My tears have joined the rain, for his heart stopped beating today...

Skokey found himself in a peaceful meadow. Butterflies flew around him in every color, and birds chirped delightfully from the far-off trees. He stood up, and looked around. Everything was so bright to him, he had to squint for a bit. He found himself confused, wandering around the meadow, and saw two forms not too far away.

His eyes adjusted to the bright lights, and saw two large deer. One was red and dappled, the other was light and golden. Both had a gentle look in their eyes, making Skokey feel completely safe.

"E-excuse me..." He stuttered, "Where am I?"

The two deer smiled, and the red one stepped forward. "Nowhere special, Butterfly."

My tears have joined the rain, for his heart stopped beating today...

Skokey's ears pricked, "What was..."

"I believe that's what you say, when someone dies?" The light deer answered before he could finish.

Dies? Was he dead? Was this the afterlife? And where those...

"Not to worry, Butterfly," the red one continued, "You are safe."

Skokey stammered, and looked around to find other deer. Most of them were unfamiliar. But he saw an older stag, standing next to what looked like his parents. "D..Dad?" he looked around again and found a familiar doe. "Mother?..." He became frantic, "Where am I?"

"Like he said, Butterfly, you are safe." The light one replied. "But you cannot stay here. There's somebody down there who needs you. You can't leave her yet." She smiled warmly, causing the red one to smile as well.

My tears have joined the rain, for his heart stopped beating today...

The meadow seemed to darken and fade. Visions of his mother and father vanished, leaving the two deer standing before him. But soon, they began to fade as well.

The red deer spoke up one final time, "Oh, and I hope your sister likes her feathers. It was the best thing we could think of."

***

Skokey opened his eyes to find hazy vision. The area had darkened, but he wasn't sure if it was night yet. He felt something laying on him, and felt something wet trickle down his face. He looked to see somebody crying over him. He couldn't tell who it was. He coughed, causing a little blood to splurt. He regained his sense of taste, being reminded of that awful rusty flavor.

Fenqua, who was the deer crying over him, instantly gasped and took a moment to look. "S.. Skokey?"

Skokey's ears pricked heavily, "F-F.. Fen?..." He tried to pick his head up, "What... What happened?" He let his head drop, unable to find strength in his wounded neck.

"Skokey, don't move... I'll be right back." Fenqua got up and ran over to the Oak, where Fulu still stood in horror. She came up to her, "Fulu, Skokey's alive! He's alive! Please, help me carry him in, it's gonna rain soon."

Fulu's face instantly brightened at the good news and rushed over to her brother. The two of them struggled to pick him up. Fulu grunted, "Lucky for us, he's not a very big stag."

Fenqua chuckled slightly at the comment. She was glad all of that hard training would finally be put to some use. They both helped him stand, and he managed to help them a little by walking weakly. As long as they kept him in balance, he could walk.

They lowered him inside the Old Oak. Skokey complained lightly, but he wasn't all too worried about being in the Oak anymore. The deep woody sound that once brought him great fear now brought him comfort. He lied on the left side, while Vessel, who was absorbing his terrible state, lied to the right. Fenqua dashed off to find more help while Fulu licked his wounds clean. The bleeding had gone down tremendously, but he was extremely dirty with old, dried blood.

Vipin and Aspen were the first to arrive, mostly by curiosity. They had heard the several gunshots and new something was up. They walked up to the entrance of the Old Oak. Aspen backed away at the sight, Vipin sighed sorrowfully. He wondered if the humans were still there.

Ammy and Melinda came next, both of them concerned and asking what happened. Fulu explained between cleaning her brother. Then came Reetno, who lowered his ears and eyes. Darcy soon followed, and sighed in the same manner as Vipin.

The sight of Darcy made Fulu blush and lower her tail. She was facing away from all of them at the moment, but she found herself looking back. She tried to ignore him and continue cleaning. Yorres made his way over, but his expression didn't change much. He was absorbing the situation carefully, asking a few questions. Taiko and Hope both managed to arrive at the same time, again, reacting and asking questions.

Even a few deer Skokey didn't know yet came over to the group. One was Atiq, with purple-brown striped coming down his face, and blue pelt with yellow dashes, and antlers full of purple flowers. He asked Darcy and Reetno what had happened, and they both explained. The other was Emiva, a slender doe with a gazelle pelt. At the time, Skokey didn't know these two, but he would become aquainted with them later in his life.

Fenqua came back with another stag. He was tall and golden, with large antlers and a long, slender face. Aspen stepped back a little, which Fulu made a mental note of. She saw the golden stag come in, and almost cowered at the size of his antlers. Following behind him was the son of Voko, with newly gained Magpie antlers.

The two studied Skokey. The medical stag located all his wounds, and made notice of the wound near his hip. "There, this one on his rump. There's a stone in there." The golden stag looked carefully, and nodded. "You'll have to take it out with one of the tines on your antlers. I'm afraid mine won't do any good."

"Of course." The golden stag replied. He lowered his head, and spoke to Skokey, "This will hurt a little, so be ready." Skokey nodded weakly, and the stag dug one of the tines deep into the wound.

Skokey winced and grunted, but a few moments later, the bullet was out. He sighed in relief as the pain went away. The wound felt so much better now that the bullet was gone. The golden stag rolled it off of Skokey and onto the ground, making sure it wasn't anywhere near him.

Voko's son came out and announced to everyone, "If you would be so kind, I would like you to gather some leaves." He pointed to a leaf he carried there. "These are pretty abundant near the Twin Gods hill. Go there and get the biggest ones you can find, please."

Everyone stared at the medical stag for a moment, but soon everyone went straight for the Twin Gods statue. Several minutes passed, and everyone came back with a large amount of leaves. Voko's son and the golden stag took these and pressed them over Skokey's wounds. Not surprisingly, there were a lot left over. The decided not to waste any of it and put some of the extras around Skokey's wounded knee.

The crowd loomed and blocked the entrance to the Oak, dozens of voices melding into one garbled mess. Many of them decided to leave. Vipin, Aspen, Reetno, Darcy, Atiq, and the golden stag were the ones who stayed, dispite the rain. They all sat somewhere inside the Oak. Fulu, Darcy, and Reetno sat at the entrance and spoke with each other. Atiq chatted with Vipin, while Aspen and the golden stag, who Skokey found out was Magnet, nervously sat next to each other, barely saying a word. Vessel sat in his corner, preferring he was away from everyone else. He managed to crawl a little further away from them before his ribs started to hurt again.

The rain seemed to last forever. Fenqua sat next to Skokey, propping his head up on her stomach. He was fast asleep, which made her think of the past. She smiled, thinking of how he used to sleep. It always made her smile. She was thankful that he was alive, and she could spend so much time with him. She desperately wanted to go the Twin Gods statue to thank them, but she couldn't bring herself to leave Skokey's side. She would just have to settle for praying where she was.

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cant write anymore... too tired *yawn*