The Fawn
"Friend... I need you to leave me alone. Just for a bit...so I can think..."

The brown deer, still wearing her fawn spots, looks sadly at the deer before her. He looks at her with confusion, sadness, pain. She can't help it; he's done things that she can't know whether she agrees with or not. She needs time, time to think. She doesn't want to hurt him, but she knows she can't avoid it.

She trots off, and he follows. It's only hurting him more, she knows. The overpowering need to think is clouding her mind. She ignores him, trying to stay just a bit ahead. She limps sadly, still injured from a fight and her horrible headache, which lingers still.

She's begun feeling sick, running for so long. She collapses in the pond and he lurks behind. She ignores him...until he races forward to the deer he has been fighting all night. She nearly snarls and leaps up, getting in between him and the other deer. The Fawn glares at him with cold eyes.

“If you hurt him, you hurt me. You've already done that more than enough tonight. Stay away from him.” She walks away coldly, closing her eyes as the water from the pond seeps into her light fur. The memories play back.

The day had started with pain. She remembered blacking out from the pain of running from her pursuer, trying to evade him, digging in with her antlers, scratching at his face...He wouldn't leave her alone. It was...justified. He looked so much like Tally, told so many lies. Yet another thing the statues had crafted to try and break her.

She remembered the fight that had started her off. Some deer had cast that burning white pelt on her. Even when she cowered, it just watched her and jumped around. So she tried to tell it to back off, rearing and lowering her antlers. She had ended up in a fight, earning bruises and scratches all along her body. Then she ran for her life, head pounding, feeling sick.

That stupid Tally-imitator had only made it worse. He'd come up, done everything too antagonize her. She'd resorted to hurting him, but he never backed off. She had blacked out from the pain first.

Now, today, the pain had dulled. She limped cautiously towards the pond, then stopped. Darkweaver's scent drifted upon the air. She smiled and headed for him, laying down beside her old friend. His nemesis had died; she'd seen the body. Good riddance. He had deserved what he got. Soon, though, her old friend disappeared, leaving her to mourn where he had been. She lay down in the still-warm patch of grass.

Another stag lay nearby, watching her, then turned away. Skull mask, ram horns, a strange scaly pelt. She was slightly afraid of him, though curious. Had her gray friend decided to wear a new pelt?

She limped away, though, heading for the pond. He followed from a distance, observing perhaps. Oddly, she was not too frightened of the stag. He didn't come too close, after all...Well, until she was threatened. He had stepped straight in and protected her from the one she feared, then quickly backed off. Strange stag indeed.

Then he had appeared. Her gray pelted friend, the one with a skull that showed a bit and ram horns, just like that curious deer. He had strange little horns and a strangely furry body with a long tail. Of course, this didn't bother her one bit. He shared her hatred of the Twin statues, was willing to stay with her for long periods of time. He understood her, and she was so...so glad to finally have someone else. Him and Darkweaver. She rested her head on his shoulder, warm and safe for a bit, happy too. So happy that she'd finally found someone just like her when she'd thought she was nearly alone.

Then she smelled his scent again. Darkweaver was nearby. She stood and limped towards him, followed by her friend. Two of her friends at once...heaven. They came upon him quickly, with another deer. This was the deer that had scared her earlier...yet Darkweaver seemed to like them. They all began to bounce and she joined in, losing herself for just a little while, happier than she'd ever been in the forest. She bounced without care, finally joyful. However, she had to rest too quickly. The deer settled around her, though, and she gladly snuggled between them.

Soon, the magpie doe-stag with key antlers came by. The Fawn could tolerate her now, not nearly as bothered by her presence by seeing her so many times. Soon she was hopping slowly again with the whole group. When they started dancing...She couldn't keep up. She soon realized that she had forgotten how to dance.

How much more had she lost? Was she losing memories of her world? She sat down quietly. Of course, something had to interrupt. A peaock deer, with bell antlers and a skull mask stood in the distance. She wasn't too bothered by him; after all, with two friends and a deer she was neutral towards around, she would be protected.

Then her gray friend got up and raced over towards the deer, frightening it. It cowered and reared. Memories of her encounter with the devout-spelling deer came in flashes. She raced to the scene getting between them. Hooves crashed upon her sides, scratching painfully and adding to her wounds. Yet, they stopped as the other deer ran off. She walked away from the scene, shaken and in pain.

The gray deer followed her, but something strange was welling in her chest. She turned away from him, but couldn't bear the sad look on his odd face. She pushed the feeling away and came back, sitting with her friends. However, the gray deer soon walked off. She tried to follow, but soon had to stop. She could hardly make it a matter of feet. She called but he wouldn't answer. He ignored her.

“...No...Come back! Come back!
“...Damn you...
“Why won't you...come back?” She sank to the ground, hardly feeling Darkweaver's nuzzles. She shouldn't be feeling this way about some stag, but she couldn't help it. He was like her...She needed all of them that she could get.

He did come back, but so did the peacock-deer. He stayed so far away...There went another piece of her mind. She could almost feel it slip away. Then he and the peacock deer were back to fighting, so, so quick.

She ran between them, getting hit again by the peacock deer's hooves.

“You! Don't hurt my friends!” She growled at the deer, then turned to her gray deer friend. Darkweaver and the magpie doe-stag stayed behind.

“And you...don't-don't you hurt him either! Can't you...see he's scared?” The other deer ran off again and she limped away, slowly, sadly. How could she protect them both? She couldn't let her friend be hurt, nor could she let someone so afraid be hurt by her friend. She needed to be alone.

Darkweaver understood, tried to keep her other friend away. The conflict tore at her brain, wracking her sanity. Still he followed.

“Please friend...” She took off running, yet still he stayed, right behind her. She finally couldn't take it anymore, the tear of wounds as she ran. She stopped and so did he.

The peacock deer...was just like her. Just like her. Scared, attacked when cornered...Hurt. Alone. But he couldn't hurt her friends. She wouldn't let him. He couldn't be hurt either.

Yet her friend had hurt him. He hadn't understood. He didn't back away...That could have even been her under his hooves. She was the same after all. He had hurt a scared deer, just like her tormentor the other day. Yet...he was precious. He was like her. She finally had someone...she couldn't afford to lose someone who understood her like that...Or seemed to...

She stumbled to her feet.

“Friend... I need you to leave me alone. Just for a bit...so I can think...”

He doesn't.

“You...please...just-
“You're just like the one who attacked me the other day! You couldn't see that he was scared! You just kept pushing, pushing, pushing until he broke and attacked you. You're just like all of them! That could have been me! I'm just like him! I'm scared of almost every deer, I'm almost always running for my life, and I can't help it! What's wrong with me?! Why can't I-I-” She chokes on the words.
“I'm sorry...I...don't feel well...Please leave me alone for a while...I-I'll see you later.” She darts off, but still he follows.

She stares down at the pond water for a long time. She can sense the scaly deer nearby, watching perhaps. She doesn't care. She just feels sick, horribly sick. How could he betray her like this? Or had she betrayed him?

She doesn't know. She can't understand, can't work out this problem, just like one of those hard equations from school. Perhaps the Gods have finally got her nailed by coming to her as a friend.

She gives in.

Small streams of water flow from the eye holes of her mask, joining those of the the crying idol.

((/"emo" x3 Sorry guys. This is not my proudest piece. >>
Mentioned: Archerous, Anko, Seed?, Scarecrow, Darkweaver, Amary, Ducky, a deer I don't know))