Where there was water, there was life.

That was the lesson he always understood. Nothing dead would come of the lake... nothing! The koi were immortal here... They had existed for centuries, and had the knowledge of centuries to proove, it... though few ever listened to them. 5 second memory, they say... Most untrue of words.

The grasses around the lake never seemed to wither with the cold, or shrivel in the heat. The dragonflies... how long had they been there? Their wingbeats plesant hum like music in the air.

The gray stag always slept, not near the lake, but in it. Always on that slope, which sharply dropped into the depths. He was careful about his sleeping spot, never to turn in his sleep so violently as to drop under. He chose this spot, because it was within the range of the dragonflies music, and so close to the koi... the immortal koi... who he called his friends. It didn't matter that half the time, his fur was wet while awake. He was so young, so fresh to the forest compaired to them... but he knew so much more than he should... Because he understood the wise words and spills of old knowledge the koi would tell him.
They knew of Walter's creation as an adult... They knew the first deer to ever be in the forest... they had seen the twin gods not once, but hundreds of times. They knew so much about what went on in the forest... because where there is water, there is life. All life needed the water... and thus all life would come to it.

His brown-red eyes squinted open, blinking freverously to adjust to the light of day. He lifted his head slowly, his horns half stuck in the mud. He grunted slightly, pulling his neck upward to free himself. The mud made a loud 'schlurp' sound, and a bubble popped over the surface from air caught below. Something white was in that pocket... An oddly shaped stone?

He had found patches of flat stones before, but this was odd even in compairson. Half smashed looking and lumpey... He began to dig. He grimaced at the sight of the brown mud clinging to his silvery gray legs and horns, but continued... he had to know what it was. Water spilled into his hole, quicker than it could be dug, pushing dirt away in the process. Soon, he lowered his head, opened his mouth and pulled it out of the mud, nearly gagging at the filthy taste. He turned and took a few steps before dropping it on undisturbed submerged mud, and let clean water rush over it. He cocked his head sideways, then lowering his head to get a clear visual. It was...

bones...

stuck together with stone and mud...

Yes... bones...

Of a bird...

He lifted his head in shock, taking a few steps back. He reared and reapproached his sleeping spot, to speak to his koi friends.

"Why are there bones here? This place is not supposed to be full of death?! Have I been sleeping on that this whole time?" he questioned, worry in his voice. A voice echoed under the water... One of the koi were speaking back to him. "The fledgeling... There lies a tradgedy of a tale..." she spoke. "To nutshell the tale, it had been on its first flight, two years ago... A party had taken place here, involving water dancing and running about as giant fawns. This poor one had been knocked into the water by an unhappy antler, and danced upon as a fawn screamed for the fledgeling's life... It was one of the sadder moments to have been witnessed from our small land. We've never seen that fawn again..." she explained gentilly.

Mar Sart hung his head hearing this, tired eyes closing. "... Chenen?" he guessed... knowing the stag didn't go to the lake. That was his only clue. "Yes..." she said. The koi looked suprised. "How did you know that name?" she asked. "I know him..." Mar Sart responded, backing up.

Slowly he returned to the fledgeling fossil, and picked it up in his teeth. He cringed, his inner germaphobic and OCD sufferer screaming about 'death in his mouth'. Reaching dry land, he placed the fossil on the ground, and began to dig again. He buried the fossil properly, then dipping his head to whisper to the dead thing a humble goodbye. He then turned and made his way for the crying idol, to wash.