* sorry for bumping; just fixing a pretty ugly error. xc

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It’s been a while since I last wrote. I think it’s all of the excitement. You see, I am now all grown up. And just like that, I feel that a lot of my problems have been solved. Perhaps not permanently, but all of the sudden, I just feel magnificent. I’ve spent the last twenty-four hours prancing around with friends, feeling on top of the world. All of the sudden, strangers don’t seem quite as threatening as they once did – perhaps because they no longer loom over the top of me. Granted, I am still rather small for a deer; but I’m not nearly as small now, as I was before.

I get that from my mom, I think. Being small, that is. I can’t remember her that well, but she’s always there in my dreams. She’s so gentle, small, sweet. Sometimes I hear her lifeless voice; sometimes I see her half-rotten body chasing after me; and sometimes I can only feel her laying beside me, keeping me warm and safe. Sometimes, if I wake up alone, I have a moment of panic. I want to cry out for her, frightened at being so alone. Then I remember; I’ve always been alone. And I stay quiet.

The other day, I bumped into Seth, and he turned into a fawn! I feel much more at ease around him when he’s my size. It’s lucky I can no longer see, or I would be terrified of Seth. He has those huge antlers, you see – and it can be pretty intimidating to stand beneath them.



Which brings me to a curious thought. (I’m feeling like going off on a tangent, today; so please excuse the lack of focus, on my part.) Some of you may wonder how I know what set a deer is wearing. Well, you see, some of the pelts have very different textures. The grey pelt feels soft and slightly plush, while the zombie pelt is coarse and a bit crusty. The secretary, peacock, and magpie pelts all feel strangely feathery; and, of course, the Kirin pelt feels scaly and a bit cold. Though some pelts are impossible to distinguish by texture, each pelt also has a distinguishing scent. Whether it’s the distinct rotten smell of the zombie pelt, or the sweet, slightly dusty scent of the Monarch pelt; each pelt smells just slightly different from the next. Granted, all deer have their own various, unique scents – that is how I recognize my friends, for the most part. But the pelts and masks help in making up part of their fragrance fingerprint.

Masks can be discerned both by scent, texture, and sound. Most masks, as you well know, give deer a distinct voice. There is, however, still a small fragment of the deer’s real voice, entwined in the voice of the mask. Most deer probably can’t hear the differences between voices; but a blind deer must use every sense to its full potential, in order to make up for the one lost. Sometimes it is difficult for me to recognize voices, since I am still learning to rely on my other senses.

As for antlers, the only way to tell which antlers a deer is wearing, is by touch. There is no mistaking the soft, feathery plume of peacock feathers from the gnarled, bony mess of real deer antlers. Most of the time, I can get a sense of what a deer is wearing when I give them a nuzzle. It’s difficult for me to nuzzle deer I don’t know, because I will always be a little antisocial. That’s just how I am. But if I’m feeling confident about myself, I will usually nuzzle fawns and does, upon first meeting them – so that I might be able to get an… er, excuse the pun, feel for their physical appearance.

At any rate, I apologize once again for going off on a tangent, like that. I’m prone to doing so. I think that keeping quiet for days at a time gives my mind time to build up, with so many thoughts. When I sit down to write, they all sort of come tumbling out.

As I was saying, I ran into fawn-Seth the other day. Maybe it was him being so much smaller and less intimidating; or maybe I was just excited about my birthday. But whatever the case, I was feeling much less antisocial then usual. ..Much less. Raunun showed up after a while, and eventually fell asleep. Seth and I moo’d into his horns until our voices were lost. Then!



After that, Raunun turned into a fawn, too! It wasn’t long before we were joined by several other fawns – I was astonished! I’d never seen so many fawns in one place.



We had fun, before settling down to rest for a while. Then Darcy showed up, and joined us as a fawn! Seth, Darcy, and I all had quite a lot of fun, together. Darcy was sad, though; I’m not sure why. Whatever the reason, I hope we helped to cheer him up, a little.

