Joshua+Adamson

Josh Adamson P-2 Sci. Fi. 2/24/12 Fantasy Story __The White Stag__  In the valley just over the ice-tipped mountains, beyond the lush pine forests and through the mountain spring waterfalls, lived a giant herd of Red deer. These Red deer were much different from the Red deer you may know, they obtained the ability to communicate with each other and even humans, though none of them had actually seen a living person before, but only heard the tales of their elders having encounters with them. Within this mysterious valley, the Red deer lead on lives full of battles for survival, protection, and affection. The large males clashed their antlers together in hopes of winning the love and affection of many females. One spring, after a short, harsh winter, all the females gave birth to healthy young, except for one, Helen, who’s baby, named Syron, was born premature and with an awkward coat of white fur, which none of the other deer had ever seen before.  After several months of Helen’s offspring just getting by on small portions, he began to grow into a beautiful young, albino stag. Those males that had once made fun of and gawked at this stag’s awkward coat and small body now looked upon him with much jealousy and haste. Females began to look at Syron with high hopes of serenading him, forgetting about the other young males in the heard. This angered those males and they slowly began to exclude Syron from there bachelor group. Since Syron began to loose friends and realized he had no interest in females at his young age, he began to venture away from his heard and explore different territories beyond the valley. One crisp, Spring morning Syron was by himself wandering through a dense part of the forest beyond the north side of the valley, when he caught the scent of something he’d never experienced. He continued to smell it and followed his nose until the scent began to sting his nostrils. Working his way through the dense woods, Syron came to a large opening where he could see a small stream of smoke rising into the air in the far corner of the grass flat. Around the smoke were two small green huts, but Syron had no clue what to think of them. Slowly and carefully, he worked his way around the outside of the opening and closed in on the smoke. He was about fifteen yards away when he heard a soft noise, that sounded like a voice, come from the huts. Syron froze in his tracks, then dropped down and tucked into some bushes as best as he could. Out of the hut stepped a tall figure, standing on two legs at about six feet tall. Syron was stunned and didn’t know what to think. The figure started to talk and Syron thought it was directed towards him, so he prepared to run but then out popped another tall figure, this one even taller than the last one and Syron realized they were having a conversation, although he had no clue what it was about. Just then, Syron realized what he had stumbled upon, after all those stories about humans he had heard from his elders when he was a young fawn, he was now witnessing two of them right in front of him. After talking for what seemed like an eternity, they crawled back into their huts, so Syron took the chance to escape and quietly went back into the woods. Once he thought he was far enough away, Syron began to gallop as fast as he could to get back to the valley and tell the others what he had discovered. After about an hour of running, Syron arrived at the open valley, and went straight to the other males to tell them of his discovery. Once he told them, they began to mock and make fun of him, telling him he what a fool he is and that humans haven’t been around the valley in decades. This frustrated Syron so he took his story to the one person he knew he could trust, his mom. Syron told his mother of the things he had seen and witnessed, but she too found it hard to believe such a tale. Knowing that not even his own mother believed his story, Syron decided to keep it to himself and go see the humans again the next day. Early the next morning, Syron woke up while everyone was still in their beds fast asleep. He carefully and quietly snuck out of the valley and into the forest, heading towards the humans’ camp. About half way there, Syron heard a loud noise, a cracking sound, that rang throughout the forest. He didn’t know what it was or what to think of it, so he continued on towards the tents. He finally reached the camp and crouched into his hiding spot to wait for the humans to rise up from their slumber. After what had to be about two hours of waiting and not seeing even the slightest movement coming from the tents, Syron became frustrated and inched closer and closer to the tents to investigate. Syron came around the front of one of the tents, only a few feet away, and looked into a small mesh window. The tent was completely empty, so he moved on to the other one and found that it too was empty. So Syron decided it was a great time to rummage through the humans’ belongings to educate himself on the subject that had been completely unfamiliar to him until now. All he found were some maps, food, pots and pans, and one thing he couldn’t identify, but it looked like a very thick wooden stick and a long medal end, with a black tube on top. Syron became nervous at the sight of this, and decided to leave the camp and search for the two humans. Bang!! Syron heard another loud sound, this time much closer to him, sending chills down his spine. Suddenly two small rabbits came exploding out of the bushes, yelling at Syron to run away if he wanted to live. He followed them, confused, but realizing he should listen to the very wise rabbits. The three animals ran at full speed for miles before Syron could go no further and stopped while the two rabbits kept galloping along. Not sure where he was, Syron plopped down to catch his breath and try to figure out what all the fuss was about. After about an hour with no more sounds, he decided to head back to where the humans’ camp was and see if they had returned. He had only walked for a short time when he came across the camp and realized he and the rabbits had just been running in very large circles the whole time. He snuck straight to his hide out in the bushes and crouched down to observe the tents once again. Then Syron caught a very strong smell, this one seemed familiar, but it dissipated into the air. Not seeing any movement from the tents, Syron got up and went over to look into the tents once again. The two men were not in them but he could tell they had been since he was last there because all the things had been rummaged through and tossed all about on the inside. After checking both tents, Syron decided to search for the men yet again. He began to walk away from the camp and into the trees when he caught the familiar scent again, only this time very strong and coming from up above him. He looked up and what he saw froze him in his tracks. It was another red stag, one of his old friends from his bachelor heard, strung up in the tree. Filled with terror, Syron couldn’t move, but then he realized what the two humans were actually doing. They were hunters, and ruthless ones too, killing anything in their path. Thoughts were running through his head and he didn’t know what to do first, so Syron decided it would be best to locate the hunters and know exactly where they are and what they were doing, even though he would be risking his life. Hearing another loud bang coming from a close distance from the camp, Syron didn’t waste any time and went straight to the sound and found the humans, trouncing across the forest floor, not even bothering to keep quiet. Then the humans saw Syron through the trees and raised their long barreled guns and pointed them right at him, he wasn’t sure what they had pointing right at him, but he figured it would be smart to run and that’s what he did. Running full speed, Syron weaved his way through the forest and to the valley. Once he arrived he told everyone what had just taken place, but still no one believed him. Then Syron realized he had made a horrible mistake, there was a slight skiff of snow on the ground, just enough to leave a track which the two humans could follow. Knowing the humans would be in the valley any second, Syron kept trying to convince everyone of the danger approaching them. Only one other deer believed him and that was Larsh, the oldest in the heard, knowing that what Syron had told him was almost indefinitely true. Larsh