eyes. He was respectful of him as his father and a major male in the herd, but he wasn't afraid of him. "As Bambi said, the more you know, the longer you live," Stabo repeated the lesson. "I intend to learn all I can, because I intend live to be a very old deer. I want to have many children with a doe that I care for like you care for mother. I cannot do that lying dead in the meadow."

He was surprised how far Stabo had come and how fast he had done it. He could only hope he did not get too sure of himself and get careless. "I hope you do have a long life and many children and the care of a beautiful doe. I also hope you do not have to pay the price I did to get them."

Stabo walked up and nuzzled the side of his neck in affection. "I am tired," Stabo said with a yawn. I will go to my bedding place."

"God day, my son," he said. "If you need me, you know where I am at."

With that they both took different paths home.

He walked back to their thicket. He saw Bambi standing at the cave entrance with Faline lying down with Greta lying next to her. He saw in the thicket Claris was still feeding little Stena.

"You had success?" Bambi asked.

"Yes, the bear knows," he said plainly.

Bambi studied him as closely as the bear. "And what else?"the big deer asked.

He told him of Stabo's talk with the bear and himself.

"Stabo is getting as strange as you," Bambi said.

Just then the noise from the meadow started up again, he could hear the sound. Then he thought he heard some shouting then: "KAAABAMMMMMMM"

"That was a big killing stick," he said. "It is too early to be for us."

They waited for a while, nothing happened. Even the Man animal noise stopped.

"COOOMMMMMMMMEEEEE," He heard a deer bellow. It was Stabo. They all recognized it. Claris shot to her feet as did Faline. He quickly turned.

"You stay with Stena," he told Claris. "The fawn is still too young to be without a mother. "It did not sound like he was hurt. I will go."

He took off and Bambi was just behind him. They did not run. Instead that walked constantly testing the air. He knew about where Stabo lived, but did not want to run and expose themselves. Both he and Bambi moved as silently as the Old Owl. He heard nothing more from Stabo. They moved through the forest, there were other deer around, but they stayed bedded down. Bambi and he picked quietly through the trees not saying a word. Then he picked up a scent of Man coming from the meadow. The breeze brought it to him and it was strong. Both Bambi and he froze. Then his nose picked up another scent and it was also close. It was Stabo's.

He looked around and saw nothing in the trees then he heard a crack, like someone broke a twig. He dropped low and faced the sound. He saw a brown mound with a white chest also low to the ground. It was maybe ten lengths away. Stabo did not look hurt. He motioned for him to stay still.

Both Bambi and he waited. They saw nothing come through the trees, heard no movement in the forest. The scent of Man did not change. All three of them stayed put. Then he heard shouting from ahead and then the sound of something being dragged. There was now more than one Man scent.

After a short time the scent of Man got weaker and the dragging noise got further away. None of them moved until they heard and smelled nothing. Then he and Bambi slowly got up and made their way to Stabo.

"What happened?" he asked his son.

"Back when we get to the cave," Stabo gasped sounding out of breath. He could clearly tell something had shaken Stabo badly. His body was still twitching and it wasn't from running. They moved quietly until they were back at Bambi's cave. As they approached, Claris smelled them got up and ran over and kissed Stabo on the side of his face like a fawn.

"What happened," he wanted to know.

Stabo made a couple of attempts to try and tell his tale and nothing came out. Finally he just spat it out."Marro is dead," Stabo said

He knew Marro, who was a year old male near the same age as Stabo and Gena.

"What happened?" Bambi asked.

Stabo swallowed hard and went on. "I had just lain down in my bedding place and I heard the Man animals come back to life. I did not think about it, but a little while later I heard the killing stick."

"We all heard it," he said.

"I then heard the sound of crashing through the woods and the sounds of pain coming from a deer. It seemed to stop near me. I checked the air and went to look. I saw Marro lying on the ground near your bedding place close to the old trees and Friend Owl. When I got to him he was still breathing, but he had a huge open wound in his side in the middle of his flank."

