Next time she had turned her eyes at his direction, he was gone. The only trace of him was something hanging in a branch on the tree where he had been standing. She had walked across the field to find a small red dyed leather pouch filled with sweet hazelnuts. It was rare for elves to make anything from animals, as they seldom hunted, so the leather pouch made her feel uncomfortable. Who was he?
  Rina had gone to the eldest of the village in the evening to find out if anybody knew who she had seen. She had described him as detailed as possible and shown them the pouch with the nuts. They had laughed and tasted the nuts, and even Rina had tried a nut. These hazelnuts were the sweetest Rina had eaten. Later she had given the nuts to the children.
  According to the eldest of the village the man was no one they needed to fear, but a friend far away in the forest. They didn’t know his name and doubted he was elven. Rather they called him a protector of the forest. A divine being. They said he had come to see if the children were doing fine, that he only came by if there were children in the village and left gifts for them.
  It was for their sake that Rina now was looking for this man. For the deity who protected children.

Late on the third day of her wandering Rina found a hut in the forest. It seemed built with logs and had a roof covered with grass. Out of the chimney came smoke, so somebody had to be home. To find an inhabited hut in the forest didn’t belong to the usual, and even if there were other folks on Esera than Elven folk, Rina wasn’t afraid.
  In hopes to find shelter for the night, she walked closer to the hut. When she went around the small building she could see him. He was standing a bit further way with his back turned her way, with the hood of the brown cloak over his head as protection against the rain, walking stick in hand. Rina didn’t have to see his face, but just knew that it was him. The man, the deity, or whatever he was, had his attention on a white deer which he was feeding with something. It was in that moment that she became certain that he was a deity, and she had done the right thing to come here.
  The white deer turned its eyes to her, stiffened in its movements and listened with its ears pointed towards her. She only stood still and looked back on it with veneration. Rina had never seen one of the white deer before, but she had heard stories about them. It was illegal to hunt them as it was believed that they were reincarnations of the royal family. They were holy deer that, just like the king, were associated with gods.