Tale I Have Told (Chapter 4 and 5 Now Up)

The Tale rests below… Care to listen?

The Unspoken Law – Silence in the Forest…

I said nothing and merely stared at the doe with cold eyes. The golden doe looks unnerved, but gives a small smile and repeats the question. I do not answer.

“Did you by chance not hear me?” She says awkwardly. “I asked what your name is. Can you not hear?” I flick my ear to show I could indeed hear. She looked down to the ground, her head turned away slightly. Nervousness echoed in every muscle along her pelt. “Do… do you refuse to speak?” She finally asks.

At this question, I pointedly turn my head away from her and lie down on the hard earth. We… the deer of the forest… are not allowed to talk. It is the Unspoken Law that the Twin Gods had created. I am not sure how others know of this, but I remember my Mother telling it to me. (Of my very few memories I have of my mother, that is one I remember clearly). This deer, “Lycha”, as she called herself, broke the one and only Law the Great Ones had given us. Was I supposed to shrug it off as if she had stumbled across a root?

The Unspoken Law was created so that we could learn to love and communicate without words. Words seemed like things that could tangle and trip a deer when they least expected it. I myself have thought of horrible words to say to others. If they sounded awful in my thoughts, I could only imagine what they would sound like out loud.

I have heard a few deer speak, those who apparently did not care they broke the one rule. Nothing happened to them, and they say that the Twin Gods were a hoax and didn’t exist. I think it is because the punishment affects your afterlife. Perhaps the ones who break the Silence are the ones who become the dead Nameless. My heart quickly skips in my chest as I realize my mother had broken the Law to tell me. I quickly reassure myself. Surely the Twin Gods would not be so cruel that they would punish those who told their young of the Law. It is necessary for them to keep knowledge of the Silence by breaking it.

Somehow in my thinking, I fall asleep and find myself waking up with the colors of sunset visible through the trees. In front of me are a few pinecones – the kind that are tasty to eat. I half-crawl, half-drag myself forward to snatch one up in my teeth. To my right I can see Lycha sitting and watching me. She is silent for a while but when I swallow the second pinecone and move in for my third, she speaks.

“I… apologize if my talking has made you feel uncomfortable. I know there are very many who follow the Law of Silence.” I give her my full attention and she smiles a very shy, very sweet smile. “I just cannot imagine a life without words. Sometimes you need them to solve a problem or learn new things. It may have been the Twin Gods who created the Law, but I sense it is a very silly one.” She gives a timid laugh, as if she expected the Gods to come down and punish her for her wavering thoughts in their wisdom. “I will try to talk as little as possible. If I must ask a question, I will do my best to ask you in a way that can be answered with silence.” She gets up on dainty legs and shakes her fur. “I am going to see if I can find some sort of water. You must be very thirsty, since you slept through the morning dew.”

As the golden-furred doe walks away, I open my mouth and snap it shut and watch her until she is out of sight. I breathe a small sigh of relief. So carelessly, I almost broke the Unspoken Law. All of her speaking nearly made me use my tongue. I have seen what happened to souls who did not reach an afterlife, and if there was any chance breaking the Law affected my afterlife, I was not going to risk it.

But, though I hate to admit it, she was right. Words could help you learn new things. There were a few things I wanted to know.

Why had she stopped and helped me? Surely it would have been easier to have just left me where I was. She risked being attacked by whatever Nameless was left over from the battle, and even if they had killed each other, she risks her life now by staying here and helping me recover. And what’s more...

I noticed when I first woke up that there was dried blood on the tip of her tiny antlers. She did not get that from the chunks of flesh coating the floor. She had to have been in at least one fight. She was not built for power. Even exhausted, the Nameless could’ve torn her apart in moments. How was she able to defeat them?

Firefly – Glow in the Dark…

It has been a few days since Lycha and I met. My wounds have healed nicely all thanks to the young doe’s hard work. Right now she was sleeping. Feeling restless, I stood up, wincing slightly. My injuries were doing well, but I had a nasty gash on my front leg that still bothered me. Taking a deep breath I shook it off and went out for a walk.

