The scarecrow
When the scarecrow first noticed its own existence, it was standing at the edge of a well maintained garden in a clearing surrounded by trees.
A tall figure was looking into the scarecrow's shirt-button eyes with a pleased look.
"There, that should do it. Not my greatest work, mind you, but at my age, still not the worst." [Tall Figure]
And then the years went by, with the scarecrow on some days watching the tall figure tend to the garden.
But most of its days were spent watching the weather, and serving as a resting place for small birds and squirrels - sort of not holding up the name of "scarecrow". Even crows would sometimes come visit, cheekily using one of the broom-handle arms as a perch.
The decades went by - some winters were pleasant, some very harsh.
And then, the centuries passed - the tall figure would sometimes be absent for years, returning as if it had just gone for a quick shopping trip down at the multi-mart...
The scarecrow luckily never got bored - it just stood hatless on its two wooden stick legs, its broom handle arms straight out to both sides with floppy cloth garden-gloves at each end, observing the sun go down behind the endless cliff in the west,.
All the while being mysteriously unaffected by the passing of time itself.
One early autumn day, the tall figure once again stood in front of the scarecrow.
"Well, old fellow, you've done a fine job, I'll give you that. It is time for me to move on, but you will have to stay here. But don't worry, someone new will soon come and live here again. Serve them as well as you did me, you hear?" [Tall Figure]
With that, the tall figure patted the scarecrow on the head, and waving goodbye, left the clearing and the log cabin.
A new tiny master
After the tall figure left, the once proud garden grew wild for a few years - all to the delight of the forest animals.
A few years later an extremely harsh winter lasting over a month longer than usual reduced the once lush garden to just weeds.
The scarecrow, the clearing, and the log cabin with all the windows tightly shuttered stayed the same, as if time forgot about them.
Neither the trees nor the forest plants encroached past some invisible barrier.
The scarecrow did not bother to count the years and decades that went by, but something did nag it a bit - was that a tiny spark of boredom, maybe?
It was the middle of summer when the scarecrow heard the first voice in decades.
In front - and far below it - the scarecrow observed a tiny figure not even half its own height wearing a mouse gray soft cloak with a hood.
The hood had cat ears on it...
"Oh, what's this? Some sort of statue? No... I know, you are a scarecrow, aren't you? I like the looks of you. Solid. Sorry, but I don't know your name..." [Tiny hooded figure]
The scarecrow could not answer - and it had no name to give, anyway.
"Aha! This me, the greatness who I am, will give you a most wonderful name! I shall call you.... Old StrawBrains MacGrinFace! That is PERFECT for a scarecrow! I don't know how I come up with these things! Well, I better check out that cabin I inherited..." [Tiny hooded figure]
A purpose
Every morning without fail the tiny figure would stand slightly akimbo in front of the ancient scarecrow pumping a tiny fist into the air - the other tiny fist rested on a hip.
"Good morning Old StrawBrains! Let's do our best today, too! Fight on!" [Tiny hooded figure]
And then, after giving Old StrawBrains MacGrinFace a small bow, the mouse gray cloaked figure - with cat ears on its hood - would go on to work around the garden.
Seeds and seedlings were planted, the trellises were rebuilt, and slowly the garden was being resurrected to its former glory from oh so many, many decades ago.
Over the weeks various forest animals found their way back to the clearing, lured by the now flowering herbs and vegetables.
The tiny hooded figure welcomed them with a gentle smile as if they were all old friends, healing the ones who were damaged or sick.
The summer transitioned to autumn - Old StrawBrains MacGrinFace watched with a smidgen of interest - and maybe even a dollop of curiosity - as the tiny hooded figure started harvesting various vegetables.
Instead of a basket, the tiny figure simply picked a bean here, a pea-pod there, a hot pepper yonder, and with a flick of its slim wrist - the item vanished!
This reminded Old StrawBrains of the tall figure from the past - it too, never used a basket, with produce simply vanishing after harvest.
When the tiny hooded figure was done pottering around the garden, it moved towards Old StrawBrains and looked up.
"Hey Old StrawBrains MacGrinFace! Hope you are doing well! We've got a great harvest and I bet it's all thanks to you! Please keep protecting our little heaven here, OK?" [Tiny hooded figure]
With a small wave up at Old StrawBrains, the tiny hooded figure entered the log cabin.
A weird energy bubbled up in Old StrawBrains, and the tiny figure's words bounced around inside, slowly gaining momentum.
Keep...
Keep... protecting...
Keep... protecting... our heaven...
Keep protecting our heaven!
KEEP!!! PROTECTING!!! OUR!!! HEAVEN!!!
Thin green lightning sparked around Old StrawBrains's shirt-button eyes.
For the first time since it had been created, the ancient scarecrow - NO! It was now Old StrawBrains MacGrinFace! - felt a sense of purpose.
Old StrawBrains KNEW what it HAD TO DO!
It would keep on protecting the tiny figure's little heaven - this clearing, the tidy and plentiful garden, and all the forest folk who had befriended and often visited the little figure!
Keep protecting the little figure's heaven!
The scarecrow's new resolve would soon find itself tested...
Winter was finally here again - the leaves of the non-evergreen trees had turned red and had now mostly fallen.
The tiny hooded figure still came out to greet Old StrawBrains MacGrinFace without fail every morning, but there was no longer much to do in the garden - not until spring, anyway.
Tonight was a particularly dark new moon - clouds heavy with the promise of snow even blocked the stars.
Old StrawBrains MacGrinFace was minding its own business as it did most nights when it felt a very disturbing aura behind it from the east.
