Spring had finally taken hold. The snows were gone, even if the nights were still chilly. Grasses were growing, flowers just beginning to return to life. The deep, dark forest was becoming serene.
As the days past, Jared actually started to feel good for the first time in months. The desperate times she had to keep alive had passed. Spring was bringing a lot of food to keep her stomach happy. The days were warmer. Life was feeling good.
She woke early one morning feeling wet. It hadn't rained, but it took her a second to realize what was happening. Her water was broken. The fawn was coming.
Standing carefully, she felt the urge to push, even as each push caused a pain that coursed through her. Quietly grunting through it, she started to feel the fawn slide through the birth canal, and with a final push, the fawn fell to the forest floor.
Breathing hard, Jared started to groom her fawn, a buck she found quickly. She licked his fur clean and dry, and then started to encourge him to stand when she felt another pain, and a familiar urge to push.
Twins!
After months in the forest, she'd forgotten the does usually have two fawns. It took less time than the first fawn, but shortly another fell to the forest floor, and she took to grooming them right away. It was only a few minutes before they attepted their first wobbly steps, and not long after that that Jared pushed them to her full udder and let them drink.
While the two young bucks took their first meals, Jared took the first time to think. She'd done it! After six months away from family and freinds, she'd managed to give birth to two beautiful fawns, her children. It pained her that she could see their future so well, a future that they'd never manage to avoid. Both of them would likely end up as trophies on a wall, meat on a table. Even if they were lucky, they would die at 15 of old age.
They were animals, after all.
As she felt them tug at her teats, she allowed herself thoughts about returning to life as a human. With a little luck, the medallion and sock were still where she'd left them. She could be back there in just a few hours....
A tug from the smaller fawn brought her back to the present. She suddenly realized that she was responsible for these two tiny lives! The two fawns would die if they were left alone in the wild. Could she abandon them to the wild and return? If she decided to wean them, it would be weeks, maybe months, before she'd walk on two legs again!