If you'd like.

(Thanks)
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Cholena walked toward the pond, her wings held up as a sort of umbrella. As she reached the pond, the winged deer watched the koi for a few moments, then Cholena realized she was getting soaked. Quickly, she went under the cover of a willow.
Cholena had always loved willows, and as she lay down, she looked about her, enjoying the glimmer of the rain on the soft green leaves.
Cholena was perfectly oblivious to the stag beside her. She was to caught up listening to the patter of the rain and watching the glimmering drops fall.

(Thank you, dear. <3)

There was a reason why the Playground was called so, but it was well known among the fawns of the Forest that one need not stay close to it to have fun.
The trees passed quickly around the two fawns as they raced among them. They would veer sharply towards each other then, at the very last possible moment, fly apart, laughing at the almost- collision. Low branches whipped at their faces, but they were faster and could not be caught. Mud tried to make them tumble down, but they could jump higher and farther and did not fall for its tricks. The rain did not, could not bother them. They were at play with the Forest itself. It was exhilarating.
They burst from among the trees and crocuses and into the wide clearing surrounding the Pond. By some unspoken mutual agreement, here they slowed, hearts pounding, and looked around. As always, there were others around, and the prevailing mood matched their own. They exchanged looks in promise of mischief, but before they could act on it one of the adults looked up and gave a short, gentle moo. He other fawn perked up at that and she knew, as fawns are wont to know, that someone had just found their mother.
A bump of flanks, a touch of cheeks; they would meet again. The other fawn hopped away to its mother who was waiting patiently, and gave a bleat of farewell as they walked back into the trees. She remained silent, as was her way, and walked the short crescent that would lead her to her hollow.
A small thing, it was, just as before. Small and shallow, just big enough for a fawn to curl comfortably inside. She was glad to see the snow gone, but it would take some time before the mud was gone as well. There was no rest to be had here now, but she looked at it fondly for a time anyway. She had not been here in several days and missed the Pond greatly.
Overcome with an urge to greet every part of the place, she walked slowly to the willows. Letting the wet strings of leaves slide across her face and back in welcome, she approached their dark trunks and looked up into the hanging branches, inhaling deeply the green tinted air. The water was restless underneath, spurred into rippling and lapping at the banks by the onslaught of rain and the melting snow. Planting her hooves firmly in the mud, she stretched her neck forward and peered at the centre of the pond, where the green leaves of the lotus flowers bobbed restlessly under the raindrops.
She wondered how the koi were faring.

Cholena's ears pricked as she heard another. Only then did the winged female realize that there were two. One was a koi-pelted stag, the other was a female fawn with white feathers.
Cholena shrank away. She wasn't used to others just yet, her only friend was Robin. Quickly, the winged doe scrambled to her feet and walked out of the shelter of the willow. Cholena was quickly soaked and shivering, but she didn't want to go back and face the others. She shivered again as she remembered the predator that had tried to eat her. No. Cholena would try be as invisible as she could. For now.

The movement of the winged one was not something Moss was expecting. He jolted, startled by it, and his face screwed into a confused look. When he looked at the fawn now in front of him, the stag put her confusion in the same basket as his with some semblance of a shrug. He had barely been aware of her presence in the first place.

Moss shifted a bit so that more of him was outside of the burrow. His bright colors revealed themselves against the green curtain in perfect contrast. Mud that streaked his pelt seemed to belong there among the autumn hues, if one didn't know the koi-deer and how immaculately kept his pelt often was during the sunny months.

The deer alternated his gaze between the fawn and the shadow of the peryton doe just beyond her. Several thoughts raced through his head regarding the winged one's intentions, from good to ill, and why she seemed to have been sneaking around. He didn't speak yet with his mouth, but offered an expression to the young one that read: Do you know anything about this?

(I'd suggest keeping it in the order we're currently using.)

She returned the stag’s questioning gaze with a fearful stare of her own and shook her head, ears flopping downward. In all her days of hiding in tall grass and listening from behind stones she had never seen one act in this way, getting up and leaving into the rain without a word when not even an argument was in sight. It worried her greatly that the stag did not know either.

