He gasps in the darkness, struggling for air, struggling to fight back the darker tendrils that edge his vision. Crimson lines the ground around the fawn, glinting in the moonlight. This was just where it has been prophesied. This was where it had all started. Now he was here, bleeding out his life, trying to drink in the chilled air. Above, the moon looked on, countenance cold. There was no sympathy for him this night.

He lays there for ages, breathing raspy, turning colder and colder. He manages to gasp out,
“Mommy...?”
He rests his head on the logs, confused, alone, dying. He realizes that the voice has stopped haunting him for the moment. Good.

They had come so quickly. The graves, the blood water, so much more. He couldn't help running from it all, from the howls, from any other deer...from the voice. It was loud today, clear, perfect.

“Run, run, run, you'll never escape me....Today you will die. Follow me...”

He runs away, darting through the trees. He tries to fight where he sees the apparition, but to no avail. The deer stays with him, haunting, chanting, yelling, whispering. He can't get rid of it.

He gives in.

It takes him to a pile of crossed wood, tells him to wait. He does, finally allowed to relax. He closes his eyes, listening to the sounds of the deer within his head. His thoughts turn to Aegle, the doe he's adopted as his mother. He had decided to dress up as her for day of the deer, his favorite holiday. He's wearing her mask now. All he needs is her antlers and it'll be finished....

Then another approaches, interrupting his thoughts. He is pelted in white with lovely black markings, a skull for a face, and huge branching antlers. The little fawn pauses, watching his approach. The stag bellows, multiple times. He cowers, but comes a little forward, curious. The stag approaches and rears, but he cowers. The stag stops quickly, becoming friendly. The little fawn stares blankly, then suddenly breaks and falls into the side of the stag, trying to ignore the voice.

“...He won't go away...” He mutters into the stag's fur.
“Nope!” The voice laughs maniacally, gratingly inside his head, causing him to scream out in pain. He lurches to his feet, tries to ward it away. Then he runs for his life, leaving behind a confused stag.

Instead, he finds them.

The doe comes first, running past him as fast as she can.

“Die!” The voice screams in his head. He collapses, yelping in pain. The stag runs past, stopping at the sight of him. A sly smile comes over the stag's face as he moves closer to the collapsed fawn, but something stops him. He leaves the fawn with a little taunt before running after the doe.

The fawn slowly gets to his feet.

“Follow them,” the voice booms. He can't summon the will to disobey, so he lurks around the edges. He watches them, noting that they nuzzle a lot. Eew, he thinks. Stags an' does are so weird...

“Now kill them,” the voice commands. “Or else.”

“No!” He shrieks aloud, horrified. He turns to bat the deer away, but it moves quicker than he ever could. He turns back, staring at the couple with wide eyes. They look back...and he darts to a tree just a bit further away. The stag taunts him, rearing. He comes out, hurt.

“Wha-what'd I do?” He asks. The pair dart over. He backs away, eyes wide, as the stag threatens him. The doe leaps in circles around him, caging him in. He backs up to the tree, bumping into its hard surface. The stag advances, forward, forward, forward, and his antlers nettle into the little fawn. The fawn screams.

“Now.”

“No!”

As soon as the antlers let up, he darts away, fleeing from the angry stag. Nothing...he'd done nothing...He looks down. Below him are logs in an X shape, the very ones he had been led to early. He yelps and looks up at the rushing stag, antlers lowered. The little shape flies through the air, slamming into a tree with a resounding whack. He stands dizzily, just in time for another round of antlers slamming into his side. He cowers and cowers, but the stag keeps closing in. He just has tie to notice a fluffy tail before he is sent sprawling on the ground. He looks up at the stag fearfully, seeing nothing but a cold cunning in the other's eyes. Revenge, it speaks.

But for what?

The fawn closes his eyes, waiting for hooves to slam down upon his head and end him.

“Well, well, well, not doing too good, are we? Here, let me show you how it's done.” The apparition flows up his nostrils, into his mind. The fawn doesn't resist. He lets the wave of blackness flow over him.

The fawn's body rolls out of the way of the crashing hooves. He stands, grinning madly. Sharp fans have grown from his skull, his mask turned into a long red and white piece of wood.

“Heheh...Trying to kill a helpless little fawn, aren't we?” The body smirks. “Heheheh...This ought to make you look real good. Now...time for my revenge!” The body leaps at the stag, biting, kicking, spearing with the sharp antlers.

“Weak little doe!” It taunts at the stag, spearing and stabbing. The black-and-white doe with peacock feathers leaps around them, watching with what seems like ecstasy. Watch my downfall... thinks the helpless fawn, watching as the apparition ruins his body.

Finally, finally, the apparition retreats, forcing the fawn back into full consciousness. He screams out in pain, stumbling backwards. The stag continues to follow, the doe jumping in for a blow or two, then going back to her ecstatic dance. He bends over, coughing, blood trickling from his mouth. His body is covered in open wounds, bloody and sore. He falls in the middle of the x, staring helplessly at the doe as she bludgeons his body a few more times. He closes his eyes and blearily stumbles to his feet, trying to stop the onslaught. He only falls down again.

He forces his eyes open, though blood is dripping into them too. The stag is motioning the doe away; they practically skip, after winning this victory over a fawn. He closes his eyes, breathing rasping.

“Your name is Lantern. Congrats...you'll see why soon!” The voice cackles.

He tries to force it away, but it keeps coming in waves.

“You cold yet? You'll be soon!”
“Heheheh....”
“Come on...just give in...”
“What are you waiting for...?”
"I don't have all night..."

He summons his last bit of energy.

“Mommy!” He screams, and his head drops onto the logs. The apparitions sends a wave of black washing over him, and he cannot resist.
He gives in.


"Snow...It's so...beautiful..." He lays down in the gathering snow, letting it fall on top of him. The doe lays down beside him. Maybe she's crying; he can't tell. But he's not sad anymore. He knows what will happen; she's just told him he can meet the gods. That sounds exciting...He lays his head on where he guesses she is.
"A-Aegle...? I can...feel you...but I can't...see you anymore. Goodbye mommy...I love you always...."
He lowered his head for the last time, eyes misting over.
--
They found his body the next morning, covered in frost and opened wounds. He still wore the wood mask, the spiked antlers. They all looked in dismay, pulling him to the graveyard. There they buried him...and from there he arose again.

But he was never quite the same...

[Mentioned: The deer described up there [Hagi? Skuller?], Tally, Steele, Aegle.]