It was a warm sunny day-

Who am I kidding?

It was the dead of night, the sound of fighting Herla and clattering antlers echoed through the valley. Lillyhoof cowered in fear as she saw her mate slice his brow tines into another deers flank, the Herla falling to his knees, dead as the night. Ray and his Raylia were everywhere, murdering everyone in their path. The herd of the valley's lord, had turned on his herd and was killing everyone In it. "Lillyhoof! Get to the trees!" The pregnant hind swivelled her head to catch the glint of her friend's eyes.

She stood up and ran into the cover of the trees. There she stood, panting. "At'lye!? What's going on? Why is this happening?" The hind asked, twitching nervously. At'lye looked grim. "Ray has turned on us, he has forgotten Herne's law." She said. A bellow of fury sounded from somewhere in front of them, followed by the bark of a pained deer. "Lillyhoof, we need to get out of here. Before we get killed too. You want your fawn to live right?" Lillyhoof didn't respond. The longer she watched Ray kill her friends, the less and less she wanted to carry his fawn.

The two hinds traveled further into the dense woods surrounding their valley. They traversed for days, leaving the fighting and bloodshed behind them. Lillyhoof was getting bigger and bigger, and feared her fawn was due soon. At'lye was doing the best she could to comfort her, but the young hind could not understand what battles Lillyhoof was facing. Not just the attack, but battles with her own mind. That, was something Lillyhoof had to overcome on her own terms.

Summer turned to autumn, and the leaves shriveled up and fell to the forest ground. Still, the two deer pushed onward, only stopping for short amounts of time, to graze, sleep and drink. At'lye was determined to take Lillyhoof as far away from their herd as possible, In fear that they would encounter any Raylia. One cold wet night, the two stopped and rested in a tree cluster, away from the chilly air and freezing rain. "At'lye....I do not think I can go much further. I can feel it, she's coming soon." Lillyhoof said, distan dripping in her voice when she said 'she's'. Her friend sighed. "I know, i know. Try to rest." But her voice was drowned out by the agonized screech of her friend. Her fawn was coming.

An hour later, a small fawn lay sprawled in the cold, wet grass. Her mother snorted distanfully. At'lye looked at her. "What will you do with her? She can not travel with us, she will be to much of a burden." Lillyhoof nodded as she got up. "Leave her." She said, anger and hatred flaring in her black eyes. And with that, little Nal'ack's mother and her friend walked away, leaving the newborn fawn crying in the grass as the first cold flakes of winter began to fall.