Only a few paces of walking and already a foul smell hit my senses. I pointedly turned away and went the opposite direction. The remains are still there, I suppose. The birds haven’t picked off what’s left. I couldn’t blame them. What scavenger would want to eat something that could’ve been dead for years? I’d think it’d give even the strongest crow a peek into the afterlife.

A frown formed across my face at the thought of the Nameless.

Around the time I was still a fawn, deer had begun to pop up dead. Wolves and other predators were pretty rare; with the close bonds the deer had they would usually be driven out pretty quick. It was obvious it wasn’t a predator anyways – they would’ve eaten the deer they killed. These ones were just carelessly left where they had died.

It wasn’t until long after I was an adult that I learned what was killing them all.

At first it was only an occasionally body with an unexplainable death, but even the strongest of deer were taken out and the number just kept growing until it was out of control and every deer was thrown into a panic. Enough bodies had shown up and many studied their wounds. They had punctures in their flesh that suggested they were attacked by another deer’s antlers. Everyone began to suspect one another. It was rare to run into other deer by that time. Whenever I had run into one they either ran off or chased me away. It baffled me before, but I can understand now.

I still remember when I first saw it. I had woken up in the middle of the night to a distress call. Since I still trusted other deer at the time I raced off to save whoever made it. When I found who made the noise, I only stood and watched. A stag was surrounded by deer. At first I thought it was a herd that had ganged up on him. I was half right.

It didn’t take me long to smell the foul scent of decay coming from them. The horrible snarling rumbling from their throats. The flesh falling off their bodies to reveal their very bones. The feral look in their eyes. I was petrified.

I was still very young and had panicked, but instead of fleeing on instinct, I was frozen to the ground. Even with the buck’s size and mighty antlers, the sickly deer overpowered him in moments. Kicking and stabbing with antlers. They were relentless. The stag bellowed, calling for help but no one would come. Even I, who was only a few paces away, left him to fend for himself.

One of the deer reared up and its hooves crunched down on the buck’s back legs. I flinched at the sickening crack. It seemed almost like a signal to the attacking deer, because the second the crunch rang out, they looked at the buck’s leg, and then turned on each other. Now that I think about it, they must have all realized they could stop focusing on their prey and take each other down. The stag couldn’t run now. They had all the time they wanted to pick each other off; winner takes all.

My eyes grew progressively bigger at the scene before me. It dawned on me at that moment that they had gone easy on the stag. They worked together to bring him down and now all their energy was being used on one another. I watched them battle each other, running their opponents into the ground and tearing them apart. A few even formed teams to take down a larger enemy, but even they began to fight each other eventually. Through all the battling that went on, the thought to run away had no longer crossed my mind. The only thing I could think of was why. Why were they doing this? What did they gain?

Dawn was nearing by the time I found out. One doe had survived the slaughter. She stood panting amongst the remains of her what used to be her companions. Something that sounded like a laugh shook slightly in her chest. She limped over to the stag – who had bled to death – and stared at his body. No, now that I think, she stared at his eyes.

Something rose from his blood-matted corpse, something yellow and glowing, like a bit of sun; except it had a strange symbol in its center. The doe closed her eyes and the sun-bit melted into her forehead. I recall her giving a little shiver.

My brain was slow then and it only started to sink that I was in danger now. Dawn was approaching and my dark blue pelt would no longer blend in with the cover of night. I gave a backward step only to step on a twig, causing the triumphant doe’s head to look my way. It took a mere second for her eyes to find mine and I felt myself locked in place again. Her eyes were wild and ferocious; they seemed to be the only part of her body not rotting away. Then they glowed pleasantly and her mouth formed into a twisted smile. It clicked into my brain at that moment: I was next.

My heart skipped a beat and my flight response kicked in. The doe chased after me immediately, but the Twin Gods must have been with me at that moment. The forest was still dark and my fur still blended with the shadows and I managed to get her off my trail.