Then the curtain of leaves rustled once more and let the winged one back in. Water dripped from her dark feathers and made for an ominous sight indeed. It was with no small measure of hesitation that she put her faith in the other adult and hopped closer to the stag, eyeing the doe warily from behind the colourful one’s bulk. The doe’s scent was diluted by the rain and betrayed nothing.

Questions buzzed in her mind like restless bees. Was the doe ill? What with? Frightened? By what? She hoped there wasn’t a predator waiting in the rain, something that swam in the rain-filled air as easily as it did in the waters of the pond. Or even…

Could it have been her? What if she was not supposed to be here and had offended the other doe with her arrival? Not all deer looked kindly on fawns who did that, however unknowingly, so she shifted her weight and looked up at the stag uneasily. There were bees on her tongue now, stinging with the desire to get out. And there was only one way that could end, wasn't there?

“Helu,” in her smallest voice. Had she been any quieter, the sound of raindrops hitting the leaves would have drowned it out. “S-sick?”

When Cholena heard the fawn utter the words 'sick?' the winged doe turned around and said in a voice so soft that you could barely hear it: No. I'm not sick." Cholena paused. "I'm...not used to others. I get frightened." Cholena's voice was almost inaudible when she said that. She lowered her head again and refused to meet the other's gazes. They probably thought she was being paranoid and silly.

So... she was afraid. That was much better than any other idea. But a contradiction was apparent in her words. "Would running off help you to get used to others?" Moss spoke. The question was gentle. A smirk drew on the corner of his mouth, but instead of looking at the frightened female, he trained his gaze on the pond beyond the willow whips. The koi occasionally broke the surface to nibble at what he suspected were bugs.


Moss kept one ear trained on the doe, and the other on the fawn. He somehow felt it would make them uncomfortable if he looked at them directly too often.

She watched the stag’s face while he spoke, catching the moment when his lips quirked into an indecipherable little smile and his eyes wandered to the Pond. She glanced quickly away, only to follow with her own eyes a moment later. The koi were still there, still busy doing whatever it was that fish did when no one paid them any mind. She watched them as she mulled over what was being said, but they neither returned her gaze nor gave anything away that would have helped her understand it better.

For to her, coming near others was easy. Even more so when they did not see her, just like staying hidden was easier still. It was going away that should have worried the other doe, but even then she had wings and could fly easily away. So what was there to fear?

This she thought, but she voiced none of it. A tweet sounded before she could even care to do so, moving her forward nearly against her volition to peer around the winged doe. She lowered herself close to the ground, forelegs stiff to the front and her head turned just so.… There! There, around the winged one’s neck, she caught the smallest possible glimpse of a hopping little bird, breast coloured rose. She stared at it, eyes wide, and held her breath, hoping it would not flit away.

What was the difference between the koi-stag and Robin?
Cholena thought for a moment before replying.
"You see," Cholena began. "I used to be like Robin, a bird with a red breast. I didn't see many deer because I was in the city, when I did, I didn't like them. Deer are big and could've easily crushed me. The difference between you and a bird is...birds are nice, friendly creatures that make nice sounds. Deer are big creatures that have huge feet and don't make nice sounds."
Cholena paused to glance quickly at Robin.
"I guess I'm just not used to deer, and I'm still a bit afraid of them."

Robin tweeted at the others, before hopping off Cholena's shoulder and going to inspect the other deer.

The stag held his smile as the two of them answered. He paused before giving his own reply: "The duck is larger than the robin. The duck does not make what one would call a 'nice' noise. Yet they are most indeed birds. A few deer here have wonderful singing voices as well." As if to punctuate this, a quack sounded nearby. The ducks were enjoying the rain as well. "A bird and deer can be equally friendly and equally unfriendly. It all depends on the individual being." He continued, challenging both arguments equally. "There are deer with feathers, both doe and stag. What a bird lacks in antlers it makes up for with talons or beak. Both deer and bird have wings here, and some can fly. There are all colors of deer here as well." Moss let his ears go cockeyed a moment as he thought to choose his next words carefully:

"And since you are now equally deer and bird, why not befriend both?" The words were combined with an enthused smile. He was a koi in the past, and befriended both. It only seemed natural to Moss that she do the same. Of course, it was only up to her.

