Chapter 11

I mounted the deer, letting it know that I wanted to go out and explore. It gave me an annoyed look, but fortunately stayed calm and didn't throw me. My goal was completed and after molesting it for quite a while the deer finally gave in moving towards the exit. 

While going out I also tried to make the deer tell me what happens in this place for me to get lost so easily. Trying to communicate with the deer was a monumental task and I the end it didn't understand me at all. We need to create some way to communicate easily between us. 

The deer took me back to the entrance of the whole forest. Maybe that was why it was so annoying when I mounted it. It thought that I wanted to go back to my old cave once again. I smiled half-heartedly and started stroking its fur. It was just angry and sad that I wanted to leave it again, so I just stood there mounted and stroking it for a while. When it was convinced that I didn't want to go back it let out a happy whine and started running back to the glade.

I hurriedly tried to stop it by grabbing its antlers and pulling them back. I didn't want to go back just yet. I still needed to explore more this place, especially its depths. The outskirts were pretty much deserted, the only beings living there were little animals, like birds, and insects. Besides, I wanted to see what kind of plant could produce such a monstrosity as the mutated blackberries. 

After a little war of tugs, the deer finally understood that I didn't want to go back yet. It was a little annoyed because I kept holding its antlers – at least I think that is the reason – but it was not intent on going back. 

To save myself the tedious process of trying to communicate to the deer what I wanted to do I got off its back and started walking. The deer just followed me. After walking for a few minutes in the general direction which I thought was the glade I turned towards the deer and tried to take me to where it found the mutated fruits. Not with words, but with signals. It was difficult and annoying to communicate that way. But at least the deer seemed to understand the signals better. Unfortunately what I wanted to convey was not always what it understood. 

First, it led me into an ever-changing path until we found the exact same fruit I had eaten that morning. I couldn't find something other than the gigantic fruits to differentiate the plant from the many others that were surrounding it. 

Then I wanted it to show me the entrance to the glade where we live, but it led me towards a raging river. The good thing about this was that I now knew where to find fish. There were a couple of them that jumped above the surface from time to time. 

When I conveyed once more that I wanted to know how to find the glade it finally seemed to understand me. We walked for a few minutes until finally a glade was found. The only problem is that it wasn't the one I was looking for. A little stream was running in the middle of it and surrounding it were a myriad of flowers. From time to time I could see a little thing hoping around, I would like to say it was a rabbit but this one was too big and corpulent to be one, a little horn was in its head as if to make sure that it wasn't a normal rabbit. 

The little thing looked menacing with its rippling muscles. 

I think that I observed it too much, or maybe it began to feel uncomfortable because it turned around to face me. Then, it pounced at me. The speed at which it began to run was so great that when I blinked, the rabbit was in front of me. In a panic, I tried to move my body out of the way. I was lucky that all it did was scrap my skin. A little droplet of blood and a searing sensation were the only things reminding me that I needed to be alert at all times. Fortunately, I didn't have to wait for another attack. The little thing impaled itself in a tree behind me.

Checking on the little creature to see if it survived the impact I found that, other than a little wound in its head, the little thing was still alive. If it attacked everything that moved with such momentum, then it's obvious that it became used to such impacts. Maybe its entire species were the same, attacking everything with such force that their skulls could crack, that they evolved to not pop in action. 

While I was pondering about the miracles of nature, the rabbit started to move once again trying to get out of the tree. Not wanting to test my reflexes with such an extreme method again I killed it with a clean cut. It was a little difficult because of all the muscles. And I started to doubt if the meat would even be edible. I mean, obviously, it would, but it could also be extremely chewy. 

I began to gather my spoils of war, paying special attention to the horn. It survived the collision, so it should be durable and not to mention sharp. I could make another spear. But thinking about the size of the rabbit it would be better to make a dagger, one that could only stab. To avoid making a mess in this place, and to not attract an even bigger animal, I decided not to skin it here.

Keeping the dead bunny tied to my hip I turned back towards the deer. After sensing my gaze it tilted its head in my direction and I began a lengthy explanation once again. I wanted to go back towards the river to finally clean the rabbit.

After some trips without importance and washing the rabbit, we finally were back in our home, our glade shielded from the world. One thing to bear in mind is that now I could freely enter the glade without getting completely lost. It was as if the barrier surrounding this place was not working on me anymore. Now, I would not need the help of the deer if I wanted to go out. The problem was that I still didn't know where I was.

If there were some easy landmarks I would know where to go, but besides the river and an occasional glade, everything else was surrounded by trees. It was difficult to know where I was if everything looked the same in every direction.

I found my mutated blackberry left in one corner of the cave. After eating that first little piece and panicking for a while, it scaped my mind. The fruit was a little dirty but otherwise unchanged. If I wanted to, I could eat it after washing it a little. I just placed it near the little stream and began skinning the rabbit. It was easy to do after all the practice with the ferrets. I didn't waste much time with it and instead tried to make a new campfire to roast its meat. I wasn't hungry but I wanted to make sure it was not chewy or had a bad taste.