Atiq awoke with a start, the image of a lifeless and clearly dead doe haunting him from his dream. Beads of sweat were streaming down his forehead, and he was shivering. Quad, beside him, was fast asleep. Rutilus, on the other side, was also asleep, although he was usually a light sleeper.

Occasionaly Atiq would get visions of his early childhood abandonment, just screenshots of what happened, but never before of a deer he had never seen before. He shivered. Quad beside him stirred, and Atiq thought it would be best to not disturb his two bunkmates, so he silently made his way out of the tall grasses into the early dawn. There was fresh dew upon the leaves, and the morning doves were cooing softly.

Atiq stretched his sore muscels and took a quick dip in the pond to relieve himself of the persperation his dream had caused him. A frog croaked nearbye. The image came back... of the dead doe... what does it mean? Atiq shook himself off on the dry soil and sat down, waiting for answers.

Atiq got dreams of death all the time... mostly from his early childhood, as stated before. But something about this time really hit him hard. Something about that doe...

"Hey Atiq!" Roared Quad, his zombie antlers drooping from sleep. "Your up early today. You okay?"

Atiq shifted his gaze to the young stag. Should he tell him? Or would he simply make fun of him. Maybe he could give it a try.

"Quad," Atiq started, "I had a dream last night..." Quad sat down beside Atiq.

"A dream about what?"

"There was this doe, and... and" He couldn't bring the picture back to his mind. He sighed helplessly and rested his head on his hooves.

"Okay. So you had a dream about a doe. Is that it?" Quad couldn't help but let out a sly smirk.

Of course Atiq noticed. "No no, it was different... She.. she was dead. It... it was horrible" He shook his head, as if trying to relieve the thought.

"Oh... Quad said. He didn't quite know what to say. Quad gave a comforting nuzzle to the confused and tired Atiq, and made his way back to their sleeping spot to wake up Rutilus.

But it seemed Rutilus was already awake, and making his way over to where Atiq was sitting. He met Quad along the way. "Whats wrong with Atiq? I had this feeling something wasn't right."

Quad shrugged. "I'm not positive, something is really bothering him though. Probably another one of those dreams about his mom dying or something." Quad went off on his way, probably to snack on some morning mushrooms. Rutilus, however, kept going. He trotted up to Atiq.

"Did you have another bad dream again Atiq?" This happened quite often, but Rutilus wanted to make sure Atiq knew he was there for listening whenever he wanted. And this seemed like a time.

"Yes" Atiq stated plainly. There was a new feeling in his stomach now. Something wasn't right.

Silence.

"Would you like to go hunt for squirrels?" was all Rutilus could think of for comfort.

Atiq looked as his friend, "Yes. Yes. Lets do that" he shakely got up on his legs, and smiled half-way to a confused Rutilus. "Lets go"

Rutilus gave one final look to Atiq. "Okay" He smiled. "Hey! I smell something!"

"Its a grey!" Atiq exclaimed. He sniffed the air. A stench filled his lungs. He coughed. Then he stopped. Oh my god. Quad.

"Where is Quad?!" Atiq demanded. Rutilus shot him an odd look, but pointed his ears in the direction the zombie deer had traveled in search of his mushrooms.

Atiq, with all his strength, ripped up the ground as he sped towards where Quad should be. Then he skidded to a stop. His dream had come true. A body lay before him. A deer body. Quad's body.

And there was something red under is left eye.

Atiq breathed. He looked up to the cold grey sky. Its here.