deer in the headlights

The giant deer grazed easily behind the small bachelor herd of wapiti. Rannoch wasn’t sure he would ever find another herd when he came across them. They were all young, yearlings and two year olds mostly, with one five or six year old that was kind of small. Had there been any real mature bulls the irish elk wasn’t sure they’d have accepted him. The fear of being alone still haunted him. There were no more of his kind here, he was utterly alone. He didn’t know how to get to his homeland, with summer arriving he didn’t know if that was even a possibility anymore.

Rannoch was alone, and he’d be cursed to trail along at the edge of the herds for the rest of his life. Well, if he was lucky they would. The young stag didn’t want to think about being forced into solitude. He’d seen the moose do it, but he wasn’t sure he could handle a life like that. The herd was everything and without it… He shivered despite the warm evening and his fur.

The sun was just beginning to set over the ocean beyond. The summer melted the frozen north and for a while they lived in perpetual green. The sun reflected over the water and off the massive ship on the shore. Rannoch’s hooves sunk into the dark sand as he lifted his head to the hull that towered even above him.

SS Antiox / early evening / balmy

"Speech"