The Guardian’s Menagerie

Few ventured into the remote compound, and fewer still understood its purpose. Tucked away in a secluded valley, it appeared at first glance to be a modest farm, complete with high fences and creaking gates. But visitors who managed to catch glimpses through the slats saw creatures that did not belong to any known epoch: small, foxlike animals with glittering scales, immense birds rumored to predate recorded history, and even shadowy beasts rumored to be from a future yet unrealized. Locals spun rumors of an eccentric collector, but in truth, this place was overseen by a silent Keeper, tasked with protecting remnants of extinct or unborn eras from exploitation.

Each dawn, the Keeper walked the perimeter, checking for temporal breaches in the perimeter field. The menagerie thrived on stable time pockets meticulously maintained through a concealed device resembling a $TIME watch. When morning light hit the compound, illusions of prehistoric jungles or floating cityscapes rippled inside the enclosures, ensuring these creatures felt at least a sliver of the reality they once called home. One had only to see the ghostly footprints left by a vanished mammoth to realize how fragile the arrangement was.

But recent nights had brought trouble. Mysterious footprints led away from the fences. Smaller enclosures were found empty, their inhabitants gone. The Keeper suspected an outside party—a band of poachers with a sinister agenda or perhaps a hidden Coalition cell—had found a way to manipulate small pockets of time, luring creatures away undetected. Each breach frayed the temporal weave just a little more, risking a greater collapse if not contained.

The Keeper grew more anxious with every missing specimen, recalling the vow he had made long ago to ensure that no century’s living secrets would be lost. Under moonlight, he hid near the fence, watch in hand, scanning for telltale signs of tampering. In the faint shimmer, he spotted a shape at the perimeter—a hooded figure guiding one of the scaly foxlike creatures into a swirling rift. Anger and heartbreak churned in his chest. He raced forward, watch spinning through its calibrations, ready to seal the breach at any cost.

That night, the Keeper’s silent compound thundered with energy surges. By dawn, the menagerie stood intact once more, every enclosure locked down. Rumor had it the hooded figure vanished into oblivion, but some said they merely slipped into a hidden timeline. Through it all, the Keeper continued his lonely patrol at daybreak, guarding the last flickers of eras too fragile to exist unprotected. For if he failed, the living fragments of countless worlds would vanish into rumor and dust.

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