Luke didn't understand why people did this for fun. Falling from the sky at terminal velocity while yelling for his mommy whom he never met was enough to convince Luke that people who went skydiving either had a death wish or were simply the bravest people he ever met—or both.

Plus, the smell on the way down wasn't reassuring that he was of the brave type. It smelled like two climates colliding and it produced a mix of wet mold, like the ice on a carpet defrosting. The good news was that it was slowly being overtaken by the salty smell of sea mist.

The Dean's advice popped back in his head. When they entered the realm of the Garden, they had a short amount of time to activate the inflatable boat that each one had in their backpacks. Luckily only one was necessary, but everyone was pretty occupied with dying at the moment to reach in their bag for a portable boat.

Funny thing is, Luke wouldn't have minded dying with the views he received. He looked down at a cove with turquoise clear water, the same color as his eyes, and a golden sand beach wedged between two cliffs whose tops were so close to each other they looked almost like lovers reaching for a kiss. Sadly, they were frozen in time moments before they could seal their sign of love.

The idea of love made Luke's heart race faster—almost leaping out of his chest. He couldn't die now—not without seeing Nellie one last time. He looked around and saw Victor lose contact with his bag. He saw Sirius trying to control the winds to lift himself but only managing to slow his descent. Nil kept staring up at the blue sky that mixed with a firmament of stars that could be seen during the day. Alpha was nowhere to be seen.

Of course, saving everyone was left in Luke's hands. He slipped his bag cautiously along his arm and tried to fight the wind to keep it from stealing his bag from him. He rummaged through the bag and found all the things he didn't need: granola bars, a sleeping bag, matches—all of them were sent scattering across the wind.

Finally, Luke found it—a metal canteen that could almost be mistaken for a water bottle. He pulled it out and uncapped the top.

Nothing happened.

Luke was freaking out. He felt like he had gone skydiving and his parachute wasn't in his backpack—because that's exactly what was happening.

Then a burst of air popped below them—the sound of one giant kernel of popcorn popping in the microwave. It looked almost like a hologram but eventually a wide boat with a floorboard resting atop two long canoes appeared with sails slowing the descent of the boat.

The boat rose and seemed to cradle Luke in it. Sirius took the cue and managed to push himself over to the boat. Victor looked like a dog in water as he paddled over to get a grip on the boat.

But that left Nil out all by himself staring off into the light. And Luke couldn't even find Alpha but considering he could pass through solids and render himself invisible, he was hoping Alpha got this—unless he passed through the ground and ended up in Hell, then that would be bad.

The boat was slowing down to a gliding motion, with the cove as the runway it was aiming to land at. Nil was plummeting like a giant raindrop. Luke reached for his whip and cracked it across the air, tying it around Nil, and using all his strength to yank him towards the boat. He cradled Nil in his arms as the sails of the boat led it to a crash-landing in the water. It rained fresh water above them and the image of a rainbow appeared in the mist sent up by the boat. The rainbow framed the cove and the hill up ahead like a postcard from paradise.

"Is everyone alright?" Luke asked.

"I think I swallowed a bug or two on the way down," Sirius said. "But I think I'm good."

Victor grunted and gathered himself as he grabbed his bag soaking besides the boat. Luke took that as a sign that he was okay, although Luke was a bit disappointed that Victor hadn't broken a leg or something.

Nil was still staring off into space—literally. The sky was a stew of blue, black, and purple with washes of white, red, and green. Never had Luke thought it was possible to stargaze during the day unless one wanted to stare at the brightest star in the sky and go blind. But here, the sun wasn't overpowering. Here, the light was shared equally amongst the millions of lightbulbs across the universe.

"Where's Alpha?" Sirius asked.

Luke took his eyes off from stargazing, wondering where the little guy had gone. They hadn't necessarily been all that kind to him before they landed here. They were on the verge of ostracizing him from the Garden Run, delegating him to the cold Antarctic weather while they roamed around in mankind's first home.

Then he noticed Alpha standing on the beach, atop a little sand dune one of many along the shore. Luke guided the ship to the cove and docked it at the shore. He got off and was about to run to Alpha when Victor called him back.

"We need to drag the boat inland or else the tide will claim our only ride out of here."

Luke couldn't even imagine wanting to leave this place. He had only seen the beach and already he wanted to retire here. The massive cliffs were caked in moss where trees grew at the oddest of angles that should've been impossible. Luke could've sworn he saw little critters in the upside-down trees, but he followed Victor's advice and helped him and Sirius to pull the Polynesian looking barge inland.

Luke then took Nil's hand and led him up the sand dunes to stand by with Alpha. On the hike up he wasn't drenched in sweat because a cool breeze from the cove whisked away any sweat his body could produce.

He called for Alpha's attention. "Hey Alpha, what are you looking at?"

"Di..." He muttered.

"What?"

"No..."

"No what?"

"Saur..."

"Soar? Is that how you got here..." Luke reached the top and his jaw dropped. He saw a large open field with towering hills in the backdrop. Everything between the sand dune and the hills was populated with a whole biodiversity of animals—from rhinos and elephants to wooly mammoths and giant ostrich looking birds that towered as tall as giraffes, which they also had as well.

But of course, his eyes were drawn towards the sight of hundreds of giant reptilian creatures who roared louder than a pride of lions.

"Dinosaurs!" Alpha yelled and jumped up and down like a child on Christmas day getting a first glance at all the presents with his name on it. "Rawr! Rawr!"

One of the dinosaurs responded back with a roar, although which one, Luke couldn't tell. Alpha stumbled down the sand dune towards the field.

"Alpha wait," Luke laughed. "I know you're excited, but they might eat you."

"I doubt they'd go for putrescent meat," Victor joined Luke on his left. His comment made Luke really wish that Victor face planted the water on his skydive down.

Sirius came up on his right and placed a hand on Luke's shoulder. "It's alright Luke, he'll be fine. I don't think anyone can lay a claw on him anyway—believe me I've tried."

Luke understood. A couple of times Luke had to train by battling Alpha and every time it ended in a draw or Alpha losing because he wanted to go color instead of continuing to fight. Alpha's ability to make his body translucent was amazing and greatly overpowered. How come Uriel didn't hook me up with a power like that?

"We're wasting time," Victor said as he pressed the button on the hourglass watch the Dean had given him. Luke and Sirius did the same. The minute he did, Luke watched as sand particles started to trickle down to the empty space below.

"The entrance won't stay open for long," Victor said. "We go in, feed this one the fruit, and we leave before the cherubim try to kill us."

Luke looked to Sirius who shrugged his shoulders. "Cheery pep-talk. Now, let's go find the Tree of Knowledge."