“Welcome to Stanguard,” boomed the rickydan buck.

“Uh, hi,” we replied, pretty much completely stupefied. The buck approached, and we quickly realized that while a very beautiful animal, and talking nonetheless, the buck appeared much smaller at close quarters. Heck of a voice though.

“Welcome,” the rickydan boomed for the third time. “Only ye of pure heart gain entry to this meadow.” At which point I was utterly bewildered, flashing back to some misadventures involving a previous girlfirend. Dan stole a glance at me and I kicked him on the back of the leg. After a minute or two of raucous laughter we regained composure. Dan raised his hand expectantly.

The rickydan, dignified and potent, shook his head with a winnie, “I’m just kidding of course, but it sure sounds cool. We’d seen you guys catching crawdads and you seemed like a decent sort. Besides, we were hoping you’d have some gummies to spare.”

“Dude,” I said, stuffing the last apple-flavor-colored worm into my mouth, “we’re all out.”