Guardian

He was there at my birth (I caught a glimpse of his face on something shiny) but then he ran away.  I grew up a little, his appearance always in my mind.  What I saw when I took my first breath were: Two oddly shaped eyes that seemed young and as old as the sun itself.  A twisted smile of purple lips and pearly white fangs that were stuck up in his gums in random places.  Two little holes between the kind mouth and wise eyes.  I didn't catch the rest of him, but I knew it was there.

Then, a while after I was born, he showed up again (I saw him through the mirror).  For just a second I saw a little furry tail waving around, gorgeous.  I saw little feet with orange, pointy claws that I knew could tear anything to shreds.  I saw a skinny body, but could tell it was dense and powerful.  It was covered with silky fur, each strand a different color.  Colors I'd never seen before speckled his strong yet slim body.  His head wasn't there, it was cut off by the mirror.  To get a better look, I turned around.  But he was gone yet again.

On my way to first day of school, I saw him in the reflection of some window in a store.  His whole body was there, and I realized that his head was larger than I expected it to be.  Compared to it's body, the head was very large.  His breathtaking eyes stared right into mine (from the glass, of course) and he winked.  I started to look for his real body when I noticed a figure moving in the window behind me.  It was just a chocolate lab.

I missed the creature.  It didn't show up for a while.  I grew up, and my parents had grown tired of each other.  They yelled and fought everyday.  Whenever they did this I thought of the creature's comforting appearance.  Then, one day, my mother and father announced that they were getting divorced.  I was absolutely devastated.  My soul was officially tortured to death, and at that moment I felt like a hollow shell.  A body with no soul, a body basically on auto-pilot until the soul returned.  It returned when I saw the eyes again.  Along with the body.  And the tail, the legs, the claws, the belly, the neck, the mane, the snout, the teeth.  At the sight of those beautiful eyes,  I felt comfort again.  But my soul was not healed. No, I had an entirely new soul, and I felt as though the creature that had stared at me through no reflection had twice the soul as me, and loaned some so that my life could carry on normally again.

After my parents split up, the animal showed itself more than ever before.  It was there every night before a new school year, and as I graduated elementary school, it actually howled a wolf/angel/human howl that pierced into my heart and mind and left them... wiser.  That beautiful majesty that resembled a wolf, cat, and angel had really changed me.

It was there when I started high school, as well, and after high school, I actually touched that animal.  That created a very strong bond between us, so every night before I went to sleep at my college, it was there, it's luminescent eyes the only thing that I could see.  Well, it's hypnotic mane of colors stood out against the darkness alongside the eyes.

When I graduated college, when I married a perfect guy, when I bought a house, and when I had a little baby daughter, the animal was there, congratulating me with the wave of it's tail and the glint of it's eyes.  

But it was always there.  I always knew it was watching me, no matter what, and then it rewarded me with it's appearance after I accomplished a big chapter in my life.  I grew old and raised my daughter with my husband, then my daughter went off to college and started her own life.  I moved with my partner, all around the country, and even took a trip to New Zealand at one point.  Then, my husband announced that he had cancer.  It was unstoppable, so he just lived life until one day, the cancer overtook him. 

At the hospital, at his bedside, I asked him one important question: "Did you ever see a... majestic guardian that takes the form of an animal?"

He slightly nodded, then said in a weak whisper "Slithery, big... I think underwater animal.  It was my guardian."  Then he died.

I lived seven more years, by myself, but not alone.  One day, I knew my time was up.  So I called my daughter to come and I laid down on my bed, waiting for her.  She arrived in an hour.

"Oh, mother," she cried.  "You really think so?"

"I know so.  It's okay, though.  I feel strangely peaceful.  Don't fret.  Just visit."

So we talked a little, then she started crying.  I cheered her up, and as she brushed her tears away, I asked her one important question: "Do you have a guardian?  An animal that is always there, watching you?"
Her face broke into a smile. "Yes."

"What animal?"

"It's something like a bird, I think.  Very big.  Bigger than a dragon.  It's actually sort of like a dragon.  Half dragon, half eagle.  Do you have a guardian?"

"Yes.  It's almost like a wolf and a wildcat morphed.  It looks very wise."

And at that moment, I not only saw my beautiful daughter's beaming face, but a pair of wise eyes that I would never forget.

Black.  Then a light.  Then my guardian.