stall the fight. It did not stop Ronno ramming into me again, forcing me to bump the doe, which then caused her to step into a human trap: a rope with a loop attached to a tree with tin bells. The loop grabbed her leg firmly and the bells rang loud every time she tried to move, thereby alerting Man to a capture and providing an open target to hunt down.

Ronno and I stopped fighting and both looked on in shock before we immediately heard the signs of danger: First the crows flying into the forest again to sound their warning of danger, then the distant sound of ferocious barking from Man’s dogs. They were on their way to attack once again.

Like I did once before, I froze in fear and was left in a trance again. I barely noticed Mena telling us both to make a run for safety, or Ronno running away in his own state of fear. Mine was more out of unexpected shock and surprise, like the near-death experience that night out in the meadow. But after just a few moments standing there and Mena telling me again and again to run, it suddenly hit me about what I had been told by my father about never freezing and always running from danger. That thought was like muscle memory in a way, and it automatically snapped me out of the trance and got me running away, just when I caught four dogs approaching in my sight.

Then Mena yelled something familiar:

“Faster, Bambi! Don’t look back! Keep running! Keep running!”

These were the exact words that Mother commanded to me before she was taken, and it made me stop and look back at my trapped adoptive mother. That was the moment that I made my big decision: No, I am not like how I used to be. I cannot just run away and leave my new mother to be killed. I already lost one mother. I am not going to lose another. I came to grips with the fact that I had come a long way since my days of innocence, and I was not going to let my efforts in learning how to be courageous go to waste.

I reverted back to where the dogs would be able to see me and showed my ‘brave face’ to them (which, again, was only a bleat), thereby forcing them to follow me and divert them away from the trapped Mena.

I ran as fast as I could through different areas of the forest with the four dogs hot on my trail, trying to think on the run how I was going to utilise my skills to outsmart them. There was certainly a chance that they could catch and kill me at any moment, and I know that my chances against them may have been slim, but I was not going to let that distract me from focus. Like my father said: A prince may be afraid, but he cannot let fear stop him from acting.

After running a little distance, I came across the log where that porcupine lived, and immediately got an idea to use him as a weapon of some sort. So I tapped on his log and he came out, looking menacing and determined to strike me again considering that he thought I hadn't learned my lesson from that confrontation that we had.

My proud reply: “I learned plenty!”

With that, I pushed on the loose bark on the log and sprung him upwards, where just after I got out of the way, he landed quill first on one of the dogs and sent it yelping in pain. It eventually flung the porcupine off before retreating back to where it came from. 

But two of the four were still hot on my trail as I headed into an open grassland reserve. I wasn't sure what happened to one of them at that point until I was told later how Flower had used his spray to scare it away. That was certainly great help, but I still had a job to finish.

I ran into the long grass in the prairie and used it to hide from the dogs. The weather had now begun to get stormy and rainy, and considering that this was an intense and somewhat dark moment of battle, it was very symbolic - as much as it was fearful.

My hiding was only going to last for a moment because they were going to use their keen sense of smell to seek me out. Then I suddenly remembered what my father taught me about using my hooves to feel movement, and that is exactly what I did: I felt the rumble when the two dogs slowly approached from both sides of me, as well as hearing their growling. Then the ground rumbled harder when they were just about to pounce me, and that is when I jumped out and escaped, leaving them only to collide into each other.

It only stalled them for a moment before they continued chasing me, and there was no way they were going to let up so easily.

After entering the forest on the other side of the prairie, I found the same rocky wall that I tried to climb without success during the winter just gone. Not to say that it wasn't impossible to do it now since the snow had disappeared, but it was still going to be difficult because of how steep it was and how animals with hooves can barely rely on them for grip. Considering that it could be a way to escape and even use rocks as potential weapons, I knew that it was a risk I was willing to take. 

I was willing to put my life on the line at this point to help others, as The Great Prince has hinted on gaining respect by not thinking selfishly. 

In the heat of this battle, I also recognised that it was a matter of being friendly to your environment by using everything around you to your advantage to get the best of your enemies. Along with natural instincts as a form of defence, I remembered what Mother had taught me about respecting the forest so that it will respect you.

This is where it came into practice.

I made the tough choice and headed for the rocky wall, hoping that I would be able to find enough ledges to climb high enough and keep the dogs away. There were a few that I was able to jump and clang onto, but there wasn't a whole lot of space on them and they were slippery, so I did approach them carefully, otherwise one single slip could have proved fatal. As a result, I was slowly making my way up the wall. The dogs, however, were not going to wait to think of another way to get to me, so they climbed. One of them made it past one unstable rock, but the other wasn't so lucky as the rock gave way under its weight and it slipped to its death.

The remaining dog was only a short distance below me. It had an angry and ferocious look on its face - most likely after what had happened to it’s comrades - and despite having to climb up a flat wall, it was determined to kill me.

At this moment, I was the most nervous that I had been throughout this whole battle, because it seemed that I was so close to ending it, yet with the possibility of losing it. It was that nerve-racking do-or-die moment that creates so much tension inside that can make you pass out in fear.

But it was those words about not letting fear hold you back that I kept in my head almost the whole time of this operation which kept me going. To be completely honest, I thought about them every time there was danger or help was needed, and they motivated me well.

In this important moment, I needed it more than ever.

Looking for anything that was around me for leverage, I spotted a cluster of loose rocks in a crack in the wall just above me. It was a lethal risk, but I thought that if I could loosen them a little with my hoof, they might destabilise and go crashing down on the dog, thereby eliminating it for good. I may have gone down with it, but it was the difference of either me or everyone else in the forest.

With a couple of touches, I was able to loosen the rocks, and they came tumbling down like in a small landslide. But even such a small one can be deadly enough to kill at least a few individuals in the line of fire, so to speak. Luckily, I managed to land on a ledge below the one I was on before, and the rocks went past me and towards the dog, forcing it down the wall and out of sight. But it survived and immediately sprung out from the resulting rubble from the fallen rocks, looking even more angry as it kept trying to jump up the wall to get at me, where I was now within reach.

There was nowhere for me to run now. I was completely stranded. The ledge above me was too high to get to in time and the dog was blocking me from going down. At this moment, I really began to shake in fear and was feeling sick inside, knowing that I was seconds away from being killed.

High above me, I heard the voice of the Great Prince calling my name from the top of the rock wall. He had been chasing after us in another rescue effort, but was unable to catch up until that moment. By the time he did, it was useless because with me trapped between the wall and the deadly claws and teeth of the vicious animal, there was nothing that he could do to help me this time. It was now between me and the enemy. All my father could do was shout out in fear, with a little encouragement at the same time.

Hearing faith in my father’s voice was all that I needed right then.

The dog finally made it to the ledge, baring its teeth ferociously and giving me a deadly stare before it was about to attack. But as intimidating as it was to look the enemy in the eye, I didn't give in to that fear of near-death, like before, and remembered another key defensive weapon to use. I turned and kicked the dog square in the jaw with my back hooves, sending it falling back down and plunging to its death. The fall was so far that unless you are an animal twice the size of a stag, there was no chance anyone would have survived it.

The battle was finished. We had won.

Yes, ‘we’. Not 'I'. That means my father and my friends as much as myself. I know that I was the one battling