It took me days before I stopped running off at every noise. I realized that running off in clumsy fear was more likely to attract attention to me and get me killed. But even after that night I still trusted other deer, because now I knew who was and wasn’t the culprit. Now whenever I met other deer I tried to tell them they could trust each other again, but before I could say anything I would be chased off or ran away from.

About a month after the attack I saw a deer drinking by a small puddle. The thought crossed that if I was able to tell even just one deer, we could all ban together to drive away the creatures that were hunting us. I made myself as noisy as possible as I walked up to her, deciding it would be better I didn’t sneak up. She stopped drinking and stared at me. I took a deep breath. I would have to break the Unspoken Law if I wanted to tell her what I saw, but I decided the safety of the forest was more important and that the gods would forgive me. But as I opened my mouth to speak, the words caught in my throat. The doe and I had locked gazes and in her eyes I could see the symbol that had been etched into my brain.

The sun-bit symbol that had risen out of the body of the murdered stag was inside the doe in front of me. But she did not look like the half-rotten doe of that night. Her fur was well kept and obviously not dying. It wasn’t the brown color it was before, but a golden color with black spots. Her eyes, though, had not changed at all.

“Hello there.” Her head tipping to the side slightly, she gave a friendly smile.

Her smile didn’t last long though. Fear crossed my face and realization crossed hers. I backed away mouthing the word “You” before I bolted. She gave an enraged roar and chased after me.

“You will not escape me again! Give it to me!” She howled, frustration in her voice.

I didn’t slow down. Fleeing was the only thing on my mind. Get away from here and do it fast. My lungs ached in my chest and she chased me for a long time. As I charged up to the top of a hill I could no longer hear her footsteps. I didn’t stop. I kept running and as I reached the top of the hill and starting down the other side she shouted out again.

Her voice was strained from the run and – for just a moment – I thought I could sense pain in it. She cried out, “Give me your name!”

I shuddered at the memory. Now I knew what she meant by my name. That glowing sun symbol she had taken from the stag. I had one too. My very own name.

I had always felt sorrow at the stag’s death, but even more so now that I had been attacked as well. However, I got lucky. Not only was I saved somehow, but even if I hadn’t been, I wouldn’t have been there for my death. I had weakly passed out. The stag didn’t get my luxury. He was forced to endure his pain and watch the massacre until his breath stopped. What terrible things he had to see in his last moment of life.

And not only that, but to have his name taken away after his horrible death. Your name wasn’t just your pass into an afterlife. It was a part of you. Who you were. Someone was stealing other’s identities and claiming it as their own. After nearly having mine taken, I realized just how precious it was.

Turning, I began to head back to where Lycha was sleeping.

Firefly.

My name.

I would treasure it always.

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Thank you for reading!

(Nameless: Giving a whole new meaning to Identity Theft. XD)

Prologue/Chapter 1
Chapter 2 and 3
(You are reading chapter 4 and 5)
Chapter 6

May 9, 2012 - 1:46am — Alyssa035

I like it!! And I finally

I like it!! And I finally found you! Woohoo

—

The man with the key is king,
And honey you should see me in a crown.

May 9, 2012 - 2:05am — wingeddeer

I love how you write,and the

I love how you write,and the way you put words together in the story.Great job.<3

May 10, 2012 - 5:50am — panda101

hi try to guess who I am,

hi try to guess who I am, hint i'm from the warrior forums.

May 10, 2012 - 5:13pm — TwilightFirefly

@Alyssa Holy fudge balls,

@Alyssa Holy fudge balls, Cry-- I'm mean Alyssa! XD Nice to see you!

@Winged Thank you thank you. X3 Means a lot to hear you say that.

@Panda Hrmmmm.... From the Clan... Squirrel? Fern? Honey? Mud? Sun? Ice? Dawn? Moon? Bone? Brightmoon? Splash? Wild? DX I'm a horrible guesser. I just guessed everyone.