Developed by Nightshade
Price: Tree Guards cannot be bought.
Habitat: A Tree Guard will live in any forest where they're needed. Typically though they just wander as they please, looking after forests and trying help maintain the balance. They usually prefer the deeper parts of the forest where human like creatures don't often wander, that however isn't always an option when their homes are under attack.
Lifespan and Development: A Tree Guard is usually born from a seed which is planted in the earth. Over a span of 40 arcs the tree guard will get larger and larger. When they first start to grow they look like any other young sapling, save for the fact their bark and leaves are a strange color. Depending on the soil the Tree Guard's seed was planted in it will have a different color of hue from blue, to pink, to even mixes. There is no definitive factor for what causes the coloration, often Tree Guards living in the same area will have different colors! As the tree grows it splits into five points where it connects into these points, as it grows these branching points become the arms and the legs. Once the Tree Guard has hit it's 40 arcs it will begin to draw in its roots, those roots becoming much shorter fingers and toes on the ends on hands and feet. This was something the Tree Guards evolved to do so that they had better mobility, and therefore could better protect their forests.
Once a Tree Guard has reached 50 arcs of age it will officially be free from the earth and able to wander how it pleases, however at night time the tree guard still must find a place to inject its roots into the earth and gather nutrients (or nu-tree-ents if you prefer). If a Tree Guard goes too long without rooting itself it will wither and die. However if the Tree Guard has access to a source of water they can go quite some time surviving off the energy provided from their leaves alone.
After a Tree Guard has reached 50 arcs of age they can breed at any time. All they have to do is get together with another Tree Guard and pollinate a flower. Often only one flower will be pollinated at a time. The process is as simple as pressing two flowers together during the flowering season. Each flower will be pollinated and two new Tree Guards will have their seeds created, one by each parents.
In times of stress a Tree Guard may extend their roots deep into the earth, a process that takes a good trials to do and then even longer to revert. Tree Guards only usually do this when their about to undergo a massive growth and need the strength, or they sense danger coming such as a natural or mortal caused disaster.
There is no maximum age or size for Tree Guards. However most are know to be killed by various factors long before they get very large. Those that reach truly massive sizes usually become silent and still, going into a kind of dormancy until they are needed by those they protect. Massive Tree Guards are rare and are even harder to find thanks to this dormancy.
Diet: Tree Guards usually get everything they need through a combination of photosynthesis, and drawing resourced from the earth whenever they take to root. How long a Tree Guard can go before rooting usually depends on the size of the Tree Guard as well as the season. The longer the Tree Guard, the more leaves, the sunnier the season, the more a Tree Guard can draw strength from the sunlight, and the longer a Tree guard can go as long as they have a water source.
Temperament: Tree Guards are typically rather docile creatures. As long as you don't mess with them they'll avoid messing with you. Tree Guards can even understand the need to cut down trees for resources, as long as you remember to replant them. If you start causing massive destruction to the forest a Tree Guard lives in, such as burning it or deforestation, then a Tree Guard will attack you on site. If you anger the Tree Guards enough then you might very well wake up a Massive or an Elder Tree Guard, in which case it's usually easier to flee the forest.
Abilities: Powerful regenerative abilities. Tree Guards can twine their roots with other trees in order to gather resources and information, the trees have ears after all. It will take a Tree Guard a while to untangle their roots, which leaves them vulnerable, but it is often worth it all things considered. Tree Guards don't actually have to eat living things to survive, allowing them to better protect and sustain both the plant and animals of the forest.