Truth, indeed, spoken by one seemingly unmarred by years, but with the bearing of an elder. She listened intently, a small frown of concentration appearing on her face as she thought it over and stored it in her memory. Her ears twitched once as the duck sounded (not very beautiful to her ears, but not ugly either), but were otherwise pointed at the gentle faced stag. She nodded only once, when he spoke of befriending both, and wondered what else the forest had showed her that she never noticed.

Then the black doe spoke, and her words struck like thunder. She shifted her weight restlessly, the hollow under the willow suddenly too small for the fear that came over her. Death. Not a foreign thing, here in the forest, and not one easy to escape from. She looked with horror and awe at the doe who had experienced it and returned, but was startled to see her weeping. She cast an alarmed glance at the stag, then, after a moment of hesitation, stepped slowly and carefully to the black one’s other side. There she folded her legs neatly, lowered her head and looked sideways at the dark doe, eyes green and serious as they peeked under the cover of feathers.
“Far from home, yes,” she said softly. Then, after another moment. “But not far from sky.”

The tears abruptly stopped. Chile a wiped her face and looked up at the fawn's words. "You're right. The sky is right there. How silly I've been acting! As if I have nothing left. I do, but, I still can't fly."

Cholera shook her head to the stag's words. She hadn't been able to explore, she'd been too busy...avoiding those big, scary-looking deer and demons. "The thing is, I know I'll be able to fly...some time. But I just can't seem to do it yet." Cholena stamped one hoof. "Because of these big things."
Suddenly, Cholena had an idea. "Would you like me to show you how I take off before fly, like when I was still a bird?" It might of been a far-fetched idea, but the fawn certainly seemed to like the idea of flying.
Cholena peered out of the willow to the koi in the pond. She wondered if any of them dreamed of flying, and if they would like to get out of those watery depths.

Maybe that was the problem... The thought crossed the koi deer's mind before he agreed to go and watch the peryton try to fly. The excitement of the little fawn was both infectious and extremely adorable.

Moss followed the pair out into the rain. The shower cleaned the dirt from his coat, leaving it shining and bright again. The colors were even more vibrant when wet, in the dull weather. The stag's brow protected his eyes from the rain. He thanked the Gods for his ability to see even when water rolled over him. It was good.

Once they had reached a space that the peryton doe found to be adequate, Moss took a second to look around for a nearby mushroom circle. Maybe once the female decided that she had shown them enough, he would turn her into a bird so that she might feel happier. Once one was located in the distance, Moss smiled and kept his eyes on the winged doe.

( I did not put any modifications on the text, but it is showing big and italicized to me. Does it look odd to anyone else? )

She paused for a moment after leaving the willow and tilted her face upward. Raindrops hit her forehead and combed her hair away with cold, gentle hands. She trotted forward and caught up with the others, then followed them eagerly to where the flight would take place.

She stood next to the colorful stag as the doe prepared. A small gasp escaped her lips when the black wings snapped open, but it was quickly hushed when the doe first ran and then leapt up into the air. Her eyes were wide and fixed on the flier as she glided around the clearing. Flying! She was flying! Just like another winged doe did before her, many days ago. She reminisced fondly as she looked on then, slowly, began backing away. The dark one's form came closer and closer in her descent, and the distance between them suddenly did not seem at all sufficient.

She leapt out of the way, but there was no need. Mud spattered her face and fur as the winged one rose and faced them. There was triumph to be had there, for sure, and she allowed herself a small, happy hop. However, the fawn's relief was shortlived. She noticed the black one's unsteadiness and looked up fearfully at the stag, hoping he too perceived how the doe shook.

(A very belated thank you, Sapphire! <3 Would you mind telling me what went wrong exactly and how you un-wronged it on my OOC thingy? Wouldn't want to clog the RP. )

boop