The Rhedwyr
THE RHEDWYR
Its job was pretty simple, appear with the quicksilver moonlight in a circle of stones and fade away with the morning dawn. It didn't move when any eyes were on it, but was as fast as the light, and would hover over people when they turned away or bowed their heads in confession. It never spoke or made any other sound to signal, but its eyes glowed bright with intelligent light.
Everyone was terrified of it. Its presence felt dark and heavy with an absorbing density to it that both pulled and repelled. Even the air around it was heavy and dead of sound like the fogs in a morass. It wore a heavy black cloak that had the iridescence of a grackles chest plumage and was long enough to sweep the earth, concealing its arms and four legs. It otherwise looked more human than anything else, albeit larger in all proportions. It had no hair or obvious gender and if touched, which was always avoided, it was as hard and cold as stone.
The creatures of Magicalena called it the Rhedwyr and they shunned it and stayed away from its circle when they could. But they often needed it.
The world is full of problems, big and small, physical and emotional. If someone had a problem that they did not want to face, they would carefully wrap the problem in words and spell them to the Rhedwyr. The Rhedwyr allowed these things to come inside of it, accepted them with neither judgement nor sympathy. Then the problem would begin to fade, just as the Rhedwyr did with each morning.
What the creatures of Magicalena never knew is what the Rhedwyr did with all those problems. Well, I can tell you that carrying someone else's problems is a heavy burden to bear. To make it light again, the Rhedwyr flies with the day's first light into the air where it is at its clearest and starts to run. It doesn't run away from the problems, it chases them down - forcing the puzzles of words to unravel until they become new tracks to follow - with beginnings and ends.
So, of course the Rhedwyr looks so crabby and scary - it has been too busy solving everyone else's problems and hasn't had a good day's rest in years.