The Sphinx Keeps Watch

Aunt Bramble
Wyrdlore Society

Out in the desert of Egypt, there is a creature who has been lying very still for a very long time. She has the body of a lion, strong and golden, and the face of a wise ruler, calm and watchful. Everyone who passes calls her the Sphinx.

She lies at the edge of the great pyramids, facing the place where the sun comes up each morning. That is her post, and she has never once left it. Long ago, the people of Egypt carved her from a single great rock of the desert, so that she would always be there, watching, keeping the pyramids and the people safe.

A guardian's job is a quiet one. She does not chase anything away. She does not need to. She simply stays, lion-strong and steady, at the threshold between the desert and the sacred ground beyond, and nothing unwelcome cares to pass while she is watching.

Some say that in the old stories, there were smaller sphinxes too, cubs who had not yet grown into their full watch. They would curl up near the big stone paws, listening to the wind, learning how to keep still and how to keep looking. A cub sphinx has lion legs for pouncing and human eyes for wondering, and both are useful for a guardian to have.

At night, when the desert cools and the stars come out, the Sphinx watches the moon rise instead of the sun. A thin crescent moon, curled like a claw, hangs above the pyramids, and the Sphinx watches that too, because a guardian keeps watch on everything that matters, not only the biggest things.

People have travelled from every corner of the world to see her lying there in the sand. She does not mind the visitors. She has all the time in the world, and she has never been in a hurry. She simply stays where she was put, lion and ruler both, keeping her old promise, while the desert stretches out golden and quiet all around her, and the moon climbs slowly over the top of the highest pyramid.

Aunt Bramble keeps the Society's stories for its smallest members. She has never been anywhere in a hurry, owns a very old coat with very deep pockets, and holds that a story does not have to be tidy to be true.