The Pale Garden

The sun had begun to set as quiet tears streamed down the little one’s cheeks. She knew it was for the best but it didn't make it any less painful. The wind howled eerily and faint sounds of heavy footsteps could be heard from deep within the forest. She had read about them with the village’s librarians, the Pale Garden and it’s creatures. She'd read about how the Creakers came out at night, pulling anyone apart limb by limb if they dared approach. Now, she would be their next meal, not that she had much meat to offer after the starvation their village had gone through. The zombie attack had been rough, the blacksmiths and Iron Golems protecting them had all been wiped out in a single night. Her memories were vague but she remembered the fear and panic as she watched villagers fall one by one. They had been out of resources for a long while after recovering from the brutality, and the village needed to be rid of dead weight. The oldest ones went first, abandoned in the wilderness for supposed trip to ”paradise” or The Aether. Then it was the children, not all of course but they were too many with too little food. That’s how the Little One found herself curled up by the edge of the Pale Garden, waiting to be torn to pieces by the monsters she’d been taught to fear her whole life.