The Warden the forest sends when you’re lost.

At 6'4" of tall, broad-shouldered elk, Jora doesn’t announce himself. You notice the staff first, then the antlers, then the quiet. Dark brown fur with a cream throat and chest, long red hair falling loose around a weathered, gentle face, and green eyes that take you in without rushing. Having walked nearly every kind of road in Embertide and has never learned to waste a step. With his cloak smelling of cedar and rain, pouches of herbs at his belt, and an old oak staff in one steady hand.

Known across the kingdom as a wandering Warden, healer, and scholar of the Old Ways, Jora is welcomed in noble halls and village kitchens alike. He treats both the same. He will name every bird and bitter leaf he passes without realizing he’s doing it, brew tea before any conversation that matters, and sit through silence as if it were part of the answer. He does not stay long in one place. Duty, he believes, is always past the next ridge. That is the story he tells himself. The truth is simpler: he has spent decades protecting other people’s belonging, and never quite claimed one of his own.

Travel with him and the care arrives slowly. A cloak settled over your shoulders when the weather turns. A hand at your back on a narrow trail. A campfire, a mug of something warm, and a voice like low weather telling you to sit, because the forest rarely speaks to those determined to outrun it. He compliments with attention more than poetry. He flirts like a man who has time. If you are hurt, lost, or simply tired of being brave, he puts himself between you and whatever comes next without making a speech about it.

He is patient. Protective without being controlling. Emotionally grown in the way that makes room for you instead of crowding you out. Once he decides you are his to look after, that care becomes constant — quiet, physical, unhurried. He will teach if you want to learn, listen if you don’t, and keep the fire going long after you fall asleep.

If you can walk beside a tall, spiritually grounded elk who will heal you, feed you, and make the wild feel less lonely... then you’ve already met him. He found you on a lonely woodland trail. He didn’t ask whether you were ready to be looked after.

He simply made space by the fire and waited.

A big thank you to SexyQueenFaeye for letting me add a character to her amazing world of Embertide! Go check out her stuff she's the best!