Hi everyone, finally I finished chapter seven! I think this was the hardest chapter, because I didn't want to repeat to much of HF. Again, I picked the most important pieces and added them. I just hope it looks alright. I have the feeling the quality isn't as good as it used to be...

Have fun reading it anyway!

P.S. Skokey, I hope I got your characters right. Skokey isn't that hard though, because I just copied and pasted from HF. Hope you don't mind, but it was the best way...

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CHAPTER SEVEN

It had been another few weeks and Fenqua tried to let Skokey socialize with the other deer. After spending so much time alone, she thought it would be good for him to meet some new friends. Most deer weren’t very pleased to see him, listening to all the words that were spreading. Some of the deer even said he beat up his mother, who left him when he was a newborn. Thanks to his reputation, it was hard for him to make a good impression.
But, one of the stags didn’t seem to care and they had a long conversation with each other.

The next morning, a gentle breeze awoke Skokey from his sleep. He noticed Fenqua was still asleep, so it had to be early. He decided to get up anyway and dipped his head to graze. A butterfly that was circling around his head tried to land on his nose, but took off every time he moved. After a while he spotted something in the distance, a young fawn that had almost reached adolescence. He slowly walked over to her as she came closer. The fawn had large, sad eyes and ears hanging below her chin. Her face was wet and her tail was slowly sawing from side to side. Skokey looked at her black eyes, but she soon looked down again.

‘Hi…’ she said very quietly.
‘Hi.’ he replied, bringing his head to her level. ‘What’s the matter?’
She stared at him for a while and suddenly noticed his pictogram. ‘Skokey… my brother.’
His ears pricked up and he suddenly remembered who she was. ‘Fulu!’ He nuzzled her carefully. ‘Is there something wrong? Please tell me!’
Fulu started to sob quietly and couldn’t speak for a few minutes. Skokey thought it was the lump in her throat and waited patiently. After gathering some words, she finally spoke:
‘Skokey… mama’s dead.’
He lifted his head in surprise and lowered his ears. ‘W…What?’ But Fulu only lowered her head and nodded. She told him her mother had been sick, very sick. She could barely walk by herself but was determined to come here. Fulu told him their mother had wanted to see two deer, one of them was Skokey.

‘She wanted to come here so badly… she was seeking forgiveness.’ Fulu looked at Skokey earnestly. ‘From you.’

After telling the rest of the story, Fulu started crying again and he hugged her against him. Her cold face against his warm fur seemed to calm her down and he soon took her home. Now her mother was gone, he felt responsible for his little sister and would take care of her as long as she needed.
At the Playground, Fenqua had already awoke and waited patiently on a slab for Skokey to return. She stared at the purple flowers for a while, standing together in a small group. A bit farther to the right a poppy was standing all by itself. It reminded her of Skokey, since his antlers were covered in poppies. Thinking of decoration, Fenqua was still wearing a normal pelt and antlers. All the fuss about spell magic to change appearance, Fenqua didn’t think it would make her prettier at all. She looked at one of her scars and sighed. ‘I’ll never be beautiful.’

‘You already are, my sweetie.’

Fenqua lifted her head and looked around a few times. It was the same familiar voice as a few weeks ago. She still hadn’t figured out who it was.

‘Who are you? Please tell me!’

‘Fenqua, my beautiful bright eyes.’

‘What is it? How do you know me?’

‘Oh deer, I’ve known you before you were born and I’ll know you after you die.’

‘But… why won’t you just tell me who you are?’

‘Because you already know.’

‘No I don’t! I wouldn’t be asking you if I did. I have no memories of you.’

‘That’s not true. You may not have memories of me in your head. But I’m sure you have memories of me in your heart.’

'What do you-‘

‘Come, it’s time to pray.’

Suddenly Fenqua felt something warm in her chest, as if the sun had just decided to visit her heart. The warmth spread through her body and made her feel sleepy. After a while, she dozed off and woke up in a dream. She opened her eyes and saw she was lying right next to the Twin Gods statue. She rose and bowed in respect.

