safe."

I acknowledged the information and turned my eyes back to him. He had just walked back into the forest and soon disappeared from sight. It had felt very special to have meet someone of such high calibre, and, again, his impressive figure was something I just imagined would be difficult to replicate.

After he disappeared, we and the herd continued to hang around the meadow. They had all stopped running and spent their time walking, socialising with fellow deer and grazing, so we did likewise. But there would be little time to spend on this as we suddenly heard the sound of cawing. It was coming from a flock of crows flying above the meadow. They had flown from the forest and I could tell their cries were something of a warning, because all the deer lifted their heads fast and carried worried looks on their faces. Then, sure enough, the Great Prince returned from where he disappeared into and ran onto the meadow, stomping his front hooves to further warn the herd of the danger. They immediately got the message and began running away toward the direction of the forest of the other side of the meadow. 

I was panicking and tried to follow suit, but Mother and I lost each other in the crowd and, subsequently, I did not know where I was supposed to go because I could not remember where we entered into the meadow from, plus most of the herd had already disappeared so I could not follow them where they ran to. If I randomly ran in a certain direction and it ended up being the wrong one, I could have come face to face with the danger and risked losing my life, so that was why it was important for me to find mother so I knew where to go. Luckily for me, the Great Prince searched for and found me, and he encouraged me to follow him, so I ran with him as fast as I could back toward the forest where we came to the meadow from. Mother eventually caught up, and the three of us fled the open grassland altogether right before we heard a loud and deadly noise echo within. I had no idea what that was at the time, but I knew that it was the sound of danger, and that was what we had to escape from.

Mother and I headed straight for our den while the Great Prince parted ways with us almost from the moment we got back amongst the trees. I knew that he was going to check on the other animals and make sure that they were all safe. I would have liked to have said 'thank you' for leading me away from the danger and back to Mother, but I knew that he had an important job to do and I did not want to keep him from his duty. Besides, I was just happy that we made it back safely because I was very scared before.

But to be honest, I really had no idea what we were all running from because I had never encountered an attack from our supposed great enemy until this moment, so I was keen to get this matter off my chest. I had my opportunity when Mother advised me that it was safe for us to come out of the den since we no longer had to hide from that threat of danger that just occurred.

"What happened, Mother?" I asked her. "Why did we all run?"

"Man was in the forest." She replied. "He is our biggest enemy. He carries a deadly weapon with intentions of taking our lives. We are unable to appeal to his better nature, so he will continue to do what he does. We must stay away from him by any means necessary."  

I listened carefully to this and started shivering in slight fear at the thought. There were many times in my childhood when I hated acting like a coward and so I wanted to be strong, but I understand that it is natural for a child to be afraid of things and therefore it takes time to mature and show true courage. So although I was worrying inside, I did not show it to Mother. I just wanted to let her know that I acknowledged the information and would promise to be very careful from now on. I believe she eventually understood that.

So from my first venture in the meadow, it seemed a bit daunting after both the warning of danger and the life-threatening experience to go with it. But I became more open to the beauty of nature as well as its many inhabitants. It gave me a sense of unity with all of the animals and the justification of why it was important for us to co-exist in times when our ecosystem would be threatened by human activity. That was what the Great Prince stood for and he was setting the example as the leader of the forest, so he was very inspirational to all who respected him. He certainly inspired me that day. 

I also was keen to know whether his status as prince had anything to do with me, but, like when I was told shortly after being born, Mother said that it would have to wait until I was older. Again, it was not really a big deal to me, so I obliged with the advice and let it go.

*

First winter

We got through the rest of the Summer after that close encounter with Man, and even during Fall we never saw or heard any sign of him or them again. But we stayed away from the meadow for the remainder of that time along with all who were wise enough to protect both themselves and their families until time passed through to when Man was absent for long enough that it would be safe for us to return there. But we knew that as long as we remained sheltered by the trees and bushes in the forest, we would not be harmed, and we were quite happy within our habitable environment anyway.

So the good times exploring the forest with Mother and hanging around with Thumper and his family continued through Fall. This was a curious season to me as the changing of the colours of the trees and their loss of leaves made the atmosphere so beautiful yet supposedly somber. I got the impression that the forest was losing its valuable support of life, but Mother explained to me that everything in the forest has its season: Where one thing falls, another will soon grow within time to become as beautiful if not more than the previous generation before. 

Further on this subject, she said something that would eventually be of inspirational advice at a time in my youth when I would need it most, as I will explain later:

"Life in the forest is beautiful - both outside and within. What cannot be seen now will appear within time when the previous form of life disappears. When the time comes for one thing, the following will take it's place and this cycle will continue so that life will thrive forever."

Hearing this gave me a greater appreciation of nature in general, not just our own habitat, and would give me the strength to hold my head up high when times were tough and circumstances demanded it. Again, that will come up later.

So the leaves continued to fall through the season and the air temperature began to get colder. Then the day after the last ones left the trees, I would soon discover another incredible sight within the forest.

I woke up that morning and noticed that it felt much colder than it had been in the last days of Fall. I then looked outside and noticed that the whole forest was covered in white. This seemed very unusual to me as there was nothing like this within the forest the day before, so what this all was and how it came so quickly was beyond me. Mother told me that it was snow and that this new season of winter comes after fall. So after a little observation, I decided to go and check it out. Mother knew that it was alright for me to explore the forest on my own since I was a little older and more educated but also with common sense. It was every bit as important that I needed it after a close encounter with Man. Then again, we all needed it.

So I walked out into the white-covered woods and felt the soft cushioning from the snow on my hooves. It felt good to walk on at first, but I occasionally came across thicker patches of snow and ended up half-buried in it, and then snow would fall from the trees and land on me and I would be fully buried. I took note of the cold feeling of the snow when it touched me, but us deer have plenty of insulation in our fur so it never bothered me. I concluded that the snow is actually fun to play in, so I set out to make the most of it. 

Eventually, Thumper appeared and encouraged me to enjoy the wonders of winter with him, which I did. He then took me to an area that might have been fun for him but something that I would struggle with: It was a small frozen lake  that Thumper described as stiff water, or, as I found out later, ice. He leapt onto the cold hard surface and slid very easily on his long feet. I tried to follow suit, but the moment my hard hooves hit the ice, they slid outwards and I lost balance and landed on my belly with my body rotating several times before I stopped. I knew that this was going to be hard work for me as my solid hooves would not allow me to even stand still on the ice with so much sliding. Thumper tried to help me up and get me to 'steadily slide' on the ice - shall we say? - but as much as he helped, I was still not able to keep my balance long enough, and so I slid, with Thumper, into snow at the surrounding of the lake. From that, I enjoyed it but it would have been more fun if I actually had 'softer cushioning'!

After that, we heard snoring coming from a nearby den, and we knew then that a certain animal was hibernating because our parents taught us how some sleep all through the winter. We just had no idea that this animal might be someone we already knew, because when we looked into the den, it was none other than the shy young skunk who we only met once before but took an immediate likening to: Flower. 

The rabbit and I looked at each other without saying anything but