The void...it has kept me for so long. It seemed I grew accustomed to its warmth that enveloped me. To step out seemed almost...scary. Yes, I would admit it. I was scared. Wouldn't you fear the light if you knew darkness for as long as I? When that pinprick appeared in the distance I wanted to run, but it seemed deep down in my soul I yearned for it as I moved toward it.

Then there it was, the forest in all its wonder. The void was different. I was weightless there and things did not move so dizzyingly fast. My legs stumbled beneath me, and my muscles did all they could to hold me up. Even my flayed skull felt heavy on my neck. It was a wonder I did not appear a deer ensnared by a spell gone horribly wrong.

It took some time to orient myself, though the way the world moved in my eyes made my stomach ill. Death was more welcome than my churning stomach. Finally getting my feet moving fairly well beneath me I headed to the pond to soak my world weary body. Perhaps I was not meant for this world anymore...

Then I heard the snap of a twig and my body clenched tight to twist my head and ears about. If some predator was upon me, they would find out that I could still bit harder than they. Dreaming of being the meanest birch tree in the forest only was thwarted by the fact I could not become the said tree!

But it was nothing after me, but my kind. My. Kind...

It had been so long, and even in my longing to be alone I found a longing to be with them now and again. In the void there are no deer. There is nothing. Just me and my memories.

Stepping carefully through the brush I found myself greeted by a rather bouncy deer, and I could not help but want to join in. I grudgingly admit I was a terrible jumper, and my social skills were less than stellar, but it seemed to make the quality of time together no less. It also did not seem to make other deer turn away. They came to stay and play as well.

Then it hit me. I was zinged by a spell that nearly knocked my off my feet. What had these hooligans done to my beloved antlers that lit my way through the darkness?! Blowing the spell away I was pummeled by another. Where had my scales gone to protect me? They were completely insane. Every last one of them!

Snorting and spitting I sent a few right back at them, and they found it funny! This was a game now?! It seemed I could not break a single spirit today, and that was enough to make me laugh. It was funny. The deer were not the same. They were hardy, tough. Perhaps I could get along well in this forest.

My muscles tired I lied down on the ground to enjoy what little time I had left with them. The void was calling me, and already my body was falling away into the black smoke as it trailed upward.

Gone. Gone. Again I was gone.