is gone,” he announced to the herd.

Geno ran over and looked at the big deer. “Father, look,” he said pointing his nose at Kragus’ head. “Kragus is bleeding out of the eyes and ears. I see no life in him.”

The deer standing around were stunned. Deer often fought, but there were seldom deaths with these fights. The most stunned was Filon who looked in shock.

“I...I...I did not mean to kill him,” Filon said in bewilderment.

Many deer were looking at the prone figure of Kragus. The other deer were looking at him. Suddenly he realized he had to say something. This was his decision to make. As herd leader, any hesitation was a sign of weakness. He stood back and called out. He knew what was right here.

“The fight was fair,” he said. “Filon beat Kragus. He was walking away. Kragus would not accept defeat and attacked Filon from the rear when he thought he was not looking. Only then did Filon lash out to protect himself. This is the fault of Kragus and not Filon,” he said.

Most of the other deer just nodded approval. Only a few like Ronno seemed to disagree but kept their mouths shut. He looked down at Kragus. There was a dead fresh deer lying in the meadow. It would not go unnoticed for long.

“Everyone should eat quickly,” he told the herd. “Others will be here soon to feast on the body. They may also look to eat other deer that are nearby.”

With that, all the other deer went back to feeding themselves leaving Kragus to lie in the meadow by himself. He, Faline, and Geno ate and then they all drank by the stream. It was only later when they were back near Faline’s thicket did they talk.

“I did not know you could kill a deer by fighting,” Geno said.

“Yes, you can especially when you kick out like Filon did,” he answered.

“Kragus,” Faline said. “I have known him since we were fawns ourselves. I remember how you beat him for me. Now he is gone like the others.”

“Kragus was always a troublemaker,” he reminded his mate. “He and Ronno never accepted me as herd leader. I am just glad it was Filon who did this and not me.”

He then looked at down his own son. “Come, Geno, I need to teach you more about fighting. You may soon need it.”

He led his son away from Faline and the fawn. Doe did not like fighting, but it was part of the herd. He had his son push as hard as he could against him. Geno was strong, but not as strong as he was. It was like how his Father taught him. He could push as hard as he wanted against his Father, but he would always change position or push him off-balance to win. It was not until the summer after Geno and Gurri were born that he was strong enough to move his father. He was still learning tricks from him when he died.

He had his son push and push until he could tell he was exhausted. Still, he made him fight on. A deer had to learn to fight when tired, learn to fight even when exhausted. The more he exhausted his son became, the stronger he would get. Geno might be strong, but he needed to get stronger. In one or two seasons, he would have no problem in being a senior male. He did like one thing. His son never asked to stop. He kept coming.

It was near light when they stopped. “You are doing fine,” he told his son. “I do not think there is a yearling male who can beat you, but the older deer are still too strong for you.”

“Thank you, Father,” he said.

“There is one other thing,” he added. “When you spar with the yearling males, do not show them the tricks your Grandfather and I showed you. Those you only use when it is a real fight. Otherwise, they may learn your tricks and use them against you. Instead, just use your strength to gain position.”

Geno nodded his head. “I see, Father, I will not. Then he stopped. “Before we go back toward mother let me ask you something.”

“Yes,” he said.

“I still feel partly responsible for what happened to Gurri,” he said in a hushed tone. “I could go look for her.”

“No, not now,” he said. “After The Season and after Man leaves there is a time when it is peaceful. This will last until the first snow comes and it gets hard to find food. That is when we will both go look for her. The fawns will also be old enough then to leave them with your mother.”

“I understand, Father,” Geno said calmly. “I just wanted to help Mother. I know she worries about Gurri.”

It pleased him that his son cared enough to ask. “That is good of you, my son, but there are other more important things to do now.”

As it was, it was days before they went back to the meadow. The smell from Kragus’ body and the work of the scavengers made it unpleasant to be there. By the time they did go back, Kragus was just a scattered pile of bones lying on the grass.

He watched his Son play with the yearling males. Most yearlings hung around him both because he was the son of the herd leader. They also wanted to hear about his adventures. What fighting there was among the yearlings was just friendly sparring. This was how deer found their place in the herd.

Filon stayed by himself. He was never that friendly, to begin with, but after the fight with Kragus, he became even more remote. He would eat by himself and seldom talked to anyone. The senior and herd males mostly ignored him both because of his oddness, and because out of fear, Ronno especially. Ronno only had a few friends in the herd and Kragus was his best friend. Now he was gone and Ronno was alone. One evening he just went over to Filon to speak with him.

“You can join the herd,” he reminded him. “No one holds you responsible for Kragus’ death,”

“Tell that to Ronno,” Filon told him. “Every time I come to the meadow he looks at me like I tried to kill him.”

“Ignore him,” he told Filon. “He hates me much more than you.”

“I wish I could believe that,” Filon went on.

“Father,” he heard from behind him. “Look behind you to your right.”

He turned to see five deer walking toward him led by Ronno. The others were herd males, not senior males. The rest of the herd males along with Celon and the other two senior males Atlan and Delno looked at them from the herd. All five stopped about five lengths away.

“Bambi,” Ronno called out. “We want you to chase Filon away from the herd. We no longer want him here.”

That took him by surprise. No one had asked him to do that before. “Why do you want me to do this?” he asked studying the males carefully.

“He killed Kragus,” Ronno bellowed. “He does not belong here. He offends me.”

He smiled shaking his head no. “I have already said that Kragus’ death was Kragus’ fault, not Filon’s. If you do not want Filon here, you chase him out. He has done nothing that would make me chase him away.”

Ronno flashed rage and he went stiff. “Do not think we will forget this, Bambi,” Ronno glared and walked away with the other  deer.

 As soon as they were far enough away for them not to hear, Filon came up to him. “Thank you,” Filon said, but maybe he is right and I should go.”

“That is up to you,” he said. “But, you have done nothing wrong as I see it.”

“At least the rest of the herd seemed not to care,” Filon said and walked away.

A cool icy feeling came over the meadow. There was now a split within the herd he had to worry about. One good thing, most of the herd and the other senior males seem not to care about this one way or the other. If they all came over and complained, then he have to do something. While none of the other herd males or even the senior males were his enemies, neither were any of them his friends. They followed because they were not smart enough or strong enough to lead. They would follow anyone who was smart and strong. This he would have to watch.

Over the next few days, nothing happened. He noticed Ronno and a few of the herd males were not on the meadow at night. He did not mind that, but there was tenseness in the air. He continued his search for Man. He had Geno take him over to his Father’s cave. Geno had told him a bear had chased Gurri away from it. Both of them searched the area and he found no trace of a bear except for some lingering scent in an old waste pile and in his Father’s old cave. The hunters must have killed him. He wondered if it was the same bear his Father used to kill and eat him. He did not know. The cave was empty again and he could use it over the winter.

Geno pointed out where he had seen the bear die and where he and his sister hid. He could see it hurt him when he showed him where Man and his dog killed Wesal. From the look on Geno’s face, he could still tell what happened here was hurting him. He had hoped to find Gurri still there, but she was not. Not even a trace of her scent could he find.

His daughters were growing nicely. They showed no sign of sickness or weakness. He did not think they have trouble getting through the winter if they put on more weight. Both were still more interested in their Mother than him. They were not like Gurri who insisted on coming with him on his walks with Geno. They were more like normal doe fawns. He did not know if that was good or bad, but that is the way it was and he knew he could not change it.

It was the next day when he, Faline and Geno went to the meadow after dark. As expected the herd was there feeding. As he walked on the meadow, he saw Ronno and the four other males turn

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