little doe would grow into a fine hind another one of his guards could have.

Then he came to Faline. He looked her up and down. Ronno was glaring at him with cold green eyes, but Trar knew he would not dare attack, as he had seen the utter fear of which he regarded Trar's top captain, Nacht with. "Nacht, how would you like this one?" he asked, baring his teeth in a twisted kind of smile.

Faline's eyes grew and she backed up. "No!" she gasped and Ronno tried to block her, but three large bucks got in his way, two more herding Faline away. "No!" she bleated again.

"Wait," Nacht's cold, deep and metal-hard voice cut the discord into silence. The bucks looked up, and Ronno's ears rose slightly in hope. Nacht narrowed his eyes, then said at a length, "Yes, I like this one. You may as well wait for me to answer. Eager creatures." Faline was herded off.

Ronno's legs quivered with rage. He wanted so badly to kill Nacht - he had assumed this would happen, that some guard buck would have Faline... but to taunt the poor doe and Ronno himself by acting for even a moment that he was uninterested? Ronno had never seen such a cruel animal. Not even a pack of hounds contended, as they simply did their job and the buck had heard of many a deer who had hounds as friends so long as it was not hunting season - even in season, as now, the canines led the deer onto a hunter's gun and ended them quickly. No such thing from Nacht.

He knew that against this beast, he would not last. The monster's very essence was horrifying in a freezing way - he had one antler, yet was possibly more powerful than Trar. And that antler was sharper than either of Trar's: Nacht had all the time he wanted to spend on it.

Ronno knew that no one was sure what had happened to the other. Some claimed a buck's antlers represented his spirit to fight for his doe and heart. Many believed that the antler that Nacht lacked was the one meant to represent his heart - something they all agreed he lacked. Only one more thing that every deer feared about him - he had no heart, no concience. Some thought the antler failed, and made him bitter. Others still thought he had been born into a deer farm of some kind, and they had attempted to stop his antlers as they did with goats, but one determined antler showed, and he escaped.

It didn't matter though. Nacht was terrifying. Ronno hoped desperately that Faline did not do something stupid. He knew for sure that should she threaten to not carry a fawn, he would find some way to indirectly force her to.

Bambi's Forest

Bambi walked with Salvia as they laughed. "Can you believe it?" Salvia bleated. "Birch was so happy! He must've been awfully proud of his antlers."

"And Campions," Bambi breathed. "Can you believe it? I can't believe they were still in the velvet!"

"Is that unusual?" Salvia tilted her head. "It must sound stupid to you, but I'm a doe. We don't think about antler-mechanics."

"Well, I understand," Bambi assured her. "Every year, a buck's antlers start to grow from spring to fall, right? Then we fight. While they're growing, they're covered in a fuzzy cover called velvet. That's the only time they'll grow. We really shouldn't use our antlers at that time, because it can damage them, and we'll look like old Nightshade." The two laughed. They were talking about an old melanistic buck, probably ten, who had irregular antlers with points on three separate main beams - he had one antler with two main beams - and points that dropped down. "Anyway, when it comes to the rut, we scrape off the velvet when it's ready. Then you get these nice hard points, and we can fight."

"And there are already fights going on," Salvia observed.

"Yep," Bambi nodded. "That's what's so weird. I don't recall ever, ever seeing a buck with velvet this late."

"That's why Campion has such crazy-huge first year antlers, then?" Salvia deduced. "They're still growing. He's gonna have does bowing to him!"

"And I hope you're not one of them," a voice broke in. Birch approached the two.

"Hi, Birch," Bambi said suspiciously. He looked less friendly before.

The buck looked sharply at Bambi. "Move away, Prince," he said quietly. "I'm afraid that I would like to be with Salvia this year."

"What!?" Salvia looked horrified for a moment, then relaxed abruptly. "Oh. Bucks." She rolled her eyes and sat down. "Um, I'm sorry, but I was thinking about skipping my first year, Birch. You too, Bambi," She added.

"That's alright with me," Bambi said, stepping in front of Salvia.

"Not so," Birch growled.

He charged at Bambi.