One Antler

Seed awoke from what seemed like a long nap. He stood and stretched his legs, taking a short walk to the Pond from where he had slept. Drinking from the water, he looked at the reflection, and tilted his head.

"What the...?", he questioned.

In the reflection, instead of having two antlers that grew away from his face, he had one antler that protruded forward. The antler was adorned by the purple flowers he normally wore, but it seemed very odd.

Seed could see the antler when he looked up - it was really there. One antler, right in the center of his head.

"Whoa!", he heard nearby. Turning, he saw a doe staring back at him, her eyes wide open. "You've got one antler, how did you get that?!", she asked immediately.

Seed didn't answer the doe - he was just as surprised himself. Without really thinking, he started to walk away, the doe tilting her head when she didn't get a response. Curiously, she began to follow him.

As Seed kept moving, others saw what he was - a unicorn stag. The lone antler was quite a surprise to them, all wondering about it and coming to a similar conclusion - the Twin Gods granted him with a gift. Seed, however, was thinking otherwise - the lone antler was causing a commotion, and he was getting much unwanted attention.

Several does were following him around, as if he was a source of immense beauty that they could not take their eyes off of. Fawns gasped and gawked at him, the little boys calling him names, while the little girls were envious of his lone antler. Stags nearby noticed the does following him, and immediately became infuriated that they had two antlers, and yet a stag with only one was drawing the does away from them.

It wasn't too long before the stags stood in his way. "You're pathetic!", they roared at him, "Why would the does want a stag with one antler?"

"I don't want any trouble.", Seed replied to them. With the stags becoming increasingly irritated, he then noticed the does were whispering to one another, and then begged him, "Where did you get the antler? We want an antler like that!"

"I...", he tried to say, but they kept bugging him, and then the stags were lowering their antlers at him, "If it's so special, then fight us with it!", they yelled.

"Fight fight fight!", the fawns screamed. They were easily entertained that the stag was being picked on.

Seed closed his eyes, and as if something triggered within him, he levitated.

The commotion stopped, turning into a variety of responses - shock, awe, terror...

The unicorn stag seemed to be standing on air. They all felt a strong gust hit their faces, the stags backing away, the does protecting their faces. Seed stood above them on thin air, looking down, his face bore an expression of disbelief...and of a little sadness...

He felt completely rejected. His life had completely changed, all because of one antler that seemed to sprout overnight.

He didn't say it. He didn't want to say it. But he had to...

Without looking back, Seed hovered away. The deer below looked up at him in complete awe. They watched him fly away, and disappear into the clouds above.

And there Seed sat. One cloud was thick enough for him to rest on, even though it would not really support his weight. He didn't know, he didn't seem to care. He closed his eyes, and felt like life as he knew it was...

"Seed, it's okay.", he heard.

The stag opened his eyes. He no longer sat on the cloud, but in a bright plain. Sitting up, he could feel his pair of antlers were back the way they should have been. The unicorn antler was gone.

He stood and saw some others nearby. "Hey, it's Seed!", Sithrim exclaimed. Taliene and Kahlan looked to see the green deer there.

Despite the others were there, Seed felt abandoned...like he was an outcast...

"Seed, it's okay.", Taliene said to him, "It never happened, it was just a test."

The green stag sighed. If it was a test..., he thought, ...who failed? Me...or all of those other deer?

The end of this chapter...