The Price

Her heat was early, dammit. It was barely the first day of Autumn and they weren’t quite over the mountains on the way back from Westhaven, and here it was. And, of course, it was raining.

A day ago, Ro would have welcomed the cooling drops, but now as they fell each one angered her more. She was stressed and now she was soaking - and it didn’t even have the decency to be a real thunderstorm! The rain was just persistent, the kind of rain that can keep going all day and all night, and right on through the next day as well. It didn’t matter that the drops were small and that there wasn’t much wind to blow them about - there were so many of them that the entire herd was soaked through within a matter of minutes. It was like walking through the ocean, if the ocean had decided to suspend itself in the air.

Tossing her head in a desperate attempt to rid herself of at least some of the water, she stalked onwards.

If she had a mind to, she could probably have rid them of this irksome rainstorm - perhaps not by herself, but certainly if she’d gathered some of the other Stormbringers they could have been rid of it. That would have been wrong though; the terrible hurricanes of winter were one thing - life giving rain was another. Except the terrible hurricanes of winter were generally far away, and the life giving rain was here and she was finding it increasingly infuriating with every soggy step that she took.

“Roxanne.”

She wheeled about to glare at the stag who’d called her name with such ferocity that he took a somewhat hesitant step backwards. When she realised who it was, she softened, but only a little. Her condition and the weather were still enough to put her in a terrible mood, even if it was the father of her fawn.

“Tzilan,” she replied, bobbing her head quickly in greeting, before turning to carry on. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

It was a snappish, grouchy thing to say. He had been so good to Illy - to her as well - over the Summer, protecting them both as best he could from the rumours and the gossiping, but she couldn’t stop herself. A tiny part of her had never recovered from the shock of what Illy had told her in the Spring - that Tzilan loved her - and the fact that he hadn’t the courage to tell her himself. All that, coupled with the weather and her physical predicament, had resulted in a sarcastic and somewhat venomous tone of voice, and probably as a result it took some time before there came a reply.

“I.. uh..”

It seemed he was actually lost for words.

It wasn’t that he was normally particularly chatty, but to see the calm, confident and composed stag in this much disarray just because she’d snapped at him was something of a surprise, and she wasn’t quite sure whether to be pleased or disappointed. Either way, it only lasted for a moment before he recovered himself.

“I was wondering if you would like to walk with me?”

For once, it was actually a question, rather than a command - that said, Roxanne was fairly sure he knew she would never refuse. Nodding curtly, she strode towards him, and so they walked.

They walked in silence, hidden from the rest of the herd by the swirling greyness of Tzilan’s clouds, blending in with their particularly damp environment. Roxanne was too irritable to really pay attention to the slightly soppy looks the stag was giving her, and the occasional slight clearing of his throat as though he were trying to say something important. If he had something important to say - like, perhaps, the thing he’d told Illy and not told her - then he could say it.

“Roxanne,” he said, after a little more throat clearing and some more awkward silence.

“Yes?”

She whirled about in a tornado of soaking black mane hair, her expression still one of total irritation.

“I know.. this is not the right time. You are in heat and the weather,” he glanced about and shrugged slightly, “but I must say This summer has been…” he hesitated again, and looked as though he were desperately searching for the right words, before finally giving up.

“I love you,” he said, looking at her with worried eyes as her heart felt like it was about to burst, “I love you. I... I hope you love me too.”

Later, afterwards, when her heat was gone, she was somewhat furious with herself for that sudden lunge towards him, and the little tears of happiness. She was an independent doe, she didn’t need any stag to love her.