"Skokey...Skokey, wake up..."

Skokey weakly opened his eyes. It was almost blinding, what he saw. He let his eyes adjust to the bright light.

"Skokey... My poor boy..."

A sillhouetted figure of a stag stood before him. His appearance was glorified with a bright yellow light. Skokey could barely make out the ghostly object hanging above the figure's head.

"Why are you doing this to yourself?"

"I..I don't know... What else am I supposed to do?" He asked, still bewildered by the darkened figure.

"You're in so much pain..."

"You have no idea..." Skokey squinted, trying to seek out any detail of the figure. He completely opened his eyes, tears starting to spill over, "...It's you..."

"Skokey, you shouldn't do it. There's no reason for you to."

"How should you know? How can I keep going at this point? What could there possibly be for me?"

"Remember what I taught you. That's all you have to do."

The light started to fade away, the figure of the late stag diminishing as well. Skokey got up, pleading for the light to come back. But soon, it was night again, and Skokey realized he had just opened his eyes.

"It was a dream..." He got up. There was a full moon out, everything was glistening silver. The stars shone brightly, twinkling like diamonds. A breeze flew overhead, blowing some leaves off trees as the rest clattered together. Skokey started to sob, laying himself down again. A small pool of tears formed below his face; it too had a silvery glow to it. "...Dad..."

***

Skokey awoke again. His face was still wet. He looked about himself. Everything was the same.

*inhale*...*exhale* okay... can anyone...


tell me....





how to.....











waterwalk/stand?

I KNOW. but it looks cool. and im sick of falling in. XD

Anger. Hatred. Sorrow.

Numbness.

Skokey felt absolutely empty. Completely alone. The blood ran cold in his veins, his heart seemed to stop. How could his mother do that to him? How did she think it would be okay?

He was angry at Fulu. But at the same time, he felt sorry for her. She would never know how he feels until she was older. She never knew how careless her mother was. And Skokey didn't feel up to telling her the truth. Not now. Maybe never. She shouldn't go through what he did. Nobody should.

He had forgotten all about Raku and Fenqua. They didn't seem to matter to him anymore. His liking to Fenqua, instead of growing naturally, festered. He was tormented at the thoughts of what she would think. Not only that, he had no desire to break Raku's heart. And what about Fraalch, Frola, Vin? What would they say?

So many questions seemed to flood him, and only more came when he stayed home. He couldn't be in the Playground anymore. Even though there was little company, there were still some who liked to hang around. He just wanted to be alone. Skokey left the Playground and went more Northwest. To a corner of the Birch Forest where nobody went. There was nothing there, so why should they?

He spent months in isolation. His still developing body cried out for food, but he refused to provide. He only drank the water that fell from the sky. Soon he had little strength to even get up. It was almost too much for him. Soon he thought about how he would die of starvation. It didn't concern him too much. He had been laying next to a small blueberry bush and some patches of grass. Once in every few days he'd take a nibble at them, but his attitude made him feel sick. He didn't want to eat.

well, not really stupidity... im uploading all the magically aquired things ive received before i grow up and get my dream set XD there are a lot of pictures...














*EDIT ONE*

*EDIT TWO*



*EDIT THREE*


YAAAAAY!!!

Another month passed. Nothing special happened, nothing new. There was news spreading around about the loss of a friend, someone who was a friend to seemingly the entire forest. Even though Skokey didn't know the deer personally, he had seen him a few times. He knew he was very old. He paid his respects, unknowing of who this deer really was, he still had prayers for him and all who knew him.

Skokey's pelt had been growing a little more robust now, the darker brown turning to more of a black. His underbelly was disappearing, and his face was turning a little more peach every day. Through many studies of his reflection, he realized that he had a Butterfly Pelt growing in. Once he realized this, he seemed very pleased. After all, that was his desired pelt, and he didn't even have to work for it.

He was growing a lot bigger. He had grown at least six inches more than he was when he was a fawn. His voice was changing, embarrassingly. He had cracked it several times when talking to a friend or even a stranger, which was never any fun for him. Because of his cracking voice, he became a little more socially awkward. He always tried to stay on the outer edges of groups, staying as silent as possible. Fenqua always laughed whenever his voice cracked, which made him a bit irritated. Fenqua had been growing about as fast as Skokey, but she was still a little smaller than him.

