"When did you find her, Shin?"
"Just some minutes ago, lying frozen on some wet leaves."
"Was she alive when you first found her?"
"No. I almost walked passed her too, I thought she was an oddly shaped log or something... but then I realized that she was a deer, and-"
"Did you notice any wound marks, scratches, or blood?"
The stag thought. "I dont think so, Vipin. I mean, she looked perfectly normal, she was just, well, frozen there. On the ground."

Vipin, a middle-aged muscular old stag with a beak for a muzzle leaned in closer to the dead doe. No blood? No wounds? Did she just fall dead while passing through? How could it be? And then, he saw it.
"Oh my god" Vipin leered back, knocking over a stone sculpture.
"Vipin? What is it?" Shin spoke quickly, looking from the doe to the stag.
Vipin breathed and eased his way back up onto all four feet. He looked to the young Shin. "It got her. Thats why there are no marks or blood." He stepped over to the dead doe and beckoned Shin over. "Look"
"But-but that cant be true!" Shin looked up to his mentor. "Its all a myth! How can it be?"
Vipin looked back to the dead doe. I dont know, Shin. But we must dispose of the body before... it spreads.
"Spreads? You mean its contagious?" Panic eased its way into Shin's voice. "You cant be serious, Shin, I'm not touching that... that thing!"
"Shin!" Vipin growled, lifting his head abruptly. "She is not a thing. She was once a young carefree deer like you and I, and somehow, this happened..." He looked back to the young doe, sadness in his eyes. So young. She had a life ahead of her. Why?
"I'm outta here, sorry Shin, but I have a mate and I cant afford to get infected with it myself." Shin gave a quick look to see Vipin's response, and ran off.

Lihl, who had been walking by, noticed the usually eased and calm Shin running back to camp like mad. His eyes followed the stag, surprised. "Shin? What is it?"
Shin looked over his shoulder at Lihl, but kept running. "Its here! Its here! Its come to kill us all!" He dissapeared into some thick brambles.
Its here? Whats here? Lihl thought, nosing his way carefully to the bush Shin had just departed.
"Ah, Lihl" Vipins voice rang clear throughout the bush. "I need your help with something."
Lihl lifted his head to the older deer. "With what?"
"I need your help by removing this deer from our territory, fast."
"What?" Lihl stepped in. He saw the deer, a doe. Motionless on the solid earth. "She's dead?" He looked up. "How?"
Vipin closed his eyes and looked away from the doe and Lihl. "It came. Have a look."
Lihl stepped over to the doe, and he saw it. He shrank away. "But, wait, how? But-"
Vipin cut in. "I know, I know, I cant explain these things myself. Perhaps its a sign of some sorts. But we've got to remain in our bodies. We must remove this plague-stricken deer from our territory before it kills every last deer here!" The last part of his ramble was a little louder than Vipin had expected, but he knew it was true all the same. "Help me carry her."

Lihl walked forward, but something caught his eye. He turned his head. But it was gone. "Odd..." He paused. Then he heard a faint sobbing. But it was unrealistic, god-like, to perfect to be coming from any normal mortal deer. He shrugged it off, I focused his attention back to the doe. Instead of just Vipin by her side, there was another deer, he couldn't tell if it was a doe or stag, but it was sitting there. It was transparent and sparkled in the sunlight. But the light radiating from it was not happy light, it was light of sorrow, of loss.

The transparent deer looked up at him. She slowly melted away into the air, and then it was just Vipin and himself.

"Come on, we dont have all day!" Vipin shouted out to him, and Lihl awoke to reality and jumped over to help. He bent and lifted the head of the doe over his shoulders, and Vipin heaved the rest onto his own back. Together, the sprawled out doe ballanced on their backs, they set off slowly in the opposite direction of the camp. Another movement caught his eye, and he turned his head.
Sitting together, were three more transparent deer. A small, young fawn in the middle. The fawn was crying. That must have been the sobbing noise he had heard before!

Lihl tripped. His head landed to the dirt, "Sorry!" He said out quickly to Vipin, and struck back up on his hooves, continuing the walk.

"This is good" Vipin mooed. They stood before a waterfall, a white river crashing down below.
"Wait-" Lihl cut in, to Vipin's surprise, "Shouldn't we, well, do something? Like, say some words for her? I mean, we're just going to dump her body into the river like a sack of potatoes, what would the twin gods think?"

Vipin sighed and looked down into the waterfall. "Lihl, the twin gods are with us no more. They have betrayed us. Now..." He looked up, "It rules."

There was silence, the roaring waterfall just inches in front of them billowing out.
Suddenly Lihl felt anger, anger he had never felt before. "Fine" He hissed, and by himself hoisted the doe's body to the edge of the waterfall. There was a silent splash, and then that was all, the body lost under the craving waves of water.
Vipin and Lihl stood there again, for a moment. Without a single word, Vipin strutted off, slower than usual, but still with his usual dignity required of a leader.
But Lihl stayed. He sat by the waterfall until dark, silent, thinking of nothing.
"Why?" He asked himself. Why, summoning up everything that had happened. "How could you?" Now he was talking directly to the twin gods.

Something flashed. Lihl found himself looking directly to where he thought the flash came from. It seemed to be somewhere down in the waters of the fall. He peered over the edge, not careing anymore if he would slip or fall.

Floating, on the dark murky waters, was a small glowing object with a string attached to it.

A necklace.