Once, not too long ago, there was a hunter, he was a skilled man but he had always longed for something more. Often he would watch the birds of prey as they hunted pheasants and other such creatures, he dreamed that he too could soar through the skies. Yet he was a mortal man, and destined never to spread wing or feather to traverse the heavens.
One day, while on the hunt, he found a white stag trapped in a snare. It watched him warily with its large coral eyes, then spoke.
"If you will release me." It said, "I will make you the greatest hunter mankind has ever known, for surely that is your wish."
"No" the hunter replied, "That is not my wish, I would rather be a falcon, freely hunting the skies then any mortal hunter, no matter how great."
"You have only to release me and your wish shall come true." replied the deer.
The hunter set the white stag free, who truly did keep its promise, though with a condition. For every year when the Hawthorn was in bloom, he was to return to that same place and shed his blood and his life upon that very snare.
Two years he complied but on the third he thought, 'Why should I fear the words of a deer, what can a stag do to me, a creature of the air? I will not return for such a petty thing, not this year, nor the next.'
As soon as he thought these things a human hunter fired upon him, shot him through the heart as both were hunting the wild pheasants, ending the life of that red winged bird of prey.