Fenqua had been his friend for a long time, but he started to feel a little differently about her. He seemed to have a little crush on her, which Fraalch said was normal. He hoped it would pass pretty soon and they could still be friends without anything messing it up. She was friendly, kind, very open to him, but he didn't know how she felt about him. It tortured him a little, he didn't want anything bad to happen. Usually he just shrugged it off, though, and still had fun.

A few more months passed. Skokey was slowly entering into his adolescence. His antlers were just starting to bud, and his spots were disappearing. But his spots were not only disappearing, new markings were starting to show up. His pelt was getting darker, and some reddish and orange markings were just starting to sliver in certain areas.

Skokey wasn't quite sure what was going on, but before he remembered what was happening, Fenqua came up to him. Even in early adolescence, they were still very playful. Who said you couldn't be playful when you grew up? Though Fenqua was a little older than Skokey, her antlers were smaller.

One day, Skokey and Fenqua were at the playground. Everyone else was gone, possibly under the Old Oak, because of the heavy rain. Very large drops were pounding against the leaves and ground, making everything both crisp and mushy at the same time. The two fawns didn't care, this was still new to them, they wanted to have fun with it.

After a while, they both stopped playing around and went under the slab to dry off a little. They were both sopping wet, their chins and ears dripping with excess water. Fenqua gave a little shake, spraying water all over Skokey. He laid his head down, slightly tired from all the running and jumping. For several minutes they just sat there, listening to the rain beat down as it became thicker. The towering birch trees shook in the onslaught of water, the grass wavered and bent. The ground was becoming a little flooded, the plants couldn't take in any more water.

Fenqua turned to look at Skokey, his soaked pelt shining in the dull light. It had just now occured to her that something was odd about it. "Hey, Skokey, what's with your pelt? It doesn't look right."

a little something i did... maybe i should do my long forgotted requests...

i felt like doing this because i needed to. kinda get it off my chest, ya know?

CAUSE I FEEL LIKE IT

behold my picture rath!!!








well, its not much, but its enough to be annoying. oh yeah.



so there. also, Fenqua, I think i found your dream pelt:

i had a dream last night that it was Michael's birthday, and in celebration there were just a huge buttload of new pelts added to the game. and it was only pelts, no masks no antlers, and none of the pelts were made up by any concept art XDD it was an awesome dream! except i didnt get any pelt action... oh well, it was still hilarious

Skokey spent most of the next day sleeping under the slab. After sitting at his father's grave all night, he went to the Twin Gods statue to get himself purified. He wasn't the only one there though. The death of Siki renewed everyone's fears and they all started to pray again. Siki wasn't the last one who died. A few deer met their end a couple days afterward, deer that Skokey never knew. But as soon as it started, the relapse of their fears ended, and everyone went back to their normal lives.

Skokey, slowly but surely, became happier. After about two weeks, he was pretty much back to normal. It wasn't Siki's death that depressed him, it was his mother. The fact that his mother abandoned him deprived him the motivation to even get up. It hurt him, but he soon figured that what's done is done, and there's nothing he can do about it.

In the morning, Skokey got up early and decided to graze a little. He saw Fraalch and Vin come up to him, and he gave them a warm greeting.

Fraalch bowed his head cheerfully, “Morning, Skokey. How are you feeling?”

Skokey smiled, “Uncle Fraalch, I'm fine. You don't have to worry.”

Vin looked over at Fraalch, “Well?”

Fraalch cleared his throat, “Yes, um.. Skokey, I know you're not very old... But I reckon you're old enough to... look over a little fawn while someone else is away?” A little fawn head poked out behind her father. “What I mean is, could you watch over Raku while me and Frola go out for a while?”

“Where are you going?” Skokey asked, munching on some grass.

“Well, we're gonna-” Vin gave him a shove, “We'll tell you when you're older.”

“Okay... Why me?”

“Everyone else is busy. Besides, I think Raku needs to make a new friend. Maybe she'll be a little less shy once she gets to know you.”