Gods and Monsters 17

Chapter I: Hunter Felled

Deep in the Vale, where both predators and prey abound, a young, pale-furred buck raises his head from where he has been foraging for the last several hours in response to a rustling in the leaves behind him. After waiting tensely for several moments, he determines that there is nothing predatory lurking in the shadows on as fine a day as this. Returning to his grazing, he contentedly swishes his tail back and forth.

The day continues peacefully for him and his small herd, with each member finding plenty of nourishment hiding beneath the fallen leaves of autumn. As the day approaches its end and the sun is beginning to dip below the horizon, the herd begins to settle down after a day of nothing more eventful than the loud scolding given by a curmudgeonly badger to one of the yearlings who had gotten curious and wandered too close to his den.

Pleased with how the day has gone, the inexperienced buck makes his final rounds, checking on each member of his herd in turn. Satisfied that all is well, he finds his own spot to settle down in on the east side of the glade in which he and his charges had spent the daylight hours. All is quiet now except for the handful of creatures just now waking to tend to their nocturnal habits and not even the distant howls of wolves can be heard this night. The only things causing so much as a rustle in the leaves are some small mice who are rooting around for the same sustenance the deer had searched for during the day.

As though it were a bolt of lightning, the full impact of this crashes into the buck and he lifts his head in shock and growing fear, ears tilted forward and alert. Something is terribly wrong. No wolves are howling and only small creatures are stirring and coming out of their burrows. The only time those two things happen simultaneously is when there is a large predator around that even wolves fear. Looking around in a near panic, the buck tries to find what might be the cause of this unusual silence.

Before he can even get his hooves under him so he can move his herd to a more secure location, he sees a flash of moonlight off a metal object whistling by his nose. In the next instant, he hears one of the does utter a pained cry. Turning his head to the sound, he sees that a black shafted arrow has penetrated the flesh just behind her shoulder blade, ending her life almost before her cry of despair had left her throat.

Struggling to his feet, the slightly trembling buck looks back in the direction from which he had seen the flash of light off the arrowhead. A shadowy form rises from a crouched position three paces back into the underbrush while placing a bow in a sheath on its back. The form seems to have all of its attention on the buck. A flash of moonlight catches the shadowed visage, revealing hazelnut skin and vivid blue eyes that reflect the light like a cat's. A cloud covers the moon and hides the face of the figure once more, but the unseen eyes still cause the buck to tremble. The figure makes its way confidently out of the shadows, certain that no creature will challenge it, yet cautious nonetheless. This all occurs within the span of a heartbeat and as the figure begins to move, so too does the herd begin to scatter.

The buck sees that it is a young man, not quite out of adolescence, who has slain a member of his herd. Enraged, he forgets his fear and ceases his trembling, his protective instincts taking control. One thought and one thought alone comes to the young buck's mind: this boy must pay for what he has done. Snorting a challenge, the now furious deer paws the ground, preparing to charge. The young man notices this just as the deer jumps towards him. Startled, the boy is still fast enough that he is able to brace himself for impact.

As the buck closes the distance between them, the young man charges a few strides in turn and grasps the buck's antlers in a powerful grip, halting it mid-charge. Flexing muscles that are more powerful than any human's, the young man lifts the buck slightly in the air and throws it to the ground in one fluid motion, stunning the buck badly and breaking one of the tines of his right antler.