Novaris

The lore scribble that prompted "must by an old nature dragon." ::

Thorns and shadows hid Guwarum in the Shadowbinder's land. Overloaded with his heavy fur coat, he had little choice but to listen to an herbalist drone on and on about the plant life there. Thade was a nature born guardian, the boringest of the breeds coupled with an element his plague-energized blood curled away from. It seemed like a fitting punishment. Mama had died working while he'd been playing, then he'd killed a pureblood and purebred lightning ridgeback. Yes, Guwarum's guilty conscious thought it fitting he should die by boredom under the watch of a nature dragon.

"Guwarum, do you know what an avenger is?"

Guwarum wrinkled his nose. The old guardian asked many questions, nearly always about plants, their care, and their uses, and stuff. He always expected an answer, and sometimes scolded. "That one, and you press it 'til it wee-wees and then put it on dragons the sun hates."

The guardian might have hid a chuckle - or a wince - and he might have smiled - or he could have bared his fangs. Guwarum's depressed mind only saw the negative interpretation, though Thade meant the other. "That's aloe. The use is correct. The sun hates no one. But an avenger often hates recklessly." Guwarum nodded with a vacant nod. How the guardian's heart ached for him! He wished a peer would show up claiming the lad as his charge. "Do you know vigilante?"

"Mama's a vigilant.' Was. Was death a sleep? But snappers didn't sleep, that's why they were vigilant. So it couldn't be that. Guwarum tried to imagine his mother still, then quickly hid his nose from the image that came to mind.

"VigilanTE---don't hide your nose." Thade's voice became very soft, like when Guwarum wouldn't eat but he was going to make him. "It's different." He went on to explain why those two words were important to Guwarum now, how he'd give up most his garden to keep the tundra under his care, but it wasn't possible. He explained how Guwarum would have to leave, and disguise himself, "You'll have to take on a new name, too, and ----"

"I WON'T!" Guwarum burst into tears at the guardian's scolding look, "Mama gave that to me! I---I---I don't even have my nose."

"You have your nose back." was all Thade could think to say as he protectively drew the tundra under his wings. It was true that he'd lost his sense of smell for nearly two months, but then they'd discovered an amazing secret to getting it back. Thade didn't dwell on that. Instead, he looked ruefully at the rare shadow-grown bush never out of his sight. If there ever was a guardian who regretted their charge and how it prevented them from a different life, it was Thade in that moment. But the bush seemed to glisten with amusement. Silly Thade. No one else in the Tangled Wood could have safely taken the child in for so long, and it grew right where he'd been needed.