Asar started yelling at my Father for looking at the same doe he was interested in. Their yelling led to a fight. The fight was terrible; both would not give way and fought longer than they should of. My Father killed Asar, but was injured badly during the fight. He had a hard time getting around. When the cold came he got the fever and died. That was last winter."

"What about the rest of the deer?" he asked. "What are they doing?"

"Nothing much, they eat and go on their way. There is no direction so they all look out for themselves. I hate to think what will happen when Man comes back to hunt during The Season."

"Then who is herd leader there now?" Bambi asked.

Galin shook his head no. "No one really; there is just a group of males constantly fighting. That is why my sister and I came here."

"Sister," Faline called out. "Your sister is here?"

"Yes," he said. "I told Galene to stay hidden because I was not sure we would be welcomed on account of my Father."

He got up quickly. "I will not lie to you, your Father was not liked because of what he did with Bambi and him trying to put his deer in charge here. That is why Bambi and I chased him away. You and your sister did not do any of these things so you are welcomed. You may go get her and bring her here."

"I will get her now," he said and left in a hurry.

"Stranger, do you trust him?" Balo asked after Galin had left.

"For now yes, but let us watch them," he told them all.

He then turned and faced Bambi. "You and Faline have more to say than any of us, what do you think?"

Bambi just nodded. "Stranger I agree with you. What I feel for Galin and Galene is mixed with what I felt for Geno. They cannot help being Geno's children, but they did nothing to harm us. I think you are right, Stranger, we welcome them and watch them."

"Does anyone else have an opinion?" he asked the group.

There was silence so the rest of his family agreed. They retold the story of when Bambi got so mad at Krono he almost killed him and other stories about Geno that would not have pleased Galin. He again reminded his family that these were Geno's children, not Geno. Then he smelled two deer approach. Into the clearing walked Galin and Galene. His jaw almost dropped and so did Bambi's and Claris.' Galene was almost the exact image of Faline when she was her age. It was uncanny. She had the same graceful lines, the same perfectly formed body. She was a delight that any male would want. He stood up again.

"Welcome Galene," he said. Please lie down over there. I still have some questions for your brother.

"You are the one they call Stranger?" she asked. Her voice was a little gritty, not like Faline's smooth voice.

"Yes," he said with a nod and went on to introduce everyone else in his family group. "You must forgive our stares, but you look exactly like Faline when she was your age."

"You mean my Father's mother he told me about?" she asked.

"Yes, my child," Faline said and got up and looked her over. "Yes, you are Geno's daughter for sure I smell his scent in yours. I am so happy to meet both of you." With that Faline embraced both of them like they were her own fawns. That relaxed thing considerably.

After everyone greeted the new pair and they all lay back down he started asking questions. "Tell me Galin, why have you come to our forest? Do you wish to live here?"

"No, Stranger," I want to go back to my old forest, but I want to learn from you and Bambi how to be a good herd leader. Right now no one leads the herd and it suffers because of it especially during The Season and the hunts. I want to stop that. We had heard of both of you and know of your wisdom. I would like you to teach that to us."

"How do you know of us?" he asked

"It is not that hard," Galin answered "From the end of our forest, it is a one night walk to a smaller forest that lies near Bambi's old forest. Sometime we get deer from Bambi's old forest and we hear the stories like what you did to Tarro. We need a herd leader like you and Bambi and we both figured this be the only way to get it."

That caught him by surprise. Geno would have never cared about learning how to lead despite Bambi's teaching. Bambi looked at him and then looked at them.

"This training you ask for is not easy, and takes times," Bambi spoke seriously. "There is not enough time to complete it this season. If you stay over winter and into next spring we can do this. It would please me to teach you. I tried to teach your Father, and that never worked out."

"So we would not be back for the hunts after The Season," Galene said.

"Yes," Bambi told her. "I know that will mean another season of hunts, but you will be back to try and help out in the seasons to come. All the deer you see here have been taught or are being taught. You will join them. We will start tonight. Stranger will teach the others, they are almost ready. I will teach you two."

"If you are willing to teach, then we are willing to learn," Galene said.

That settles that," he said. "It is getting toward light. We will rest here as a family today and start tonight."

They all bedded down and as a group slept together. He was happy his family was getting so large. At least there would be more to take over after him. That thought comforted him as he fell asleep.

As he worked on some fighting moves with the others, Bambi started training Galin and Galene. He would look over to them from time to time. Both seemed willing to learn. He had the males and doe pair up and practice. It was more exercise now that anything else. After they warmed up he took them into the forest and went over again how to approach Man, how to keep him from tracking you, how to avoid dogs. Most of this was repeated, but he knew for the teaching to take hold, it had to be taught more than once.

Things did not change much for the remainder of the spring. Sometimes Faline, would talk to Galene alone after taking her into the forest. Questions were many and whenever possible answered as best that they could. Even the bear came down once in a while. The first time it scared Galin and Galene almost out of their wits, especially when he started to talk to the large bear. It took some convincing for them to get close, not that he blamed them a bit.

Things went well until one night when Bambi had the rest of them all together. "Tonight we are going to go over kicks and stomps again," he told them.

"Stuben, you and Delon lock together and try and try to get one another on the ground."

"Stuben got close together and locked at the shoulder and started to push each other around. They were evenly matched with Stuben being a little bigger. Both tried to trip and kick each other, not to hurt, but to exercise. The others had seen this, but Galin watched in fascination. In a short while Stuben and Delon had managed to put each other on the ground, Stuben by pushing Delon off balance, and Delon by tripping Stuben. Then he had both Young Faline and Charlene do the same thing. If anything the doe were more aggressive than the two males and after a while, neither could get an advantage. He then repeated the exercise with Young Bambi and Koren. Again both locked at the shoulder and after a while he could see no one was getting an advantage no matter what tricks they used on each other.

"Bambi, I understand why you are trying to teach the males," Galin said. "Males fight for mates and leadership. I do not understand why you teach the doe. They do not fight for either."

"That is quite true, but there is another reason," Bambi said and looked around "Charlene, come here please."

Charlene came forward and stood in front of Bambi. Galin, I want you to come over and try and push Charlene onto the ground like so many males do."

"I am not like that," Galin said seeming sounding angry he was being asked.

"I know that," Bambi said flatly. "Otherwise you would not be here. I do this for a reason. Now please do what I ask."

Galin walked over and then leaned reluctantly over Charlene and tried to use his weight to push her down. It was obvious he was much stronger, but as he applied his weight onto to her back Charlene stepped aside quickly and in one motion brought her leg under Galin knocking out his front legs. Galin's weight worked against him and he fell face first on the ground. Before he could get up she went over and kicked him lightly in the side. She then jumped back quickly and let the confused and embarrassed male get to his feet.

Galin shot up looking angry for a moment. For a second he through the male might attack her. Galin then stopped and looked down at the ground he just got up from. He then raised his head and suddenly laughed out loud. "I understand, Bambi," he said. "Yes that might work once on a male."

"I can use that moment to get away from you," Charlene said calmly. "We doe cannot fight males, but we can certainly discourage them."

"Yes, I see you can," Galin said and walked over to Charlene and kissed her on the side of the check before she could move. "Males can have surprises too," he said with a grin on his face.

Bambi then showed Galene how to do that. Koren offered to be used as a partner. He let Galene trip him and then showed her how she could do it better. Both Bambi and he looked at each other and suppressed a smile. This was certainly interesting.

The

Previous Page

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Next page