Enjoy This Absence From Reality


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The forest slept with contentment, only the hooting of the owls on their night time hunts kept her company on the coldest of nights, none of which she felt. She often wondered about the creatures she guarded this place from, odd creatures. They were shaped similarly to her, though they were solid like the animals, and not of her substance, which could blow in the wind to hear of far off lands and feel the pains of the earth which they were slowly destroying. The curiosity of these creatures amused her as they were forever searching through the lands to find the secrets of it, but their reaction to her caused her endless puzzlement. They would cry ghost or demon when they saw her, as though she were a thing that might be unearthly. Though that was no where near the truth, the fact that they had left was good enough for her to say that she had done good work. Others thought as they saw her rise from the water to begin her night's work of keeping this part of the forest safe from troublesome eyes that she was some sort of divine creature and might consider this place sacred. Those came back with vulgar deeds of sacrifice in her name. These acts had troubled her endlessly and she had made sure that they would forever leave without returning. This night seemed like such an odd night. She knew that something would happen this night, that this may change things forever, but had no idea of what the events may be. Some over the centuries which had wandered in by chance had thought her to be omniscient over the forest. She had over heard them talking about it. She wished that they had been right. Wishing. That was something that she had never done before. It was an odd thing to think that she was becoming more and more like the people destroying the places like her home. Was this a good thing? she wondered. Or shall it lead to the end? She heard a crying child from the edges of the forest. Slowly, the sound advanced, drawing nearer in the still of night with the quickening footsteps and gentle weeps mixed in with the desperate gasps for breath of the mother. They both broke into the clearing she now stood in and fell quiet before her. As the mother fell to her knees with weakness, she revealed that she had an arrow in her back and had kept running from whatever shot it, but could run no more. The mother looked up at her pleadingly. "Please," she gasped, her breath going raspy and tears flooding out of her eyes which were slowly clouding over. "Please save her. Don't let the raiders take her." The mother looked lovingly to her child, her eyes full of sorrow for never being able to know her, to help her as she grew as so many mothers should. The mother put her baby on the soft grass before the pond and looked back up to her. "Watcher, please." Watcher's eyes fell on the woman, still young herself but very much in love with her young child. None had spoken her name in many a century, since she was bound to her duty. She closed her eyes, the only part of her that was not made of what seemed to be smoke, shadow and the morning mists and bowed her head in acceptance of her charge. She would care for the child until she was old enough to return to her own world and her own people. The mother fell over in exhaustion, having already surpassed her life expectation by many minutes to get her child to safety. Her life left her and Watcher looked at the body curiously. How such creatures could live such short lives so easily snuffed out was a mystery to her. The body of the mother fell into the earth, leaving no trace of her existence in the world except the child. "I shall call you Myrrdin," she said in an ethereal to the little boy as she picked him up in her arms. It was strange having to form actual arms, to create actual form and matter to hold the child, but it brought her a sense of peace to do so. It came time years later when Myrrdin returned to his people, ready to try and survive among them by offering aid in his knowledge of the forest medicines and natural remedies which were far better than the placebos that the village wizard offered to his customers. He had grown up with the strangest of childhood's a boy could have. The forest animals had kept watch over him to ensure that he did not fall anywhere or trek where it was dangerous, scaring him off with fangs and claws which he quickly grew to fear and respect. He had spoken to travelers that had ventured deeply into the forest and gotten lost to learn to communicate with the world and to learn what he could of what happened beyond the forest. Now, he looked up to Watcher, who had raised him and been a mother to him for as long as he could remember, with tears brimming his eyes. With a breath, he strengthened his resolve to ask her the thing he had pondered over for the years that he had been here, knowing that this would be his last time to do so. "What do you guard?" he asked quietly. He had followed her through the forest many times while she wandered and he had not once seen the thing that she protected so dearly. Watcher smiled with her eyes as she answered. "It is the door to the world of the Fae. They seek to come out and others seek to go in. If either should happen, both worlds would crumble." Something he would always treasure would be the way she had taught him to read eyes. She had such piercing eyes that could see through you if you did anything disrespectful or untruthful, but they were also her only way to display any emotion. The rest of her was vaporous, forever changing within the basic shape and blowing to and fro in the wind. "Thank you," Myrrdin said, bowing his head slightly. "For everything. Fare thee well, Mistress Watcher, and I pray that I shall see you once more, though I fear that may never come to pass." She waved a farewell to the child, now old enough to take care of himself and to try and return to his own kind. She felt a feeling of sadness, another strange thing, as he left for the final time. She too knew that they would never again meet, but that had never bothered her when others had come and gone. She would never understand these things, she realized finally, and could only hope that they would fade like the day. She went to see the gate between the worlds, the moonlight showing it to her clearly this night. The base of the oldest tree in the forest showed the door, silvery and twinkling as though it were a conglomeration of all of the stars in the sky. Still, the door remained shut firmly with no trace of it being forced on either side. She had managed to do both things that were pledged to her by use of her name. Watcher, the voices behind the door said. The Fae had been unusually quiet the entire time Myrrdin was still in the residence of the forest and it was starting to worry her. Now she knew that nothing was wrong. Watcher, they said again. You are changed, we feel it. Emotions cloud you're judgement. You have become weak. Watcher passed by the door and back into the forest, not bothered by their ominous words as she roamed the paths and returned to her old life before the child, before having to try and find clothing for him while trapped in the forest from caravans with children his size. She passed the many places where she had shown him where the best fruits could be found and which plants were medicinal. The grown animals playing with their young so merrily long before the morning rays too reminded her of him. Travelers came that night, two with arrows and quivers strapped across their back and ready for a hunt. She saw them and went to them, knowing the impending reaction well. The pair's faces distorted horribly, contorted with fear and silent screams before running as fast as their legs could carry them out of there. All was normal again, and yet the experience made her regret her actions. Scaring people was not what she should be doing, it was not right. She returned back to the pond where she would spend the next day while the door was hidden by the old tree. As she sank, her eyes fell to a place before her that had brought about so many oddities into her life. "You have given me a gift of wisdom beyond anything I have ever known," she said softly, her voice like a breeze, to the spot where the mother once lay, thanking her before sinking into the pond for the days rest.