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Deer faced * Whitetail-esque * Buck



Art by Evaniti.

The Rut Child, War was born in the fall of the year that the fourth generation was first seen. Its mother was the pregnant silence, its father was the first c6rackling sounds of battling antlers. Born of the battle for love, the small fawn finds itself a parentless orphan.

As soon as it found its legs, the fawn moved about. It kept to the high grasses, only moving quickly when it needed dart over the ground between the patches. Soon enough, the fawn had created a mental map of safe spaces... just in time to use them.


Art By Rouda

First interaction: The small creature's legs crumbled beneath it. Heart pounding, its breath held still. War held its position, hoping that the white beast that had spotted it could no longer see the dappled fawn's coat, and would move on. After all, whatever it was had to be frightening. Finally, when it had moved on, the newborn orphan could breathe yet again, and move on itself. And there it remained, time ticking by, as more and more larger animals rushed by about their daily lives. Yet the white beast remained, not far off, and soon was joined by another animal. War was more fearful now, but continued to watch with shallow breath, still prone on the ground and relying on its camouflage to protect it. The only glimpses it got of anything were when breezes parted the grasses just right. Unfortunately, the grasses began to grow hazy, and the darkness of blinking seemed to get more frequent. Quietly, gently, War dozed.

A chance encounter: In sleep, a spirit took interest in the fawn. This creature was all sorts of beautiful, bright colored and regal. The fawn felt safe, yet the being seemed to raise something within the babe to dance behind its eyes: a small spark of flame where there once was none... a warrior's confidence kindled.

The child woke, having been asleep all night. However, instead of waiting, it immediately got up and began exploring. The drive to find a drink was strong, overpowering the fawn's fear of the world. After some nose-driven stumbling, the little one came upon a source of what it thought to be good to drink... until it had done so. The water didn't taste of anything, and soon the fawn found that the pool had grown much closer and there was a big, fluffy brown thing chasing it. Scrambling, the squirrel high-tailed it away, soon passing the border and reverting back to its real form. The fawn spun in confusion, and then darted away into the birch.

Fear now re-instilled, the child continued to wander around the forest in search of water. Other deer seemed to be waking up, and soon the fawn felt a need to hide again for awhile. But as soon as it was able, the babe shot out toward water-scent, finding that the rock that supplied it was too far away for the babe not to get stuck in the water that flowed from it. There were so many other deer around that the fawn had skirted the entire pond to try and find a place to drink. Finally, it made it to the shade of some cattails, feeling safe enough to slake the growing thirst. Did so greedily, before sprinting back the way it came. Soon, though, fear was forgotten and a new feeling replaced it: Joy. The fawn played and hopped about all by himself until a big, red deer bounded past. It seemed to be doing the same thing the fawn was. Finally, the babe identified itself with another creature in the forest. It sat down to think, and eventually dozed off.

A short time later it awakened to a doe watching, and immediately crouched in fear. Suddenly, the babe made a choice it had yet to do... and decided to interact. Spurred on by the doe's apparent desire to interact with it in a non-threatening way, it continued. The warm breath of the female was very enjoyable as she sniffed it, it thought. Soon joined in a cautious game of play, until the red deer came back. Instinctively tried to hide, and was chased about a little as the red deer tried to claim their play-spot. Took solace in scrambling to hide behind Djinn. The red deer finally ran off, leaving the little one shaken and Djinn to comfort it. Nestled down with her, a complete 180 from how it had thought this morning. Deer could be good, and it was now sure it was one of them. Oh how quickly the world could change.

The babe must have slept for awhile, because it woke to find Djinn had moved... wait... it wasn't Djinn. The doe laying nearby was of a different color and different scent. Though nervous, War decided that this new female was not something to fear merely because she hadn't eaten it yet. The fawn placed the end of its muzzle close and sniffed, an action it had learned from Djinn. Kauna didn't stir, which was good for War. The tiny fawn settled down to watch the sleeping female out of curiosity. It examined her with its eyes, noting similarity to and difference from itself. Right now War seemed obsessed with identifying with the gentle creatures around it.

