Dear Deer
And a full stop after that, instead of the usual comma. Period!
She was a little busy on that day, grazing here and there and thinking about her life in the forest. Rain was scarce and all the sources of food and water were drying up; leaving very little to eat for all the animals in the forest.
She was trying to suffice her waxing hunger by nibbling on the dry leaves that had fallen onto the ground. When she got some half dried leaves amidst the strewn out dried up leaves she became very happy. Her little calf was sucking her udder for milk. She had not fed it for a long time, busy locating a source of water and green grass along with her family flock.
Suddenly she watched the leader deer looking up with its two ears held upright in the air and sniffing rapidly. He was sending signals to all members of the flock to be alert and ready for a flight. She also heard some sort of a sound of an ill omen; looked around sniffing. She could catch the odour of an approaching lion. And she located him finally. The lion was fast approaching and he will reach the flock in a minute. She thought that the lion will see them and will catch one of them; tear it into pieces before them and eat while the children, youth and adults of her family watched it.
It was too unbearable a sight to them. So she worked up a plan and started running in the opposite direction. The lion will locate her and will chase her, and thus, she thought she could drive the attention of the lion away from her family flock.
The lion saw the fleeing deer and started chasing her; a beautiful catch, he thought and started running after her with an increased pace.
When the lion reached far from her family and a few steps from her, she stopped abruptly. The lion also stopped immediately, thinking some tricks may be there in it. When she saw the lion had stopped a few steps away from her and is not pouncing on its prey the deer said.
Hey, lion you can eat me in full. If you catch me or anyone else in front of our family the whole of the deer will be frightened to hell. We cannot stand the sight of you killing one of us and tearing it into pieces, the pouring blood or the pitiable cry for precious life. They will never be free from that shock in their life, I am sure. So I ran before you.
Now you can eat me, nobody will see it. I have just one request before you devour me, while going back take my child also away. I have been feeding her milk while we were alerted of your coming. You go and eat my little child also, because if I am not there it will die of hunger; nobody to feed her. I don’t want my child to suffer like that. You catch and eat my child too, and avoid my family for a longer time.
The lion thought for a moment and started speaking to the deer. Normally we start hunting playfully much before we are hungry; then only we can catch a prey when we are hungry. We will catch, kill and eat our prey only when we are really hungry. Now you have stopped and surrendered before I am hungry; so I can’t catch and eat you and the lion returned back.
Again both of them received a strange sound of an ill fate and the lion took to its feet. The deer looked around with its ears held up straight. Suddenly it happened. An arrow came flying from nowhere and pierced through the chest of the mother deer. She fell down and was writhing in pain. When she looked up in a prayer she saw a human animal approaching. Her child with its legs tied was placed around the neck of the human animal. The little deer was too frightened and finally had to watch her mother writhing in pain and dying.
All the hard work she indulged herself in, and the risks taken were all in vain. Nobody to cry out a “manishada’ was left on earth then.
Uncompromisingly they choose a full stop, where just a comma would have been sufficing. Period.
