The Secret Garden helped distract Vienna from her confusion of emotions after her conversation with the Mapmaker.
Exploration was something she found to be a part of her. It made her feel alive as she climbed over the rocky terrains that sat at the foot of the protective mountain range that protected the Secret Garden.
It was as she traversed higher up the mountain range that she found a series of hidden-away cave systems. She always carried charcoal with her to mark her ascent up the rocky mountainside just in case someone came searching for her. She lit a candle, that she kept in her satchel, before marking the side of the first cave wall. She reached an intersection with three different paths. It took her about a day, or what she thought to be a day, per each cave.
She came into the third pathway on the third day. She walked deeper into it and found she no longer needed her candle as the walls began to shimmer like they held millions of tiny crystals within them.
Vienna blew out her candle, before continuing down into the cave that continued to grow brighter and brighter with each step.
Soon she noticed a dampness in the air, a humidity, like how she remembered the air felt like after a long hot shower.
As she turned a gleaming corner, a gasp escaped her mouth at the sight. Below the ledge where she stood were several hot spring pools and at the far end was a waterfall. Steam rose in the air, like clouds in the sky, escaping out through air ducts at the top of the high ceiling.
“Wow!”
The pools shimmered with the crystalline-looking rock. Vienna climbed down from the edge, thankful for her time climbing trees as it helped her climb up and down rock faces. At the bottom, she walked in between the pools in awe, stalagmites came down from the ceiling and an almost pathway weaved in the spaces between.
Vienna peered at the mighty waterfall in awe. She tested the water with her fingertips, it was just right. With excitement, she took off her outer clothes, until she was only left in her thin underthings before she stepped upon the rocky based shore. She barely registered the sprig from Old One leaving her staff to wrap up her arm, so used to having it follow her wherever she went now.
Her toes wiggled as she felt the warmth seep into her skin. As she waded further into the pool she let out a sigh.
The warmth felt as if it seeped into her bones. She floated on her back looking up at the beautiful ceiling that almost reminded her of the night sky of her old world. A milky galaxy look-a-like streamed across the cave’s ceiling within it hundreds of glittering stones shone like stars.
She floated until she felt the mist coming off the waterfall against her face.
She shook her head before switching to a swimming position, her arms propelling her forward beneath the spray of the twinkling waterfall. Behind the waterfall was a whole new cave that shone even brighter than the others. Vienna swam up to the natural rock platform before lifting herself out, she walked to the back of the cave. It wasn’t very dense, she could still feel the mist of water at her back. The rock on the cave wall reminded her that of the Secret Garden’s entrance except older worn by much time.
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As her hand was placed upon it, it stung and Vienna let out a small gasp as she tried to move her hand away but found she could not. It was stuck.
“Do not panic.” She whispered but just as she did she found she had leaned too close to the rock and her whole body was stuck. The light coming off it was nearly blinding and she found herself closing her eyes. She didn’t open them until she found herself no longer stuck and a small breeze ruffled her hair like an old friend.
Vienna opened her eyes to find a large forest like none she had ever seen before. Up above the tree’s canopy, the sun shimmered through vibrant viridescent leaves.
“What is this place?” Behind her stood a tall pillar rock, markings ran up and down its sides in a language she had never seen before. She remembered the old tomes she’d read in the Fortress's library, but no language in them matched what she saw before her.
Something thrummed in the depths of her, some sort of instinct that whispered to her to go explore. But that day much had already happened and she found herself placing her hand back on the stone behind her, “Please send me back.”
This time when her hand became stuck and the stone brightened she didn’t grow as frightened. When she found herself on the side with the waterfall in front and the glittering cave walls, she swallowed the rush of homesickness that invaded her senses. She shook it away and climbed out of the caves and back out through the system until she reached her camp at the mouth of it.
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Her dreams were oddly quiet but her memories would remind her of her father’s words from before.
‘My dearest daughter, I love you. I always will, forevermore.’
‘I’ll always be near if you need me.’
They would reassure her in a way she never thought she would have again.
She could never stray far from the waterfall cave for long. Vienna would explore the Secret Garden’s valleys and meet other Elem occasionally bequeathing Inheritance names here and there but she would always find herself back in the same rocky cave system.
At first, she was wary but she found herself becoming more attuned with the ‘voice’ of the cave. She would sleep at her camps and at night she’d hear a hum in her dreams, like the reassuring hums she would receive from the Old One back home, but this hum was stronger and harder to ignore.
When she found herself back behind the waterfall one day, she placed her hand upon the rock and this time didn’t close her eyes as the world spun around her and she was transported to another world. At least that’s what it felt like, it felt like Terra in the fundamental sort of ways: the breathable air and the terra soft but firm beneath her feet. But it also felt like something completely different for the trees…whispered to her.
At first, the whispers were soft like the wind that caressed her features, but with each trip through the portal, they grew louder. She never ventured further than the ‘doorway’ at first, the idea of getting trapped somewhere and not being able to return from whence she came terrified her. But as the whispers grew in reassurance with each trip, she found herself at last stepping onto the forest’s path.
As she weaved through the trees, her hand brushed across the trunks as she used to when she’d walk the outskirts of the Thorne Estate. Soon she was climbing them, the footholds and handholds so much easier to climb as if they were grown to be climbed. It seemed ridiculous but as she heard something in her mind akin to a chuckle that sounded like trees rustling and ground shaking she wondered if perhaps she was right.
The first day that she found herself deeper in the forest, she sat in one of the trees and pulled out some nuts from a pouch for a snack. From above came the oddest sort of bird call. Half caw and half almost roar, she nearly fell out of the tree and would have hadn’t a branch caught her around the waist and placed her back upon its middle. Her mouth was open in surprise as a creature flew overhead, its shadow falling across the treetops. As large as the flying dinosaurs from Old Earth its wingspan was filled with leaflike feathers dusting its long arms.
“What is that?”
Its large head swiveled and viewed her, its dark emerald eyes peering at her form before swooping down towards her, the tips of its wings brushing against her tree before it swung back into the skies.
Afterward, the whole forest would shake as if an earthquake was tossing everything up in the air. Vienna would climb down the trees quickly sending her thanks through her mind as conveniently placed branches helped her down quicker.
She would race toward the exit and nearly trip as a teal creature with bark-colored hind legs and a large pine-colored head with a beak jumped past her on the path, its fur the color of emeralds fading into kelp. A bark-like sound coming from it. Its large tail wagged as it gestured in the direction of the portal. Vienna would run alongside it and from the corner of her eye see a small rabbit-like creature with downy green wing-like ears jumped alongside them as they raced for the portal. They would disappear just as she reached it and the homesick feeling would rise again just as she placed her hand on the stone and the world would spin.
Vienna would look to her other pocket and find it curious how each time they came back her Old One’s sprig had grown. Leaves sprouting in deep teals, vibrant viridescent, and stunning emeralds. It no longer would climb up her staff but had to wrap around her middle as if afraid to part from her.