‘It is time to bless you, my child.’ The gentle voice spoke. Fenqua could hear the familiar warmth, but also noticed a glimpse of pride. She still wanted to ask the voice so many questions, but she knew it wasn’t the right time for it. Her pictogram started to shine and soon her whole body was covered in a golden glow. A huge bird seemed to appear out of the statue and spread his wings. Fenqua couldn’t see him, but knew from the sound it was a Great Argus. He flew from the statue and landed on her back, immediately melting with her pelt.

‘Please accept this as our gift. We see something special in you. Remember, bright eyes, me and your father are proud of you.’

‘Wait… that means you’re my-‘ Fenqua slowly felt the warmth fading from her body, leaving a cold chill. ‘WAIT! Please don’t leave! I have so much I want to ask you.’

‘You will get your answers. In time.’

With those words, the dream disappeared before Fenqua’s eyes. The last thing she saw was a small stag with a tan pelt and butterfly antlers. Though his face looked expressionless, Fenqua had the feeling he gave her a faint smile before he disappeared.

A few hours later, Skokey came back with Fulu. His eyes immediately searched for Fenqua, who was sitting on top of a rock. He blinked his eyes a few times. Did she look different today? He could see her muscled, but graceful body was covered in the beautiful Great Argus pelt. She had decorated her, now blue, antlers with pink poppies, something he had never seen before. And with that she wore the Orca mask that made her beautiful blue eyes stand out even more. He blushed slightly by the sight of it and Fulu gave him a confused look. Fenqua rose and jumped right in front of his face. She smiled at first, but when she saw Fulu her heart seemed to freeze.

‘Who’s this?’
‘This is Fulu. She’s my sister… She needs to stay here until she can be on her own.’
Fenqua nodded and seemed relieved. She welcomed Fulu with a warm smile and whispered something in Skokey’s ear. ‘Promise me you tell me what happened.’
That night, when Fulu was already asleep, they sat on the slab together and Fenqua listened to Skokey’s story.

‘So... I didn't know your sister knew where you were.’
‘Of course. I told her if anything went wrong, she should come to the Playground and find me. I'm honestly surprised she remembered, but I really don't know anything about her.’
‘What happened? It must have been something terrible for her to stay here.’
Skokey looked down and gathered himself. ‘My mother died today.’
Fenqua raised her ears quickly, ‘Skokey...’
‘No... It's fine. I'm not too broken up about it.’
‘Don't lie to me, Skokey, I know you're in pain.’
He sighed, ‘Yeah... I guess you're right... It's just... I.. I feel like I knew this would happen, and I didn't do anything about it. I could have made peace with her... And now it's too late.’
Tears slowly fell down his face and dripped on the ground. Fenqua moved closer and nuzzled him. ‘It's okay... These things happen. You said she wanted to ask for forgiveness, didn't you?’
‘Yeah, I did...’
‘Then she would have made peace with you. Her body just couldn't take it anymore. It wasn't her fault or your fault. It was nobody's fault. It must have been in the Twin Gods favor to take her away before she could reach you.’
‘Fen, I'm really starting to doubt the Twin Gods now... Why would they do that? Why couldn't they give her a few more hours?’
He started to sob again and Fenqua nuzzled him, ‘Skokey... It's going to be okay. You can tell me anything, remember that. I'll be there. ’Skokey nodded. And for the first time in months, they locked eyes, and they never looked away.

A few days later, the three of them awoke and decided to graze together. Fenqua and Fulu talked for a while and they decorated Skokey’s antlers with mushrooms. Both laughed at the sight of Skokey’s expression and Fenqua knew she and Fulu could become good friends. But, she decided it would be a good idea to visit the statue today. She still didn’t know much about the pelt that was given to her. But this was something she had to do on her own, she didn’t want Skokey to worry about her.

‘If you don’t mind Skokey, I’ll be leaving you two alone for today.’ She said.
Skokey looked up in surprise. Why wasn’t she staying like she always did? He hoped it didn’t have anything to do with Fulu. The two seemed to get along with each other very well.

