Barrow Fields You don't have to worry

This was a pretty cool twist in Maia's opinion, so she paused a second to nod to Cadeau's question.  A stranger, she confirmed, called imbalance.  Haha, now see there!!  It wasn't a person after all!

The forest was always in balance, but soon it became clear that something was upsetting it.  The first sign was the trees.  The dragon had a favorite grove to lie in and enjoy the shade, but one week he came and half the trees were stumps.  She shook her head.  He was, like, super upset.  So he followed the trail to where it came from.  When it ended, he found a huge family of beavers working on this totally massive dam. The dragon asked why they had taken so many trees, and they said it was because there were so many new beavers, they had to expand their dams a ton to fit everyone.  The dragon couldn't really ask them to like, not build homes.  So he offered them his spines instead, which wouldn't break down like trees eventually did and were almost as massively big as trees.

For a while, things went back to normal.  But then, eventually, the trees started dying.  What could be causing it now, the dragon wondered! It couldn't be the beavers again, their homes were built.  So he waited and watched one of the groves.  This time,  eventually, a massive herd of deer appeared.

They were eating all the bark, and the trees were left completely open to bugs and stuff that would kill them.  The dragon couldn't believe there were so many deer as well now in the forest!  So he asked why they hadn't left.  The lead deer said they would, but the world was too dangerous for a poor deer to travel so far without cover.  The dragon considered that a minute, then asked if he gave them a way to defend themselves, they would leave.  They agreed, so he gifted them his horns, his teeth, and his claws.  Now the leader and many of his followers had sharp antlers to use against anything that wanted to hurt them.  It was weird to think of teeth and claws becoming antlers, but with magic anything was possible.

Now was the last part.  Without teeth or spines or claws or horns, the dragon couldn't do much to protect his forest.  All he had was his size.  So before too long, a whole bunch of birds began coming and nesting in the trees.  The flowers started dying, and the dragon couldn't figure out why, until he found a whole nest of bees hiding in his cave.  He asked them what was wrong, and they said with all the new birds, they were either  getting eaten or having to sting them, so a bunch of bees were gone now.

The dragon was ashamed, because he knew it was his job to keep the forest safe.  He was so proud of his scales and their bright golden color, but he knew what he could do to help the bees warn the birds to stay away.  He gifted the bees his scales, and they grew bright golden stripes that would tell anyone who wanted to eat them about their dangerous stingers.

Maia sighed, then continued a little sadly.  The dragon had protected the forest again, but now he had nothing left.  He was super depressed and figured that everything was over now.  He disappeared in his cave in a puff of mist, and no one in the forest saw him for a long time.

Now she began to smile, because the ending was the best part of this story and she loved telling it so much.  Fortunatey for him, the forest god had been watching the whole entire time, and he couldn't believe how much the dragon loved the forest.  So he decided to give him a reward, and showed up in his cave. He was a giant wolf with silvery-green fur and glowing yellow eyes, and he greeted the dragon with a soft voice, almost like leaves rustling.  He told him 'thank you for watching my children for me, but the work is not done.  For everything you've given, I have a gift - I will give you the ability to always watch the forest and to preserve balance.'  The dragon was amazed, and he felt himself changing.  He shrank down, but he grew sharp fangs and claws again, and a beautiful coat of golden fur.  He was no longer a dragon - he was a wolf, just like the god.

And ever since then, wolves have hunted, keeping the balance in the forests and protecting them!  Never taking more than they should, and always the weak.  She finished with a flourish, then laughed.  It's an awesome story, right?  Cool to think we come from something like dragons.  She had no idea how much Cadeau had or hadn't liked the story, but while that mattered some, what mattered more was how amazing it was to share Osprey's stories.