Mariposa entered the water until half her legs were submerged. Her hair floated upon the lake's surface. She reached down and began to pick out some twigs in her hair, letting her hair soak in the cool water. Mariposa shook her legs in the water, freeing the crust and grime from her scars.

Dragonflies darted to and fro, she blew air at them as they passed her.

Mariposa rubbed her legs with the side of her forehead to rub away the mud. When she raised her head and tossed her hair to the other side to wash, her black hair smacked Silas square on the face.

Immediately realizing what she had done, her eyes widened in disbelief and all she could do was laugh. She shook with laughter, so much so that she fell on her side, splashing more water onto both of them.

Mariposa's laughed subsided quickly, and her eyes widened as she noticed his face was exposed.
" I can help," she offered, moving cautiously towards him, hair dripping lightly with fresh water.

Mariposa gently adjusted the mask string so it would sit properly on his face, and yanked some of it down so it was secure. Then she took a step back and nodded with a smile, satisfied with her adjustments. "I don't think you even need that mask. You look handsome as a prince- with or without it."

She turned, as if his bashful moment never happened, and dipped her face in the water to let the beads of water roll over her pelt like the down-feathers of a duck.

"[=orange]Wait here,[]" Mariposa chirped. She quickly exited the lake and walked through the willow trees, its hanging branches rolling over her back as she passed through them. The monarch doe approached a patch of clovers and tiny yellow flowers. She plucked clusters of the flowers and clovers, and returned to Silas with the clusters in her mouth. Mariposa placed the greenery in front of them on the bank of the lake.
"I don't know if you eat these... But if you want you can try them."

Mariposa snatched some clovers and began to eat them leaf by leaf.

"I do whenever I injure myself," Mariposa replied with a nervous chuckle. Mariposa lied down in front of him and leaned over to take a daisy flower.

"These flowers were made by a forest guardian, and every day she reblooms all the flowers... It makes them so much sweeter to me.

Mariposa gave a nod. "I've never met her, I just see the gifts she brings into the forest."

Mariposa suddenly leapt to her hooves and struck a silly, jokingly proud pose- as if she were a stag puffing out her chest heroically. "I pray to the Gods I can one day be like her!" she proclaimed with a grin to Silas. "Have so much talent to offer the world- so much that I wouldn't know what to do with it!"
Then her smile began to falter.
"But... How lonely I would be, if all my efforts and blessings upon the forest... go unnoticed?"

The green in her eyes almost seemed to dim as her gaze turned to look at the petite yellow flowers she had picked. She thought of the Guardian who rejuvenated the forest day after day, the one so few have seen. "All of that," she began wistfully, "all of it, and with no one to recognize-- no one to share it with?"

Mariposa smiled and shook her head. "Don't be," she reassured. "I wouldn't have thought of it like you did."

"Still though," she continued. "It must get lonely sometimes..."

Mariposa bounded away over to a tree stump and stood upon it. "I used to love being alone... For a lot of reasons. But now I can't stand it. I forget everything bad... And now, I don't ever want to be alone again."

{http://imgur.com/0sRjHEY I'm sorry I've been doodling a lot and this happened ;v;)

"I had a lot of that time, growing up. There are a lot of crickets in there at this point.." he half joked, shaking his head like the crickets would come out of his ears like loose water. "I try to spend a lot of time around other deer to drown them out."

"If we can get our chorus to stay in a line, I think so too!" He chuckled, watching a bird touch down from across the water. "Characteristically, mine seem to be louder at night. I usually try to sleep before nightfall in that case..."

"I... u-uh...." He thought it over. He was usually uneasy with the night, but he was also usually alone around then. And with gorgeous eyes like those on him, how could he say no? "Sure... Yeah, it'll be fun!"

Silas watched her bound up and down with joy. It really must have been worth it if she was so excited. He loved the sunset and enjoyed it every day, but never the cascade into the starry night. At least, it had been a very long time since then. It would be refreshing, especially with company. He was soon able to join into the excitement, prancing about happily.
"I look forward to seeing it!"