‘Why aren’t you staying?’

‘I’ve got some…’ She rolled her eyes in thought, ‘business to attend to. Yeah. And besides,’ She came up to Skokey and whispered in his ear: ‘don’t you want to get to know your sister a little more?’ He seemed embarrassed that he didn’t understand her at first. He laughed very fakely. ‘Alright, have fun doing whatever you’re going to do! I’ll meet you later today!’ He just hoped she wasn’t meeting another stag. But then she suddenly winked at him, which caught him of guard, and she trotted off the boulder she was standing on, away in the forest. Skokey didn’t realize Fulu was staring at him.

‘So uh… Are you two mates or something?’

When Fenqua reached the Twin Gods statue, she suddenly felt the presence of someone, or something else. She looked around a couple of times but decided it was all in her mind. Graceful as always, she bowed deeply in front of the statue. The warmth she had felt the other day didn’t return to her, nor was a gentle voice heard. She got up again and felt frustrated, why didn’t the voice explain her deeds? Was she really who Fenqua thought she was? The warmth, the love and the pride of an aged mother… She even gave Fenqua a nickname, bright eyes. But, couldn’t that be the meaning of her name? For so long she had studied the Forest Language but never knew the meaning of her own name. How could that be possible?

‘I can tell you have a lot of questions. Maybe I can answer them.’

The voice seemed to come out of nowhere, like it was something in her head. But it wasn’t like the voice she heard before.
‘Who are you? Why do these stupid voices keep talking to me? Just come out and show yourself for once!’ She reacted, being sick of all these mysteries going on.

‘Okay, just look to your right.’ The answer surprised her and she turned her head to her right. Another deer approached her from behind a tree. She immediately recognized the expressionless face; it was the same she had seen in her dream. He had a beautiful, shiny pelt with red lines painted on his sides. He wore the black Butterfly antlers and the Noh mask, which had always scared Fenqua because it didn’t show any emotion.

‘I know you…’ Fenqua said.

‘That’s true. I’ve visited your dreams many times before, but I didn’t show myself until a few days ago. I believe you’re important, Fenqua. That’s why you received that Great Argus pelt’

‘Why? Why am I important? And who are you anyway? How can you visit my dreams and know my name? How can talk to me without really speaking?’

‘My name is Vessel. I am a mute, so I can’t talk like other deer. I usually talk to others in their dreams, but since you received that pelt, I can communicate with you using telepathy. You are actually reading my mind right now, but only because I want you to. That way, you don’t have to sleep to be able to communicate to be.’

‘But why is it so important to communicate with you? I believe you are very nice, but I don’t see the point of it.’

Again Fenqua thought he was smiling, maybe he was just smiling in thought. Maybe she could read his emotions, even though he wasn’t able to show them through his mask. What did she mean to him? What did he mean to her?

‘Well, I don’t know either.’ He said. ‘It’s something time will tell us. Something only the Twin Gods know and I think it has to do with those humans you encountered. They’re threatening our forest and finding ways to get in. Maybe you were blessed by your mother because she knew you could save us.’

‘Save who? The entire forest? That’s impossible… I couldn’t save Orphrite either!’

‘But you saved Skokey.’

‘How do you know-‘

‘I just do, okay? And if you can save someone from himself, you can save them from others too. I know for sure.’

‘Well I don’t. And you’re not even sure why I got this pelt and why we have to communicate. So you don’t have the right to scare me like this, you know just as much as I do.’

‘That’s not true Fenqua, I know a lot more than you do. And I think that’s the reason why we must stick together. You were blessed for a reason. We can communicate for a reason. And we have to find out what that reason is, together.’

‘You don’t know me at all! You don’t know anything.’

‘But I know your parents, I talk to them everyday.’

‘You talk to my parents? How can you talk to them, they’re dead! You don’t know them at all!’

‘Still, I know them far better than you do…’