Withholding [Rhys]

He heard them before they first spoke up. The hesitant baby steps. The scrambling hooves on rock. The young ones. He despised them, but sometimes education was necessary.

The elder stag turned his head back towards the edge of the sitting stones and watched the small group of fawns that were attempting to reach his resting place. He lazily rose to his feet and leaned forward picking up the fawns one by one in his mouth and moving them to the top of the stones where he rested. They were far too young to make the climb themselves and the maddening scraping sounds of their desperate attempts would keep him from his nap. Best to just get it over with in the first place. He adjusted hist golden mask when the last fawn was placed and laid back down.

It had been dark for some time in the forest and he peered towards the worried little faces crowded around his illuminated crown. The three small fawns shuffled their hooves and nudged each other forward. It was a tiresome display. He tilted his head and spoke in a soft gentle tone as not to spook the trio. "And how might I help you three troublemakers today...?" His sudden vocalization seemed to startle fawns into scattering before they regrouped. The smallest female wearing a crown of violets was pushed forward. Her posture stayed low and she trembled as she spoke. "D-Davith...? W-why are there mean evil deer in the forest?" She immediately retreated to the safety of the other two fawns and the trio looked on eagerly. Rhys cocked his head to the side and sighed softly under his breath. How could he explain such a thing to children?

He rose to his feet again and took a few tentative steps towards the edge. He stared out towards the forest where he knew the sources of their anxiety lurked. They were so young, yet had to deal with such harsh realities. The forest was to be a place of safety at one time. He stayed poised for some time before glancing back at the fawns. "Why do you believe there are bad deer?"

The timid female fawn from before took a few hesitant steps forward and meekly met his gaze. "B-Because they didn't have any mommies or daddies?". The other two fawns giggled at her assumption and she flushed brightly before retreating back again.

Rhys chuckled softly and shook his head. "Hm. so all of you are evil then? Not a mommy or daddy between the three of you! How long until you rip the throat of a sleeping deer? " He noted their expressions of horror with some amusement and sat down waiting for the next guess. "No...this will be hard for you being so young, but you must look beyond the simple facts. Go broader. Think harder. You know why. "

The next fawn to approach was a larger male with poppies resting behind his ears. Rhys knew immediately that this one could be a problem child later. He kept his suspicions quiet and gave his full attention to the young stag as it spoke confidently. "They can't help it. That's just how the twin gods made them!"

Rhys laughed softly and grinned back at the fawn. "No wrong again! You think the twin gods made them that way? Have you ever seen a fawn that was born with a skull mask or fire coming from its mouth? A fawn that thirsted for blood? No. The Twin Gods have no such plans for such a creature in the forest except for the Giant Zombie Deer. There is another force at work here."

He noted the annoyance on the young male fawn's face as he dismissed his claim. Two down, one to go. The final fawn approached. It was undoubtedly male and announced it's presence with a dull scrape sound. It had already been prematurely decorated with a skeleton pelt and bore a long impish mask that matched the fawn in height. His voice was muffled by the mask but still vaguely audible. "B-because they like to fight other deer?" The other two fawns shared tiny smirks.

Rhys smiled under his mask and turned to face them. "Yes, that is closer to the truth. Now, why do they like to fight?"
He only allowed them a few minutes of blank staring before it came obvious that the youth had no idea. He sat down to their level and spoke in a hushed tone. "What do you do when you want a mask but none of the adult deer will pay attention to you?" Ah yes. He saw their eyes give that malevolent little twinkle and they all started to shout in order to talk over each other. "MOO REALLY LOUD! HEADBUTT THEM! RUN IN CIRCLES! SPAM THEM!! SPAM THEM!! JUMP ON THEIR HEAD! BITE THEM! MOO LOUD!!" Rhys laughed softly and nodded. "Good Good. I notice how none of you said 'wait patiently' or 'gesture silently towards the tree'. You see you little children have a lot in common with those mean deer."

The poppy fawn stomped the ground and huffed loudly. "Well if we're not loud and annoying no one will EVER give us a mask! It takes too long to get noticed if you just sit and wait!" Rhys nodded emphatically and stepped forward nuzzling the fawns. "And now you know. They crave attention. They know that in five minutes of throwing a trantrum or acting out they can get their name right in the headlines without a great amount of effort. No need to give nice comments to other people or be a kind person. Nope. Just ten minutes of throwing a fit and whipping the forest into a frenzy and they've made their mark on the forest forever. Now..how do you stop a mean deer?"

The imp mask'd fawn stepped forward first and ventured a guess. "You...attack them and chase them out?" Rhys just gave a brief shake of the head. The poppy fawn laughed loudly at his companion. "No! You have to kill them!" Again the elder stag dismissed his suggestion. The timid female raised her head and whispered softly "Hug..them?" The snickers on either side silenced her. Rhys looked towards the nearby mushroom tree and focused his gaze. "When you finally get spelled with a mask after mooing loud and being obnoxious, are you satisfied?"
The three fawns shook their head in unison and tried to once again speak over each other "It just wears off! You gotta keep doing it! It sucks! I just like to annoy them! You always need another mask!" Rhys nodded sagely and lowered his voice. "So the ones that you ask about are you wanting a mask. And if you give it the mask it's just going to keep doing whatever it was doing to get the mask. So what do you do? The three fawns huddled together for some time talking it out before they answered. "Don't...don't give them a mask?"

Rhys nodded and turned his back on the fawns. "And there you have it. Do not give them the mask. Don't give them what they want. They cannot really hurt you. Just ignore their tantrums and someday they'll stop when they realize it no longer gets them the notoriety they crave. With time and patience they might gain the recognition of the community, but taking the fast pass of bad behavior just leaves a sour taste in everyone's mouth. Good day fawns. "
The two flowered fawns took off leaving the imp mask'd one behind. He took a few tentative steps towards Rhys and flattened his ears to his head. "S-so..we just ignore the mean deer?"

Rhys turned back to look at the fawn and grinned silently. "Oh, you thought I was speaking of only the deer did you?" He bounded over the stones towards the pond leaving the smaller fawn alone. Marcaello turned his head after the elder stag and gave the discarded hoof prints a perplexed look. For all his wisdom the elder stag left more questions that answers.

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