"Hey, fawn?" Something pokes his ear. "Fawn?"

Sokonei sleepily opens his eyes and stares at the antlers so close to his head. The stag yawns and sits up.
"Rise and shine, fawn."

He stares.

"What's wrong with you?" The stag yawns again and gets up to stretch. "You're so quiet. A bit ago you wouldn't shut your trap."

He stares and starts shaking a little.

"Fawn?"

...stares...

"You can talk now if that's it."
Sokonei breathed. "What did you do to my fish?"
"Nothing,"

He walks to the pool and looks down; a channel has been dug, connecting the pool to the pond. It is now empty.

"My fish."

"What? It's still alive. I let it into the pond again is all."
"My fish." He paws at the edge of the pool. "You let him go."

"Of course I let him go," The stag laughs. "He wasn't your fish."
"But I caught him."
"Yes but he's not yours."
"How?"

"That fish has a family, fawn. He's theirs not yours, understand?"
He says nothing and stares into the pool.
"Hey, listen to me."
He looks up, his ears back. "I am."

"That fish has a mother and a father just like you and I do."
"I don't have a mother or a father."

The stag laughs again. "Everyone does. Come here, I'll prove it to you."

Sokonei follows the stag to the old oak. It is mostly empty save a sleeping fawn in one corner. High up near the tip of the stags antlers are many, many, many symbols. Sokonei reconizes them as names, all seemingly burned into the tree. He looks up and around.

"How many are there?"
"As many as there are deer." The stag says. "Now I don't know if you're an orphan to not have your mum following you around but hop up onto my back and we'll find your parents right with your name."

He jumps up and puts his front legs in the stags antlers so he can see higher. "I don't see my name here."
The stag walks to another section. "How's about here?"
"...No..."

He walks to the next.
"No..."
He walks to the final section.

"I see it!"

Sokonei reads his name symbol over and over, embedding it into his mind. He's seen it in the pond and the pool, the glowing circle over his head with lines and other circles. He laughs happily and touches his nose to the wood.
"I told you, fawn." The stag looks up. "Now look over it, there should be two connected symbols there too..."

He looks up from his name excitedly. The wood is smooth and bare all the way up to the top of the tree. On either side of the smooth strip is a column of family names...but Sokoneis line is empty, except for his lone name.

"Are you alright?" The stag tilts his head a little, being careful not to drop Sokonei. "Fawn? You don't like your parents or something?"
"There's nothing."
"What do you mean?"
"I don't have a family."

"Get down, I'll look. Maybe you're blind too." He chuckles. "Everyone has kin."

The stag jumps up to read. The fawn jumps down and stares through the entrance to the tree toward the pond. He isn't thinking of anything but the empty column in the wood. Suddenly he wishes he'd gone to play with the others in the mud. He wishes he'd never dug the pool for the fish or met the stag.

"You have a nice name." The stag jumps down to say.
Sokonei nods sadly.
"...You know, I could find you your fish again..."

"No, I'll get it myself."

"You sure?"
He nods and starts walking away, calling once for a friend or Atu or someone...anyone. He hears NightShade answer and takes off. He'd rather sit with her for the rest of the day. She didn't talk much or ask him questions with awful answers. Cursed or not she was better than the stag, whomever he was, Sokonei never wanted to meet him again.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

~Soko has a saddd~

[3rd Note]