The stag nodded, completely understanding. "Deer can be cruel like that. They don't like others, judging them before they get to know them." he shook his head realizing, there was more malice in his words than he had intended.

{Would you be interested in RPing with my Ren? He hangs around the pond a lot, and his name even means Lily.}

{Maybe you should, I'm not very good at first posts.}

The stag smiled, "Thanks," he turned to the forest behind him, "It's not so bad out there, you just have to know who to avoid."

A jolt of cold hit Ren's spine, and his eyes snapped open. He stood, shaking the snow off his back where it had fallen from the willow tree. He stretched and yawned, gazing out over the pond and the forest. The snow had increased since he had gone to sleep, when it had been just a light flurry, melting as it touched the ground. Now it was sticking in patches, and as he had just experienced... piling up on branches.

He didn't like it. Winter in general that is. He preferred the warm sunshine of Spring and Summer, when the pond was a cool and refreshing break to the heat. Instead it would freeze, barring him for another year. There was always Ice-skating, but any deer could do that. And of course it was getting colder. Something that apparently everyone else was aware of, the pond was practically deserted at the moment.

Almost... He narrowed his eyes, peering down to the shoreline, where he was certain he could see a figure resting under one of the other willows. Forgetting the chilling winds and the promise of a frozen pond, he started down the hill, half hopping. He was a naturally social creature, and was always eager to meet new deer, and disliked being alone or venturing beyond the pond.

He neared the other deer, and slowed to a walk, careful not to alarm them- her. She was a doe, and he paused, fascinated. She looked as if she had just emerged from the pond, even wearing a lily pad upon her head. "Hello, who are you?"

The doe got up, seeming slightly alarmed, and stammered out a halting introduction. Ren briefly wondered if she was shy or something. Maybe he had just been a little too sudden. He slowed to a stop a few feet away, and bowed. "Lily huh? That's a pretty name." It seemed to amuse him for some reason, but he was also sincere. It seemed to suit her as well, as she was wearing a water lily after all.

"I'm Ren." He smiled at her, shifting his hooves.

Ren tilted his head, curious. She had just said his name three times, perhaps she was making sure she didn't forget? "Your welcome. And it's nice to meet you too." He watched her shake water from her fur, noticing her tail, which seemed unusually long. "Were you just in the pond?" He glanced at the aforementioned body of water. It still looked beautiful even though it was probably freezing, and reflected overcast skies. There was already a thin frost gathering around the edges.

Ren turned his blue-green eyes back to the doe just in time to see her nod. She didn't elaborate. Of course he doubted she would be swimming or resting in the water when it was this cold, she had probably just gotten a drink or something. But she looked damp higher then she would be if that was the case. Maybe she had fallen in, and didn't want to let anyone know.

"Do you spend a lot of time around the pond? It's great isn't it." That was more of a statement then a question, his affection for the place was clear.

The stag didn't appear to notice anything odd about her wording, or notice the stray chuckle. "I'm here a lot too, although it's not really the same in Winter... I might move up closer to Old Oak where it's warmer. At nighttime I mean." His hooves danced a little, but it seemed more of a subconscious gesture.

"You remind me of her. It. The pond anyway, you know, if it was a deer."

He watched her peer into the water, and smiled again. "Well that's good, at least it's not just my imagination." Ren did a quick once over of his own reflection. He didn't bear any sort of resemblance to the pond. Maybe some sort of water dwelling creature with his beluga mask. That reminded him. "Can you talk to koi? He looked back at Lily, hoping she didn't find his question strange. "I've heard of deer who can, that is. I'm not sure if it's true or not though."

The giggling caught him by surprise, and he was caught between embarrassment, and pleasure that she seemed cheerful enough to laugh. "I guess that's what I meant." He explained quickly, banishing rumors from his mind he had heard of deer carrying on whole conversations with the fish. He watched her curiously, he had never heard someone refer to the koi as neighbors. Even he had never thought of them that way despite their usual close proximity. "It is pretty cold. I probably wouldn't be saying much if I lived under the water with them in winter either." He commented.

Leo laughed, "Avoid them? Not really...I mean, some go so far as to threaten my life, but others usually avoid me." he looked back and down at her, offering a weak smile, "I mean...sometimes I do. I'm not really a lion deer. I just look like one. So...sometimes the hungry lion side likes to think it needs to eat something when it doesn't. But don't worry," he repeated, "I can't hunt anything bigger than a rabbit."

Waning-Sun;
The little doe blinked. She looked Leo up and down, sort of getting an eye of why some avoided him. Taking note in the sharp claws on his hooves and his smile. ". . hmmm." Little Lily didn't seem to catch on right away, then it sunk in. Hunt. "Oh . . . well good thing I'm not a rabbit huh?" She chuckled weakly. Not good at jokes ether. Surprise surprise. Long tail twitched. "Tho . . . I don't see how that could be so bad . . . after all. Some of the fish in the pond eat the smaller ones . . ." Her head cocked to the side.

