Water splashed as hooves clapped against its wavering surface, followed by more but smaller disturbance created by hooves. A large, piebald bull followed by two little calves was walking out in the open.
It was dangerous but he didn't intend to stay in the open for long.
The two calves stuck closely at his side, they didn't dare to stray, he was their only protection out here.

They weren't his, Delacroix had found the moose calves abandoned, whether their abandonment was intended or not. He couldn't leave them there, although it went against his natural instincts to father calves-- especially those that weren't of his own blood.
His ears were perked, his heart thudded with tension, he didn't like being out in the open. He prayed in his mind there was no hunter here. His piebald coat and beautiful antlers would make for a nice trophy hunters would brag about.
Red dwarf birch stood high, standing up to the bulls knees. It was enough to cover the calves, only their heads peeked out of the plants. If there was a hunter, and he held any empathy, he wouldn't hunt the bull seeing he took calves in his own hooves. Although, when there's a large bull standing out in the open, a hunter will be too focused on getting his trophy and miss the calves which their heads only peeked out of the dwarf birch.

"Are there any hunters?" One of the twin calves asked. Delacroix wasn't sure how to answer, he didn't know himself. Some hunters were very tactical when stalking their prey, though he didn't catch any scent or any sounds to suggest one was in the area. "No." He replied.
Delacroix felt bad giving the calves false hope of safety but he didn't want to panic them. "We're close to the forest anyway, we'll be sheltered in there. Can you see it?" He wasn't sure, the dwarf birch was quite tall and covered their tiny bodies up to the neck. "Uh..." Delacroix looked back at the other calf, his neck strained to see. "Wait, I can see it! We're not far from it." The bull-calf whispered the last bit to his sister who was smaller than he was.

Alarm struck the bull, his head whipped around and his ears perked as a moo echoed in the open plain. "What was that?" The she-calves voice sounded of confusion.
The bull knew this age-old trick. The call sounded like that of a cows. He stood still, waiting for the call again. Once more the call sounded.
They needed to get into the forest and quickly. "We have to go. Now." Delacroix looked back at the calves, their eyes suddenly filled with anxiety. He moved behind the calves, ushering them ahead with his nose. The twins started to run ahead of him and the bull followed, a gunshot rang in his ears but he felt nothing penetrate through his flesh, the bullet had missed him.
The calves were a bit slower than him, causing for his own speed to lessen but he didn't care, all that mattered is getting the calves hidden and safe away from the hunter.

They made it to the forest but it wasn't exactly safe yet, the trees here with bare with large bushes and plant life, deeper in was safer, these trees were thin and spindly and just bark. Full pine trees laid deeper in.
Another gunshot rang, he could see the bullet zip just over the back of the bull-calf. Delacroix had to hide them.

Delacroix rushed beside the calves, giving them a rough nudge with his nose, causing for the calves to lose their balance and fell into the cover of the trees and bushes. "Hide!" The calves didn't reply, just looked up with scared eyes and cowered in the cover where they were practically invisible. Maybe he could distract the hunter away from the calves hiding spot, he couldn't risk them getting shot.

The bull parted away from the hiding spot, his heart pounding in fear.
"Watch out!" The she-calf bleated. The bull frantically scanned the plains, he spotted the hunter standing from a short patch of dwarf birch, the gun he held rested against their shoulder, their head tilted by the gun as the hunter looked through their scope.
The hunter had taken aim, he knew he was going to die.
A loud clap, almost as loud but as powerful as thunder seemed to shake the forest around the bull.
A horrified bellow came from the bull as a bullet drilled into his body and into his lungs.
Delacroix collapsed on the ground, he wasn't able to breath, the bullet had left a hole in his vitals.






His bones screamed and ached and surprisingly, only his bones ached. The bull felt empty but he couldn't pinpoint why. Delacroix slowly regained his consciousness, he wasn't dead? But how? His vision was blurred but eventually fixed itself.
He wasn't in the plains, where were the calves? He could hear the trickling of a stream and the peaceful croaking of frogs.
What's going on? He thought.

Delacroix paced himself as he brought himself back onto his hooves. He attempted to make a groan out of pain but nothing came out. His mouth opened to talk, nothing came out. He couldn't talk?
He felt panicky but nothing in his body was thudding.
Maybe it was just all in his head, a drink of water will clear his mind.

The bull found a pond not far away from him, must be where the water he heard tricking was going.
He began to traipse to the mass of water, its surface was still, besides the tiny little ripples created by a frog leaping into the water or a turtle joining in.
His hooves dipped into the water, his head lowering as he prepared to take a drink.
Delacroix felt alarm to find his appearance... changed his face was bare-- a skull, no eyes yet he could still see and his body was just a mess of loose skin, fur and bones.
Startled, he leaped away from the water.
What's happening?!
This is just a dream. I'm going to wake up and the calves and I will be okay. Delacroix desperately tried to convince himself.

His panic began to escalate. This wasn't a dream was it? He was dead. The calves weren't here, he wasn't there to protect them. His mind changed to worrying about the calves. A roller coaster of emotions. Sadness began to creep in and mingled with the panic. He failed. He failed to protect them.
He failed them.

I failed...