Kroova Coontail's hoofbeats fell steadily on the slightly damp grass. A leisurely day in the forest, as she had presumed. All the fog that had been hanging in the air had finally condensed. She trotted to a halt at the pond. "Nothing to do..." she mumbled, bored. She strolled over to the pond and took a sip of the crystal clear water as pink dragonflies hummed around her head. She sighed glumly and swished her hoof in the water. Not much to do right now. Suddenly, her ever-so-sensitive ears picked up a faint rustling about 52 feet away. Yes, it was him. Mistic. He was galloping toward her at an amazing speed. Kroova immediately shoved her face in the water, pretending not to hear him coming, trying to look casual.

"Kroova!"
"Hey Mistic!" Kroova shouted over her shoulder as she lifted her wet face out of the pond water.
"How goes life?" he smirked.
"Eh, its ok." She awkwardly slided her hoof through a small puddle.
"Yep, sounds fun. I'm gonna be at the Playground if you need me." he called over his shoulder as he trotted away.
"...Bye...!" she called out faintly as she saw his brown pelt vanish over the hill.

"I'm such a dope." she criticized. "I act like i'm a useless 2 week old fawn around him!"
Kroova angrily thrust her hoof into the water, causing a ripple of water to fall across the pond.
"Its no use!" she mumbled to herself. "I'll never get a mate if I act like this." To Kroova, there was only one way to get her stress out. To run.

Later that afternoon, after a short nap, Kroova stood on a wall at the Graveyard. Since her mother was buried here, she came occasionally to let out stress and to nap. After stretching her limbs, she leaped off the wall with a soft thud. She glanced around warily, hoping nobody would get in her way while she ran. Her speed was unnatural to some. A small pack of fawns were trotting across the clearing she was headed for. One saw her and let out a loud 'baaaaa' to the others, who followed immediately.

"Aw, great." Kroova rolled her eyes. "I'll never get to run with them here."
Whilist the fawns were distracted by a butterfly floating a few feet above their heads, Kroova hid behind a graveyard wall. "Thank the Gods." she muttered softly. To Kroova, almost everything good that happened to her was a cause of the Twin Gods. Anything besides that was pure luck.

After thundering across the great plains of the Forest, Kroova settled down by the Twin God statue near the pond. Afternoon winds rustled leaves on the ground and whistled through her ears. As peaceful as the scenery and land was, Kroova still didn't feel recharged... she felt incomplete. A big part of her life was still missing. But what?

Just as she was about to answer that question in her mind, Mistic's friend, Stlo, thundered across the ground right near Kroova, almost tripping over her! "ACKK!!" she screeched, tumbling to the side.

"Woaahh!! Sorry there, Kroov's!"
Stlo's friend leaped onto the hill with great force. "You almost trampled her, you fool!"
Stlo gave a weak smile and nodded to his friend. They both then galloped into the distance.

"Pffft." Kroova let out a disgusted sigh. "Blehh. I'm soooooooooooooo boooorrreedddd~!!" Her wails of boredom soon turned to sung-out lyrics, and eventually into song. Not as nice as it would seem.

"Trees crack and sway!
Mountains give way!
Twisters rage against the sky!
Thunderbolts begin to fly--!"

Kroova stopped on that line of her song, for other deer were turning their heads in her direction. Embarassed, she rolled over on the grass, right-side-up, and stood. She then swiftly cantered across the land until she came to her mothers grave, in the Graveyard.

After quietly speaking with her mother, Kroova set out for the highstones, or Playground, as some call it.
She gazed out along the premises, occasinally sighting a rabbit or dove. When she was totally sure she was alone, Kroova began to hum a tune, the wind rippling her fur in the air.

"I've learned to lose, i've learned to win~
I turn my face against the wind~
I will move fast, I will move slow~
Take me where I have to go."

When that tune was done, she sang a small rhyme she made up while running.