War must have slept again, because when it woke Kauna was nowhere to be found. The child trotted off in search of water, taking a more direct path to the pond but still drinking from the same spot. However, when it darted back into the forest, the fawn found itself in the blue bowl. It enjoyed the high grasses and blueberry scent enough to decide to bed down there for the heat of the day.

That turned out to be a stupid idea. A fawn found War asleep and cast magic on it. Though the antennae were small, having something unusual attached to the fawn's head made it panic and run. Dodging other deer and trees, the babe barreled through the forest as fast as those spindly legs would go, until finally the magic vanished. War decided to go and hide back at the tree where it spent good time with Kauna and Djinn. It thought it must be safer there. The babe curled up beneath the tree, shaking and jumping at any noises, until it again fell asleep. Was awoken when another spell was cast, but since this one didn't include extra appendages, didn't focus on fleeing from the magic. Instead, it focused on fleeing from the caster, who seemed to want to chase it. Fled away as the magic faded, deciding to hide among some grasses.

After another nap, the fawn again decided it was time to get a drink. This being the third time today, it felt rather comfortable in venturing out into the First Forest in order to drink from the pond. Spent a short time exploring, even getting close to sleeping deer to sniff them. Sniffing is everything since Djinn showed it how this morning. Ran off into the Birch again, finding a nice place to call home for now: an outcropping overlooking the Old Oak. Lay down on the edge, fascinated by the large tree. War doesn't even know why, but the fawn likes this place. Dozed in the sun.


Art by me

As the days passed, War grew more aware of his surroundings and began to understand them. The fawn grew to enjoy sleeping without the cover of grasses, and with further trips to the pond began to feel comfortable with just the canopy above him for protection. War also was able to build confidence just being alone. This way of behaving is what brought out the fact that he was indeed a male deer. There were no qualms about long amounts of alone time, though he did enjoy the company of others.

One such company that he very much enjoyed was that of Djinn, who found him asleep in his wallow. He looked up to see her standing protectively over him and smiled. Some sort of imprinting left the fawn very comfortable around the doe, despite only meeting her once before. Not knowing the concept of 'mother', he didn't think of her as one, but as someone to be happy to see regardless... and take full advantage of cuddling with when the time arose.

Woke again after lots of warm cuddles to find that Stria (ooh! his size!) had replaced Djinn. He just watched her from underneath his long lashes. War did not know that staring was rude. Was stared at back, then offered foodstuffs. (Not a good way to show that staring isn't going to get him what he wants. Cue "begging" as a method of food procurement!) Experienced his first blueberries, and enjoyed them greatly. Now associates food with the word "helping", his first word thanks to Stria. Also notes that nodding is a way to show that one is proud and likes something. Fawns teaching fawns... pretty priceless.

Spent the whole day learning things from the adolescent, and even managed to speak a few things. (though most of the words were unknown in meaning to him.) He thoroughly enjoyed the day, and learned as well to enjoy cuddles with his new friend and unwitting teacher.



Art by Vee.


After a few more days, the fawn has finally mastered the art of not running from every little thing in the open expanses of the forest. Though still a bit wary, he walks with confidence now. Curiosity has become a really big part of his daily thought process. A fascination with the world seems to have overtaken the babe as his starving mind devours all knowledge put in front of him. He has yet to learn more words, but can now process the emotions of other creatures around him. It was that combination of curiosity and emotional charge that brought the fawn to see the stag, Marrok, who was wounded by a hunter's arrow. A small crowd of deer were worried, so the fawn came to check out the situation.

Apparently that was the best thing for him.

As the fox removed the arrow from the wounded deer, something seemed to snap in War's little, confused head. He seemed to remember things that weren't his, or were his in the past. Namely, he was able to talk and recognize words. It was so sudden that it even scared the youngling, who didn't really realize what happened as he raced off to procure honey to help fix the wound.

With the help of his new friend Nimh, the fawn was able to complete what he set out to do. (Nimh did a lot of work too, she even turned into a crow to help knock the hive down!) Covered in blueberries, honey, and with a few beestings, the fawn felt proud of himself by the end of the adventure. Trust in others and worry for them were the two lessons that this little adventure taught him. That, and that others needed to get hurt in order to save someone. But that was okay. Spoke about magic with a doe who made him nervous.

