Yet somehow these bitter thoughts rang false. In the depths of despair, though he believed he had shed everything, there was something left. Something he could not account for nor understand. He told himself he did not believe it because his rational mind could not explain — but he did believe!
Bladud opened his eyes and sat up. Grazing nearby on the fresh green shoots of a sapling was a very young fawn, with no adult deer in sight.
‘Alun?’ he whispered. The young creature pricked up its ears and stopped chewing, looking at him with large and trusting eyes. ‘Alun,’ Bladud repeated and held out his hand. The little animal stepped daintily towards him — and licked the hand that humans had rejected.
* * * *
All summer long Bladud and his four-legged companion foraged for a living in the f
