereads / Apprentice to Eternity / Chapter 2 - Chapter 2: The Evergarden

Chapter 2 - Chapter 2: The Evergarden

The Evergarden:

Seeing the strange being in front of him, Aekesh stammered, "W-What is that thing?"

The strange being was bizarre beyond anything he had ever seen. It was an eight-foot-tall creature with amethyst skin, like seeing a galaxy. It was wearing a robe that looked like it was woven from stardust. It had three pairs of eyes; two pairs were closed, and seeing only in the remaining pair, Aekesh felt all his pain and tiredness vanish. He felt peaceful, like the world was full of life and vitality. "How beautiful," Aekesh thought as he looked at it.

The Being suddenly glanced at him. Aekesh felt like the whole world had been torn apart. Aekesh felt immense pressure, like he was holding a mountain on his back. Aekesh started running like he never had before. "What the hell was that?" Aekesh stammered. He hadn't felt this much fear even when he was being chased by a pack of hungry wolves. But no matter how far he ran, when he looked back, he was standing in the same place.

Suddenly, the being smiled. Aekesh's movements stopped. He began to fall towards the being as if the entire gravity had been changed. He fell down or sideways, it was all very confusing and scary to Aekesh. After all, he was just a fifteen-year-old boy who had snuck out of home for some fun. After falling sideways, he stopped precisely in front of the strange being, and gravity returned to normal. Upside down, he fell down or up on the ground. Aekesh glanced at the being with fear, but the being smiled and gave Aekesh a hand. Aekesh suddenly felt warm, and all his fear went away. He held the hand to stand up.

Aekesh stood up and stared at the being for what felt like five whole minutes before timidly asking, "Who are you? Is this Eden? Am I dead?"

The being chuckled. "Hahaha! Instead of asking 'who are you,' you're asking what you are and whether you're dead. Anyways, I don't have a name, just a title. They call me 'Ever,' but you can call me anything you want. You're wondering what this place is and why you're here. This is Evergarden. This is not Eden, you're not dead yet."

"What do you mean 'yet'?" Aekesh asked, scared.

"You'll understand soon," said Ever. "I brought you here."

"Why did you bring me here? Do you want to kill and eat me?" Aekesh asked, even more scared.

"No, sorry, I'm not interested in eating trash." Aekesh was dumbfounded hearing this monster-like being disrespect him.

"I brought you here," Ever said.

"Why?" asked Aekesh.

"To make you my successor," Ever said.

"What if I refuse?" Aekesh asked.

"You don't want to know," Aekesh felt that immense pressure again and stopped talking. "What the hell kind of kidnapping is this?" Aekesh thought.

"Don't think I can't hear your thoughts," Ever said in a cold voice.

", you can hear my thoughts?"

"I can hear more than just thoughts," said Ever. Aekesh was truly terrified this time. "What do you mean by making me your successor?" he asked.

"Yeah, back to the point. I'm tired of my duty out there. It's not like I can get tired in any way, but still, how long will I do this work? So I brought you here so you can be my successor and handle my work, and I will enjoy life going around universes."

Aekesh had many questions: Who was Ever? What was his work that he was tired of? How long had he been doing this work for him to get tired of it? And What were the universes he wanted to go to to enjoy life?

"I will answer all your questions," said Ever. "So, I am Ever, the Ruler of Evergarden I created. My work is to go around different universes to different planets, make contact with people who want anything from Evergarden, give them that, and after their best outcome, collect the contract fee."

"What is Evergarden? What can it give to people? What is the contract fee? What are universes and planets?" Aekesh was a knowledge geek of the old era. How could he let free knowledge go? So, he asked again hurriedly.

"Slow down, I'll explain only once, Evergarden is a place I created, away from the whole existence. So, no matter how much time passes up, I decide the flow here. As Ever snapped his fingers, they disappeared from the land they were standing on and reappeared in a library. Aekesh was shocked again by all this. He said, "Time can also be decided?" But Ever continued without listening to him.

"This is the Evergarden library. All knowledge of the past, present, and future is present here." Endless shelves crammed with books lined the enormous hall, stretching into shadowy distance under a dim, magical light. The colossal library stretched endlessly, towering bookshelves crammed with every story ever written, beckoning under pools of soft light.

After seeing the huge library, Aekesh was unable to hear anything else. He bellowed loudly, "WOW! So many books! Can I read them?" Aekesh had never seen so many books in his life before. He was from a place where books were only available to royal families. His whole tribe only had one book, a family heirloom.

"Yes, you can, but only one book a week," Ever snapped again, and they reappeared somewhere else.

"This is the Evergarden storeroom. There isn't an item that you can't find here." Evergarden's storeroom wasn't your grandma's attic. It was a massive warehouse, filled with anything and everything you could imagine – and some things you couldn't. Glowing swords leaned against rusty bicycles. A stack of dusty scrolls sat beside a spaceship with a dented hull. You might see a stuffed unicorn next to a box overflowing with glowing mushrooms. It was a giant jumble sale of existence, with every item ever created, lost, or even dreamed of, waiting to be found.

Aekesh was dumbfounded after seeing stuff he had never even imagined, from small toys to large planet-sized spaceships. He exclaimed, "WOW! Look at all these! What is that, that, that? Can I take anything from here?"

"No, you cannot," said Ever.

"Why? Am I not your successor? Why can't I take them?" Aekesh exclaimed, disappointed.

"There are weapons of mass destruction here. I can't give them to you yet," said Ever. That "yet" gave some hope to Aekesh.

"Our main work is to provide knowledge or items to people who need them and take fair compensation," Ever said.

Aekesh asked, "If you have everything in the world, why do you need compensation?"

Ever was silent for some time. He said The smile he had for entire time suddenly dissapeared, "I don't know that myself, maybe it is the order of the 'The Dot.'"