Never still for long, Hot Foot delights in leading wanderers a few steps off the expected path.

He is found in the margins, where routes leave the road. Where flint remembers the day's warmth long after the sun has gone. Where children run across sand, too hot beneath their heels, for just one step too many. Where fields, cracked dry, swallow soles.

This particular Snap was uncovered by Peddars Way, where the Merton Stone sits in an old marl pit, deposited in the ice age and forgotten by everything except the land itself. The dragon who cannot bear to stand still chose to guard the stone that has refused to move for thousands of years, lest the world should flood.

The oldest keepers insist his name is both a caution and a promise.

After all, every worthwhile journey begins with hotfooting it out there.