"Night-time sharpens, heightens each sensation.
Darkness stirs and wakes imagination..."



Finally, she recited her favorite before taking a small nap.

"There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;
And frogs in the pools singing at night,
And wild plum trees in tremulous white;
Robins will wear their feathery fire,
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;
And not one will know of the war, not one
Will care at last when it is done.
Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree,
if mankind perished utterly;
And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn
Would scarcely know that we were gone."

Kroova's small nap soon turned to a deep sleep. She dreamt of the twin gods.
Two gloriously white stags stood on small cliffs at the edge of a pond. The Twin Gods! One stag bowed its head and licked the water delicately. A blue ray of light grew under the tongue of the God, and as the God lifted its head, the light began to slowly glide across the water. The other God did the same, sending a red ray of light into the center, on the same path as the blue one. Each stag looked at the other, and glanced at the pool, following the light with their wandering eyes. The two colors collided, spangling the pond with a Godly white color, and sending arrays of stars into the heavens. Crows, Doves, Butterflies, Fireflies and Bats launched out of trees and took wing. Dragonflies and frogs began their tune as they swam in the waters. Rabbits dotted the fields with their creamy white fur. The wilted pond grasses shot upwards. Trees became full of mushrooms and pinecones. The Twin Gods looked east toward the statues as wind whipped their fur. They seemed not to move until suddenly, as if taken by the elements, vanished into thin air.

Kroova awoke, bewildered. "Wh--" she tried to speak. No words came from her mouth, and she tried to understand the dream that had just come to her. "I wonder if the pond was the pond in the Forest... But its usually so populated, the Gods couldn't have done that in private." Kroova pondered and pondered until, at last, she found a plausible explanation. "The pond must be the one in the forest! The Gods control the Forest, and they must be replenishing it! The Forest can't hold itself up!" The thought hit her like a thunderbolt.

She was jolted out of her pondering at the sound of Mistic's voice.
"Heyyyy there Kroov's!" he greeted casually.
"W-- wh-- Oh, hey Mistic." she blushed, embarassed.
"What're you doin' all the way out here?" he cocked his head to one side, interested.
"Nothing..." she got up slowly, keeping her eyes focused on Mistic's face.
"Yeahh. Same here." he scraped a hoof on the ground.
Kroova looked at the sky.
Eventually, Mistic did the same, gazing up at the heavens without a peep.
Kroova looked back at Mistic. "Have you ever dreamed a dream about the Twin Gods?"
"No..." Mistic looked confused.
"Oh."
Kroova and Mistic were interrupted from their chat at the sound of baaaa-ing fawns.
"Ugh, they've been following me ALL DAY LONG!" Mistic stamped his hoof on the stone, annoyed.
"I've seen them a few times." Kroova nodded toward the swarm of fawns.
"Baaa! Its Mistic!" The swarm began trotting towards them.
Mistic rolled his eyes.
"Whose your friend, Mistic?"
"Yeah yeah yeah! Whose yur friend?"
"Her name's Kroova! Not can you all just please SHUT UP!" Mistic stamped his hoof agressively.
The fawns backed away one by one.
"Thank the Twin Gods!" Kroova laughed.

Later that evening, fireflies danced around the two's heads. Hundreds of deer gathered at highstones to dance. Mistic's candles were a-blazing in the dark sky, accompanied by a shower of hooves tapping on the rocks. Mistic and Kroova rubbed necks. This was a joyous moment. They danced alongside eachother for countless hours, until all the deer finally dispersed in small packs. When the small get-together was over, Mistic and Kroova laid on the rocks for a few more minutes before Mistic went bounding off into the distance with Stlo and a few other friends.

