Chapter Text
https://goldenshrike.thecomicseries.com/comics/first
Runi looks up into the evening sky, collecting her thoughts as a bird alights on the tree branch next to her.
I am glad to have met you, my shrike.
The bird begins to preen.
We are travelling to the Red Forest today. I hear it's beautiful.
As the herd moves onward, Runi looks around. Her halv lands on her back.
You will go with me?
The shrike chirps softly as they move along. The bird sways back & forth with Runi's pacing hooves along the ground.
We will see this new place together!
“LOOK OUT!”
“What? OH!” Runi feels something hit her side & she tumbles over into the stream the herd is crossing. She stands up & shakes off the water. Her halv is long gone, flying back up into the trees. “Nero!” Runi glares at her brother.
Nero laughs. “Sorry. I tripped over that rock over there.” He points by swinging his head around to use a slender antler.
“Watch where you're going!” Runi snaps as she gingerly steps out of the water, albeit on the wrong side of the stream.
The herd moves on without them.
“I'm trying!” Nero says, shaking his head. Two long points were coming out of it.
Runi isn't fooled. “You're admiring your new antlers again, aren't you?” She moves across the stream in two bounds.
“I can't wait to try them!” Nero shouts, bounding off after the rest of the herd.
Runi laughs as she trots after her brother. She glances up at the sky to see the halvs for everyone in the herd flying around before hurrying to catch up to Nero's side. “You will,” she says. “Some day.”
“Oh, yeah?” Nero scoffs. “I really hope that day comes soon. I mean, what's the 'point',” he laughs at his own dumb joke before finishing. “of 'halv'ing”—another laugh—“these things if I can't use them on anything?”
“Take it easy, there, hotshot,” Runi advises. “You 'halv' your whole life to use them.” Nero just stares at her. “I can make dumb puns, too,” Runi adds.
“Ha! Only because I taught you!” Nero taunts, running off before she could nudge her head into his side.
Runi smiles before following her silly brother.
The herd moves on to find a quiet hollow to rest in for the night. Their sire orders them to settle in. They will reach Red Forest sometime the next day.
Runi watches as her mother helps a very heavy pregnant doe to lie down near the large rock at the far end of the hollow. She looks over to see Nero attacking a tree for lack of something better to test his brand new antlers on. Lastly, she looks up into the trees to see the last few shrikes of the flock landing to find nests for the night.
As the halvs settle in, so to does the herd. The pack of wolves the herd avoids at all costs are long gone to another place to hunt.
These wolves...I have never met any. Mother warns me about them. They sound scary. I hope to never meet any.
Runi sighs as the night closes in. She feels her brother curl up next to her. She feels safe next to him.
Peaceful.
Nero starts snoring loudly.
Well, it WAS peaceful...
Runi turns around so her ears are away from Nero's head. She can still hear him, though not as much. She finally closes her own eyes as sleep overtakes her.
It's early morning when the herd rises & continues their journey. Nero & Runi chase each other as they get ahead of the others, each wanting to be first to see the Red Forest. Late in the afternoon, the herd reaches the top of a hill. All pause as they look down into the valley. It was definitely a sea of red.
The leaves on the trees are red as is their wood & bark.
Red flowers scatter across the grass, the only thing still green, while a river runs brightly through it.
Runi is the first to leap & bound down the escarpment, with Nero close behind. She enters on a path under the red leaves & gazes up in wonder as a sound of fluttering wings announces the arrival of the halvs as the shrikes settle into the trees. She had always been fascinated by this concept when her mother had explained to them about their halvs.
A halv is a shrike, a kind of bird, that partners with you for life & watches over you. Every deer in the herd has a halv to complete them. Runi had met her gold-colored shrike guardian not too long after she & Nero had been born & had been bonded to the bird ever since. She looks down as her brother's voice brings her back to reality.
“Huh, they aren't kidding when they call this place Red!” Nero exclaims, sniffing at a long red vine entwined around a tree trunk. “Hey, can I eat this? OUCH!” He bucks backward as his own halv, who was sitting almost upside down, little feet grasping the vine's stem, pecks his nose in warning right before Nero was about to bite into it.
“Nero!” Runi scolds, hiding a smile.
“I didn't notice him!” Nero defends.
The sire walks past. “Everything is edible despite the color,” he says as he leads the others in under the protection of the trees.
Runi watches her family pass through for a moment before going to the shore of the river for a drink.
The water is cool & refreshing after the long journey from her marsh homeland.
“There you are,” Nero announces his arrival as he jumps into the water, splashing Runi.
“Hey, cut it out!” Runi complains.
Nero has a sip of water before stepping out onto the sand. “So, what's with you, lately, anyway?”
“What do you mean?”
“You've been rather quiet on this journey,” Nero begins. “You're also a bit more jumpy than usual.”
“It's all new,” Runi sighs. “I miss home but I know our stay here in the Red Forest is temporary. Just until those wolves move on.”
“Wolves scare you, don't they?”
“A bit,” Runi admits.
Nero looks at her for a long moment. “I'll protect you,” he says. “I've got my antlers now & they will get bigger with age. I can always protect you.”
Runi gasps & nervously looks around. Protecting is not the way of the deer. She was always told that if the wolves ever came & a deer falls, it is left behind, allowing a reprieve for the others to escape while the fallen one is eaten.
Eaten alive, at that.
It was a horrible fate but for the sake of the entire herd, sacrificing one weakling was logical. Cruel but, well, there it was.
For Nero to say otherwise went against everything they were being taught as yearling fawns.
Runi says nothing as she settles on a stretch of sand.
I wonder if that is possible. Why do bucks have horns if not to defend us? Why do we leave others behind in such cruel fashion? It is to protect the whole herd but surely, there is some way to protect one of us as well?
Or is it truly the safety of the many outweigh the safety of the one?
I could never leave Nero, but I know I must if he ever falls if I wish to save my own life. I can not understand this & yet...I do.
But Nero just said he would not leave me. How could I leave him? Would I have a choice? Is there another way?
Runi pushes her thoughts aside as she feels Nero near her.
Nero lies down beside her & together, they watch the sun set, appearing to sink into the water far down the river right where it bends to curve around the outer edge of the Red Forest.
It turns the water & the darkening sky a brilliant deep red as it fades into the night.
