CHAPTER SIX: WANDERING

Gurri kept running until it was close to dawn. In her mind was the glaring image of Wesal being hit by Man’ killing stick and then torn to pieces by the dog. It revolted her as nothing had ever done in her life. After seeing what her brother had done, she wanted nothing to do with Geno or her family. It was bad enough that they treated her like an empty-headed doe; they had to destroy what little happiness she could find. She had to get away. She had to get far away.

Once away from the smaller lake and the hills, she went into a part of the forest she knew little about. She knew the forest was vast and her herd only lived in part of it. Once away from the two lakes, the hills, and the large open meadow, she was in a part of the forest she did not know. She was still thinking well enough to realize that meant unknown dangers. It was well past dawn when she finally stopped. The trees were more open here. The ground was rockier. From her stomach, she felt a growling so she satisfied her hungry by eating leaves from bushes. There were also patches of grass she found growing in the open places between the tall pine and oak trees. She tried to rest during the day, but she could not. Every time she closed her eyes, the horrifying image of Wesal being killed flooding into her mind. Despite the dangers, she kept on moving deeper into the unknown forest until she felt exhausted.

She saw birds, squirrels, rabbits, ferrets, raccoons and other familiar animals of the forest. She did not pick up any scents of badgers, or coyotes, but she smelled a few foxes. She was now too big for them to easily feast on her. The great light felt directly above her when she finally felt exhausted enough where she had to stop. She found a hidden spot and lay down. Finally, her head was too tired to fill her with images of Wesal dying in front of her. She finally was able to relax and fell instantly asleep.

It was well into the night when she awoke refreshed. She stood up and took in a great quantity of air through her nose. There was nothing to alert her of any danger, but she did smell something familiar. There was the scent of other deer on the wind. They were upwind of her. That meant they would not smell her coming. She got up and quietly moved toward the scent. There were several deer, but the scents were not like in her Father’s herd. There, all the scents mixed into a huge herd scent. This herd was smaller, but she could pick out at least four or five individual scents. There were also males and doe there. She walked on looking carefully as she went. Sometimes other herds were not friendly to strangers her Grandfather told her.

It was easy to follow her nose toward the increasing smell until she saw the trees part in front of her. There, in a small clearing, not much bigger than the one outside her Mother’s thicket, stood six deer. There were two males and four doe. She looked them over. One male was larger, maybe a season older than she was. There was a smaller male next to him about Geno’s age. The smaller male was of average built, but the older one had heavier muscles. Already he was sporting a growing rack that would of decent size by The Season. The bigger male could be a senior male in the herd, but the smaller one looked like a normal herd male.

The four doe were all yearlings. She could see two were twin sisters. Both were of them were of normal build. They looked like herd doe. The other two were the same only not sisters. She was bigger than all four of them. She was wondering where the rest of their herd was. It was a small herd and she was surprised there were no others nearby. They were not very alert. Even with the wind, they should have smelled her. She coughed once loudly to draw their attention to her and walked into the opening.

The entire herd turned toward her. The doe looked ready to flee. The two male were nervous.

“Greetings,” she called out. “I am Gurri and I am a stranger to your forest.”

All six of them looked at her in surprise. They were lucky she was not a bear or mountain lion, or she would be eating one of them now.

The bigger male was the first to recover at her sudden entrance. “I am Kelo,” he said. “Where did you come from?”

“From the lake and hills,” she said.

“The other male is Rongi,” the bigger male went on. “The two sisters are Flnar and Monar and the other two are Wenna and Stera. We are all a herd.”

“I saw the herd was small,” she said. “Where are the others?”

“They are all gone. Between Man and his killing sticks and the bad winter, we are all that is left,” Kelo explained.

It must have been bad here if the six of them are the only ones left out of a herd, but all she knew was a herd the size of her Father’s.

“Are you alone?” Rongi asked. “Where is your herd?”

“I left my herd,” she told them. “I was tired of being treated like a know-nothing doe and having males decide my life for me. I came here looking for others.”

“You went out on your own,” Kelo repeated. “That is strange for a doe.”

“Well it is not strange for me,” she said. “I go where I want and when I want.”

The others still looked at her in shock. She did not think she was that different. Maybe she was. “Do you mind if I eat some of the grass? I am hungry,” she asked politely.

“No we don’t mind,” Kelo said.

She walked fully into the open and they saw her for the first time. “You are big for a yearling doe,” Rongi said.

“All in my family are big,” she answered and then bent over to start eating.

She noted the others ate with them staring at her. Soon Rongi started to come over sniffing the air. He came up behind her to get a sniff at her tail. She waited until he was close and then kicked out lightly with her rear legs. Her hoofs hit the male in the chest, but not hard enough to hurt him. The male jumped back. She spun around quickly.

“I am here for the grass and nothing else,” she told him bluntly. “Besides, The Season is still a ways away.”

She went back to eating in peace. It was only after she had finished that Kelo came over to her. “Rongi did not mean anything when he sniffed at you,” he said.

She looked up at the older male who was about a head taller than she was. “When I want the attentions of a male, I will ask for them,” she told him. “What he did was rude.”

That looked to put everyone off. The others finished eating and moved on into the forest. She followed the six of them until they came to a small stream where they drank. The water was cold and had a better taste than the water from the lake. She liked it. The others then left without a word. There was no invitation for her to join them so she stayed behind. She looked and found a dry spot on a short rise near the stream. Seeing no one around, she lay down and started chewing her cud. For now, this was not a bad place. No one knew her. She decided to stay here. She slept alone in the dark listening to the noises of the forest around her. She smelled nothing around her except the faint odor of a badger. In the morning, she found a badger’s old den near her, but it was empty and not used for a while. There were no signs of bears or mountain lions around. It looked safe, but she still kept searching.

Her new home was not bad, but she missed other deer to talk to. The small herd here tolerated her presence but did nothing to make her feel welcomed. When she met them in the forest, they did not speak to her, but they did not try to chase her out. There was plenty of grass for everyone. Over a period of a few days, she got to know her surroundings well. She convinced herself there were no dangers. She also was starting to get over what happened to Wesal. She could not forgive Geno for what he had done. It was not necessary for him to attack a deer that could not have possibly hurt him. This thing with males treating lesser males with disdain or contempt was silly to her. She did not think her Father would have done that.

She had been there for many risings of the great light when near dark he heard many yelping noises in the distance. At first, she thought they were dogs, but after listening to them, she realized it was a pack of coyotes. One thing for sure, the yelping was getting louder. Her Father had told her a single Coyote was not a threat, but a pack could run down a deer and kill it. She called out a warning to the others nearby and started moving quickly away from the howling. If she moved with the wind blowing at her back, she could smell them and they could not smell her. It also meant she was moving through a part of the forest she knew, if only briefly. If she moved crosswind, it would take her into places in the forest she did not know about. Grandfather had told her never let anyone chase you into places you do not know. You would be at a disadvantage. Moving upwind would only take her scent and blow it toward the coyotes. There left her only one choice, to go back the way she came. Although she moved quickly, she did not run. Running would tire herself out. Instead, she moved away from the sound. The wind was still blowing from her back, so it would not carry her scent far behind her. Every so often, she would stop and again call out a warning to anyone around her. She moved on and started to notice the yelping getting more distance.

She kept moving quickly until she was sure she could hear nothing behind her. By now, she had come back most of the way toward the smaller lake and the hills she had live in before with Wesal. There was no danger she could smell or hear, so she decided