she was traveling in. She also told that she had been send because no one could resist a sweet thing like her, laughing all the time.

She’s right, Bambi thought. She was different from Faline, who had played out her charms to her advantage to get him interested in her. She was a very beautiful doe, and she knew it. But Primel had the charm of a young fawn, with her wide, innocent eyes and her joyful smile and laughter. But she was beautiful as well, just in her own way.

“There he is!” Bambi suddenly said and pointed his four points towards the tall stag, who was already looking at them, waiting for them to come closer. The two bounded over to him.

“Son”, the old prince greeted him and turned to Primel. “Miss. What do you two want?” He quickly looked at Bambi, giving him a questioning look with a raised eyebrow. Bambi didn’t need words to understand and quickly shook his head.

Primel, not noticing the silent conversation, told her story. The Great Prince listened with attention, looking very thoughtful when she ended her tale.

“Please, father. Give them a chance.”

The 12-point-stag turned his head and looked at his son, noticing a hopeful shimmer in his eyes.

“Alright” he finally said with his deep voice. “I shall at least talk to your brother. Lead the way, Primel.”

Bambi and Primel looked at each other with triumphant smiles before the doe started walking in the right direction, the two bucks following her.

Ronno

Ronno looked down at his kingdom from a hill, feeling proud and deeply contend. What did he need Bambi’s forest for if he now had his own herd to rule? Of course, he would get complete revenge on that buck and claim his forest as his, but for now, he had all he wanted, although the thought of the harsh winter approaching scared him. But he was sure he would be able to make it. His plan had worked out, that was all that mattered.

He had planned this for a long time. Ever since he had learned about this place because of his sister, and about the fact that the leader was old and easy to defeat, he had been determined to make this place his.

Faline had just been an extra. He could have taken any doe as his mate, but take Faline away right before Bambi’s eyes, and beating the young prince up, had been heavenly.

But it wouldn’t have worked out without Shila’s help. The doe was older than him, but she had been kidnapped by the former leader at a young age. She had lived in this herd ever since and had been forced to mate with the old buck and bear his fawn. But close to the end of her pregnancy, she had sneaked away, pretending to be in labor. But instead, she had run home. It had been a long journey until she found her brother, but they had been happy to see each other again.

But his happiness had soon turned into fury. Hearing that his sister, the only doe he loved, loved deeply, had been forced to carry the fawn of a kidnapper, of a buck who had been an adult before she was even born, was too much to stay calm. So he had formed a plan. He would take over the herd, kill the buck, and make him pay.

To check things out, Shila had leaded him back to her herd, and Ronno liked the fine land. Unfortunately, they had been spotted, and to keep her brother from being harmed, Shila had distracted them by telling a made-up story while Ronne had run away.

Then, with the beginning of the rutting season, Ronno’s plan had gone into action; he had taken Faline away from Bambi, taken her here and defeated the old buck. He had been about to kill him, but then he reconsidered. The buck was hurt, bleeding badly; he wouldn’t make it very long. If he didn’t die from infection or blood loss, predators would be his end. Ronno smiled evilly at the thought. It was a malicious way to think about the most pathetic way of dying for such a shame of a stag.

He wouldn’t force Faline to mate with him. Sometime, she would give in, and til then, he would wait. But one day, Faline would give him a buck to inherit his throne. The doe wouldn’t get away, trying was too dangerous and Ronno knew she was aware of this fact.

No, she would stay, and she would be completely his. He didn’t mean her any harm, actually, he just wanted her. He and he alone should have this doe. 

He slowly stepped down his hill to meet up with her. Everywhere he looked, bucks were fighting for some does. He didn’t care. He had taken two does already, and if he was lucky, they would give him strong bucks.

 While he was passing the herd, being greeted from all sides, he noticed a figure approaching from the stream. He soon recognized the figure as a doe, his sister, to be exact. Grinning, he stepped closer to her.

