Food for the Garden, Part One
I. The Rumor of Hope The word of an Exile carried little weight in those days, but even the rumor of hope was enough to send men to their deaths in the terrible desert beyond the shores of paradise. The Sentinels' River, named as such for the twin stone colossi that guarded the river, was a fertile plain that stretched for miles. Kappa turtles nested in the shade of banana trees, gazelle grazed on the teeming sea of vibrant berry bushes and grasses, and cassowaries in their colorful plumage honked and strutted up and down the cerulean river. After surviving crucifixion and the haunted dunes of the Broken Highway, the Sentinels' River seemed a perfect sanctuary. Who would want to leave? Game was plentiful and fat, the water was clear, and the days were peaceful. Exiles, dirty and beaten and far from home, were more than happy to band together and build a new life here free from the horrors of the past. Most of them, anyway...
