“So, Ernunnos, this is a pretty sweet meadow, but what’s up with this Holy Protector business?”

The mighty, but diminutive, stag then reared magnificently onto his hind legs, and bellowed a neigh with enough ferocity to shake the leaves of a distant willow.

“What I protect is not the business of you. Yet, I will share with you why I protect it. I have been chosen, by elders, so ancient their horns have returned to the dust, I have been honored, and I have been cursed.

“Yet your presence today is ominous. A chill wind blew this morning over the shores of the Stan, the sunrise was stained crimson red. I saw today a heron eating a snake, which was in turn eaten by a silver coyote. These are signs, and he is wise who heeds them.”

Dan, easily distracted was munching on gummy worms and had begun wandering around the meadow, quickly realizing that he’d lost track of how to return to the Stan.

“It is uncommon for your kind to appear in this meadow. While I know not what it means, there is something afoot.”