Days had passed since the nightmare yet it still hung on Cloud’s mind like a weight. He wondered what the dream had meant; he hadn’t ever had a dream like it before or since. Maybe it’d just been another nightmare, nothing more and nothing less? Maybe he was just overreacting?
Cloud shook his head and tried to concentrate on where he was going, not that he ever paid much attention anymore. Nowadays, he always felt like he was going in circles. His direction in life was lost...and he could not find it. It was as if he was trapped with no way out.
There are ways, His inner voice muttered, there are many ways.
It was then that he realized he was standing on cold, hard stone.
He stood at the edge of the precipice again, looking out across the forest from the top of the tallest boulder of the playground. Cloud backed away from the edge as before. He wanted to run, to get away from this place, but he stayed rooted to the spot. His heart beat furiously in his ears, drowning out all other noise.
Jump, His inner voice whispered poisonously, it will all be over and you will be free.
Cloud laid his ears back. “No…”
What do you have to lose? What do you have to live for?
Cloud took a breath. “Nothing,” He replied, his voice sounded dead and cold, “Nothing at all.” He stepped back and raised his head, “But I won’t jump.”
There is no stopping the inevitable. You want to jump.
“I. Will not. Jump,” Cloud repeated, biting off each word with defiance.
You cannot change fate.
Suddenly, a flurry of birds rose from the forest floor right in front of the buck and took flight with a great commotion. Startled by the sudden movement and noise, Cloud reared up with a frightened bellow. As he came back down, a large portion of rock came loose beneath his hoof and threw him off balance.

Cloud lay among the silent stones of the ruins in his favorite patch of flowers. The wind gently stroked the petals of the flowers and the leaves of the trees overhead. Soft sounds of birds and the distant calls of the other deer floated on the breeze. It was a normal, quiet day.
Yet, the gray buck was oblivious. His world was foggy and disjointed with lethargy. How long had it been? Two days? Three? Regardless of the passing of time, sleepless nights were catching up with him. He hardly noticed the activity around him or heard the sounds of the forest or even felt the brush of the breeze on his back.
Cloud’s eyelids finally began to droop unwillingly and he gave in to the call of sleep, even though sleep would only bring the nightmares that he had come to know…and to fear.
~~
Cloud stood at the edge of a precipice. Everything around him was dark and he could see nothing beyond the rock he stood upon. There was no breeze, there was no sound. He was completely alone.
Cloud peered over the edge; a pebble came loose and tumbled down, down, down into the darkness until it was lost from his sight. He wondered for just a moment what lay down there in the all consuming blackness. He wondered if he should jump whether he would plummet to his death or, perhaps, he would land harmlessly. Maybe he would, like the pebble, be swallowed up by the darkness and lost forever.
“Jump and find out,” Unseen voices whispered.
Cloud tilted his head, “Jump?”
“What harm could it do?” The poisonous voices hissed, “Jump.”
The gray buck considered the whispers. He eyed the yawning pit before him. What harm could [i]it do?
Cloud took a step forward and jumped.
Down, down through the darkness he fell. Much too fast, much too far.

Months and dates meant nothing to Cloud, seasons were his calendar. He remembered that it was around this time, when the days grew warmer and longer, a time known as summer that his younger brother was born. Sky would have been two by now, just a year younger than Cloud. He would have been excited at the prospect of having larger antlers, he would have been trying to take on every stag he came across. He would have been happy. In a perfect world, Sky would have been alive to celebrate growing a year older. But the world was not perfect.
Cloud carried the assortment of flowers that he had so carefully picked earlier to the birch forest. Sky had always loved the birch forests back at their old home range, he'd said they made him feel safe and comfortable. How ironic that such a place would also be where he would die.
Cloud stopped beneath a tree situated deep in the forest and laid the flowers down at it's base. His task done, he stepped back for a moment, reminiscing about what should have been, could have been, and how it was.
Why do I still linger? He wondered, Maybe I just can't let go.
Cloud raised his head skyward and forced a smile even though he was breaking on the inside. He would always smile for Sky, no matter what.
"Happy birthday, little brother."