Chapter 10: What the Deer Knew

I ran into the trees in my socks, shouting her name.

Torin passed me in four strides and kept going.

He did not call out.

He ran with his head up and I stumbled after him through the frost, with Jonah running beside me.

We found her in a clearing a quarter mile from the lodge.

Hazel sat in the middle on a flat rock, with her glasses slipping and her knees pulled up.

Seven deer lay in a ring around her, with their legs folded and their heads down.

A fox curled at her feet.

Two owls sat in the branch overhead, and a fat brown rabbit had climbed into her lap.

"Hi, Mommy," Hazel said.

"I wasn't lost."

My knees almost gave way.

I crossed the clearing and picked her up, rabbit and all, and held her so tightly she squeaked.

"You can't go out alone. You can't ever go out alone."

"I wasn't alone. They said they'd walk me back."

"Who said?"

"The deer."

I opened my mouth and shut it again.

Over her shoulder I could see Torin standing very still at the edge of the ring.

The deer had not bolted when he arrived.

They had not looked at him at all.

They watched Hazel, and one by one they had bowed their antlers lower.

Hazel pulled back from my shoulder and looked at him.

Her eyes were not grey anymore.

They were gold, pale and clear and steady.

It lasted three breaths.

Then the gold faded, she rubbed her nose and said, "I'm hungry."

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