Some time later, when we had all said our goodbyes and I had gone to sleep for quite a while, I stumbled across two fawns I didn’t know. I said hello, and we tumbled about for a bit. After a while, I heard Seth in the distance, and I dropped everything. I ran straight for him, overjoyed! Raunun was there, too. And they both had silver pelts on! It was pretty funny, seeing them both dressed like that. The two fawns followed me, and took rather well to Seth and Raunun.


Symmetry!

After a while, the two fawns began hollering at us. At first, I was nervous about them; were they trying to start a fight? But when I saw that they were simply having fun, I joined them. We had a ridiculous-looking fawn versus stag battle. Eventually, Seth joined us as a fawn, too! Poor Raunun was left on his own to defend against a bunch of little fawn!





Then, all of the sudden, four fawns became ten! One or two fawns would join, every few minutes – until we were practically swimming in fawns! And I had thought that there had been a lot of fawns, yesterday! Poor Nala tried to keep track of us all, but it was to no avail!



After a while, Seth returned to his normal form, and we went off on our own. That’s when we bumped into Nala! She seemed pretty fearful, at first. She thought Seth’s antlers were rather intimidating. I can’t say that I blame her! Anyway, I tried to convince her that Seth was a nice guy, and I’m pretty sure it worked. After a while, she warmed up to him quite well. Seth’s a very likeable guy, after all. We scampered over to the playground, where Nala and Seth proceeded to put on a show! I haven’t laughed so hard in a long time.



The phantom was there, but he didn’t take well to Nala. He didn’t allow her to get to close, which hurt her feelings, but didn’t surprise me. I tried to tell her not to take it personally, but I think she was still a little disheartened. Anyway, those were my last moments as a fawn. I fell asleep next to Seth in the playground, and when I awoke, I was all grown up!

I woke up feeling rather strange, and not at all like myself. When I got up to stretch, I could feel that my body had… changed. I was bigger, stronger… different. My legs weren’t long, gangly chicken legs anymore – they were sturdy, graceful, adult. Had I… had I grown up? I called out, and was astonished by my new voice. Indeed, I HAD grown up! Immediately, I went flying through the forest as quickly as I could, looking for anyone – anyone – I knew, so that I could show off my new self. And of course, who wouldn’t I bump into first, then dear Seth? I galloped around him like a maniac, laughing and leaping in joy! I had been waiting so long for this day to arrive, and it was finally here!

We raced down to the pond, and he helped me get the doe antlers (I already had the rest of my set, thanks to LT thinking ahead). It took a while, but after I got my antlers, I was ecstatic! We continued running and jumping around like mindless fools! I was so happy, I could hardly believe it.

Then Seth disappeared for a bit. When he returned, he looked just like me! I was astonished! Though I couldn’t see him, I recognized the scent and feel of the magpie mask and silver pelt; and I had a good laugh at us being twins.



After a while, I spotted a relatively large gathering near the pond. Since I was feeling especially gregarious, I galloped down to join them. Seth and I danced for a while, met another set of ‘twins’, and then we went off on our own, for a bit.



That’s when Cal, Mystress, and Quad showed up. Quad was wearing doe antlers, oddly enough, and Cal was dressed just like me! Three Lemons! The five of us had a blast for quite some time, and it truly felt like an actual party!



Then we all gathered inside a tree, and danced! It was pretty silly, having so many deer cram themselves into one tree!






After that, we had some more random fun!







After that, Mystress said goodbye, and Quad went off on his own. Seth and I trotted off on our own for a bit. I was feeling especially mellow and demure, after all that excitement .






After a bit, Seth returned to his usual set, and we met up this extremely friendly doe! Unfortunately, her pictogram didn’t show up, and I couldn’t tell who it was. Nevertheless, we had a ton of fun with her.



I’m sorry for skimping on the details, here, but I’m pretty sure that’s all that happened, last night. I want to thank each and every one of my friends for being there for my, during my childhood. And I want to thank everybody who was around last night, for making my doe day so incredibly special. I love you all, from the bottom of my heart.

Love,
Lemon