"What? No, I am not fat! You're the fat one, tubby!", the pronghorn shook his head and stomped his hooves. A moment of silence, before he spoke again, "Oh no, not at all! I avoid those mushrooms so I don't get big and fat like you!" Another awkward silence, before the cervine huffed and floofed out his rump, "Well! When the humans come with their chainsaws and bulldozers to take you down, I won't come to the rescue!"

The pronghorn kicked the tree with his hind hoof before stomping off. A moment later, Pent was talking to another tree, "The nerve of that tree! I am certainly not fat!"

Auni was wandering by when he stopped, raising his head and looking over to the strange pronghorn. Tilting his head, he approached, expecting to see another animal there. To his surprise, the pronghorn was literally talking to a tree! "No? I did not consider eating those kind of pinecones. Lots of fiber?", he tilts his head.

"What in the world are you doing?", Auni asked Pent. The pronghorn doesn't reply, but rather, continues his conversation with the tree, "Really? How delightful! I'll have to find them!"

The deer cleared his throat, before saying, "Hey, weirdo! Why are you talking to a tree?"

Another awkward silence, before Pent spoke again, "...Yes, I know, I know, he won't leave us alone. I suppose I could...right...right...", before turning to the deer, "Yes? Do you need something? I'm kind of busy here."

"Busy? Busy?! You're talking to a tree!", Auni shouted.

Pent blinked, "Yes? Is there a problem with that?", the pronghorn tilted his head again.

"Well you're creeping me--", the deer began to speak, when a bright green light engulfed both of them. It was so fast that they did not expect it, even Auni continued speaking as the two were oddly transported from the Endless Forest to a strange place. "--out, why would you talk to a...", he stops, looking around, "Where...where are we?"

Pent sniffed the air, looking around as well, "Hmm? Well we're apparently not in the Forest.", he speaks. The area around them was an open plain, where a few trees and shrubs grew around the crumbling remains of an ancient temple. Pent, as usual, wandered straight to one of the trees close by, "Hello there, would you tell me where we are?"

"Oh great, still talking to trees?", Auni shakes his head, but Pent shushes him, "Shh! Hmm? We're...in 'Mecs-sicko'? What an odd name...", the pronghorn chuckles.

"Mexico? No idea what or where that is...but it's kind of a dreary here...", Auni says as he looks around at the old ruins. "Shh!!", Pent goes again, perking his ears, "What? Mayans? What are Mayans? We just got here, really, we haven't seen any--what? What do you mean 'fat'?", the pronghorn huffs a bit, "Oh really? Well you're a...a big stinky doo-doo head! I hope you get infested with termites!", Pent stomps his hoof and walks off.

"Wait! Where are you going?", Auni asked, following behind. The pronghorn walked to one of the open entrances around next to an old tree, a dark tunnel opening up. He stops and looks back at the deer, "Eh I thought I'd look around for these 'Mayan' things. Besides, I'm not going anywhere near that jerk of a tree again!", he shouts, making sure the tree could hear him, before walking into the darkness. "Wait up!", Auni calls and rushes in.

He barely gets into the dark hallway when he rams into Pent's side. The pronghorn had stopped, and the deer tilts his head, "Hey, why did you stop?" The pronghorn looks back, "The tree at the entrance warned there was a trap right here. Just watch your step, don't...yeah, that stone there? It causes some weird little sticks to shoot out of the walls, bad thing to happen apparently." The pronghorn maneuvers around the trap stone on the ground, Auni nervously doing the same. As they are safe on the other side, the deer asks, "How did you know about that? It's like you've been here before." Pent chuckles, "I told you, that old tree at the entrance said there was a trap."

Auni blinks, "Okay...maybe you can talk to trees...but you're still creeping me out.", he admits. Pent smiles just a little, "I get that all the time, really...I always thought everyone could hear their voices, but apparently I'm one of a few. Anyway, let's keep going, this tree said there was something interesting ahead."

The two ventured deeper in, where the narrow hallway opened up into a large sunlit room. The walls of the old temple were covered in shiny golden tile, where old carvings and depictions of ancient prophecies were shown. As they looked around, Auni gasped, "Whoa! Look at this!"

They looked at a large mural on the wall, where rays of sunlight from the sky shown upon a vast land with deer and other animals, and the most notable feature were great big deer that towered over them. It shows the normal-sized deer bowing in worship of these giants, and even giving offerings of fruit, mushrooms, and golden antlers in homage.

"Wow! So apparently...these Mayan people thought they saw huge deer before! How interesting!", Pent nodded his head. Auni was confused, "This is really creeping me out, I don't think I'd like meeting a giant deer.", and as he says this, he noticed something on the farthest wall. Pent looks over as well, and the two approach. A giant circular stone slab rested on the wall, and etched inside of them were several holes. The holes were encircled by a circular carving.

"Hmm...you know...this one almost looks like...", Auni began, approaching the larger of the two circles and placing his antlers onto the stone wall. The tines on his antlers matched the holes perfectly. Pent blinked and did the same thing on the other side with the much smaller holes, his pronghorn antlers going in as well and fitting exactly.

"What now?", the deer asked. Pent listened for a moment, before saying, "Oh thank you, Mister Tree! Well we apparently tilt our heads..."

"Tilt our heads? That's the stupidest--", Auni began when Pent tilted his head, the circle moving with his antlers, a dragging sound of the stone as it spun. The deer then did the same, tilting his head the other way and causing his circle to spin. Soon a loud click sounded, and the whole place began to rumble. Debris and sand began to fall from the ceiling, as it appeared the temple was going to fall apart! The two pulled their antlers out of the holes and backed up, as the giant stone slab broke in half and split into two sections, separating before them and opening up a deep, dark tunnel.

Soon the quaking stopped, and they nervously sighed in relief that the place wasn't going to fall apart. "Shall we?", Pent asked. Auni slowly nodded his head, "Might as well."

The two entered down the hallway, and as it opened up, they heard the rushing of water. Another well lit area, filled with lush, tropical trees and a roaring waterfall. A great pond was at the center of this large room, and butterflies and fish danced before their eyes. All around were murals and depictions of great big deer. Even giant deer head carvings stuck out of the walls almost like trophy head mounts.

The two stepped deeper in, when they heard something weird beneath their hooves. Looking down, they were astounded at what they saw!

Deer! Tiny little deer looked up at them! The two stood still as the little ones tilted their little heads at them, and soon a whole congregation of them appeared, all in many different colors. There were even green, blue, and red micro deer that laughed and danced around the much larger deer and pronghorn.

"P-Pent...does this mean...?", Auni asked.

The pronghorn nodded, "Yes...we're the giant deer.", he said, and as he did, the little deer all bowed and chanted in worship.

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"You know, I'm starting to like it here.", Auni chuckled, as he opened his mouth, one tiny deer rolled in a grape.

"There's a tree saying something over there...about...hmm...eh, I even care right now...", Pent closed his eyes. The two were laying on their backs while the tiny deer scratched and massaged their bodies all over.

Pent should have listened to the talking tree in the distance, who was shouting for them to get out of there. For in the next room, the little deer were stirring a giant boiling pot, making the necessary preparations to eat a godly meal.

For you see...some gods aren't just worshiped...they're also eaten!

The End