The first step

As she waited, hoping for some sort of guidance from the figure she had decided must be wiser than herself, Luminosa's golden eyes trailed over the finer features of the man. His maple leaf marking, the velveted antlers. So alike and yet so different from the stags she knew. She was only a little sad her brother wasn't able to see the massive buck.

Rannoch said Lumi should follow her heart, and that there weren't enough deer that did that. The girl nodded, "Not enough deer..." she echoed, slightly differing in the meaning, but decided not to dwell on it.

At her next question, Rannoch paused, a complex expression Lumi couldn't quite read crossing his features. When he finally spoke, the doe drew closer. He explained he was late, trapped, forced to remain here. A tentative ivory hoof reached out to rest on one of Rannoch's massive ones, slow enough he'd have plenty of time to pull away. She meant only to offer comfort, her eyes searching his. "You are one of a kind," she agreed, light smile on her lips. "But you do not have to be alone. you do not have to be the last." There was hope in her words for a future where this stag would stand proudly, happily at a legacy of his own, with those he loved by his side. "That is a future all herbivores fight for."

She wasn't sure on this man's perspective on carnivores, being so large. Lumi had seen both, been raised by both, and yet in this unfamiliar land, she found herself timid as a fawn yet again in their presence. "It's a future every creature fights for," she amended.