Writing Month 2026, Day 11: "Healing"/"Garden"
Original fiction/Religious fiction
Status/Word count: I'm gonna say complete, but I feel I could touch this up and/or expand it later. 573 words.
"I was brought to the Garden in the first hours of my life," the First Man said, as his children listened eagerly. "I'm not sure why the Lord God made me outside of it; perhaps just so that I could know how much more wonderful it is.
"Think of any good thing that you have ever seen—it is there in the Garden, in its most perfect form. Tender fruit grows from every tree, and the four great rivers flow through its land. And each day, the Lord God Himself would walk there with us in the direction of the setting sun.
"But," the First Man sighed, "your mother and I sinned in the Garden, and brought a curse into the world, and the Lord God cast us out as punishment."
The First Son said, angrily, "It was wrong of the Lord God to cast you out."
The Second Son asked, "Can you ever go back?"
The First Man sighed sadly, and answered, "The Lord said neither we nor our sons nor daughters would come there, unless we have healed what we cursed."
The First Son joined his father in the fields, laboring to bring forth plants by the sweat of their brows. Their work brought forth only meager efforts. It was no Garden, and often, wild sheep and goats would eat what they grew.
The First Man and the First Son chased them away, but one day, the Second Son managed to catch some. "Perhaps I can make this curse a blessing," he said, and tamed them. They became a source of fleece and milk, and a great boon to the family.
In time, the First Son came up with an idea, to make the first sacrifice to the Lord God.
The Second Son asked, "Why do you do this?"
The First Son said, "So that in return, He will give us better crops." And he took some of his plants, whatever came into his hand, and burnt them on an altar for the Lord God.
The Second Son was inspired by this. If he could make the animals useful, perhaps he could make them holy as well. So he took the best of his flock and slaughtered it, and burnt it on an altar for the Lord God, asking Him to take pleasure in His gift.
Fire came down from Heaven to join the fire he had kindled, and the Second Son knew that the Lord God had accepted his gift.
Unfortunately, his brother was jealous of this favor. And that is how the worst of their parents' curses finally fell upon mankind.
When the Second Son opened his eyes, he was in a place more wonderful than he had ever witnessed in life. Every good thing that he had ever seen was there, in its most perfect form. Tender fruit grew on every tree, and four great rivers flowed through the land. And the Lord God was standing with him, facing the setting sun.
The Second Son asked, "Is this the Garden?"
The Lord God said, "It is. You were made outside it of it, so that you could know how wonderful it is."
The Second Son was confused, and said, "But we have not healed the world."
The Lord God said, "There is much left in the world to heal. But you healed a bit, in the short time that you had. And that is enough to merit reward."
