"I can tell you how to get her back." Maggie growled softly.
"I'm listening." Marth answered.
"Her boyfriend got her when the top stag resigned and he was next in line. They sort themselves out by fighting. Beat him, and she'll come to you, go back through the transformation room, anything you say, that's the way the deer are programmed."
"That's not true!" Hannah interjected, then saw Maggie's lips withdraw from her teeth, her muscles flex, her claws extend as she looked into the doe's brown eyes. Hannah thought she was desensitized to the usual fear of predators, but now it came crashing back. She was terrified of this she-bear, and it took all her strength to keep from fleeing in panic.
But Marth was too focused to yield to predator phobia. "Why are you telling me this? What do you get?"
"I get my son back. Jeremy is my son. I'll help you beat him, but don't harm him permanently. Tell him to come back with me. Once you've beaten him, he'll do what you tell him. That's the deal."
Hannah worked up the nerve to whisper. "Don't take it Marth, this is wrong, Leticia isn't a prize to be fought over."
"Get lost, tranny." Maggie addressed Hannah, keeping her voice flat and even. Hannah left.
+++++++++
Hannah fled in the general direction of where the deer usually were at this time of day. She ran faster than she had ever run before. She found Leticia discussing possible hairstyles with Lateisha, who worked in a beauty salon as a human.
"Leticia!"
"What is it Hannah? Calm down."
"She's here, Maria's here!"
Leticia's eyes flew open. "Oh no, oh no, oh no!"
"Who's Maria?" Lateisha asked.
"Her girlfriend, on the other side, but she's a buck now, Marth, and he wants to challenge Jeremy for Leticia, or at least that's what Jeremy's mom is trying to get him to do, Oh Lateisha, that she-bear is so scary."
Lateisha gave Hannah a gentle hug. "It's OK, you're safe now. She's gone." The two turned to Leticia, who was gazing into space, muttering "What do I do?"
+++++++++
It was so easy not to think of Maria while Leticia was in the park. At some level she had always known that her decisions would hurt Larry's girlfriend, but Maria and Larry's life was so remote from Leticia's that it could be gently pushed out of her mind, particularly since thinking about it gave Leticia guilty twinges anyway.
Leticia wasn't even sure how she felt about Maria/Marth now anyway. It was hard to deny that there were still some feelings there. She gave a bitter laugh when she remembered that she had enjoyed watching the bucks fight earlier. The thought of Jeremy and Marth fighting over her didn't give her any pleasure at all--it made her feel sick.
*I need to stop this* Leticia thought. "Hannah, where did you last see Mari--Marth?"
"You don't want to confront her? Not while the she-bear is there!"
"I don't care about the she-bear. I need to get things straight with Maria."
++++++++
"Uncle Rob and I ran races, and threw pine cones, and wrestled around!"
"That's nice, Spike." Jenny patted her fawn on the head. "Was he any trouble, Rob?"
"No, he's really a sweet kid. I don't know why he grew up so differently."
"I don't know either." Jenny sighed. She hated to think about Spike going back into the world in ten days as the mean, selfish, dominating person he had been. She also hated to think about losing her fawn. Maybe the experience of being cared for would change him. It was all she could hope for, really.
+++++++
"It's not like there are dresses designed for deermorphs, and the deer are more likely to object to a dress than they are to flowers. I guess flowers." Katie said. She wasn't altogether happy with the choice, but it seemed like the best option. Most transformed people didn't seem to share her opinions about clothes.
Harry wasn't paying attention, he was looking at the monitor. "Uh oh, you remember the bear who was trying to drag Jeremy out of the park?"
"Yeah, his mom, sure."
"Leticia is trying to confront her."