Stabo stopped obviously shaking hard.

"Please go on," Bambi told him.

"I tried to talk to him, but only blood was coming out of his mouth. He looked at me as if asking me to do something, but I did not know what to do. That is when I called you. I was hoping you might be able to help him. Right after that I heard movement in the forest by the meadow and I smelled two scents of Man. They were coming toward me. I then knew if you came, you would walk into the Men, so I looked at Marro and I knew he wanted me to stay, and then the Man scents got stronger and you were coming so all I could say to Marro was I am sorry, and I had to leave. I ran away toward the cave. I got away and then I heard shouting from the Men and then …." his voice trailed off.

He walked up and rubbed Stabo's side. "Finish your story," he said.

"I heard Marro scream as the Men killed him," he said now almost in tears. "He was dead and I left him. I then ran toward the cave and saw you and Bambi. The Man scent was still strong so I broke a twig to warn you and got down low. I was going to call to warn you, but you told me not to call with Man so close. All I know is Marro is dead and I could do nothing. Father, I thought you said Man only comes for us near the Season."

He looked at Bambi and then at Claris who like Stabo was almost in tears. She started to go toward him again no doubt to comfort him. He felt that was the wrong thing to do.

"Stop Claris," he said loudly. She did and looked at him wondering why he did that. "He does not need to be mothered. He is almost an adult, and today he learned a valuable lesson. He must live with it like the rest of us have."

He walked up to Stabo and looked him in the eyes, not as his father, but as a herd male and leader. "I am sorry you had to see that, but all of us have seen that before. You did the right thing in not staying with Marro. The only thing that would have done is gotten you killed also. Once blood comes out of the mouth, there is nothing to be done, that deer would have died anyway no matter what any of us would have done."

"But Father the way he looked at me," Stabo said.

"It does not matter," he said loudly. "Marro made a mistake in going into the meadow or too near the meadow in the light. It was a mistake that killed him. Most times Man waits until the Season to come for us, but in this case Man did not. This is why we always avoid Man. You also made a mistake. You should never call any deer to someplace where Man may be. That will just get more of us killed. I am glad you saw what would happen and tried to find us to warn us, but you should have never called us to begin with. After you smelled Man coming near you, you should have run away, come back here and told us. That is a mistake you cannot repeat. Do you understand me, Stabo?"

Stabo looked taken back at his harsh tone, but he had to learn or next time it might be his son or someone else being killed. Finally all Stabo could do is just nod.

"Good," he said and then lowered his voice. "Remember this day. It is something I saw when I was you age when I lived with Man. Death is never pretty, but it is final. You told me this morning you want to live to be a very old deer. Well this is how you do it. You learn by watching others die and learning from their mistakes. Now do not go back to your bedding area today. Go up the stream and sleep near the open pond. Come back here after dark when Bambi calls for a gathering of the herd. Now go, the rest of us here must sleep."

Stabo looked at him for a moment and then slowly backed away and started to walk up the stream toward the small pond. As he left he looked at Bambi. Bambi took a deep breath and went back into the cave with Faline and Greta. He followed Claris back to the thicket and lay next to Stena. Claris came and lay on her other side.

"That was hard on Stabo," she said looking at him with those green eyes.

"I know, but he has to learn or next time it could be one of us or him," he said. "He will not sleep much today, I know I did not," but he will become wiser."

They spent the day trying to rest and sleep. The smell of burning deer meat coming up from the meadow did not help matters any."

Chapter 2: Decisions

Just after darkness fell and the lesser light rose, Bambi came out of his cave and called as loudly as he could. "Here…..all come here."

He called several times. He and Claris got up and after she fed Stena they both walked toward the small clearing near the pond. As herd leader, Bambi and Faline went first, but he and Claris were directly behind them. As a higher ranked male he took position near Bambi, but not in front of him. He saw Veron, Bambi son from two years ago take his place with the younger males, and Stabo and Gina take their place in the back with

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