January 27, 2010 - 1:32am — Whyss
He had not been an adult for too long yet. His long, gangly fawn legs hadn't changed much, but his body was longer, fuller, and his long tail had become a lovely fan.
His ears were no shorter, and sometimes he felt very much like a rabbit, but his hearing had become better, if anything, and his ability to spy had become that much greater.
His fawn spots had disappeared completely, and his pelt was a bright, cheerful red. He felt it was a bit of fun on the part of the gods to make him so painfully obvious to the rest of the world, but had become used to it.
Today he had been going about his normal business - that is, the business of making other people's business your own. He was not nosy so much as curious... He found he didn't care so much about what the individual he stalked had to say, so much as he wanted knowledge of their personality.
If I could learn more about them, he pondered, perhaps I could find out more about this forest. And maybe... Maybe I could even find...
His steps faltered. He strained for the memory, then his eyes went wide with panic as he realized he could no longer recall-
Wait. There it was. Her voice, her touch. The memory of his mother. He relaxed, and found he had to sit in the protection of a thicket because his knees had begun to shiver.
How could he forget the memory of his own mother? The only person - from that life - who had ever cared about him? His ears went flat against his skull and he moaned softly, pressing his forehead against the bush's trunk.
Crack.
He drew back, thinking he had broken a limb, but as his ears perked up heard it again - a sharp snap of crashing foliage.
Whatever it was was moving quickly, and he was right in its way!
Leaping to his feet, he scurried out of the way just as a massive, brindled stag came barreling through the trees. He had nowhere else to hide, but he cast about for some place of refuge he realized that the other deer hadn't even noticed him.
It had paused, some steps away, and stood, its great striped sides heaving as it gasped for breath. The stag had apparently once had great, a pair of spreading red antlers, sharp-tipped and gleaming as though bloodied, but one appeared to have partially broken off in the past. Whyss felt suddenly terrified, remembering a flash of broken, bloody glass and painful stabbing in his shoulders.
Out of the stag's line of sight, he began to creep away, holding his breath and hoping beyond hope that he would get away...
"Who's there?!"
The demand was harsh, full of anger and... fear. Cold, unpredictable fear. Whyss was frozen, paralyzed by the voice. He had not heard such a tone since coming to this forest... and it terrified him.
"I said who's there, dammit!" The stag swung his head from side to side, then spun around, nearly falling on the damp loam. Now Whyss could see why the stag seemed so frightened - a black mask covered his eyes, a strange mask like Whyss had never seen before. It was smooth and glassy, and had two small dents where eye slits would be on a normal mask.
There was no possible way the deer could see.
Whyss trembled, but could not ignore that voice. He lifted his hoof and tapped it twice on the leafy floor. The stag jumped a little at the noise, but recovered, lowering his head to present his antlers at the smaller deer. "Who are you? Where am I?"
Whyss tapped his hoof on the ground again and made a slight, strained sound in his throat. The stag went still, lifting his head slightly. "What's the matter? Can't you speak? All the others can. Too bad they can't seem to answer simple questions."
Carefully, making sure to make a bit of noise so as not to surprise the unstable newcomer, Whyss approached the other deer. Swallowing a great, halting lump in his throat, he inched his nose close to the stag's mask and give him a small, polite sniff.
Whyss studied the stag's pictogram as he took a step back. Garzim. The pictograms weren't so hard to read, after all... It had taken some time, but he'd learned to interpret the squiggles and lines that had once been so foreign. Then, feeling awkward and unsettled, he began to back away.
"Hey... Wait a second, don't go anywhere." The stag's voice picked up that sick fear again, and Whyss couldn't help but pause and listen. "You... Can you help me? I can't... I can't see anything."
Oh, no. He'd been afraid of this. How could the mute guide the blind? Giving a heavy sigh and backing his ears in not a little unease, Whyss came closer to the huge stag.
Huge wasn't even an apt word. Whyss was already quite small, and this massive stag's fierce appearance terrified him, but... At the same time... He felt a small twinge; the stag was feeling the same fear Whyss himself had felt on that first day. There had been no one then, when Whyss had been attacked by fawns and chased around the pond and...
Feeling an odd and unfamiliar sense of new determination, Whyss took a step forward and pressed his shoulder against Garzim's foreleg.
"Huh?" Relenting to the small force more from surprise than anything else, the stag took a step back. With a bit more maneuvering, Whyss pointed him towards the pond. "Where are you putting me?" The stag asked, a little gentler than his initial demands.
Then, Whyss stood beside the stag and, taking a few steps forward, tried to encourage the larger deer to move.
It took several attempts at trial and error, and both became a little frustrated, but the further they went the smoother their attempts became, until the two deer made it to the sandy willow bank.
Garzim, apparently, was very hot and thirsty. Not only did he take great, sucking gulps of water but, to Whyss's immense astonishment he also lay down and rolled in the shallows, until his fur was heavy and mussed with water.
He lay in the shallows for some time, resting, and Whyss eventually joined him, nearly up to his belly in the cold pond.
"Thanks." Garzim growled, turning his head towards Whyss. "Wish you could tell me your name."
Whyss sighed again. Annoyed by the cold clammy feeling in his legs, he turned and waded back out of the water. Shaking his legs impatiently, he waited for Garzim to join him on the bank.
The big stag clambered to his feet ungracefully and lumbered to the sandy shore, easing himself to the dry earth beneath a willow. Sighing, the big stag lowered his head and went still, breathing deeply.
Whyss didn't like being out in the open area of the pond. The willows and cat-tails were his only friends here. A long, low, chilling moan from a skulled deer made his fur prickle, and without thinking he shot to Garzim's side, peering around.
"Little jumpy, are we?" Garzim rumbled, lifting his head slightly. "I don't think he'll bother us. They seem to be pretty decent."
Unconvinced, Whyss curled up against Garzim's striped side and made himself as small as possible. Garzim lowered his head once more, and Whyss found himself being lulled to sleep by the other stag's heavy, slow, weary breathing.
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An introduction of Garzim to the forest. He's a secondary character, Whyss will always be my first and main, but he was too persistent a theme in my sketchbook for me to ignore him. Honestly I was surprised the name wasn't taken.
I'm sorry it was so incredibly long. I felt as though I was writing a chapter in a novel instead of a diary entry 8'D
Whew! When you first
Yay for new characters! Sounds like an interesting mask Garzim has.
Your stories are fun to read, you should make them more often ^-^
Huhuhuhuhuh, whatever made
Thanks for taking the time to read, I know it was incredibly long. I really do wish I could spend more time with the characters.
It wasn't that long, I think
I know how that feels. I've got all this stuff about my characters in my head, but I do zilch with it xD
Still, Whyss is developing nicely. I look forward to reading more when you get the time ^_^