If anyone has any suggestions or notices any mistakes in the writing, please feel free to comment. I'm thinking about actually trying to get this published. I'll probably post illustrations on here once I get them done as well.



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Once upon a time, a little fawn awoke in a grand, enchanted forest.
The fawn was lost -- he couldn't remember his mother or where she had gone --
and he felt just a little scared. Gazing up at the branches that towered
over him, the fawn wondered, Did I come from up there? He looked down
at his scrawny little fawn legs and his pointy little fawn hooves and realized
that someone like him could never have climbed that gigantic tree.

He decided to walk around and see what he could find.

Soon he came to a stream, and looking down into the bubbling, flowing waters,
he wondered, Did I come from down there? He looked at the fish hovering
just below the water's surface and then at his own reflection mirrored on top.
I look nothing like those things, he thought, and he realized that someone
like him could never live under water. He sucked in a deep breath of clear
forest air and was thankful that he had lungs instead of gills.

He decided to walk on and see what more he could find.

Following the stream, he eventually came to a bridge.
I wonder what's on the other side of this bridge, thought the little fawn.
Maybe where I came from is over there. So he stepped onto the bridge and
began to cross. While he was crossing over, he looked up into the sky and saw
clouds in a vast bright blue. He wondered, Did I come from the sky? How would
I get up there? He looked at his back and imagined wings growing out of his
shoulder blades, but none grew. With a wistful sigh, he looked back up into the
clouds and realized that someone like him could never fly.

He crossed the bridge and decided to keep going.

A short distance away from the bridge, the little fawn came upon the hugest tree
in the forest. Its trunk was so wide that he could run across the diameter of it,
and its branches were so high that he had to crane his neck and strain to see them.
The inside of the tree was hollow, and inside that hollow, there was a hole leading down
into a tunnel. To the little fawn, who was starting to get sleepy, this hole seemed like the
perfect place to take a nap. He climbed down between the roots of the giant tree and
soon fell fast asleep.

As he was sleeping, the little fawn dreamed that he was running through the forest
as fast as his legs could carry him, and then, suddenly, he was flying. He crashed
right through a soft, poofy cloud, then dove back down out of the sky, straight into
the river, where he swam with the fish, breathing under water with ease. When he
reached the end of the river, he climbed out onto the bank, shook himself dry, and...

He heard voices.

The little fawn opened his eyes to find that he was still under the roots of the great
oak. Only now he was surrounded by a family of strange animals. He had never seen
anything like them. They were small and plump, with silky fur, fluffy little tails, and
bright, alert eyes. Their whiskers twitched as their small noses sniffed the air, and
their tall, round ears, perched high on their heads, were all pointed toward him,
listening.

The little fawn stared at the rabbits.

The papa rabbit thumped his hind leg on the ground and said to his family, "I believe we
have a guest." The fawn looked surprised and shakily tried to stand.

"Umm... h-hello," he said. A little rabbit poked her head out from behind her mama's
back to take a peek.

"What is it?" she asked.

The mama rabbit smoothed her daughter's fur and explained, "Why, it's a fawn, darling --
a baby deer."

"I'm a deer?" the fawn asked, surprised. "What's a deer?" Mama rabbit frowned.

"You don't know your own kind?" she asked him. "Where is your mother?"

"I... I don't know," he admitted. "I forgot I had a mother."

"Aww," crooned the little rabbit, "that's so sad," and she and all her siblings surrounded
the young deer and hugged him.

Mama rabbit hopped over to Papa rabbit and whispered something in his ear, which was met
with a hrmph! and a serious nod. Papa rabbit hopped over to the fawn and stood up
tall, nose-to-nose with him.

He cleared his throat and said, "My mate and I have had a discussion, and we both agree that
it is unfit for a young one such as yourself to be without the love and care of a family.
Therefore, we would like to extend to you an invitation to join ours." He sat back on his
haunches and awaited an answer.

"What does that mean, exactly?" asked the young deer.

"It means 'do you want to be our brother?'" one of the young bucks excitedly explained.

"Brother? Really? You want me as a brother?" All the little bunnies began hopping up and
down excitedly, exclaiming Yes! Yes! Yes! The young fawn smiled and looked at the
two grown rabbits. "And would that mean you would be my mama and papa?" he asked.

The couple nodded.

The young deer almost leaped for joy. "Yes!" he said happily. All the little bunnies cheered.

"I'm Campion!" declared the bunny who had first spoken up. "And that's Mazus and Anthurium,"
she added, pointing to the two young bucks on his other side. "We're all from the same litter,
but I'm the oldest." She smoothed her fur and stood up on her hind legs, proudly puffing out
her chest. "Since you're the newest family member, that means I'm your older sister, and I
promise I'll take care of you."

Mazus stepped shyly forward and cleared his throat.

"I have a moss collection," he said. "I'll show it to you if you want. I really like studying
plants and herbs and stuff."

"Thank you," said the fawn. Then Anthurium, the biggest of the three siblings, jumped forward.

"I'm Anthurium," he said proudly. "I know my sister already told you that, but I wanted to
tell you myself, because I can take care of myself. I'm the toughest buck in the whole
forest." He hopped around and mock-punched at the air to demonstrate. "If you want, I can
teach you all about fighting rabbit-style." The fawn giggled.

"Now, now, darlings," said the mama rabbit. "Let's give our fawn a chance to introduce himself.
What's your name, son?" The fawn looked around at his new family and had a sudden realization.

"I don't have a name," he said. The bunnies all gasped.

"Ohh, oh! Let's call him Thistle!" shouted Anthurium.

"How about Lichen?" suggested Mazus.

"I like the name Adrien," said Campion calmly. They all stared at her. "I read it in one of
Mazus's books," she explained. "In some ancient language, it means 'the Dark One.' I thought
it sounded good because it matches the colour of his coat."

"Well," said Papa rabbit, "which name does he like best? I think he should decide." They
all turned to stare at the fawn. He stared back and thought about it for a moment.

"I think..." he said, "I like Campion's idea best. I'm not touch like a thistle or clingy
like a lichen, but I do have dark fur, so... Adrien is the best name for me."

"That settles it, then," said Papa with a nod. "From henceforth, this deer's name shall be
Adrien, and he shall be called my son."

That night, the rabbits threw a party in celebration of their new son and brother, and the
rest of their family came to meet him. By the end of the night, little Adrien was so
exhausted from greeting and chatting with relatives that he couldn't keep his eyelids open
any longer and fell fast asleep in the middle of the den. His new brothers and sister
cuddled up next to him to sleep, and their parents watched them dreaming with affectionate
gazes.

In his peaceful dreamworld, Adrien was running ecstatically through the forest again, but
this time, he changed into a rabbit, his furry little paws thumping on the ground as he
zoomed across the bridge and over a wide expanse of grass,

and then he grew wings and flew.