Fog rolled off the ground as the dark night was filled with howling calls as a scramble of hoof beats as something was being chased. With the midnight moon up over head and with it being the only light in a ever cloudy night it was the only decision factor that was going to allow the victim to escape without fully blindly running off a cliff or tripping and falling on a rock or tree branch.

As the fog churned a shadow of a sprinting fawn was becoming visible as it sprinted between trees and leaped over rocks and fallen logs in hopes to escape. The small but nimble the male sprinted here and there on slender legs as another loud call from behind him made him made him freak out and move his legs faster. He looked no more than a few weeks old as his spotted coat failed to hide him properly in such a dark night. On his face though he had a bird shaped mask tied tightly onto his head allowing his large floppy ears to stand out harshly against the dark stone like color as his slowly graying fur bounced on his head. Breathing heavier and faster the fawn broke through a tall area of grass and gave a shout as he suddenly noticed that the ground wasn't there any more and gave a scream as he tried to brace himself for the hard landing.

Suddenly the ground that once was home to his flying hooves was now gone leaving the young male without anything to save him. He felt the ground slam into his body with a force that would of made him thought that he had been tackled by the monsters who had chased him.

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A older male jerked up as the sun was shining through the leaves of a tree that he was currently perched in. Unlike before he wasn't covered in spots, mud or even blood and his horns and grown in ever so slightly. His white under belly was framed by a gray top coat though his black stockings and swipes behind his forelegs and swipes on his hips as well as his tail stood out the most. Though it seemed that even through all the years he still wore the metal like bird mask tightly on his head. He was still thin and nimble looking though with him perched oddly in a tree didn't seem to deter him from how odd looking he was.

Sniffing the air and looking up at the leaves that hung above him, he slowly leaned up to go and grab a few without standing on the branch that he was on. Some how he managed to nab a few and started to chew on the tender leaves before he started to make some high pitched chirps and other bird like sounds as he flicked his ears up and down as he waited for sounds of his flock to answer to him.

Within a short amount of time a flock of birds responded and made the deer in the tree perk up his large ears and give a few more chirps before he looked down and started to pick his way down from the tree that he had spent the night in. Bouncing off other branches and landing on the boulder that was under his tree he soon came to a stop on the ground and started to stretch his long legs and also tried to rub his face from under the mask with his foreleg.

Once he was done stretching he made a few more bird like sounds before he started off to the small stream that wasn't far from his tree within his valley. Trotting off to it he seemed to be at ease compared to his younger self who would of been crying in a hollowed out tree if he was able to. Here in his narrow valley he was safe. Nothing larger than him was ever seen roaming around in the small valley aside from a few small creatures here and there and the many birds who lived around him.

He called out to the birds a few more times and soon had a small flock of them following him to the stream and remain with him as he went about his daily routine. But as he waded through the water calling out to his birds he would of been happily on his way if he didn't notice that a rabbit and a fox had just darted through what he had always assumed to be a solid stone wall.

With a curious sniff he slowly started to make his way across the stream and slowly stalked up to the hidden entrance only to stick his head and mask into the hole and noticed that aside from broken spider webs and old leaves there was a path that looked big enough for him to crawl through.Slowly out of curiosity he started to crawl through as his short antlers scrapped along the rooftop of the tunnel until he was fully inside and was slowly peaking his mask's beak out of the hole to see if it was safe or not outside.

Taking a few stiffs he was almost sure that there was nothing of worth on the other side of the stones until he heard some almost forgotten calls that made his skin twitch and cause his ears to perk up and strain. Not sure what to do as he felt his heart flutter he swallowed and shifted uncomfortably in his small tunnel only to take a deep breath and give out his own cry though it was sharper and bird like than the others that echoed on the other side of the stones. Remaining still and calm he waited for a response only to hear none and slowly started to pull himself out.

He was nervous but he knew that if he got scared he could always run and crawl his way back into his own valley and remain there away from danger.