“Shila, sister, what did throw you off like that?” he laughed. Shila’s fine head swung around, and Ronno almost took a step backwards when he saw the flame burning in her eyes. The doe was not just angry, she was furious! Not a good sign at all.

“You want to know what threw me off? It was your pretty doe, Faline!” she hissed. She spit the other doe’s name out like poison. Ronno had no idea what Faline had done, but it must have been something really bad.

“What did she do?” he asked.

“First, she accused you of killing fawns, and then she talked about this Bambi again, her love.” She pronounced the last word especially disapproving and rolled her eyes at the thought of someone loving the young prince.

“What?!” Ronno exclaimed. He had no idea if to feel insulted or disappointed. But he quickly regained a blank face, shaking his antlered head. “I will talk to her. Where is she?” He scanned the trees circling the meadow, the main meeting place of the herd, with his eyes. He saw lots of plants, trees, deer and rockfalls, but there was no sign of his mate.

“Near the stream”, Shila huffed. Ronno sighed, nosing his sister.

“Go and look after Thistle. I don’t want the little guy to get into trouble again.”

“You think I can’t take care of my own son?” Shila replied with narrowed eyes, but Ronno could see the small smirk sneaking onto her lips and the sparkling in her eyes. He was relieved, turning to look for Faline.

“I would never suspect that, sis”, he called, his voice being carried away by a soft breeze.

Ronno found Faline still standing by the stream, staring at her own reflection in the water. It was difficult to make out more than a blurred image of light brown fur, since the swift body of the liquid ragged it each second she stared at it. But the doe was so absorbed by it that she didn’t notice the buck stepping up to her and stopping by her side.

“Is there anything of interest in there?”

Faline’s head shot up and for a moment she thought  her heart had stopped beating. With wide eyes she stared at Ronno, her muzzle hanging open, her chest rising and falling quickly. When she recognized him, she let out a sigh of relief.

“Ronno”, she called feebly. “You almost startled me to death.”

“Oh, I’m sorry”, he replied, looking anything but serious. “But you were so enchanted by the water, there was no way to make my presence known. Anyway, my sister has just told me something quite interesting.” Towards the end, his tone became a slight coloring of threat. Faline heard it. Her muscles tensed. Instinctively, she backed off.

“Y-you have?”

“Yes. She said you accused me of murdering young.”

“I…you…you want a male heir, I just thought, a doe wouldn’t be good enough for you…” Faline backed off more and more, Ronno following her, but pausing when he heard her reply.

“And you honestly think if you gave me a daughter, I would kill her?” Now he seriously felt offended. Faline nodded hesitantly. It was written on her face that she was afraid. Her whole body was tensed and her eyes had the expressions the ones of hunted rabbits had.

And then, Ronno did something unexpected.

He laughed.

“Faline that’s the most stupid thing I’ve ever heard,” he snorted. But his laughter soon turned joyless and kinda hard and cold. Faline tilted her head in bewilderment.

“You…what?!”

Ronno recomposed himself. “Of course, I wouldn’t kill a doe fawn. I wouldn’t be pleased, but I’ve got time. We would try again.” Faline breathed out a sigh of relief. It was as if a huge weight had been taken from her heart. She stepped closer to the red buck, but stumbled backwards again when the cold expression returned into his eyes.

“But Shila also told that you’ve been talking about Bambi.”

“She…she did?”

“Yes.” Ronno stepped forward, backing her up against a rock behind her. She shrank back.

“Did he go looking for you?” Ronno stared at the doe, but by no means raised an antler against her. He couldn’t do that, not if he wanted complete triumph.

“No.” Faline lowered her gaze.

“You’re right, he didn’t. He did by no means try to get you back. Then how much can you mean to him?” He let out a cold laugh and stared at her with complete complacency.

Faline felt anger rise in her body, a hot feeling that streamed from her loving heart through her legs until it reached the tips of her hooves and up into her head until it took control of her mind. Her body was filled by it.

“Don’t talk like that! He loves me!”

“Then why isn’t he