The Demon Deer

Chapter 1

          "Tinley stay with the herd," his mother chided.

           Tinley's ears turned down in abashment and he trotted to catch up, grinning contritely as he reached her side. In the early stages of adolescence, his curiosity was constantly getting the best of him and even worse, getting him into trouble. Despite his mother's constant reproaches and his father's stern looks, he couldn't help himself, everything from shiney rocks to butterflies stealing away his attention.

          "You know, your father-"

          "Didn't become lead buck by studying bees!" He interrupted reciting the speech in the monotonous way of a boy having heard it a thousand times, which he had. "He did it through hard work, grit, and determination for the herd to prosper."

          Her lips curved up in a small smile. "Mmhmm.... And why is it you know my speeches so well, yet I find myself having to constantly repeat them?"

          "Oh, I like it better when you tell them." He said with a wave of his hand. "But mom, what if I don't want to be lead buck?"

          "Tinley," she hissed under her breath, grabbing his arm and looking over her shoulder to make sure no one could hear. "Don't talk like that! Every boys dream is to be lead buck."

          "Yes, but that's all that it is momma! A dream," he said sternly, unflinching under her glare. "The dream of a grazer's child. They don't see daddy when he comes home in the late hours of the night, exhausted from patrolling, or watch you stitch the holes in his hide after he fights off a pack of wolves while they sleep warmly next to their mate. They don't know what these things are like, how it feels to wonder if someone they love will make it home. They are content to live in the safety of his shadow while coveting and plotting for a position that leaves prints too big for their hooves."

          Tinley would never know how much of his father she saw in him right then, from the strength of his voice to the set of his shoulders and the look in his eyes.

          "That is why we must remain vigilant from the outside to within," his father said in that gravelly voice of his, suddenly at their side, neither having heard him approach but both dropping their heads when he did.

         "Doren-" she started but he waved her words away.

         "Worry about it not Launia," he told her, ruffling Tinley's ears. "He is my son so of course his opinion is as as sharp as his mind.

          Tinley smiled up at his father who cut an imposing figure, tall and broad, with antlers that cut back from his head and spanned to a massive eleven points. Their eyes were the same dark brown of the hair that covered Doren's back and shoulders, stopping just below the elbows and leaving his chest and belly, rippling with muscle, bare. "How about you come and run the Vanguard with me?"

          "Really?" Tinley asked, his ears perking up at that. The Vanguard was only run by the biggest and toughest bucks.

          "Of course," Doren answered with a grin. "You seem to have seen all the risks of leading. Now let me show you the rewards.