When Hunter Becomes Prey

Courting

*The wind carries a familiar scent and I raise my head from the grass I was eating. I scan the trees and see nothing that shouldn't be there. He's obviously not close yet.

I lower my head and go back to eating. A twig snaps and my body immediately goes rigid. My ears swivel trying to hear footsteps and my eyes look around wildly.

There's nothing here except trees. But I know he's close now. His scent is stronger and I have an eerie feeling of being watched.

Another twig snaps and this time I know where the snap came from. "Come out Dólar! I know you're there."

He steps out from behind a tree and lowers his head as a sign of greeting. I mimic his movements and then he approaches me.

"This is why you have evaded predators for so long. You're very observant." "It has nothing to do with the fact that all deer are observant." I reply sarcastically.

"Deer like you and I are more likely to be killed than the others in our herd." He reminds me with a sad smile. "I know."

"Speaking of the herd, we should get back to them." I nod my head and he does what all bucks do, herds me where he wants me to go.

"You're really beautiful, you know that?" He asks or is it compliments? me when we're halfway back. "Oh, thank you."

"I bet our children will be beautiful like you." He moves closer to me, so close our shoulders are almost touching.

"Yeah?" "Oh yeah. They'd look beautiful with your dappling." That's nice of him to say. Dólar is so sweet.

"Dólar, you're so sweet." I smile at him. "Only for you." He gently rubs his antler against my ear.

Once his antler stops touching my ear, he walks a little faster, always keeping ahead of me. He does this quite often when we're together, something about protecting me from predators.

As soon as we're back to the herd I spot my ma and fa. They're busy talking to each other, oblivious to my return.

"Dólar! Get over here!" A young buck with floppy ears yells. Dólar gives me a sorry look before trotting over to his friend.

"You know he's been trying to court you, right?" I nearly jump out of my skin when a voice speaks from behind me. I turn around to see Lana.

"No he's not. He's just being a good friend." There's no way he sees me like that, Lana is clearly crazy.

"Alpenrose, the whole herd knows! Why else do you think no other buck approaches you? Dólar threatened to kill any one that does." My eyes widen. He likes me enough to kill for me?

"He did?" I ask in disbelief. I look from Lana to Dólar and find him looking at me. He even winks before going back to talking to his friend.

This changes everything!

"I heard it myself." Lana says with certainty. "I-wa- what do I do?" "That's for you to decide. I just wanted you to know because it's been driving me crazy how oblivious you are to him." With that she walks away and leaves me with this surprising information.

I look towards Dólar again to find he's not with his friend anymore. How am I supposed to talk about this with him if he's not there?

Better question; how do I feel about this?

Honestly I've never thought about him or anyone for that matter, like that before. Does this mean we're going to become mates? How does that even work? I need to ask Ma.

"Ma!" I yell as I sprint towards her. She twists her head in my direction and looks at me with concern. "What?"

"I'll leave you two be." Fa says before leaving us alone. "Lana says Dólar's been trying to court me! What do I do?" I urgently whisper, not wanting the other herd members to hear.

"That depends on how you feel about him. How do you feel about him?" How do I feel? I don't know how I feel.

"Ma, I've never thought about him like that before. I've always thought of him as my good friend." I reply.

"I thought of your father as my good friend. Now look at us, happily mated." She smiles at a distant memory.

"But Ma, I don't know how mates work. How do I go about him courting me?" This is all just so many questions!

"If you like him you should tell him. If you don't, then tell him. That way he can move on instead of being strung along and getting his heart broken." She explains with the wisdom of an old doe who's seen many years.

"That doesn't tell me how mates work."

"When a buck courts you and you accept, he does this sort of dance. The dance differs from male to male but they all start in buck form before shifting to human. After he displays his dance the female shifts to human and the two kiss. Then he braids a strand of her hair. It's a rather simple mating ritual, but it gets things done."

"Thanks Ma. I have to find Dólar now." I quickly give her my thanks before I start to look for him.

Just like earlier, I can't see hide nor hair of him. He has to be around somewhere, the herd is bedding down soon.

Ten Minutes Later

I give up, he's good at hiding when he wants to and I guess that's right now.

"We're bedding here today." The lead buck announces as the first few flickers of sunlight start to filter through the trees.

The does and their fawns bed first, then the bucks bed with their families. Finally the lone deer bed.

Going about it this way makes it so families get good places to sleep and us loners get crappy places to sleep.

"Alpenrose, when don't you sleep near us?" Fa asks from his comfortable spot next to Ma. "It's fine Fa. I can find my own place to sleep."

The place I find is a grassless spot with scratchy dirt. It's not the best and I sort of regret not taking Fa's offer.

"Did you miss me?" A voice teases. I turn my head from looking at my parents to see Dólar laying down next to me. He's laid down behind me, probably because he wants to protect me or something like that.

"I've been looking for you. Where did you go?" I ask. "My brother needed my help." I feel him shift his weight and then I feel his antler bump my back.

"Why were you looking for me?" "When were you going to tell me you were trying to court me?" I try to keep the annoyance out of my voice.

"I wanted to see how long it would take for you to realize." He says. "I didn't realize. Lana told me."

"Oh, well Alpenrose, I would like to court you and become mates. What do you say?" I feel shift his weight again and this time he's rubbing his head against the back of my neck.

He's acting weird.

"I need time to think Dólar." I finally say. "How long?" The rubbing stops. "The full moon." Three days away, maybe I should've asked for the crescent moon instead.

"I'm patient, I can wait. Three days is a mere blink of an eye in my life." He whispers huskily in my ear before starting up the rubbing again.