This is Una's history, which was too long to put in her biography, so instead its here. Enjoy.

Long, long ago, before man numbered years, the first deer was killed at the hands of humankind. From its blood came a shadow. It was the life of the baby the deer carried inside her, thrown into the world in a last desperate attempt to save its life. At first the fawn’s life was small and nearly invisible, a wispy shadow that followed the caveman back to his tribe. There, the tiny soul grew on the strange knowledge of man, hiding in the shadows cast by the human’s fire, watching, learning. Eventually the soul became a living thing—a deer—but it wasn’t… normal. It had a human face, and tiny arms as spindly as its unsteady fawn legs. It was a freak, and as soon as it could be seen it was driven away from the human tribe. It was seen as a bad omen, this half-human animal.

The fawn ran for a long time, tripping over her arms as she tried to get away from the sharp stones the humans threw at her. She ran until it was dark and she found herself in the middle of a field of tall grass. This was the first time she had been away from her human tribe, her family that hadn’t known she was there for all those years. She had watched their children grow up. She had waited for her own earthly body to form so she could be cared for and grow up too. And now this. How was the fawn supposed to know it was a deer all that time it waited, a formless shadow, with humans? It wasn’t fair.

The fawn began to calm herself down. She had done this many times, when predators had come near the tribe. Calmness made it better, easier to cope with. She could think things through in calmness.

She could see the tribe in her memories, going about their lives, building, surviving. With my hands, thought the fawn, I could survive too.

Memories of her life with the tribe became crucial. She found a shard of obsidian, and with it she could protect herself. She knew what plants were safe to eat and which were poisonous from watching the humans. She learned from her escape from her family and held her arms up when she ran. Memory was important, so she remembered everything.

She found a herd of deer and followed them for a time, but it was strange. The herd members grew up, aged, and died before her eyes while she barely changed. She hardly ever needed to eat or drink, but the other deer seemed to constantly. The fawn’s appearance was odd to them too, but despite their attempts to make her leave, she stuck to them like glue. She couldn’t bear to be alone. She was still a fawn, if a strange, seemingly immortal one.

A young doe seemed not to notice the fawn’s human face and arms, and took her in. It became apparent that there was something wrong with the doe’s head, because she didn’t notice that while she became older, her adoptive fawn hardly changed. The doe taught the fawn how to race through the forest at top speed, and to find the best grassy places, oblivious to the way the fawn pulled up the grass with her hands instead of actually grazing. When her adoptive mother died, the grief-stricken fawn left the herd. It was a long time before she searched out the company of deer again.

Many years later, she had been following a tribe of different humans, ones with red skin that lived in cones made of hide, when a young female and her father went gathering for berries. She watched as the two picked the bushes clean, admiring the female. She had long raven black hair and skin the same color as the red clay of the riverbeds. She was beautiful. From what she could understand, the female’s name was Una.

The deerling whispered. I will be called Una. Then I will be beautiful too.

The female heard her name, and gasped when she saw the deerling’s head poking up above the tall grass. The father looked up too. He came toward her, holding his hand out in a peaceful gesture. He spoke a few words, most the deerling didn’t understand. When he pushed aside the tall grass and saw her deer’s body, his coy smile faded and was replaced with a scowl. As he pulled out a stone dagger, the deerling shrieked in fear and reared, bringing her sharp hooves down on the father’s head.

The female called Una dropped her basket of berries and ran, yelling, Deer Woman! It’s Deer Woman!

The deerling turned and ran, and she left the human world forever.

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Una's biography is here: http://endlessforest.org/community/una039s-biography