[gaia] 2016 Colorist Love Drabbles - Magic

[Owlsomniac]

A DRABBLE ON THE THEME OF MAGIC!
Kin Name: Born Again
Drabble: [imgright]http://matope.pixel-blueberry.com/image ... uncert.png[/imgright]
Some kin believe in magic (fire breathing, dragons, pixies and fairies and all other manner of things) and others don’t. For Born Again, magic is everywhere -- in the little things, as well as the big (though these events are much less common). Not so much the sort that comes with flashes and booms and turning handsome bucks into frogs, and the like, but magic all the same.

He sees it every day as he walks the borders of the White Crane Tree Tribe, keeping those inside safe from outside dangers. The distances kin have traveled to get to them for sanctuary, the trials they’ve been through and survived and are still fighting -- there has to be at least a little bit of magic in all of that, he figures. Not to mention the bravery it takes for many of them to leave the familiarity of the homes they once knew to travel so far. Courage is often not as abundant as some might believe, which is what makes it all the more remarkable when witnessed.

Then too, of course, those who come in so beaten down - spiritually, emotionally, mentally, physically - that it’s any wonder they ever made it at all, only to walk out with a smile on their face and a lilt in their step. It makes him thankful all the time that he was born to this place, to these kin who he calls family. Really, there’s nowhere else he’d rather be.

Even the little things that they, as a tribe, take for granted. The safety of their group, the special herbs and healing plants his mother and the others grow and tend to - some species of which can't be found anywhere else. Even the abundance of food they have, here, which weary and ill kin certainly need to regain their strength - as well as the kin like him and his scouts which need fuel to keep up the hard work they do.

Well, and every time an expectant couple stops by to lay their sacs or eggs, knowing they'll be safe until they're ready to move on - because that's what they do.... Trust. To have that kind of trust from perfect strangers, merely because of their reputation for all that they do, it's downright humbling at times.

There have certainly been days where circumstances were less than ideal, because that's life. Born Again knows this perhaps more than most in his tribe. Walking the boarder, he's seen plenty of beauty, of wonder, of things he can't quite explain as the sun begins to set and the shadows are long and strange, and yes - there's certainly a kind of magic in that, too. Things aren't always perfect. Yet... and yet, at the end of the day, he really believes with all of his heart, that there's nowhere else he'd rather be, and nothing else he'd rather be doing, than living here with his tribe, these kin, and doing his best to make life that much better for them all.

Certainly, there’s nothing more magical in all of the swamp than that.

wc: 513