Welcome to Gaia! ::

Sitara rolled over on her back, flattening the grass beneath her, before rolling back up and admiring her handiwork. Same as it was before she trampled it. Ho hum. Tail twitching, she got to her feet and growled under her breath. Get a grip, Girl. You're a Guardian Ghost, and you have a strong responsibility to -

To what? Look after the dead?

She smiled wryly, trying to remember the last time a mountain dragon had died in the area when suddenly the golden life web beneath her feet thrummed. She jumped to her feet with a startled yelp, eyes rolling in fear. A Guardian. A dead Guardian. A very, very dead Guardian. Could it have been - no. No, it felt wrong for that. Discordant, faint, distant, as if from far away...

She closed her eyes, trying to pinpoint the source of the sensation, and cursed, loud and long. Not just any Guardian. A northern one. Sitara had been on good terms with the northern guardians while she lived, but things had changed since then...

But she had the advantage, as long as she acted quickly. After all, death did lead to a certain... disoriented feeling. And in life, Sitara had been a ghost speaker, a guardian ghost speaker, so even when first dead she had a fairly firm grip on what was what for the dead.

But this new guardian? As she started to run north, Sitara hoped fervently that she hadn't been a ghost speaker. It would be useful to have an advantage, no matter how small.

Sitara ran faster, taking advantage of the way she never tired. And she didn't worry too much about doing crazy things like running through bushes either because getting knocked aside would only slow her down a little and it wasn't like she could really feel any pain...

Not too much further. She had been near the northern border to begin with... good thing she hadn't been down at the southern edge of her territory!

Paws in, out. Run run run. Try not to think too hard about what the other northern guardian ghosts will say if they catch you here... you have a perfect right, you're allowed. And most of them are near asleep. Just have to get there first. Fast fast fast.

Sitara pushed herself harder than she ever had before, in life or death, but paused as soon as she knew she was near the Northern Guardian and closed her eyes. There were other guardians nearby. She froze. But... no, they were keeping their distance. Whatever the reason, they were going to let her talk to this new guardian. Maybe her sacrifice during the plague years meant something after all. Or maybe they just wanted to know what this new, fresher ghost would do to her. Or maybe... no, enough of that.

She took a deep breath - more out of habit than anything else - and made her way leisurely down the slope, walking as if she hadn't run all the way. After all, she wasn't out of breath and there was no sweat matted to her coat to give her away, so why not?

"Heyla, Guardian," she said softly from slightly uphill. She smiled calmly, but somewhat sadly, and rested easily on the pads of her feet, ready to leap to the side should this new Guardian Ghost decide to take aggressive action.

She backed up! As if she was afraid... well. As long as she wasn't afraid enough to attack, Sitara was satisfied. And she certainly wasn't going to go down there to try and reassure the other Guardian, oh no!

"Guardian Kailani'e," she said, rolling the name over her tongue. Had she heard of her? No, not at all. Of course, she must have been chosen after Sitara's death, and Sitara had hardly been involved in the picking of a new northern Guardian. Wrong race, and too wrapped up in her own grief...

"In life, I was Sitara, Guardian of the Mountain Guardians," she said carefully, "perhaps you have heard of me."

Sitara growled in response to the other dragon's reaction. So this was what the living thought of her. Had her sacrifice meant nothing? "Fool!" she spat, "You were but a hatchling during those years and yet you presume to judge me. Me! Me of all dragons! I was the first to die during those years, and I died a Guardian, looking after my people."

She took a deep breath, managed to calm slightly. "Your parents... I am sorry." She looked away, no longer willing to look at Kailani'e. Too many painful memories... "I know... I know what that is like. My mother... my mother died..." Sitara took a deep breath, turned back to face Kailani'e. "It has been many years since the plague. Your parents may have moved on. I can not tell, I am not the one who would have handled their reincarnation."

Sitara started shaking. Oh, the effort it to took to avoid pouncing on that insolent whelp and grinding her face into the dirt!

"I started it?" she spat, "I started it? I. Died. Fighting. It. I died a Guardian! And I was the first ghost speaker to die, and it wasn't the plague that killed me either, oh no, I died to restore the balance. A real sacrifice, a perfect little martyr. And I left my mate, my eggs, to do so..."

Sitara frowned at this news. "That is worrisome to hear. Bad things happen when there are no Guardians. Easily preventable things... one hopes the other Northern Guardian Ghosts will select a new Guardian soon. Two, even, it takes more than one dragon to cover a territory that size."

Sitara sighed. "Some times I think even two is too few... but two is a good number, selected long ago, and I bow to the wisdom of our ancestors. And besides," she added with a wry smile, "it's not like it's really just two Guardians. Were you ever instructed in the duties of Guardian Ghosts?"

Sitara hissed at the insolence of the new Gaurdian Ghost's reply, but couldn't deny the justice of her words. Her father had started it. Killed all those dragons. Not intentionally, and he was redeeming himself by seeking out and aiding all of the eggs, and yet... and yet...

Enough of that. "A Guardian Ghost guards the line between the living and the dead," Sitara began carefully. "We seek out the freshly dead and help them come to terms with their new life and leave the old. When the time comes, we help them move on, start the life after this. Reincarnate, begin the cycle anew. And we also keep watch over those who would talk to the ghosts, Ghost Speakers," here she couldn't help but smile, "and ensure they heed the wisdom of the ancients, but aren't driven mad by a throng of the dead always telling them what to do. Which isn't always necessary, of course, some Ghost Speakers have protectors. Old family members, other Ghost Speakers with more experience and wisdom. I had my father...

"Anyway. The final and most important duty of a Ghost Speaker to select Guardians. Surprised? Yes, we're the ones who grant Guardians their power. And also the ones who take it away," she added darkly. "As was done to my father. Yes, he was guilty. I can not deny that. But he has changed, and has been restored some power... very carefully monitored, I assure you. And it is conditional, for we have set him a task of redemption, to hatch abandoned eggs. Abandoned by the plague..." Sitara grimaced, thinking of the eggs she had left behind. Where were they? One had disappeared, last she checked, and one was crushed. Had her father stolen the egg? Perhaps it was time for a long delayed family reunion. She shuddered at the thought.