Tree of Wishes

Guardians of Old: A Cypress Perspective

In my years of devotion to Lagdrygis, I've been blessed with a variety of guardians to assist me in protecting the tree. Regardless of who or what they were and where they can from, they all performed their duties to the best of their ability. I was proud to call them my closest friends, and although bittersweet, each departure simply ended the story of our relationship. While they were long gone, they would never be forgotten.

Since I had mentioned a few in passing, it made sense that my current companions would grow curious about them, but the chance for me to explain in detail never really came. That is until the day I spotted Juniper arguing with both Anubis and Eddie outside the shed. It was normal for her and Eddie to bicker a bit due to their contrasting ideologies, yet to have Anubis in the mix made this especially odd. In his humanoid form, no less.

"I had the right to at least tell her!" Juniper argued with her hands firmly on her hips. "It's only fair to get both sides of the story! How was I supposed to know this would happen?"

"We keep tellin' ya it's none of your business," Eddie said while crossing his arms. "You caused the other chick to chicken out thanks to that."

"Even I thought that was rude!" Anubis added as he mimicked Eddie's body language. "She was so upset after what you said!"

"She needed to know! I didn't know what else to do!"

I trusted Juniper to perform her duties on her own, so I had no idea what the context was. Knowing her personality, I could make a safe assumption that she had misused her empathetic skills with a visitor. I didn't notice the tree rustling through the window while I was inside, so presumably no one received a new power today.

"Settle down, everyone," I said as I approached the group. Eddie and Anubis immediately relaxed in my presence and lowered their arms, while Juniper stared down at the ground in defiance, still willing to continue her argument. "I understand we all have our own viewpoints, but what's important is what the visitor decides. While we should avoid swaying them as much as possible, we should also respect their final choice regardless of the circumstances."

Juniper gazed up at me with raised eyebrows, surprised that she wasn't receiving lecture this time. "So... you agree with me?"

"Not necessarily. I'm merely saying that if you feel what you did assisted the visitor's decision rather than force them one way or another, then it wasn't entirely wrong. However, you do need to be more considerate of the person's feelings."

"That's what I was trying to say!" Anubis said.

"You should also avoid abusing your own powers," I continued. "While it's good to be open to hearing both sides of the story, that doesn't give you the privilege to pry into matters without the person's permission."

"See? He gets it," Eddie said.

By this point, the tension between the three had been lifted. There was a brief moment of silence for them to think this over.

Eventually, Juniper broke the silence and said, "Alright, I'm sorry. I'll be more careful with my powers next time."

"Apology accepted!" Anubis replied with his usual, cheerful attitude and his tail wagging with enthusiasm.

"Sure, whatever," Eddie said, having already put the issue behind him. He then smirked and focused his attention on me. "You're pretty good at this kinda stuff, huh?"

I chuckled. "I suppose. I've had my fair share of experience dealing with guardians, and it's important that we all get along."

Anubis transformed back into a dog and ran up to my leg. "Oh, oh! Can you tell us more about them? I've wanted to know for a long time!"