Page 33 of Fall

“Deer hurt,” Lenna said, when the other woman stared at her in amazement.

Mara shook her head. “Deer young. No eat.” They only hunted matureanimals—never the very young.

Lenna was horrified about the idea of eating this poor little thing. “Noeat. Hurt. Baby. Stay here.”

Mara’s eyes widened in astonishment. “No stay. Deer. No baby.”

Since Lenna didn’t know how to argue with a worldview that saw animals asnothing but food, she just shrugged and kept tending the deer. After she’dworked on its wounds, she tried a variety of vegetables until she found acouple that the deer would eat.

After a while, Rone came in, and Lenna realized that Mara must have goneto get him to let him know his mate was doing something very strange.

Rone crouched down beside where Lenna was sitting. “Deer no stay.”

“Deer stay,” Lenna said matter-of-factly. She knew they would think thiswas bizarre, so she wasn’t going to get angry. But she wasn’t going to let thispoor little animal die.

It needed her. It already seemed to trust her, nuzzling her hand gently,maybe looking for more to eat.

“No food,” Rone said, pushing Lenna’s hand away from the deer. “Winter.”

She frowned at him, realizing he was worried that they couldn’t sparefood for an animal during the winter. “Deer eat Lenna food. Deer stay. Baby.”She stroked the soft fur. “Baby. Stay here until no hurt.”

Rone shook his head, looking between the deer and Lenna helplessly. Thenhe finally shrugged and stood up. “Lenna no obey Rone.”

Her eyes shot up with a surge of indignation, but when she saw his faceshe realized he was amused by her stubbornness rather than annoyed. She smiledat him. “Lenna no obey Rone.”

***

So for the nexttwo weeks, Lenna took care of the injured fawn. Fortunately, the weather wasdecent—cold but not snowing—so she was able to go outside and forage for foodfor the animal without using up the tribe’s store.

Slowly, the fawn started to heal, and soon it could walk with a limp. Itseemed to have grown quite attached to Lenna, and she loved the way it wouldnestle against her. She knew the rest of the tribe thought she was crazy forcaring for an animal, but as long as she cleaned up after it and didn’t wastetheir food on it, no one complained.

But eventually it snowed heavily again, and once again the tribe wastrapped in the cave, unable to get outside. Lenna gave the fawn half of her ownshare of food, but she knew some of the others—namely Tamen—were bristling withindignation at the waste.

Whenever Tamen started to object, however, Rone stood between them.

Tamen might be the lead alpha of the tribe, but Rone wasn’t lettinganyone act against his mate.

A few days into the snowstorm, however, Rone was outside digging out apath. It was almost mealtime, and Tamen came over to where Lenna was sitting onthe bed, stroking the fawn beside her.

“No good food,” he said, looking down at her stonily. “Eat deer.”

“No!” she gasped, pulling the animal closer to her. “Deer baby.”

“Deerfood.” Tamen’s face was as cold as ice. He’d obviously beenbristling about this for a while, and he was using Rone’s absence to make his move.

“No!” Lenna scrambled up, picking up the deer and hurrying away fromTamen, toward the entrance of the cave. “Rone, Rone!”

Tamen kept advancing, however, and Rone didn’t make an appearance. Hemust be too far away to hear her.

She wasn’t strong enough to stop him, and there was no one in this cavewho would help her. Orcouldhelp her. Mara was looking at her withobvious sympathy, but also fear. If she tried to challenge Tamen, she wouldhave no one to take care of her.

Lenna couldn’t blame her for not taking that risk.

Not over a deer.

This tribe didn’t understand pets. It only understood nature. Animalswere food or for leaving alone. You didn’t bring one into the household.

“Rone!” Lenna called again, trapped between Tamen and the icy coldoutside the cave.

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