deer in the headlights

The massive elk shouldn’t have ever been here, had he been stronger or older when it happened Rannoch should have returned across the ice bridge he had come from. He’d gotten separated from the other megaloceros and now he was mostly alone. He only just managed to fit in with the elk here, who were so much different from his own kin. He was the odd one out, but he was allowed to travel with them. He didn’t enjoy being alone, and trailing after these young bulls made him feel safer.

He knew that he stuck out, even to a creature that hadn’t seen a deer before. The other bulls were very uniform, roughly the same size and all of them shared the same markings. He was much larger, colored differently, and even now as their antlers started to grow in, much different from the other deer. He was the weak link technically, but he had a better chance with many other eyes and ears looking out.

His own emerald eyes were cast at the massive ship, its hull reaching towards the sky like some metal mountain. The young stag had never seen anything quite like this. Curious he paced up the side of it, spying a split up the side of it. Gently sinking into the sand as he lowered his head to peek inside. He could potentially fit his head inside, but he was far too big to further than a step. His hoof hit the metal floor with a rattling clang and he startled himself. Alarmed, Rannoch leapt from the open ship and kicked his heels away. With a graceful turn he faced the ship again, ready to defend against the unseen enemy.

But there was nothing there, and the metal sound was enough to keep him distracted from the wolf watching from the shadow.

"Speech"