Sought out every single rut he could find and watched, enraptured at each one. Learned quite a bit about strategy, and later spoke of both that and the winter season with one of the judges at a non-particular fight between two challengers. Was reminded that all he had to go on was his mind, so he best not forget it.

As the babe grew closer to his first month, he began to notice changes in himself. Slowly but surely a pair of nubs were growing on his head, and they itched more every day. War had heard rumors that deer here did not age the same way as deer did in the wild. He heard that one day... just overnight... they would reach staghood. And once staghood hit, they would just all of a sudden be able to keep their own magic. However, being unsure that he was even from here, War didn't know if those rules applied to him. He hoped they did, but at the same time felt it unnatural. The deer would know, however, when the time came.

After a troubled sleep through the heat of the day, the fawn carefully made his way down to the pond to drink, trying to get rid of the feeling in his fear-dry mouth. What if he turned out like one of those scary, half-demon creatures he had seen roaming the forest? Would his mind change as well? Would his face change? Would he even be War anymore? The fawn was scared. Carefully, he bathed himself in the pond's cool water. After making sure he was clean, War turned and walked up the hill overlooking the glassy water. He did something he never had done in his life: knelt down and prayed sincerely to the Gods, sitting in front of them in the white pelt that they gift to their devoted. He had not been told much about them, nor did he know who they really were, but something compelled him all the same.

"Gods... if you're there, and if you can help me, please listen. I am War, a fawn, and am supposed to grow up soon. This past month of time has been full of lots of fun adventures and I've made lots of friends. I'm sorry that I haven't prayed before. I think it took awhile for me to even figure out how, and I hope that this is how I do it. Umm... I am nervous about growing up. Please don't give me a scary body as an adult. I've seen so many terrifying creatures here and don't want to be like that and lose my friends. I want to be myself, and keep my friends even when I'm grown up. So... please don't change me too much. I know that I have to grow up like everyone else, but please can I still be me?"

After a long time, the fawn finally stood back up and walked back to his current favorite spot in the birch forest. In two days' time he would know whether the Gods had indeed listened.




In the late night a couple of days later, War's body changed. He had lived as a fawn for one month, and it was time to grow up. That night he dreamed of awakening as a completely white deer in a completely white world. Carefully, as he walked, the forest began to materialize around him. Each time he touched something, leaves shook in the trees above and fell toward the young buck. Each leaf brushing his body left an imprint of brown or red upon his colorless fur. A pair of curved, pointed antlers kept the leaves from ever touching his face, leaving it as white as a blank canvas. By the end of the surreal dream, the deer had been colored as the gods wanted. Brown coated everywhere aside from his face, chest, and underbelly. His antlers and hooves were blackened. And as a gift from the gods, he received a deer-faced mask made of polished, fragrant cedar and red ribbon. This, the Gods said, would protect his pristine face and mind from being tainted by judgement or bloodshed. Outwardly, the newly-grown whitetail's pale face would not be exposed to the world, for the mask would give him some semblance of having the face of a normal, brown deer.

War awoke to find that his dream had become reality on his skin. The young buck quickly rose from his hiding place and shouted in surprise, his deeper voice reverberating off of the birch trees.


Later, the buck enjoyed playing with others that looked similarly to him, whether by forest magic or by natural appearance. Their herd shrank or grew with each new meeting, and the young deer was excited to romp until he was exhausted. Without warning, he lay down among some flowers and zonked out. Nobody could blame War, though, he had had an amazing day and even better transformation.

Woke later and romped about the forest as an adult. Enjoyed a bit of roughousing with a couple of fawns that had adorned themselves with magic, even locking antlers momentarily with one of them. (all in play of course.) Relaxed on the warm stones of the playground for awhile, appreciative of this place he had rarely visited. Spent this time contemplating on whether he would consider himself an 'adult' now that he had grown, but was hesitant because he had no adult experiences yet.

Briefly ran into his first predator, who seemed to sniff him and then leave. Wasn't sure what to make of the lioness. Decided to sit with a deer that looked like him near the crying idol and soak up the sun and this new creature-information. Curious.