Kroova sighed. Alone. Alone again. She was used to it, after all. Finally becoming bored, she set off toward De Drinkplaats. There, she met two stripe-legged deer with antelope horns. They were prancing around, mimicking eachothers speech and movement.
"Hi!" "How's" "It" "Going?" they said as they pranced around in a circular motion.
"Um, good." Kroova didn't know what to think.
"That's" "Wonderful!"
Kroova walked into the mushroom circle that fumed a blue, magic-resistant substance. She took a sip of the water that was gushing out of the spigot in the middle. Suddenly, there was a gigantic THUDD behind her. Kroova turned, only to see a giant statue right behind her. She screamed, and the deer outside the circle began laughing uncontrollably.

Kroova trotted away and slept for awhile in the Oak Tree. Later, a mysterious shadow appeared outside the tree. It was a silhouette of a stag, expect he had large, pointed antlers, a dark bloody pelt, and a skeleton mask. Kroova, showing no fear, stepped toward the stag cautiously.
"Um, Hi. Who're you?"
The stag did not move an inch from its stance. It seemed to be waiting for something, listening. Within seconds, Kroova was cloaked in a shadowy mist, and she was forced to sleep.

"W-wh...Where am I?!" Kroova stood up, but she had a ringing sensation filling her body. She looked at her pelt, which was covered with scars. Her usual deer mask wasn't on her face. Kroova shook the new mask off of her face and took a look at it. It was just like the Zombie Deer's! She felt her head; she still had her peacock feathers. That was relieving.

She put her skull-like mask back on and attempted to limp-trot over to a fungus-covered tree. Each step she took turned to a staggering limp. She had open wounds - not too fresh - that burned in the sun's unforgiving rays. Kroova kept to the shadows - she did not want to be noticed, or pitied, for that matter. It was funny, the shadows. The cool ground soothed her bloody ankles and hooves; the sun burned them. It was just like her motto.


Night-time sharpens, heightens each sensation.
Darkness stirs and wakes imagination...


Kroova had never found the same reassurance in the sun that she found in the moon.
Whilist among the shadows, she spied Iaurdagnire, a famed stag that was a wonderful folktale and storywriter. He was sitting in the sun, and had the same blood-encrusted pelt she had. How could he stand the sun? Cusiosity overwhelmed her completely; she forgot her pain in the sun.
"Hi."
Iaurdagnire opened one eye, Kroova could tell he was in considerable pain. "Hello."
Sensing displeasure at communication, Kroova attempted to curtsy her goodbyes, but ended up falling head-over-heels and thudding into the sun-baked ground.
"Ohhhhhhwww..." Kroova moaned, sensing blood.
"You too?" Dag opened his other eye.
Kroova responded with a twitch of her brilliantly yellow-colored eye. She was lying on her front shins, her back legs still standing up straight.
Dag chuckled. "You are very amusing."
"I'm glad I brightened your day--" Kroova said as she hauled her front end into a standing position. "Goodbye..." she moaned.
Dag smiled, both eyes closed now, and spoke. "Hmhm. Goodbye."


Once Kroova was at highstones and successfully in a sitting position, she began criticizing her acts. She took off her skull mask and began shouting at the open air.
"Since WHEN do my legs FAIL me when i'm talking to someone IMPORTANT?!" After a pause, as if looking for an answer, she repeated the question once more. "WHEN." she snapped.
The only response that came was a chilly evening breeze; it seemed to calm her wounds.

A group of laughing deer passed by; they stopped to stare at Kroova. As if mocking the horror that continued to penetrate her heart, they laughed carelessly at her. Driven by rage, she got up and bellowed the deepest roar she had ever done. It echoed throughout the forest, and the group of deer seemed stunned. Kroova regained her pain and doubled over, cracking her joints; but not breaking them. All silence was broken by the deer's jeering cries.

"Just go away!" she snapped. A rage filled Kroova's body that hadn't been known before. She stood, all pain gone, and reared up at full height. She leaped from the rock and landed a few inches from the lead deer's face.
"Mind your own business." she whispered angrily.

Realizing how rude she had just been, Kroova ran to the cemetery and perched on the wall above her mother's grave.