Meadow;
The green doe's face grew warm underneath from embarrassment. He didn't now did she . . . she always assumed because each deer she had met so far already saw her. Little Lily lowered her head a bit to the cold earth. "Because . . . I spent my life . . . in the pond." Her ears twitched, feeling a little ashamed now that it was true. She was the deer of the pond. Algae green eyes watched the stag. ". . . the pond . . is my home. Long tail laid limp.

She looked uncomfortable, and Ren watched in puzzlement as she lowered her head. And then his eyes widened at what he heard next. For a moment he didn't say anything, digesting this information, and wondering if he understood correctly. "You mean.. You live in the pond? Under the surface? In the water with all the koi?" He asked, each clarification increasing the redundancy. His hooves did the subconscious little dance again, as he stared at her, anxiously waiting for her reply, thoughts churning.

She just nodded, as she had done before when he asked if she came from the pond. Now he understood her words, 'You could say that'. She was looking directly back at him, very still. "That's... That's amazing." He barely breathed the words, staring at Lily in a new light. He almost asked if she was the pond in the form of a doe, but decided it was a silly question, all she had said was that she lived there.

"How?" One simple question. He had never thought it possible, but here was a doe who said she lived in the pond somehow, sometimes even in winter when it was frozen over. It didn't even occur to him that she might not be telling the truth.

Ren watched her reactions, she seemed... surprised almost at his behavior. He wondered what other responses she had gotten, if she had ever told anyone else. "You've always lived there? He realized he had just basically echoed her words, and tried to come up with something coherent to say. "Have you ever left? I mean, just explored the forest, seen the ruins or the birch forest?"

He had often imagined living in the pond before, being able to swim down to the depths when ever he liked, talking to the koi and greeting deer from the shallows, seeing their surprised faces. He even, if he was honest with himself, felt somewhat envious of the doe from the pond.

Ren thought about this for a while. Admittedly, he didn't usually like to leave the pond either, but he had still explored a great deal of the forest. He found it hard to grasp that Lily had never even been curious enough to venture out. "Are there any more like you? Is it very dark? What else lives in the pond?" It seemed almost every other sentence that came out of his mouth now was a question. But he was fascinated, he needed to know more about her, and her home under the lily pads.

"You have nothing to be sorry for," he replied, falling silent for a moment, before turning his gaze to the pond.

Ren sat down with her, and saw that perhaps his questions had been a tad overwhelming. The sea? He had heard of that, but the details were vague. He decided not to pester Lily about it, she had only met a deer from there, maybe she didn't know much about it herself. "I'm sorry about all the questions, it's just..." Ren searched for the right word, but could only repeat what he had said earlier. "Amazing."

"Does anyone else know?" He winced slightly, another question. "Sorry."

"And you me," Leo replied with a smile, "I'm pleased to have met you."

Ren's fur puffed up slightly, as a feeling of pride rushed through him, at being one of the few who knew Lily's secret. At least, he thought it was supposed to a secret. "I don't see how anyone could forget you." Ren commented sincerely, wondering what she meant by most. He blinked. "Did a lot of deer see you when you were a fawn?" He didn't even notice that the question had sneaked out.

"They... put you back?" Ren frowned in puzzlement. It was a strange mental image, a group of faceless deer finding her, then dropping her back in the pond. He looked over at Lily, opening his mouth to ask more questions about it, but seeing her expression and how she had quieted, decided maybe it was best to drop it.

"What sort of things do you do underwater?"

He thought about that, helping frogs with their eggs, swimming with fishes, and beamed. It sounded wonderful, just being in the pond, around it, all the time. He wondered if she realized how lucky she was. "Do you dance?" It was a perfectly serious question, and Ren watched her, probably putting too much weight on such a simple thing.

For a second Ren just stared in sheer disbelief. Of course Lily had lived in the pond all this time, and he somehow he doubted the fish or frogs did a whole lot of dancing, but he still found it hard to wrap his head around that she didn't actually know what it was. "You've never danced- You've never seen anyone dance? Well it's simple, it's like... Um..." He hesitated, uncertain how to actually describe the act of dancing.

So he got to his hooves, and began moving them. Sort of like a four legged tap dance, each hoof making a muffled sound against the chilled earth. He hummed as he danced, a tune almost every deer and fawn in the forest knew. He was surprisingly light on his hooves, moving them forward and backward and sideways.

"I thought maybe you had, I've done it myself on the pond anyway." He wondered if perhaps she had seen him one time there and forgotten. Ren stopped dancing, although his hooves itched to keep on, and without the movement cold began to seep back into his legs. "And it's not very hard either, why don't you try?"