teach Balo and Gorro."

"That I can see," he said, "Only right now my concern is what to do if Razor comes back."

"You son needs to be taught if he is to follow you as herd leader," she told him.

This conversation he did not like. "He will follow me as herd leader if he is wise and strong and the other deer accepts him. No one has a right to be herd leader. He has to be chosen unless you want to do it the way Razor and Tarro did it."

He could see he angered Carie who shifted her weight away from him and turned her head the other way. He lay against Claris and went to sleep.

Chapter6: Intruders

It was late evening when he heard it. A loud call from a male. He recognized the voice immediately as Stabo's. So did the others standing next to him. He turned to Balo and Gorro standing there.

"It has come," he said with resignation, "As I expected it would. Neither of you have to go with me. There will be hard fighting here. We are going to have to beat these deer badly for them to stop bothering us."

"I will go," Balo said. "If we do not beat them now, they will surely come here next."

"That is my brother they wish to hurt," Gorro told him. "I know Father would not stop and neither will I."

He looked back at the doe standing in the forest with the fawns. "You must all stay here," he told them.

There were concerned looks but no comments. They took off toward their prearranged spot. They crossed the open space between their forest and the Man-path forest quickly and without incident. One inside the Man-path forest they traveled quickly to the clearing near the edge of the forest. Veron and Stabo were already there along with Gena, Alana and their fawns.

"You all go over to my forest by the pond," he told Gena and Alana. "You know the way. "Wait there for us."

Gena nodded and lead the way. Alana was hesitant, but said nothing and followed. He waited until they were well toward his forest before he looked around.

"Stabo, how many are there?" he wanted to know.

"I saw the one we beat the last time and several more. There is one deer as big as you, Father."

"Where are they now?" he needed to know.

"I saw a few of them going out to round up my herd and bring them to Razor," Veron told him.

He thought for a second. They would be in several groups group then. That would work in their favor.

"Look, if we try and fight them together, we will lose because there are more of them than us. What I want to do is to find them in small groups so we will be more than them and destroy them in small numbers. Do you understand?"

The four others nodded. "One other thing, they have come here to kill Veron and Stabo and will kill us too if they get the chance. This is no practice fight. We are going to have to hurt these deer, maybe kill them. If we do not, they will do the same to us. I have seen deer like this in Bambi's forest. The only way to handle them is to hurt them or kill them. Otherwise if we just run them off, they will be back and may attack our doe and fawns."

"I remember," Gorro said, "When you and father took care of Tarro."

"That is correct so we must stay together and find them in small groups. That means we need to go to a place where we can smell them without them smelling us."

"Wind is coming from the stream that leads to my Father's forest," Veron said. "We need to go into the forest away from the meadow where we can walk around to where they are so the wind will blow their scent to us."

He nodded, that was a good idea. "Very well, let us go and keep quiet," he told them.

With that they moved noiselessly through the trees. They came across other deer who told them these new deer were trying to gather all the deer in this forest forcing them to come to them. Veron told them to flee deep into the forest and wait for his call. They moved carefully around until they almost came to the Man path. There they stopped and waited. By now the greater light was starting to rise bringing light to the forest.

"I can smell several deer," Stabo said." A few scents I recognize, but there are two scents I do not."

"Very well we walk toward them slowly. Spread out and keep looking behind you. We do not want them sneaking up on us."

They walked slowly toward the increasing scents. After a while Stabo stopped and motioned all of them to come near him. "I think there are at least two on them in a small clearing up ahead. Veron and I will go forward and look and you stay behind us in case we are attacked. They are expecting to see us, they are not expecting you."

He had to admit it was a good idea. He nodded and Stabo and Veron went ahead. He Balo and Gorro followed several lengths behind. As they got closer he could hear.

"You come with us," he heard a male call out loudly.

"Who are you," he heard a doe call out. "You are not Veron."

"Veron ran away. Razor is now herd leader here. Follow us or we will hurt you and your fawns."

"I do not think so," he heard Veron call out and saw him gallop forward along with Stabo. The two of them rushed the clearing and saw two males putting their heads down and charging forward. As they did both Veron and Stabo stopped, leaped to the side, and quickly turned and brought their legs under the two charging males. They did not expect it and were going too fast to stop. Both went flying onto the ground. Both Veron and Stabo rushed forward and kicked out hard with their front hoofs. Veron hit his deer square in the side of the head with both hoofs knocking him senseless to the ground. Stabo missed with one hoof and hit with the other so his deer was only knocked sideways. His was also the biggest deer. Stabo stopped and looked at the deer who was stunned for a moment. Stabo turned quickly and looked to be ready to run away. The big deer thinking he had won started to get to his feet. He could see he was enraged and bolted after Stabo who ran only a few steps. Instead of running on Stabo stopped and kicked out with both rear hoods as the big deer was just getting close to him. Both hoofs hit the deer right on the forehead. .The big deer turned almost over his back in the air before hitting the ground. Stabo was on him in a moment stomping him hard with his front hoofs. Verson's deer wasn't moving at all.

He quickly ran forward to look at both deer. He could see Veron's deer was dead. The impact from both of Veron powerful legs had smashed in the side of his head. He then walked over to Stabo's deer who was alive but bleeding from the flank and mouth. He would not be getting up again. He looked at Stabo, he could still see the rage in him.

"That was the one who kicked me before," he said letting his anger clearly show. "Well he will not kick me again."

He looked around for the doe and fawns that were in the clearing. They had run off when the fight started.

"Some deer comes," Gorro said quietly.

"Back into the forest with the wind at your face," he said to them all. In an instant they were clear of the meadow. Once hidden in the forest but close enough to see the clearing, they stopped and waited. He could hear Veron and Stabo breathing heavily. A few seconds later he could hear sticks breaking as two more deer hurried forward and into the clearing. Both were males, both were Gorro's size and both looked healthy and strong. They both almost stumbled into the clearing and froze.

They both looked over the two down deer. He nodded to both Balo and Gorro these two belonged to them. They both crept forward noiseless until they were just hidden. He bleated loudly to draw the two's attention and then yelled, "NOW!"

Both of them charged ahead quickly. Before the other two deer could react, they hit both of them in the flank. Both deer went flying forward and hit the ground. Then, just as he and Bambi had taught, they both ran up and instead of trying to hit them while they were on the ground, came up and hit them hard in the faces with their front hoofs. Both again went flying to the side.

"Turn and kick hard," he said loudly.

Both deer spun around and kicked out as hard as they could with their rear legs. Both of the deer were still stunned from before. Gorro hit his deer in the neck below his velvet covered antlers. It tore a gash in his neck that started bleed like water flowing in a stream. Balo hit forward on the head. He could hear the head of the deer cave in and also blood start to gush out of the side of his face. Gorro's deer got up and started to run away. With that bleeding he would not get far. Balo's deer just fell still on the ground. It was all too easy. In fact it was much too easy. These four deer had just blundered ahead, no sense, no thinking, just muscle and nothing more.

He looked at the three bodies lying in the small clearing. He pulled back and kept the four of them together. Off in the distance he heard a male call, but it sounded weak, almost feeble, and then stopped suddenly. It would certainly call the others toward the sound.

"How many are left?" he asked Stabo and Veron.

"Three or four including Razor," Veron said still breathing hard.

"Very well, relax and rest," he told the others. "You have all done fine. Bambi would be proud of all of you as I am."

With that he pulled them back from the clearing until they could barely see it. "Keep close watch behind us, otherwise they might be able to do the same to us."

"Listen," Gorro said quietly and pointed his nose in the

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