Slowly Old StrawBrains turned its head alike to an owl all the way around - Old StrawBrains's head was just mounted on a stick, but this was the first time it ever tried turning it, so it did it carefully.
A large dirty-rust colored... mass... stood (?) just inside the forest.
Discolored silver sparks randomly flashed inside the mass at about the same frequency as a resting heart-beat.
The mass seemed to be scanning the clearing - it was roughly humanoid and about a bit taller than the old scarecrow.
The lump on top that could be considered its head had two dark indentations where one would expect eyes.
Two blobby arms hang listlessly down on each side.
Instead of legs, the lower part was just a big blob.
The plants and trees close to the mass were visibly withering - their very life-force being sucked out of them towards the mass.
Old StrawBrains MacGrinFace was sure of one thing - this was an abomination against nature that should NOT exist.
And Old StrawBrains would NOT let this disgusting mass enter the clearing and suck the life out of the garden plants in their winter sleep.
And the scarecrow could certainly NOT allow this abomination to disturb the tiny hooded figure.
As unknown emotions awoke in the scarecrow's body, green lightning spilled out from its shirt-button eyes, spreading down and encasing its head, torso, arms, and legs.
The green lightning took on the see-thru shape of noble knight's full steel armor, complete with helmet!
Pulling one stick leg at a time out of the ground, the now green-lighting armored Old StrawBrains MacGrinFace took its first steps.
Turning to face the dirty-rust abomination, Old StrawBrains started to rotate its broom handle arms - it had no elbows, so the effect was similar to two windmills.
One cautious step after another step quickly escalated to a full run as Old StrawBrains rushed at the seething mass attempting to invade the clearing.
The rusty abomination raised its own blob arms high up and struck at the fast approaching scarecrow - but this defense was in vain when faced with the righteous green-lighting powered fury of Old StrawBrains MacGrinFace!
Old StrawBrains's broom-handle arms smashed into the disgusting mass over and over and over again - with each hit the mass shrunk a bit.
Soon, the once towering dirty-rust colored abomination was the size of a coconut.
It obviously had no sense of preservation, as it was still attempting to land a hit on Old StrawBrains MacGrinFace.
The scarecrow looked down at its work.
Let's finish this!
Old StrawBrains swung back its green lighting encased stick leg and kicked the left-over abomination.
Instead of the dirty-rust colored mass being kicked into the forest as one would expect, it simply vanished in a puff of gray-silver smoke, completely annihilated.
A slight breeze blew the last remnants of the abomination away...
The now quiet and no longer green-lightning armored scarecrow reached out one of its arms - a faint green light glowed at the very end around the ancient floppy garden-glove that served as Old StrawBrains's hand.
The light expanded in an ever increasing sphere.
Ripples in the green light showed the sphere was expanding, growing larger and larger - the edge of the sphere on the ground was quickly no longer visible from the clearing.
For a brief moment a small green circle appeared on the clouds above - the circle grew quickly until its edge, too, was no longer visible on the now completely green colored clouds.
As the pale green light passed through them, the poor trees and plants that had been withering by the abomination regained their life and health.
Just as quickly as it had appeared, the faint green sphere collapsed and the night was dark once again.
Old StrawBrains returned to the exact spot it had occupied for centuries, carefully making sure its stick legs slotted back into the two holes in the ground, and also making sure it ended up facing east.
Would be silly if the tiny mouse gray cloaked figure with cute cat ears on its hood would not be able to say good-morning the same way as always.
After the epic battle, the winter sun rose over the top of the scarecrow's head from behind, as it had done for centuries.
A new friend?
Spring had arrived with a vengeance this year - green leaves exploded from all the forest plants and trees, and some fruits had already started to appear, eager to be picked by the animals and birds that would scatter their seeds.
One late spring day a tiny bird appeared from the west - the direction of the endless cliff - wobbling in an unsteady landing approach towards the scarecrow's head.
Old StrawBrains carefully moved its head a bit to the side, right under the tiny bird, thus allowing for a safe landing.
Hm, this tiny bird seems... strange.
After a bit, the tiny hooded figure came out of the log-cabin - it had already given its traditional greeting to Old StrawBrains MacGrinFace that morning.
After harvesting a few herbs, for the second time this day the tiny figure approached the scarecrow.
This time it looked up at the tiny bird on Old StrawBrains's head...
And the rest, as we say, is history.
Old StrawBrains MacGrinFace! Truly a powerful guardian of ultimate honor! Also cookie one for author
and one for Old StrawBrains MacGrinFace 
Thanks for the chapter. And many thanks to strawbrains macgrinface for protecting that Haven.
Thank you for the chapter
Thx for the chap
Well, I was thinking than maybe the MC body after death was eaten by random mob and it was the reason for the grey guys poping up but it seem like they was there before the MC first hatching
PS: I know he was weird but I didn't think he was 'alive'. Wonder why MC or loli didn't appraised it lol
Correct assumption
The abomination is indeed unrelated to the Phoenix.
And maybe not an actual spoiler, but Old StrawBrains MacGrinFace did completely utterly annihilate _this_ abomination. As all good RPG games have taught us - monsters never are alone....
PS:
Again, not REALLY a spoiler, just something that was not shown in the story at this time yet. The tiny hermit most certainly appraised the ancient scarecrow. She even called it "solid" - that wasn't just a comment on Old StrawBrains's look.
And the appraisal level of the Phoenix is still NULL - if it had bothered to appraise Old StrawBrains, all that would have shown up would have been "Something to perch on. Which you are doing now." because the appraisal engine that is serving the Phoenix is snarky, as we shall see more of in the future very very soon -> next chapter, even!