The guardians of Silent Harbor were created to protect the little town from the monsters of Beyond, standing guard day and night to keep the city safe. When the city sunk deep into the water it was built to float on, the guardians still stayed to protect the ruins from whatever may come. Many guardians became rusted and overgrown to the point of shutting down, their husks forever standing sentry scattered around the sunken town; a few of them, however, adapted to living under the water instead of on top of it, absorbing algae and coral onto their metallic skin in ways that helped instead of harmed, as it had done to others past. Even though the people they protected are gone, they still guard what little is left of the city with their artificial lives.

This is for the Dark Depths contest, and I might use the guardians - and their story - in a D&D campaign I'm writing (it's called Frostbourne, by the way).