Welcome to Gaia! ::

It wasn't often that someone new wandered through this part of the Swamp. Not often at all. It was rare enough that the world changed to take notice. The birds went silent, or sometimes whistled different notes, passing word of what might be a predator to their flocks and nests. The frogs and lizards and snakes burrowed deep to avoid discovery, or crept to the edge of sight to note and observe as an unfamiliar figure passed by.

Even the trees and the breeze curling through their branches took note and sighed in a different way. A way that ears used to a particular pattern would notice when it altered. A pattern shift that caught Wards The Way's attention and sent the guardian looking for whatever -- or whoever -- this new thing might be.

And found her in short order. Despite the subtle colors in her coat, he saw her and watched her, from the far side of a broad, ancient tree. When she would have wandered on, out of sight, he mirrored her from the other side, his footsteps timed to the sound of hers so he might not give himself away until he was ready.

Until she'd ducked her head to escape another reaching vine and he chose that moment to step into her line of sight, saying, "When the plants and trees themselves try to stop you, it might be wise to stop a while and wonder why."

A good answer. A better question. A thread of surprise twined around a larger surge of curiosity. A thoughtful doe from the Outside? Had those who looked so young learned to think so much? It was something to consider, a point to add to the ever-tallied balance. One day, that balance would shift one way or the other and he would leave the depths of the Swamp to explore or he would shun the Outside again until something forced him to change.

Neither mattered in the here and now. "No," he answered. "Some seek only to speak and be heard, to be thought of and remembered, but to know nothing and learn even less." He let that linger for a moment before he tilted his head, just enough to be noticed, an acknowledgement. "It is good to meet one with more wisdom than that."

A sigh? He took another step forward, looking her over again from hoof to the elegant points at the end of her antlers. She looked, he thought, amused, like she could have been one of Story's saplings. She spoke with his solemnity, though not in his drawn out and sometimes ponderous way. What would the gnarly beast thing of a little one like this?

He chuffed, quietly, taking yet another step. "And who are you, who is so wise and yet so young? So eager and yet so weary."

He could match her, if she chose to pursue those thoughts and paths of conversation. Word for word and path for twisting path. He had practice, after all, having spent many a long day in slow, thoughtful conversation with Story. He approved of this one, though. She was centered, solid, self-assured, and there were many kin in the Great Wide World who could stand to learn some of that from her, he was sure.

He drew himself up when he stopped before her, letting his chest swell as his head rose, those mighty antlers of his held high without any seeming effort. "The NotherFather called to me to ward the way of things, here in the deep of the Swamp. That is what you may call me. Wards the Way." He paused a moment, then asked, "And have you simply followed your hooves and found us here, or do you come on some quest, with some purpose in your heart?"

"Interesting," he allowed with a slight tip of his head. "To look for freedom in the deep parts of the swamp where freedom is not so easily found. The trees here do not give ground as easily as they might in others. They grow into the spaces between them, rather than leaving room for those such as you, or I, to pass unhindered. The ground cares little for the touch of light and so, if we stand too long, it will hold us locked in the strength of it's grip, cold mud conspiring against that very freedom you seek. So curious, too, to come here on a search for freedom."

Then again: "But perhaps it isn't freedom of movement that you seek. Freedom of thought, perhaps, or the freedom to do as you will without others to witness whatever it might be." Which he was certainly not helping, and yet, he made no move to leave her alone. If he had he would have been shirking the duty he'd been performing for so long.

A duty that made him duck his head just a little to hide the hint of a smile. "I woke here," he confessed, "in days long past now. I woke from my dreaming, I rose and grew and found my place and here I have stayed."

Finding freedom in being caught. Solace in stillness. Wards the Way considered the doe again, breathing her in deeply, and exhaling with a chuff of sound and air that was definitely laughter mixed with the exhalation. "Now you sound like Story. A friend," he clarified. "An old, ancient friend, as close to me as those trunks are to one another." He gestured toward a pair of trees that had twined around and through each other as they grew. "Continue on this path and you would find him, though you may not know his tail from another reaching limb." The comment was teasing and fond in tone.

He let her go on, appraising her, his gaze warming until she'd come to the end of her profound wondering, and he chuckled again. "Has the swamp between our trees here changed so much that the thoughts of a young mind have such hungry, seeking roots? As those who have passed here before you remembered, youth is spent seeking light, not the dark, shadowed places where an end is more likely than a beginning. How is it you have strayed so far from your cousins' path?"

"Silence you would find, and plenty, with Story," he told the doe, still amused. "If you were patient enough to wait for him to creak and crack along in what he has to say. You...I think you just might manage a conversation without your hooves starting to itch and driving you away." Which was a compliment. When Story had something important to say, even Wards sometimes got a little antsy.

"I can see your mask, little doe,"," Wards the Way argued. "You wear a mask with two faces, one with her nose always pointed forward, and the other facing backward, looking into yourself. I think you have strayed from kin and friend and family alike. They are not here, and here you stand, alone. But you have not found a darkness that will swallow and devour you. Not here. Not on the paths I would willingly let you follow, at least."

Another step toward her and he stopped again, then lowered his head noticably, acknowledgment and acceptance all at once. "You are welcome here.