Chapter Forty-Four
His eyes welled and he did not care to let the tears flow. There has been no sight such as the one he beheld now and Orion was damned to let it go. He loved to watch his victims impaled a long time ago, but now that love has been altered.
No, he hasn’t given up his destiny. The world would be his now, but he just didn’t want to ignore the beauty of this garden. Nothing came close to the content feeling he now had.
The grass was a green he had never seen before and the flowers of all different shapes, sizes, and hues. The trees weren’t all that tall, perhaps a little taller than the typical fruit trees he was used to seeing.
Animals scurried here and there, oblivious to the new stranger. Deer frolicked in a near-by pasture, the wolves not paying them any mind. He noticed a wide assortment of canines and felines roaming the endless garden.
Large rocks were placed, about waist high, sporadically throughout; he thought they were here to give the only Man inhabitants a place to sit.
Although Orion was overcome by its beauty, he was in search of the one tree, the Tree of Knowledge. And he would eat from its fruit until the secrets of the Universe opened up before him.
He roamed, like the animals of this kingdom, for hours before he found what he sought and he stood in silence, staring at the tree for another hour. A million thoughts entered his mind as he looked at the luscious apples which hung from its branches. Should I attempt to eat? Would I be punished?
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Orion laughed out loud and pushed these senseless thoughts aside. He happened to look down and saw a single apple lying on the earth. Curious, he thought.
He bent down and picked it up and turned it over in his hand. He saw that two bites had been taken from the fruit.
Adam and Eve. Small bites. The single bites that gave them the knowledge that they were naked. Embarrassed, they ran and covered themselves with fig leaves. One single bite!
“Ha!” Orion tossed the apple aside and reached up and pulled another down from one of the lower branches. “I shall devour all. No matter how long it takes me, the secrets will be mine.”
There came an alien feeling by the time he had eaten almost all of the apples. His brain hurt, he felt as if it was being torn apart by invisible hands and he screamed. He wrapped his hands over his ears and fell to the ground in agony. “I have angered thee,” he screamed as tears fell from his eyes.
The pain subsided slightly and he opened his eyes and fell silent. Images raced through his head. He saw the universe being created. He saw the earth being created. He saw everything that God created flash through his eyes at lightning speed, yet he retained everything he saw. He saw everything that he could ever want to know. Except how to create them for himself.
“More,” he groaned. “I must eat more.”
A sick feeling went through his being and he felt as if he would vomit, but he forced himself to relax for fear of losing any knowledge.
He stood up and grabbed another apple and had to force himself to put it into his mouth. He made sure to eat everything, including the core. He would not be satisfied until the Tree of Knowledge has been depleted.