"Indeed, and under such circumstances as well. Tell me, how did you come to be here?" Here I smiled nervously, and replied, "I am a traveler from a distant land, and came here by the advice of a friend." At this somewhat false answer, more in character than in content, Wagner looked at me wonderingly, as if detecting my falsehood, but did not follow his look with any probing questions, to my great relief. In order to steer the conversation away from this point, I added quickly, "I am not at all disappointed, either, for the landscape is beautiful and the trees and foliage are wondrously large, but I was surprised to find that, from the prairie to the lake, I saw no one living among these quaint locations." Wagner looked at me closely, with a hint of almost reverencing respect and said, "You were very fortunate in your travels, I assure you, for had you arrived at any other time, you would have fallen into fouler hands than ours by far." "I do not understand what you mean," I said. "Of course not, I am forgetting your new arrival has left you unacquainted with affairs that I am faced with everyday. Let me explain: we, that is, the Canitaurs, have been in open hostilities with the other group of people on this island, the Zards, for as long as we can remember. They have great military superiority in this section of Daem, and when we come here we are forced to live in hiding, in outposts such as this one." "Why not just make peace?" I asked. "Because it is our ideologies that conflict, neither group of us will yield, and the solution can only be decided by force, military force. It is fortunate that you have come among us first, for they would have mistreated you." "So you have said, though I do not see why I was not captured by them on my journey through the plains, if they are as powerful in this quarter as you say," I replied. "As I said, the timing of your arrival was very fortunate," he said, "At any other time you would have surely been caught, and then your fate would have been uncertain, but yesterday was the Zard's new year, the Kootch Patah, on which they spend all night in celebrations and revelries. Because of this, they were all soundly asleep on your trip through the prairie, very possibly laying at your feet, covered by the tall grasses." So my fears were not as unfounded as I had thought, was my predestined deja vu, then, real as well? Only time would tell. "I am indeed lucky then, as you have said, not only in the Zard's unattentiveness, but also in finding of your secreted habitation, as well as your friendly welcoming of me," I said. "I must confess," he chuckled, "It is not merely from a one-sided hospitality that you are welcomed." "Indeed?" I said. "Indeed," he answered, "For your appearance and the circumstances of your arrival are almost uncannily the realizations of one of our most ancient prophesies, one which we have longed to have fulfilled." "Is that so?" I rhetorically asked.