part one: Conjoined




Long had they sensed Death's lingering in the desolate woods. It was no shock when they found her.
For years they watched as the infection of old age slowly poisoned their mother's body. Years in isolation made her unrecognizable to any who might have once known her. Her mouse brown pelt was long since replaced with dull and ragged fur. Long ago had her voice gone hoarse and breathing raspy.
When they found the old doe's body, they did not touch her. They did not speak aloud.
They stood over their mother's form, waiting in vigil.
But they did not stay for long.
They departed early in the next morning, dew clinging to strands of grass and sticking to the fur of their pelt.
They wandered deep into the uncharted woods in which they had lived all their life.
And they would run swiftly.
And they would listen alertly.
And they would step softly as to go unnoticed.
For they knew their predators.
And they would give them no opportunity.
Still in the forest is a legend, an old wives tale for curious young fawns. Telling of a doe who years ago, gave birth to a monstrosity.
Some say she fled into the woods, and the offspring died shortly after.
Others say it devoured her, and still lives in the untamed portions of the forest.
Perhaps someone will see her sons one day, if just for a moment.
And story will spread of the demon that walks in the woods.




Walk not in the deep forests alone, child.
The forsaken lurk in those woods.

Today was not a beautiful as it was the day before, or before that. Urro looks up at the hazy, dark sky and realizes it isn't going to be the perfect week to play, or search for berries, which was his most favorite thing to do in the whole forest. Urro has taken shelter in a beaver den. The river was no longer there though, it was dried up by the drought the forest had long ago, the river never did recover. But later on, as the years went by, the rainy season had brought a new river. He didn't like that river as much because all of the young fawns would play there, they would bug him. So he always went to the big pond instead, it was peaceful there. That was where Urro found the berries long ago and came across a very dangerous buck. His mother had always warned him not to go into the forest by himself during rutt season. To the larger bucks, he was a competition. As Urro thought about this, he layed his head down resting his eyes, the weather had exhausted him. He was gloomy just like it was. As the rainy day went by, the sun started to peek from behind the clouds. Urro rose up from his resting place and stuck one foot out to feel the grass, he quickly pulls away. Too wet. He decides to wait a little longer for the sun to dry up the grass. As he waits, he paws at the soft dirt waiting for the minutes to go by, maybe hours. Urro gets restless and decides to head out anyway, he can't bare the boredom any longer. One foot out, and then the other. He stretches way out past the beaver den feeling the dry grass on his legs. Wait... it's dry! This excites Urro and he dicides to leap and play in the fields just once, but first he must find his mother. "Baa!" He waits. "Baaaaaaa!" Far off in the distance he hears his mother's call. He follows her scent leaping over fallen branches and dodging low tree limbs. And there she is, waiting for him. Urro frollics over to her nuzzling her soft, warm fur. He missed her. She was worried about him, especially during the storm.

Minori stared up into the darkening sky, the far western horizon blazed red as a golden sun sank bellow. The sky was cloudless yet diamond tears fell, spattering the stones all around. Rust red hair, a mere shade lighter than the blood-wet pool he laid in, fell away from his face. A band of boyish freckles played across the bridge of his nose, enhancing the green of his eyes. Blood bubbled in the corner of his mouth to spill down his cheek. Opening his pale lips a fraction, Minori dragged a painful breath into his lunges. Long ragged cuts had been crossed down the breast of his once white shirt, now stained with his own scarlet. His eyelids fluttered closed as he drew another rasping breath. “Why Aki...? Why...?”


The night sky burned bright with a thousand dancing lights as a crescent moon cast a silver curtain over the darkened world, like a lamp-post lighting the old streets of London. A young boy with rust red hair ran past a doorway, his voice piping as he was not yet of age. “I'm late! Why do I always have to take a leak just when it's lights out? And why does the loo have t'close down at early dark? Man I hate it!” slowing to look behind him, the boy scratched his chin. “Man the Barrack-master's gonna have my hide if I don't hurry!” Taking off at top speed, skidded around the corner of a building; only to run straight into something.
OOOPPH!!!
“Ow... what on earth...?” he began, rubbing the back of his head. Then stopped, for sitting right in front of him, was someone else. Someone he had never seen before.
“Would you watch where your going?! Geez! What is with you?!” The kid snapped, his voice squeaking.
Pulling up his courage, he answered as bravely as he could. “Getting back to the barracks, I don't wanna get in trouble. And sorry to have run into you. I didn't know you were here.”
“Well look closer next time... wait.

Dawn came early across the forest as the unseen sun shed its gentle light in rays and beams through foliage and rock. Something in the air felt different. A deep stirring within Theano seemed to be pulling her toward the large hill that descended on one side to the flowing spigot and on the other side the bowl of earth that was covered in blue flowers. As Theano often did she resisted the urge to follow. It was not her nature to just obey. Eventually she always meandered over where ever the pull took her. She would look. Sometimes it was a bevy of dancing deer, or a pile of swaying ungulates to some inner unknown rhythm, and occasionally no deer at all, but just a spot that seeped a heaviness into her soul.

She continued her drinking and bathing in the pond near the white pillars on the hill. Theano would glance up toward where the pull emanated from, but at the moment she was enthralled with the purple dragonflies that encircled her feet. She wondered from whence they came and why they chose this spot to inhabit rather than glide across the freedom of the open pond. And just as she decided she would stop her constant movement and questioning the sky intensely brightened in the direction the pull had come from. Theano sighed knowing she was going to have to leave the peace of the water that haunted her. She was such a loner. It wasn't that she did not love the others, but more the stimulation overwhelmed and clouded her mind. What Theano often sought was calmness and peace. She did not wish to hurt the other beautiful frolicking deer and wished she could be as carefree as they were. It was not her lot in life. Hers was to constantly ponder the essense of being and why it was such and why did we have to suffer so.

With a sigh and final glance at the purple dragonflies, she began the journey toward the new light. Up the embankment she slowly climbed and past the weeping willow trees that could hide you in your sadness.