From Dreamdarkers:

We turned where she directed and caught sight of a pair of whitetail deer, a doe and fawn trotting out of the undergrowth lining the small road. The two animals reached the center of the drive and paused briefly to look at us. The mother stood perhaps three feet at her shoulders while her child stood no more than half her height. Disregarding all that had happened and that was occurring, I was entranced with the scene. Dressed in a summer coat of soft browns, dark across the back and fading gently to lighter tones nearer her white underside, the female was tall and watched us with a keen eye. Large ears flicked about like antennae scrambling to find a worthwhile signal. Her alert demeanor no doubt stemmed from the violative uproar caused by the planes. In fact, I suspected neither she nor her child would be up in the afternoon heat and bright light had the earthshaking disruption not spooked them from their hiding spot.

When finally I turned my attention to the fawn lazily scrounging in the short grass laid beside the road, I marveled at its telltale white spots randomly spilled over the lighter hues of its young fur. Perhaps originally startled, and most certainly driven to motion by its mother’s reaction to the flyover, innocence overcame fright and allowed the young deer to stroll casually across the drive as it sampled blades of grass first from one spot and then another. It likely had all but forgotten about the giant green birds roaring through the air just over the treetops. In the minute that had passed since then, prancing through the forest with its mother had provided plenty of diversions to occupy a young mind. By the time they reached the spot near Carr Beholden, the doe seemed the only one of the pair who felt uneasy and driven to observant suspicion.

We watched as the two animals crossed the road a mere twenty-five yards from where we stood. As the fawn lazily sauntered from one side to the other in search of the just right snack, the doe stood sentry positioned in the middle of the path. Had her ears not been moving and her tail not been making the occasional swipe at bothersome insects, she easily could have been mistaken for a statue placed strategically to block access to the lake. Hewn from stone and carved perfectly to accentuate every muscle, the finest details attended to, and colored with pigments selected to offer the most realism, she epitomized elegant grace coupled with maternal strength hiding beneath the surface. She seemed a flawless exemplar from her kind.

With one eye on us and one no doubt taking in full view of the driveway leading away from her, she remained watchful as the fawn made its way into the thicket opposite where they had appeared. Perhaps a second or two passed with no one moving or speaking, and then the mother casually followed. I felt better for seeing them. They weren’t scared except of us. Fleeing only the memory of the planes flying by, they offered no indication of some unseen force rapidly approaching from the east. Neither of them hurried. More accurately, and notwithstanding the doe’s vigilance for her child, I would have said they were casually strolling through the forest in the early afternoon perhaps on the move to get away from a bobcat or a pack of wild dogs. No matter the reason for their afternoon jaunt, nothing in their demeanor indicated an attempt to run from a malevolent storm drawing near to us. Unfortunately, that thought lead me to the next logical conclusion: like the dogs, the deer either didn’t know or didn’t care about the looming blackness. I tried unsuccessfully to shake that realization from my head. When Stu’s voice shattered the Snow White moment and my own contemplation, I found myself thankful for it.