Having no other place to go or anything to do, the buck lay down next to her, closing his eyes and listening to the sounds of the outdoors.

"Human...? I can't say I have... But their existence is known here. Or at least... it was..." Silas thought of the ruins and the pond with its fountain. No deer could make such a thing. He had heard of beings that could build them, the humans. "I'm sure they exist.. some say they lived here before but the gods had wrath on them. I've heard different ways that wrath could have been taken out. Killed, driven out, even that we are their reborn bodies. It's all very strange."

"I'm mostly curious. I wonder if I was a human before this, and if there's any way I could possibly remember." Silas laid his head down. "I try to focus on the present."

Silas abruptly raised his head, looking back at her, ears erect. "Y-you were?!" He sounded as shocked as he was. He had always considered it a possibility, but to think he was speaking to one at this very moment... How many once-humans had he met?! "I-I-I mean I didn't think it was possible! Well, I did, but I didn't think I'd ever... wow..." He calmed down, falling to curiosity. "Do you remember anything else?"

{Sorry I took so long! It's been a rough few days, and i didn't have the energy to write anything ;-;}

"If there are pages missing, that means the fairytale has more to it than you know." Silas chimed in. Maybe you haven't seen the true ending yet, or perhaps it's yet to be written."

Silas froze. It reoccurred to him like it had a thousand times before. He'd never loved someone. Love felt like a foreign object- a treasure he missed out on. His pause was long and full of uneasy contradictions to anything he thought to say. He sat processing his own fate, and the fate of the doe beside him.
"Love is no easy thing, it's different for everyone..." The words just came out of his mouth with no warning. He processed his statement as he said it, as if he wasn't the one who came up with the thought in the first place. "There are many paths to take in life, and you can only hope someone can accompany you on one of them. And then when you lose them, you find yourself somewhere you can't face alone. And then you're lost..."
He shook his head. How would he know any of that? Was it some innate knowledge everyone had?
"But I've never been down a path like that. I couldn't say what I'd do."

"I'm not sure what I want, but I won't say there's no curiosity. I just have to be careful.." Silas watched as the dark of night loomed. He felt a pang of nervousness in his stomach. Night meant memories of his own, the kind he didn't want to recall, but instead forget. He wished he could have pages torn from his own story, so he could enjoy the starry sky a little more. "I'm sorry about what happened to you, and I hope you can figure it all out someday.."

"Beautiful indeed.."Silas gazed at the fiery sun, falling to the horizon, the moon climbing high in the sky behind them. The sky was a symphony of hues. Never was there a sunset that wasn't positively breathtaking to the young buck. He relaxed at the sight of it.

"You had a sun.." Silas said softly. "But luckily, you are not actually the sun or moon. There's a chance you may find each other again. Surely it wont be eternal. Maybe the memories you recover will hold the answer."

"As long as you're satisfied.." He nodded, staring up at the sky, attempting to still his nerves by contemplating the beauty around him. As the sky darkened, the white eyes of his mask dimly glowed.

{I GOT DISTRACTED AND FORGOT OMG SORRY}
Silas grinned, watching Mariposa enjoy herself. A slight breeze picked up from behind him, snaking through the tufts of his coat. He shuddered, his heart skipping a beat. This night wind... He hadn't felt it in such a long time. He couldn't remember the last time he stayed up to see the moon spin overhead. In a burst of confidence, he lowered his head, letting the mask drop into the damp grass, and raised his head, smiling bright as the moon.

"We could walk through the tall grass again. It might help dry you off." He said. He was facing her, but couldn't keep his eyes on hers for too long. He looped the mask string around his neck, but left it off, rising to his feet.

"If you say so..." He said, brushing the long branches of the willow aside to enter the natural canopy. "I just wouldn't want you to get cold again."