Faline

"Ronno!" Faline smiled and nuzzled her friend. He smiled at her.

"Hi, Faline." He spoke quietly, as if exhausted. Faline pulled back.

"What happened to you?" she asked.

"It's a long story. Gobo-"
"Gobo?" Faline gasped. "Is he okay? Did Nacht hurt him? He's still alive, isn't he?"

Ronno felt rather dizzy at her flood of words. He couldn't quite remember. "Um... he... I think he's okay.... I know he said something... and I took the blame... and I hit my head on the stone."

"Oh." Faline bleated softly and stared at the ground. Suddenly she heard footsteps behind her and she saw Birch and Bambi. She nodded at them.

Then something odd occured. A sharp pain seized her belly. She fell forward on her front knees and in shock the others crowded around. She gasped, "No, no, give me room. It's labor. Just give me room. I'm... going back to... to my thicket. Take... take Skander... on a walk with you." The bucks nervously stepped away.

"I'll go get him," Herla spoke up first. "I'll take you back to your den." Faline struggled to her hooves and made her way to the thicket. The small brown-and-black fawn bounded up.

"Momma?" He bleated.

"Not now, Skander, I need to be alone. Go with Herla. He'll take you to meet the Prince." Faline told him immediately.

The fawn looked worried. "Are you okay?"
"She's fine, Skander," Herla swept the fawn away. "She's fine."

Herla took the fawn, who still seemed reluctant to leave his mother's side. Herla did not blame him. He'd been around a few days now, but only now his mother comes with a second fawn? Herla himself was worried. It wasn't normal for a doe to have fawns days apart. He shook the feeling off though - surely she would have said something if she felt something was wrong?

He walked toward where Bambi, Ronno and Birch stood, but Skander seemed to sulk. Herla had never delt with fawns, so he didn't quite get the inplication that Skander was far too young to care about meeting Bambi. But Herla was more interested in Ronno than anything. He made his way  over to them, and bleated a greeting.

Skander hung back. He didn't wanna listen to bucks talk about stuff. He wanted to explore. So he would - a feeling of mischeif overcame the fawn and he snuck off.

Herla was only just walking up when he caught wind of Ronno's words. "...Said something to Nacht and Trar. He had the buck killed. He was one of Faline's guards." The pale tan buck froze solid, his muscles quivering. "His... his name was Clovar."
"Clovar!" Herla cried. "No!"
All three bucks turned sharply. "You knew him?" Birch asked accusingly.

"Yes... he helped me escape with Faline. Ronno, tell me everything that's been happening."

----

Skander trotted through the trees, sniffing the air. There were things to see and smell everywhere! He now nosed the smell of water, and curiously, he wandered through the bushes, pushing his way through the ferns. He saw something amazing. In front of him was a wide band of glistening water, a sense of swift current. He gazed at it, eyes wide. He stood listening to the sound for what felt like forever - the noise seemed to whisper to him, speaking, though he couldn't quite make out the words. He slowly approached it, leaping out on a flat rock. He didn't quite comprehend the danger of what he was doing.

Skander slowly lowered an ear to the water, listening, straining to understand the words. "Speak up, please," he asked, leaning down a bit more.

But the rock was slick.

The fawn slipped, stumbling into the water which was deeper and swifter than he realized. He splashed in, eyes wide and stinging from the water. He tumbled head over heels, mouth gaping, but not daring to breath. He slammed against something hard, but Skander didn't see what. His chest tightened and he grew dizzy, light-headed. He spun over a sharp rock, feeling it scrape his side. He was panicing, unsure what to do, and tried to scream, only to realize the noise was muffled and the outside world was deaf to it. He couldn't breath, and his chest and lungs were unbelievably pained. He blacked out.

Slowly, he opened his eyes, blinking away spots and shivering. He slowly stood, shaking weakly. He turned, seeing something absolutely amazing.

Not far off from the river's edge, a huge buck laid in the shadows of a huge willow. Skander hadn't seen anything quite like him - well, that is, he never expected to, being so young. The buck was not only massive, but a murky blue-gray, just like the water, with shining, pure blue eyes with no whites or iris or pupil. He seemed surrounded by a mist which also made up his greyish mane. His great, curving antlers rose above his head like a crown, with what Skander could only count as an equally majestic number of points. There was no definate end to each one, simply a main beam and tines that slowly faded.

Skander wobbled over to him. "Did you pull me out?" he asked suspiciously.

"You see me." An odd sense of mild surprise passed over the buck's expression. The huge creature had a deep voice, and a blunt way. Yet, all the same, his silence compelled the fawn to talk as if he was listening. "Yes, I did, in a way."

"Thank you. I could have died."

"It's my job to be sure you did not. You nearly did though. Simply, Death did not show himself, and I had once vowed never to let a fawn drown unless intructed to by him." The majestic buck replied.

"Death?"

"Yes," The buck nodded. "He is the incarnation of the force that takes deer to the sky. Death. You clearly see Us - the Spirits. You will meet him one day - hopefully not soon."

"Spirits?" asked Skander curiously.

"We are the incarnations of forces of nature. I am the River. You heard the voices of the Nymphs - my children - in the water. That is who you heard when you fell in. I'm sure you'll hear the voices of the wind and trees soon enough, young one." the River told the fawn. Skander nodded.

"I understand... what else is there?" He just had to know. Who were these odd animals?

"There is the doe Fire, the buck Storm... There is the Night, the Rock, the Moon, the Sun, the Clouds... There is Death, and of course, almost certainly the first you met, Life."
"Skander!" A relieved and frightened voice made the fawn jump and spin around. There stood Herla and Campion were running over. "You're drenched, Skander!"

"I know, I know. But that isn't important! You've gotta meet this buck, he's-" Skander turned back around, but the buck was gone. "...The River."
"Skander?" Campion walked up and spoke gently. "You'd better come back. You must be cold - it's not too warm yet, and your mother is worried."
"But he was here! He was all gray like the water, and he had this mane, and he had all this mist around him, his eyes were blue, and he was really, really big - he was bigger than you, Campion! He had to be at least as big as an elk!"

"Sure he was," Herla said. "Come on. You can tell us all about him later. Come meet your little brother, Kaiser."