The process of extracting energy for the egg from the mystical beings known as Guardians was called awakening, the Goose explained to Robert. Since the oracle's visit Robert had been peppering the Goose with questions about what to expect from the pilgrimage. The Goose told Robert about the function that the guardians had served in the past which was to assist human civilizations with their growth by providing them with insights into important tools for their development like agriculture and water management. Over time, as people learned to create increasingly sustainable civilizations, the guardians were needed less and less and eventually they reverted to their primal forms, from which they would now be awakened. This wasn't going to be a straightforward process, in exchange for helping humanity to build up their civilizations promises were made, namely that the planet would be looked after. This promise had not been kept, and when a promise that was made to the guardians was broken the guardians reacted with fury. In Egypt, when the Pharaohs became consumed with building monuments to themselves, the guardians became angered and they exacted punishment. The Leviathan, the guardian of water that had always made sure the Nile overflowed and produced a bountiful crop, left the Nile river, shortly after which Egypt suffered a drought that persisted for years and brought an end to their empire. Robert was warned by the Goose when they were on their way to Iowa to be prepared for the possibility that the goat would fly into a rage when it's consciousness returned and it became cognizant of what had been done to the planet during the time that it had been in its primal form. The two guardians that would feel humanity's betrayal of the planet the most keenly were the goat, the guardian of the green, and the Leviathan, the guardian of water, which, the Goose was convinced, was responsible for the massive storms that had been raging almost non-stop in the Pacific for over two years. The Leviathan was going to be the most dangerous of the guardians to awaken and would be left for last.

The goat, the Goose assured Robert, was one of the more levelheaded guardians and thus a good choice for the first awakening. Still, Robert was afraid of what was going to happen when they came into contact with the Goose, and he was afraid of what was going to happen when they came into contact with the Green Corps, armed militia that had taken up residence within the forest to protect it from anybody that would harm it. There were people that had ventured into the forest that had never been seen again with the prevailing theory about their disappearance being that they had been killed by members of the Green Corps and their bodies disposed of in the forest. Despite these stories, the forest continued to attract tourists, because there was no explanation for its existence other than that it was a miracle. The forest had grown out of earth that had turned to dust after it had been abandoned by farmers who saw the market for their corn and soybeans collapse when a virus that killed millions of head of cattle all over the world was traced back to US animal feed. Decades of high intensity industrial farming had stripped the soil of its nutrients so that when farmers stopped cultivating crops on the land it became barren, creating another dust bowl. For months not so much as a weed would grow on the land, then something strange started happening. Trees started growing on the land, trees that reached full maturity in just a few months. The trees proliferated as rapidly as they grew and after three years the dust bowl was transformed into the largest forest in the world. The growth of the forest attracted many who were desperate to know its secrets.

The first person to see the goat was a young woman who had traveled to the forest as part of a group of Greenpeace activists who were determined to discover the source of the growth so they could protect it. She was exploring a part of the forest close to the tree that was at the centre of the forest: a giant oak that was five times the size of a normal oak tree, when she saw a goat with bright blue eyes, golden horns and six tails. She told the others about what she saw and over the following weeks some of the other members of her group also caught glimpses of the goat. Those that saw it all agreed that what they had seen was a divine being and that the survival of the forest depended on it being protected. They contacted other activists and asked them to come to the forest and help them protect the goat. It didn't take long for them to take on a militant disposition, arming themselves and conducting organized patrols with dogs.

Robert believed that being with the Goose would guarantee his safety, that once the Green Corps saw that the Goose, like the goat, was no ordinary animal, they would leave them to do what they came to do. He was thinking about this when the Goose told him that they needed to stop somewhere first before they went on to Iowa.

"Where are we stopping?" Robert asked.

" In Pennsylvania."

"For what?"

"An election rally."

"Whose election rally?"

"Jim Balmer."

"The nutcase who rants and raves about how the livestock plague is a sign of the approaching apocalypse?"

"That's the one."

"But he's a whack job."

"He's also polling really strongly, a lot of Americans blame the collapse of their corn and soybean markets on divine wrath, plus I'm certain that he is in some way connected to the Raven, there's no way someone can go from being a local councilman to a presidential frontrunner in the space of three years without serious help, the kind of help I've seen others receive from the Raven."