FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

OPEN INTO:

INT. GARDEN OF EDEN - CONTINUOUS

Kiah and Critter pause at the gate, looking out in awe at the lush Garden looming before them, filled with plants and trees and rivers, the sky above them radiates the purest blue.

KIAH: We're here. The Garden of Eden.

Kiah looks up at the sky, the Sun shines bright over the Garden.

KIAH: How's this even possible? are we even still in our own world?

CRITTER: We probably are. I saw a YouTube video on it once, I think we are in a pocket of space. Reality folds around the area so it can only be accessed by a specific point, anywhere else, and you'll just go right around it. It's like the idea of having things bigger on the inside than on the outside, except here, on the outside, it takes up no space.

Kiah looks at Critter.

KIAH: How have you even been alive long enough to watch all this stuff?

Critter just shrugs.

They take in the Garden for another moment, then-

CRITTER: What now?

KIAH: We find the Tree.

INT. GARDEN OF EDEN - LATER

They make their way further into the Garden, looking up at the giant plants in wonder.

Finally they come upon a clearing in the center of the Garden, and towering before them are the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life, their trunks twined around each other, melded together over the centuries.

KIAH: There it is. The Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life.

CRITTER: Wait, there are two Trees? But it looks like one almost. Do you suppose that they have merged together to become one over the eons?

Kiah and Critter continue up to the Tree, and come to a stop beneath it, glancing up at the looming branches. Golden Fruit hangs from the Tree of Knowledge, and Silver Fruit from the Tree of Life.

CRITTER: There are two types of fruit. How will we know which is which?

KIAH: We'll have to take one of each.

With a SIGH, Kiah moves forward to touch the Tree. She wraps around the trunk and starts spiraling up it. Critter stops before the Tree, suddenly uncomfortable, then shaking his head, jumps up as well, and starts climbing after her.

Kiah reaches the lower level of branches, and spots a Golden Fruit on one of the branches. She makes her way toward it.

Reaching the fruit, Kiah lowers herself down to it and starts to nudge it with her head. It sways, but doesn't come loose. Critter stops.

CRITTER: Kiah, maybe we should... I don't know, it feels like we're not supposed to be here.

Kiah looks at Critter.

KIAH: Don't worry, we'll all make sense of this, we'll make sure God understands.

Critter shakes his head to clear it. Kiah looks at the fruit tries to gently wrap herself around it and pull it loose, but her body slips, and the fruit remains stubbornly on the branch. Critter comes up beside her.

KIAH: I don't want to grab the thing in my mouth. I fear what could happen if I were to taste the Fruit of the Tree.

Kiah tries wrapping around it again, tighter this time, and the fruit explodes from the pressure. Critter and Kiah look at the fruit splatter all over themselves.

CRITTER: Next time, let me. Lucky we didn't get any in our mouths.

They approach another Golden Fruit, and Critter prepares to reach for it when-

CHERUBIM (O.S.): Hold!

Kiah and Critter both go still, Kiah pulling into a defense striking position, Critter's beard expanding, and the CHERUBIM who watched them enter, now in full form, and radiating with power, comes from around the Tree to face them. Kiah and Critter cower before him.

CRITTER: See, it is the Cherubim. It's alive.

KIAH: Well, still incredibly handsome, but nope, definitely not a statue.

CHERUBIM: Why, serpent, have you come upon the Garden of Eden and the Trees of Life and Knowledge?

Kiah is taken aback on the term "serpent", but recovers herself quickly. She gestures to Critter at the Fruit and moves forward to confront the Cherubim.

KIAH: My name is Kiah, I am a Death Adder from Australia, and I have come to undo that which the Serpent had done during the Fall.

CHERUBIM: The Garden of Eden has been removed from the Earth so that no man can eat from the fruit of the Tree of Life.

As they speak, Kiah swerves through the tree via the branches, leading the Cherubim away from Critter. Critter pauses for a moment, considering the Cherubim, then moves to do his task.

KIAH: Well, I am not from man so that removal does not apply to me.

CHERUBIM: It applies to any who may use the fruit of the Tree to once again bring sin into the world.

Kiah stops before a fruit and inspects it before moving on to another, looking straight at the Cherubim as she moves.

KIAH: As reconciliation was once brought to mankind through Jesus and the Cross, so I seek to bring reconciliation, not sin, to snake-kind.

CHERUBIM: I fear you do not know that which you are getting yourself into. The Lord never foretold of a snake coming to accomplish such a task.

KIAH: Nor did the Lord foretell that a snake would not. In fact, The Lord promises, "The baby will play safely near the hole of a cobra... a little child will put its hand in a nest of deadly snakes without harm." And I believe the time for that is now.

