Derrick came fully alert, ears up and nostrils drinking in scents. After a minute, he relaxed again, dismissing whatever sound had triggered the flight instincts. The moon shone down brightly - did it ever wane here? That was a different thought. Here? In Dianna's forest. Dianna. Goddess of the hunt. She had said she would hunt him. He shuddered, fighting sudden panic. She had said she would give him six months. How long was that? What was a month? He struggled to remember. How long had he been out here?
There had been many females. He was alone now in the forest, possibly for the first time since... since Dianna had transformed him into a mature buck. It was also the first time he had been able to think clearly, or at least as more than a beast. Being around females must ramp up the stag enough to drown any human thought. And of course, Dianna had made him incredibly virile.
He shuffled over to a new bush, and realized he had been eating berries and leaves. Nothing wrong with that, except that it was automatic. Everything about his life now was instincts. His life consisted of eating, sleeping, and mating. No thinking. He had to work hard to remember even the previous day, but there was a vague sense of time passing. A lot of time. Though Derrick could not be sure, he had the feeling he had been out here for months. Many of the does he had mounted were close to giving birth. How long did a fawn take to develop? Six months? A year?
Derrick had no real memories of the time. Just impressions, one day blurred into the next. He remembered being a human boy, though not well enough to clearly remember what he'd looked like, or even how it felt to walk on two legs. It was frustrating and frightening at the same time - this brief resurfacing of intelligence might be his last. Soon he'd find another doe, and the mating instincts would be in control again. As a mature stag, he did not have all that much time before he succumbed to old age. Not that it would come to that - he was sure that Dianna's arrow would find his heart as soon as he began to falter.
No! Derrick did not want to give up yet. This awareness had given him a chance to change things. He had no hope of escaping Dianna's forest. There was only one way out, and that was to get Dianna to change him back. But would she take pity, or simply grant him a quick and immediate death? That was against everything he had read about the Resort's policies, but so was making him a beast and keeping him here, instead of changing him back so he could return home with his parents. What had happened to them? He shook his head and snorted. The aroma of a doe drifted on the night breeze, and just for a second the stag flickered back.
Derrick beat the instincts back savagely and started walking away from the enticing scent. He knew these woods well now, where the best grazing was, the sweetest water, the safest thickets. And far from here, the greatest danger. That was where he forced himself to head. Walking at first, slowly speeding up until he was leaping and crashing through the brush, desperate to ignore the growing call of does and the flight instincts that kept trying to divert him from his path. The need to keep going became a kind of instinctual action of its own, and it wasn't until he burst out of the woods and onto the shores of Dianna's lake that he truly remembered where he was going and why.
The goddess was there, looking surprised. Her bow was up, an arrow notched and aimed. Grabbed on instinct, he guessed. The weapon reminded Derrick of his probable fate and he trembled violently. It took all of his will not to run back into the trees.
Dianna grinned suddenly and lowered the bow. "My lovely stag! Are you ready to become venison and a head for my wall?"
With the arrow no longer pointed at him, Derrick was able to force himself towards her, splashing round the edge of the shallow lake until he was perhaps ten yards away. He was still shaking with fear, only just able to prevent the flight instincts from taking over. He dropped his head and grunted, unable to speak.
"Is there something left of you in there, boy?" Dianna chuckled. "More than half a year as a stag did not swallow up your identity?"
Slowly, having to dredge up the movement, Derrick shook his head from side-to-side.
"Ah! Well, I can certainly help with that!" She strode over through the water, shouldering her bow and putting he arrow back in her quiver. "I can remove those pesky traces of humanity and let you spend the remaining few years of your life in blissful ignorance."
Derrick grunted in alarm and backed up a few steps, eyes wide, and shook his head again.
Dianne grinned. "I thought not. You stand there trembling in fear, but have hold over your instincts. I am impressed. Are you willing to let me pass final judgement on you? It could mean immediate death, being made a stag in mind as well as body, or some form of humanity. No promises. Choose now. Stay and be judged, or run and live your life out as a stag."