The Garden of Tharasil

There was once a beautiful garden filled with things that no man or woman had ever seen. It was said to have been a place where the gods go to relax and play. The leaves of the trees would shimmer like emeralds, and the fruit they bore was considered heavenly. The most beautiful flowers lay on the ground, and bushes held the juiciest berries. A crystal-clear pond was in the heart of the garden, and it was said that this pond’s waters were so pure that they could heal the sick. Creatures of all kinds were allowed to roam this garden, except for humans. The garden was never to be seen or touched by the likes of humankind, and if a human were to discover this heavenly place, it would be disastrous. For many years, this garden was kept hidden until a human child wandered deep into the forest of Cyros and fell upon the garden’s edges. The child looked around in amazement, for he had never seen such a beautiful place. He ate fruits from the trees and berries from the surrounding bushes until he was full. He collected the fruits and berries and left the garden with a little skip. When he was finally home, he showed the fruits and berries to his family with excitement and told them of the beautiful garden deep in the forest. The boy’s family didn’t believe him at first, but the boy wanted them to see for themselves and led them through the forest to the garden.

The boy’s family wandered all over the garden, looking shocked; they had never seen anything so beautiful. After looking around and eating from the bushes and trees, they all went back to their village and told everyone about the most beautiful garden and the delicious fruits and berries they had ever eaten. The family led the villagers into the forest and the garden. The villagers gasped and gaped at the garden’s beauty and licked their lips at the luscious fruits. They spoke praises of gratitude to the boy and his family for finding such a place for them to enjoy. Everything was peaceful, the villagers kept coming back to the garden, eating, playing, and swimming, until two men began to argue, and then it escalated into a full-on brawl. One of the men pulled out a knife and stabbed the other. The now dying man fell to the ground, bleeding out, and everyone around was afraid to do anything. The man’s blood trickled into the pond, turning it red. The sky began to darken, the calm wind became wild, the trees began to wilt, and things began to die. Then, from the now red water, emerged a being with green skin, red hair, dark and cold eyes, wearing a white chiton and golden sandals.

“Look what you have done,” said the being coldly, the villagers, and the man with the knife looked at them in horror. “Who-what are you?” The man asked, sweating profusely. “I am Tharasil, god of the forests and the earth, and you have defiled a sacred place with blood!” The man dropped his bloody knife and knelt on the ground, “I didn’t, I-” before he could say another word, vines burst from the ground and drug every man, woman, and child into the bloody water, drowning them. Tharasil stepped out of the water and lay down and whispered, “My beautiful creation, look at what they've done to you.” he then began to cry; the sorrow he felt was unfathomable, and hearing those cries, another being felt the other’s sorrow. They felt so bad that they decided to ask the others for help. So, they gathered together and made the green being fall asleep. Once Tharasil's eyes closed, the others began erasing the god’s memory of ever making the garden in the human realm and its existence entirely. They then removed the garden and replaced it with more trees, they had made it seem like it was never there in the beginning. Once they were done, Tharasil had awoken, and he stretched and yawned and looked around. “I don’t remember ever falling asleep here.” He said before getting off the ground and taking off into the sky with a soft green light.

Little did the other gods know that the boy who originally found the garden in the beginning and his older sister were alive. He was grounded and had to stay home, and his sister had to watch over him. His older sister noticed that the other villagers weren’t back yet, so she went out to the forest and tried to look for the garden. When she reached the spot where the garden used to be, she called out her family members’ names and then the other villagers’ names, but there was nothing. Horrified, she ran back to the village and told her brother everything. So, they both set out in the forest to look for the missing villagers. They looked and looked but found no one, but they did find a name marked into the ground. The siblings went home and mourned the loss of their friends and family, and packed up and moved to another village that was two villages over. They then began to tell of a beautiful place called the Garden of Tharasil to every man, woman, and child, and how it would take your families and friends if they were to step foot into it.

Though hearing the tales of the garden, many people try to find the garden themselves to see if the tales are true, but no matter how hard they searched, they could never find that beautiful garden. So, many people began to give up on finding it, and over time, people began to forget about the garden and the tales that go along with it. The brother and sister never forgot, though and through the years, the tales of the garden were passed down in their families from generation to generation and so on.