CHERUBIM: That is a promise for the new Heaven and the new Earth, for which the time has not yet come for that to be brought about. And when it does, it will be not through your power, but through God's.

Kiah looks over at Critter who is still sitting on the branch with the fruit watching. Kiah gestures at the Fruit, and Critter, glancing at the Cherubim uncertainly, nods. He reaches down to pluck it, and Kiah turns back and spirals closer to the Cherubim.

KIAH: I wasn't even involved in the deception of Adam and Eve, why should I suffer the punishment for a sin I didn't commit? "The child will not be punished for the parent's sin."

CHERUBIM: Yes, but the consequences of sin still carry through the generations, even if not in direct punishment. The whole world suffers to this day from the sins of Adam and Eve, even after they have passed on. Man seeks wealth; woman seeks control; even now, serpent uses its craftiness to bring down those who surround it.

The Cherubim's eyes seems to go to Critter, who has loosened the Golden Fruit with his paws, and Critter goes still. Critter looks over at Kiah. Kiah looks at him, worry in her expression, is she actually bringing him down?

No. Critter turns his head, squeezing his eyes shut, the Cherubim is wrong. Right? Critter looks again at the Cherubim, then back at the fruit.

Kiah again turns her own gaze, newly determined, back on the Cherubim as his focus falls back on her.

KIAH: Yet Adam and Eve were able to reconcile their shortcomings through the Cross. Serpent was not.

And cautiously, unable to look at his own paws, Critter gives the fruit a final tug. It falls loose from the Tree, landing in the grass below with a gentle THUD.

SPIRALING, SPIRALING. Kiah is before a silver fruit, fresh and GLITTERING in the light. Glancing at Critter, she gestures at it, and Critter again nods, he can't look at the Cherubim. Kiah moves on.

CHERUBIM: It's as you've stated. Man and woman were cast from the Garden of Eden, not beast. So it is with the promises of the Bible.

Kiah looks a little downcast at this. As she's looking down, she sees that Critter is scurrying to the branch she was just on, the one containing the Silver Fruit she'd just indicated. Kiah turns back to the Cherubim.

KIAH: Even so, the Bible declares, "The godly care for their animals." So God must value animals to some degree.

CHERUBIM: The Lord cares for all living creatures, but the Bible was not written for the beasts of the Earth, and you must live your life in accordance to your design. Now go from the Garden and live the life the Lord has given you. The fruit from the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life is too powerful for any mortal, man or beast.

Critter, now on a branch over the Silver Fruit, stops upon hearing these words. Critter looks at his paws, what is he doing? Then he looks up at Kiah, her eyes filled with a desperate plea. Critter closes his eyes with regret, and PLUCKS the second fruit. Kiah watches as it falls to the ground, her face falling as it lands with a THUD, the moment of victory riddled with guilt.

Kiah covers her expression and slowly looks back up at the Cherubim.

KIAH: I see. So while mankind can live, blessed in their salvation, the time for snake to be reconciled is never to be. Perhaps it was me being too anthropomorphic for caring, but you know how society views equal treatment nowadays. Well, I apologize for the trouble I have caused, and will now be leaving.

With that, Kiah turns back, and spirals back down the Tree. Critter is already on the ground by the fallen Fruit, and as Kiah slithers past, she pauses to glance back up at the Cherubim, Critter discreetly slips the fruit into Kiah's sling.

As they head out, the Cherubim raises a hand.

CHERUBIM: A final warning, Kiah of the Death Adders. If further you eat from the Fruit of the Tree, you will be cursed twice-fold, even beyond your own kind. Your bones will lock, and your every move will be a struggle, from that day, for as long as you may live.

Kiah hesitates for a moment, but then Kiah continues forward, toward the gates of the Garden, the Cherubim watching with a knowing expression of disappointment. Critter looks back at the Cherubim with guilt.

Kiah and Critter reach the gate of the Garden, and with a quick glance up at it, pass through...

CUT TO:

EXT. ARABIAN DESERT - DAY - CONTINUOUS

...Suddenly appearing in the desert near the cave from which they had entered. They look back, but see the Garden of Eden nowhere.

Kiah looks into her pouch at the two fruit from the Tree, then back at the empty horizon behind her, begging it for forgiveness.

Then finally, Kiah turns back to face the way they're going.

KIAH: I guess that's it, the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.

Critter looks at Kiah, his face full of conflict.

CRITTER: Yeah. But at what cost?

KIAH: The cost is the curse. And that's something I can do without. Come on, perhaps my contact will have more information as to what to do now.

Critter takes one last glance in the former direction of the garden, and with that, they continue into the desert in silence.

EXT. ARABIAN DESERT - MONTAGE

A montage as they make their way back through the desert, traveling during the scorching daytime Sun, pausing on sandy dunes under the nightfall sky, ect.