"How did you meet this guy?" Felix smacked his hand on Mike's face as he looked at Nat. Mike grunted and huffed while Nat just laughed and kept chewing on his grass cup. "He shot me in the leg!" John choked on his sweet ale and looked at Mike with a disbelieving face. "Him?! Are you sure?!" John practically shouted. Mike huffed and slapped Felix's hand away, "Yes I did shoot him, but I didn't know it was him. I just thought it was a regular deer" Nat nodded and smiled. "It was romantic! He nursed me back to health" He sighed happily, remembering the first time they met.
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Mike sighed as he checked the rabbit trap. "Nothing" he muttered and tilted up his hat. Money was scarce for his family, His father was gone and his mother was sick. His sister could barely keep her eyes open, he needed to find food. "Nothing in this one either" He's been setting rabbit traps all over the woods and he still couldn't catch one. "Fuck" he muttered, Jobs were mostly given away to people who could do magic. Mike was just.. a regular human. His entire family was, well kind of, his father was an elf, but there wasn't really anything to go off of. He snapped out of his thoughts when he heard a snap. He immediately dove into the bushes and drew his bow.
Mike looked around, quiet as a mouse, the fog was thick today. He had to be extra vigilant and careful when it comes to hunting. Suddenly, large figure appeared in his field of vision. Ears perked up, four legs, hooves, It was a dear!! Mike pointed his arrow at him and waited till the animal grew closer, before letting go and letting the arrow dive straight into the leg. Mike celebrated in silence before he heard, "OW!" And a huge thud. He immediately got up, that sounded human! He felt his stomach drop as he quickly went over to the fallen figure. "Shit" He said as he stared at the dear humanoid thing, blood dripping down his leg. The Human Deer looked at him through his beady deer eyes. "I-it hurts" He whimpered at him. Mike winced and reached out, causing the Human Deer to panic and try to get away from him.
"W-wait I-I'm sorry! I'm not gonna hurt you!" The deer human let out a squeal of pain when he tried getting up on the leg and collapsed again. Mike stopped and watched as the deer human laid there, groaning. He slowly reached out and put a hand on his shoulder. The Deer human flinched, but didn't move. Mike sighed in relief and looked down at his leg. He looked at his face, "I'm gonna need to take you back to my house to heal you and uh.. My name is Mike. Can I ask you for yours?" The deer human slowly blinked at him, studying him before softly speaking, "My name is Nat" Mike nodded and puts his bow back. "Nice to meet you. I-I uh I'm going to pick you up now" Mike hoisted him up on his shoulders, making Nat squirm before calming down. Mike started walking back and started to take notice of the area, "Are you gonna eat me?" Nat suddenly asked. Mike spluttered, "Wha- n-no! I-I'm really gonna help you. It was my fault for the arrow and I-I have bandages back home" Nat chirped in response and fell silent. The ground was crunchy and full of dead leaves, it was almost winter soon.
As Mike was sure they were growing closer to his house, he checked Nat's leg. It stopped bleeding, but it still looked bad. Mike felt a shot of guilt in his heart and sighed as they neared his door. He took out his key and unlocked the door, it creaked really loudly as he came in and slammed it behind him. Nat flinched at the loud noises he heard and felt himself tense up again, he was in an unfamiliar place. Mike slowly sat him down on his couch. "Hey, I'm gonna go get the bandages and you wait here" Nat huddled in on himself and started licking at his leg. He was on guard, even though this Mike guy was really nice, he just didn't feel safe around him. Nat tensed up as he heard voices past where Mike went.
It sounded like a woman's voice, really soft. Nat squeaked when he saw Mike re-enter. Mike held bandages in his hand and smiled warmly, Nat also noticed that he had some sort of bottle in his hand. Mike sat next to him on the couch and took his leg gently. "You uh.. might wanna brace yourself" Nat nodded and shut his eyes as Mike grabbed the arrow and pulled it out in one swift movement. Nat bit back a squeal and looked at him with tears in his eyes. Mike gave him a sheepish smile and started putting medicine all over his legs. Nat watched as he started wrapping bandages all over. "Thank you" Nat said quietly. Mike looked up and smiled, "No problem"
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"And then I just kept coming back" Nat licked his paw. "Soo he hurt you and kidnapped you. So you grew Stockholm syndrome" Felix said and Nat burst out laughing as Mike groaned. "Wait what happened to your family?" Mike tensed up and glanced at John, "I-I don't really like to talk about it" John nodded. "Sorry" Nat looked at John. "Mine was eaten by dragons"
