"The Guardian" by Bethan Jones

She was the most beautiful creature you could ever lay eyes on, about the size of a small horse but infinitely more elegant and poised.  Her head was that of a bird of prey, with sharp dark eyes that never seemed to blink and a wickedly curved beak that glinted dull silver in the sunlight.  Her head was feathered – a gorgeous tawny gold - and she had two, silver grey horns each about half a foot long protruding from her head.  The feathers petered out about halfway down her gracefully arched neck and changed to a deep fur coat of the same tawny gold.  Her back and shoulders were broad and well muscled so that they seemed to ripple when she moved and each of her four paws sported jet black claws, harder than diamond.  From just behind each shoulder swept the magnificent wings, the same feathered gold as her head and with a span of over three meters.  But it was her tail that was truly amazing.  For all the splendour of her wings and great hooked beak, it was the tail that drew your eye.  A slightly darker shade than the rest of her it was split into five different plumes, each one moving independently and each one infinitely perfect. 

Sámi lay where she had fallen and just stared at the apparition before her.  Never before in her life had she been rendered so speechless, but now she could honestly think of nothing to say.  The great guardian turned its head towards her, those eyes so cold and lifeless in the painting, flickered and danced with light.

            You are the one who awoke me? A human girl?

Sámi clutched her hands to her head as the voice echoed into her mind, booming and roaring with all the force of an earthquake.  The creature seemed to realise its mistake and the voice in Sámi’s head softened slightly although the power in it was no less.

            Why did you wake me little one?

Sámi licked her dry lips and struggled to find the words.  Then the creature did something completely amazing and incomprehensible to Sámi, it laughed.  A deep ripple of amusement that seemed to seep into Sámi’s mind until she too found herself smiling.

            I see that you yourself do not know.  Yet the Gods must have sent you for a reason.  What is it that you fear?

Sámi felt the tears come and with the fresh wave of grief even her fear evaporated.

            “I’m not scared.”  She whispered more to herself than to the great one.  “I’m just… alone.”

The creature bowed its great head so that it could look Sámi in the eye and then it lent forward and touched her ever so gently on the forehead.  Sámi felt the warmth of its touch and its love and she found herself smiling, the tears drying on her face.

            I will give you a gift little one so that you will never be alone, but with that gift comes great responsibility and with great responsibility comes great suffering.  That is the burden you must bare, but you will not have to bare it alone, for I will be with you and in your darkest hour you will remember.

Then the creature spread its wings, wider than Sámi would have believed possible, and in a single swoop it was gone.