The Golden Deer

Chapter 1

It was late summer when she was first spotted. Just as the insects were beginning to disperse and the oppressive heat was easing into long, warm afternoons full of golden yellow sunshine. The last chance to enjoy the pleasantries of summer before the air became crisp and the leaves changed their shade.

Throughout the sweltering summer weeks the high-born people of the country, the lords, ladies and all the other bothersome titles of the privileged, had sought refuge in the cool damp castle. Courtiers cloistered in the many chambers and antechambers of their fair king, feebly fanning themselves and bemoaning the heat while their servants bustled up and down stairs with ewers of cool water and lemonade. But now as the heat lifted they emerged, blinking, back into the sun.

The young Prince Alan celebrated the beautiful weather and his twenty-first birthday by taking twenty of his most favored knights on a great hunting adventure for twenty-one days. They rode far north, deep into a part of the woods rarely frequented.

The young men were a boisterous bunch and they rode and joked and laughed and enjoyed themselves immensely. On the thirteenth day while racing dangerously through the thick brush they came suddenly upon a clearing.

It was a perfect oval, knee-high soft grass almost concealing the clear pool at the center. The sun sparkled here like no other place. Prince Alan, who had the lead, pulled his horse up short and his men quickly followed suit. A hush fell across the noisy bunch as they took in the quiet peace of the hidden meadow.

"Look," Prince Alan whispered, pointing directly ahead.

Standing beside the pool was a shinning creature, a deer with intricate horns and a hide of pure gold. She shone like a freshly minted coin and looked for all the world like a statue until she delicately lowered her head and began to drink. It seemed as though each hair on her hide, every inch of her antlers, even the bottom of her hooves had been gilded by an artist. As they stared she raised her glittering head and looked at the hunters. Later, each man would swear she had looked directly into their eyes, into their very souls. Then she cocked her head slightly and bounded away, light as a butterfly.

After that she became the obsession of the court. She was believed to be a token of great luck, any man who laid eyes upon her would see every desire of his heart fulfilled and, should any man be so bold and quick as to touch her, they would become more wise and powerful than any king.

The King himself bore this with good humor, promising the men of his court whoever brought him the deer would be given his own crown. He had good humor to spare for it was the most prosperous harvest his kingdom had seen in some time. The people were healthy and strong, the storehouses packed full; a golden, carefree autumn.

The one and twenty men who had seen her did indeed find many of their wishes fulfilled, although perhaps this was more the result of their fame than the power of the deer. Truly, it mattered not, for the people were happy and full and ready for the coming winter.

But as the air chilled and the ground hardened and the sky clouded over, the feeling of well-being began to sour. Heavy rains flooded the rivers and left everyone coughing and shivering, as a fever swept venomously across the land. Many died and even more went hungry when the rain leaked into several storehouses, ruining the bumper crops. The sky seemed constantly coated with gray and the one and twenty men found their hearts were no longer so filled.

They seemed to bear a great and wearisome cross, lost in their thoughts, growing thin and haggard. They began to speak only of the Golden Deer, they cursed her as an omen of terrible things and, one by one, they rode out to find and kill her. One by one until only the twenty-first man was left, Prince Alan.

When the twentieth man rode off into the woods the King summoned his only son before him and forbade him, in a loud and commanding voice he never used with his son, to leave the castle grounds. Alan, his eyes fixed firmly upon the floor, spoke no words to his father, left quickly and barred himself in his room.