Silent Protector
As you hid under covers as a child, the creature, be it doll, animal, or something else, lay with you, comforting you from unseen monsters lurking in closets, shadows and beneath you.
Prehaps it was a playmate, an audience member or a daring character in stories made in the summer sun, coming to life with the sparks of a young imagination, a close friend, prehaps the closest.
You could tell it/them/her/him anything, and looking at the object clutched in your grasp, feel safe. You could joke, cry, simply babble, and there it was to patiently listen.
Even if there were a hundred different toys in your space or room, this one was the best, somehow, with holes, often repaired, with stains, left after many scrubbings, with the panicked search when it was misplaced, left behind, or forgotton, the wave of pure relief and happiness when it was found again.
As a child, growing up, the protector and friend was set aside for new adventures, but never quite forgotten.
Prehaps it is still picked up and clutched tightly during darkest nights, protecting from all the things that grow with age, lurking not only behind doors and underneath beds, but within the depths of the mind.
But no matter what, the silent protector, be it bear, sheep, doll, bird, or anything else, still holds a silent watch over our happiest memories and vulnerable times, now hidden in the fabrics of time forevermore.