"En Media Res" means "in the middle of things". Tomorrow things should be more clear.
The man in panel four is Kei-Shen's dad, Huang-Shi Song. He's a morning person I might work on profiles later this week for Mallory, Huang-Shi, and the elephant (who may get a name later).
Oh, and for the record, Disney has four classic animated movies with elephants (excluding sequels and television shows and the 21st century): Dumbo, Winnie the Pooh, Robin Hood, and The Jungle Book[i]. But only two of them have elephant nightmare sequences (what the dad was referring to, [i]Winnie the Pooh and Dumbo). Just adding some context.